Roasted chestnuts

Ok, ok I'm betting most of the people who read the title of this post will immediately have "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" running through their heads. Am I right??

I knew it.

Just like artichokes and baccala and pomegranates, chestnuts will always make me think of my Dad. We get them every year about this time. Stored in big barrels in the grocery store, it's always a sure sign that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. When they are shelled they kind of look like little brains to me. In fact, when I was little, I can remember pretending that they were the brains of evil and hateful, little, tiny monsters and I giggled gleefully as I swallowed them down. I really did do that, silly as it sounds, and I always think of it every time I eat them.

I have been eating "roasted" chestnuts for as long as I can remember. Ok so we bake them but we never call them baked chestnuts, just doesn't sound right. If you haven't eaten them before you really should try them. They have a smooth and buttery taste and are very tender. I usually pick up a couple of handfuls when I buy them.

Here's what you do with them once you get them home:

The trickiest part of baking them is cutting the X in the top of the nut. BE CAREFUL! They can be slippery little suckas and you don't want to find yourself headed to the emergency room before you get to munch some of these down.

I let John do the dirty work. You want to put the nut flat side down on a cutting board or in a very thick pot holder in your hand. John used the cutting board method and a very sharp knife. Being very, very careful he sliced right through those outer shells, making an X in each one. This allows the steam to escape. If you skip this step you will have exploding chestnuts in your oven. In fact one of mine exploded this time. The outer shell mustn't have been scored deep enough and about 20 minutes into the baking I heard a big pop and a ricochet off the oven walls. BAM! Lost one.

You will have to excuse Johns grubby hands. Just before he scored these for me he had put new brake pads on my car. Even though his hands are clean, they still are a bit stained with grease. Good thing no one eats the shell.

Once you have cut the X into all the nuts, place them on a cookie sheet (X side up) and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about a half hour. You will see the shells start to crack open. That means they are finished.

Let them cool for a bit before you touch them. They are very hot. It's best to peel them when they are still warm. Cold chestnuts are much, much harder to peel. If you haven't tried them I hope you and I hope you imagine that your swallowing little monster brains so I won't feel so alone in my crazy thinking. Thanks!

C'mon they do look like little brains!

Sausage & Mushroom Penne Gratin

In addition to raising a family, taking care of my home, working 40+ hrs a week, and cooking delicious meals for my crew and many others, I'm also a crafter. I started crafting when I was a teenager and haven't stopped since.

Each year I choose an ornament to make and something from my kitchen to give as a gift. For the past 5 years or so I have been working with clay and dough. I really love it. It dries my hands out like crazy, but working with it is really a joy to me. I think if life had taken me in a different direction I would have been a photographer or a potter. I love the feel of the clay in my hands and the way I can transform it, and sculpt it and make it into something different. Each year I have people tell me how they think of me when they hang an ornament on their tree that I made for them. I think that is just about the coolest thing ever, and that's why I rack my brains each year to come up with something new and different for my friends and family to hang on their tree. It's not always clay, but it's always something I put thought and effort into, in hopes that it will be a present they love cause I made it with my very own hands and filled it with love. Corny as it sounds, it's true.

Since I knew I would be busy crafting all weekend I wanted a nice hearty dinner that I didn’t have to fuss with too much. This recipe was perfect. I copied it out of the November issue of Gourmet magazine a few weeks back. That very same day my friend Krysta over at Evil Chef Mom had made the same dish. Strange how people on totally different sides of the country pick out the same recipe from a magazine loaded with dozens and dozens of others to choose from. A accredit it to good taste.

I have to admit; the photo in Gourmet was what got me to take a second look at this. It was so rustic and cheesy. Two things I greatly admire in a recipe, plus it looked fairly simple to make and it was so good. I'm talking really good. It's creamy and cheesy and loaded with mushrooms and sausage and the top has that terrific crunchy cheese, oh that was the best part. I had to stop John from hogging all the crispies for himself!

I made 1 addition to this recipe, some fresh parsley. I also cooked the sausage before I had the penne ready, cause I knew it would take a few mintues to get that cooked. I think the next time I make this, it would be fabulous with some caramelized onions in it. Yum!
You make - you like!

