Jane's Addiction

Lemony Asparagus Quinoa Salad

2011-05-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

So I'm a bad blogger. Life gets hectic - and the last thing I have time for is cooking - thus nothing to post about. But today I whipped up something! We're heading to the country with some friends for the weekend. Low-key chill people who don't require a ton of energy - my idea of a mini-vacation. We're all splitting the food - Q and I are in charge of dinner tonight while they are handling breakfast and lunch tomorrow. We're bringing a mixed greens salad with dried cherries and goat cheese. Plus chicken thighs which have been brining all day that we'll grill - and smother with homemade BBQ sauce.

Additionally, we're bringing lemony asparagus quinoa salad. You know how sometimes you make things because you have them in your fridge/cupboard - and other times you make a mad dash to the store to assemble something respectible? Well, this is one of the former recipes. I had picked up some asparagus last weekend at Costco thinking I'd make a dinner of asparagus, chicken and cashew stir-fry (which sadly has not materialized). So I had asparagus and quinoa in the cupboard plus the always on-hand lemons.

This salad is perfect for spring - and is light, crisp and fresh tasting!

Lemony Asparagus Quinoa Salad

1 lb asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup quinoa
Water, according to your package (I've found that different brands have conflicting ratios)
Juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup of olive oil
3/4 cup snipped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced

Cook quinoa according to instructions. Bring a pan of water to boil - and toss in the asparagus. Cook for about 2 minutes. Drain and run cold water over asparagus to stop additional cooking. Toss the asparagus and quinoa together.

Meanwhile, whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, garlic and salt & pepper together and pour over quinoa/asparagus mixture.

This would be fine to serve room-temperature!

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

2011-02-20T12:10:00.000-06:00

I've always loved pudding. I don't know if it was those Bill Cosby commercials, but pudding has always been a favorite of mine. I like the traditional flavors best - chocolate and vanilla. But you could throw in butterscotch or pistachio, and I would gobble it up too! My all time favorite is tapioca. I don't know what those little kernels really are, but I will eat the hell out of some tapioca!

My sister and her family are gluten-free. It makes dessert time a little of a challenge, but I try. She does a wonderful job of finding really good gluten-free recipes for cakes and cookies - I leave that to her. But traditional-style desserts are more my specialty so I scour the cookbooks for any recipe that doesn't use flour. So far, we've done a flourless chocolate cake with strawberry coulis and creme brulee. Tonight, we go with homemade chocolate pudding.

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

2/3 cups sugar
3 1/2 tbsps cornstarch
3 tbsps cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk
2 tbsps unsalted butter (optional, but ideal for the 2% milk to add more richness)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken up into small pieces
2 1/2 tsps vanilla

In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt until blended. Add about 3/4 cup of the milk and stir until incorporated. Slowly add the remaining milk and butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring. Constantly stirring, bring to a boil until the mixture bubbles and thickens slightly. Immediately remove from heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted, no streaks remain and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla.

Strain through a medium-fine sieve into individual pudding dishes. (I prefer to strain in a serving bowl and then ladle into individual dishes - slightly less mess). Press plastic wrap directly into pudding to prevent it from developing a skin.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream!

Healthy Eating vs. Ordering Quick, Easy Pizza

2011-02-14T11:46:00.000-06:00

So the hubs and I are trying to eat healthy. Thus the turkey meatloaf, etc. Last night was a challenge for both of us. I had planned a grilled chicken Banh Mi, but in my haste to meet my mother for a pedicure, I forgot to marinate the chicken (for 3 hours) and pickle the veggies (at least 30 minutes). Come dinner time, we were presented with a challenge: be good and use the thawed chicken breasts in another way OR order a pizza! After much hemming and hawing, we opted for Chicken with Tarragon and White Wine...well really, it was called Chicken with Tarragon and Vermouth, but the husband had finished off the vermouth in his last Manhattan. And I had purchased brussel sprouts at the grocery this weekend as well - and the rest of the weeks' menus did not leave room for the brussel sprouts.

