Archives for December 2009

Finally A Pheasant to Cook!

December 30, 2009

And We’re Making Szechuan Pheasant with Cashews.

Dave has hunted and hunted to no avail. He gets all geared up, the dogs howling the whole time, gets in his car, drives up the driveway, and away from our 40 acres and resident Bachelor Rooster Clique (we don’t want to shoot our own pheasants), to public management areas that have been hunted every day for the past 2 months. No wonder he doesn’t get any. I am ashamed to say that I have not joined him this year yet. Just lazy.

Well, he finally hunted someone else’s (non-public) land and got a nice rooster. Buzz got to go along for what will likely be his last hunt, poor guy. But the happy news is that they brought home a bird. I commanded Dave to bone it (HA! Finally he had to do it instead of me.) so that I could quickly make our favorite go-to pheasant recipe. Szechuan Pheasant with Cashews.

Not sure what makes this szechuan… I think I just called it that one time and now that’s what it is known as forever. I adapted it from a mild recipe in the L.L. Bean Wild Game Cookbook and made it more Asian and spicy in nature. I’m no expert in Chinese provinces, however, and I have likely picked the wrong monicker. Oh well, there’s no changing the name now.

First, and most sadly for you, you must bone the pheasant. It is tedious — especially the legs. But don’t skip them, like I caught Dave trying to do! They are tasty. Just make sure you strip the tendons out. And save everything, as you will be making broth from the bones and scraps. As you bone the bird, cut into large bite size chunks. Rinse and put into a bowl and cover with milk and set aside until you have the broth made and are ready to brown the meat.

You will also want to serve this over rice. We like it on wild rice. White or brown would be fine, too, but pheasant seems to be made for wild rice. If you choose to go that route, start by soaking the rice for an hour, then rinse and put into a pot. Add enough cold water to cover the rice by an inch, add salt and bring to a boil, then cover and turn down to a simmer and cook until grains have opened up which takes about an hour or more. I make a whole bag of wild rice and freeze it so we have it on hand. Works great.

To make the broth, add the boned carcass and any scraps to a medium pot and cover with cold water. Add some whole peppercorns, a bay leaf, a whole clove of garlic, a half a carrot, and simmer on low/med low for about an hour. (sorry, no picture since I boiled the bones along with my turkey and chicken bones that I was making stock with on the same day that I made this)

When the broth is done and you are ready to brown the pheasant, mix 1 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp freshly ground pepper and 1 tsp thyme in a shallow dish. I use a pyrex pie plate.

This isn’t sounding very szechuan, is it? Well, just go with it. We’ll fix that a little later. And don’t say I didn’t give you fair warning.

Heat a heavy bottomed large pot (like a Le Creuset) over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. Take the pheasant pieces out of the milk and dredge in the flour mixture,

then place into the hot oil.

Let sit without moving to obtain a nice brown crust, then flip for a total of 4-5 minutes. Maintain the heat so that you don’t blacken the oil and crust that is left on the bottom of the pan. I usually have to do 2 or 3 batches for one pheasant. Add a bit more oil before each batch.

Ideally when you are done, the bottom of your pan will be dark, but not black. And if that is the case, congratulations. You are a better cook than I. I nearly always end up with black. I’m done berating myself for this lack of skill. But I have learned something about this occurance: don’t ignore it! French onion soup, pan sauces, and this recipe will be ruined if you ignore it and continue. Trust me. This much I know.

[Writing this and looking at the pictures, I am left to wondering if I put the pieces of meat closer together if I would have less burning. Anyone?]

So, if you, too, end up with black in your pan at the end of your browning, just give the pan a quick pass in the sink with some hot water and a scrub brush while it’s still hot. You don’t have to clean it, just get the burnt bits out because they will ruin the flavor of the dish.

And, if you have beautiful browned bits instead of black, be sure to use a wooden spoon as you add the broth to scrape up all the good flavor. But don’t leave me a comment, because I don’t want to know about it.

ANYWAY…

Strain the broth made from the pheasant bones. You should have about 3 cups.

If you have less, add some chicken broth. If you have more, save some or boil it down a bit. Taste it. If it is too weak, add some chicken bouillon to taste. When you have the broth tasting good, add it to the same pot you browned the meat in.

