Traveling…

Posted on by

4

Good Morning Sweet Friends,

Recently we ventured far from our beloved Texas Hill Country for a coastal adventure…

Here are some pictures from a recent trip we took to Northern California.  It was so peaceful…and amazingly quite deserted!  It felt more like being lost in the mystique of a quaint village along the craggy coast of the Celtic Sea…“Bain sult as!”

I love this picture!…Father & son together collecting treasures.

Where might this enchanted path lead?

To this hidden treasure…

The fog rolling in.

Love,
Mary

Eat2Gather “Meals 4 Sharing” Friday & The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Posted on by

0

If you don’t know Sheila yet, you’re going to love her when you get to know her.  She is a delightful woman with a passion for loving others through the gift of food.  Every Friday on her blog Eat2Gather she invites everyone – whether blogger or reader – to share a favorite recipe, meal, or food that’s a favorite to share with others. It can be simple or complicated, long-winded or just a few words.  It’s up to you.  But most important, is that it shows how you love others through the gift of food.

Today, I would like to share one of my favorite dishes to make…

Chicken Cacciatore

This was a staple growing up in my home.  Today, it is my frequent go-to dish for family Sunday dinners as well as a dish to share with friends when they are in need of a home-cooked meal to be delivered to their front door.

Cacciatore, in Italian, means “Hunter” with alla cacciatore meaning “Hunter-style” and originated among Italians in central Italy starting around the mid-1400′s.  Cooks needed to create a dish that could make good use of what the hunter brought home…often a rabbit instead of a chicken…that could be slow-cooked to tenderize a possible tough piece of meat.  Today, most cacciatores are made using chicken pieces braised on medium low heat in a mixture of vegetable, tomatoes, and their juices.

This is quick to make – the bulk of the cooking time is left to the stove top – and it will feed an army…or a family with lots of hungry kids!  It also re-heats well, making for great leftovers.  So let’s get started…

One caveat…as those of you who know me well, I am very much an intuitive or improvisational cook and not one to provide detailed recipes…but I’ll do my best here… :-)

But it’s also my hope, that my sweet friends and dear readers, will not feel the pressure of having to follow a very exacting recipe but instead will venture forth to experiment, knowing that it’s OK to substitute this or that, to use what is in season or on sale at the market…and most important…to understand that nothing is set in stone. What matters is to enjoy the process – “the means” – not just the end. (And I’m confident that in your capable hands…”the end” – your final dish…the one that you have created – will come out delicious!)

First, I like to start with a whole chicken that I cut up myself.  But you can really use any parts of the chicken and you can buy them all ready cut up.  What I do recommend is that you use cuts of chicken that are on the bone.  The bone imparts, not only nutrition, but also flavor.  And besides, if you use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, the meat will be dry.  (Not to mention that they are usually rather expensive.)

Once you have your chicken pieces ready, salt and pepper each piece, then dredge them in flour (I like Wondra flour for this purpose because it has a fine texture).   Brown each piece in some olive oil and butter – maybe about 2 tablespoons of each – in a large Dutch oven (about 7 quart size or so) on medium heat.  Don’t worry too much about how much oil and butter you use.  This is not an exact science.  Or, as Emeril Lagasse  would say…”This is not rocket science!”  ;-)

This platter belonged to my Grandmother Luigia – who also used it to dredge her Chicken Cacciatore!

It’s more important to develop a love of cooking and receive enjoyment from the process rather than to focus on being perfect or exact.  When cooking with love, the whole process of preparing meals for yourself, your family, or friends becomes fun and enjoyable…even – dare I say – relaxing.

When I worked as an attorney, I couldn’t wait to get home and roast a chicken.  The process was so therapeutic for me.  Even today, I wholeheartedly believe that cooking lowers my blood pressure!  And it’s true even when things are crazy in our home…and I have to get dinner on the table fast before my husband and son go to forage in the pantry.  ;-)   I zone in on the rhythm of the whole food prep process which keeps me calm – even with a hundred interruptions.

Over time, with a little practice, most home cooked  meals will turn out just fine.  The secret to preparing a tasty meal is more about having confidence in yourself and learning about what you, your family, and your friends like to eat, than being a whiz in the kitchen.  And – excuse me for sounding corny (but it’s true) – when everything is prepared with love, it really does make a difference.  Your love can’t help but shine through.

