Corned Beef and Cabbage: A Variation

If you're looking for the classic Irish recipe, you're in the wrong place. This is how my Mom tells the story. When my Asian grandmother first came to the U.S., she was very interested in cooking all the different foods that were popular here. However, she didn't exactly follow the traditional recipes. I don't think she even bothered to try and look them up. Instead, she'd whip up her own version. If it tasted good, she'd run with it.

This one is very popular in my family. Yes, this dish features cabbage and corned beef. However, that's pretty much where the resemblance ends. It has a bit of an Asian influence, is a fast saute rather than a stew, and is best eaten over a big plate of hot white rice.

Ingredients:
1 can corned beef (not corned beef hash)
1 medium-sized head of cabbage, sliced into 1-inch wide strips.
1 onion
1 can diced tomatoes or 4-5 fresh tomatoes, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 eggs
1 tblsp. oil
2 tblsp. fish sauce. This is used heavily in many South Asian cuisines.
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 to 1/2 c. water (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. I use one of the wide, high-sided skillets they sell as "chicken fryers." Add the onions and minced garlic, and cook until the onions are translucent and lightly browned. Throw in the tomatoes and fish sauce, and cook until the tomatoes are hot. Next is the the corned beef. Break it apart while cooking, the way you would with ground beef. If your pan is a little dry, add some water. You want at least a 1/4-inch of liquid in the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, until ingredients are well-combined.

Once that is done, add the eggs. Just break them right into the pan and stir well. You want them mixed in with the pan contents. It helps give a boost of flavor. Cook for another 2-3 minutes to be sure the egg is cooked.

When the base mixture is done, add the cabbage. Turn the heat down to medium and cover the pan with a lid. Stir on occasion until the cabbage is tender, then season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Serve it over fresh-cooked white rice. It's wonderful.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

I love butternut squash. It's one of my favorite veggies. I throw it in soups or stews, bake it in the oven, and even serve it mashed on occasion. This salad is a favorite around my house. It seems I can never make enough of it. I personally love the color of it, and think it's so festive-looking.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized butternut squash
1 can black beans, or equivalent amount of home-cooked black beans
1 can sweet corn, or equivalent amount of frozen (thaw before using) or fresh-cooked.
Half an onion, finely minced or diced. Red onion gives a nice dash of color, but I prefer the sharper taste of yellow.
1 tblsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Juice from 1 lime (use 2 limes if needed)
additional salt and pepper, to taste, for the salad

Drain the black beans and corn. You want them as dry as possible. Put them in a bowl with the minced onion and lime juice. Add a bit of salt and pepper, to taste, and mix well. I think it's best to do this step in advance, even the day before, and store it in the fridge. The extra sitting time helps the flavors meld nicely.

Peel the butternut squash. I use a veggie peeler. It does the job quickly and easily. Cut off the ends to get rid of the stem, then cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. Cut the squash in half lengthwise again. You should end up with four long, wide, triangular pieces of squash. Then, put your knife at the tip of the triangle and cut each quarter in half lengthwise one more time. This will give you eight long triangular pieces. Cut the pieces widthwise to give yourself triangles about 1/4-inch thick. You can cut your squash into squares, cubes, curlicues, or whatever you want, but I think the triangles are prettiest.

Put the squash pieces in a bowl and toss them with the olive oil, salt and black pepper until they're all well-coated. Put the pieces on a cookie sheet with sides or a shallow baking pan. Be sure to spread them out so that there's only one layer of pieces. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes. Stir the pieces around midway through baking so that the sides all brown evenly.
Mix the squash pieces with the salad.

I think the salad is best served at room temp, but it's also good when served cold.

Marinara Meat Sauce

I'd love to make homemade spaghetti sauce completely from scratch, from fresh tomatoes. It's high up there on my cooking wish list. I have visions of myself lovingly seeding and peeling tomatoes, and simmering them for hours with fresh herbs and seasonings.

Unfortunately, my cheapskate reality smashes that dream pretty rudely. I live in a region that isn't exactly known for local fresh produce. As a result, fresh vegetables command fairly high prices. Tomatoes cost as much or more per pound as many meats. When I think of the amount of tomatoes required to make homemade sauce, it makes both my head and my wallet reel. I love my pasta, but I can't bring myself to drop $20 just to make a pot of spaghetti sauce. If I'm ever going to drop that much money on one meal, it's going to be at a restaurant.

This sauce uses canned spaghetti sauce for its base. It's a lot more cost-effective. The addition of fresh ingredients and red wine gives it a big zing of flavor. Everybody whose tasted this stuff really enjoys it, so I can assume it does the job.

I'm only going to give the recipe for the sauce. I'll assume everybody knows how to boil spaghetti, ziti, or any other pasta they want to use. This recipe makes enough sauce for about 1/2 to 1 pound of pasta, depending on how sauce-y you like your food.

Ingredients:
-1 can of spaghetti sauce, any flavor that you like. I use Del Monte, which I find is very tasty, and cheap at less than $1 per can. I've tried using the higher-priced, "gourmet" sauces in the jar, but I find it doesn't make much (if any) difference in the finished product.
-1 onion, chopped
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-2 tblsp. olive oil
-1/2 c. red wine. I like to keep boxed wine around for cooking. Unlike bottles, it stays fresh and sound for months, and its no problem to use only small amounts each time.
-1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes. You can vary the amount based on how spicy you like it.
-1 lb. fresh Italian sausage, without casing. You can either buy it without the casing, or cut the casing open and take the meat out. I have a meat grinder, so I make my own Italian sausage from scratch. I can find pork, on a good sale, at $0.79 per pound. Premade Italian sausage ranges from $2.99 to upwards of $4 per pound. Making it at home is a huge saving. I buy the pork in bulk when its on sale, make 10-20 lbs of sausage of a time, and freeze it in meal-sized packages. If you don't have a meat grinder at home, try asking the butcher counter of the grocery store if they can grind it for you. Many of them will do so at no charge.

Put a saucepan or pot over medium high heat. Add the olive oil, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. Saute until the onion is translucent. Put in the sausage. Be sure to stir well to break up any lumps. Cook until the sausage is completely done, anywhere from 10-20 minutes.

Add your canned sauce and red wine, and bring it to a simmer. Cover the pot, turn the heat down low, and simmer for 20 minutes to blend the flavors. Serve hot over your favorite pasta.

Chicken-Fried Steak and Yellow Gravy

This has to be one of the classic sinful foods. A piece of red meat, slathered in batter, fried and covered in a rich gravy. Depending on the region you live, it can be known as "country fried" steak and be served with brown gravy.

I think this is another one of those simple foods that has fallen into mystique. Everyone says their Grandma, Great-Aunt Bertha or the hole-in-the-wall diner around the corner makes chicken-fried steak to perfection, but few people seem to tackle making it themselves. There's nothing secret or fancy about a good chicken-fried steak. Like most traditional comfort foods, it's simple to make and requires only basic ingredients.