Add the browned pheasant pieces along with 1 tablespoon toasted & crushed coriander (cilantro) seed, whole dried hot peppers (I use 3-4 and break them in half to release some of the heat. This makes the dish about medium/hot heat) and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The broth will thicken as it cooks. (I had some extra celery and onion I threw in for these photos, but I don’t usually. I was good, but I wouldn’t do it if I hadn’t had them sitting there already.)

Slice 3 green onions (which of course I did not have on hand) and rough chop about 1/2 cup of cashews. Put hot cooked wild rice on a serving platter, pour the hot pheasant and broth over the rice and sprinkle with scallions and cashews.

Szechuan? Probably not. But darn good.

Click for recipe:

New and Improved Cornflake Wreath Cookies

December 20, 2009

STOP! Before you scroll through the photos: First, a little background. Please.

These are Charlie’s cookies. We’ve already made several batches of these cookies and Charlie is bored with the standard green wreath. I am also out of cornflakes, and – as it turns out – green food coloring. As usual, I refuse to go to the grocery store. Therefore, the photos taken of the process are going to, no doubt, be a little disturbing. Or at least off-putting.

Additional things that may be helpful to know as you read this post, and all previous and future posts I might make:

I never remember to take photos of the things I want to write about. Or, I start taking pictures, then forget to finish as I start running short of time, we eat whatever I’m making, and I say “Oh shoot. I forgot to take the rest of the pictures.” I never seem to have the correct ingredients. I think of all kinds of clever things to write while I’m cooking and snapping away, only to go completely blank when I sit down to type. And, I still don’t know why I am even doing this in the first place.

Well. I’m never really completely blank.

So, back to the old Cornflake Wreath Cookie recipe. This is a favorite of mine and Charlie’s. Dave likes them and so does Morgan. But they are Charlie’s favorite, and I make them for him. These are also my go-to recipe for any event I have to bring a few dozen to share. Since I usually forget that I am supposed to even bring cookies to share, I need to move quickly. I can whip up a batch in about 8 minutes, which might seem impossible to you, if you have ever tried to make the damn things.

Frankly, I have never once, not ever, succeeded in making the recipe according to directions. Have you? Seriously. Have you?

I am positive there is some insider’s secret to creating a ring of sticky, gooey, marshmallow-coated cornflakes. And, even if you DID succeed in getting the mess into the shape of a wreath, it ends up being only a fraction of the amount that you actually want to consume. So you end up eating three. Probably to the horror of the person who made them, since the formation of each fricken’ wreath likely took a minimum of 15 minutes.

Therefore I present to you the New and Improved Cornflake Wreath Cookie recipe.

Here are the changes I made to the original recipe: I add 1 teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extract (instead of 1/2 tsp). I use one 10 ounce bag of regular sized marshmallows (not 4 cups of mini), because I never have the minis. I use twice as much cereal (to make them more nutritional). Do you believe that? I use Red Hots with abandon (not just 3). And, I don’t waste my time forming them into rings. Honestly. You’d have to be insane to even try.

Maybe I’m just jealous that I can’t do it.

But I’m darn good at the rationalizations, aren’t I?

Without further a do:

The Recipe (if you can call it that)

Microwave 1 stick of butter in a large bowl for about 1 minute. It doesn’t have to be all melted.

Add the bag of marshmallows (be sure it’s the 10z bag and not the bigger one),

and toss with the partially melted butter.

Stir well and microwave for an additional 1 minute to get it smooth.

Add 1 teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extract.

Add enough food coloring to get the mixture the color you want. I do not recommend either blue or purple. My kids, however, do.

Add 8 cups of cornflakes (or, as I did here, the third bag of the Chex box you bought at CostCo and your kids won’t eat because they don’t like the wheat. That’ll teach them.), and gently stir marshmellow mixture to evenly coat the cereal.

Spray two spoons all over with non-stick cooking spray and scoop blobs of the mixture onto wax paper.

Immediately sprinkle generously with red hots.

After about an hour, flip the “wreaths” over so that the bottoms get hard. That way you can store them in a ziplock bag.

I just did that, and while I was at it, I sampled these pitiful purple Wheat Chex cookies. Not only are the truly hideous, but I also ran out of almond extract and only had about 1/4 teaspoon.

