hangover soup

saturday was my brother's birthday. we started out not-so-slow with sushi and sake and then headed out for an evening of unbridled partying. the time change and one more hour at the bar didn't hurt anything either.

i had a great time and went all night. but sunday i felt like death.

and i was starving.

so i made hangover soup (aka potato and leek soup) a la julia.

this is probably one of the easiest and most delicious soups to make. it's fancy name is potage parmentier and i've made it before.

it was perfect for the amount of energy i was willing to expel and for the ingredients i had in my fridge.

first - i cut up some potatoes. any kind. i leave the skins on cuz i think they taste delicious.



then i cut up some leeks.



then i put the veggies in a pot with water and salt.



this simmer for about 40 minutes or so until the potatoes are tender. i mashed it all up with a potato masher and put in about a tablespoon of butter.



yum. yum. yum.

and i only had to leave the couch for like 15 minutes.

tour de lenten fish fry 2009

i am not catholic and i certainly did not give up anything for lent. i do LOVE fish fries though so some friends and i are touring the local clubs and bars and trying to eat as much fried fish as possible in the next few weeks.

churches are out as they do not serve beer but lil' ethnic clubs and VFWs are right up our alley!

last friday we tried out the fraternal order of eagles medina aerie #2224 because stormin' norman's dad is a member.
and a past president!

the eagles charged $9 and did it all-you-can-eat buffet style. delicious! there was a lil' salad bar, breaded (not battered) cod fillets, fries, cheesy potatoes, green beans (eh, i can always pass on canned green bean. blegh.), bread and chocolate pudding.

good eats (and a lot of 'em!), cheap beer and fantastic conversation with stormin' norman's folks leads me to grant the eagles high marks. a B+ for the eagles!!

last night the crew tried out the ancient order of the hibernians on brown street in akron. a few of my friends have become members and really have been talkin' this joint up.
i was stoked to give it a whirl.

for $7 you got one piece of fried cod and two sides - i went with cole slaw (nice and vinegary - none of the mayonnaise-y shit. blegh!) and mac-n-cheese (delish! but such a teeny lil' bowl of it). we each got a lil' ticket and college girls came along and took 'em back to the kitchen.

and then we fell of the radar apparently. luckily the $3.25 guinness kept my hunger at bay. when the food finally came out (an hour and a half later!) it was pretty darn tasty. however, the service was so poor and the set up so wobberjawed that i cannot in good faith give them marks as high as the eagles.

i think the hibernians were a fine crowd - just very unorganized and ill equipped in the kitchen (order some more fryers hibernians!). i'd love to go there for cheap beers but i don't think another fish fry is in my future.

good friends and guinness on draft are definite bonuses and helped the score however it wasn't enough to overcome an hour and a half wait for one piece of cod. the hibernians get a C+.

next week the polish american club is on the agenda.
i've heard a lot about this place. it's a lil' more pricey ($9.25-$12.75) but their menu seems pretty fancy - perch, orange roughy, scallops and shrimp!

i'll report back.

oh, and if you're interested in local akron fish fries check out this list that the beacon printed on ash wednesday.

and the tour continues......

some things never get old

i am super close with my two brothers and two cousins. i was the only girl growing up but the five of us are thick as thieves - probably due to the fact we spent damn near every waking moment together! for birthdays i like to host a cousin's dinner at my place and make a big spread. last friday was my cousin's birthday and then my brother's is this coming saturday so i figured i could kill two birds with one stone. we decided to expand the guest list a lil' and we moved the location to my cousins' in order to accommodate the crowd.

saturday my cousin bill and i hit the west side market for provisions.

then i took him out to lunch for his birthday. we tried out le petit triangle - a lil' french cafe in ohio city. we tried escargot which i thought were delicious. (bill rated them as a B but later claimed, "that escargot escar-went right through me!" ha!) i ordered the croque madame (DELICIOUS!) and bill went with a smoked trout salad.

that evening i rocked out to my cousin and brother aka one half of the ravenna arsenal and managed to work up quite an appetite for sunday family dinner. (i believe this near starvation is classified as "hangover hungry.")

so the menu. i would need some hearty eats to fill up this crowd. i decided to go with a family favorite which you have seen before - cioppino and some gumbo. a nice caesar salad and some crusty french bread would round it out.

i decided to go with the gumbo shop's recipe for chicken and andouille gumbo (i went there when i was in new orleans a few years ago and i remember that it was tops!) and pioneer woman's caesar salad.

first things first - the roux. 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup vegetable oil stirred continuously until it gets a deep, dark brown color.

here is it when i first started.



