Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Cauliflower Au Gratin

I bought the most perfect head of cauliflower - it was firm, white, and so sweet raw.  And then I made this cauliflower au gratin and it got even better!

I guess you can't go far wrong with a cheesy cream sauce, garlic, and a bread crumb topping...I could've eaten the whole casserole.  I don't often dress up vegetables for a side dish but since DH was bar-b-quing the steaks I figured I could put a little effort into the cauliflower.  Everyone enjoyed it!  The only bad part?  I broke my favourite baking dish when I was washing it! (It did have hairline cracks in the glaze :(   You can get the recipe for this fabulous Cauliflower Au Gratin (from the 2000 Milk Calendar) here.

Split Pea Soup

I grew up eating Habitant Pea Soup - a French Canadian favourite - but I think this recipe for homemade Split Pea Soup is even better!  It is very simple to make and a great way to use up a leftover ham bone.  There are not many ingredients and it cooks in about an hour or so, or as soon as the peas are soft.  It's hearty and comforting and très délicieux!

Split Pea Soup

4 cups water

1 meaty ham bone

1/2 pound dry split peas (yellow)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp prepared mustard

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

Bring water and ham bone to a boil in large pot; reduce heat and simmer 10 mins. Stir in peas, onion and bay leaf. Simmer 2 hours or until peas are soft (only took an hour or so for mine); remove bone. Cut meat into small pieces and return meat to stock. Add remaining ingredients (I reduce the amount of mustard a bit), except bacon, and heat through. Serve garnished with bacon (I never bother with that part!).

1-Dish Taco Bake

I love corn chips (I think that started in childhood! lol!) so when I saw that this recipe for a 1-Dish Taco Bake had a topping of crushed corn chips I thought I had to try it!

Our family loves Mexican food and we usually just have tacos or fajitas but this casserole was a nice change and combined all the same flavours in one dish.  It's very fast to assemble and it makes a great weekday dinner.  To avoid having a whole bag of Fritos in the house (bad news for me!) I just picked up the one cup needed for the recipe from the bulk store!

You can get the printed recipe for this simple and tasty meal, here.

Slow Cooker Cassoulet

Here's another crock pot recipe - this time I'm making Slow Cooker Cassoulet.  My sister recommended this recipe to me - in fact, she raved about it.  It sounded really good and really easy, with great ingredients like smoked ham, polish sausage, navy beans and white wine. 

I had a leftover ham bone from our Sunday night spiral ham dinner, but you can use a smoked ham hock or smoked turkey leg as a substitute.  There are a few ingredients in the recipe, including navy beans.  Everything is simple enough to gather but if you can't find the canned navy beans you'll have to prepare dried ones instead.  You can read about the process of soaking and cooking the beans on my December 9th, 2011 post HERE.  Other than that, this is a simple dinner to assemble and the slow cooker takes care of everything from that point on.  You can find the recipe from Canadian Living, here.

Now...when I actually served up this meal...it was not a huge hit.  I was a bit disappointed that the flavour was not more robust.  There is nothing bad about it - I was just not blown away.  It looked the same way at the end of cooking as it did going in.  I called my sister from the dinner table and we had a good laugh about how two families could feel so differently about a recipe.  I told her that perhaps if I was a hard-working peasant farmer from France in the 1800s I would be happily devouring my cassoulet after a long day...but tonight my mother was hiding food under her knife and son was having a chicken salad for dinner!  I'm still sharing the video because there are certainly as many tastes and preferences as there are people in the world and I cannot judge how you will like this dish.  It was not my cup of tea and I won't be making it again any time soon...unless perhaps, if hubby starts sharecropping in the back yard!

Cheesecloth

Cheesecloth is always in my kitchen drawer.  It is a gauze-like cotton originally used to make cheese, allowing the whey to drain away from the curds.  Although I am not in the habit of making my own cheese, I do use this versatile item for several things.

1. I always cover my roast turkey with wine & butter soaked cheesecloth...just the way Martha Stewart showed me years ago.  It really does produce a wonderful, golden skin on the turkey while keeping in the juices and holding that wine and butter on the bird - it's like tucking it in and getting it all cozy in the oven!

2. I always cover my  Christmas fruitcake in rum soaked cheesecloth (hmmm...I'm seeing a common thread here!).  There is something exciting about peeling back the cheesecloth from a ripened cake, the wonderful aroma of the rum escaping!

3. I like to make a cheesecloth sachet of cinnamon stick, star anise, and orange peel to suspend from a wooden spoon in a pan of milk to flavour it for topping Irish oatmeal.  It is amazing!  No need to fish out the soggy spices from the finished milk.

4. I do occasionally make thick yogurt 'cheese' and use cheesecloth for its original purpose!  It does work very well and it's kind of miraculous how much liquid drains out!

Cheesecloth is also good for polishing and cleaning...and it's cheap!

Old Fashioned Baked Beans

I have always made homemade baked beans in the crock pot and I shared the recipe with you way back in '09.  While it is super convenient to use the slow cooker to bake the beans, I always found the result to be a little dry.

This time I decided to try the recipe on the back of the dried white pea bean package.  The method is roughly the same (soak the peas overnight, drain and then cook until tender, combine with the sauce ingredients) but the baking is done in a low oven.  Sure, it takes 7-8 hours at 250 degrees F but once the beans are in the oven they require as little supervision as the crock pot (you just have to make sure they stay covered in the water/sauce by checking every couple hours).

Once I mixed up the beans and put them in the casserole dish (I used my fake Le Crueset enameled cast iron) I had my doubts whether they would cook down into saucy goodness.  Well...I was thrilled with the batch of beans at the end of the day.  They were perfect!  Tender, flavourful, and had that nice, thick sauce like you'd find in a can of baked beans - only way better!  My sister says 'why bother going through the hassle of making beans when I can get them at the store for .59 cents a can?'...while that may be true, every once in a while I just think it's fun and tasty to make them yourself and enjoy the slow-baked aroma of the dish all day long.  The flavour was amazing and I tell you, my house smelled really great while they cooked.  (Afterwards...not so much! ;) j.k!

You can get this awesome recipe for Old Fashioned Baked Beans here.

Dried Beans

Legumes are a source of protein, excellent sources of B vitamins, iron, minerals, and a very high source of dietary fibre.  While they are readily available canned, it is economical to buy dried beans, peas, and lentils and prepare them yourself.  I find it very difficult to even find canned navy (pea) beans but the packages of these dried white pea beans are always in the store.

It takes a bit of advance planning to get the beans ready to use but it is a very simple process.  After rinsing the beans and picking through them to make sure there are no stones, dirt, or bad ones, you just need to cover them with 3-4x their volume of water and let them stand 8 hours.  This is most easily done overnight.  In the morning, just drain the water and then cover them with an ample amount of water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about an hour.  Then drain once again when the beans are soft and they are ready to use in a recipe.

Next week I'm going to share a super recipe for Old-Fashioned Baked Beans baked in the oven.  So delicious!

Peeling Fresh Ginger

Do you know the easiest way to peel fresh ginger?  Simply scrape down the sides of the skin with the edge of a teaspoon and the skin will flake right off!  I try to buy a piece of ginger root that is nice and firm, shiny & fresh, and not too nubby (the 'knots' are more difficult to get around with the spoon).  I'll be showing you a recipe using grated fresh ginger next month - it's a wonderful flavour to add to holiday recipes!

Beef and Spirals

This is one of those 'lazy lasagna' type casseroles, with an unbelievably rich and hearty flavour.  The recipe yields a very large casserole (serve a crowd!) so I usually just make half the amount.  You could also make the full recipe and then just divide it into 2 smaller casserole dishes and put one in the freezer for one of those crazy rushed nights!  My DH really loved this recipe and happily ate the left-overs for lunch!

 

Beef and Spirals

2 cups uncooked spiral pasta

2 pounds ground beef

2 small onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce

1 jar (4.5 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (I used fresh)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 pound process American cheese, cubed (I used a grated 3-cheese blend)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain. Cook the beef, onions, and garlic over med. heat until meat is no longer pink. Drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and mushrooms; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 mins. Place 1/2 cup of meat sauce in a greased shallow 2-1/2 qt. baking dish. Place half pasta over sauce. Spread with sour cream. Top with American cheese and remaining pasta and meat sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 mins. Uncover; bake 5-10 mins longer or until bubbly.

Man vs. Food

My hubby and son have recently started watching Man vs. Food, a show on the Travel Channel where Adam Richman eats his way through food challenges.  It is disgusting and entertaining and makes for great 'guy tv'.  I find it difficult to witness, in most cases, such an unhealthy approach to eating (more gluttony than gastronomy) but when one episode visited Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington, DC I had to watch.

Quite disappointed that we never got to visit this famous eatery in the Nation's capitol, we decided to make our own version of a chili-topped half-smoke...

We tried to find a similar sausage at our local market but ended up just getting an original Grill 'Em smoked sausage.  We grilled them on the bar-b-que and added them to a nice-quality Italian-style bun.  I topped them with my homemade chili con carne, cheese, and caramelized onions and mustard.  While I only had a bite to sample the concoction (not very Weight-Watcher friendly), everyone else really enjoyed trying our own version of the challenge!  Very tasty and it made for a funny family dinner - food is often an event at our house and this definitely made for interesting conversation!

The boys have also become fascinated with Storage Wars but I think I'll draw the line at bidding for potential treasure...