The Laughing Matriarch

The Laughing Matriarch
ma·tri·arch/ˈ A woman who is the head of a family or tribe.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Working Backwards or Hardly Working?

So I haven't posted in a while which is not to say I have not been cooking. Because I have. Just ask my jeans. But I took on a new work project and I was caught up in the snow-of-the-century and I went to an island and, blah, blah, blah. Excuses.


But I was actually creating like crazy! I baked and I canned and I cooked and I poached and I invented and I borrowed recipes. And then I wrapped and I mailed a bunch of it to family and friends. I filled my Jeep with goodies, drove through a snow storm, jumped on a ferry and I ate and I ate all Thanksgiving weekend.


And now I must stop eating for a few weeks to gear up for the Christmas Holiday. But I won't stop creating. Maybe I'll feed the bears. I don't know, but here's a great recipe for Cashew Brittle that I cooked up last week and mailed to my friends in San Diego and gave to my friend Tracy here in Chelan. Me? I want to keep my teeth, so I only tasted a tiny bit. They said it was great so I believe them You should too!
More recipes from the past few weeks to come later. That way I don't have to eat.


Chelan Cashew Brittle

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup butter
  • 3 cups cashews
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil; blend in butter. Begin to stir frequently when syrup reaches the thread stage, about 230°. When temperature is 280°, or soft-crack stage, add cashews. Stir constantly until hard-crack stage, 300°, is reached. Remove from heat and quickly stir in baking soda. Mix well. Pour onto two buttered baking sheets or jelly roll-size baking pans. As the candy cools, stretch it out thinner by lifting and pulling at edges with forks. Loosen from the pans as soon as possible and turn over. Break hardened candy up and store in an airtight container.
Makes about 2 pounds of cashew brittle.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Fancy Meet Football

Lord knows I love my fancy Frenchie sit-down dinners. 

Nothing makes me happier than slow-roasting a leg of lamb and filling the house with the scent of Herb de Provence. My heart skips a beat when I torch the tops of little pots of creme brulee and welcome my guests at two in the afternoon and bid them farewell at noon the next day.
And then there are Sunday football get-to-gethers. Sigh.
I will admit to hardly ever paying attention to the game, I still can't remember what The Husband's position in high school football was (but he WAS the captain) and hosting a houseful of yelling and screaming fans was once a challenge. But when I realized these sports-nuts had to eat, I was instantly a fan.


Last week we were invited to the next  big town over, (I love writing that!) Wenatchee- to some friends house to watch the San Diego Charger game. The Friends are originally from San Diego and one played football with The Husband. Small world, right?


I wondered what I should make. I could have made an entire meal- because I get a little excited- but I calmed down and made these tasty little football sliders. They were a tad cold, but no one seemed to mind. We brought a few leftovers home, heated them up and had them again...while watching Monday Night Football of course.

"The best way to die is to sit under a tree, eats lots of bologna and salami, drink a case of beer and blow up." — Art Donovan, former defensive tackle, Baltimore Colts

San Diego Recharger Sliders

Adapted from Ree Drumond

  • 4 Tablespoons Butter
  • 1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
  • 8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Chopped Finely
  • ½ cups White Or Red Wine (optional)
  • 4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
  • Kosher Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 3 pounds Ground Beef
  • 4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 4 slices Swiss Cheese, Cut Into Four Squares
  • 8 whole Dinner (or Slider) Rolls, Split

Preparation Instructions


Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onions and cook over medium heat for five minutes, stirring frequently. Add mushrooms and toss around, then add wine (if using), Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Cook for several minutes over medium heat, or until all liquid has evaporated. Transfer mushroom mixture to a separate bowl, scraping all contents from the skillet.

Mix ground beef, heavy cream, Worcestershire, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly mix ingredients. Form 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the meat mixture into patties, making an indentation with your thumb to keep the patties from plumping too much when they cook. In the same skillet as the one used to cook the mushrooms, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium to medium-high heat. Add four patties at a time, indented side face up. Cook for 4 minutes, then flip. Spoon generous portion of mushroom mixture on each patty, then top with one or two squares of Swiss, depending on your preference. Place lid on skillet and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until burgers are cooked through and cheese is melted. Remove to a place and keep warm while you repeat with the rest of the meat mixture.


Toast halved buns under the oven broiler. Spread generously with a mayo-ketchup type sauce such as  Kraft Chipolte Mayo and cheer on the Chargers!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Mmmmmm, Beerganoff!

For the past three days I have been home.


I have not gone shopping, or to the bank or even been in the car. The only other person I have spoken to is The Husband. I feel very Amish. Or slightly stir-crazy. Not sure which is worse.
I should be working on the novel, but the cloud over the lake seems to be inside my head as well and the words get all jumbled. Kind of like I am drunk. But I'm not. At least...I don't think I am.

Trying to figure out dinner last night I remembered a cooking segment The Husband was watching on the Today Show. Or Regis or the View. I can't keep his shows straight.

