Roasted Salmon Dinner

This is one of my favorite salmon recipes. It always turns out moist and has great flavor. The veggies make it a nice rounded 1 pot meal with a short prep time of only about 10 minutes.

This is a 4 serving recipe.

Roasted Salmon with Carrots, Mushrooms & New Potatoes

¼ cup olive or other vegetable oil
¼ cup chopped parsley (optional)
2 cloves minced garlic
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
8 small red potatoes (~1 pound), unpeeled
2 large carrots
3 scallions
½ pound small mushrooms
1 pound thick salmon fillet

1. Preheat the oven to 450°.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the oil, parsley (if using), garlic, salt and pepper.
3. Quarter the potatoes (or, if they are large, cut them into 3/4-inch cubes). Cut the carrots on the diagonal into ½ inch slices. Cut the scallions (white and tender green parts) into 2-inch sections. If the mushrooms are large, halve them.
4. Scatter the potatoes, carrots, scallions and mushrooms over the bottom of a shallow 1½-quart baking dish. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil over them and toss gently to coat. Place the dish in the oven and roast until the potatoes are almost done and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes; stir the vegetables once or twice to ensure even cooking.
5. Meanwhile, cut the salmon into 1½-inch cubes. Add the salmon to the bowl of garlic oil and toss gently to coat.
6. Lower the oven temperature to 375°. Gently stir the vegetables in the baking dish, scatter the salmon on top and roast until the vegetables are tender and the salmon just flakes when tested with a fork, about 10 minutes longer.

Enjoy!
Lorence

Smoke and Fire Chili

Smoke and Fire Chili
An original recipe by Lorence Sing

So I made chili this weekend for the first time in quite a while. I've forgotten how good it can be on a cold winters day, especially when made properly. An this is how I've come up to make it so...it took a while to develop. You see, family recipes can be a great source of gastronomic joy and my family was no exception; Grandma’s chopped liver, Aunt Lena’s matzo ball soup and chicken paprikash, Mom’s brisket and rice, heavenly lasagna and, ooh, her infamous and fortunately not recently seen meatloaf (sorry mom…). Unfortunately, I didn’t have a family recipe for chili. Since my mother never made it, I grew up not knowing what it tasted like and refusing to even try it. I didn’t even like the sound of it
…Then I got married…

Chili was among the many things my new bride made me try, even before we were married. And it wasn’t awful! The next step, of course, was to try to make it in my own kitchen, in my own way. After several years, the recipe below is what I’ve come up with and hope to pass down as my family recipe.

This recipe is about the chili itself. It contains at least 5 different varieties of chili pepper, each lending it’s own distinct flavor and heat to the dish; the Jalapeno’s sweet mild tingle, the Habanero’s tangy burn, the Chipotle’s smoky roar. A dash of chocolate at the end adds yet another dimension of flavor in an area of the tongue untouched by the reach of the various chilis. The extensive use of chili peppers in this manner produces a fierce heat as well, so this dish is always served with a generous serving of freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese and whole dairy sour cream. I add the ingredients in stages to allow the flavors dance around and mingle with each other in differnt ways before the final product is ready. It looks rather involved for a chili recipe, but it's worth it! Be sure to check the notes at the bottom, too.

An award winner!

Honorable Mention, Children’s Hospital Employee Chef Contest, November 1999.



Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon butter
3 small onions, diced
1 pound eye of round steak, about ½ thick and cut into cubes about ¼ inch. *
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Assorted Chili peppers, with at least the following:**
2 small jalapenos, seeded, chopped fine;
2 small habaneros, seeded, chopped fine;
1 chipotle (from a can of chipotle in adobo sauce), chopped;***
(add other chili peppers as available, such as poblano, ancho, serrano, anaheim, or scotch bonnet. I used rocotillo in this batch)
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
3 cups water
1 can Brook’s "Just for Chili diced tomato with onions, medium"
(Do NOT drain the liquid!)
1 can Brook’s "Chili Hot Beans in chili sauce"
(Do NOT drain the liquid!)
1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon Chili powder
2 teaspoons Ground cumin
½ teaspoonTumeric
Cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon ground mustard
15 to 20 semisweet chocolate chips ****
Sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded for serving
Real dairy sour cream

