Wait, what the hell?

My cooktop/oven has inexplicably gone into Sabbath mode - WTH?
This is derailing my serious cooking plans for the weekend. I had my spinach and artichoke stuffed shells ready and the oven was heating to 350 degrees when it all went pear-shaped. Bugger. 
We have it off now - supposedly for 72 hours - is the Sabbath that long? Really?  Hopefully, all sanity will be returned, but until then I'll be going to the MotH's* mom's house to finish off my plans for weekend cooking - I mean, don't mess with a girl that wants to make America's Test Kitchen Butterscotch Cookies - please. 
If this is the best the oven can do, well, I'm not impressed. 
But I am annoyed. 
Perhaps mimosas at brunch at Jaco's tomorrow will help. 
Blah.

*Man of the House (see Quiet Man)

Wacky Cake

In cooking from 1945, it's hard for me to imagine going through rationing. My mom talked about it from time to time, but not much. Let's see, she would have been about eleven in 1945, so I'm certain it would have made an impact and her and the vast majority of her stories were about food rationing. 
So this week, at America's Test Kitchen, it's cook the 1940s. I suppose this is called Wacky Cake because it makes no real sense, unless you get the science. The combination of vinegar and baking soda at the last possible second is what gives the cake lift. With no eggs and/or butter, this is also vegan - first vegan thing I have made and it's from a recipe that from World War II - ironic, isn't it. 

So I made the cake one evening and planned a nice picture the next day, with good natural light and what do I find in the morning? What I should have expected. The Boy had gotten home from work late that night (or early the next day) and had helped himself. 

That said, this is a tasty cake. Chocolately, but not too much so. Since I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, that's a good thing. Wonder if there are other version as this makes a very quick cake to put together and could certainly do for a sweet tooth. 

Reuben Casserole

Reuben Casserole
1 1/2 cups thousand island dressing
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon minced onion
6 slices dark rye bread, cubed
6 slices light rye bread, cubed
1 pound sauerkraut, drained
1 1/2 pounds corn beef, cut into bite-size pieces
2 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1/4 cup margarine, melted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
In a bowl, mix the thousand island dressing, sour cream, and onion. Arrange the dark and light rye bread cubes in the bottom of the prepared baking dish, reserving about 1/2 cup each for topping. Layer the bread with sauerkraut and corned beef. Spread the dressing mixture
over the corned beef. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese, top with remaining bread cubes, and drizzle with margarine.
Cover, and bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Uncover, and continue baking 10 minutes, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Homemade 1000 Island Dressing

Bench Notes: I make my own 1000 Island dressing - an idea from, who, imagine that, America's Test Kitchen (join them now) from their reuben sandwich recipe - a mix of mayo, chili sauce and minced gerkins - it is unbelievable. I won't ever by 1000 again. This is so easy, it's almost stupid. 
If you like a reuben sandwich, you will love this and it reheats very well - lovely left over lunch.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Homemade Breakfast Sausage (America's Test Kitchen)
2 pounds ground pork
1 garlic clove
1 Tbs maple syrup
2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 Tbs unsalted butter, for cooking


Combine pork, garlic, syrup, sage, thyme, salt and pepper and cayenne in a large bowl. Gently mix with your hands until well combined. Form mixture into 2 1/2 inch patties, about 1/2 inch thick.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook half of patties until well browned and cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate and tent with foil. Wipe out skillet. Repeat wiht remaining butter and patties. Serve.

Raw sausage patties can be refrigerated, covered, for 1 day or frozen for up to 1 month. To cook frozen patties, proceed with step 2 cooking patties for 7 to 9 minutes per side.

Bench Notes: Added cracked fennel seed. If you have limited funds for kitchen ideas - you need to take them and subscribe to America's Test Kitchen online recipes - it's so worth the money. I'm not kidding. 

Baked Ziti - doesn't sound that interesting, but it is, if the recipe is from ATK.

Baked Ziti
Serves 8 to 10

Baked Ziti - damn good

America's Test Kitchen is great and joining up is easy - it's a sort of cult experience - you just keep joining, but in a good way. This recipe was wonderful! We saw this Baked Ziti on the TV show and I just had to make it. By the way - it's so much better the second day - no duh -- it's a pasta dish. America's Test Kitchen is an amazing resource!