Sadly, we were both expected it to fail so we could order that pizza, but it was fine. Not great, not horrible, but edible...mostly.

Tonight - Casablanca at the Belcourt which will easily make up for any lackluster dinner or bad day.

Happy Birthday Lauralita!

2011-02-12T16:08:00.001-06:00

Tonight, we are celebrating my friend Laura's birthday! On the menu is a modified cassoulet and a chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Cassoulet is traditionally made with sausage, pork and duck or goose. Duck and goose are a little hard to come by so I use chicken thighs, smoked turkey sausage and pork. My cassoulet comes from Cook's Country and uses a crock-pot for an easy one dish meal.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis

Crust
3 tbsps. butter
1 generous cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter. Stir in vanilla. Add crumbs and mix well. Press into a generously greased 9.5-10 inch springform pan. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes - until set and fragrant. Once cool, arrange raspberries on top of the crust.

Filling
5 blocks cream cheese, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
8 eggs
4 ounces chocolate - bittersweet or semi-sweet or a combo
1 tsp vanilla
2 pints fresh raspberries

Place sugar and cream cheese into a mixer. Mix on med-low/med for 4-5 minutes - scrapping sides often. Meanwhile, break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a glass bowl. Heat a small amount of water in a saucepan - be sure that when the glass bowl is placed on the saucepan, the bowl doesn't touch the water. Bring the water to a bowl, reduce head to a simmer and place bowl of chocolate on top. Stir chocolate frequently until almost melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir vigorously until completely melted. Allow to cool. Add cooled chocolate to cream cheese mixture and incorporate. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one. Add the vanilla and pour over the raspberry lined crust.

Be sure to wrap the springform pan in aluminum foil. Place 1-inch of water in a large roasting pan, and place the springform inside.

Bake for 15 minutes at 325, then reduce the temperature to 300 and bake for 1 hour, 20 minutes or until the center barely jiggles when softly shaken. Place cheesecake on a cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes and then run a thin-edged knife slowly around the edges to release the cheesecake from the sides of the pan. Allow to cool until room temperature. Chill in the fridge for several hours before eating.

Coulis
1 bag frozen raspberries
1/4 cup raspberry liquer or wine
3 tbsps cointreau
1/2 tsp corn starch
Sugar to taste

Place the frozen raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, cointreau and raspberry wine in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and strain.

To serve, slice cheesecake and drizzle with coulis! Happy Birthday!

Meatloaf and Roasted Cauliflower

2011-02-12T15:32:00.002-06:00

We had a freak snowstorm yesterday. People were stuck in traffic for hours. I left work a little early to try and beat some of the insanity - that and I drive a lightweight pickup truck which SUCKS in any kind of snowy/icy weather. I made it to my husband's work with a little slipping and sliding on the interstate. He weighed down the bed of his truck, and we headed home. We slipped and slid up hills, down hills, into cars, etc. Needless to say, my nerves were shot by the time we arrived.

This morning, we headed into his work to see how the roads were. I opted to not go much further than that and spent the rest of the day at home. Tonight seemed like a good night for comfort food. So we had some local ground pork and ground turkey thawed which means tonight we are having turkey/pork meatloaf and roasted cauliflower.

If you've never tried roasted cauliflower, I highly recommend it. Simple, easy, healthy and delicious!

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower
Olive Oil
Kosher/Sea Salt
Pepper

Cut the cauliflower into 1-inch or so pieces. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Pop into the oven at 425 for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Yum!

Northerner or Southerner?

2010-03-18T18:50:00.001-05:00

I have this debate with people all the time - am I a Northerner or a Southerner? When people ask me where I'm from, I say Wisconsin. Of course, I moved from there when I was 8 to podunk Alabama. Then a few years later, we moved to Nashville, TN, and I've been here on and off since the mid-80's. Many consider the place in which you go to high school as the place in which you're from...I don't.

Don't get me wrong - I like the South. I like Nashville, the seasons, the people....and the FOOD! I mean - cold fried chicken, meat & three (where macaroni and cheese is a vegetable!), BBQ, hot chicken.... and the list goes on. On the other hand, there are quite a few Southern dishes that I've never been able to wrap my fork around - any kind of greens, grits, boiled peanuts...

