Thursday Gourmet

I like spicy foods.   Especially chili pepper-based spicy food.  I’m not all that fond of horseradish or mustard heat, just the chili peppers.  My family (and (((Wife)))’s family) know that I like spicy food.  Which can create a minor problem. Sometimes I receive a gift consisting of a jar of dried chilis.  Some of these I love — crumbled cascabel, mulatto, or jalapeno I can and do use.  Chipotle peppers, dried and smoked jalapeno, are pretty good, but their flavour is so strong, so overpowering, that I find them hard to use.  Which means that I have a couple of jars of minced chipotle sitting in my cupboards. 

What to do, what to do.

Wait, I’ll make a chipotle sauce.  And here it is:

The Thursday Gourmet (Celebrating National Pancake Week)

Yes.

You read that.  You really did.  National Pancake Week begins February 14 and ends on February 20, 2010.   Apparently, they had a real problem deciding which week to celebrate as NPW.  First they considered the third week of January, then the fourth week of February, and so on.  Apparently, they kept waffling over the date.

Pancake Week.  So.  Should I publish a pancake recipe?

When have I ever gone with the flow?  Here is my recipe for French Toast:

Thursday Gourmet — Pane del Cioccolato

Every year, I get in the mood to bake holiday breads.  One year, (((Wife))) did a fruitcake (and I don’t mean me).  It filled part of our refrigerator for eight weeks.  And bent a shelf.  I prefer breads which can be eaten, if not immediately, within a day or two.  Such as stollen or chocolate bread.

When I first ran across the recipe in an Italian cookbook, I was a little unsure.  Afterall, a chocolate bread would be sickeningly sweet, right?  I tried the recipe and discovered (much to my chagrin) I was wrong.  So, without further ado, here is a recipe for chocolate bread.  It is quick (a single rise bread), easy (as long as you are willing to knead the heck out of it), and delicious.  And it is wonderful for gifts (I baked six this afternoon, and have ten more rising right now as I type).

Pane del Cioccolato

The Thursday Gourmet: Potato Kale soup

A few days ago, (((Wife))) sent me to the store to get some salad makings — lettuce, cukes, sprouts, the usual.  I spotted a nice bagged mix which included some chard, at a good price, and bought it.  When I got home, (((Wife))) hit me with the bag of kale and chard, pointing out that this was not salad makings as it needed to be cooked.

So I looked around to figure out what to do with a large bag of chard and kale.  And then it hit me (an idea, not the bag of veggies): 

The Thursday Gourmet: Vegetarian Stuffing

First off, let me wish everyone a Happy National Turkey Genocide Day.  Of course, being different, we had a roast chicken.  And mashed potatoes (homemade).  And roasted Brussels sprouts.  And cranberry sauce.  I am now fulfilling another Thanksgiving Day tradition by watching the Lions lose.  And, while I digest all the good stuff, here’s a useful recipe for anyone who has vegetarians for dinner (if vegetarians eat vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?):  vegetarian stuffing (and yes, I know this would have been more useful a week ago, but (((Wife))) and I wanted to test our idea to see if it was edible).

The Thursday Gourmet: Hungarian Goulash

When we lived in Arizona, my folks noticed that I had an affinity for mud.  Not the nice clean loamy mud of Maryland, but the sticky gluey clay mud of the high desert and pinyon-juniper forests.  The kind of mud which can pull off a pair of canvas All-Stars and then pull of the socks for good measure.  I loved the mud.

After a heavy rain, or as the snow melted, I could spend hours creating canyons, alluvial fans, oxbows and rapids in the muddy rivulets.  So my parents bought me a pair of galoshes.  And I galoshed through the mud for the five years we lived on the Coconino Plateau.  And, being a kid, I conflated Goulash and Galosh. 

So here is my recipe for

Hungarian Galoshes Goulash

The Thursday Gourmet: Pennsylvanian Mexican Sandwich

Today at school, (((Boy))) had a run in with another person who doesn’t believe that atheists exist.  A student said, “Thank god.”

(((Boy)) answered, “You’re welcome.”  The other student chuckled.  (((Boy))) then continued, “Which is really funny, considering I’m an atheist.”

“I don’t believe atheists actually exist.”

“Why not?”

The other student smiled and said, “Because I had a near-death experience.”  He then proceeded to tell about seeing the light, hearing god’s voice, and the whole rigmarole.

(((Boy))), without missing a beat, asked, “So how does your psychotic episode, most likely caused by lack of oxygen to your brain, have anything to do with what I do, or do not, believe?”

The other student then launched into a gentle tirade about atheists believing in god(s), just denying the existence either through hatred, pain or a predilection for sinful behaviour.

Anyway, it is time for yet another edition of the ever-ignored Thursday Gourmet.  Today’s recipe:

Pennsylvanian Mexican Sandwich

The Thursday Gourmet: Uncle Bill’s Chicken

I like garlic.  Hell, in our house, garlic is considered a vegetable.  I’ve been known to go through as many as 10 bulbs of garlic in a month.  Not cloves of garlic.  Bulbs. 

This recipe comes (in a roundabout way) from a garlic cookbook (a collection of recipes from the  Gilroy Garlic Festival) in which it is listed as ‘Uncle Hugo’s Chicken.’  My name is not Hugo.  I have no uncle, much less an uncle by the name of Hugo.  I am an uncle, though, so to her I am Uncle Bill.  Thus, my altered version of the recipe is called:

Uncle Bill’s Chicken

The Thursday Gourmet: Beaten Biscuits

I know I haven’t been posting much.  I’m on vacation this week, and writing my blog doesn’t rank at the top of my vacation list.  I have, however, been cooking.  And trying new recipes.  And enjoying the (((Wife))).  And cooking!

I asked (((Wife))) what she wanted with a brined sirloin roast done on the barbecue.  She said she wanted biscuits.

Uh-oh.  Bisquits are trouble.  I am never gentle enough with the dough. I create hockey pucks.  And I’m not even Canadian.  Not good.

So I looked around in my cookbooks for biscuit recipes and found this one in Bernard Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads:

Beaten Biscuits

Thursday Gourmet: Chicken With Wine, Onions and Grapes

My freezer is chock full of chicken.  Well, not chock full, but there are at least five packages of chicken breast fillets in there.  What to do, what to do, what to do?