Hallelujah!...

I was falling behind on my Ultimate Recipe Showdown entries - a couple of days of being exhausted and one day-long headache had cost me too much. I went to the website a few minutes ago to check something and the Feb 28 deadline has been changed, sometime recently, to the end of April. Big, big sigh of relief...I can ease up on a few things now, get some other important stuff done, and take the time to really do the recipes right.

I still need to have the Taste of Home entries submitted by Sunday, but that shouldn't be a problem. Those were easy ones that we already have typed up.

Falling Behind, but the Results...

...were very good tonight. I'm a good chunk behind where I wanted to be this week (a couple of dishes and some typing). A nasty headache put me out of the competition all afternoon/evening yesterday. So tomorrow will be very, very busy. I made a rice dish for the Ethnic Dish category tonight. The cooking got off to a really rough start this evening, but it worked out well for the final product. Better, maybe. It led me off in a couple of directions I might have overlooked, if I hadn't been running into difficulties. Nice.

My Progress On The Cooking Contests...

We mapped out a battle plan for entering the Ulimate Recipe Showdown 3 and Taste of Home's annual competition (all entries due by this next weekend) back on Friday, and did some grocery shopping Saturday morning. Today's lunch and dinner were both entries for URS3. They went really well, and the three of us are sooooo full right now. We have plenty of food for my breakfast and our lunches tomorrow (I have to go back to work...sigh). I also got some serious prep work done for tomorrow night's dinner. Gina will get it started for me tomorrow, and make notes about times, etc. We were too tired for the dinner we were going to have Saturday, so it got bumped to Tuesday (my short, 8-hour shift). There's a lot of writing to be done over the next week.

On other news, I got a pot of our pinto beans made, and a batch of Gina's spiced Amish lemonade. Tired now...

A Favorite at the Palin Household?...

I wonder if this is a special treat for folks that like to hunt moose...like Sarah Palin and her family? I don't think it'll catch on anytime soon at my house (thankfully). My wife found this on Kate Harding's blog, Shapely Prose(http://kateharding.net/) :

Jellied Moose Nose

1 Upper jawbone of a moose
1 Onion; sliced
1 Garlic clove
1 tb Mixed pickling spice
1 ts Salt
1/2 ts Pepper
1/4 c Vinegar

Cut the upper jaw bone of the moose just below the eyes. Place in a large kettle of scalding water and boil for 45 minutes. Remove and chill in cold water. Pull out all the hairs - these will have been loosened by the boiling and should come out easily (like plucking a duck). Wash thoroughly until no hairs remain. Place the nose in a kettle and cover with fresh water. Add onion, garlic, spices and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the meat is tender. Let cool overnight in the liquid.

When cool, take the meat out of the broth, and remove and discard the bones and the cartilage. You will have two kinds of meat, white meat from the bulb of the nose, and thin strips of dark meat from along the bones and jowls. Slice the meat thinly and alternate layers of white and dark meat in a loaf pan. Reheat the broth to boiling, then pour the broth over the meat in the loaf pan. Let cool until jelly has set. Slice and serve cold.

A BUSY Weekend!...

We've been very busy of late, and it suddenly dawned on me a couple of days ago that the deadline to enter Season 3 of the Ultimate Recipe Showdown is a week from Saturday(the 28th), the last chance to enter the Taste of Home contest is the next day, March 1st, while the Pillsbury Bake-Off is still out there in April. And I haven't submitted a single entry to any of them yet...

So...I sat down today and went through scores of recipes I've made over the years and compiled a selection of about thirty recipes and ideas that might work as entries. Then I set out all the potential categories for the three contests I mentioned, and my wife and I started finding homes for some recipes and ideas, setting others aside for the future, and shuffled a few around. All-in-all, we selected about fifteen recipes for the contests. Thankfully, a few exist in a sufficiently finished form I shouldn't have to cook 'em in the next week to submit them. The majority just require some tweakage and a final preparation and rewrite, and there are only a couple that are existing only in my brain right now.