Anyhoo, I remember bits and pieces of the recipe, but the one thing I remember was beer. Beer, which is the one thing I won't drink. Seriously, it's the only item from the alcohol family that I turn my nose up at. But not the husband. Or the Children, for that matter. So I started tossing stuff out of the fridge and into the Dutch oven, mixed it with beer and came up with....Beerganoff! Have a cold one and serve this over noodles and think of me...drinking wine.

 "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel." Homer Simpson

Beerganoff
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

 
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 8 ounces (1/2 cup) pepper bacon, cut up- or turkey bacon if you must.
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons dried allspice
  • 2 teaspoons dried thyme
  • 2 1/2 pounds boneless beef shank, in approx. 2 inch cubes
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cups beef broth (canned, carton or cube is fine)
  • 4 teaspoons grainy mustard
  • 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 2 cups English dark ale or if you only have PBR like I did, go for it.
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt
  • Good grinding pepper

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Get out a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven and, on the stove over a medium to high heat, melt 1 tablespoon fat, or warm 1 tablespoon oil. Add the bacon pieces and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until they are crispy.


Add the chopped onion, stirring well so that they're mixed into the bits of bacon, and turn down the heat to low and cook — stirring every now and again — for 10 minutes, by which time the onions will have softened.
Stir in the allspice and thyme and then tumble in the cubed beef shank and, for ease, with a pair of spatulas or suchlike, toss and turn the meat in the pan.
Shake in the flour and stir to mix as best you can.
Pour the broth into a large pitcher and stir in the mustard and sugar and then add the beer before pouring this over the stew in the pan.

Stir to mix, then let come to a boil, add the bay leaves and salt and a good grinding of pepper, then clamp on the lid and stagger to the oven with the heavy pan.
Cook gently for 3 hours. The house will smell delicious and you will wonder why the hell you never thought of making Beerganoff before. Serve over noodles to experience the whole Beerganoff effect. If you want, let cool, uncovered, before covering and refrigerating, then heat and serve the next day to bring happiness to your kitchen and stomach.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Wanted: Comfort Food, Desperately Needed.

Yesterday I was wandering around the house avoiding the 47 football games that were blasting from the TV when the Husband stopped me and asked me to come and watch the horse race. Sure, the girl horse who had never lost was racing her very last race- cool. I'll watch. But she lost. Oh well. Now what shall I do? But then I look over at the Husband and see that he has tears in his eyes. Actual tears because the horse lost. A race. Oh Brother. (Note: he has also been known to cry at Yankee Stadium and all Meg Ryan movies.)

That's when I knew I needed to make him something extra delicious for dinner. Some comfort food to, you know, comfort him. To get over a horse race. That he didn't even have money on.

So I whipped up some crunchy-juicy, oven-baked fried chicken and the bestest smooshed potatoes in the world. No really, they are THE BEST. Try them and tell me they're not.

So- first I fried up some bacon and zapped 4 red potatoes for 8 minutes in the microwave. You can boil them too if you have all the time in the world to spend. Then I chopped up green onions and dug out some of those fried onion ring-things in a can.






Then I smooshed the potatoes with a masher- but I did NOT mash, just smooshed, and added half a cube of soft butter and enough sour cream to make them, well, as MOIST as you want them. Add lots and lots of salt and pepper, toss in the onion ring things and zap it all until it's nice and hot and top with more onion things. So delicious...so...comforting.
Happy to say the Husband got over the horse race. Until he reads the sports page this morning.
OH GET OVER IT!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Here I am!

Before you post a really cute photo of me on a telephone pole offering a huge reward for finding me- I thought I would finally write another post. I have tons of excuses; World Series, election B.S., work..I thought I would just move on and quickly post something I made last week. "Chicken Little Pot Pie" I have no idea why I call it that...better than...orgasmic pie. Because it was that good! So here are some photos of said dinner pie. I will post the recipe later today because if I don't get in the car and got to town I will not have anything to eat tonight.* As if. I just want to go shopping!

Chicken Little Pot Pie (no actual pot was used to make this pie.)

AND



AND....YUM!


Chicken Little Pot Pie


1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb.) broiler-fryer OR 4 chicken breasts- your call
1 onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, cut into pieces 1 tsp. dried whole basil
1 tsp. dried whole thyme
1 tsp. dried whole rosemary leaves, crushed (if you don't have any of these, just toss in the herbs you DO have.)
1 tsp. salt
1 bay leaf
1 c. finely chopped celery-
1 c. finely chopped onion
1 c. finely chopped carrots
1 or 2 chopped potatoes
1/3 c. butter, melted
1/2 cup or so of white wine OR, if you are pregnant or don't drink, use chicken broth:)
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. half and half
1 cube of cream cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper


Combine first 8 ingredients in a Dutch oven. Cover with water or white wine and bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour or until tender. Remove chicken from broth; strain broth, reserving 1 1/2 cups. Cool chicken, remove from bone, chop.
Saute celery, onion, carrot and potato in butter until crisp-tender. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add reserved broth, cream cheese, wine and half and half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt, pepper and the chopped chicken.
Line greased pie-plate with bottom crust. Pour chicken mixture into crust and place second crust atop. Pinch edges of crusts together to seal and cut a few slits into top crust.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until top crust in golden brown. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and serve.