Category: Chef Lane

Chef Lane, Food, Home Ec

Bounty! Nom Nom Nom!

the outside lane

I told y’all I would be picking up an order from the Bountiful Baskets produce co-op.  I got my first order today, and though I had been expecting a lot from the rave reviews my friends were giving me, I was still very pleasantly surprised by the actual amount and the condition of the food I received.  How to prepare some of the produce is a mystery to me, but the group website offers a blog with tips and ideas for how to get the most out of your basket.  And I discovered, from the Facebook page, that those weren’t plums after all, but delicious, delicious, delicious, juicy, ripe black velvet apricots.

My entire Bountiful Baskets haul. This includes the regular basket (all the fruit and produce you see loose), a hefty baggie of really good granola, an Italian veggie pack, and 5 loaves of sourdough bread.

Here’s what I got, and what I paid for it:

Handling Fee:  $1.50

Total Price:  $45.00

Item Name: Conventional Basket
Description: Roughly 50% fruit, 50% vegetables, and 100% healthy, fun and delicious!
Item Name: Veggie Lovers Pack – Italian Theme – Add extra veggies to your basket! Making dinnertime fun!
Description: Veggie Lovers Pack – Italian Theme – Add extra veggies to your basket! Making dinnertime fun! Italian Pack – Hoping for garlic, basil, oregano, rosemary, yellow and red onion, flat parsley, zucchini, regular mushrooms and eggplant.
This is the Italian Veggie pack I added to my basket order. For $15, I got fresh and pungent baggies of basil, oregano, and rosemary, a huge bunch of cilantro, mushrooms, a medium sized eggplant, a huge red onion, a large yellow onion, and a medium sized clove of garlic, and two zucchini.
Item Name: Sourdough Bread – 5 loaves – $10
Description: Ingredients: Unbleached Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, Rye Flour, water, starter, salt
One of the 5 loaves of sourdough I bought with my Bountiful Baskets order (the rest is in the freezer.) I tried some toasted and slathered with KerryGold butter. I had to stop myself from trying more.
Item Name: Bountiful Baskets Granola – 2lbs – Oats, Honey, canola oil, roasted & salted cashews, dates, diced pineapple,  sunflower seeds,
Description: Ingredients – Oats, Honey, canola oil, roasted & salted cashews, dates, diced pineapple, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, sliced almonds, and almond & vanilla flavor.
As far as I am concerned, this was a great deal.  I can’t get out of the grocery store for those prices.  Well worth the cost!  I think Thor will enjoy shucking the corn with me.  I haven’t done that since I was a child, and I’m not sure he’s ever seen corn in its natural state.
Check into the co-op and see if they have one in your area.  They are across the country and have a lot of locations!
Chef Lane

What’s Cookin’: Tofu Tacos

the outside lane

Tofu Tacos were what was for dinner tonight.  They were nice enough that B ate all of his!  Thor was with Grandma, and so was spared the indignity of being served faux meat.

Some prep tips:

1.  Julie Anne Rhodes taught me that the way to prep your tofu for any kind of crumbles is to freeze, then thaw overnight.  The ice crystals breaking down does something to the texture that makes it easier to work with.

2.  You’ll be working with hot peppers, so if you are at all like me (forgetful and itchy), wear gloves.  You’ll be less inclined to rub your eyes with latex on your fingers.

3.  To warm your soft tortillas, put 4 at a time in the microwave for 15 seconds, then flip them and nuke for 15 more seconds.

4.  To get the goody out of an avocado, slice it longways, all the way around, then twist the halves until they just slide apart.  You can slide a spoon between the skin and the meat, and work it around the edges to pull the meat out whole.  Do the same thing with the pit–just work around it with a spoon until it pops out.  I learned this watching the guys at Dino’s Subs.

