Carne Asada Tacos

Today was a special treat!  Drew had most of the day off for Veteran's Day and so we celebrated by going to lunch, watching an episode of House (we are almost caught up!), and taking a nap (ok...so we didn't do that last one).  We also stopped by the grocery store and picked up the stuff for tonight's dinner.  Even the checker could tell what we were making.  I don't know what else people would buy flap meat to make.  I got the recipe from Cooking Light's November 09 issue.  It is officially called Carne Asada Taco with Avocado Pico de Gallo. 

This one jumped off the page for me because I have been on a particular food quest for a while now (I think it has been 6 years).  A little restaurant in Houston  (Silvia's Enchilada Kitchen) serves an appetizer called Picomole.  It is phenomenal (not an overstatement).  You would think creating a facsimile of this dish would be quite easy - take pico de gallo and throw some avocado in there.  You would think, as I did...wrong.  There is some sort of secret spice in there.  We spoke with Silvia and she would not relent.   Oh well, the search continues. 
Let's start at the beginning on this one:
I got the marinade for the beef going a little early today - all the better, if you ask me.  The recipe calls for a 3 hour marinade, I think we did it for 5.  This is a great weeknight meal because the marinade takes only a few minutes to get together and can sit in the fridge for a while. 
After my LONG nap today, I got up and turned on the double burner griddle and heated up the grill press (innagural use, PC).  While those got searing hot, I prepped the Avocado Pico de Gallo and tasted it.  Not bad, not bad. It is not quite the standard of Silvia, but it was a nice flavor combination. 

The prep for the meat could not be easier and the result is a tender and flavorful taco meat.  I served this with some Ranch Style beans and flour tortillas.  Good dinner, easy prep! 

Medi-Madness

Tonight's menu was somewhat in the Mediterranean genre.  It included Mediterranean chicken kebabs and a Cauliflower dish with Feta and Tomatoes (both from Christmas with Southern Living 2009).  I will introduce this review by stating a little known fact about me:  I could easily be Greek - I can eat a plate of almost any type of olive in seconds flat and I am sort of obsessed with feta cheese.  I love all things Greek!  I will further introduce this review by stating a (most likely) more well-known fact about Drew: He hates feta cheese and warm olives.  I know both of these things and tonight's menu tells you who won out in my menu plan this time.  They can't all be for Drew, can they?  In my defense, there was something that he does enjoy thrown in there, too.  He has not gone hungry, I assure you. 
With that introduction, here goes the review: 

The kebabs are a good weeknight menu choice for us.  I did not include the bell peppers, because Drew is not a big bell pepper eater.  I also cheated a little on this one by using a bottled Italian dressing to marinade these for 30 minutes, instead of making the marinade.  I do realize that this is the wrong thing to do when reveiwing a recipe, but I was at the store shopping by memory (never a good idea for me - I forgot at least 3 ingredients for this recipe).  The marinade worked and the chicken was very tender.  I grilled these on the George Foreman grill (which hadn't seen use in a while - George was happy to oblige).   

While the chicken was marinating in the fridge, I turned on the oven got some potatoes going.  I used the mandoline discussed just recently, with much better results (thanks, Becky, for the tip). 

Then I got started in the cauliflower dish.  For this recipe, you parboil the cauliflower and then let them hang out in a colander for a few minutes while you get red onion going in a skillet, then you add the cauliflower, the tomatoes and the feta to the mix and heat and serve (garnish with the kalamatas).  It is straight-forward and I enjoyed the results.  This could not be said of Drew, he refused to try it because of the "smell" of the cheese. 

So there, you have it, my small contribution to the enjoyment of all things Greek.  Maybe some day Drew will change his mind about the feta - he doesn't know what he is missing! 

Mavs 121 Rockets 103 - OH YEAH!

Abbev. Baking Day

Today, I had grand plans of making a number of things.  Grand plans turned into somewhat lackluster results, but results, nonetheless. 
With the holidays approaching, I am preparing in a number of ways.  One of these is baking and freezing some things ahead of time.  I tend to make lots of food gifts for friends and usually end up baking myself into a stupor mid December.  Well, this year, we are going out of town for the holidays; so I will need to bake myself into a stupor in a more methodical manner this time around. 

On the list for the day:
Cheesecake (for a friend - long overdue)
Vanilla Scones
Smoky Pecans
Coconut-Pecan Cookie Tarts

What made it to fruition?  Sadly, only the Vanilla Scones and the Smoky Pecans (both recipes from Southern Living Christmas Cookbook, latest edition).   Sorry, long overdue, cheesecake deserving friend and family.

Here's the rundown:  I got started on the pecans first and after getting them in the oven realized I should have doubled the batch because they could not be easier to do.  The crazy thing about this recipe is the aroma knocks you back when you go to stir them while they are in the oven...Whoa!  Step back!  The resulting flavor is not nearly as knock your socks off (thankfully), but it is distinct.  These will work well packaged in small bags for my gift baskets this Christmas. 