But the North has great food also. I love me a Friday night fish fry - complete with potato pancakes. I've even been known to schedule my trip home to coincide with Friday fish fry. Oh and frozen custard!! It's the most wonderful of all frozen dairy desserts... creamy, rich, soft. On a trip to Iowa in a blizzard, I nearly wrecked my truck twice because I wanted a butter burger and frozen custard. I keep a map of Culver's locations in my truck for road trips. And of course, cheese. Cheese is wonderful - I can't get enough.

Bratwurst is easily my favorite food from the North. When we first moved South, my grandmother would come down for a visit and stash some brats in a cooler for us. At the time, we couldn't get them in the grocery store. Today, not only can we get them at our local Kroger, but I have been lucky enough to find them at our local farmer's market. Let me tell you - fresh, homemade brats are AMAZING!

Brats are on the menu tonight - along with another staple for the northern cookout - baked beans. I don't know what it is about brats and baked beans, but I have to have them together. I've been meaning to learn the art of making baked beans from scratch, but haven't made the effort, so we work with canned beans - I doctor them, of course.

Baked Beans - The Easy Way
1 can Bush's baked beans - original flavor
1 tbsp. ketchup (I eyeball this)
2 tsps. yellow mustard (again, we're eyeballing)
1 tbsp. brown sugar (plus a little extra if you like it sweet)

Simmer.

Brats should only be cooked over an open flame. Boiled brats = rubbery nastiness. I want them char-grilled. They should have a "crunch" to them when you bite into one. If you want to boil them in beer and onions before you pop them onto the charcoal grill, that's not always a bad idea either. Don't use the fancy beer...PBR, Milwaukee's Best, etc., will do the job just fine. I'm partial to sauerkraut, ketchup and homemade pickles. Many a Yankee would argue that ketchup is wrong, but it's the way I've always had them - and probably always will.

I guess I'm a SoNotherner at heart!

Tuesday Night Soup Club

2010-03-10T08:19:00.001-06:00

Every Tuesday night, we have Soup Club. No, it's not like Fight Club...but we do have simple rules. If you come to soup night twice, you must host. So far, in 1 year of doing soup night every Tuesday, we have not had a repeat soup. So every week, whoever is hosting, scours their recipes for something fresh and new. We try to stay in season, if possible.

This week was my turn. I had completely forgotten about soup night until Monday afternoon. I was a flurry of internet searches for recipes... You'd be amazed at the number of boring and blah soup recipes there are in the world. I had previously had my eye on a corn chowder, but someone had done a rendition of that just 2 weeks earlier. Oh - the stress of coming up with just the right soup to wow our members.

I decided on Escarole and Orzo Soup with Turkey Parmesan Meatballs (courtesy of Epicurious). Of course, I modified it to my liking and doubled it to feed the 6 of us (and to include leftovers for Meghan who had to work and for the fiancee's lunch). I hit the Kroger on the way home to grab a few things that we didn't have on hand...one being Escarole. And let me tell you - what a pathetic excuse for escarole! I had my pick of varying degrees of wiltedness... I grabbed the one that would yield me the 8 cups of decent escarole and chugged on.

The recipe called for making turkey meatballs, chilling them and then dropping them directly into the soup to cook. I; however, thought the picture of said balls looked quite unappealing floating in the soup with nothing to cover them so I opted to quickly pan fry the little suckers first. I truly believe it made a world of difference in the flavor! The only other modification to the recipe I made was to throw in - eh - about a cup of white wine to the broth. We have a ton of random bottles that people leave at parties in the fridge, and I'm not much of a white wine drinker, plus I think it adds a little richness to soups/stews/chilis/sauces.

There were rave reviews - and one person even said, how perfect it fit with the season and weather. I highly recommend this soup - with the modifications. Try it tonight for dinner. It was simple and easy to make!

