Never Mess...

...with a good thing. Seriously. Think about it. Who messes with bacon and eggs? I mean it might be quail eggs poached in the essence of bacon with laser-cut salt and pepper foam... but it's still bacon and eggs. And while I didn't think too much out of the box (or really at all) it's because when the soul is craving comfort and the throat is craving a soothing touch you don't give them snobbery and sous vide you give them that oddball American classic, the mixed up not-quite-sure-where-its-from...


Lentil Sausage Soup!

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flake
• 1/4 tsp dill weed
• 1lb sage sausage
• 1/2 cup green lentils
• 1 medium roma tomato
• 2 tbsp whole grain or spicy brown mustard
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 16-24oz beef broth or stock
• S&P to taste

Well, nothing too difficult about this first part. Heat a medium/large pot over medium-high heat with the olive oil in it. Dice the onion and when the oil starts to shimmer throw that in.

And now look! I made a garlic mincing (sort of) tutorial!

 Seee the pretty garlic clove. Looove the pretty garlic clove...

NOW RUTHLESSLY SMASH IT TO BITS.

And then calmly, as if nothing happened, chop it gently.

Add this to the gently sauteeing onion until fragrant, about a minute. Next I'll have you add the pound of sausage. This is what I used. Fancy as all get-out!

Continue cooking this on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes or until crispy and browned. In the meanwhiles you can dice this lovely lady a la this.

Set her aside and add all of these puppies.

Nextish I'll have you go ahead an pour those lentils in. Just crisp 'em up until they start jumpin' in the pan a little. Then make a hole in the middle and pour in that little red tomato.

In rapid succession add in the mustard, ketchup, red wine vinegar and broth. Cover quick as lightning and simmer for roughly an hour. At the end of the hour test for lentil tenderness and salt and pepper content (will most likely need both.) Serve with crackers or thinly sliced French bread. Soothe your throat and your soul. Mmm...

Much love,

Tirienne

Aaaaand We're Back!

At least I would like to think we're back. Most likely it will be another five months until I post something. I feel like I can finally post something because Greta can sit up and entertain herself. While alternately yelling at me to pick her up but you know. Priorities. The other reason I'm posting is because it's winter and this soup just sounded delicious and warm. Okay I'm lying. It's mostly because I got suckered into buying tomatoes at Costco. Four pounds of tomatoes for five bucks! What a good deal! Wow! But now I have four pounds of tomatoes for two people to eat. Hence the soup.


Tirienne's Tomato Bisque

3 lbs fresh tomatoes
1 large onion
1-2 cloves garlic
.75 oz package of rosemary
handful of fresh basil
1/2 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chicken broth
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half (sub one can of coconut milk for DF)

Special Equipment: Dutch oven or non-nonstick pot, blender.

Getting down to business. This was supposed to be the "gather your ingredients" photo but I forgot like four things. Oh well. It gives you a general idea.



The reason I had you use a dutch oven (or non-nonstick pot) is because you're going to heat it up to a pretty high heat with nothing in it.  But fiiirst!

Peel your garlic and chop your onion and tomatoes like this. Don't worry about the tomato cores, they will cook down just fine.



Heat your pan up blazin' hot (like almost to high) and first throw in your onions to char, yes I mean literally char them for about thirty seconds before adding the tomatoes and garlic. Okay, now if you're uncomfortable with high heats you can go ahead and turn that down a few notches while the tomatoes simmer.



Meanwhile I want you to strip down your rosemary and basil making a lovely pile like this.



Then chop it into a semi-fine mixture which will be easier to blend up in the end.



Next I'm going to go ahead and have you add S+P and the lovely and talented Cayenne to your pot.



Once your tomatoes look sufficiently like expired blobs of seed and skin go on ahead and throw everything thus far into a blender.



Blend until smooth. If you're having trouble getting it smooth you can add all or part of your chicken broth at this stage.

Next heat your pan back up to a medium low with the olive oil in it and scrape off all that browned charred goodness.



Pour everything back on in! If you haven't already added your chicken broth add that and a bay leaf. Put the cover on and let it simmer for a good half hour to hour.

Meanwhile you can clean the kitchen.



Or admire your baby.



