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Literary Spare Ribs February 6, 2012

Posted by cirellih in Dinner, Family, Food.
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I love foods that are inspired from books. Little House on the Prairie has an entire cookbook of frontier foods. I’ve made a root vegetable Shepard’s pie after reading the Redwall series. One of my favorite’s though, is a Roald Dahl cookbook that includes favorites such as, Hair Toffee from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Frobscottle from The BFG, and my personal favorite: Hansel and Gretel Spare Ribs from Rhyme Stew.

A little macabre, but lots of fun to make… and eat!

They take a while to make, but come out incredible crispy and delicious. You can certainly imagine a witch munching the meat off the bones. I do promise that no children were harmed in the making of these ribs!

The recipe couldn’t be simpler:

  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mustard
  • 1 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 lbs pork ribs (not children’s, as that is frowned upon greatly)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425*.
  2. Combine the first six ingredients in a medium bowl.
  3. Place the ribs on a roasting pan, and coat with the sauce mixture.
  4. Cook the ribs for an 1.5 hours, turning them every half hour and basting with the juices in the pan. Be forewarned, this recipe does produce some smoke!
  5. Slice the ribs before serving, and enjoy!

Something Fishy is Going On February 1, 2012

Posted by cirellih in Craving, Dinner, Food.
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That something fishy is tilapia!

I was in the mood for fish tonight. That craving came from Saturday, when I watched a marathon run of Jacques Pepin on PBS. He made this delicious looking dish of Darphin Potatoes with spring onions that would be “parfect wiz some feesh.” He is French, you see.

After that, all I wanted to make was that pancake with fish. This is what it was supposed to look like:

Sadly, my potato doormat did not come out looking anything like his. I blame Chris, and his dislike for non-stick pans. I am pretty sure that was the major flaw in my cooking plans.

Anyway, the rest of the dinner came out beautifully, if you ask me!

I followed the recipe for pan-fried fish from The Joy of Cooking to the last detail. They really do know their stuff in that cookbook! They suggested washing the fish in cold water and then patting it dry to reduce splattering. That certainly worked! Barely a drop splatter anywhere, and look how golden brown… scrumdiddlyumptious!

Please ignore the gelatinous grey blob at the top of my plate. That was supposed to be crispy and golden brown as well. Sadly most of the crispy decided to stay on the bottom of the pan. Ah, well, live and learn, eh?

Training and Rigatoni January 15, 2012

Posted by cirellih in Dinner.
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Having a puppy is lots of fun, but certainly hard work! We’ve enrolled Oliver in training classes. He passed puppy class with flying colors, and now we’ve moved on to the intermediate level. Difficult tasks, like heeling and staying while lying down. It’s frustrating for him sometimes, but it will certainly be worth it in the end!

After our grueling training session… Oliver would have called it grueling anyway, I settled in to cook dinner before an evening of Downton Abbey. For tonight, I decided upon a pasta dish. The wonderful thing about pasta is that it can hold a whole host of other ingredients.

There were several ingredients I had that needed to be used: broccoli, garlic, and spinach and feta chicken sausages. I sauteed the sausages with garlic and olive oil. Mixed the pasta and broccoli together, and added in sausage slices and olive oil. So incredibly easy, and so delicious!

Now that dinner is done, Chris and I are ready to settle in for Masterpiece Theater beside the fire. Quite the perfect end to the evening.

Monday, Monday September 19, 2011

Posted by cirellih in Craving, Dinner, Food.
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It’s Monday. Work had a few too many lulls for my liking, so I had plenty of time to think about dinner. I wanted something light and delicious, so decided on chicken piccata… always a good choice!

This meal combines everything that I love. Broccoli, mashed potatoes, lemon, capers and artichokes… especially the artichokes.

It’s an easy enough meal to make. Just needs a little preparation.

For the piccata for two:

  • 1 chicken breast halved
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 3/4 cup chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1 can quartered artichokes
  • 2 tsp capers

1. Dust the chicken with flour until evenly coated.  2. Cook the chicken in the olive oil until done. 3. Once the chicken is cooked, add in the stock, wine, lemon juice, capers and artichokes. 4. Let simmer for 15 minutes. 5. Enjoy!!!

 

Dinner for a Busy Bee September 1, 2011

Posted by cirellih in Dinner, Food.
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I can’t claim that I was a particularly busy bee today, but Chris had an early morning and was working hard all day!

Dinner was almost ready when he got home! Honey Rosemary Chicken with broccoli, pan fried potatoes, and local swiss chard with caramelized onions. Pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.

For the chicken:

Cook the chicken in a little olive oil until it is full cooked.  Take the chicken out of the pan and set it aside. In the pan, put two or three tablespoons of honey and a generous sprig of fresh rosemary. Let the honey mixture cook a little until if forms a nice glaze. Put the chicken back into the pan and let it get coated with the honey. Easy.

For the swiss chard and onions:

Cook the onions with ‘butter’ (I used vegetable oil spread and it came out just fine). Cook them FOREVER until they are browned, soft and delicious. Blanch the swiss chard in some boiling water until they are the texture that you like. Drain, then mix with the onions. I sprinkled mine with a little parmesan cheese. Delish!

The nice thing with a dinner like this, is that you can do as much or as little as you like. I had already caramelized the onions yesterday, so I didn’t have to worry about cooking them tonight. The potatoes took a little bit of patience, mostly trying to resist the urge to flip them before they are browned. You could just stick to the chicken and broccoli and call it a night!