It doesn’t matter. They were really good. How much you wanna bet I’ll be the only one who eats them? (The blue ones are already half gone).

New and Improved Cornflake Wreath Cookies (in less than 10 minutes)

1 stick (1/2 c) butter
8 cups Cornflakes
10 oz bag Marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp (or more) food coloring. I recommend GREEN
red hot candies

Microwave butter in large bowl for 1 minute. Add bag of marshmallows and toss to coat. Microwave marshmellows and butter for 2 minutes. Stir and microwave another 1 minute and stir until smooth.

Add vanilla, almond extract and food coloring. Add cornflakes and stir gently to coat.

Spray two spoons with Pam (or non-stick cooking spray). Spoon large blobs onto wax paper. When mixture is gone, immediately sprinkle with red hots. If you wait too long, the candies won’t stick.

After about an hour, flip the wreaths over to let the bottoms harden. Store in ziplock bags.

Old Fashioned Popcorn Balls

December 14, 2009

A Christmas Tradition.
And A Giant Weight-Off When They are Done.

Every year, the weekend after Thanksgiving, I head up to my Mom and Dad’s in Hayward to do an insane amount of activity in about 48 hours. The usual list includes making:

Chocolate Balls (coming soon!), Popcorn Balls, Cornflake Wreath Cookies (with my own lazy twist) and a Gingerbread House. I also then make a wreath with boughs my mom has leftover from a big wreath-making extravaganza weekend with friends. And finally, when I think I can take no more, my 69 year-old mom, with far more energy than I, rallies me into the car to go get my cheap christmas tree from a church lot up there.

Then, I hop in the car with my two kids and usually my niece, but occasionally a nephew or two, and head home.

I would like to say that this weekend is a warm and fuzzy, calm and cozy time of memory making. The reality is that my TV-starved kids, let loose at the cabin, out from under their Dad’s watchful eye, turn into 18-hour TV zombies while systematically clicking off the DVR’d episodes of CSI, NCIS, the Mentalist and anything else my parents have squirreled away.

I know, I shouldn’t let them. But the truth is I don’t really care. At least not for this one weekend. We don’t watch TV at home and I fear I am creating the kind of monster I occasionally brushed up against as a kid. The kind whose parents didn’t let them eat candy or junk food and would somehow find themselves at my house where there was always bags of chips, fun-size candy bars, ice cream and pop. My mouth would hang ajar as I watched these seemingly normal kids come unglued in an uncontrolled eating frenzy. It always seemed to me that if the parents had demystified candy and let the kids figure it out, they wouldn’t be such fiends. But who knows.

I really fear that I am just such a parent in the TV department.

I blame it on Dave.

He’s a bit of a control freak, you know.

But I hate TV, too. So I go along with it.

To a point.

What the heck? How did I get going on this tangent? For crying out loud. Back on point.

I’ll cut to the chase and stop beating around the bush: No, the kids don’t help me with the baking. Ironically, they think that I am a control freak.

Funny, isn’t it?

Anyway, I have learned to let certain things go. Like the gingerbread house, for example.

But the popcorn balls? Are you insane? Sorry, but unless you are cruel, don’t make your kids help you with these.

I have never, ever had a popcorn ball like this recipe makes. It was my Grandma Esther’s recipe and she taught me how to make them a few years before she died. I taught my mom (I love to say that), and now we make them every year. We guard them with our life and never offer them to guests. They are too precious.

I wish I was kidding.

Because I feel bad about that, I would like to share the recipe so that you can make them yourself. It takes my mom and I about two hours to make eight batches. That’s how many we need to make it through Christmas. Each batch makes 8-10 popcorn balls.

It’s easy. Just a pain. First, you pop all the popcorn and then measure 8 level cups into a big bowl.

Then you cook the syrup. Remember: DON’T STIR!

Pour over the popcorn:

And mix it all up really good:

Butter your hands and form them into balls. Work QUICKLY! (Don’t worry, my mom always makes funny faces like this. I’m not worried about her wrath for posting it because, remember? She doesn’t READ my blog! Revenge is sweet. And Dad? Don’t tell on me.)