Instructions:
In a stock pot over medium high heat, melt butter to bubbling.
Add onion and steak.
Brown steak on all sides.
Add garlic and stir until onion becomes opaque. Do not let garlic brown.
Add 1 teaspoon of chili powder. Stir.
Add ½ teaspoon of ground cumin. Stir.
Lower heat to simmer and add ½ teaspoon ground mustard, stir for 2 minutes.
Add tomato sauce stir for 2 minutes.
Add 2 cups of water.
Raise heat and return to slow boil.
Add 1 tablespoon chili powder. Stir.
Add 1 teaspoon ground cumin. Stir.
Add ½ teaspoon tumeric. Stir.
Add ¼ teaspoon Cayenne pepper. Stir.
Add chopped fresh peppers. Stir.
Add chopped chipotle. Stir.
Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the can of tomatoes.
Add ½ cup water to the empty can and swirl it around to get all the remnants of flavor from the canin to the water, then add this water to the pot.
Add the can of beans.
Add ½ cup water to the empty can and swirl it around to get all the remnants of flavor from the can into the water, then add this water to the pot.
Return to a simmer.
Add the chocolate chips and stir for 2 minutes.
Simmer another 10 minutes and serve by the bowl full with Cheddar cheese and sour cream.
Have fire extinguisher handy!

* Use at least a halfway decent cut of meat. Don’t use anything ground!

** Use caution when seeding and chopping hot chili peppers. Wash you hands thoroughly afterwards. Do not touch your face or other sensitive areas without washing your hands thoroughly. Use gloves for this step if you have sensitive skin or if you wish to be extra careful. I know, I know, common sense, but it always bears repeating...

*** Small cans of chipotle chilis in Adobo sauce can be found in the Mexican section of large grocery stores. Once opened, Thye'll last a pretty long time if you transfer them to a small covered glass jar and keep them in the fidge.

**** Yes, you can eat the rest of the chocolate chips while you’re cooking. Just be sure to save enough for the chili. And DO NOT ADD CINNAMON TO THIS DISH. We are NOT in Cincinnati…yuck.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Sausage and Potato Casserole

This recipe appeared as a comment posted by "Another Larry" to an item on my favorite blog, The J-Walkblog. I haven't made it, but it sounds like a nice tasty and warm winter dish. Cholesterol be damned, I've got to try it!

Sausage and Potato Casserole

14-26 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 onions, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8-12 pork sausages such as Italian sausages
4-6 baking potatoes, peeled if desired and thinly sliced
1/2 tsp (2 ml) dried sage
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup chicken stock or water

Fry the bacon over moderate heat until crisp.
Transfer to paper towels to drain and saute the onion and garlic
in the same skillet until tender but not brown, about 5 minutes.
Transfer to a plate and set aside. Fry the sausages in the same
skillet until browned on both sides - there is no need to cook
them completely at this stage. Layer the potatoes in a greased
baking dish, top with the bacon and onion mixture, season with
sage, salt, and pepper, and top with the sausages. Add the stock
and bake tightly covered in a preheated 350F (180C) oven until
the potatoes are tender and the sausages are cooked through,
about 1 hour.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Winter Warmth - My Potato-Onion Skillet

I'm not really sure where I got this recipe, though I think it may have been from Jeff Smith's "Frugal Gourmet" show. This is a fantastic tasting, easy winter time recipe that always leaves us with a warm and full belly. The basic recipe has only 6 simple ingredients and uses only one pot, so both prep and cleanup are a breeze.

Although I've called it a skillet dish, it works even better when made on a deep pot, such as a soup pot because you can make more layers of potato, onion and cabbage and fit more sausage on top. Warm up with this dish once when you are feeling chilled it is sure to become a cold weather regular for you, too.