Escarole and Orzo Soup with Turkey Parmesan Meatballs

If desired, grate a little extra Parmesan cheese for passing; a sprinkling over the soup will echo the flavor in the meatballs.
Yield: Makes 4 main-course servings

1 large egg
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
12 ounces lean ground turkey
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
8 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
1 cup chopped peeled carrots
3/4 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
4 cups coarsely chopped escarole (about 1/2 medium head)

Whisk egg and 2 tablespoons water in medium bowl to blend. Mix in breadcrumbs; let stand 5 minutes. Add turkey, Parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper; gently stir to blend. Using wet hands, shape turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on baking sheet; cover and chill 30 minutes.

Bring 8 cups chicken broth to boil in large pot. Add carrots and orzo; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered 8 minutes. Add turkey meatballs and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in chopped escarole and simmer until turkey meatballs, orzo, and escarole are tender, about 5 minutes longer. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls and serve.

Keg-A-Que

2010-03-08T20:16:00.000-06:00

I don't just have a grill, I have a Keg-A-Que. My friend won it at some event we were at years ago, and at the time, she didn't have a place to keep it (she was living in an apartment) so she let me hang onto it for her. One weekend, we spent the day assembling it. It's a charcoal grill made from a keg that was split in two. The thing is HUGE! It's great for parties since you can cook a ton of food at one time. It makes me very happy - and I don't know what I'll do when it disinegrates. We use it all the time - winter, summer - the season doesn't matter.

Which leads me to grilled pizza. We've had a brutal winter...for us. And the last few days have started to look a lot like spring so we grill. Tonight, we made grilled pizzas. I say we, but really it was the fiancee. He's the dough master. He whipped up a basic pizza dough recipe, and we pulled together some toppings. Then threw them on the Keg-A-Que...

- local sausage, roasted cauliflower, roasted red peppers, carmelized onions, garlic, parmesean cheese

- black beans, tomatoes, carmelized onions, jalapenos, queso cheese, colby jack cheese

They were AMAZING! Highly recommended :)

The Devil's in the Cake

2010-03-08T20:03:00.000-06:00

I should tell you that I bake for money sometimes. And sometimes, I sell things I've never tried before, but knowing which of my cookbooks churn out amazing desserts because they just do is a big help. I have a few regular clients. One usually needs something for a team meeting every 2 weeks or so. The last request was something chocolate. As odd as this sounds, I'm not a chocolate fiend. I will usually pass up chocolate - unless it's dark chocolate. Then I'm all over it.

I offered up a few suggestions - chocolate cheesecake, chocolate bundt cake, triple layer devil's food cake... And she opted for the devil's food cake. I turned to my trusty dessert cookbook (the one that NEVER fails me!) and found a great recipe. So I gathered up all the ingredients and hustled to it. Topped it with Rich and Creamy Chocolate Fudge Frosting!

(Sorry for the picture of a picture, but I didn't have time to snap a shot before delivery time)

This cake smelled divine! I've now made it twice and got rave reviews. And I still haven't tried it!

Recipe from Nancy Baggett's The All-American Dessert Book.

Company Lunch Catering

2010-02-25T11:56:00.001-06:00

I don't like the term "foodie." I like to think that everyone is a foodie - it's just that some palates are more refined than others. Take, for example, the company that I'm currently doing some contract work for in Franklin. Today is a company-wide meeting and since I'm not a true employee, I cover the phones. The one perk - I get to eat before everyone else - and it's on the company. The bad news - the food is painfully awful!

I don't say that to be mean or snobbish, but it's extremely medicore food. The only redeeming item on the menu was the salad. The rest of the meal was rice, some sort of chicken casserole, bread and 2 choices of soup. Let's break each of these items down, shall we?

1) Salad: I'll give it credit. It was mixed field greens instead of the usual iceburg chunks, with a variety of veggies (cucumbers, red and orange peppers, red onions, cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm) and spiced pecans. But I get two choices of dressing: ranch and italian. Now I'm not asking for 10 choices of dressing, but you can't tell me the only thing Americans will eat on their salads are Ranch and Italian. What about a vinaigrette instead of italian? Or a creamy caesar instead of ranch? Neither of these suggestions are that far out in left field, but they are somewhat more creative. Me? I'd rather have a Citrus vinaigrette or maybe a Green Goddess dressing.

2) Rice: Um, yeah, I'm not sure what that was. I think it was Rice Pilaf, but it was all the same color...an odd off-white shade. Oh wait, there were sunflower seeds in it, which added a slightly darker shade of off-white. Oh and there were onions, which added a slightly opaque shade of off-white. It had no flavor AT ALL!

3) Casseroles: Let's get down to the meat and potatoes! Two options here - with or without artichokes. So we get shredded chicken from a can, swiming in a bland curry sauce topped with cheese and buttered bread crumbs. It doesn't sound so bad does it? You just had to be there. I mean shredded chicken from a can? Really?

4) Soups: Loaded Baked Potato and some sort of pureed something florentine. It was the most non-descript tasting soup I had every eaten...

There's a part of me that wants to fault the catering company. But then I realize, it can't all be their fault. I mean, does anyone complain about this food? No, when the entire company comes streaming out of the elevators after their lunch, they are all raving about the food! I can't fathom it. It might be that I work in a homogeneous part of town, which means everyone's individuality is not properly working.

But on the other hand, if the catering company pushed the envelope just a little every once and a while, would the palates out here be a little more excited by something other than Ranch and Italian?

In the end, I guess I shouldn't complain. It was free, right?

The Redemption of the Crock Pot

2010-02-23T18:59:00.000-06:00

I wish I had taken pictures last night, but I didn't really think I would actually do this, so I didn't. But in the future, you'll see some pictures with posts of the yummy-goodness I/we create.

Let me tell you a little history of me and crock pots. I've had minimal success with them. Things just never seem quite right when I cook with the ol' crock pot. Take for instance the pot roast that turned out more like a football - literally in size and texture. A complete waste of a roast. I know it's not hard to do, but for some reason, it just failed. Ever since that, I've been weary of putting precious roasts into the contraption and hoping for the best when I came home 8 hours later.

Well, yesterday was different. My fiancee did some bartering with a local pig farmer for some beer, and we scored a small pig. Which means we have TONS of pork in our fridge. We'd grown a little tired of sausage so I pulled out the shoulder roast on Sunday night thinking I would try to make something new with it. I searched around my cookbooks and food sites, but everything required long cooking times which I did not have. That's when I came across a blog that did crock pot pork shoulder tacos! Perfect! I had just bought cilantro and corn tortillas at the grocery during my weekly trek. Except that it was done in a crock pot. I put aside my fear and plowed onward.

That night I chopped up the veggies, put them in the crock pot and poured the stock in. I stowed the pot in the fridge and went to bed hoping this would be a success - even if it was mediocre. Really, I just hoped it would be edible by the time I got home. Monday morning meant patting the meat down with rub (I have a basic formula I follow: paprika, cumin, kosher salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme and a dash of chili powder) and followed that with a generous roll in flour. Off to the hot cast iron skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil to sear the shoulder well before placing it in the crock pot to meet it's fate. Since the shoulder was on the smaller side, I turned it to low and left for work hoping for the best.

When the fiancee got home (before me), he texted that the house smelled Amazing! Was it a success? I rushed home to the same smell. Could it be? I had conquered the crock pot? The true test - pulling a piece of pork off the shoulder. It was a success!! Halleleujah!

Next step - shred the pork and strain the juice. I put the juice in a saucepan - added some additional BBQ rub seasoning and reduced it by about 1/2. Threw in the meat and heated through. Assemble the tacos - queso cheese, pork, cilantro, shredded spinach and voila! Absolute heaven!

I have mastered the crock pot - and will live to slow cook another day.

Finally, I know what my addiction is...

2010-02-23T18:38:00.000-06:00

FOOD!

If you've been a regular (and by regular, I mean 3 years ago), then you'll notice a big difference in the content here.

If you're new, then welcome! Enjoy and get ready to salivate...