Getting back to the chicken (oh my, how I digress!)…try not to crowd your chicken pieces as you’re browning them.  They won’t brown if things get crowded because the chicken pieces will start releasing all their juices which don’t have time to evaporate.  But don’t worry if this happens.  Just take out a piece or two, allow the excess liquid to evaporate, then add them back in when the existing pieces have been browned and removed.

Once browned (but not cooked through), place each piece on to a platter and set aside.

***
I have to share a little story here…I have a friend, who while raising four boys, had to come up with a clever way to disguise food that might be a little burnt.  Not unpalatable, but maybe just a little darker than what would be considered cooked or browned.  This way, her sons would eat what she cooked and nothing would go to waste.  Her expression for slightly overly browned food?…”All cowboyed-up.”  Her sons thought it sounded very rugged and ate every last bite.  I love it.  So, excuse my chicken wing.  It’s still palatable…just “all cowboyed-up.”
***

At this point, it can be a good time to deglaze the bottom of the Dutch oven with about 1 cup of chicken stock, white vermouth (or white wine), or just plain water.  Traditionally, cacciatores were often made with wine as the braising liquid.

Scrape up the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and let the liquid evaporate a bit.  Then add in 6 sweet bell peppers of mixed colors and three onions all rough chopped into about one inch pieces.  You can also add a bag of baby carrots and some mushrooms.  (I told you this can feed an army. ;-) )

Sprinkle everything with about 2 teaspoons of salt, a 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, a pinch of red pepper flakes and a tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning.  As an alternative, you could use fresh herbs instead of the Italian seasoning, but I find the dried herbs – albeit a bit retro – really do hold up better in slow cooked dishes.

Next, add 2 large cans – 28 ounces each – of chopped tomatoes, stir to mix-up everything. (If you only have whole canned tomatoes on hand – that’s fine.  Just break them up a bit with your hands before adding.)  Place the chicken pieces back into the Dutch oven – skin side up – on top of all the veggies.  Put on the lid, turn the stove-top to medium low, and let the whole thing simmer for about an hour to an hour and a half.

When it’s done (the chicken should be falling off the bone and the veggies should be tender but still with a bit of bite – not limp), remove the chicken and veggies and place them on top of a big bowl of spaghetti, cooked al dente.  Bring the liquid that is remaining in the Dutch oven to a boil and reduce by about half, taste to adjust seasonings (salt, pepper, etc.), then pour atop the chicken, veggies, and spaghetti.

I add a simple romaine salad and some garlic bread and the meal is all set to go…

Romain lettuce tossed with a simple olive oil and vinegar dressing

Garlic bread ready to go into the oven

This garlic bread is so easy to make and it’s absolutely delicious.  All you have to do is whirl up the ingredients in a food processor (or mix by hand) and then spread the luscious mixture on to thick slices of Italian bread that are placed on to a baking sheet, (I like to line it with aluminum foil for easy clean-up but you don’t have to.) and then popped into a 450 oven for about 5 minutes.  Everyone’s oven is slightly different, so just keep an eye on them.  When they look nice and toasty, their done.

All I do to make the garlic bread “spread” is take a stick of butter, 6 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, and about a handful of my favorite fresh herbs (you can use about a tablespoon of dried herbs in place of the fresh.) and whirl it all up in a food processor.

When the garlic bread is done…dinner is ready. :-)   Enjoy!

Before I leave you, I want to share one more thing about Sheila that you might not know…

If you’re a fan of Ree Drummond, otherwise known as The Pioneer Woman, you’ll love this…

The Pioneer Woman & Sheila from Eat2Gather.com

Sheila is cooking through the new Pioneer Woman’s cookbook titled: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier. And, in case you missed it, Sheila has already cooked her way through the Pioneer Woman’s first cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. All of which are chronicled on Sheila’s blog.

As someone who struggles to follow recipes, I can’t help but applaud Sheila (and stand a little bit in awe of her!) for this amazing effort.

Love,
Mary

A Weekend of Gardening & Potato Leek Soup

Posted on by

7

Potato Leek Soup in the making

Hi Sweet Friends,

This weekend I was able to get in a full two days of gardening!  It was such a delight, albeit I was stiff as a board come Monday. A certain somebody needs to start exercising…more on that another day.