Ingredients:
3 medium yellow onion, sliced thin and separated into individual rings (not Vadalia)
3 large potaotes, sliced thin, either baking potatoes or Yukon Gold*
3 cups shredded green cabbage
½ pound (or more!) Polish or smoked sausage, sliced thin
1 cup chicken broth
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:
1. Cover the bottom of the pot with a layer of potato.
2. Cover the potato layer with a layer of the onion rings.
3. Make another layer of potato, another layer of onion, then a third layer of potato.
4. Make a layer of cabbage using half the cabbage.
5. Make another layer of potato.
6. Make another layer of cabbage using the rest of the cabbage.
7. Layer the sliced sausage over the cabbage
8. Turn the heat on to high until you hear the potato start to sizzle onthe bottom. This should take just a minute or two.
9. Pour in the chicken broth, turn the heat down to simmer and cover.
10. Cook covered for about 20 minutes.
11. Turn of the heat. Top with the parmesan cheese and put cover back on. Let stand 5 minutes and serve.

We like this with a nice Sourdough bread.
Options (highly recommended):
*Use Yukon Gold potatoes, if possible. They really add to the flavor and texture of this dish.

Pan Fried Lake Fish

In the spring of 1992, Karen and I took a vacation to Washington D.C. It was Karen's first trip there, and even though I had been there many times, this was the first time I had ever seen the Cherry Blossoms in bloom. It was an amazing site, and made the trip even more special. Karen and I spent most of the trip into D.C. doing all the touristy things, riding the Metro to get everywhere we needed to go. On one of our excursions, we went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, located on the campus of The Catholic University of America, in northeast D.C. We went on a long guided tour of the many interesting areas of the Basilica. This left us very hungry! Fortunately, the cafeteria (Open daily for breakfast & lunch from 7:30 am) was open and they were serving some very nice looking fare for lunch. I settled on the pan fried rainbow trout with some green beans and potatoes. I'd never had trout before, but I was feeling very adventurous. The trout was perfect; light, flaky, and oh, so tasty! A few years later, I noticed that the local Meijer store was carrying fresh rainbow trout filet in their seafood case. Remembering how good the trout in D.C.was, I went hunting for a recipe. I found the following recipe on recipesource.com (formerly S.O.A.R.) and it's a winner. this is a link to the original recipe.

I like to use Rainbow or Golden trout fillets for this recipe. I also like to add paprika to the flour in addition to the pepper.
Turn the fillets only once and be careful when turning them!

Ingredients:
4 8-to-10 ounce fresh or frozen pan-dressed trout, lake perch, or other white fish
¾ cup finely crushed saltine crackers (about 21 crackers)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon snipped parsley
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 beaten egg
3 to 4 tablespoons shortening or cooking oil
Lemon slices, halved (optional)

Instructions:
Thaw fish, if frozen. In a shallow bowl, combine the crushed crackers, grated Parmesan cheese, and snipped parsley.
In another shallow bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Place lemon juice and egg in separate bowls.
Dip fish in lemon juice, then in flour mixture, then in egg, and finally in the cracker mixture.
In a 12-inch skillet heat shortening or cooking oil. Add fish in a single layer.
Fry over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes or till brown. Turn fish; fry for 5 to 7 minutes more or till fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
Drain on paper towels. Serve fish with lemon. Garnish with parsley, rosemary, and dill if desired. Serves 4

Enjoy,
Lorence

Honolulu Skillet Beans

We also call this recipe "Hula Beans". It's from "The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home" By Molly Katzen and was given to Karen by our friend, Ann a librarian in the at the Main Library downtown. Her husband, Brad, is a dentist. They are two of the nicest people we know and are very health conscious. They eat lots of organics, and stuff that is just too good for you, like tofu. Ann brought this dish to a dinner gathering at the home of our mutual friend, Jenny, who introduced Karen and I to Ann and Brad. Karen just fell in love with this dish and we make it often.