The Pillsbury entries don't need to be done this week...we've got almost two months still. The rest are going to keep my time off extremely busy. Matter of fact, I've got something in the oven right now. 'Course, its a Pillsbury entry(LOL)- that's where it ended up getting shuffled off to tonight, after I got everything going on it earlier. If it comes out as good as last time, and is consistent, it'll be ready for submission. One less thing to be concerned about.

Gotta' run...busybusybusy.

Tasty Romanian Food...

So...over the course of the day, I worked on the various elements of the Romanian dinner. Got the beans on early, cooked the mamaliga and put it in a baking pan to set up. Mixed up the ingredients for the mititei, formed them, and put them in the fridge. Got the cabbage and apples going by late afternoon. All I had left by evening was to sliced and pan-fry the mamaliga and cook the mititei. I tried sliding the sausages onto the rotisserie skewers, but after two fell off, I switched to the rotisserie basket.

It all cooked up well. The mititei were very tasty, Gina loved the texture, but found the herbs a bit strong. Next time we'll cut back just a little. I see a lot of fried mamaliga slices in our future...lol. The baked beans were good. They are different from American baked beans...not nearly as sweet, with some red wine in 'em. And the varza, the baked cabbage and apples, was very good. Not too sweet. Red cabbage and apples are always a good pick for Gina...lol.

Interestingly enough (at least to me), mamaliga probably predates polenta. In "Olive Trees and Honey", Gil Marks states that while grain porridges called puls were brought east by the Romans, it was the Turks who brought corn to the Balkans in the sixteenth century. It then moved west to Italy. Italians even called corn grano turco(Turkish grain) and sorgo turco(Turkish sorghum).

Easy Caribbean Tonight, Romanian Tomorrow...

We had picked up almost everything needed, awhile back to make my Easy Creole Beans - cans of pork & beans, dijon mustard, ginger beer, habanero hot sauce, pineapple - but we hadn't gotten around to it. Walked over to Safeway today, being its my day off, and discovered their thick-cut bacon on sale (3 pounds for $4.49!), so I brought that home. I whipped up a batch and popped it in the oven to cook. We had some country-style pork ribs leftover from the other day - ones that were even more irregularly cut than the ones I grilled (i.e., they're country-style ribs in name only). I put them in a pot of water with some onion, herbs and spices to cook until tender enough to shred. While they were simmering, I made some Haitian-style coleslaw, flavored with lime juice and dijon mustard, garlic and dill. Finally, I threw a few things to create some tasty Caribbean Sauce to soak the shredded pork. Here's the recipe for the sauce:

Caribbean Sauce

1 cup ginger beer

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, strained

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

A dash of habanero sauce, or to taste

A large pinch of dried thyme

A large pinch of ground allspice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and boil, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is somewhat reduced and thickened.

I simply dumped the shredded pork into the sauce and let it had heated up, then would remove it with a slotted spoon, so that the sauce drained back into the pot, before putting the meat on buns.

Tomorrow is going to be a Romanian dinner:

Mititei (Romanian sausage rolls)

Mamaliga Prajita (Fried, sliced cornmeal mush)

Gebakeneh Beblach (Baked beans in tomato sauce)

Varza (Baked red cabbage with apples)

At least I think it is...

Better Luck Next Time...

The results for the 2008 Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest (http://www.chocolateadventurecontest.com/) have been posted. I didn't place this time. Looking at the results for the 2007 and 2008 contests, it seems to me that I didn't think far enough outside the box with my entries. Of course, I only had about 60 hours to throw the three entries together. I will enter again this year (after October 1st), and will definitely get wilder with my entries. Here is a copy of my beverage entry...

COCOA D'ANNAM

Spiced Simple Syrup:

1 cup cold water

1/2 cup palm sugar, crumbled, chopped or grated

1 whole strip Saigon cinnamon

1 whole star anise

15 peppercorns

Pinch of salt

The Cocoa:

1 cup spiced simple syrup (see above)

3/4 cup Scharffen Berger unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon pandanus extract

1/4 cup cream sherry (optional, but recommended)

1/2 cup heavy cream

2-ounce segment of Scharffen Berger 62% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate Baking Bar

4 whole star anise pods

Place all simple syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved, and the spices have had time to flavor the syrup, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer into a large glass measuring cup. (If not using the syrup right away, let cool to room temperature. The syrup can be made ahead and stored, in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.). Makes about 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups.