Then sit back and have a beer before you move to on to the dreaded wreath-making project:

(which of course by that time of the night you will open another beer for duration of wreath making. Preferably a Negra Modelo.)

Popcorn Balls

Pop enough popcorn for the amount of balls you plan to make. For our 8 batches, that amount is a heaping grocery bag full. I use a StirCrazy popper and it works great. I always lightly salt the popcorn as I go.

CALIBRATE YOUR THERMOMETER! Candy thermometers are notoriously inaccurate. Calibrate it by putting it in boiling water. If it doesn’t read 212 F, then make note of how high or low it is and adjust your recipe accordingly. My mom’s cheapo (which broke in the middle of our frenzy this year) is off a whopping TWELVE degrees. If I hadn’t known that, the popcorn balls would have been ruined. Don’t take this step lightly.

In a regular sized saucepan, add

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c butter

1/4 c light corn syrup

1/4 c water

1/8 – 1/4 tsp salt

food coloring to make the colors you want.

Place all ingredients into a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil. DO NOT STIR. You may gently swirl the pan in the beginning melt stage, but then just leave it alone.

Boil to 240. It will rise to about 235 fairly quickly and a take another minute or two to reach the last few degrees. Be sure to take any thermometer inaccuracies into account at this point!

Immediately take off heat and pour over 8 level cups of the popped popcorn (use a large 8 cup measuring bowl to scoop and measure popcorn into a large bowl). Use a rubber spatula to get every last drop of syrup out of the pan.

Stir syrup into popcorn well, so that kernels are evenly coated. Using the rubber spatula, be sure to keep scraping the bottom, where the syrup pools.

Butter your hands well (to protect from heat and to prevent from sticking) and begin forming into small balls. Work quickly! It gets harder to form balls as syrup cools.

Place balls onto waxed paper.

That’s it!

Here’s a few tips:

Begin with the lightest color and work to the darkest. For example this year we made yellow, orange, and 2 batches of red. Then I cleaned the pan by swirling in hot water to get most of the color out. Then we did 2 batches of blue and then 2 batches of green. That way you don’t muddy the color and aren’t cleaning the pan after every batch.

Store the balls in the giant, 2 gallon zipper bags to keep from drying out.

Hide one of the bags somewhere no one else knows about. That way, when Dave (aka ‘the skinny German’) eats four every night and they disappear long before the allotted time, you will be able to have some for yourself.

Rosemary Cracker Bread

December 10, 2009

Go Make Some

I’ll admit, it’s a bit of a pain. But look at that picture! It’s so cool looking. And good! Amazing to behold! And yes, I’ll admit this, too: it’s a repeat.

Remember everyone, my computer died on Sunday. I’m working off the kid’s iMac. It isn’t as bad as I had feared, but for some reason — and I don’t really have time to troubleshoot this week — Aperture isn’t generating thumbnails from my camera. So, I’m using iPhoto for now, and going bare-blog-bones for the next week or two.

The reason I’m reposting the Rosemary Cracker Bread, is because it’s so FESTIVE. And — if you are an overachiever such as I — a PERFECT gift for the holidays. I bought some of those clear cellophane candy-type bags and use a cool twine hang tag to close it up. Fragile packages of bliss.

Anyway, for whatever reason, this video of mine does not get many hits on youtube. Go figure. The ciabatta recipe is racking up the views, but not my sad and lonely cracker bread.

I had to make them recently for the people who won my 8-Months-Of-Bread live auction item. And as usual, I couldn’t leave well-enough alone and tweaked the recipe ever so slightly. Here is my latest version:

Rosemary Cracker Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp ground flax seed (optional. but then you can say the crackers are trendy and healthy!)

1/2 cup cold water

1 tsp salt

dash of sugar

2-3 T finely chopped fresh rosemary

1/8 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 500 with a pizza stone on a rack.

Put flour, flax, salt, sugar and rosemary in food processor. Pulse to blend. Add oil, pulse 3-4 times. Turn machine to ‘on’ and add water in stream till dough comes together. Run for about 20 seconds. Turn dough out and knead to smooth ball. Divide into four pieces and cover with a towel. Let rest 5 minutes.