By April, in central Texas, it’s starting to warm up quite a bit. It’s common for temperatures to be in the 80′s. And although the sun was strong this weekend, the humidity was low.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day to garden.  For the most part, all our spring plantings were put in earlier in the season, as I shared with you in these two earlier posts here and here. However, the garden needed so much weeding. So I figured I better get to it.

On Sunday, since I was tired and sore from so much work, I wanted to keep our dinner simple.  I made Potato Leek Soup topped with grated cheese and bacon.  Along side I served an arugula salad tossed with a sweet and sour dressing.  My husband looked at the arugula and inquired if they were yard clippings.  :-)   Truth be told…he wasn’t far off!

The dressing is quick to whisk together …

1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Honey
3 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

This is enough to coat about 4 cups of greens. (I share more thoughts on salad dressings here.)

In addition, I toasted some thick slices of bread in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes per side on the baking sheet I had used to “bake” the bacon.  Oh my!  That bread was out of this world.  I turned it over once during the baking process and sprinkled it with a bit of salt…not that there wasn’t already enough in the bacon grease!  We basically inhaled the bread.

Thick sliced Italian bread – Oven toasted in bacon grease…Oh My!

Well, truthfully, my husband and son inhaled it.  In keeping with my Light Weigh program, I had a human sized portion and then left a bite for my Guardian Angel! ;-)   I’ll share the details about all that in a future post.

The soup is easy to make and can be ready in no time.  I simply sautéed two large leeks (whites only – chopped) in two sticks of butter and about a tablespoon of salt until the leeks were soft.  Next, I tossed in three pounds of peeled potatoes (about 8 medium-sized) cut up into large cubes. Finally, I added in about 8 cups homemade chicken stock, brought everything up to a boil, put the lid on the pot, and turned the heat to medium low allowing it all to simmer for about 30 minutes or so (or until the potatoes were nice and tender).

Once the potatoes were tender, I turned off the heat and puréed  the whole thing with a stick blender.  At this point, I usually add in another 2 cups of chicken stock or water to thin the soup a bit (but you don’t have to if you like it really thick).  And that’s it.

Potato Leek Soup – Puréed and ready to be served-up topped with crumbled bacon and grated cheese

Next, I ladled it into large rimmed soup bowls, topped it with bacon and cheese…and served it up…with love. :-)

Enjoy!

Love,
Mary

1001 Cookbooks

Posted on by

6

I have a lot of cookbooks.  And by “a lot” I mean…well, at last count, I discovered I had over 1000!  I can’t help myself.  I love collecting them – many acquired at used bookstores over the course of more than 30+ years and many past on to me by my sweet mom.

Almost every night before  going to bed, my husband will be leafing through a magazine geared to the technically inclined, while my son will be perusing through the comics from the newspaper.  And me?  I’ll be studying the pictures in one of my many cookbooks making copious notes, onto whatever paper is at hand, about the delicious meals I will be preparing for dinner in the nights ahead.

One problem.  I rarely follow through.  I am so accustomed to my own repertoire of recipes – my personal comfort zone -  I rarely venture forth into the unknown…even if it is a “step-by-step” unknown. :-)

But when I discovered that my collection had busted the seams of our home (lately, I’m having trouble finding places to put my new acquisitions), I decided that something had to change.

Heidi Swanson over at the delightful blog 101 Cookbooks, and author of Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Every Day sums up my feelings beautifully…

When you own over 100 cookbooks, it is time to stop buying, and start cooking.

101 Cookbooks started in early 2003 when I looked up at my huge cookbook collection one afternoon and realized that instead of exploring the different books in my collection – I was cooking the same recipes over and over. I seemed to buy a new cookbook every time I stepped out the front door – always with good intentions. I would regularly go through my collection of books and magazines and carefully tag each recipe that piqued my interest. I ended up with shelves full of books brimming with Post-it notes and drawers full of recipes clipped from my favorite magazines – neatly organized by course, flavor, region, or ingredient.

I made a resolution (although it turns out that I wasn’t very good at keeping it). I would stop buying cookbooks, or at least scale back, and start trying new recipes. In the process I hoped to learn new techniques, explore unfamiliar ingredients, discover/keep track of new recipes, document my successes and failures, and hopefully inspire other cooks to do the same.