Place the warm syrup (reheat if made ahead of time) in a small saucepan and add the Scharffen Berger cocoa powder. Whisk until the cocoa has melted into the syrup and the mixture is smooth. Turn the heat under the pan to medium. Slowly add the half-and-half and coconut milk to the pan, whisking continually until smooth and combined. Add the pandanus extract. Continue to occasionally stir the cocoa until it is hot and steaming. Do not boil. Remove from the heat. Add the cream sherry (if using) and stir to mix.

Place the heavy cream in a high-sided bowl and whip with a hand-held blender until somewhat thickened and frothy.

Divide the cocoa between four mugs. Top with a dollop of heavy cream, garnish with a star anise pod, and grate a little Scharffen Berger semisweet chocolate over the top. Serve immediately. Four servings.

We Had This Cheese at the ICU Super Bowl Potluck...

...and I really enjoyed it, but the nurse that brought it didn't know what it was. Her sister gave it to her. It was a crumbly white cheese with a very sharp flavor that was cut by the little pieces of apricot all through the cheese. She thought it was French, since her sister had recently come back from Paris. It appears that it was White Stilton with Apricot. White Stilton is the young, immature version of the well-known blue cheese. Its very tangy and delicious, but it needs something to complement it, so they have added the fruit. I loved it, but didn't have a clue where to find it. The fruit did not make it too sweet in my opinion. Looks like it might be available at Trader Joe's, and through several sources online, including https://www.caviarmore.com/ , http://www.ilchester.co.uk/ , and https://www.wegmans.com/. Good stuff, Maynard...if you get the chance, try it on crackers.

A Day for Baked Goods...

Gina supervised Matt today on some things that needed doing, while I grabbed her recipe for zucchini bread and made a couple of loaves with zucchini that needed using. I love her zucchini bread.

Dinner was potatoes au gratin with kielbasa and sweet peppers. Its something we've made for years, but we realized we probably haven't had it in about six months. We've missed it.

And I'm waiting for a cake to cool, so we can taste it before bed- basbousa -a semolina and almond cake common across the Muslim Mediterranean. They usually flavor it with orange, but I prefer lemon. Nor did I soak it in quite as much syrup as they would...

...and we just tried it. It is very good, though not as good as my wife's lemon cake (which is the best lemon cake in the known Universe). It may possibly be the richest cake I have ever tasted that isn't coated in a bunch of frosting.

Using Up Stuff...

I discovered piles of fresh herbs in the fridge a couple of days ago. Amazingly, they were still good, so I wanted to use 'em. Also, a partial can of tomato paste and some feta cheese that were loitering around. I settled on a Georgian beef stew: cubes of beef, new potatoes, lots of onions, red bell peppers, tomatoes, a whole bottle of wine, mounds of herbs - basil, cilantro, parsley, scallions. We sprinkled the feta on top for a nice salty accent. Dipped wedges of ciabatta bread in the juices. Good stuff.

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine..."

My wife found this article on Yahoo:

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India's Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called "gau jal", or "cow water" – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year".

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

Hindus revere cows and slaughtering them is illegal in most of India. Cow dung is traditionally used as a fuel and disinfectant in villages, while cow urine and dung are often consumed in rituals to "purify" those on the bottom rungs of the Hindu caste system.

In 2001, the RSS and its offshoots – which include the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party – began promoting cow urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.

The movement has often been accused of using more violent methods, such as killing 67 Christians in the eastern state of Orissa last year, and assaulting women in a pub in Mangalore last month. It also has a history of targeting foreign business in India, as in 1994, when it organised a nationwide boycott of multinational consumer goods, including Pepsi and Coca Cola.

The cola brands are popular in India, now one of their biggest markets, but have struggled in recent years to shake off allegations, which they deny, that they contain dangerous levels of pesticide.

Mr Prakash said his drink, by contrast, was made mainly of cow urine, mixed with a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs. He said it would be "cheap", but declined to give further details about its price or ingredients until it was officially launched.