and here are my gumbo fixin's (with the exception of the okra which i had already fried and set aside).



and here is the roux again later.



in an ideal world i would have let this get even browner but i had time constraints. c'est la vie.

while i stirred and stirred and stirred the roux until my arm hurt my sous chefs worked on the appetizer - another family favorite a la pioneer women.





once the roux was as brown as i was gonna let it get i added the veggies - chopped onions, green peppers, red peppers, garlic and celery. this cooked in the roux until they were tender.



then i added a can of stewed tomatoes, the sauteed okra and the sliced andouille and cooked it for about 15 more minutes.



once that was lookin' good i added some fresh basil and some salt, pepper and cayenne. i also added the chicken stock. oh, the stock. i forgot. the very first thing i did before the roux and before cleaning all my seafood was to start the chicken stock.

i picked up a whole fryer at the market and had them hack it into 8 pieces. i covered the chicken with cold water in a large stock pot and simmered it for about 2 hours. i strained the liquid twice and then let the chicken cool on a plate. god bless my fabulous sous chef colleen who did the very dirty job of pulling all the chicken meat from the bone.

and here is my fabulous sous chef again chopping two onions for the cioppino.



so at this point the gumbo is simmering on the stove over low heat and it was time to start the cioppino.

i melted a stick of butter and then added two chopped onions, some minced garlic and a bunch of chopped parsley. once the onions were soft i added a big can of stewed tomatoes, a lil' tomato paste (thanks for the kick ass tip about paste removal aunt aggie!), the rest of my chicken stock, two bay leaves and a bottle of white wine. i stirred this all up and simmered it over low heat.

while my soups were simmering i started the caesar dressing. i showed up to the cousins' house sans appliances and inquired about a blender or a food processor. bill went to the attic to investigate and came back with a real gem. once it was cleaned up it worked like a champ.



so the dressing was 4 anchovies, two cloves of garlic, a few tablespoons of dijon mustard, a teaspoon of worcestershire, one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and the juice of a lemon.

the pioneer woman says to slowly pulse this mix but we learned that the ancient food processor only had one speed - super f'n fast. and it was loud. oh man was it loud! so i super f'n fast pulsed the ingredients and then after scraping the sides slowly drizzled in the olive oil while the processor was ragin'.

you're also supposed to add some grated parmesan to this but i forgot. oops.

i washed and chopped some romaine lettuce and used a vegetable peeler to shave some nice pieces of good parmesan onto the salad. i also added some croutons. (i totally cheated and bought them but i was overextended as it was and homemade croutons damn well could've thrown me into a tail spin!).

i forgot to take a picture when it was first assembled but here it is after we tore through it.



and here is the gumbo. i made rice to serve it over.



and here is the cioppino.



this was my crowning achievement of the night. my cousin dave looked skeptically into the pot and made some weird faces early on but by the end of the evening he admitted that although he never thought he'd be eating clams or mussels he was loving 'em! woohoo! another convert!

i asked aunt aggie to bring dessert and boy am i glad she did. you can tell we loved these fancy brownies by the fact that this platter was completely full only a few hours before. i even took some home in a sandwich bag!



another successful family dinner. cooking for my family is one of my very favorite things to do in the whole wide world and the fact that they all tried my homemade caesar dressing despite the fact of being totally grossed out by anchovies and some people were trying certain shellfish for the very first time in their lives and loved it - well, that just makes it all the better.

later on after it was just the five of us again - six counting mike who may as well be part of our crew - my brother kenny had the quote of the night, "you know, some shit just never gets old. like you guys!"

a classic french dish cooked to impress

in my last post i mentioned the coq au vin. i realize it was kinda pointless to post that lil' blurb but the smell was just so kick ass and i was alone in my apartment and didn't have anyone else to share it with!

so now, here it is. another classic french dish attempted. another smashing success. (toot! toot!)

although i now own mastering the art of french cooking i decided to go with a recipe i found in bon apetit.

first things first. check out this kick ass new dutch oven i treated myself to.



although i adore my single woman's dutch oven (thanks what's for dinner!!) and have put it to good use it was time for an upgrade. i picked up this 5 3/4 quart chantal talavera at tj maxx. yes, le creuset is my dream and they even had some at tj maxx (marked WAY down from their original price) but i had to ask myself, why spend $120 when you can spend $50? someday i'll own a le creuset. just not yet.

so into the delightful new single woman but cookin' for a crowd's dutch oven went 4 whole chicken legs, chopped carrots, celery, onions, some fresh thyme and a couple of bay leaves.



then i added a bottle of cheap red wine to the mix.



