August 18th, 2010 by Erin

Remember those citrus-glazed pork chops we made last week?  Well, we made four chops, and there are only two of us, which means we had two leftover chops hanging out in the fridge.

We decided to use them to make pork fried rice, which turned out to be super simple.  I just chopped up the leftover meat, as well as some celery, carrot, and green onion.  Toss the chopped veggies in a pan with a handful of frozen peas and a few cups of leftover rice, scramble an egg in there, and you’ve really got yourself something!

A more specific recipe:

• 4 cups cooked rice (we used brown rice)
• 1/2 cup each diced carrot, celery, onion
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
• two leftover pork chops, diced
• 2 eggs
• vegetable oil

Over medium-high heat, saute the celery, carrot and onion in a little vegetable oil (enough to just coat the bottom of the pan).  I also added a splash of toasted sesame oil for extra flavor, but it’s not necessary.  When the onion starts to get a bit wilted, add the diced pork chop and saute for another minute or two.

Next, add the rice and frozen peas.  Stir that around until the peas look thawed out.  Then, make a well in the center of your rice mixture and crack the two eggs into it.  Scramble the eggs up with a wooden spoon and, when they are almost done, stir the egg into the rice mixture.

Add the green onions were last, so they stay fresh looking and green.  Serve with a little soy sauce.  We had plenty of additional leftovers as well.

Overall, I’d say the fried rice was more successful than the original pork chop dinner that spawned it.

© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

August 12th, 2010 by Erin

I have this folder full of recipes I’d like to try, mostly stuff torn out of magazines.  I decided I better start actually making them and either adding them to the recipe program on Steve’s computer or tossing them, because they are just taking up space.  The first pick was citrus-glazed pork chops with green beans and fennel salad.  I believe it came from the April 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. 

I started with the salad part because I didn’t want to be distracted by chopping while the pork chops were cooking, and also to give the flavors time to “marry” before we ate.  It consisted of 1/2 bulb of fennel, 1 apple, and 1 orange, all sliced thin.  The dressing was the juice from 1/2 a fresh orange, 1 tablespoon of honey, and 1 table spoon of olive oil, seasoned with a little salt and pepper. 

The beans were really just plain boiled/steamed green beans.  Nothing fancy there, I just cleaned them up and put them on the stove while the chops were cooking.

Speaking of chops, we used 4 boneless pork chops, 1/2 an inch thick.  Season with salt and pepper and cook in a pan coated with olive oil over medium-high heat for 8 minutes.  Turn them, add the juice of another 1/2 orange, and cook for another 8 minutes. 

Now, the sauce created by the cooking chops and the orange juice is supposed to be poured over the green beans, but I found that by the end of the cooking, there was no sauce.  Most was burned to the bottom of the pan.  So make other plans to flavor your green beans.  I find that they are good with just a little salt and pepper. 

Despite the burned sauce, the chops themselves turned out just fine.  They weren’t too dry or tough, and they did get nice and flavorfully browned. 

As for the salad, I need to get it through my thick skull that I don’t like fennel.  The first time I had it was at a bar-b-que, and it was grilled, and I thought it was so, so good.  Since then, I’ve ordered dishes with it in restaurants, and used it myself at home, but it seems like it’s always used raw, and I just don’t like it that way.  Also, apples and oranges are not in season right now.  And the olive oil made the dressing feel heavy; I think it would have been better, and might make a good all-purpose fruit salad dressing, with just the orange juice and honey. 

So there is one mediocre dinner.  If you have any suggestions as to how this might work better, please share.  Otherwise, this one will probably go in the trash. 

© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

August 5th, 2010 by Erin

I have a break for a few weeks before I go back to school at the end of the month, so I’ve been trying to be productive around here.  Unfortunately, I got a pretty bad sunburn working in the yard last weekend, so I’ve had to take it easy physically because my shirt rubbing against my tender skin is somewhat uncomfortable and even painful at times.  In other words, no yard work for a few days.