This recipe can be very sweet, depending on the brand of pineapple you use. We found that Dole Brand Crushed Pineapple in natural juices works best. Other brands, especially store brands have turned out with a too sweet edge to them.

You can use many varieties and mixes of bean in this dish, but try to have one light and one dark. We’ve used cannelini, and great northern beans, small black beans, small red beans, and adzuki beans. The adzuki beans are a bit hard to find, but well worth the effort! Check you local natural foods store; we get ours at Wild Oats.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoons oil
2 cans of beans (small white, black, red, adzuki
1 can crushed pineapple in natural juices (Don’t use anything with any extra sugar added)

Sauce ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Hoisin sauce
(if you don’t have Hoisin sauce, get some! Otherwise, use 1 Tablespoon molasses + 1 Tablespoon vinigar +1 teaspoon hot sauce)
2 Tablespoons yellow mustard
2 Tablespoons catsup
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon cumin

Instructions:
Rinse the beans.
Combine all sauce ingredients
Saute the onions over medium heat until soft in oil.
Add the beans, sauce and pineapple. Stir together gently (don’t mash those beans!)
Heat gently for a couple of minutes.

Serve with rice for a meal!

Options:
Saute some minced garlic and/or chopped green pepper with the onions.
Add grated peel of an orange into the pot when adding sauce.

Avgolemono - Lemon Rice Soup

Ok, today's lunch inspired me to post this recipe, even though I haven't made it in a number of years. We can get a nice version of it from a place just down the street, "The Gyro Shoppe" (in a converted ex-Taco Bell), and it's pretty cheap, so I haven't had much incentive to make it. I may have to try though after today, especially since we all love it. The version listed below is from "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines". He lists a couple of versions in the book, including one that has chicken added, which I always do.

Avgolemono Soup (Serves 10-12)
Ingredients:
2 cups of milk
2 Tablespoons of cornstarch
6 egg yolks, beaten
2 quarts of chicken stock
1/2 cup of long-grain rice
2 oz. (1/2 stick) of butter
chopped fresh parsley, to taste
1 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
grated lemon peel to taste (optional, but recommended)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1) Stir the milk and cornstarch together, then beat in the egg yolks. Set aside.
2) Bring the stock to a boil in a 4-qt. soup pot and add the rice. Cook, covered, until the rice is puffy and tender, about 25 minutes.
3) Remove the soup from the heat and add the milk and egg mixture, whisking continuously.
4) Place back over heat and cook for a moment until it thickens.
5) Remove from the heat again and add the butter, parsley, and lemon juice, and the optional grated lemon peel.
6) Add salt and pepper to serve.

I usually add a cup (or more..) of shredded chicken after I remove the soup from the heat (beginning of step 3 above). It's a great use for leftover chicken.

Enjoy,
Lorence

A Greek Lunch

We had a great lunch today at The Happy Greek in the Short North today. It's been a long time since I've had Greek food, and the flavors were a welcome reminder that I shouldn't keep away from it for as long as I have. Since the portions at restaurants these days are enormous, we've been either getting an appetizer and sharing an entree, or getting a salad and sharing an entree. Today we had an appetizer of Dolmadakias and a "lunch" portion of Mousaka.
The Dolmas came on a small plate, 3 wonderful warm 2 1/2 inch portions of grape leaf-wrapped seasoned beef, lamb and rice, covered in a very light egg-lemon sauce on a bed of baby lettuce leaves. There also seemed to be a light sprinkling of feta over them. Wonderful. Satisfying. Absolutely delicious. We each devoured a single dolmadakia, then split the last one. We each wanted the whole thing, but being the generous spouses that I are, we shared...
The mousaka came on a very large plate, and as a very large portion, about 6 inches square and at more than an inch thick, surrounded in a tomato sauce. If you've never had mousaka, you must try it and ignore the list of it's ingredients. I'm saying that just because I'm not a big fan of zucchini, but I'm sure I had some today in the mousaka and it was fantastic. This thing looks like a lasagna, but the layers of roasted eggplant (I'm a big fan of that now), potato, zucchini, herbs and bechemel give it a very distinctively Greek flair.
Overall the Happy Greek was a great big fat wonderful lunch that I'm ready to repeat, probably with spanakopita, avgolemono, & pastisio.

