Culinary Disasters

I love free stuff and pomegranate juice (the 100% pomegranate juice not the ohh there is a couple of drops of pomegranate juice but the rest is just fillers and artificial crap “juice”).  It was a natural reaction that when I arrived home to see a case of pomegranate juice on my front porch to start doing my happy dance.  Unfortunately my neighbors do not know this and I understand why they gave me weird looks.

One of my favorite things to do with POM juice is just a simple drink consisting of squirt of simple syrup (optional), 3/4 pineapple juice,  1/4 pomegranate juice poured over top of the pineapple juice, and topped with mint leaves.  The beautiful part is the pomegranate juice bleeds into the pineapple juice making for a cool presentation.

I did not want to blow my mini POM bottle army on a single drink and I started thinking of all the things that I could do with them.  With spring slowly coming into full swing I instantly start thinking of BBQ sauce and the smoker going.  However, the weather has not been fully cooperating so instead of making a POM BBQ sauce I chose to braise a pork shoulder in POM juice.

Pomegranate juice is tart and to offset that tartness I added a chipotle pepper and some brown sugar.  The heat from the chipotle was not present in the final dish but definitely helped take some of the edge off.  However, after I pulled the pork shoulder out I did add in a squirt of honey because the sauce was still a little to tart for my liking.

For this recipe you will need:

• 2.5 lb pork shoulder
• 1 onion finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• Thumb size piece of ginger finely diced
• 8 ounces of POM
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 dried chipotle pepper ground or 1 chipotle in adobo
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• Canola oil (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: pork, All // 27 Comments »

I will never be able to give up eating winter dishes all year round.  There is just something therapeutic about a pot of soup boiling or some beef ribs braising on the stove.  Plus the way it makes the house smell beats any fragrance that Febreeze can ever make.  However, if they could somehow manage to duplicate that wonderful bacon smell I would never leave the house.

Thankfully Saturday was the perfect sunny low 70s degree day and I was able to start on some outdoor tasks.  I rented a power thatcher and just beat the living hell out of my yard.  There is something else that is therapeutic about tools that require gas to operate and could put you in a hospital.  I was more shocked by the amount of thatch that it pulled up and it filled a 3×3 compost bin more than halfway.  If you do not know thatch is that nasty dead grass layer that gets matted down.  Every couple of years it is good to remove it so the soil can be exposed and also makes it easier for fertilizer to get to the roots.  On a side note does anyone have any good recipes for organic fertilizer?

Sunday we once again were faced with a large amount of rain.  The best part was softball practice was canceled but I was stuck inside all day long.  My mind started gravitating towards beef stew so time to visit the fridge and freezer to see what do I have available.

Beef Bourguignon is a classic French dish.  The core of Beef Bourguignon is beef braised in red wine and garnished with pearl onions and mushrooms.  I took a few liberties from the core dish such as I was to lazy to seperatly braise the pearl onions and the mushrooms in beef stock.

I am still amazed daily as I read other blogs how many people live in fear of changing around a recipe especially a classic.  Recipes are meant to be adapted to your tastes!  Heck the reason why some of the classic dishes did not include other ingredients is because the ingredient was unavailable.  Unlike today where I can get avocado all year round even though I have never seen an avocado tree.

Do not fear people a ruler wielding nun is not going to break through your front door and start smacking your knuckles because you did not put exactly 223.5 grams of egg noodles in your dish.

This reminds me of an e-mail I received a couple weeks ago:

“Did you ever hear about the Mom who always cut the end off the ham prior to cooking her famous ham dinner?  Her kids asked her why exactly she did that and she replied, “that is the way my Mom always prepared it”.  After 20 minutes or so, as she reflected, she phoned her Mom and asked why exactly the ham got cut prior to putting in the pan for baking?  Her Mom chuckled on the other line and then explained that often the hams she bought just didn’t fit into the pan quite right, and so she cut the end off to make it fit”

For this recipe you will need:

• 2 lbs of chuck roast cut into bite size pieces
•  1 bottle of wine
• 5 cloves of garlic diced
• 2 cups of chicken, beef, or veal stock  (I used veal stock)
• 1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
• heavy pinch of crushed red pepper
• Couple good handfuls of peeled pearl or cipollini onions cut into bite size pieces
• 3 carrots cut into bite size pieces
• 2 stalks of celery cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes cut into bite size pieces
• Package of mushrooms cut into bite size pieces
• Couple potatoes cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 cup of frozen peas
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• High temperature oil and butter or leftover bacon grease
• All purpose flour (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: beef, All // 27 Comments »

I use to religiously participate in Taste and Create but end of last year abruptly stopped.  The reason was not because the program sucked but I missed one month and then slowly I kept forgetting to send my name as the months passed by.