then i stuck it in the fridge to marinate over night. look at those chocolate stouts. mmmmm.



here is something else sweet. a friend helped me set up a new bank account and as a promotion they offered $50 in free groceries. woohoo! i stocked up on some pantry essentials!



after marinating all night i took the dutch oven outta the fridge and let it come up to temperature on the counter before sticking it on a hot stove.

in the meantime i tackled the pearl onions. whew. what a pain in the neck! i boiled some water and dumped the onions in for about 2-3 minutes. then i drained them and dumped them right into a bowl of cold water. i cut off the root end and according to various sources the onions should just pop right out when you squeeze 'em. some popped right out. others did not. this took a few minutes.



next i quartered some 'shrooms.



i set aside the onions and the mushrooms and pulled the chicken out of the pot.



i patted the chicken dry with paper towels, seasoned them with a lil' salt and pepper and then set them aside. i put the dutch oven on the stove top over medium low heat to heat it through.



i sauteed the onions and mushrooms in a lil' butter over medium heat.



once they were tender (about 7 minutes or so) i took them out and then fried up my bacon.



once the bacon was brown i removed it from the pan, crumbled it up and added it to the bowl of 'shrooms and onions. then i wiped out my skillet and browned the chicken over medium-high heat.

this smelled SO good. really, really good.



once the chicken was nice and brown i added it back to the
pot o' goodness.



now it was time to just walk away and let it simmer uncovered.

here it is when it just started simmering.



and here it is again after about an hour and a half.



at this point i removed the chicken to a plate and drained the entire pot over a big bowl. i added the chicken and the liquid back to the single woman but cookin' for a crowd's dutch oven. what of the other trimmings? they went down the disposal. they left their flavors in the liquid and it was time for them to say goodbye.

i added the mushrooms, onions and crumbled bacon to the mix and warmed it through over medium heat.



then i packed it up and headed over to my dad's. my secret boyfriend eric ripert suggests serving coq au vin over noodles and julia and company suggest serving it with parsley potatoes and buttered peas. i decided to serve it over garlic smashed potatoes.

i roasted a bulb of garlic with a lil' olive oil and some salt and pepper for about 40 minutes or so. then i squeezed the cloves out of their skins and roughly chopped them.

i made pretty traditional smashed potatoes (butter, milk, salt and pepper) and then smashed in the chopped roasted garlic for that lil' something extra.

and here is my coq au vin over garlic mashed potatoes.



this was really, really good. the chicken just came right off the bone and we lapped up the sauce with a nice crusty hunk of french bread.

mmm. mmm. mmm.

man, french cooking is tops!!

wish you were here

man oh man. i wish you all could smell the wonderful smells that have taken over my entire apartment. as i post this update a big pot of coq au vin is simmering on my stove.

it smells sooooooooooo good.

i am making it to take out to someone i love very much for a celebratory dinner.

i'll let you know how it turns out!

homecookin' for librarians

every year the university library i work for hosts a chili and soup cook-off. last year i entered for the first time and served up my kale, chorizo & potato soup. i love that soup and i got a ton of compliments but apparently the namby pamby judges thought it was "too hot." ppppfffftttt!!!!

so this year i wanted to tone down the spice and serve up something a lil' more homestyle. some real homecookin' that would stick to the librarians' ribs.

i went with my grandma's tried and true ham pot pie. this is a time honored tradition in our family. any time there is some leftover ham my gma will make a big pot and the whole crew gathers and slurps it up.

last year i decided to start collecting family recipes so i asked gma for the ham pot pie recipe. she told me that there was no recipe and i should just come over and watch her make it. so i watched and i took notes and i decided to try it out for the first time on the librarians.

here are my notes.



saturday i headed up to the west side market for provisions. i picked up half of a smoked bone-in ham that was about 7 pounds. now, this is way too much ham. my gma usually just uses holiday leftovers but this was the smallest one i could get and besides bigger is usually better!

once i got home i chopped a large yellow onion into thick slices. i put the onions and the ham into my big stock pot and covered it with cold water. i put it on the stove and simmered it for about 7 hours until the ham was falling off the bone.

here it is after a few hours. it doesn't look like much now but just wait!



once it was falling off the bone i took it off the heat, let it come to room temperature and then stuck it in the fridge for 2 days.

monday night after work i skimmed the layer of fat of the top and pulled the ham out.



i chopped the ham against the grain into big chunks then i added it back to the stock. actually i added about 2/3 of it back to the stock and froze the rest. i put it on the stove on medium heat and got to work on the rest of the elements.