Once its time to serve this, uncover your pot, remove bay leaf and stir in your heavy cream or half and half. Enjoy!

Not About Food

It has been two months and seven days since I first saw your face. But for some reason it was only this morning that I woke up and realized that I am your mama and what a privilege that is. You kicked your feet against the side of my leg and grinned as hard as your little face knows how. 

It was then that I realized- not because you're a good sleeper (currently at least, thanks baby girl!) or hardly ever fuss or grump or because you have awesome hair (though daddy might try to convince you that's why) or because you put yourself down for naps or because you're just so gosh darned cute- I realized that even if you were a terrible sleeper who fussed and grumped and had no hair and fought me to take naps and were not cute at all I would still love you with all of my being because you are Margaret, my baby, my daughter and nothing you do or don't do, are or aren't could ever change that. 

Twice Baked Goodness

It has been a sad, sad amount of time since I last posted a recipe on here. And, depending on when Baby Girl arrives, it will probably be a long, long time until I post again. Sadness. I guess we will just have to make the most of the time we have together. Which is why I am posting last night's dinner. It was so del-onk-sious that I don't even know. I mean seriously. Incredible. Jeff thanked me about five times for making it. It is this:

Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes

• 5 medium russet potatoes
• 1/2 lb bacon
• 1 stick butter
• 2 small or 1 large onion
• 1 broccoli crown
• 1 pint mushrooms
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder
• 1/3 cup sour cream (the real stuff, people. none of this low-fat/non-fat business.)
• 4 oz cheese (I used colby jack)

Preheat the oven to 350. Gently rinse your potatoes and stab each one about 6-8 times with a fork. It seems mean but really, nobody wants 'sploding potatoes. At least I don't. Who's gonna clean that oven? Next place the 1/2 lb of bacon (okay, let's be honest. I cooked a whole pound... half for now, half for later ;)) on a parchment lined sheet tray. As soon as the oven is pre-heated pop the potatoes in- right on the rack- and the bacon in on the second rack. Set one timer for 20 minutes, for the bacon and one timer for 60 minutes, for the potatoes. Or, you can be really fancy and do some "mafs" along the way and figure out how much time the potatoes will need after the bacon is done. Now why don't we say get our mise "en place" as they say?

Vegetables. Mince the onion, do a small dice for the mushrooms and shave the broccoli a la this:

Mmm. Broccoli, there is never enough broccoli. Did your timer go off yet? If it did, check your bacon. It probably isn't done so turn it around and set another 5-10 minute timer until it looks heavenly and perfectly rendered, a-like so.

When your bacon is done, set it aside to cool to non-finger burning temperature. Meanwhile melt that stick of butter...

When it's all melted, add the onions, broccoli and mushrooms. Saute them until the broccoli is tenda-crisp. Set aside. Now grab that bacon and make it into a small/medium chop depending on your preference. By this time your potatoes should be done. Pull them out! Preferably with an oven mitt as we would like to avoid the aforementioned finger burning temperatures. Lay them on the counter or other surface to cool.

While that goes on, add your veggies, spices, bacon and the sour cream to a large-ish mixing bowl and grate your cheese!

Gorge-liscious. Now, you can decide whether or not to add this to the mixture, I put it on the top for the last two minutes of baking. Mostly because my pregnant brain forgot to add it to the mixture. But it did end up looking pretty. :)

The potatoes should be cool now so cut them in half lengthwise and gently scoop out the insides, adding them to the bowl of veggies, spices etc. Lay the empty shells on a baking sheet. Now mash everything together!!

When that's done, load the shells back up with the mixture. They will be very full. Do not fear, this is part of what makes these awesome. 

Each shell should look like this. Pop these back in the oven for about 15 minutes or until they are getting a little golden on top. If you, like me, forgot to add the cheese to the mixture pull them out and add the cheese during the last 2-3 minutes of baking. 

Now the absolute best part about this is that it is your protein, vegetable and starch all in one neat little package. Buon appetito, cara mia! 

Much love,

Tirienne

P.S. Sorry for the blurry pictures! I'm still getting used to the lighting in our new kitchen.