Heidi Swanson
101 Cookbooks

Heidi has inspired me. And although I suspect I will be like her and not completely keep my resolution…(I don’t think I could ever stop collecting cookbooks), I am going to resolve to buy less cookbooks and instead try more recipes in the cookbooks I already own.

Alas…this is going to be doubly hard for me.  Not only am I most comfortable with my own familiar recipes…I am also very much an intuitive cook  – or improvisational cook – and prefer NOT to follow a recipe.

But I am determined to try.

Oh, and in addition to my cookbooks, did I tell you I also have baskets full of newspaper and magazine recipe clippings?

Seems I’m not alone.  Luisa Weiss, over at The Wednesday Chef – another delightful blog -  and author of the soon to be released, My Berlin Kitchen, shares this…

I started this website in August 2005 to work through a mountain of recipe clippings from The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, but nigh on seven years later, that pile doesn’t seem to have gotten any smaller.

Luisa Weiss
The Wednesday Chef

I’ll be working through my clippings too…but no promises that the pile will grow smaller. ;-)

I’d love to hear if you are a cookbook and recipe clipping collector like me…and if so, do you cook from your books or just look at the pretty pictures (like someone else you know. ;-) )?

Love,
Mary

Tuscany in the Texas Hill Country

Posted on by

4

Trattoria Lisina – Tuscany in the Texas Hill Country
“Le selle la notte sono grandi e luminose nel cuone profodo del Texas.”*

Good Morning Sweet Friends,

I wanted to share with you today about a lovely restaurant  we have here in the Texas Hill Country … Trattoria Lisina.  My family and I recently celebrated my birthday here enjoying a delicious Sunday dinner in a most delightful setting.

Over the last ten years or so, many new restaurants and wineries  have popped all over the Hill Country and Trattoria Lisina and the adjacent Duchman Winery standout as real stars.

Costolette di Agnello alla Griglia
Texas grass fed lamb chops grilled over oak & pecan, with a reduced balsamic glaze, peperonata & Parmigiano garlic mashed potatoes.  Absolutely delicious!

My Handsome Husband

“Thank you for the wonderful birthday celebration, Honey!  I love you soooooooooo much!!”

A Birthday Kiss!

Our son, Ben, and his Granddad (TJ’s Dad) compare notes as they both enjoy Pollo al Mattone – Chicken cooked “under a brick” – marinated with extra virgin olive oil, rosemary & garlic, cooked in a wood burning oven, under a weight, served with roasted potatoes & a cucumber salad.  They both agree… “Yum!”

Ben with his Grandparents (My Folks)

My Beautiful (Italian) and Sweet Mom (she’s 87!…shhhh don’t tell anyone) along with my Dad…you’d never guess that dapper cowboy is a former New Yorker!

Grandma and Ben heading over a lovely little bridge that leads to the winery.  I love to see how sweetly Ben walks with his grandmother arm in arm.  Hard to believe he is already close to a head taller than her!

The Vineyard

If you have the chance to visit the Texas Hill Country someday…and I hope you will…be sure to put this restaurant on your list as a must visit.  You’ll be glad you did. :-)

Enjoy!

Love,
Mary
*And if you haven’t already guessed … “Le selle la notte sono grandi e luminose nel cuone profodo del Texas” translates…”The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas.” ;-)    This sweet verse from the famous song – extolling the beauty of the Texas night sky – is written on the placemats at Trattoria Lisina.

Chilly Nights Cozy Suppers – The Art of Braising

Posted on by

4

Chicken with Carrots, Celery & Cauliflower braised in a slow oven.

The miracle of braising lies in the fact that the process demands so little form the cook yet what actually occurs is quite complex and wonderful.

Molly Stevens
All About Braising

Good morning sweet friends,

On Saturday, here in the Hill Country, it was wet and cold so we spent the whole day inside.  I have no complaints.  On the contrary…it was delightful.  And since we are trying to dig our way out of a terrible drought here in central Texas, we all rejoice when it rains.  And boy did it rain.  And it was chilly too.

The winter weather here can be very unpredictable but one things is certain, rain or sun, January and February can bring chilly days and colder nights.  When the thermometer dips below 50 (I know you East coasters are howling with laughter right now…I used to be one of you!) it’s time for me to pull out the dutch oven and create a cozy supper.  So on Saturday, between the rain and a high temperature of about 47 degrees, my family was looking forward to a hot meal.