Begin with one of the four dough pieces. Using a pasta roller, start on the widest setting and finish on the thinnest, just as you would for rolling out pasta dough. It helps to divide the dough one more time about mid way through the rolling process, so that one piece of dough results in two long (approx 4″ x 15″) strips of rolled dough. I also dust the dough with flour on both sides before rolling at the thinnest setting. The two strips get baked at the same time, for a total of four batches of two strips from one cracker bread recipe. I do not begin rolling the second piece of dough until the first batch is cooked. Multi tasking for this recipe always results in burned crackers for me!

Spritz dough with water from a spray bottle and sprinkle with sea salt (or kosher) and fresh ground pepper. Slide parchment paper directly into oven onto baking stone. Flip crackers over and move from front to back of oven after about 1 minute. Watch closely. Your oven my vary. You want to flip after the dough bubbles, but is still pliable. I do this quickly by reaching in with tongs. Watch closely after that. Take out after no more than a minute — sometimes less. You don’t want them browned. There will be light brown spots or speckles and maybe an edge or two will be darkening, but that’s it. The strips will still be flexible. You can cut them into 6″ lengths at this point with a pizza cutter for uniform sizes, or wait until they are crisp and break them for a more half hazard look.

Cool completely on a rack, then package and store in festive cellophane bags to impress your friends.

If you don’t have a pizza stone large enough to bake the strips on, you can use a large cookie sheet. You will need to dramatically increase the cooking time. Watch for the dough to begin to bubble, give it another 30 seconds to a minute and then flip it. You want to take them out when they are beginning to stiffen. So if you grab one out of the oven it will bend into an arc slightly when held in the middle, but won’t bend in half.

My directions make it sound much more complicated than it is. I just wanted to be as helpful as I could be, having made many, many batches of these crackers and coming up with helpful tips along the way.

Of course, you can always watch the original video, which helps if you want to see the roller technique and oven set up.

Here’s my Vote for Mac and Why

December 8, 2009

This is just a blip on my blog map to sing praises for Apple Macintosh computers.

First, you must understand that I am, indeed, a fanboy (girl). Always have been and always will be. With that out of the way I want to take this opportunity to explain why I finally can stand up with some hardcore facts to back up my otherwise foolish obsession with all things Mac.

My MacBook Pro died on Sunday night. I know that isn’t the best way to start a post saying how great Macs are. However, I’ve been working on Macs for the past 22 years. And I am very hard on them. I push them to the max with memory, applications, dragging them around everywhere I go, occasionally dropping, etc. I usually replace my machines every 2-3 years. In all those years, with all those computers, I have never, ever – even once – had to send a machine in for service. Yes, I’ve spent endless hours tweaking software, resetting the PRAM, the SMC, reseating memory, etc. Endless hours. But never, ever, have I had something go bad in my computer that required service. That’s amazing, isn’t it?

Well, my streak came to a screeeeeching halt on Sunday. After blaming everyone in my family for wrecking my Mac, and generally freaking out, I finally accepted the obvious and made an appointment online at the closest Apple Store with a tech person (aka the ‘Genius Bar’). That, in and of itself, is an amazing service. You make an appointment online, 24-7, for a specific time and get instant answers. The answers might not always be what you want them to be, but you do get them.

I arrived at the store and met with someone about my MacBook Pro. It definitely needed to be serviced. And I wondered: has anyone ever broken down in tears at the Genius Bar? I don’t remember exactly how long they said it would be gone because I was in shock. Seven days? Ten days? It doesn’t matter. Even one day is too long.

[Update on 12/11/09. I got it back in THREE DAYS! I was astounded. And happy. Happy. Happy. Still happy.]

But here is where I think Mac gets amazing. We have an iMac at home for the kids. I have a .mac (now mobileme account). I’ve always thought $99 seemed high for the mobile me services. Not anymore. Within minutes I had synced all my emails, contacts, calendars, bookmarks and Lord knows what else to the iMac.

I also use Time Machine on an external drive (a Drobo). It backs up without me ever doing anything. Time Machine is simply the greatest. It has saved my butt more times that I can ever remember. Yes it can be a space hog, but who cares when a client calls about a job that you swore you backed up and can’t find and just go back six months in Time Machine and drag it to your hard drive. Honest to God it almost seems magic.