Easter Creme Brulee

The thing I find interesting about this whole gluten-free trend is that increasingly I see recipes calling for things like xanthan gum, guar gum, locust bean flour and other oddities. To me this is kind of weird. Especially considering all of the desserts that are already gluten-free by nature like such as Jeff's favorite dessert, creme brulee! It was our first married Easter and it was rather quiet- just us and Jeff's parents. I missed the running and yelling of the small children who usually surround us at Easter but it was nice just to have a quiet afternoon to rest and reflect. Now, even though this recipe only has four ingredients I will admit you do need something special.

Now don't get freaked out! I will tell you step-by-step how to use the torch.

But first... 

Easter Creme Brulee*

1 quart heavy cream

1 vanilla bean**

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

sugar for brulee

Special Equipment- six brulee dishes (aka quiche dishes) and a propane torch.

Now what I want you to do is cut your vanilla bean in half scrape out the seeds and put it all in a medium saucepan along with the heavy cream. Over medium-high heat barely boil the cream then pull it off the burner. It should look like this.

You're going to let that cool off the burner for about 10 minutes. During that time, pre-heat your oven to 225 degrees and prepare your brulee dishes on a half sheet pan.

Except for maybe be more safe than me and put the whole thing on the table... 

Before you start the next stage, pull the bean out of your cream. You don't need it anymore!  The next step is to separate  your eggs. Once you have just your egg yolks, throw them in a mixer or a bowl large enough to accommodate all of the ingredients. Aww!! Aren't they cute!? Little egg yolkies. :)

 

Beat together the egg yolks and half cup of sugar on a high speed until it is thick and pale yellow. Now turn the mixer down to the slowest speed and gently pour the cream in a slow steady stream about the size of a pencil. If at any point the egg mixture is looking overwhelmed by the cream (cream is after all pretty overwhelming...all that fatty goodness) stop pouring for a minute until it is all incorporated.

I'm going to give you a good tip now. Actually I'm going to give you about five so listen up! 1. Pour the creme mixture into a large pitcher pourer  spouted thingy?? Depending on the size of yours- mine is only 4 cups and not big enough- you might have to do this in two stages but if you're lucky enough to have a six or an eight cup one it can easily be done. 2. Open your oven and make sure the rack is in the dead middle. 3. Pull out the rack and place the panned up brulee dishes on it. 4. Gently and carefully because, you know, ovens are hot or something, pour the creme mixture into each dish until it is just below the rim. A la this.

5. Now that your creme is all poured quickly rinse and fill with hot water that spouted pourer pitcher thingy and oh-so-carefully fill your pan about half way up. So, so carefully, not spilling any water or precious goodness slide your rack into place and close up the oven. Whew. Okay that was intense but we got through it. *wipes away forehead sweat* Set a timer for 30 minutes and clean up ze kitchen! Cause we made a mess, didn't we. Once the timer goes off gently wiggle the edge of the pan (with a hot mitt! please don't burn yourself!) and see how wiggly they are. Good! If they need more water add more water. Now turn up the oven to 300 degrees and set another timer for 10 minutes. At the end of ten minutes they should be good, mostly still jiggly looking but set around the edges. Pull the pan out of the oven with utmost care and let them fully cool. 

These can be stored wrapped in the fridge for days and they will be fine but they should chill at least 3-4 hours before you brulee them. Magically, that time has already passed for me! Let the fun commence!! 

See the beautiful creme? In all its bean-flecked glory!?! 

Mm. Perfection. I want you to sugar it all the way to the edges, not missing any spot. This should be a tablespoon or more of sugar.

Repeat on as many are you are going to consume imminently. (Please know it is NOT a good idea to do the brulee ahead of time. Sugar is hydroscopic which is Latin for "melts away and leaves a sad, sugary goo instead of a beautiful caramelized crust." I'm pretty sure anyway. My Latin's not that great.) 

Okay, breathe in and out. It is time to use ze propane. Firmly attach the torch nozzle to the bottle, making sure that the knob is fully closed. Now open the knob slightly (you should hear a hissing) and light it. Once it is lit, open the knob further until you have a nice, blue flame like this.

Oh! See my oven mitt? You're going to need one, too. Keeping the torch directed away from yourself and anything flammable apply the first third of the flame to the sugar moving in circular motions. It should start to make little sugar beads.