Enjoy,
Lorence

J-Walk Blog Link Experiment

Sorry, this isn't a recipe, but rather a link to my very favorite blog, The J-Walkblog. I read this blog EVERY day. It's filled with links, insights, comments from many other readers and written by John Walkenbach, a guy who is not only a genius when it comes to Microsoft Excel (look at that excel book you bought...he probably wrote it!), he seems like a pretty darn nice guy.
Check out The J-Walkblog then come back here and tell me how right I am!

Enjoy!
Lorence

Pan seared Shrimp & Simmered White Beans - Bonus! 2 for 1 tonight.

I made Pan Seared Shrimp tonight, from a recipe sent to me by Cooks illustrated ( I subscribed to their email list at CooksIllustrated.com). It was pretty quick and quite good, especially since I used the Garlic-Lemon Butter variation. I had to use smaller shrimp than the recipe called for (36-40's), but I kept my eye on the cooking times and they turned out great.
While trying to decide what to make as an accompaniment, and I found that I had a can of Goya cannellini beans - I usually do - and as soon as I saw them I knew that was tonight's side dish would have them in it. But how? ok, I'm making a sort of scampi-ish dish, so I started thinking italian... The Simmered white beans recipe below is what I came up with. It, too, was pretty quick and real tasty. Try it and tell me what you think!

Pan-Seared Shrimp (from Cooks Illistrated)
The cooking times below are for 21/25 shrimp (that is, the size of the shrimp is such that there are 21 to 25 in 1 pound). If 21/25 shrimp are not available, adjust cooking times slightly. Either a nonstick or traditional skillet will work for this recipe, but a nonstick will simplify cleanup.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds 21/25 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon sugar

Directions:
1) Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet over high heat until smoking.
2) Meanwhile, toss shrimp, salt, pepper, and sugar in medium bowl.
3) Add half of shrimp to pan in single layer and cook until spotty brown and edges turn pink, about 1 minute.
4) Remove pan from heat; using tongs, flip each shrimp and let stand until all but very center is opaque, about 30 seconds.
5) Transfer shrimp to large plate.
6) Repeat with remaining tablespoon oil and shrimp;
7) After second batch has stood off heat, return first batch to skillet and toss to combine.
8) Cover skillet and let stand until shrimp are cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes.
9) Serve immediately.

Pan-Seared Shrimp with Garlic-Lemon Butter
1) Beat 3 tablespoons softened unsalted butter with fork in small bowl until light and fluffy.
2) Stir in 1 medium garlic clove, minced, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, and 1/8 teaspoon salt until combined.
3) Follow recipe for Pan-Seared Shrimp, adding flavored butter when returning first batch of shrimp to skillet.
4) Serve immediately, with lemon wedges, if desired.


Simmered White Beans
Ingredients:
1 can Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried Oregano or 1 teaspoon fresh Minced Oregano
2 or 3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 cup of Chicken Broth
1 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Directions:
1) Put all ingredients into a medium saucepan and simmer, uncovered, for 5 to 10
minutes
2) Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes more.
3) Serve immediately. If serving with the Garli-Lemon buttered Shrimp recipe above, drizzle a bit of the Shrimp's sauce over the beans, too.