Sausage and Mushroom Penne Gratin
Printable recipe
1 pound dried penne
1 lb bulk Italian sausage
1 lb package of sliced mushroom (I used two 8 oz packages of baby bellas)
1 garlic clove, forced through a garlic press (ONE???…I used 2)
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup grated Parmigano-Reggiano
8 oz shredded whole milk mozzarella divided

Cook the penne in a large pot of boiling, salted water until al dente. Reserve a ½ cup of the cooking water then drain and transfer to a flameproof 3-quart baking dish.

Meanwhile cook the sausage in 1 tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up any large pieces, until no longer pink. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl leaving the fat in the skillet.

Pre-heat the broiler.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet along with the mushrooms and garlic. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden (about 3 minutes).

Return the sausage to the skillet along with the cream, reserved ½ cup cooking water and a rounded ½ teaspoon salt and a ¼ teaspoon of pepper. Boil over high heat, stirring once or twice until thickened (about 4 minutes).

Pour over the pasts then stir in the Parmigiano Reggiano, ½ cup mozzarella and salt to taste. Spread evenly in baking dish and top with remaining mozzarella.

Broil 3 to 4 inches from the heat until golden brown in spots (about 5 minutes).

No Rise Biscuits

Sweet, sweet biscuits how I love you. Dripping in butter and honey, slathered in apple butter, covered in jam, I'll take ya just about anyway I can. My husbands favorite way to eat ya is with sausage gravy. It's his absolute favorite breakfast (which he had this morning, lucky dog) and if you throw a few pound of bacon along with that he'd be one very happy man.

Not being a Southern girl, I don't feel confident about my biscuit making abilities. Oh how I wish I was an expert biscuit maker, but the plain truth is, I am not. I have to work on my biscuits. Since I wanted homemade biscuits to be on my Thanksgiving menu and not wanting to subject my guests to a first time recipe flop, I decided I better get my buns into the kitchen and sharpen up on my biscuit making skills.

After several days searching the food blogs I happened upon this recipe from The Homesick Texan. Texans - biscuits right? Southern girls know how to cook biscuits right? Well I can tell you, yes, yes they do. This recipe was quick and easy and produced a mouth watering biscuit just screaming to be doused in butter and jam (or sausage and gravy if you are like my husband).

I always wondered how people got the biscuits to come part into two flaky pieces so nice and easy, well I had an epiphany re-reading the recipe while I was rolling them out. The dough is folded over before your cut out the biscuits. Well duh...I told you I was no Southern girl.

See the two layers?

Biscuits - recipe from The Homesick Texan
Printable recipe
2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of sugar (can add more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of butter, cold (8 tablespoons)
3/4 cup of buttermilk, cream or half-and-half

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and work into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.

Add the liquid, mixing until a bit loose and sticky. Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a minute. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking. Take dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.

Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half. Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough. Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Makes 10-12 biscuits. If you don’t want to roll and cut them out, after kneading and beating the dough you can drop the dough onto the baking sheet with a spoon. They’re not as symmetrical (dropped biscuits are also known as cat head biscuits) but they’re no less delicious.

Yes we can.

“Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk, Martin Luther King walked so that Barack could run, and Barack Obama ran so you could fly. You can fly.”

Marian Springfield
article found here

Sloppy Joes, Slop, Sloppy Joes

I just want you all to know that Mitch and I had that song stuck in our heads all day yesterday. He came over early yesterday afternoon to spend Election Day with us. That song just embedded itself in our brains. Yes we sang it just like Adam Sandler, over and over and over again. When Jesse asked what were having for supper I could have simply said “Oh Master Jesse we will be dining on the sloppy Joe’s tonight”. But did I say that…..Noooo. I had to have my hips a swinging, wooden spoon in hand like a microphone and belt out the tune that had been swimming around in my cranium all day long “Sloppy Joes, Slop, Sloppy Joes”. He then proceeded to give me a very strange look, sigh heavily, and slowly walked away. I think half the fun of making these was getting to sing that song over and over again.

If you haven’t heard the Adam Sandler Lunch Lady song then you probably have no idea as to what in the heck I am talking about. Don’t try looking it up on You Tube, we couldn’t find the cool version with Chris Farley dancing in it. It's a true classic.

So what led up to this whole Sloppy Joe night was that I decided that I wanted to make something fairly quick and easy for dinner last night. My guys love Sloppy Joes. I don’t make them as often as they would like so I decided it was time to give them some made from scratch (no Manwich in sight) Sloppy Joes.