 

You will need 1lb of extra firm tofu (prepped as above), 2tbs of brown sugar, 2tbs of Gourmet Garden Mexican spice (or your preferred taco seasoning), 1/2 each jalapeno, poblano, red pepper (seeded), 1 small sweet onion, salt to taste, 2 Tbs of sunflower oil, 1 avocado thinly sliced, and shredded cheese and sour cream to taste.
Slice and seed your peppers. Watch your fingers! Just the skin of a jalapeno can transfer oils that will make your eyes water for days if you rub it in them. Save your produce bags for little trash bags to use as you go. You won’t want to put the pepper stuff in your garbage disposal.
I used a nutmeg grater to grate down the jalapeno. I just used half of the pepper. If you want it hotter, use the whole thing.
I use my “as seen on tv” slicer doohickey to slice my poblano and red peppers, and my onion.
Saute your peppers and onions in 1Tbs of sunflower oil. Onions should be transparent and peppers tender.
While your veggies saute, work on your tofu.  It is going to be soaking wet. Wring it out like a sponge until it is pretty dry. Then, use your fingers to crumble it into bits until it is the texture of taco meat. I was talking and crumbling and crumbled this a little too much and got a cornmeal texture.
Add your brown sugar, Mexican seasoning, and grated jalapeno to the tofu, then mix, mix, mix.
Veggies come out of the skillet, and tofu mixture goes in with its own 1Tbs of oil. Use scissors to chop up the peppers and onions into confetti.
Brown your tofu.
Warm your tortillas. Slap on a little sour cream, add a couple of slices of avocado, spoon in your “taco meat”, spoon on your peppers and onions, sprinkle on a little cheese and fold.
Serve hot with a side salad and some chips. This recipe made 6 totally stuffed soft tacos with enough left over for…
Part of tomorrow’s salad. I sliced the remaining poblano and red peppers, and mixed those with the sauteed peppers and tofu. I added about 2 tsp of Balsamic Vinegar and put it in the fridge to let the flavors marinate. Tomorrow, I will serve this over greens with tortilla chip crumbles.

 

 

Chef Lane

What’s Cookin’: Poblano Chicken in Sour Cream Sauce

the outside lane

What you need: 3 large chicken breasts, 2Tbs of flour and 1/2 Tbs of paprika in a huge ziplock baggie, 2 poblano peppers, 1 small onion, 3 Tbs butter, salt & pepper, 1 cup chicken stock or 2 bouillon cubes cooked in 1.5 cups of water.

 

I do NOT touch raw meat, so I always have gloves when I am cutting up my chicken. I use kitchen scissors to cut it into small cubes.

 

Once it is cubed, salt and pepper over your chicken, then drop it all into the ziploc of flour and paprika. Shake it! Shake it more! Shake it like the rent is due!

Save your baggie when you dump out your chicken.  You can use it as a garbage baggie for the chicken scraps you cut away (I cut away all tendons and anything that looks like gristle–I won’t eat that!) and for your onion skins.  Zip it up and you can throw it in the trash can without worrying about the odor.

 

Use 1/2Tbs of butter to saute your finely chopped onions and peppers. Cook until the onions are transparent. I also threw in some garlic because it sounded like a good idea. When the veggies are cooked, remove them from the skillet. I used scissors to chop them down even further.

 

You’ll use 2.5 Tbs of butter to brown your chicken in, over a medium heat. I cooked mine about 5 minutes on each side. Then, I separated out chicken for Thor, in 1/2 cup of chicken bouillon. He hates peppers, and I didn’t want to overwhelm him with the spice. I added the peppers/onions/garlic back to the main skillet, and the remaining bouillon. I cooked this down on low until the bouillon was nearly gone, then I added 1/2 cup of sour cream to the big skillet, and a couple of Tbs to the little one. Mix mix mix. While this was cooking, I cooked some angel hair pasta.