Not wanting to be a total couch potato, I turned to one of my favorite low-key past-times and turned out some fabulous milk chocolate chipsters.  Yum!

I used to bake ALL the time. I think it’s probably been months since I last made a batch of cookies, though, and I didn’t get the satisfaction from baking this batch that I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like it was a chore, and I sure do enjoy eating the fruits of my labor, but I think maybe I’m shifting towards enjoying cooking more than baking.

© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

July 19th, 2010 by Erin

Steve and I haven’t been doing a whole lot of cooking lately.  In fact, we’ve been so lazy in the cooking department, we’re not beyond eating ramen noodles for dinner.  I blame it on the hot weather.  Who wants to slave over a hot stove when it’s 90+ degrees?

This months issue of Real Simple inspired me to try some new things, though.  Digression:  my subscription to Real Simple was a Christmas gift from my sister.  Every month, the address label says “A Gift from Christine,” which of course reminds me of how sweet my sister is.

But back to the food.  The August issue contained a whole bunch of recipes with only three ingredient, which I love because grocery shopping is so much quicker when there is not much to buy, not to mention cheaper.  But it was really one of the week night meals that caught my eye: Cajun Skirt Steak with Creamed Corn.  More than three ingredients, but still pretty simple and quick.

Let’s start with the main course, the steak.  Remember how I said less ingredients make grocery shopping easier?  Well, it also makes it more likely that someone who does not make a list gets all the ingredients right.  For some reason, I had flank steak stuck in my head, so I bought a flank steak instead of a skirt steak.  Both cuts come from the underbelly of the cow, but the flank comes from — surprise — the flank, which is towards the rear, while the skirt comes from the plate, which is more towards the front.  In other words, the skirt comes from the kosher part of the cow while the flank does not.  Both contain a lot of connective tissue and can be tough if not prepared right.   They are both flat pieces of meat, but flank is a little bit on the thicker side.

So we went with the flank steak, since it’s what we bought.  Preparation couldn’t have been simpler.  Preheat the broiler.  Place the steak on a broiler  safe sheet pan and liberally season with Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper.  Broil 3-4 minutes on each side for medium-rare, then rest for 5 minutes before slicing.  I tend to prefer my meat medium, rather than medium-rare, so we used the longer end of the range, 4 minutes per side.  But, remember how I said flank steak was thicker than skirt steak?  It was still pretty rare.  So I would recommend cooking a bit longer if for some reason you use a flank steak.

In spite of being a little rare for our tastes, it was still delicious.  Sliced on an angle after resting, it was tender and juicy and oh-so-tasty.

On to the side dish, creamed corn made with fresh corn.  The recipe called for 8 ears of corn, but there are only two of us, so we decided to cut it in half.  I cut the kernels off four fresh ears of corn.  This is trickier than it looks.  I find my hands tend to get slippery, and holding the corn up on end is not terribly stable, so be careful here.  We ended up with at least 2 cups of kernels, probably more, actually.

Remember how I bought the wrong kind of steak because I didn’t make a list before I went to the store?  I also bought the wrong kind of onion.  For some reason I thought it called for a Vidalia or other sweet onion, so I bought a Walla Walla onion.  Turns out the recipe just called for a regular yellow onion.  Anyway, I chopped up half of it and sauted it over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes with a tablespoon of butter until it started to soften.  Then, in went the corn kernels, some salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup of half-and-half.  That cooked for another 5-8 minutes or so, until the creamy sauce thickened up.  Even with the wrong onion, the corn was out of this world!  So sweet, creamy, and delicious.

We served this meal up with a mixed green salad.  I am sure we will make this again.  Even when corn is out of season, you can use frozen corn as long as you add a little flour to help thicken things up (frozen corn does not have as much starch in it as fresh), so it won’t be just a summer treat.

© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

April 14th, 2010 by Erin

School has kept me quite busy lately, so obviously I haven’t had much time to post anything.  Steve has also been extremely busy doing taxes, so we haven’t been doing much cooking or eating of interesting things.  But, I was thinking I had some pictures of an interesting soup I made a while back that I should write about.