Creating suppers for chilly nights usually finds me braising meats or chicken.  I love the ease of braising.  Once filled, my dutch oven does the work sitting on the stove top or in the oven with no need for a babysitter.  I could use a crock-pot and have on occasion, but, if I know I’ll be home, I prefer the Dutch oven.  There’s just something about a Dutch oven that creates such luscious tenderness in the meat, which I never seem to quite catch hold of with a crock-pot. And when it’s cold outside, I love how the stove top or oven warms up the kitchen!

At its most basic, braising refers to tucking a few ingredients into a heavy pot with a bit of liquid, covering the pot tightly, and letting everything simmer peacefully until tender and intensely flavored.

Molly Stevens
All About Braising

Beef Shanks

To me, braising is a lot like making soup.  I peek into my freezer and see what meats I have on hand – maybe a bone-in chuck or rump roast, beef shanks, or a whole chicken – choose one, then let it defrost. Next, I fish through my vegetable bin to see what I may have forgotten about that needs to be cooked now. ;-)   And I often add in my usual suspects as well…carrots, celery, and onions just as a matter of course.

And, I’d like to add here that sometimes I’ll just braise vegetables if I don’t have time to defrost a cut of meat or a chicken.  Braising vegetables can turn usual and ordinary kitchen fair into something that is both sublime and hearty.

***

A slight digression here  ;-)

I tend to buy all my meat on the bone, or, in the case of chickens, whole chickens.  I have multiple reasons.  First, bone-in meats and whole chickens tend to cost less.  This is a good thing for me since I tend to buy grass-fed beef and pastured chickens which can be a little more costly to begin with. (As I have shared in the past, I can be a bit of a food fanatic!)

But the main reason I like my meats – bone-in – is because they are more flavorful and nutritious when cooked.  Dr. Catherine Shanahan, MD, in her book Deep Nutrition shares the following:

Cooking meat on the bone does two great things.

1) It enables the bone nutrients to infuse into the meat, imparting wonderful flavors.

2) Heat, water, and acid break down the collagen. When making bone stock (by boiling bones in water with an acid source, for instance tomato sauce) you fill the water with molecules called glycosaminoglycans. These molecules act as joint growth factors, keeping the collagen in your joints healthy and facilitating the repair of damaged joints.

***

Getting back to braising…

Next I sear my meat of choice in the dutch oven (usually in a little extra fat…I like bacon grease) till it’s nice and brown. Then I deglaze the bottom of the pot with a wine or other spirit of my choosing, throw in the veggies along with a bit of more liquid – maybe some water, broth, or stock – put the lid on, and turn the stove to low or pop the whole thing in a slow oven.

In about 3 hours, I have a delicious meal ready to be served up in bowls alongside some thick sliced bread for soppin’ up all the wonderful braising liquid which, in my humble opinion, is truly gold!

Simple vegetables braising in red wine and crushed tomatoes ready to be covered to simmer slowly on the stove top.

A cookbook I have enjoyed reading tremendously is titled All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking by Molly Stevens.

All About Braising by Molly Stevens

As I have shared in the past, I love simple and uncomplicated cooking – what I like to think of as intuitive or improvisational cooking – so the subtitle had me hooked.  I’d like to share the following passage from a section of this book  titled “Why I Cook”…

Knowing how to cook gives you the means to bring people together.

I’ve learned that the technique of braising produces food that draws people together like no other.  Sharing a meal from one pot, as you often do with a braise, creates a feeling of community that leads to sharing a congenial meal.  The warmth of the pot from the oven, the concentrated aromas of slow cooked meat (or poultry  or fish or vegetables), the tender textures, and the deep favors all contribute to set people at ease.  

Plus, the uncomplicated nature of braising is easy on the cook.  Once you master a few basic techniques, there’s little that can go wrong.  Everyone feels more at home than they would if you were to fuss with a fancy, individually plated meal.  It’s the kind of food that makes us remember the comfort of childhood, whether we ate braised food or not.

And that’s why I love braising! :-)

*** I’d love to hear your thoughts on braising food.***

Have a wonderful day…and if it’s chilly where you are, I hope you’ll get to enjoy a cozy supper tonight.

Love,
Mary