What's cookin' in The Mid-Atlantic Jan'12 Ric

Winter seems to have finally made it here. I've been stewing up a storm. :-} Got a deal on some lamb cuts as well as some nice meaty neck bones. Cooked up the stock adding cumin, celery seed, fresh cracked pepper, thyme, and sea salt. I added carrots, diced potatoes, onion, celery, and just before it was done simmering, a pile of sliced crimini mushrooms. I served it with little whole wheat rolls and (has anyone tried the Fleischmann's olive oil and sea salt?yummy) margarine. Holly isn't a big fan of lamb,( her family rarely, if ever, ate it), but she said it was very good. I considered that to be a good sign, she's usually very helpful in her critique of my attempts. Like my fish dishes, if she says good, a fish lover would love it. :-} Bon Appétit Ric

Ric--

Here is a dish that blew everyone over at our HD Th. Giving Dinner.

Several people asked me for the recipe--and I, gladly shared. They wanted to make this for their
Christmas Pot-Lucks.

Please try it--you will love it--I hope! Gita
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Sweet and Savory Kale By: SJRJA
"This quick and tasty recipe combines vitamin-packed kale with both sweet and tangy ingredients for a colorful side dish."

"This quick and tasty recipe combines vitamin-packed kale with both sweet and tangy ingredients for a colorful side dish."

Ingredients

· 2 tablespoons olive oil + some diced bacon as part of the fat.
· 1 small-med. onion--diced
· 2 cloves garlic--minced
· 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
· 4 teaspoons white sugar (optional—see notes)
· 1-tablespoon cider vinegar (add more!)
· 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (home-made or canned)
· 4 cups stemmed, torn (and rinsed-if needed) kale
· 1/4 cup dried cranberries
· salt and pepper to taste (I did not add salt)
· About 1/4cup diced, smoked ham.
· 1/4 cup slivered almonds-toasted--a yummy add-on.
Directions:
1--Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic;
cook and stir until the onion softens and turns translucent, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the mustard, sugar, vinegar, and chicken stock, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Stir in the kale, cover, and cook 5 minutes until wilted.
2--Stir in the dried cranberries, and continue boiling, uncovered, until the
liquid has reduced by half, and the cranberries have softened. About 15min.

Notes by Gita:…This is VERY, VERY good!

--Kale comes in a BIG bag—so that just about quadruples the amounts here.
IF you cook it all. (Why not?) You can freeze the rest in serving-size portions.
Buy local and as fresh as you can—and it will already be washed and clean.
--Now, as usual, I have to add something to a recipe that, I think, will make
it taste better. SO—I added some diced, smoked ham OR diced, thick bacon.
Brown the onions and garlic in the oil and bacon renderings. Then add the ham and
heat it through before all the other stuff. Kale just needs some smoked meat in it!

****IF you use the dried Cranberries (PLEASE do!) you can omit the sugar.

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Page #2.

Sweet and Savory Kale By: SJRJA
The below ingredient amount’s changes are if you use the WHOLE 2lb. bag of Kale.

Ingredients

· 2 tablespoons olive oil + some diced bacon as part of the fat.
· 1/4cup Olive oil—plus about 1/2lb. thick sliced bacon—lg. dice.
· 1 small-med. onion—diced
· 4or 5 small onions—or 2 1/2cups.
· 2 cloves garlic—minced
· Use about 7 or 8 cloves.
· 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
· I used half a small jar of mustard. Or about 4oz.
· 4 teaspoons white sugar (optional—see notes)
· I used about 3Tbs. for this amount…
· 1-tablespoon cider vinegar (add more!)
· I added about 2/3 cup. Taste—and add more if you like.
· 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (home-made or canned)
· Need about 4-5 cups of broth. You can always let it cook down.
· 4 cups stemmed, torn (and rinsed-if needed) kale
· One full, BIG bag (2lbs) of Kale.
· 1/4 cup dried cranberries
· About 1 cup. They sure add a lot of flavor!
· salt and pepper to taste (I did not add salt)
· Just added pepper---about 2tsp. of it. Or—to taste…
· About 1/4cup diced, smoked ham.
· I had at least a cup and a half. Make sure it is GOOD Ham!
· 1/4 cup slivered almonds-toasted--a yummy add-on.
· Half a cup or so will do. It is only for garnish before serving.
· Be watchful when toasting Almonds. They can burn in a flash!

Follow all other instructions as on first page.

Bon appetit!!!! Gita

Well, the kale was crowd tested, you know its a winner ! Our local produce place is closed for winter but the sign still says Eat More Kale.
I made traditional white bean soup Sunday, chicken noodle to do tomorrow for the non bean eaters here, and lasagne tonight with quick cook noodles. With those noodles, I use thin sauce and cover each layer so the sauce coats all the pasta.
Last night I cheated and bought the store roasted chicken. Combined with bread, salad, leftover mashed potatos, cauliflower in cheese sauce, made an ample, somewhat homemade, and easy meal.

Sally--

I Iove the store-roasted chickens. They are, actually, low fat. As they rotisserie--the fat drips down.
I will nibble on it for days. When there is nothing left--but the 2 breasts--I make Chicken Salad.
As a rule--I do not eat white meat--too dry. Love it in the salad version.
G.

yum yum and yum!!! They are so tasty. I'll cook off the bones to use in my chicken soup tomorrow.
I used ground pork in my lasagne tonight. Why? just curious. The pork nutrition label said it is lower in fat than their 90 percent lean beef! Er, I did not care for it but
nobody else seemed to notice. Funny how the flavor came through.

We were gifted a number of packages of venison. So far have made two quite different but marvelous chilis with the ground meat but haven't decided what to do with the "steaks" Any ideas are welcome, especially anything that features the taste and features of venison rather than masks it or just substitutes it in a recipe.