I got a cookbook from Steve’s parents for Christmas called “Love Soup.”  It’s full of vegetarian soup recipes, organized more or less by time of year, so there is a section with hearty filling soups for cook weather and lighter refreshing soups for warmer weather.  My first attempt at one of these recipes was Black Bean and Kabocha Squash Soup.

I started with a classic mirepoix — onions, carrots, and celery.  Onions went in first, with a couple of bay leaves.  Then the carrots and celery.  The recipe also called for 1 or 2 jalapeño peppers.  These were not available at the grocery store, so I picked up a couple of Anaheim peppers instead, and chose to use 2 because they have a little less heat than jalapeños.

While I sauteed the onions, carrots, celery, and peppers, I had a kabocha squash — cut in half and seeded — roasting in the oven.  It was nice and tender after about 45 minutes.  At that point, I let it cool until I could handle it and scoop out the insides.

Back to the stove.  Once the onions, carrots, and celery were a bit softened, I removed the bay leaves and put the mixture in a big pot with two cans of vegetable broth.  Ok, so I used chicken broth because I already had it in the cupboard.  I’m not a vegetarian, so it doesn’t concern me.  Do what you want.  Once I brought that to a simmer, I added two cans of black beans, drained and rinsed.  And finally, the cooked squash.

Once that is simmered for a bit, the mixture gets blended into a smooth soup.  I blended it in batches in our counter top blender, since we don’t have an immersion blender.  Honestly, I do not recommend this method.  Messy would be an understatement.  I’m not doing it again until I get an immersion blender.

And that’s it!  We ate it with corn bread.  The soup does not look real appetizing to me.  I had a hard time taking the first bite.  But it sure was tasty!  Surprisingly rich, though.  A small bowl is really all I could handle.  I feel the same way about split pea soup.  I can only take so much of it.

© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

January 15th, 2010 by Erin

My latest attempt at dinner was a little Mexican rice casserole.  The great thing about this recipe is that much of it can be made from non-perishable pantry staples, with the addition of just a few fresh items. 

I started with a chopped onion and a pile of minced garlic.  Saute the veggies in a big pan with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.  It looks like not a lot of stuff for the pan, but trust me, you want to go big because you will be adding to it. 

Next, add a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and a small can of diced jalapeño peppers.  Let that simmer together for a few minutes until it thickens up a bit and the flavors have had a chance to marry a little bit. 

Now, for the stuff that requires more space in the pan.  Add about two cups of cooked rice, a can of drained and rinsed black beans, and a can of drained corn.  Stir well to combine. 

Finally, remove the pan from the heat.  It’s time for the most important ingredient: cheese.  12 ounces of cubed Monterey Jack, to be exact.  Once you’ve stirred the cheese in, put the mixture in a casserole dish and pop it in the oven.  I think I used 375 or 400 degrees.  When the cheese is all melty and bubbly, it’s done.  You might want to reserve a little extra grated cheese to sprinkle over the top of few minutes before the casserole is done, so you get a little extra browned cheesy goodness on the top. 

Steve and I both enjoyed this recipe, so I think it’s a keeper.  I’d like to add something to it to make it a little bit creamier, though.  Perhaps stir in some sour cream with the cheese, right before it goes in the oven? 

Stay tuned for my first crack at some soup from a recipe book I got for Christmas. 

© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

December 14th, 2009 by Erin

Steve and I took a trip to the grocery store yesterday evening.  It was pretty uneventful, until we got home and I tried to lift one of the bags out of the trunk of my car and it nearly ripped my arm off due to its excessive weight.  It contained one large jar of pickles, three jars of pasta sauce, and one bottle of olive oil.  The contents weighed in at 11 and a half pounds, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it sure felt like a lot.  Not to mention the fact that the glass jars could very well have banged together and shattered, leaving my car a mess. 