Enjoy!
Lorence

Mediteranean Spiced Beef

This is another recipe I've had sitting around for years, one we cut out of an old "First" magazine. The magazine calls it "Spiced Beef with Grilled Pita". since we had nearly all of the ingredients on hand, we decided to give it a try. I was pretty surprised at how pleasant it tasted and how easy it was to make. The one ingredient I didn't have was the pita (I really like the pita they carry at Aladdin's Eatery in Grandview. At $1.99 for a pretty good sized bag (15 of them?), it's a pretty good deal. They're much flatter and tastier than those fat store bought pita, more like lavash. Since I didn't have any, I used some tortillas and they worked fine. I WILL use Aladdin's pita next time, though, and I'm also thinking this would be fantastic using ground lamb...

Ingredients:
Yogurt Sauce:
1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt
3/4 teaspoon Fresh Mint, chopped

Beef:
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano (I used a Tablespoon of the fresh stuff from my garden, minced)
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup tomato sauce
Pita
vegetable oil

Directions:
1) Combine the yogurt and the mint in a small bowl and put it in the refrigerator.
2) Crumble the beef in a frying pan and brown over medium heat. Drain the fat off.
3) Into the beef, stir the next nine ingrdients (onion thru tomato sauce).
4) Cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes to blend the flavors.
5) Grill the pitas by brushing them with oil and grilling them quickly on both sides in a large pan over high heat.
6) openthe pitas to make a pocket and fill witht he meat.
7) Serve with the yogurt sauce.

I served them in grilled tortillas, with the yogurt sauce and some finely shredded romaine and some steamed french green beans.

Enjoy!
Lorence

My Shrimp Etouffe

I love cajun food. Unfortunately, there is no place here in Columbus to get anything that even resembles cajun. There used to be an authentic little cajun place that was known by several names: "Gloria", "Harold's Cajun Glory", and a few others, I think. It started out as this tiny 5 or 6 table hole-in-the-wall that had great acadia crab cakes, boiled crawfish(the good kind- fresh with lots of spice), andoullie, and...FABULOUS crawfish etouffe. Since Harold died a few years back, the Columbus restaurant scene has been severly lacking.
So I decided that I had to learn to make some of this wonderful food myself. I found a recipe on S.O.A.R., now called Recipe Source. It's a great resource for all sorts of recipes, including a great range of ethnic recipes. The crawfish etouffe recipe I found was a good starting point, but I really didn't have access to decent crawfish, so I adapted it to use shrimp. I think it's pretty good. Even my son likes it!
So what is "Etoufee" anyway? Let's start by pronouncing it properly.. Can you say "AY-TOO-FAY"? I knew you could...
It literally means "Smothered" in the cajun language.
Practically speaking, it is a spicy seafood stew-like sauce (generally crawfish tails) cooked in a roux (you'll see the flour added to the oil and cooked a bit in the directions below) along with the cajun holy trinity (onions, celery and bell pepper) and served over rice.
Here it is:

Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons Butter (yeah, the real stuff)
4 tablespoons flour
The holy trinity:
1 Bell Pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup Celery, finely chopped
1 large Onion, finely chopped
4 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (or less or more...as hot as you like)
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (or less or more...as hot as you like)
3 or 4 or 7 or 10 dashes Tabasco Sauce (again, as hot as you like)
1 to 1 1/2 pound Raw peeled Shrimp
2 cups Chicken Broth (don't use the no-salt stuff...) Or sub in 4 ounces of shrimp stock for some of the chicken broth.
Long grain cooked Rice (for serving. I like to use Basmati -yummy...)

A note about the shrimp: I like to use medium size, 41-50 per pound. See this site for a great shrimp sizing chart

Directions:
1) Melt the butter over medium heat
2) add the oil and blend with the butter
3) Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic and cilantro and saute until onion is opaque.
4) add the red pepper flakes, cayenne & Tabasco & mix well. saute for another couple of minutes.
5) Add the shrimp and saute for about a minute.
6) Sprinkle all of the flour over the pan contents and stir it aourn to mix it in.
7) Saute for about 3 minutes or so.
8) Slowly stir in the chicken broth and the tomato pastepas it blend with the rest of the pan contents...keep stirring, keep stirring, keep stirring...
9) turn down the heat to a simmer.
10) Cover and simmer for about 3-4 minutes.
11) Serve it over hot rice.