Other than that I have been into roasting something big like turkey or ham or stewing chicken along with potatos and sweet potatoes and eating off same for several days and then making a big pot of soup which takes us through Sat .

Made a great soup using V8 juice as the "stock" and ground venison as the meat. I'd share my recipies but I really dont use one for soups, stews, chillies, etc., just use what I like and have on hand. Some have been way better than others but all of them pretty tasty!

Im also enjoying baked apples and a grilled cheese sandwich now and then.

Too bad the Sams Club chickens went up in price. We get 2 dinners and 3 lunches out of one with only bones left for stock pot. They still are cheaper and significantly larger than local grocery versions. Our local grocery does do BBQ ribs every Thurs (cheaper and better than Sams) which is a fun change and taste favorite!

Bon apetite to you, too Ric et al.

Sally, when I have used ground pork, I try to season it to taste like "sausage" before I add it to a dish like spaghetti or lasagna...seems it doesn't absorb flavors from a sauce and tastes bland to me. I'll even saute mine with onions to get some flavor going. Isn't it the fat afterall that gives the flavor. I have to do the same thing with ground turkey, too.

Kind of a mixed blessing when table mates don't seem to mind or care one way or the other!

Yeah my next experiment will be to just use italian sausage. I think Penzey's makes a spice mix for italian sausage, but I had no idea what it would be so kind of didn't even try
8 ^}
'Kind of a mixed blessing when table mates don't seem to mind or care one way or the other!'
Darn tootin! I wonder why I try so hard sometimes....I let DH sample the spinach for doneness. Pfft, not done, still stringy. Ric needs to give hime some lessons.

Sally, almost any ground meat like pork or turkey (even TVP) can be turned into "meatballs" with a generous addition of Italian seasoned bread crumbs. and the ungreasyness makes them better than beef chuck,

My Dad for many years was the sausage maker for all extended family /friends weddings and us kids got to help stuff the meat and seasonings into the casings. Interesting process. Wonder how difficult it would be to make our own sausage as most meat depts no longer do any butchering. Been a long time since I've seen a side of beef or a leg of lamb....Do they still do butchering up your way Ric? PS I love the addition of the criminis...yum

There are still some butcher shops around here. I don't get to them often, mostly just to drop deer meat or pick it up, mostly for Josh. We usually cut our own deer and used to process our own hogs right down to the lard. When we still bought or bartered for beef I had a pro cut it, but I will if it's not a lot and know the cuts I want I'll cut up a whole sirloin (beef) or loin (pork). We made our own sausage for years and it was just the best. Sage and I don't get along so I always used ground coriander, salt, black, and white pepper. For Italian we used dried pepper seed, coriander, cracked anise, basil, oregano, salt, and b&w pepper. We didn't make a lot of that, it didn't store as well. We did occasionally make a sweet sausage that we added brown sugar to. The biggest consideration as to what to use in sausage is how long you want to keep it. You can add sun dried tomato, feta, spinach, onion , garlic, olives, I even had a smoked sausage that had dried fruit and chopped nuts that was to die for. Gotta Run! Later Ric

I picked up some ham hocks for about 1$/#, and a # of black eyed peas. I simmered the hocks til they fell apart and seasoned them with cumin, pepper, and celery seed. I soaked the peas over night and removed all the bone and gristle from the stock and shreded the meat. I hadn't realized the hocks weren't smoked so I added some bacon drippings to the mix to improve the flavor. After simmering for a while I added chopped onion and celery as well as generous portions of summer savory, parsley, and file'(since I didn't have fresh greens) and finished simmering till the peas were just tender. Then I served it for lunch to my F&MIL with grilled bacon and cheese sandwiches. Everyone really enjoyed it.I was trying for a earthy deep south bacon, greens, and beans flavor and think I got about what I wanted.
The first time I served my MIL my asparagus soup garnished with a dollop of sour cream and pumpernickel toast she had trouble getting it past her eyes so she was pretty much prepared for the visual impact.She didn't even bat an eye at her green soup. :-} LOL

You want greens in winter for soup I bet you can do it. I'm real happy with my winter greens.
Cooked bag of cut leaf spinach the other night, I swear it was pulverized, chopped spinach is not even this tiny. I think the stock boys played soccer with the frozen veg .
.

So, Ric, how about a recipe for dinner featuring venison steaks?

Sally, this winter we could have easily by- passed those stockboy minced greens and just kept our own growing to pluck fresh! My soil hasn't frozen at all

Oh, yes, Ric, thanks for the summary of what to add to sausage. Ours always had tons of garlic (but so did everything else). I remember the last time my dad made sausage (40#) , sauerkraut (2 lg crocks) and dill pickles for a family wedding. On the day he was cooking the sausage, the air in the house was so thick and pungent that even he had to come outside for numerous breathers!!! Made ones eyes water worse than slicing onions!

Judy--and others---

There is still available the long time ago--now out of print DG Cook Book
You can find it under "Extras' on your Home page.
Here is the link to it. One of the headings is for recipes from all kinds of Game.

http://davesgarden.com/cookbook/

Gita

I usually just marinate my venison with Worcester or sometimes a little aged Balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper, then sear it on the grill. A little horseradish sauce is my favorite condiment. Ric

Just an old fav, home fries and sausage for supper, but I decided to play with the veggies. I had a small bit (1 cup) of fresh cauliflower left from dipping and sliced a few carrots to steam (approx.15 mins,). With about 5 mins. left I threw in a sliced Grimes Golden apple and a small handful of raisins and warmed a light butter/cheese sauce and it turned out quite yummy. I never learned to not play with my food :-} LOL and find mixing fruit and or nuts in veggies can prove to be very interesting and tasty. Ric

yum!