For those who do not know Taste and Create is an awesome program that once a month pairs you up with another blog.  You find a recipe you like on their blog, create it, and ramble on about it.  It has exposed me to a couple new blogs that I still try to religiously follow.

This month I got paired up with Jen from Piccante Dolce.  One dish on her blog that really stood out was maple whiskey pulled chicken.  How can you go wrong with a dish that has maple, booze, and chili peppers?  Another bonus is that this recipe gave me a chance to relax in the kitchen and use my overpriced crock pot that is nothing more than a glorified food warmer.  Also, after the stuffed manicotti my overworked dishwasher smiled at me.  However, that could have been a result of the whiskey (had to taste to make sure the whiskey was still good).

The recipe did call for liquid smoke which surprisingly for my vast selection of random stuff I did not have.  I do have my trusty hand held smoker called the Smoking Gun.  It is made by Polyscience and a valuable resource if you are obsessed with smoking especially quick smoked cheeses.  Another advantage of the smoking gun is during winter when I miss the smell of smoke from my smoker filling up the house I will fire up the smoking gun and run around.  I went ahead and ran a couple handfuls of cherry and hickory wood chips through the smoking gun to try and impart some smokey flavor.  In the spirit of honesty the smokey flavor was not really present in the final product which bummed me out. (Click here to read the rest…)

Tags: BBQ, chicken, All // 22 Comments »

You ever have one of those nights where you just want to hide?  That was my Monday night when I made this dish.  The joy and joyness of Spring in Indiana is one day the weather can go from a pleasant and sunny 60 degrees all the way down to a cold and wet 30 degrees.  I had expected to do some grilling on Monday night but the idea of standing in the garage watching it rain did not sound remotely fun.  Well what to do what to do?

Even though I live alone I try to buy whole animals as much as possible.  The advantages of buying whole animals is cheaper cost and you get to form a great relationship with your farmer so you know how the animal was raised.  The major disadvantage (beside needing a small army of freezers in your garage that would convince your nosy neighbor you are hiding dead bodies) is you acquire a large quantity of ground meat.  I am not saying ground meat is a bad thing but I never really know what to do with it (especially when you are staring at ten pounds of ground pork).

One use I have found and fell in love is mixing ground with some spinach and cheese, shoving it into some sort of pasta, covering it in sauce,  and baking till golden delicious.  Another one of my favorite uses I reserve for when the guys are over for poker or video games (yes I am still a geek at heart and see no problem spending an entire Friday night trying to beat a video game) are sausage rolls.

Well Monday night I decided that this was just the perfect night to use enough pots and pans that I would have to do three loads in the dishwasher.  I mean heck what else I was going to do???

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 lb ground sausage
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (I used hot Hungarian)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 onion finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• 1 package of frozen spinach thawed, drained, and diced or 1 bunch of spinach blanched and diced
• 1 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese
• 4 cups of tomato sauce
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 4 cups of whole milk
• Couple grater swipes of nutmeg
• Enough Parmesan cheese to clog your left ventricle
• Couple good handfuls of mozzarella cheese
• 1 box of manicotti shells that have been boiled til ale dente (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: Random (not recipe), pork, All // 24 Comments »

Whenever I hear of someone talk about baking my mind instantly goes to the part of Kitchen Confidential where Adam calls Tony wanting him to feed the bitch or she will die.  I also instantly presume everyone who bakes constantly is some evil genius hell bent on world domination with tangled  hair, smell of a three day booze bender, and  squints from working in dark dungeons creating variety of dough and pastries.  Still though a lone wolf working in the background to set the tone for dinner with perfectly crafted bread, variety of dessert to compliment the end of a perfect meal, and creating that perfect crusty french bread for the lunch crowd grabbing a quick sandwich.  In essence a necessary evil whose work you adore but not ready to invite him or her over to Sunday dinner with the parents.

In fact the few times I have baked usually end with the same result.  Jeff is drunk in a corner sobbing uncontrollably while rocking back and forth griping a bottle of Jack Daniel as a life line.  At some point I have to face my fears and either accept that baking could turn me into an alcoholic or man up and get through this.  So armed with my mantra “New Year New Jeff” (I think the cat has been playing Tony Robbins CDs while I sleep) I decided cookies could be a good intro start.  I saw these cookies listed on Lori’s site and thought I have meyer lemons that are lonely and a Saturday afternoon of nothingness for once.