 

I used the remaining butter for the pasta, then separated it into dishes. The chicken was lovely! Tender and juicy, with just enough flavor. The sauce had a great zing, but wasn’t too hot. Thor liked his well, and really liked his sauce. I had to stop him from licking it off every piece of chicken.
This served the three of us, and gave me 2 servings of leftovers.

 

BONUS!

For lunch today, I sliced onions and poblanos, and layered them on tortillas with cheddar cheese. I sat these under the broiler until the cheese was nice and bubbly, and served with Ranch style dressing. Mmmmm.
Chef Lane

Ups and Downs

the outside lane

I was in a training class on the 27th floor of our downtown location today.  Close to the end of our session, there was a loud bang, the floor started shaking, and black smoke started billowing past the window.  There was some concern.  I called B to see if he could Google and find out if my building was falling down.  Fortunately, it was not.  It was simply a matter of a food truck having caught fire down below.  That didn’t explain why the floor was shaking, or the loud banging we were hearing, but as long as the building itself wasn’t on fire, or falling down I was happy.

View from the 27th Floor.

 

While we were regrouping, I opened my email to find this:

Greetings ABC Cooking Show Applicant!  Thank you for submitting your pre-registration online for the exciting first season of  the new ABC  Cooking  Show.  We thank you for your interest and are excited to move you forward in the casting process. 

EEEeeeEEEeeeEEE!

Listen, I’m excited to have made it THAT far.  That’s pretty nifty.  Even if it goes no further, I’ll always know that my answers to their questions were intriguing enough that they found me somewhat interesting.  Yay!

So wish me luck and send me your favorite recipes, because if I do land this thing, I’ll need a cache.

Chef Lane, Family, Home Interiors/Exteriors

Stewing and Swaying in the Summer Heat

the outside lane

Today, I expanded my cooking oeuvre to include one of mutt tagine of lamb.  Mutt because I used the instructions from a Moroccan recipe, with the base of an Irish recipe, and the ingredients of an entirely other Greek meat dish.  I thought it was really good, and am looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

I cubed a pound of lamb and browned that in well salted olive oil, onions, and a Tbs of garlic paste, then added a cup of stock I made boiling the lamb bone and the fat I had trimmed down, and 1.5 cups of chicken stock.  I added 4 carrots sliced into 1/4 inch rounds, an eggplant halved and sliced, and a half pound of asparagus, chopped into 1 inch bits.  Into that I added 1/2 Tbs each of Allspice, Coriander, and 1 Tbs of brown sugar, and salted and white peppered to taste.  I let that cook on medium, covered, for 45 minutes.

While that was cooking, I shredded 2 small potatoes and fried them over olive oil with garlic and herbs, then broiled them.

I served the tagine over rice, with a helping of potatoes and a dollop of sour cream.  Tasty!

**********

At the grocery store, this morning, I found a great deal on a hammock–and on a hammock that doesn’t tip and tilt as much as usual.  This one hangs from two anchors on either end, rather than just one in the middle.  That also means it doesn’t rock as much as most hammocks, so I won’t get seasick lying in it.

B had been skeptical about having one, but after seeing how happy Thor was in it, he decided to have a go himself.

While I was cooking, Thor was napping in my bed, and B was whiling away the afternoon in my new hammock. The nice thing about being the photographer in the family is that no one took pictures of me while I wallowed in it!

By the time I got to try it out, it was really time for me to start getting ready for my father and his wife to arrive, so I just lived vicariously through the boys.

My dad arrived bearing gifts–lovely gifts that he had received as birthday presents from his lovely wife over the years.  Several mint condition cars that Thor dove into like a pile of marshmallows.  He loves wheels.

Peepaw and Thor, and the passing down of collector cars from one generation to another. It was fitting that Thor had chosen his Mustang tshirt for the day.

Tomorrow is another Monday, and we’ll hit the ground running as usual.  At least I’ll be running toward a great lunch.  Then, I need to go to the hardware store for something, but I can’t remember what.  I’m sure it will come to me at 3 in the morning.