While the pecans were in the oven, I got started on the scones.  Pretty easy recipe to throw together.  I got them prepped for the oven in the time it takes to make the pecans and get the oven to preheat a little higher for the scones.  I am not the most scone friendly person out there, but I tried these to make sure they were edible before throwing them in the freezer.  They were pretty good and I could see myself sipping some warm beverage whilst nibbling on one.  Better yet, I could see various friends of mine doing this as well.  They make the Christmas food gift list.  I did make them into mini-scones, if you could call them that, instead of what must have otherwise been scones for Frankenstein's monster.  The recipe says they make 8, I made 16.  So if you want to call them Mini Vanilla Scones, go ahead, but I don't think anyone will be complaining about the small portion size. 

Could I have done more today?  Yeah.  Did I?  No.  And that, my dear friend, is why there are seven weeks to Christmas and many more baking days available.

Ham Happiness

For those of you who have read past posts regarding my slow cooker adventures, you will not be surprised to hear that it was with great trepidation that I served tonight's dinner.  As I prepared tonight's foray into the world of slow cooking, I realized, "this may not go well."  You may know one of the rules to slow cooking food is: always add liquid.  This recipe lacked liquid.  I was apprehensive. 
Let me give you the rundown for the evening.  We invited Ken and Conni (Drew's parents) and Stacie and Morgan over for dinner.  Sometime this afternoon I put together the recipe from Fix it and Forget It: Ham and Scalloped Potatoes.  The worst part of the preparation (don't hate me PC) was the slicing of the potatoes.  I used my new and improved, much safer mandoline from PC.  It took quite a while to slice all nine potatoes required for this recipe, so long in fact that I didn't slice the last two.  I gave up.  This mandoline does not seem to work as easily as the last incarnation.  Granted the last incarnation nearly cut my thumb off twice.  This one seems to require much more force behind it and I had to cut each poato in half and then put it on the little food pusher thing, then get it all lined up.  This process took a good 20 minutes.  Not my idea of fun, but I could also blame this on my stubborness.  I had a knife that works and I could have just as easily sliced the potatoes thin, but then I could not rant about the mandoline.  (Remember, I told you PC, you can't hate).   All that said, I got the whole thing together and then checked the recipe for the third or fourth time to try to see where I had missed the liquid.  Alas, there was no liquid and I began to fret.
I moved on to dessert next.  I made Ultimate Chocolate Pudding from Christmas with Southern Living 2009.  I enjoyed the process of making pudding from scratch because, I confess, I have never done this.  I used Ghiradelli cocoa for this attempt and I was very pleased with the results.  I tried a little bit off the spatula, then I tried a little more, and I little more.  Then I had to put the bowl in the sink and run water over it to make sure I did not lick the whole bowl.  If you have never made chocolate pudding from scratch, I highly recommend it.  It was good even whilst warm.  I put it in individual serving bowls and chilled it until after dinner.

So, the reckoning came and I was still very nervous.  I had forewarned our dinner guests that if it was awful, we would order pizza.  AND...It turned out o.k.  In fact, it was better than o.k., it was good, even great.  Everyone really liked it and Ken even got seconds (not a normal thing for him since the stroke).  It was a hit!  It don't know what you are doing to me slow cooker, but you get me every time.  Someday, I will understand your whims and ways.  Tonight, I was just happy that it worked!  Oh, I must add that this does not photograph well, so you will just have to imagine a wonderfully constructed, yet somewhat ugly dish with all the comfort of home.  We served this with crescent rolls and green beans.  A pretty well rounded meal.

Then we had coffee (well a couple of us did) and dessert. The pudding was wonderful!  Mmmm!  The biggest fan was Connil.  I can add this one to the list of her favorites.  She would like for me to consider making her a pudding sandwich.  I will consider this at some future date, after I have gotten over the shuddering. 

Sublime Sandwiches

We have been taking it easy around here in the way of meals.  I am not sure why.  There is a part of me that thinks you would not be interested to hear about the most recent kitchen adventure, but still I want to tell it for one simple reason...Turkey sublime.

We ventured out to Super Target the other day with a coupon and a short list of grocery items we needed.  When we got to the deli counter to order the ham needed for a previously reviewed recipe, we noticed a turkey they have seasonally.  It is cranberry orange roasted turkey.  Drew and I are averse to cranberry (for the most part) and Drew does not prefer citrusy foods.  Nonetheless, we asked the friendly and helpful deli man about the turkey and he gave us a sample of said deliciousness.  As you may have already figured out: it. was. wonderful.  We were really surprised (this is the second surprise food-like for Drew in the past week) and delighted.   We immediately ordered a half pound for Drew's sandwiches for lunch.

A couple of nights ago, I was feeling a little less than motivated to get in the kitchen and truly cook, so I suggested to Drew we have sandwiches with the turkey.  He (in the way of Elf) said, "YES!"  It was wonderful.  I added white cheddar and onion to mine and needed nothing else.  Drew had half turkey and cheddar (with mustard) and half salami and provolone (with mustard).  We threw some chips with it and viola: a wonderful, easy dinner - very fall too. 

So, I say to you, dear reader, run out to Super Target and purchase some of this Turkey because it is only available until the end of November.   *This is not a paid promotion of Super Target*