I do take some care myself when I put my groceries up on the conveyor belt at the checkout.  I try to group like items together, so frozen or refrigerated items will stay colder since they are all grouped together.  I also try to put the heavy stuff on first, since it should go at the bottom of the bags, and the delicate stuff, like bread, eggs, and chips, last so that it goes on the top of the bags.  Seems like they often don’t end up this way in the bags, though.  I often end up starting to bag my own groceries when there are no baggers around, and I’ll admit it’s not as easy as it looks, but it’s not that hard either, and I’m pretty sure if I did it every day I could get the hang of it and make smart decisions about how I group items. 

So, should I be able to expect my bagger to combine items wisely, or should I just be happy he double-bagged all those heavy jars?

November 12th, 2009 by Erin

One positive result of unemployment is that I have been cooking a lot more than I used to.  The other night, I made Tuscan Chicken Stew for dinner.  It went something like this:

I bought a package of chicken thighs, a little over two pounds.  The original recipe called for skinless bone-in thighs, which my grocery store did not have, so I was stuck skinning them myself.  Not my favorite kitchen task.  I really don’t like touching raw meat, so I used latex gloves a la Alton Brown, which made it much less gross.  I coated the bottom of our cast iron dutch oven with a little olive oil, seasoned the meat, and browned it on both sides. 

While the chicken was browning, I chopped an onion and minced a few cloves of garlic.  I added the chopped veggies to the dutch oven after removing the browned chicken to a platter.  Let those cook a few minutes until the onion is translucent.  Then, add a tablespoon of tomato paste.  Stir the paste in and let the mixture continue cooking until it is well mixed and becomes a brick red color.  Next, add about half a can of chicken stock to the pot to deglaze.  You can substitute wine here if you like, but we aren’t big wine drinkers and generally don’t have any sitting around and ready to use in recipes, so the stock works just fine.  Let it boil down until it is a bit syrupy.  Then add the rest of the can of stock, a can of rinsed and drained white beans, and a can of diced tomatoes.  Nestle the chicken pieces into the stew and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Then, add about eight ounces of baby spinach and simmer another minute or two until the spinach is wilted.  Serve and enjoy. 

When I made this, I really was not in the mood for it.  I really did not want anything tomato-y, but I had purchased the ingredients and needed to cook it before anything went bad.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The meal was hearty and extremely tastey.  It’s chock full of veggies and lean protein, too.  My only qualm with the dish is the bone-in meat.  It takes a bit or work to eat when it’s in a stew.  I’d say just use boneless thighs, but that would change the cooking times and the bones might add flavor to the stew that would be missed if they weren’t there. 

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

November 5th, 2009 by Erin

On our last trip to Costco, we bought one of those plastic containers of Gala apples.  You know, the packs with an individual round slot for each apple that there’s just got to be something it would be useful for in the future that forces you to keep the empty container.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, because I was taking an apple to work every day in my lunch.  Not so much anymore.  The point is, these apples were past their prime and I did not want them to go to waste.  The solution?  Applesauce. 

We had 8 apples sitting in our fridge.  I peeled, cored, and chopped them into chunks.  The size of the chunks is up to you.  I remember when I was a kid, we made applesauce at one of our Brownie meetings.  We ate it warm, and it still had chunks of apple in it.  So I chose to make mine a little chunky.  Well, a lot chunky.  As I was peeling and chopping, a sprinkled a little lemon juice over the apple chunks as I added the new chunks to prevent them from turning brown before I got them on the stove. 

Once the apples were chopped and ready to go, I dumped them in a large saucepan with about a cup of water, brought the water to a boil, and let it simmer for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.  The length of time you cook the apples for will depend on how big you make your chunks and how chunky you want the final sauce to be.  Bigger chunks means more cooking until they are tender.  If you want the sauce to be smooth, cook it until the chunks are very tender.  If you want chunks, they don’t have to be quite as tender. 