You'll notice that this recipe doesn't really have any exact measurements. There's nothing exact about chicken-fried steak. The amount you need depends on the number of steaks you make, and how strongly you like them seasoned.

Chicken fried Ingredients:
-A cheap cut of steak, tenderized. Don't break out the ribeyes or the T-bones for a chicken fried steak. You want a slice of cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel chuck or round. You can either buy the steak intact and tenderize it yourself with a mallet, or you can buy it already-tenderized.
-eggs
-milk
-flour
-Worcestershire sauce
-salt
-pepper
-paprika
-garlic powder
-onion powder
-oil for frying

First, you need to season your steak. Douse each steak with a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, on both sides. You don't want to soak it, just hit it with enough sauce to lightly rub over the surface. Sprinkle both sides of the steak with the spices -- not a thick crust, just a moderate dusting. Let the steaks sit in the seasonings for at least 45 minutes.

Next, you get your dredging materials ready. You'll need two shallow pans, or one plate and one pan. In the plate, put in a cup or two of flour. Season the flour with a few pinches of the spices, and mix well. In the pan, add an equal amount of eggs and milk. No measuring required, just eyeball it. Mix it well with a wisk or fork.

Now, you're ready to fry. Heat about a half-inch of oil in a large frying pan over medium to medium-high heat. This is a pan-frying technique, not deep frying. You don't want your steak to be completely submerged.

Take a steak, and dredge it in the flour. It may take a couple of turns to be sure its well-coated. From there, dip it in the egg mixture. Let it hang over the egg pan for a moment to let the excess drip off. Then, it's back to the flour. Dredge your steak in the flour one more time to make a nice crust. Put your steak in the frying pan immediately.

The most common problem I've heard about making chicken-fried steak is keeping the batter on. The trick is to fry the steak at a relatively low temperature. You want your oil bubbling steadily like any good fry, but not at an overly hot temperature. If your batter is coming off in the pan, the heat is too high. Turn down the heat and take it slow. Be patient.

Unlike traditional steaks, chicken-fried steak should be cooked until its well done; completely cooked through. I pan-fry my steak for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Don't go flip-flopping the steak all over the place, either. Ideally, you should only turn the steak once during the entire cooking process. If your batter is burning on one side before the meat is done, the oil is too hot.

Drain your finished steaks on paper towels. If you have a big stack of steaks to fry, store the finished steaks in a warm oven to keep them hot while you prepare the rest. Like any fried food, they should be served as soon as possible.

This steak is traditionally served with either brown or cream gravy. But if you're feeling like something a bit different, try this yellow gravy. It's an oh-so-delicious, insanely rich variation on the traditional cream gravy. Rather than being started from pan drippings like most gravies, this gravy gets its flavor and light yellow tint from butter. Yes, butter. I've had it at a few restaurants, and had to replicate it at home. It's amazing on chicken-fried steak. Sure, it's fattening. But seriously, c'mon. You're already eating a fried hunk of red meat. Might as well go the whole nine yards. You can break out the salad recipes tomorrow.

Yellow gravy ingredients:

1 stick of butter
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons flour
salt and pepper, to taste
dash of tumeric (optional)

Take three tablespoons of the butter and melt it in a saucepan or large frying pan over low heat. You can also melt it in the microwave and then add it to the pan. When you're melting butter in an empty pan, always use low heat. Unlike oil, butter tends to burn very quickly. You want to keep the butter bright yellow. If your butter turns brown, the pan's too hot. Throw out the butter and start over.

When they butter is melted, add the flour and turn up the heat to medium. Stir the flour and butter mixture well, to make a roux. You want a light-colored roux for this, so it only needs to cook for a minute or two...just long enough to get rid of the raw flour taste.

When the roux is done, stir in your milk. I like to use a wisk for this. Turn up your heat to medium-high to get the milk bubbling. Add the rest of the butter and let it it melt into the gravy. Your gravy should have a nice light yellow tint. Season with salt and pepper. I also add a dash of tumeric. It adds a very slight additional zip of flavor to the gravy and enhances the yellow color. Heat the gravy, stirring constantly, until its nice and thickened. Serve immediately.

I like to serve my steak with garlic mashed potatoes and corn. Mmmm.

Five Spice Roast Duck

This dish is my favorite thing to eat in the whole world. Chocolate? Cheesecake? Eh, I have plenty of self-control where those are concerned. Duck...I am completely helpless to resist. I have been known to devour an entire duck at one sitting. I swear if somebody threw a roast duck off a cliff, I would jump off after it.

If you've never tried Chinese-style roast duck, you're missing out. It's rich and delicious, and the flavor is amazing. And for heaven's sake, eat the skin! It's the best part of the entire duck. In Chinese cuisine, the skin is often removed and served separately from the meat. It's just that good.

Ingredients:
1 whole duckling/duck. You can find these in many stores now. Sometimes they're called ducklings, sometimes ducks.
3 tblsp. kosher salt
3 tblsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. Chinese five spice powder
1 tsp. powdered ginger

For the glaze:
2 tblsp. Hoisin sauce
1 tblsp. molasses
1 tsp. white vinegar
2 tsp. soy sauce

Take your duck out of the bag. Just like whole chickens, ducks often come with gizzards, necks, and other innards inside. Take those out, you don't need them. Same with the bags of stuffing and orange sauce that are often included with ducks. With either a knife or a kitchen scissors, cut off the wingtips. Unlike chickens, ducks have rather long wingtips. They tend to get in the way when you're trying to flip the duck, so it's easier to just remove them altogether.

Put your duck, breast-up, on a roasting rack in a roasting pan. Don't have a roasting rack? I use a cooling rack for cookies, laid widthwise across the top of the roasting pan. It works great. All you need to do is keep the duck at least 1 inch above the bottom of the pan. Mix the salt, sugar, five spice powder and powdered ginger in a bowl. Generously rub it all over the duck, both outside on the skin and inside the cavity. Put the entire roasting pan...rack, duck, and all...in the fridge, uncovered. You want it to sit in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours, although it can be left for up to 2 days. The sugar and the salt will partially cure the duck and add to its final flavor and texture, and leaving it uncovered will let the skin dry out. Drying out the skin is key to having a crispy finish.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Add enough water to the roasting pan so there's about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom of the pan. Duck is a very fatty bird, and the fat drippings tend to smoke and burn in the pan at 400 degrees. Adding the water helps prevent this from happening, which keeps your house from getting smoky.

Put the duck in the oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, flip the bird over and cook it for another 45 minutes to brown the underside. In the meantime, mix all the glaze ingredients in a bowl. After the underside has cooked for 45 minutes, take the duck out of the oven and paint the uppermost side with the glaze. It's just like painting a wall - you want enough glaze to cover the surface completely and evenly, but not so much that it forms globs. Return your duck to the oven for 15 minutes. Take your duck out of the oven again, flip it over so the breast side is once more uppermost, then glaze that side of the duck. Return it to the oven for another 15 minutes.

Let the duck rest for about 15 minutes before serving.

Mojito-Lime Steak Pitas

I once thought that pita bread was something special, beyond the skill of the home cook to make. I thought it was a gourmet type of bread, baked in such a way as to be perfectly flat, and then carefully sliced by machine to make pockets. Why else would it be so expensive?

Shows what I know. It turns out that our pita bread is nothing but a type of tortilla. Nope, I'm not even kidding. The ingredients and methods are extremely similar, and just as simple. If you can make a tortilla, you can make pita bread. And that wonderful pocket? That's not the work of either man or machine. Pitas swell when they bake, creating that pocket naturally. No surgically-accurate cutting involved.

Take the time to try it out. Homemade pita bread is easy and fun to make. It makes me wonder why store-bought pita bread is so expensive, but store-bought tortillas are so cheap. Hmm. I guess the pita bread has a better marketing department.

This is one of my favorite ways to serve pitas. I think something about steak and pitas go together perfectly.

Pita bread ingredients (makes 12):
1 1/8 c. water, slightly warm.
3 c. flour. I use plain all-purpose flour for every recipe I make. I'm too cheap to invest in cake flour, bread flour, etc. I also don't bother with name-brand flour. It never seems to affect the deliciousness of the results.
1 1/2 tsp. salt.
1 tablespoon oil. I prefer vegetable or canola oil.
1 1/2 tsp. white sugar.
1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast. This is 3/4 of a teaspoon less than the traditional yeast packet, so be sure to measure it out.
You can also add a bit of seasoning to the pita bread, if you like. I add about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of onion powder to mine.

Mix the water, sugar and yeast together in a bowl. Let it sit until the yeast is foamy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until you have a soft dough (as usual, feel free to add more flour or water as needed). Knead on a lightly-floured surface until it's springy and elastic, anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Put the dough face-down in a lightly greased bowl, then flip it over on its back to grease both sides. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size.

Gently punch the extra air out of your dough. Now, it's time to put those childhood Playdough skills to work. Roll out the dough into a long "snake". Try to keep the width as even as possible. Then, cut it into 12 equal pieces with a knife. It's pretty simple to do: cut the snake in half, then cut each section in half, and keep halving the pieces until you have 12 of them.

Take each piece and roll it into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, squish the ball flat with the palm of your hand. Now, take your rolling pin and roll the dough into a circle about 6-8 inches in diameter. Leave the pitas covered with a dishtowel on lightly floured surface. Let them sit for about 20-30 minutes. They won't rise very noticeably, but they will become the very slightest bit puffy. While you're waiting, preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Yup, I said 500 degrees.

It's best to bake your pitas on a wire rack of some kind. I use the cooling racks that I normally use for baking cookies. But if you don't have a rack, a cookie sheet will work.

Lay your pitas on the rack or cookie sheet. Don't panic if the edges kinda droop through the gaps in the rack, it's not a big deal. Slide the pitas into the oven, turn on the oven light, and pull up a chair to watch the show.

It will look like nothing is happening initially. Then, you'll see your pitas start to swell. They'll puff up enormously, like pillows. Take your pitas out of the oven when they're fully puffy and have a very light golden brown tint to them. This happens very quickly....pitas can be done in anywhere from 2-4 minutes. Don't dally about pulling them out of the oven when the color is right. An extra 30 seconds can be the difference between a perfect pita and a burnt one.

Your pitas will probably have a bit of a crunch to their crust, just like any other bread. Immediately put the hot pitas into a plastic freezer bag and close it. The hot pitas will generate a lot of steam. Let the pitas steam in the bag for anywhere from 5-10 minutes. The steaming process is what gives pita bread its trademark tenderness and chew. Take the pitas out of the bag once they're soft. If you leave them in the bag for a long time, they'll get soggy.

Let the pitas sit on the counter and cool completely before storing. You can cut them in half to make pita pockets, cut a slit on one edge to make stuffable whole pitas, or just serve them as is. The pitas keep a day or two at room temperature, about a week in the fridge, or for several months in the freezer.

For the steak:
1 to 1.5 lb steak. Cut doesn't really matter, I use whatever's on sale. Usually chuck or sirloin.
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tblsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 tblsp. chili powder
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 c. moijto

For the dressing:
1/2 c. mayonnaise
A few teaspoons of canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped

Other filling ingredients:
1 avocado, sliced
Jalapeno jack cheese, shredded
Fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine all the steak ingredients and let it marinate for at least 1-2 hours. Overnight is even better. Grill the steak to to the desired degree of doneness. I think medium/medium rare is perfect for this pita. Let the steak rest for 10-15 minutes, then slice as thinly as possible.

To make the chipotle mayo, mix the chopped chipotle peppers into the mayo. Do it one teaspoon at a time. Taste after each addition. Make it however spicy as you want.

Spread a bit of the mayo in each pita, then add steak, sliced avocado, cheese and cilantro. Serve warm.

Parmesan Pizza Crust

Homemade pizza is a lot of fun to make. There's something enjoyable about sprinkling on toppings, knowing you can pile on the cheese to your heart's content without having to pay an extra $1.95. The worst part about making homemade pizza is the smell. I don't mean it makes a stench...I mean that a baking pizza makes the most intoxicating, heavenly aroma in your oven, resulting in every member of the household hovering around the kitchen and asking "Is it done yet?"

This particular pizza crust isn't exactly traditional dough. It includes herbs, spices, and a generous amount of parmesan cheese mixed right in. If made in a pizza pan, this makes about a 14-16 inch pizza crust.

Pizza crust ingredients:

2 1/4 c. flour (approximate)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese. Nothing fresh or fancy; the grated powder right out of the can works best for this application.
1 packet dry yeast.
3/4 tsp. salt.
Pinch of sugar.
1/2 tsp. garlic powder.
1/2 tsp. onion powder.
1 tsp. dried oregano.
1 cup warm water
2 tblsp. oil/liquid fat. I think olive oil gives the best flavor, but you can also use melted butter or vegetable oil.

Start by putting warm water in a good-sized mixing bowl. The water should be slightly warm; just a bit warmer than body temp. Mix in your bit of sugar and packet of yeast, and let sit until the yeast is foamy. It takes maybe 3-5 minutes. Add the oil and mix a bit, then add your dry ingredients: flour, cheese, and seasonings.

So many times, I've seen the whole "pre-mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl" recommendation, both on TV cooking shows and in recipe books. I never do that. I hate doing dishes, and never saw the point of generating more dirty ones than I absolutely have to. I do something different. When you add dry ingredients to wet, they don't magically mix instantly. The dry ingredients sit in a mound on top of the wet ingredients until you stir them together. What I do is add the flour first, right on top of the wet ingredients. I add the herbs and other ingredients on top of the flour. Next, I give the mountain of dry ingredients a thorough tossing with my clean fingers -- being careful not to mix in any of the wet ingredients -- and call it blended. Then, I stir the wet and dry together. It's worked for me every time.

It should come together in a nice dough, soft but not sticky. Feel free to add more flour or water as needed. Breadmaking isn't an exact science. Then, it's time to knead. Turn out your pizza dough on a lightly floured surface. Never kneaded before? It's easy. With the palm of your hand, squish the dough down on the board, slightly flattening it. Grab the top half of the dough and flip it over the bottom half, folding the dough ball roughly in half. Don't worry about being exact or anything. Squish down again, mashing the two halves together. Then, rotate the dough a quarter-turn and repeat. Squish, fold, squish, turn, repeat. Every time you fold and squish the dough, you're working air into it and developing the gluten. This gives the finished products its final texture and flavor.

How long do you knead the dough? Well, it depends. It takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes of kneading. Don't worry about overworking dough when it comes to yeast bread. Bang it around, abuse it, take out your frustrations. It can take it, and it's all good in the end. You can tell by feel when your dough is ready. You know those dense, foam stress balls? The ones that are so soft and squishy, yet spring back once you release your grip on it? That's what your dough will feel like when it's ready to rise. It will be soft and smooth, and puff right back after you smoosh it.

Lightly grease the inside of a large bowl. I use those cooking sprays, but you can also rub a stick of butter on the inside of the bowl. Form your dough into a rough ball or mound. Put it face-down in the bowl, then flip it on its back. This lightly greases both sides of the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and leave it on the counter to rise until it doubles its size. It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours or more, depending on how warm your kitchen is. The warmer the temperature, the faster the dough rises.

When your dough has risen, take your fist and gently punch right in the middle of it. It should deflate as the extra air is punched out. Now it's ready to go in the pan. You can toss the dough around on your hands if you want, and that'll stretch it out pretty well. I, unfortunately, am not coordinated enough for that. I know, I've tried. Luckily, I find that grabbing and gently stretching the edges of the dough works just fine for klutzes like me. You can bake this pizza on a round pizza pan, or you can make it into a rectangular pizza and cook it on a cookie sheet. Be sure to grease the pan or cookie sheet first.

Once your dough is stretched out, it's time for toppings. Be as creative or as simple as you want. The only rule in pizza topping is to make sure that any meat ingredients...chicken, sausage, bacon or whatever....are fully-cooked before they go on your pizza. The pizza won't be in the oven long enough to cook raw meat thoroughly. Veggies, however, can go on raw without a problem. For pizza sauce, I find that the cheap, plain old spaghetti sauce out of the can works just fine for the purpose. Then I put on the cheese, and then the rest of the toppings. The pizza in the picture is topped with sauce, a mix of jalapeno jack and mozzarella cheese, chicken, black olives, mushrooms and onions.

Bake your pizza in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. It's done when the crust is lightly browned, and the cheese is melted and a bit bubbly.

Biscuits and Gravy

Whoever first decided to get a fresh-from-the-oven biscuit and smother it in gravy was a genius. Biscuits and gravy are my favorite breakfast food. Sadly, this is another one of those simple-to-make foods that have descended into Instant Purgatory. Biscuits out of the can or freezer, gravy out of a package...few people seem to make them fresh anymore. I really have no idea why. It's not that I'm against instant foods, but homemade biscuits and gravy are so simple and fast to make. Try it! With practice, you can whip it up from scratch in 30 minutes or less. The taste is also worlds better than anything you'll find on the grocery shelf. This recipe makes about 8-12 biscuits, depending on how big you make them.

Biscuit ingredients:

2 c. flour
2 tsp. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of baking soda (about 1/4-1/3 teaspoon)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. solid fats: lard, shortening, butter, or any combination of the three. Shortening and lard result in light and flaky biscuits, whereas butter gives a very soft crumb and a buttery flavor. Be warned about butter, though...feel free use it in addition to shortening or lard, but I wouldn't recommend using only butter. If you go all-butter, you tend to lose that light flakiness that is a biscuit trademark. My personal preference is butter-flavored shortening. Buttery flavor, but with the lightness of shortening.
1 c. buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk (and I basically never do), you can use milk or half-and-half with 2 tablespoons of vinegar added. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to sour, and it's good to go.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Add your fats, then rub it into the mixture with your fingers. You can use a pastry cutter, but I think rubbing it in does a more thorough job. You've done it right when it looks like coarse meal.

Next is the buttermilk. Don't just dump the entire amount in! The use of liquids in breadmaking isn't an exact science. The amount of liquid you need can vary based on humidity, the condition of your flour, the position of the rings of Saturn, or any other obscure factor. All you need to do is get the dry ingredients moist enough to come together in a smooth dough; too much liquid will make it sticky and a mess to work with. Start by adding half of the buttermilk, and stir. If you need more liquid, add a few more tablespoons and stir again. Keep going until you get the right consistency. Sometimes you may need to add more than 1 cup of liquid. If so, that's just fine. It's not the amount that matters, it's the consistency of the dough.

When your dough is right, turn it out on a lightly floured surface. Making biscuits requires a light hand in kneading. You want to knead it just barely enough for the ingredients to come together. You'll know when it does; you'll feel the dough suddenly become elastic in your hands. It takes very few kneads, maybe as few as 3-4.

Next, you want the dough at about 1/2-inch thickness. You can either pat it out with your hands or use a rolling pin. Cut rounds out of the dough with a biscuit cutter. Don't have a biscuit cutter? I find the small cans of tomato sauce, with the top and bottom cut out, work great. When you cut out all the biscuits you can, gather the scraps, pat them back together and cut out more until the dough is gone. The later batches may not be as light, since they were worked more, but oh well. Life's not fair.

Arrange the biscuits on a greased baking sheet. You want the sides touching. Put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned. While those are going, you can work on the gravy.

Gravy ingredients:
3 c. milk or half and half.
4-6 strips of bacon, or several links of sausage. Sausage gravy is more traditional, but I prefer the flavor of bacon.
4 tsp. flour.
Salt and pepper, to taste.

Cook your bacon or sausage in a good-sized skillet in the usual manner (until fully done), then remove it from the pan. I start mine cooking while I make the biscuits. If you want to mix the bacon or sausage into the gravy, you can cut it into small bits before cooking. Or, you can just serve it as a side dish. What you really want for the gravy is the fat.

You should have a nice bit of bacon or sausage drippings in the pan by now. Don't worry if there are little bits of bacon or sausage still left in the pan; that adds flavor. Turn your heat down to medium low. Add your flour to the drippings and mix with a whisk or a fork. All you're doing is making a roux. When the mixture is very lightly browned, it's ready. It shouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes.

Add your milk and stir briskly until it's well-combined and turn the heat up to medium. All you need to do now is heat the milk to a steady simmer. Be sure to stir frequently, if not constantly, to prevent sticking. The gravy should thicken nicely. If you want to add bacon or sausage bits to the gravy, now's the time to throw them back in. Season with salt and pepper. Traditionally, the gravy is pretty heavily peppered. It tastes wonderful.

Serve everything when it's nice and hot.

Egg Drop Soup and Homemade Chicken Stock

I love Asian soups. They tend to be very light, both in calories and in texture, yet are so comforting in the tummy. This is my take on the traditional egg drop soup. It's a very fast dish to make, taking maybe 25 minutes to whip up. You can serve it as a side dish, but I think it's a great as a light lunch or dinner on a cold day.

Ingredients:

1 quart chicken stock or broth. More on that in a minute.
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables. I love frozen veggies for cooking purposes. They're so much cheaper than fresh, yet the taste is very comparable.
2 dried shiitake mushrooms, unsoaked. I know it's traditional to soak the mushrooms first. But if you add it to the soup dried and let it soak in the broth, it gives the dish a much better flavor.
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 slice ginger
1 egg
1 tblsp. water
1 tblsp. corn starch
salt and pepper, to taste

There's nothing wrong with using canned chicken stock or broth. I go through the stuff like it's going out of style. However, making it homemade is so easy. And, like most cooking, homemade tastes worlds better than anything you buy pre-prepared. But first I'll give the soup recipe, then I'll get into the stock-making technique.

Put your stock/broth, either homemade or canned, in your cooking pot. Reserve about 1/4 cup of it in a small bowl for later. Add your ginger and soy sauce to the pot, and bring it to a simmer. Next, add the dried shiitake mushrooms. You want them cut into small pieces. I just hold them over the pot and cut them into bits with my kitchen shears. Let the stock simmer for about 10 minutes, until the mushrooms are softened.

Next, add the veggies. Bring it back to a simmer for another 5-10 minutes. While the veggies are cooking, beat the egg and water together in a bowl until combines. Your goal is to have a thin egg mixture.

Turn down the heat to a slow simmer. Take your bowl of egg mixture and slowly dribble it into the hot stock. It should solidify into thin strands and bits. Pour a few tablespoons of egg mixture, wait a moment, stir. Repeat. You want to stir enough that the egg doesn't form a big lump, but not so much that the uncooked egg turns into grains.

One that's done, take your reserved bit of stock and add the corn starch. Mix until it's blended well and there are no lumps. I find that clean fingers work best for this. Add the mixture to the pot and stir immediately. Bring it back to a low simmer. The soup should thicken nicely. Remove from the heat, and add your salt and pepper to taste.

Now, the details on chicken stock. The difference between stock and broth? Stock is made with bone, whereas broth is made from meat. Homemade chicken stock is the perfect cheapskate food. Virtually no effort to make, incredibly inexpensive ingredients, massively delicious results. Heck, I think chicken stock was created initially by early cooks who abhorred waste.

Don't waste good chicken meat on making stock. To make good stock, you need bones. Lots of them. Ironically, the more undesirable the piece of chicken, the better it is for making delicious stock. Chicken backbones, necks, the bony rib and back sections you cut off whole chicken breasts and leg quarters, and those chicken wingtips you cut off are all perfect for making stock. I keep a large freezer bag going full of all those parts. Every time I prepare chicken, all the bony scraps go into the bag. When I've accumulated enough, I turn out a batch of stock. This stock-making technique is the basic standard for everything from beef stock to shrimp stock.

Chicken stock necessities:

-Stockpot. No it doesn't have to be one of those special stock-making vessels sold just for the purpose. All you need is a fairly deep pot with a lid.
-A mesh strainer. Doesn't need to be expensive, you can find them at the Dollar Store.
-Bunch of chicken bones. Don't worry about exact amount or weight. You just want enough to fill your stock-making pot 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full.
-a bit of salt, to taste
-1 onion, quartered.
- 1 or 2 carrots, and 1 or 2 stalks of celery, cut or broken into chunks. How much you use depends on the amount of stock you're making. If you're using a 6 to 10 quart pot, one of each should be plenty. But if you have a big batch going, add more. You're adding the veggies for flavor only. They'll be removed and discarded at the end. Don't worry about prettiness. This is a great place to use up all those scrawny bits of celery in the center of the bunch, or that last withered carrot in the bag. You can even start a freezer bag full of the ugly celery ends and carrot tips you cut off while cooking, and save them to use for the stock.

Some people also add herbs and such to their stock. I prefer not to do that, since I use my chicken stock in dishes ranging from Asian to Italian. As is such, I try to keep the broth as neutral in flavor as possible.

Put the veggies in the bottom of the pot. Chicken bones go on top with a bit of salt. Add enough water to cover. You want the water level maybe 1/2-inch above the level of the chicken bones. Cover the pot, put it on medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. After the water starts bubbling, turn the heat down to low. You want the liquid at a gentle simmer. Now, you can basically forget about it. Check on it every hour or so, stir it if you want, and add water if you see the water level getting too slow. Initially, a brown scum will rise to the top of the pot. That comes from the cooking bones. It's harmless, but isn't aesthetically pleasing. Just skim it off with your spoon.

I simmer my chicken stock for about 3-4 hours, or until the bones are a bit softened. I learned by accident that is IS possible to overcook chicken stock. I had a batch I left in my crock pot for 10 hours, and the bones fell apart into teeny crumbles of grit. Ruined the entire thing.

When the stock is done, turn off the heat and let it sit for a moment. After that, you can use a spoon to skim all the fat off the surface. Take out the bones and veggies. I use a slotted spoon. If you're really cheap, like me, you can salvage a lot of perfectly good meat from the cooked bones. The soft meat is great for chicken salad or as pizza topping. After all the good-sized chunks are out, pour the stock through the strainer and into another pot or container.

You can store the stock in containers or bags in the freezer. If you're putting it in freezer bags, be sure to put the bags in container of some kind while waiting for them to freeze, just in case they leak. Chicken stock all over the freezer isn't fun. You can take the bags out of the container once they're safely frozen.

Southwestern Sides II: Cilantro-Lime Rice and Flour Tortillas

All right, the final entry on sides for the chipotle chicken! This rice is not the traditional tomato-based Spanish rice served with Mexican food. It's lighter, with a fresh lime taste. It's actually a variation on the rice recipe from Chipotle grill, if anyone has ever eaten there.

3/4 c. medium-grained rice. Not Uncle Ben's, Minute Rice, or anything like that. Just plain white rice.
1 c. chicken stock.
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon butter
1 tsp. salt
2 tblsp. finely chopped cilantro.

Put a 2-quart pot on low heat until the butter is melted. Be sure the heat is low, otherwise the butter will burn. Once the butter is melted, add the juice from the lime and the rice. Turn the heat up to medium-high and toast the rice for 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken stock and salt, and bring the whole thing to a boil. Cover the pot and turn the heat to low. Simmer it on low heat for 20-25 minutes, until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed. Fluff the rice with a fork and add the chopped cilantro.

Okay, tortillas. Homemade flour tortillas are awesome. I don't know what it is, but something about a tortilla fresh off the griddle is like heaven.

Tortillas themselves pretty fast and simple to make. The part that can take practice is rolling them out so that they're nice and round. I can't remember how many weird amoeba-shaped things I made until my skills improved. One thing I learned: it doesn't matter if your tortillas look like something from a Rorschach test. Trust me, they will be eaten. Homemade tortillas are just THAT good. This recipe makes about 8 good-sized tortillas.

2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tlbsp. lard. You can also use shortening, or a mix of shortening and butter, but that's less authentic. But I do admit that the addition of butter gives it a nice flavor
3/4 c. water

Mix the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Rub the lard in with your fingertips until the mix feels like crumbly meal. Add the water and mix until combined. Turn it out on a lightly floured countertop and knead a few times, until well-mixed. Let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Here's how you make round tortillas with a rolling pin. Take a small wad of the dough, about twice the size of a walnut, and roll it into a ball. Put the ball on your surface and squash it flat with your hand. Then, take your rolling pin and start rolling. Roll in only one direction, front to back. After a few rolls, give the dough a little less than a quarter turn clockwise (or counterclockwise, doesn't matter), and roll again. Keep turning and rolling. Be sure to flip the dough over on occasion, so both sides get rolled. With practice, you can whip out a tortilla in a matter of moments.

Heat your pan over medium heat. I use a comal, the traditional tortilla-cooking pan. You can also use a dry skillet. Cast iron is best. Put the tortilla on the pan. Give it a few moments, then flip it over. Tortillas should cook very quickly. We're talking a matter of 10-20 seconds on each side, max. If your pan leaves black spots, it's too hot. Turn the heat down. Unless you're my father, who loves his tortillas with burnt spots.

Now put it all together with the salsa, beans, rice and chicken, and you have an awesome meal.

Southwestern Sides: Black Beans and Corn Salsa

Okay, here are some of the side dishes to the chipotle smoked chicken. I think the crunchy corn salsa is perfect with it.

Ingredients:
1 can of sweet corn
1/2 onion, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1-3 smoked jalapenos, to taste. More on that later
Juice of 1 lime
3 cloves of garlic, minced
pinch of salt
1 avocado, diced
A handful of chopped cilantro

Drain the corn and put it into a bowl, along with the tomato, lime juice, garlic, onion, avocado and salt.

The smoky jalapenos make the salsa awesome, and they're easy to do. When you have your chipotle chicken on the barbecue pit, drop a few whole jalapenos on the grate with them and let them cook. You want them to be soft and slightly browned. They should be done in 40 minutes to an hour. Let them cool before handling them.

Once the jalapenos are cool, cut off the stem ends, cut the peppers in half and scrape the seeds out of the middle. Dice the flesh finely. The amount of diced jalapenos to add depends on your personal taste and the fieryness of the jalapenos. The heat can vary wildly from pepper to pepper. I've had days where I've added three jalapenos with almost no tangible heat, and I've had days where I added only one and almost couldn't stand the spiciness. Even though I usually use only 1 1/2 to 2 jalapenos, I always put three on the grill, just in case. I'd hate to run short of jalapeno. Once you've added your jalapenos, mix everything well and add the cilantro.

Now for the beans. I go for non-canned beans whenever I have the time. It's the whole cheapskate thing. I can buy a bag of beans for 79 cents, the same cost as a single can of the same. However, the bag will give me 4-5 times the amount of beans. Even if I only need one cup of beans, I'll always make the entire bag. It takes the same time to make a whole bag of beans as it does to make a small serving. Cooked beans freeze very well, so I package the extra beans in meal-sized servings and toss them in the freezer. Then the next time I want beans, I only have to microwave them.

This is a very simple recipe, but I personally don't dress up beans very much when they're going to be a side to a Mexican or Mexican-inspired recipe. I think their natural taste is a great compliment to the food on its own.

Ingredients:
1 lb bag of dried black beans
1 onion, chopped
1 tblsp. garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Put the beans in a good-sized pot and wash them. Pick out any shriveled or odd-looking ones. Then, fill the pot with plenty of water. You want the water level at least an inch higher than the beans. Put the pot on the stove and bring it to a rolling boil. Once it comes to a boil, turn off the burner and put the lid on the pot. Let the beans sit for one hour.

After an hour, the beans should have swelled nicely. Drain the liquid off and add fresh water. You want the water level about an inch and a half above the level of the beans. Add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and cover the pot. Bring the water to a slow simmer then turn the heat to medium-low. Simmer the beans slowly for 1-2 hours. You don't need to stir overly often during the first hour or so of cooking. They'll be hard enough so they don't stick. If the beans start sticking up out of the liquid, add more water to cover. Check for tenderness every now and again.

This is the part that I can't give exact measurements for. You'll notice when the beans are nearly tender. At this point, it's time to leave the lid off the pot and let evaporation help out. The goal is to reduce the liquid enough that, by the time the beans are perfectly tender, there is only a small amount of liquid left in the pot. It sounds tricky, but it's really not. Just keep an eye on it. If the liquid is almost gone and the beans are still a bit tough, add more water. Be sure to stir more often in this stage, since the beans are more likely to stick once they're tender. Once the beans are tender, they're done and ready to go. If you couldn't evaporate out as much of the water as you wanted, it's certainly not a disaster. Just serve them with a slotted spoon. Problem solved.

Chipotle Barbecued Chicken

Sorry, but this will be a long entry. It's hard to describe barbecuing technique with only a few words.

First, a bit of a rant. Thanks to the overabundance of barbecue cookoff shows on TV, featuring competitors describing their top-secret seasoning rubs made by specially-blessed virgins at the height of summer solstice, I think a lot of people now are intimidated by the thought of even trying to barbecue. Well, you shouldn't be. I'll say it if all those world-class competitors won't....making barbecue is easy. HAH! There, I said it! I'm sure that making award-winning barbecue takes a ton of practice and skill, but even a first-timer can turn out something that tastes pretty good. Kinda like how we're not all pastry chefs, but pretty much anyone can make a batch of homemade cookies that taste great.

The premise behind decent barbecue is basically two things: 1. Watch your fire; 2. Watch your meat. That's it. It has nothing to do with secret sauces, 75-ingredient barbecue rubs, or the Pit Master 3000 Fireball Extraordinaire Adamantium-Lined Smoker. All you need to make good barbecue are a few chunks of wood and a pit that lets you build an offset fire. Meaning, that your fire is not directly beneath the meat. An instant-read cooking or meat thermometer of some kind is also a huge help, until you get the "feel" for the temperature.

I think chicken is an ideal meat to start barbecuing with. It's inexpensive (there's my cheapness factor again!), it retains flavors easily, it doesn't require the marathon tending session of brisket, and it doesn't have the intimidation factor of ribs. This particular recipe is different from traditional American barbecue. This chicken has more of a southwestern or Mexican feel, and is great served with sides like Spanish rice, beans and tortillas.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, 3-5 lbs. Just a plain old fryer, not one of the large roasting birds.
3 tablespoons of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped. You can buy these in the can or jar almost anywhere.
2 tblsp. salt
1 tblsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tblsp. chili powder
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. whole cumin seed or 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup tequila, triple sec or whiskey. Beer or chicken broth also works, although the flavor may be a bit different.
1 can of chicken broth, for mopping

After removing the chicken from the bag and taking out the organs and such, the first step is to butterfly the chicken open so it lies flat. First lay the chicken breast-down on your cutting board. Take a knife. Starting at one side of the tail, cut straight down along the side of the backbone until you cut completely through, from the tail to the neck. Follow the joints...when you get to junctions like the leg or wing, slide the knife through the cartilage joining the bones, not the bone itself. It should take very little effort. If you're hacking and swearing, you're doing it wrong. Easy hint to find the joint: grab the leg or wing and give it a wiggle. Watch the point near the backbone where the swivel action takes place. That's where you need to cut. Once you cut through one side of the backbone, make a second cut down the other side. The entire bony chicken back should come out in one long strip. Some people throw it away, but I save it in the freezer. It's wonderful for making chicken stock.

At this point, the usual butterflying process involves cutting out the entire central rib cage of the chicken to make it lay perfectly flat. I don't recommend that for barbecue chicken. Chicken breast meat tends dry out during slow cooking, especially because it usually cooks faster than the rest of the bird. Leaving the rib sections intact gives the breast meat some much-needed bulk, which slows down the cooking process and helps keep it moist. Instead, I do this: after you've taken out the backbone, you should be able to see straight inside to the breastbone. It looks like a very long, white, downward-pointing triangle. Take your knife and cut straight through the breastbone. It's a pretty soft bone, so it shouldn't take much effort. Try to cut just the bone. Don't cut so deeply that you're going into the breast meat. After you cut the breast bone, you should have a relatively flat chicken.
Now, for the marinade. Mix all the other ingredients except the chicken broth together. I do my marinating in a gallon sized freezer bag, but you could also use a bowl or other container. Slide your chicken in the marinade. If using a freezer bag, be sure to squeeze out as much excess air as possible. Put the chicken in the fridge and let it marinate overnight.

An hour before you're ready to cook, pull the chicken out of the fridge and take it out of the marinade. Mix together yet another dose of the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, cumin and chili powder mixture. Rub the spices all over the bird, on both sides. Don't discard the leftover spices.

Okay, now for the barbecue part. Like I said, one of the main ideas behind barbecue is watching the fire. That's the part that can take practice to get perfect. The goal is to create just enough fire to keep the cooking surface at around 275 degrees F for most of the cooking time. The occasional variance won't hurt anything. Don't panic if you add wood and the temp spikes to 350 for a few minutes, or if you don't check it soon enough and the temp drops to 200. Barbecue is pretty forgiving.

Unlike grilling, you don't want your fire directly beneath your meat. You want it a respectful distance away to one side. If your smoker or grill has a smokestack or outlet hole, you want your fire at the opposite side of the smoker. That forces the smoke to fill the chamber and flavor the meat within instead of going directly out of the vent. You can make your fire with all wood, or charcoal with a few wood chunks added for a smoky flavor. Be sure to use at least some wood! That's where the flavor lies! You can find bags of wood chunks next to the charcoal in most grocery stores. I prefer to use pecan or hickory for chicken, although you can use anything you want. I personally would avoid mesquite, because I think the flavor is too strong for chicken. Just be sure you don't use any treated woods, like plywood, since you don't want the chemicals in them to end up in your food.

Here's my setup. The fire is far to one side. Notice I removed the grate covering the fire portion. If you can take off the grate, do it. You will be adding chunks of fuel periodically, and the easy access is a blessing.

I would get the fire started about 30 minutes to an hour before actually adding the meat. It will give time for your pit to come to the right temperature. If you're using a food thermometer to monitor the temperature, lay the probe on the cooking grate where you will be putting your chicken. You want that thermometer around 275 degrees. Many barbecuers and smoker pits now have thermometers built into the lid. If you're using the built-in thermometer to keep track of temperature, keep in mind that heat rises. It's hotter near the lid than it will be on the cooking surface. To compensate for that, you want your temperature reading on that thermometer to be about 25 degrees higher than your desired temperature. So, you want it on 300 degrees.

When your pit is ready, put the chicken on with the skin side uppermost. Be sure to put it with the breast facing away from the fire. That will help keep it from overcooking. Then, close the lid and let it cook.

Barbecue the chicken anywhere from 3-4 hours. Time varies based on how steady your fire is and how insulated your smoker is. Check your grill temperature periodically. I check on mine every 15-20 minutes. If I'm using a thermometer, I position my pit in such a way that I can see the thermometer from the window. I just walk to the window and check the temperature. If the fire needs feeding, I walk outside and throw a few chunks of wood on. You'd be surprised how little fire it takes to maintain a steady temperature. If smoke stops coming out of the pit, throw on another chunk. That steady smoke is what gives the distinctive flavor.

Remember that extra spice rub you saved? Throw it in a bowl along with the can of chicken broth. That's your mop to help keep the chicken moist. You can also add another tablespoon or so of chipotle peppers if you want an extra kick. Every 45 minutes to an hour, you want to liberally douse that chicken with the mop. You can use a basting brush or a barbecue mop. You lose heat every time you open the lid, so don't baste too often.

Your chicken is probably done when the meat is tender and all juices run clear. Just like a baked chicken. To test, I give it the "wiggle test". Grab the leg and give it a shake. If it's stiff or still feels like a hinged joint, it's not done. If the meat almost comes off the bone, it's probably done. To be sure, poke the thickest point of the dark meat (usually the area between the thigh joint and the body) and see if the juices run clear. At this point, I sometimes build up my fire to a nice blaze of around 400-450 degrees for a few minutes, just to insure that the internal temperature reaches the right point. If you're taking the meat's temperature with a thermometer, you want the chicken at 165 degrees.

Don't panic if the meat is pink! That's a side effect of the smoke and is a distinctive trait of barbecue. Let the meat rest for about 15 minutes before serving.

Since this entry has gone on long enough, I'll write about the sides in the next one.

Irish Soda Bread

Real Irish soda bread is great stuff. I know there are sweetened versions out there with raisins and such, but I was told that's the Americanized recipe and is way off-base. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that the savory way of making this bread is awesome. Crusty on the outside, tender on the inside, with a salty tang that's perfect with stews or soups. It's very addictive, almost like a cross between bread and a saltine cracker. I just started making it recently, and I only wish I had started earlier. It's amazing with butter and jam.

Let this bread cool down completely before serving it. You want to be able to slice it thinly; if you cut it when it's warm, it'll fall apart into chunks. It stores well at room temperature if kept in a gallon-sized freezer bag.

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tblsp. salt. Yeah, it sounds like a lot. But the saltiness of this bread is part of what makes it awesome.
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 to 2 cups of buttermilk. I personally never have buttermilk on hand. I don't use enough to warrant buying it. Instead, you can just use regular milk and add two tablespoons of white vinegar to it. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes to sour, and it's good to go.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the buttermilk and stir together to make a soft dough. Start with only 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk. If it needs more, add more until you get it to the right consistency.