I used a Dave Lieberman recipe and tweaked it to my likings as I always do. At first I was hesitant about the soy and Worcestershire, but in the end, I have to say, these were really flavorful and were busting with tangy flavor. A keeper for sure.

This recipe made a big old batch. Enough for 6 big buns, with a good amount of leftovers.

Sloppy Joes
Adapted from a recipe by Dave Lieberman
Printable recipe
3 pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic
3- 4 tablespoons of tomato paste
2/3 cup BBQ sauce
¾ cup ketchup
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup soy

Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until tender. Add the beef and garlic. Crumble and break up the beef as it cooks. Drain any liquid and return mixture to the pan.

Stir in the tomato paste until the meat is coated. Add the BBQ, ketchup, Worcestershire and soy. Bring to a boil and cook until sauce it thickened. About 3- 5 minutes.

You can make these in advance and just re-heat over low heat or nuke it in your microwave.

VOTE!

Oh my gosh! I just couldn't believe it when I found the photo above. I was just amazed. That's exactly what I looked like today when I went out to vote. Stockings, red white & blue high heels and all!

It's uncanny!

(ok, ok so I was in jeans and a t-shirt...I like to dream a little sometimes)

Election Day started off early for us today. John was in line at the polls at 6:40am. As he was standing in line, one of the poll workers stuck her head out of the door and said "we don't have any ballots". Great John thinks. Five minutes later she came back out again and said "the ballots are here, but we can't turn the machine on. We don't have the keys". What?? At 7:15 John is finally in to vote. He's the 3rd person in line, the first one in the booth and he discovers that his marker has no ink! He stands there for 5 minutes, waving his empty marker in the air. Finally the 196 year old poll worker (hey John said that, not me!) shows up with a new marker and John can vote.

I took the day off to hang with the kids, take care of some medical stuff, run some errands and of course make cupcakes to support my candidate. I also took my second trip to Trader Joe's. This time I wasn't packed into the aisles like a sardine. Opening day was just too hectic and I missed out on a lot of the items I wanted to try. Today I got to take my time and really look at all the products. I got some really yummy stuff. I found that they made Goddess Dressing, a favorite of mine. I scooped up 2 bottles. I can't wait to have it on my salad tonight. I also picked up hard salamis for the guys, along with some salsa and chips and some hummus for Mama. I can see myself going back a few times a month to get the things I really like.

Ok on to the cupcakes. This is my "go to" cupcake recipe. Everyone loves them. They are moist. They are chocolaty. They have creamy peanut butter frosting. They have been consumed in mass quantities.

They might give you a hint as to who I voted for.

I'm just sayin'.

You can find the recipe here.

Please remember to VOTE - -it's important. Also remember, if you don't vote, you can't bitch about the situation cause you did nothing to try and change it.

Pizza Bites

I came across a really great blog called Chaos in the Kitchen this past week. My mother-in-law and I were sitting in front of the computer screen almost drooling over all the terrific looking recipes on Katie's site.

This recipe found here looked particularly scrumptious. I knew I was going to be making it the minute I saw it, and I did.

It's so easy to put together and it makes three, yup I said three, pie plates full of deliciousness. I skipped the recipe for the pizza dough this time around and bought two 2 pound bags of fresh dough. I used about 3 pounds of dough. Next time I'm going to try this with home made dough.

This is how I made them:

I cut off walnut sized pieces of the dough, then just rounded them off in my hand.

Then I flattened the dough a bit...


and stuffed in about 2 pieces of cut up pepperoni and a good chunk of mozzarella.


Then I pinched the dough back over the filling. So easy!



I laid them seam side down in a greased pie dish.



Then brushed them with the olive oil and herb mixture and then sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese.



I really liked that it made 3 plates full.

I cooked 2 and put 1 in the fridge
(1 will never be enough!).

Some pans had 16 in them, some 18....I just kinda filled them and didn't count until the end. Hey - it worked out just fine.

I baked them for 20 minutes. Let them rest 5 minutes then called the boys in to snack.

I heated up 2 bowls of marina sauce for dipping and let the grazing begin.

These were wonderful. I'm glad I increased the amount of pepperoni, cause the only complaint I heard was "Mom next time put more pepperoni".

These would be great make ahead appetizers to bring to a party.

Conclusion in my house:

"Make these again Mom"

I'm just waiting for them to ask me to cook the third pan.

Thanks Katie! This one's a keeper!