homemade noodles seemed a little intimidating. i suggest a breckenridge vanilla porter to help with that.



the notes i made said, "3 eggs - beat to very light." hmmmm. i took this as, "beat the hell out of the eggs." so i did.



then i added a lil' salt and a couple of tablespoons of ice water and whipped it some more. i added 2 cups of sifted flour and "worked it with my hands."

this was the stickiest stuff ever!



with my clean hand i called gma. she said, "add some more flour. you need a lot of flour."



after i figured out the dough i kneaded and rolled and then laid it out on cookie sheets. i used a pizza cutter to cut the noodles.



when the soup was hot (but not boiling) i added the noodles a few at a time - stirring constantly so they wouldn't stick. i cooked these for a while and in the meantime sliced and peeled five big russet potatoes. then i added those to the soup.



this simmered some more until the noodles were all plumped and floating and the potatoes were cooked through and just starting to fall apart.



so this was my library chili and soup cook-off entry. i took third place. actually fourth since there was a tie for second. more importantly though - i got a TON of compliments and i took home an empty crock pot. one woman even told me that the noodles were just like her mom used to make! woohoo! apparently my co-workers have better palates than the panel of judges!

what can i say? sometimes i like to toot my own horn.

playin' ketchupor is it catsup?

the fancy french eggs have really come a long way. man oh man. i think i have eaten them every sunday morning for the last month. ha! delicious!

so good in fact i had to show them off for a few of my friends. a couple of weeks ago we had a giganto snow storm. giganto.
here's proof:

(thankfully this is not my car but it was just a few blocks away.)

the day before the giganto snow storm everyone at my work was buzzin' about a possible snow day. the university rarely grants us snow days so i didn't want to get my hopes up too high. but then the news was calling for it and everyone was talking about it and i couldn't help but be sold.

after work i went to acme for provisions.

i picked up eggs, heavy cream, maple sausage links, OJ, beer (mmmm.....) and wine - the essentials. then i sent out the message, "yo! if it's a snow day and you are within walking distance come over. i'm making breakfast!"

i was sad when i went to bed cuz it didn't seem too bad out but then bright and early at 6:30 am i got the emergency text with those precious, magical words, "the university will be closed today."

woohoo!!

i got into the kitchen after going back to sleep for a while and by 11:00 served up fancy french eggs, cheesy scrambled eggs, toast with strawberry jam, sausage links, pancakes, duck fat potatoes and vegan potatoes.

i put on the coffee and some friends brought over their flasks (jamison [thanks stormin' norman] and tullamore dew [thanks viper]). and when those ran out we took a step down and poured jim beam into our coffee.

six brave, hungry souls took on the elements and we pigged out, said again and again how we couldn't believe how much fucking snow there was, watched a boy named charlie brown and played buzzword and uno.

it was a pretty fucking kick ass snow day!

in other cooking news i pulled out an old standby for super bowl sunday.

pulled pork.



mmmmm. this is after about 5 hours at 300 degrees. i reduced the juice by half and added it to my trusty mustard/cider vinegar sauce. i served it on super cheap white buns and it was a hit. of course. slow roasted pork slathered in a vinegary sauce? come on. it's a no brainer.

here are some cool photos.





this is mike and jeff's super meat party aka venison jerky makin' party. i tasted the finished product. mmmmm.

here are some of the fixin's for the cioppino i made the other night. man oh man. i LOVE this stew. you can use just about whatever seafood you can find and it is super, super easy. and delicious of course.



gentle ben had the day off so he headed to the west side market and later some crazy latin fish market for the sea creatures. he couldn't get little neck clams so he got those gigantic ones. he also picked up some bay scallops, shrimp and mussels. one of my dearest old friends and his red headed lady friend brought the last essential item - the wine.

when ben got to my house the mussels were all opened. this kinda freaked me out. i consulted the joy of cooking and they said to stick 'em in the freezer. if they closed up they were good to go. if they stayed open they were deadly! well, not deadly but not good either. not a single one of those damn things closed. rats. no go on the mussels for safety's sake.

and here it is. mmmmmm. so good. so very, very good.



ben also picked up a baguette which i stuck in the oven so it could get nice and warm and crusty. we slathered butter on chunks of bread and sopped up the broth between bites of clams and shrimps and scallops. yum.

and now for a side note - a bit of vanity. lots of friends and family say, "i love your blog!" yet no one ever leaves comments except my fellow bloggers, the viper, the shitetarian and xenia.

you can leave a comment every now and then. it would sure make me feel nice and maybe give me some kind of reason to continue this blog other than my own nerdom.

that is all.