Make sure you serve it while it is very hot! (temperature hot, that is... the seasonings wil guarantee the tasty type of heat!)

Comment below and let me know how you like it.

Enjoy,
Lorence

My favorite Balsamic Chicken

Last night we made my favorite balsamic chicken recipe. I found it years ago in a magazine, cut it out and saved it, but didn't make it for several years. Finally I wised up. It's pretty quick and tasty, too. I almost always serve it with wide egg noodles (stay away from those nasty no-yolks. They're very rubbery tasting).

I've had the recipe on my website for quite some time now:
balder.prohosting.com/lorence/chicken_with_balsamic_vinegar.html
It's been fairly popular among freinds. Give it a try and send a comment to me - let me know what you think of it.

I've been using Monari Federzoni green label balsamic vinegar for a coulpe of years now. It's pretty good stuff and not too expensive. They have a nice website, too:
http://www.monarifederzoni.it/eng/

Enjoy,
Lorence

Garlic-Dill Salmon Fillet

Last night was salmon - I made my usual broiled salmon with garlic and dill. I also coat the top lihtly with bread crumbs or, preferably, a bit of corn meal. I always use fillets instead of steaks, and I've recently started portioning the fillets out before cooking. I've found cooking time to be a bit shorter and I can see the ends of each piece better, so I'm not overcooking them. They stay moist and taste much better, plus I'm not tearing the fillet up trying to slice it after it's cooked.

Here's how I made last night's:

Ingredients:
1 pound salmon fillet (I had a nice wild fillet), cut into 3 portions
Garlic powder
Dill weed
Lemon juice (from half a lemon)
Olive oil spray
Cornmeal

Directions:
1) Line a pan with foil and lightly spray the foil with oil
2) Sprinkle some garlic powder and some dill in the pan where the salmon will sit
3) Place the salmon portions into the pan skin side down.
4) Squeeze the lemon juice onto the salmon (catch the seeds!)
5) Sprinkle the salmon with garlic powder. sprinkle lightly for a subtle flavor or be more generous if you like garlic
6) Sprinkle the dill liberally on the salmon. (don't be too stingy with the Dill!)
7) Lightly sprinkle the salmon with the cornmeal. tHe idea is to make a very light coating, not quite a crust...
8) spray the salmon lightly with the Oil
9) put the salmon under the broiler until just barely pink at the bottom. The top should be just slightly crusting.
10) server immediately.

I served this with twice coked green beans (steamed, then added to hot olive oil and mustard seed and tossed about a bit).

It was pretty tasty and very quick to make, and healthy, too!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Becky's Beans - Baked Beans Beyond Belief!

We went to a birthday party for the cute little three year old girl down the street last weekend. It was all afternoon fun for the kids and a tasty meal for the adults, too. One of the homemade yummies we had was a crockpot full of baked beans made by the birthday girl's grandmother, Becky. She was kind enough to let me have the recipe and forward it on to you!
I know you've probably had great baked beans before, but you MUST try these. They're fantastic and have a great and unusual flavor. Read it through and give them a try. Total crock cooking time is 8 hours (on low). Be sure to remove the lid after 5 hours.

Ingredients:
1 pound Bacon, cut slices into 1 inch pieces
1 pound Kielbasa, sliced thin
1 large onion, chopped
1 48 ounce jar white northern beans (She uses "Randall's brand)
1/2 pound dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon mustard
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup ketchup
3/4 cup hot taco sauce (like "La Victoria Salsa Brava")- NOT hot salsa...

Directions:
Saute bacon, keilbasa and onion and put into crockpot
add all the other ingredients and mix well. Cook on low for 5 hour, then remove lid and cook for 3 more hours on low.

We had these with BBQ beef from GFS, kettle chips, pickles and olives.

Let me know how they turn out!