Ingredients:
1 pound whole milk cottage cheese or 1 percent cottage cheese 
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)
Table salt
1 pound ziti or other short, tubular pasta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 5 teaspoons)
1 (28-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream - you could use milk, but why?
8 ounces low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese , cut into 1/4-inch pieces (about 8 oz)

Cottage Cheese Mixture

Instructions:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk cottage cheese, eggs, and 1 cup Parmesan together in medium bowl; set aside. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large Dutch oven over high heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain pasta and leave in colander (do not wash Dutch oven).
Meanwhile, heat oil and garlic in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until garlic is fragrant but not brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in ½ cup basil and sugar, then season with salt and pepper.

Cream Sauce w/Tomato Sauce

Stir cornstarch into heavy cream in small bowl; transfer mixture to now-empty Dutch oven set over medium heat. Bring to simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce, and ¾ cup mozzarella, then stir to combine. Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.
Transfer pasta mixture to 13- by 9-inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta. Sprinkle remaining ¾ cup mozzarella and remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan over top. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to cook until cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons basil and serve.

Comments: Lots of this recipe can be prepped ahead. I cubed the mozzarella, grated the parmesan and minced the garlic. I could also have cooked the pasta and made the sauce. It's also highly likely the entire dish could be made ahead and baked the next day.
I used dried basil since it's not the time of year for fresh and I didn't move any into the house from the garden last fall - it had all gone to seed. Unfortunate.
It's difficult for me to under cook pasta - it makes me nervous that it won't be fully cooked in the dish (shouldn't have worried - it was fine).
Next time I might just make a bechamel, need to research. Use cooking spray on the pan and the foil so the cheese won't stick. Used heavy cream, did not use milk. Next time, use petite diced tomatoes. House smells like garlic, but that is a good thing.

Perhaps not as pretty as ATK, but amazingly good!

Food Network (Humor)

Food Network Humor (if you've not checked this out and you watch Food Network -- you need to take a peek) listed their version of the five worst shows on Food Network. I have to say, I've not seen Cupcake War - really a war about cupcakes? Stupid. or the Neely's - no particular reason, just not seen it before. I have not seen Meat & Potatoes because that just sounds dumb. Shows like Outrageous Food never appeal to me. Intentional excess is just silly and kind of sad. I have seen Food Feuds and while I like Michael Symon - this is just another travel around and eat things show - with judgement involved.... kind of not nice in the end for the "loser" of the feud.
So this started me thinking. I've been watching Food Network a long time (years and years). What are my top five shows on Food Network?

#1 is so. very. simple.
Good Eats
AB rocks! I learn something every time I watch and I will watch episodes about things I can't even eat (seafood). The show if fast, funny, and very informative.This to be is clearly head and shoulders above anything else Food Network puts on. And has been for years. I still remember the first show I saw and I was instantly hooked. 1999 Season one Episode nine - A Bowl of Onion (Barbie and Ken were involved).


#2
Nigella (anything she does)
Nigella Lawson seems very comfortable cooking, baking, and talking at the same time. Her recipes are typically simple and quick and include pre-planning ideas which make it easy to come home from work and make dinner. She's calm and stable -- not running around all over the kitchen like some shows do.


#3
Jaime at Home
I know it's over, but those shows were good and again, I learned things and I liked the fact that he used his garden to source some of the food - cool.


#4
Well, now things are getting harder...maybe Iron Chef America (but only when they have real food people as judges and aren't dispatching live animals in front of me). I used to watch Giada at Home, but it was some much of the same over and over - and that annoy affectation of rolling into Italian every time an Italian work show up (spa get ti) -ugh. Secrets of a Restaurant Chef - Anne Burrell just got on my nerves - she's the anti-Nigella, Alex's Day Off - meh, but I do like her as a judge on ICA. Barefoot Contess has developed some annoying habits that started to get on my nerves ("really good" insert ingredient here, or "How easy is that" and the decorating the able (tablescapes anyone?) and her collection of gays (I don't care that they are gay, but don't they feel a little weird being used as props?)
I get the feeling that my cooking skills have somehow gone beyond some of the shows. Or maybe I've just gotten from them everything I need so far.


There are many shows I haven't watched because they just don't appeal to me (beyond those noted above).
Ace of Cakes - snore. I hear said snore is going to be canceled.
Anything Rachael Ray is in. She's so 2004.
Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee - tablescapes? Really tablescapes? Blech.
Private Chefs of Beverly Hills - sounds eerily like Real Housewifes of (insert city here)
5 Ingredient Fix - meh
Anything with Guy Fieri - the clothes  should explain it all. 
The Best Thing I Ever Ate - Really don't care to see you get all gushy over the best (insert here) you've ever eaten. Watch the grammar here people.
Aarti Party - I had to watch the first episode to see if it would be a train wreck. It was.
Anything with Paula Dean. Where did the real Paula go? Have the aliens abducted her and sent a creepy replacement. She's just not right.
Ten Dollar Dinners - I'm not sure I want that.


Cook's Country and America's Test Kitchen are more up my alley now. They are my go to group for tested, straight forward, though sometimes time-intensive recipes. (And when are they going to send my someone to wash all the dishes I dirty in the process of making their great food?) I know I say it every time I mention them - but do yourself a favor and sign up - they are sooooo worth it. 

Cook's Country Magazine April/May 2010

Received Cook's Country recently - can't wait for show to come back on, but it's the damn pledge week -


Either way - things that looked good -- and a couple that didn't.
Creamy Asparagus Soup - p. 11
Cat Head Biscuits - p. 12
  Cat Head - you've got some splaining to do...
Foolproof (?) Chicken Cordon Bleu - p. 15
  That's a pretty big claim there Cook's Country
Recipe Cards:
Quick Cheesesteak Subs
Cheesy Toasted Ravioli with pesto
Rustic Potato Leek Soup


Steak de Burgo - p. 19
Tomato Mac n Cheese - NEVER eeewww icky Hollywood Chili - in April? maybe up north, but not here
Lemon Chess Pie - p. 26 - lemons are always a good thing

Notes made - let's get cooking.

Baked Chicken w/ Parmesan / Garlic Crust

This is one of my favorite meals. It's easy, quick-ish and tastes outstanding. I've learned though to make it even quicker. This is one of those recipes that calls for things I use quite often so I look at my recipes for the week and find all the common denominators for them. So this weekend (Sunday) I minced a lot of garlic, grated a bunch of Parmesan and spun up some bread crumbs in the food pross monster. It's amazing to me how a little advanced prep saves so much time later in the week. I love to cook for my family - it's fun (most of the time) not a chore, but when you come home from work - already tired and not really up to doing much more it's great to have something mostly ready to go. I'm ready to make it again right now. 


Here's the recipe: Baked Chicken with Parmesan and Garlic Crust
If you can't access it - it's worth signing up - I'm not kidding. Just do it.


Comments from the Counter:

It only takes two slices of bread to make the breadcrumbs - don't use the cardboard they sell at the store - ugh.
I don't use the basil, but I do modify the mayo by adding either lemon juice or lemon juice and zest (depending on how ambitious I am)
Either thin cut chicken breasts or pound out regular ones to make them thin-ish.
Coat the 9 x 13" pan w/cooking spray to make sure nothing sticks.
Always check the temperature - 160 degrees minimum.
Very good leftover too.

How to decide what's for dinner

Gave stickies, purple no less, to MotH to mark recipes for things he would like me to make for dinner and there were fifty (50! no kidding, exactly fifty) in More Best Recipes (America's Test Kitchen). So I've done two and have on the list one more this weekend and so far (along w/the key lime bar recipe I made at Christmas - v.v.g.) they have been fairly straight forward, as always, easy to follow, and good. Too bad MotH marked so many recipes for pizza, but eventually I'll get him redirected.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken pg. 240
What worked: cruchy, cheesy, rather tasty

What didn't: it needed something - you know that something that makes you think - this was really worth the effort. The chives (or in my case finely minced scallions) didn't stick so there was none of that flavor. Perhaps they should be put in with the shredded parm? not sure.

What else: I made a pan sauce of white wine, lemon juice, veg broth and 3 T of butter. I may have done this because I'm used to my Chicken Francese with Lemon and Pecorino recipe inspired by David Rosengarten.

What now: I'll probably make again, if just to figure out where to put the chives in. But will certainly make a pan sauce with it.