Work your way from the edges in toward the center. Make sure you don't get too close because burnt sugar is well... burnt and doesn't taste yummy at all. 

Husband got confused and thought the picture was supposed to be of me instead of the food. Hah. :) Keep going! The sugar should start to caramelize at this point.

This is about done in my opinion. A purist would say this isn't caramelized enough but I'm not a purist and mostly just like crunchy sugar. Anyway. MOST IMPORTANT. Do NOT attempt to touch any part of this with your bare hands for several minutes. Use a mitt to move it out of the way and ESPECIALLY do not try to touch the sugar on top or else you're going to end up in the ER with sugar burns. Not fun. Move on to the next one if you're doing more than one. After about five minutes, garnish with berries or other fruits or nothing and enjoy. 

Much love, 

Tirienne

* These proportions are shamelessly stolen from Alton Brown's creme brulee recipe. However, I did not use his baking method because it failed me the first time I tried because the eggs coagulated. So I lowered the oven temp and tried again. It came out as close to perfect as I could manage. :)

**For the vanilla bean, I used beans that had been soaking to make vanilla extract. I doubled the amount, using about two beans and really liked the flavor. 

Smoked Chorizo Jumble with Skillet Homefries

I admit it, I love breakfast for dinner. Especially savory breakfast. There's just something comforting about it, something that reminds me of childhood... ahh nostalgia. However, I honestly can't ever remember having a dish like this growing up. In fact I'm pretty sure I just made this up. Whatever. It was scrumptious!

Skillet Homefries

• 5 medium or 4 large russet potatoes
• 1/4 cup bacon grease (or butter)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Smoked Chorizo Jumble

• 1 small onion
• 3-4 crimini mushrooms
• 4-5 mini sweet peppers
• 14-16 oz smoked chorizo links
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• salt and pepper to taste

First things first, let's cut up the potatoes! Potatoes are on my list of five super foods (bacon, butter, onions, potatoes, eggs!) Cut them up into a medium dice. I would like to point out that I eat organic. I don't wash the dirt off my potatoes before using them.

Well, unless they're really dirty. Then I say forget that organic business I'm washin' these puppies.

Next take a large skillet and heat up the bacon grease between medium and medium-high until it smells fragrant and feels hot when you hold your hand over (not in, over) the pan. Now is the time to throw those potay-tays in. 

The last of my bacon grease. I guess we'll be cooking more bacon tomorrow.

So now comes the fun chopping part!! I lovelovelove chopping things. I also love folding laundry. I find something satisfying about putting things in order, does that make me weird? Aaanyway. Get out all of the ingredients you need to chop, like so.

Now you're going to have some residue from the potatoes on your knife and board so I'll tell you a trick. Rinse your knife and just flip your board over! Saves time, energy and water cause you're going to wipe down your counter after this anyway, right? 

QUICK! Stir those potatoes up a bit. At this point add your garlic powder, salt and pepper. If it looks like they aren't cooking or are cooking too fast, adjust the heat as needed. Remember to keep stirring them occasionally. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees so you can keep them hot while you make the jumble.

Back to the jumble. Chop in order, onions small dice, mushrooms medium dice and sweet peppers lazy-woman's julienne.

Oh so pretty! Now I want you to quarter the links of chorizo lengthwise and cut them into half inch pieces. The finished product. And by the way, I have no qualms about this meat-to-vegetable ratio.

Your potatoes should be getting along nicely at this point. Throw them on to a half or quarter sheet pan to keep them warm in the oven. Don't cover them because that will cause condensation to form and it'll just be kinda gross.

Using the same skillet used for the potatoes (yes! the unwashed pan!) saute on medium heat the chorizo and onion- notice how I kept it separate in the photo? Yep. This is the reason. While that is all sauteing up nicely, whisk together the three eggs and milk.

If your onions are translucent at this point and the sausage is sizzling nicely, add the mushrooms and peppers. Cook for 4-6 minutes or until the peppers are soft. Gently pour in the egg mixture, stir and let it cook until the eggs are all firm. Salt and pepper to taste and serve with hot sauce(s!?) ketchup, mayo, whatever.

Aaaand a close up!

Enjoy. :)

Much love,

Tirienne