Which brings me to today. I hauled the Drobo over to the iMac. And dragged all the files I needed over to the iMac from Time Machine that would have been otherwise unavailable to me or even lost.

And I’m suddenly in business. Without more than a half hour of set-up.

I am amazed.

My files.

My bookmarks.

My calendar.

My email.

Everything.

Well… except my log-in passwords on 1password 3. I had to download the desktop software to the iMac and set it up to sync with my iPhone. Then I had to find the license key in my old (unsynced) mailbox. It took me a few minutes to find it, but there it was in my user library in the Time Machine back-up. I imported it to Mail on the iMac, found my registration key and now I don’t have to look up any passwords. 1Password is great.

I also use SuperDuper as a clone backup system. Double peace of mind. But honestly, Time Machine just keeps coming through.

Anyway, I just had to share my Horror-Story-turned-Fairy-Tale. Well, fairy tale is pushing it, I’ll admit. Still. I challenge anyone to beat this story. I was overwhelmed beyond words for the last 48 hours, only to find out everything was just fine, thanks to Apple.

The only bummer is, I no longer have a good excuse for my clients as to why their job is late.

More Uses for Garden Garbage

December 4, 2009

Wait! Before you rip those dead plants out of the garden and throw them into the compost/garbage (I seriously hope you aren’t throwing them in the garbage. I just had to tie it in with the title.), ask yourself if you can salvage anything.

Seeds, baby.

In my case, cilantro seeds. All over the internet, in books, in conversations, I hear this: “I just don’t have any luck growing cilantro.” Well, I have the solution.

1) plant some like you normally would, in an area that you won’t care about it going to seed.

2) curse when it bolts and goes to seed way, WAY earlier than you wanted it to.

3) leave it there

4) let it get old and dried out, occasionally running your hands through it and shaking the plants to get some of the seeds to fall to the ground.

5) rip it out and put it someplace dark and dry. Or in my case, stuff it in a bucket and leave it outside for about a month, let it get rained on and throw it into the compost. Then start all over. Actually, don’t do what I do. Do what I say. Same as parenting.

6) save the seeds. You’ll have a lot. Cook with them like I did here (as coriander). And save the rest for planting next year.

6a) Sort the seeds. I use various sized strainers with differs holes and mesh sizes:

7) in the spring, let the cilantro grow from the volunteer seeds that fell on the ground in the area it was planted the year before. Or, in my case, all around the bench where I inadvertently left it and the compost, where I ultimate threw it.

8 ) amend the volunteers in more orderly rows with the seeds you saved a few weeks after the first volunteers emerge.

9) cilantro doesn’t seem to suffer much, if at all, from pests or virus/wilts and therefore can stay in the same spot for many years. If you lighten up a bit, give up the idea of perfect rows and let nature take its course, you should have cilantro all year long. Sometimes in high summer, I will plant a few additional short rows in dappled shade to make sure I’ve got some in August, which is a tough month for cilantro.

10) let it go to seed, let it go to seed, let it go to seed. Even if you decide not to save the seeds. Walk by and rattled the dried plants. Let the seeds fall to the ground. And you will never have a problem growing cilantro again. You will have this constant cycle of new plants growing amidst the old.

This also works for arugula. In fact, I have arugula EVERYWHERE: in the driveway, in the chicken yard, in the prairie, and in the garden.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

(That was a good way to end, but I want to mention one more thing, because I tried this and it seems to work quite well. Everyone says you can’t preserve fresh cilantro. And I agree, for the most part. It isn’t good frozen or dried. People do it, but it just doesn’t taste the same. I tried turning it into cilantro butter and storing it in the freezer, though it will keep in the fridge for a couple weeks and tastes a bit better. It is really good. It doesn’t seem to suffer the same fate as when you try to freeze it by itself. Give it a try!)

I would be remiss not to mention that it also works for chives and various other weeds.

Archives for December 2009

New and Improved Cornflake Wreath Cookies (in less than 10 minutes)

A Christmas Tradition. And A Giant Weight-Off When They are Done.

Popcorn Balls

Go Make Some

Rosemary Cracker Bread

A Christmas Tradition.
And A Giant Weight-Off When They are Done.