When the chunks were a bit short of my desired done-ness, I added about 6 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon.  I would have added a bit of nutmeg as well, but I didn’t have any.  At this point, I started to stir the sauce continuously.  This breaks down the apples and gives you the nice saucy consistency, as opposed to a bunch of cooked apples sitting in hot water.  I stirred for probably about 5 minutes until the sauce was the chunky consistency I wanted.  If you want it smoother, hopefully you cooked your apples a bit longer to being with and you can be more vigorous with your stirring and add a little mashing action.  And if you want it really smooth, you can run it through your food mill.  Because everyone has a food mill sitting around. 

I dished out the first two bowlfuls while it was still piping hot, and it was delicious!  I thought the chunky-ness of it made it taste like hot apple pie, so I am calling it apple pie sauce.  Steve said it didn’t taste like apple pie to him, but what does he know?

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

November 2nd, 2009 by Erin

November is National Pomegranate Month, so today we will say a few words in honor of the free radical-fighting fruit. 

Native to Persia, pomegranates have been cultivated in Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Mediterranean region for thousands of years.  The fruit was introduced to the Americas by the Spanish in the late 18th century, and we currently grow it in parts of California and Arizona for juice production. 

The edible part of the pomegranate is the juicy seed casing known as the aril.  High in vitamin C, vitamin B5, potassium, and antioxidant polyphenols, proponents taut pomegranate juice as effective in reducing heart disease and high blood pressure, not to mention scavenging those pesky free radicals.  The seeds themselves, when consumed with the aril, are high in fiber and unsaturated fat. 

The name pomegranate derives from the Latin pomum (“apple”) and granatus (“seeded”). In both Spanish and French, the words for pomegranate and grenade are the same (granada and grenade, respectively), likely due to the fact that the fruit and weapon are similarly shaped.  The French la grenade also gives us the word grenadine, the name of a fruit syrup originally made from pomegranates and widely used in cocktails.   

A while back, we saw on one of my favorite Food Network shows that grenadine is actually a pomegranate syrup.  Our only prior experience with grenadine was Rose’s Grenadine, so we never had any clue that it was in any way related to pomegranates.  Don’t get me wrong, Rose’s is certainly tasty and a staple in most well appointed bars, but it is not much more than sugar syrup with red food coloring.  So we decided to conduct a little science experiment. 

Steve made a batch of home-made grenadine using pomegranate juice and sugar, using a recipe courtesy of that favorite tv chef.  He started out with two bottles of pomegranate juice and after all the cooking and reducing ended up with less than a bottle of syrup.  He also bought two bottles of alternative grenadines to compare it with: the old standby Rose’s and a brand of authentic pomegranate grenadine. 

First, we poured a little bit of each grenadine into the bottom of a glass to compare.  Not surprisingly, the Rose’s was maraschino cherry red.  The store bought authentic grenadine was more of a pale pink, while our home made authentic grenadine was a deep, dark reddish purple.  Both the Rose’s and our home made grenadine were thick, sticky, and syrupy.  The store bought authentic grenadine was pretty thin, though, almost watery.  Finally, the taste test.  The Rose’s tasted like sugar syrup.  The authentic syrups, on the other hand, had a pronounced pomegranate flavor, with the home made syrup being much stronger than the store bought syrup. 

Next, we made a classic cocktail using grenadine: the Tequila Sunrise.  We mixed three identical glasses of tequila and orange juice and added a splash of grenadine to the top of each one.  Bar far, the Rose’s would win any cocktail beauty contests, giving the top of the drink a rosy blush.  The store bought authentic grenadine was virtually undetectable to the human eye.  And the home made authentic grenadine . . . well, it looked pretty gross, like a gray glob floating in the drink. 

Flavor-wise, the store bought authentic grenadine won out.  Although it wasn’t visible, it certainly added flavor to the drink.  And the home made syrup, well . . . surely the unappetizing look of the drink contributed to the fact that neither of us thought the final drink tasted good at all.

So there you have it, a few fun facts about pomegranates and our thoughts on various types of pomegranate syrup. 

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved