Foodmomiac

Revisiting an old favorite: Leftover Pot Roast Bolognese

I've now made this dish (and blogged it) twice; in 2005 and in 2006. And tonight I made it again, using leftover Brisket from our Sunday night Hanukkah dinner. I almost skipped it and wasted all of the leftovers. I didn't leave work until 6pm, which meant I didn't get home until 6:30 or so (after a stop at Walgreen's for Hanukkah candles, because we somehow ran out). But... I persevered. And wonder nanny Sammy gave the kids appetizers, so they weren't completely insane with hunger.

Each time I make this dish, I riff on it more and more. Tonight, I didn't use any wine or stock. I used a can of tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes. AND, I used sour cream instead of heavy cream, because that's what I had in the house. If you use sour cream as well, remember to temper it a bit so that it doesn't curdle and get all clumpy. To do that, spoon out some of the hot liquid into a small bowl. Add the sour cream and mix it well. Then, add that mixture to the pan.

Tonight we had the sauce over egg noodles instead of spaghetti. (the picture above is from 2006)

Easy and Impressive Broiled Chicken

Last week, I got home relatively late from work, but decided that I still needed to make a home cooked meal. We had a ton of groceries in the fridge, and I think everyone is getting sick of delivered food in this household. One of the food items in my fridge was a whole chicken, cut up, so I pulled out Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" and started searching for the easiest option.

Broiled chicken it was! I preheated the broiler, brushed a large casserole dish (you can use a broiling pan) with olive oil and placed the chicken in it in one layer. I then mixed together about 1/2 cup of dijon mustard (I used a combination of coarse grain and regular) and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. The chicken was salted and peppered and placed under the broiler for a minute or two, until it started to sizzle a bit. I then brushed the chicken with some of the mustard mixture and put it BACK under the broiler. In a couple of minutes, I pulled it out, flipped it, basted it again with the mustard and put it back. I repeated this process (broil, pull out, flip, baste) about 3-4 times until the chicken reached a temperature of about 165 degrees and was nice and crispy. Served with leftover cheesy potatoes and a salad, this was a simple and elegant meal that everyone enjoyed and that took just minutes to prepare. Awesome!

Merry Hanukkah

Friday afternoon was a bit disastrous for me. It's a really long and boring story, but the key takeaway is that at 4:30 pm I found out that none of the kids' Hanukkah presents had shipped. And Hanukkah started at about 4:30, with both kids fully expecting a bounty of eight presents (one per night). Michael had left work early, and I had already promised to pick up his dry cleaning (I KNOW - I'm wife of the year, I tell you), so I ended up walking to Border's with my laptop, my purse, and the dry cleaning.

I then schlepped through Border's in my winter coat, with my laptop, my purse and the dry cleaning, grabbing up appropriate presents like a madwoman. After almost falling down the escalator, I managed to check out and then I headed outside to try to find a cab. Hahhhaaaaaaaaa. Yeah. There were no cabs in the middle of downtown Chicago at rush hour. I had little choice at that point, so I headed to the el. If you are keeping track, at this point I was wearing my winter coat, with my laptop, my purse, the dry cleaning and now two giant bags of presents. I was also sweating profusely and I think, maybe, crying.

Did I mention that the el doesn't go right to my neighborhood? Oh no. That would be too easy. I have to take the el to the bus. And then walk two blocks over icy sidewalks. By the time I walked in the door, I was a wreck, but managed to run upstairs and wrap the presents.

We lit the menorah, each kid got a gift (very well received), and then we started decorating the Christmas tree. It was a festive night in the Wiley household. For dinner, we didn't do latkes (those were eaten last night). We sent out our amazing nanny Sammy for wings. Yep, buffalo wings, Christmas carols and menorah lighting. A festive night for all.

Running, running, running

What have I been up to lately? I can't even figure it out. I have certainly been running, which is surprisingly amazing. I am still going strong in my training for the New Orleans half marathon in February. My long runs are up to 5 miles, and I feel really great. I get up for my weekday runs without much grumbling (even though they are on a treadmill, and MAN does that suck), and my weekend runs are a blast. I'm sure as the weather gets colder, and colder, and colder, I'll be singing a different tune, but for now I'm feeling great about it all.

Work is also feeling a bit like a marathon these days. So much to do, and it just keeps ramping up and up and up.

Apologies for not posting more, but I need to figure out how to fit it all in.

Plated

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Turkey barbecued

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Plugging away

Cranberry sauce and potatoes.

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Prepping the stuffing!

Yesterday my father-in-law broke up some white bread for the stuffing. You can see that in the background. It's now perfectly stale. This morning, Megen and I made cornbread with stone ground corn from he farmers market. That was also get torn up (or crumbled) for the stuffing. Off to get my brother and his girlfriend from the airport. Stay tuned!!

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And the cooking has officially begun

My house official smells amazing. I love, love, love the brine that we use for our turkey every year, and one of the reasons I love it is the aroma it generates. Boil 6 quarts of water, 2 quartered onions, one cup of fresh, chopped ginger, 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar, 1 cup coarse salt, 4 bay leaves (this year I found fresh ones at my local market - OMG what a difference!!!), 4 star anise, 12 crushed black peppercorns. Once it boils and the sugar and salt have dissolved, let it cool completely and then brine the turkey in it overnight. The recipe is from an old Bon Appetit and I'm incredibly loyal to it.

A quick brining tip: I never have room in my fridge, so I use a cooler. I put the turkey and the brine in a turkey oven bag (you could also use a giant ziploc), and then put the whole thing into the cooler and out on my cold porch. If you leave in a warm climate, add some ice to the cooler.

Tomorrow, the turkey will go on the grill. I'll share pics!

Non-Negotiable Thanksgiving Dishes #2 and #3: The Cranberry Contingent

Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce, right? In traditional foodmomiac fashion, we take that one step further by making TWO types of cranberry sauce. I love, love, love both. Below are the two recipes (which I've posted before but re-posted here for your convenience).

Cranberry Horseradish Relish

This is from the 1994 Thanksgiving Bon Appetit. It is one of our favorites. The tangy flavor provides an excellent foil to the rich turkey. My sister-in-law is vegetarian, but she eats this with EVERYTHING. She especially loves it with the creamed corn.

2 cups cranberries (about 8 ounces)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Chop berries with sugar in a food processor. Place it into a bowl. Add horseradish and lemon juice, and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and chill it for at least 1 day. (Can be made up to
5 days ahead). You are correct in reading that the cranberries are raw in this recipe. If this relish doesn't sit for at least 24 hours, it will be too crunchy.

Cook's Illustrated Cranberry Sauce
Every Thanksgiving, my mom made homemade cranberry sauce. And, while some of the berries were sweet and delicious, there are always plenty that were almost too tart to bear. After I found this recipe by Cook's Illustrated in 1999, the too-tart berry became a thing of the past. The secret? Salt!! The salt brings out the sweetness from EVERY cranberry, yielding the perfect cranberry sauce.

3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 12oz.bag of cranberries, picked through

Bring water, sugar and salt to a boil in a medium pot over high heat. Stir occasionally to insure that the sugar dissolves and doesn't burn. Once dissolved, stir in cranberries and return the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens. You want about 2/3 of the berries to pop open. (CI says this takes about five minutes. I ALWAYS cook it longer, because I like a thicker sauce.) Pour the sauce into a bowl (not metal) and chill. This can be prepared up to seven days in advance. CI recommends serving it at room temperature, but I like it nice and cold.