He insisted, however, that it would be able to compete with the American cola brands, even with their enormous advertising budgets. "We're going to give them good competition as our drink is good for mankind," he said. "We may also think of exporting it."

Somehow, I don't see this as an up-and-coming secret ingredient on Iron Chef, or as likely to take away a lot of Coca-Cola's or Red Bull's marketshare. The anti-Western backlash issue is interesting, however. Its not just Islam that is tiring of us, apparently. Nor am I sure cowpiss soft drinks are likely to make huge inroads against Westernization. I don't know whether to laugh or shudder...

Mission-Style Ribs...

Made these the other night. They were pretty good, and I've had a request for the recipe so I decided I'd post them, too. The ribs were inspired by some of the early Mission- or Rancho-style cooking of California. Enjoy.

There are so many different styles of grill, barbecue and smoker out there now that I am not going to try and offer specifics about how to cook ribs. Follow the methods that work best for your particular piece of equipment. I will say that it would probably be best to cook them with indirect heat, at least at first, so as to avoid flare- or flame-ups, and burn them. They were especially good cooked with mesquite hardwood charcoal. Without further ado...

MISSION-STYLE PORK RIBS

6 pounds country-style pork ribs, trimmed of any excessive fat as needed
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup dry red wine
8 large cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
1½ tablespoons dried thyme
1½ tablespoons dried oregano
1½ tablespoons dried marjoram
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 tablespoon sea salt
3 tablespoons sweet paprika, mild California or mild New Mexico chile powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin seeds
2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds
2 teaspoons freshly ground black peppercorns
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
A little olive or vegetable oil, for greasing the grill rack

Combine all ingredients, from the olive oil to the red pepper flakes, in a blender or food processor and puree. Pour over the ribs and toss to coat the ribs thoroughly. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.

At least an hour before cooking, remove the ribs from the refrigerator, allowing them to warm somewhat.

Start your grill or barbecue. When at the appropriate stage for cooking, oil the rack of your barbecue. Five to ten minutes later, add the ribs, shaking any excess marinade back into the container. Best cooked, initially, over indirect heat to avoid flame- or flare-ups that will burn the ribs early on. Cook, turning as needed, until done.

You may brush excess marinade on the ribs as desired. This recipe does not produce a great deal of extra. If that is desired, increase quantities as needed. Number of servings is dependent on the size of the ribs.

A Pot of Beans...

Some forty-five-or-so years ago, two friends of my parents got married. She was of Spanish ancestry, he was of Mexican. She wanted to learn how to make the Mexican dishes her husband grew up with, so she asked her mother-in-law to teach her. My mother went with her for some of the lessons. She's been making pots of beans ever since, and I grew up on a diet that included frequent servings of tacos and tostadas, enchiladas and taquitos, rice and beans. I just got finished making a pot of beans this morning...we cooked 'em yesterday, I mashed and seasoned them a few minutes ago. And for the first time ever, I actually measured everything. Shock, gasp! Lol. If been making them for over twenty years and have always just eyeballed the quantities. "Yup, that looks about right." Anyway...

"Mock" Frijoles Refritos

6 cups dry pinto beans

Plenty of water, to cover

1 large sprig of epazote (optional)

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

4 teaspoons sugar, or to taste

1 tablespoon sea salt, or to taste

1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste

1 tablespoon garlic powder, or to taste

Soak the beans in a large crockpot overnight, with plenty of water, and cover. (I fill the crockpot almost to the lid, and while you can use a big pot on the stove, that requires a lot more watching...this is almost start-it-and-forget-about-it easy). In the morning, add the epazote (if using) and turn your crockpot to high and begin cooking. Stir occasionally and add additional water, if needed. By mid-afternoon, the beans should be soft enough to mash.

When they are tender, remove the epazote and drain in a colander. Transfer the beans back to the crockpot and mash thoroughly. Add the tomato sauce, sugar and salt, onion and garlic powders. Stir to mix completely. Taste for seasoning and adjust, if needed. Quantities are subjective, based on your tastes. Reheat and cook for 30-60 minutes, to give flavors time to blend. Serve. Makes a very large batch. They do freeze well.

Notes: If you forget to soak the beans the night before, simply place them in the crockpot and add the same quantity of boiling water. They should still finish about the same time. The quantity of beans can be reduced to 4 cups. Just adjust the seasonings accordingly. Nor is it absolutely necessary to cook the beans afterward. They can be eaten right away, if desired. A purist can used minced garlic and onions, instead of the powdered. We've done it before. We just happen to prefer the texture using the powdered.

A Spanish Dinner...

Gina and I have been wanting to try leeks. We'd just never gotten around to it. I found a Sephardic recipe that appealed to me, so I threw together a menu for it. And it looked like this...

Sephardic Leek-and-Cheese Casserole

(Quajado de Puerro con Queso)

Murcian Salad

(Ensalada Murciana)

Spanish-style Garlic Bread

The casserole was divine! A pile of thinly sliced, sauteed leeks, a pound of cheese, and a mess of eggs, flavored with some freshly grated nutmeg. Super-rich and good. The salad was very tasty (see recipe below), with lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and a piquant dressing. I wanted to make garlic bread, but I wanted something a bit different from my usual Italian-style garlic bread. I found some fresh ciabatta bread at the store, and whipped up a spread that owed more to Spain than Italy (I've had instructions from the Boss to keep the details to myself...lol). Suffice it to say there was butter, Parmesan cheese, garlic, some herbs, and...

Here's the recipe for the salad:

Murcian Salad

1 small head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 small head escarole, curly endive, radicchio, or other bitter green, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 green and/or red bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
2 large Roma tomatoes, seeded and thinly sliced
½ large sweet onion, thinly sliced

For the dressing:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon capers, well-rinsed
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper, or to taste

Toss the greens, peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, and onions together in a large bowl.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend or process until the garlic and capers are minced and the olive oil emulsifies.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve.

Makes 8-12 servings.

(And on another front...the Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies are better the second day...yum!)

Tonight: Cookies, Spoonbread and a Dragon...

Gina made a batch of Paula Dean's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies. Yum! Tomorrow she's planning on some of her homemade zucchini bread.

Dinner was simple: skillet-cooked cheddarwursts, Texas-style spoonbread with plenty of cheese, green chilies, garlic and oregano, and coleslaw. The spoonbread was almost verbatim out of the Texas the Beautiful Cookbook and we really liked it. It'll be a make-again.

We just caught the tail end of the 2004 World Pastry Championships and the newcomer team, South Korea, did the most amazing sugar piece that included a huge (for a sugar piece) red dragon. They easily won that portion of the competition.

Tomorrow's a more ambitious dinner...Sephardic leek-and-cheese casserole (quejado de puerro con queso), a Murcian salad (salada murciana), and garlic bread.

And some work on entries for the Ultimate Recipe Showdown 3...

Latin Night...

I fought a nasty headache today while fixing dinner today. I had picked up some country-style pork ribs at Fred Meyer - they had them on sale @$1.28 a pound - and started marinating them this morning. Red wine, red wine vinegar, EVOO, lots of garlic, herbs (thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary), and spices (pepper, cumin, coriander). Then I put a pot of my drunken beans on to cook - pinto beans, dark beer and tequila, stock, tomatoes, salsa, garlic, some bacon. This afternoon, when the headache had subsided, I made a batch of salsa with oven-roasted Roma tomatoes, Anaheim chilies, onion, and garlic, fresh cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, and a little red wine vinegar. Good stuff. I followed that with a batch of colache...baby potatoes, zucchini, onion, spinach, tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob, seasoned with garlic, oregano, basil, and marjoram. I'd also picked up some mesquite hardwood charcoal from Freddie's. It was great for barbecuing the ribs (the weather has been really good these last two days), which turned out really good. The beans were finished with crumbled bacon, queso seco (cotija) cheese, garlic flakes, and lime wedges, and are so savory and good. I could make a meal of 'em, with some tortillas to sop up the juices. Tired now. A bit headachey again, from the barbecuing. But full and otherwise happy.