So fast forward to the day after and I can proudly say “Hi my name is Jeff and I have been sober for one baking event.”

I can see many of you rolling your eyes going oh this smuck thinks baking cookie is some secret art form and something worth of a good job when my five year old can already do it.  Well take off hoser this is my victory and my blog. (Click here to read the rest…)

Tags: Dessert, All // 26 Comments »

In keeping with the spring themes of grilling/BBQ I have decided that some love needs to be shown for BBQ sauce.  Most people when they think of BBQ sauce just think of the stuff that is in squeeze bottles and has a shelf life equal to the half life of uranium.  However, BBQ sauce is a simple sauce to make and very customizable to your liking.  Plus chances are you already have everything lying around your kitchen so save your 3 bucks and take the hour to make it.

This recipe was one I used in a couple BBQ competitions and so far has not let me down.  Granted it has not gotten me a paycheck from a competition but at least one top 10 finish in chicken.

Besides being a good faithful it is very easy to modify and adapt to your likes.  For example let us say you wanted a nice whiskey BBQ sauce well in another skillet light 1/4 cup of whiskey to burn off the alcohol and add that into the pot when you add everything and tada whiskey BBQ sauce.  Want a smoky spicy BBQ sauce.  No problem instead of dicing up a jalapeno dice up a couple chipotles in adobo.  How about straight heat BBQ sauce?  Fear not super BBQ base can save the day just by adding in your favorite hot sauce.  Want a vinegar BBQ sauce well 1/4 cup of vinegar added with everything else will solve that craving.  I think you kind of get the picture so I will quit rambling on.

The one problem that most people make is in the application of the sauce.  BBQ sauce is a high sugar item and that means it should get applied a couple minutes before the meat is coming off the grill.  Basically enough to heat up the sauce but not turn it into a burnt sugary nasty mess.  Also, after I apply the sauce I will drop the grill temp down to low to aid in the fight against burnt BBQ sauce.

For this recipe you will need:

• 1/2 white onion diced
• 1 jalapeno with the 3 Ds (deseeded, deveined, and diced)
• 2 cloves of garlic diced
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 cup of ketchup (the zinginess of ketchup makes the dish I tried it with tomato sauce and it just turned out bland)
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika
• Cayenne to taste
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• Neutral oil like canola (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: Base, BBQ, chicken, pork, All // 17 Comments »

Lately I have been in this mode of have to throw together this spice blend, I have a bunch of bottles of POM how can I use them, and all around surprisingly creative.  However, I feel this need to get back to basics every now to remind myself that there are time proven recipes that are versatile and taste amazing.  Salsa verde to me is just that.  Not only does it work thrown together with some chips as the perfect snack while decompressing and catching up on the DVR but it can go and play with the big boys like steak and seafood for a solid dinner.

Last Sunday I decided that steak tacos sound amazing so wandering through the grocery store I spied some tomatillos out of the corner of my eye.  Now to most people this is probably not a big deal but for this town I can best relate it to finding the perfect white truffle in the middle of Antarctica.  So of course I had to buy because not only were they accessible but surprisingly in good shape.

This brings me to another joy and joyness and something my next house will have no matter what.  The grills must be kept in a place where they are covered because Sunday it rained all day.  Thankfully since my grills take precedent over the truck they get the garage spot so I can grill no matter what the weather is doing (except -20 and colder because the grill does not want to work then).

For the salsa verde you will need:

• 1 lb of tomatillos
• 1/2 lime
• 2 shallots
•  2 jalapeno peppers
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• High temperature oil
• Sugar (usage to be determined) (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: fish, Quick, beef, Side dish, All // 20 Comments »

Before I start anyone good with logos?  I want to do a blog cook contest and would love to have a logo for it.  My photoshop skills can’t even successfully draw stick figures.  I am looking for cheap/donation with credit too since I don’t think what I am looking for would take someone with skills more than 10 minutes.

So staring in the freezer at a package of lamb chops that have been there for awhile and I figure time to get them used.  I love lamb but never find myself really using it.  The only thing I can really attribute this is that lamb is not that prevalent in this town.  If I want it the only decent butcher shop that carries it is over an hour and a half away.  Which reminds me I have another trip coming up here shortly so time to stock up and experiment more.

Oh yeah yesterday the weather turned out to be awesome (for us that means 50 degrees and sunny) so I drug me and camera out for some Indiana spring pics in the backyard.

My first stop was to the compost bin because at least once a week I like to get this turned.  It really helps speed up the decomposition process and since I have about 2 yard actively working away right now any speed up is awesome.  This is just 1 section of my 3 stage compost bin that I built last year.  The other section looks identical and the third section should have some compost ready for me in another month or so since I started that section last spring. (Click here to read the rest…)

Tags: lamb, All // 18 Comments »

This post marks a new era for me in that I have finally joined the Digital SLR revolution (revolution will be televised across living rooms and the great divide).  Went with the Nikon D60 and mucho thanks to my buddy Richard for his patience as I ask a ton of questions/sending him test photos.  This also marks a new frustration for Jeff in that I feel it is my goal to get the most bang for my buck so my library hold limit is maxed with Digital SLR books and my nights are spent reading about aperture/ISO/etc.

There will still be a few more posts flipping through that will be done with my old point and shoot but I had to get this one up and open for critiscm.

Stuffed peppers are one of my favorite things to do with the leftover peppers from the garden. Normally I hate buying them at the grocery store because non-season the conventional peppers are a good 2-3 dollars each (organic prices make me cry when I see them on bell peppers).  Imagine my surprise when wandering through the co-op and I find red bell peppers on sale for a dollar a pound.  Most of the red bell peppers I bought just got chopped up and drug into work for snacking.  I did manage to keep two behind and then found another deal on green peppers so bought two of them for stuffing.

Stuffing bell peppers is like pouch cooking fish or chicken.  Everyone can have their own little bell pepper of joy with the ingredients they want in it.  I kept mine all the same and went on another adventure in fridge cleaning to make these peppers.

The tomatoes I used were romas leftover from salad making and I decided to roast them.  Roasting tomatoes is pretty simple and all I do is preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice the top off of the tomatoes and using your knife make an X on the bottom of the tomato (the X makes peeling off the skin a lot easier).  Toss the tomatoes with thyme, olive oil, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, shallots, and garlic.  Place them in an ovenproof pan cut side down and put in the oven till the tomatoes are soft (about 30 minutes).  After they are done chop them up and then run them through a colander to get rid of excess liquid.

If you don’t want to go through the effort of roasting tomatoes a regular can of diced tomatoes would be awesome.  Just make sure you drain it.

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 lb of ground pork sausage
• 1 onion finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• 4 roasted roma tomatoes chopped and drained or 1 small can of tomatoes drained
• 1 box of frozen spinach or 1 bunch of spinach that has been blanched (dumped in boiling water for about 30 and then tossed in ice water to stop the cooking), and chopped up.  Make sure to squeeze all the excess liquid out of the spinach.
• 1 cup of your favorite cheese (I used queso asadero that I grabbed from the Mexican bakery)
• teaspoon of Hot Hungarian paprika
• teaspoon of dried Greek oregano
• heavy pinch of crushed red pepper
• kosher salt and black pepper
• high temperature oil (I used canola)
• enough bread crumbs to top each of the peppers
• enough parmigiano-reggiano cheese to grate over the top of the peppers (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: pork, All // 20 Comments »

I know this will probably get me my own scarlet A tattoo on my chest but I am not a fan of wet wings and prefer a good spicy dry rub wing that has been grilled.  That way the joyous skin gets some nice blackening on it and I think you can get a lot more flavorful wing through a dry rub than the standard buffalo style preparation (I can see a few people hitting unsubscribe right now).

Chipotles are smoke dried jalapenos.  Usually end of the season you will have some peppers that did not get used and they have turned red and lost a lot of moisture.  Well instead of wasting them or sacrificing to the compost bin people discovered they can be preserved by smoking them till they were dried.  They are great for adding a little bit of heat (jalapenos are pretty mild on the scoville scale) and a nice hit of smoky flavor.  Usually you can find them packed in adobo sauce in a metal tin hanging out in the Mexican aisle however, look around at your local Mexican market/mega super market and you can find the dried version with the rest of the dried peppers.

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 pound of chicken wings
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2-3 dried chipotle peppers.  This is where the heat is going to come from so if you are a wimp use 2 or put 3 in and build up that heat tolerance.
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Pinch of black pepper
• 4 TB of unsalted butter melted (Click here to read the rest…)

  Tags: chicken, All // 10 Comments »