Valentine's Day Table

To avoid crowded restaurants on Valentines Day, I take a raincheck on eating out and prepare a special meal at home.  Valentine's Dinner is always served on the china I selected for my hope chest at age 15. It is the Norwegian "Farmer's Rose" pattern.  They were purchased at a Norwegian gift shop, Dannevigs, owned by my Aunt Marge Danewick.   Many place settings and serving dishes for this pattern were received as wedding gifts.

February's Chocolate Dessert of the Month

It's just a simple chocolate brownie; but it's rich and chewy, melt-in-your-mouth goodness!  With a little sauce, caramel or fruit atop; it qualifies for a  special-occasion dessert.  It's got good keeping quality too.

With raspberry sauce for a Valentine's Day dessert

Best Chocolate Brownie Recipe      8" square pan.  325   approx 30 min. 
2-1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
--Melt chocolate and butter together in microwave by putting in for 1 min, then stirring until chocolate melts.  Heat a little longer if necessary.  Mix sugar and eggs and add to chocolate mixture.  Add vanilla, salt and flour and stir to combine.  Spread in greased 8" square pan.  Bake at 350 for 25-40 min; until pulling away from sides and top is set and dry (with little holes starting to appear).

Homemade Pizzas with Red Sauce

Superbowl food!

A stay-at-home weekend is the perfect time for homemade pizza.  I make all ingredients from scratch, including the sausage and cheese.  No other pizza compares in taste to one prepared with totally homemade ingredients.  It's worth the extra work; homemade ingredients will give it a much better taste over packaged pizzas.  For the best texture and flavor, I use fresh (not canned) veggies.  You may want to make the mozarella ahead of time (see post 7/27/11).  It's surprisingly easy and only takes a short time.  Fresh, warm cheese on top of a homemade pizza is mouthwatering!  The more time you put into it, the more prized the end result will be.  Following are recipes for the crust, sausage and sauce.
Pizza Crust  (makes two 12" round or 9" square pizzas)
3 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
1 cup luke-warm water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
-Mix half of the flour with yeast and salt;  Add oil and warm water and stir to combine well.  Beat for a few minutes.  Add flour until a stiff ball can be formed.  Turn out onto counter and add any remaining flour.  Knead 6-8 minutes.  Divide in half. 
For thin crust pizzas:  Cover balls and let rest 10 minutes.  Grease two 12" pizza pans.  Roll out dough to fit pans with a bit extra.  Put into pans and build up edges.  Bake @ 425 for 10-12 min--until lightly browned.
For pan pizzas:  Grease two 9" square pans.  Pat dough into pans, going halfway up sides.  Cover and let rise until double in bulk (30-45 min).  Bake @ 375 for 20-25 min, until lightly browned.
Red Sauce 
1 can Hunts tomato sauce (15 oz can); (or cook down 6 garden-fresh          tomatoes until soft and strain for sauce)
2 Tablespoons fresh, finely-chopped oregano
  (or 1 Tablespoon dried oregano)
2 teaspoons fresh, finely-chopped basil
  (or 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves)
2 tsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Homemade Sausage
1 pound ground pork
1 Tablespoon rubbed sage
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Italian Herb seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
pinch ground clove
--combine all and fry into crumbles
Toppings:  Use any or all of the following fresh toppings:  onion, green  peppers, mushrooms, sliced olives and cheese.  Note:  recipe for homemade mozarella is on 7/27/11 blog post.
Assembling and Baking:  Spread sauce over hot pizza crusts.  Place desired toppings on sauce.  Add cheese last. (can be frozen at this point)
Bake thin crust pizzas @ 425 for 10-15 min. more, until cheese melted and bubbly.  Bake pan pizzas @ 375 for 15-20 min more, until cheese melted and bubbly.

Seafood Chowder

When fridays roll around, I often get a hankering for seafood (and I'm not even Catholic).  I love all kinds of seafood prepared in any manner, but creamy seafood chowders taste so good and warm during Winter months.  Following is my recipe for a seafood chowder that was a huge hit with restaurant patrons.

The seafood sunk to the bottom but there's lots in there--promise!

Seafood Chowder

3 cups of seafood, any variety or combination thereof.

  (I usually include a can of clams with juice)

1 cup cubed red potatoes  

1 Tablespoon butter or bacon fat (best flavor)

1/4 cup diced celery

1/3 cup diced onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon thyme

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (or 1 tsp dried)

1/2 teaspoon dill weed

1 Tablespoon flour

2-1/2 cups chicken boullion

1 Tablespoon clam or seafood base - dissolved in chix broth

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups Half and Half

--Boil red potatoes (skin on or peeled) just until starting to soften.  Set aside.  In large saucepan, cook onion, celery, garlic and herbs (parsley, thyme, dill weed) in melted butter or bacon fat until starting to soften.  Add flour and stir to paste.  Slowly add broth with base, stirring, until creamy.  Add wine, Half and Half and sugar, stirring until incorporated.  Add potatoes and seafood.  Heat to simmer and let slowly simmer 15-20 min.  Serve with a few drops of tobasco sauce or hot pepper flakes, if desired.

French Onion Soup

A quick check of my stored onions and it looks like I have enough until July--unless I come up with some meals using lots of onion.  So it's French Onion Soup for lunch.  I took a good recipe several years ago, doctored it up, and it's been one of my favorite soup recipes ever since.  I often suspect that recipes like this originated with someone who also had lots of winter onions in store.

Onion Soup + Homemade Pepper Cheese + Homemade Bun =

Delicious French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup

6 cups beef broth with 6 cubes of beef boullion dissolved in it

  or 6 cups beef boullion prepared with 6 cups water & 8 cubes boullion

2 huge onions (or 3 large onions), thinly sliced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1-2 Tablespoons butter (enough to brown onions)

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup white wine (optional)

1 teaspoon sugar

pinch of dill weed

small pinch of celery seed

(very) small sprinkle nutmeg

4 thick slices French bread (buttered & toasted)

8 slices Swiss cheese (4x4)

--In large fry pan, slowly cook onions in butter over very low heat until soft. Add garlic, celery seed, dill weed and continue cooking until onions turn light brown (caramelize). Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Turn heat down low and simmer, covered, for 20-30 min. Ladle hot soup into 4 bowls, top with 2 slices of the cheese and then the bread; or put bread in first, top with cheese and put under broiler until cheese melts.
Note: cooking onion on low heat for a long period of time dissolves some of the strong sulfur compounds and breaks down the onions' natural sugar, resulting in mildly sweet onions that are deep brown in color

January Table

January's table is soft and subdued, fitting for post-holiday, quiet winter evenings. 

The dish pattern is, appropriately, "Ice Flower".

Venison Roast in the Pressure Cooker

This was the perfect Sunday dinner--roast venison with stored root veggies.  I started by putting four cups of venison broth  in the bottom of my pressure cooker.  (venison broth--see post 11/22/11)  To that I added lots of minced garlic, diced onion, diced celery, a dozen juniper berries (to remove wild taste), a few splashes of red wine, 1-2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 4 beef boullion cubes, a little paprika, a pinch of dill, a pinch of nutmeg and black pepper.  On the cooking rack, I placed a couple of small roasts and surrounded them with large carrot chunks, whole potatoes, quartered onions, whole mushrooms and ears of sweet corn (rubbed with a thick coat of butter).  Generously salt and pepper the veggies and roast, put the top on and cook at 15 pounds of pressure for 30 minutes.  After removing the meat/veggies, strain the liquid and serve a little with the meal.  Save the rest for a delicious French Onion Soup.

The meal was mouthwatering!!