Now, knead the dough. This bread is a quick bread, meaning it uses baking soda instead of yeast. Because of that, you want to be very careful to avoid overworking it. The more you work it, the less fluffy it becomes. Knead it on a lightly floured surface a couple of times, until you can feel the ingredients come together and the texture become smooth. It takes very few kneads, maybe 4-8 turns at the most. Once it's kneaded, form it into a ball. Then, take a sharp knife and cut a cross in the top of the dough. During baking, the cross will puff apart.

Put it on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the loaf is lightly brown and sounds hollow when you thump it.

Here's the soda bread served with the shepherd's pie and a dish of green cabbage sauteed with chicken broth. Yumm.

Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

I admit it. I'm usually not a fan of English cookery. Their sweets are marvelous, but most of their savory dishes always seemed a little bland to my taste. Not bad-tasting or anything, just overly placid. I always wanted to make a shepherd's pie, but all the traditional recipes I'd seen seemed to lack something. I came up with this version and loved it immediately. So it's not traditional. My apologies to the Queen.

Filling ingredients:

- 4 strips of bacon, chopped. I'm guessing about 3-4 ounces worth in weight.
- 1 to 2 lbs ground lamb or venison, depending on desired meatiness. You can substitute other ground meats, but you won't get the same distinctive flavor. Thankfully for my cheapskate nature, I have venison at my disposal and ground lamb is pretty cheap nowadays.
- 1 onion, chopped.
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 cup frozen green peas. I guess you could use canned, but I personally don't like the taste of canned peas.
- 2 ounces tomato sauce (half a can)
- 1 cup red wine
-4 ounces white mushrooms, sliced. FYI, mushroom stems are perfectly edible and taste just as good as the rest of the mushroom. Just cut off and discard the very tip of the stem, which may be a little dry.
- 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste.

For the roux:
1 tablespoon of oil
1 tablespoon of flour

For the crust:
4 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 tsp. salt

I make this entire dish in a cast-iron skillet, simply because it's easier to throw it in the oven. You can also make it in a saute pan without a problem. But if you use a saute pan, just be sure to move the filling to an oven-safe casserole dish or baking pan before adding the crust and putting it in the oven.

First, the mashed sweet potatoes for the crust. I don't like to boil sweet potatoes for mashing. Unlike regular potatoes, they tend to get soggy. Instead, pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and put them in a shallow roasting pan with maybe 1/2 inch of water on the bottom. Bake them at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until soft. Put them aside to cool while you make the filling.

Put your cast-iron skillet or saute pan on medium-low heat and add the bacon. No oil should be needed; the bacon will render out its own fat as it cooks. After enough fat has been rendered out to coat the bottom of the pan (you can add a bit of vegetable oil or butter if needed) and the bacon is crisp, add the onions and the carrots. Turn up the heat to medium and cook until the carrots are slightly tender. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute for about 3-4 minutes.



Turn your heat up to medium-high. Put in your ground lamb/venison/whatever and saute until browned. Add the tomato sauce, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Turn the heat back down to medium, and let it cook until the meat is fully cooked and tender and the flavors are blended. It'll take maybe 20 minutes more.


While that's cooking, break out a small frying pan to make the roux. When making stew-type dishes, the most common procedures are to either dredge the raw meat in flour before cooking, or to add flour to the oil at the very beginning...both steps create a roux that helps thicken the sauce. I don't like to do that. Once you add the flour to a dish, it tends to require more frequent stirring and attention to prevent the sauce from burning or sticking to the bottom. I don't have that kind of dedication. So, I just bypass the issue altogether and just add roux at the very end.

Roux is easy to make. Just put the oil and flour in the little pan, stir it well with a wisk, and heat over medium-low heat. Be sure to stir frequently. When the roux has a slight brownish cast, it's done. It shouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and set aside.


Back to the filling. Add the peas to the skillet and cook for another 2-3 minutes. You want the peas cooked just until they're heated through. Overcooked, mushy peas aren't fun. Add the roux and stir quickly. The pan juices should thicken into a nice sauce. At that point, taste and adjust seasonings, then take the pan off the heat. The filling is done.


Now, turn your attention back to the sweet potato crust. I use my stand mixer, but you can use a bowl and a potato masher just as well. Get a knife, cut a slash down the length of each baked sweet potato and either peel off the outside skin or squeeze out the cooked inside. Either step will do the trick and should be very easy. Add the egg, sour cream and salt, then mash/mix/blend everything together until creamy.

If you cooked your pie filling in a regular saute pan, now's the time to move it to a baking dish. Take generous dollops of the sweet potato crust and drop it in intervals over the filling. With a spoon or spatula, spread it over the filling until the entire dish is completely covered. Pay special attention to the sides. You want the sides covered as well as possible, to reduce bubble-overs. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Welcome to the blog!

Hello, readers! Both of you! Well, thanks to some never-ending prodding from my sister, I've finally started a cooking blog. I love cooking, and am always experimenting with some recipe or another. Sam finally pestered me into blogging about it.

I guess I should start with a little intro. I've never taken cooking classes. Nope, not even Home Ec. I'm not a chef. Never even cooked in a restaurant. I guess that qualifies me to write a (hopefully) non-presumptuous food blog, no?

My mom got me started on cooking when I was very young. Lola was my Emperor Palpatine; an Old School cook with an insanely wide food repertoire and knowledge, and one who would tolerate neither failure nor demands for exact ingredient measurements. Learning to cook under Lola Palpatine was interesting, needless to say. She produces awesome food by feel, by sight and by aroma, with reckless disregard for anything as trifling as teaspoon measures and meat thermometers. She refused to dumb down her methods for her apprentice. I still remember asking questions like, "Mom, how do you cut the chicken?", only to get the reply, "You pick up the knife and start cutting." Asking, "Mom, how much soy sauce do you use?" would get the response, "Enough for it to taste right." I admit it...at times, I whined. I begged. I pleaded for release. But no, she wouldn't let me off. So anyway, that's how I came to cook.

My cooking style? First and foremost, I'm cheap. Cheap almost to a fault. I practically feel physical pain at the thought of cooking something like "veal with truffle oil reduction." Wonderful for a Food Network chef who doesn't actually have to pay for his ingredients, but horrible for us peons stuck in reality. I also don't like paying for such things as pre-sliced carrots, pre-cooked chicken, or chicken breast strips. Convenience costs money. Rest assured that majority of my meal ingredients were either on sale, store brand, or reduced for quick sale.

Also, my mother passed down her curse. I don't measure. Baked goods are the exception, but sometimes I don't even bother then. I throw in ingredients until it looks right. Recipe exchange pot lucks throw me into fits. For me, the hardest part of doing this blog is trying to keep track of exactly how much of each item I use. So be a little patient if there are a lot of "to taste" or "about this much" ingredients. I'm trying, I really am.

And finally, I have no patience for fads and gimmicks. Our ancestors seemed to make sliced eggs quite well, without the patented hard-boiled egg slicer. It's entirely possible to cook a chicken well without the aid of a food thermometer. You don't need to roast a turkey in a special oven bag to make it tender. I'm sure you get the picture.

So anyway, on to the food! These are all recipes and techniques I've accumulated, and I hope everyone enjoys them.