My first photo on this blog...

This is my stove a 1950 Frigidaire model RM-60 electric range. It's been in the house since 1950, when it was purchased, replacing a 1938 magic chef model 3800. the old Magic Chef still lives inthe basement. I really need to get rid of that one, I could use the space!

Everything onthis old range works except the clock. The oven is unbelievably accurate, even after 55 years. If I set the oven to be at 350, it will get up to and stay at 350. period. it cooks well, especially after I've become accustomed to using it over the last 14 years. Ilike it, but would gladly trade it for a nice modern gas range or, preferably, a fabulous 1940's O'Keefe & Merritt Vintage Gas Range though I'd settle for a Wedgewood, or Chambers (like Rachael Ray's). Yeah, I know...Dream on...

Feta Dill Tuna cakes

I hate Tuna noodle casserole. With a vengance. And so I've always been leary of cooked tuna. But I really like these tuna cakes, though. They've got great flavor and texture and are pretty quick and easy to make. Another plus is that I get to use feta cheese, which I really like, but don't find too many things to use it in.
Give these a try. I like to use solid white tuna packed in water.

Feta Dill Tuna cakes
Ingredients:
2 cans Solid White Tuna, packed in water, DRAINED
1 Large egg
1 Tablespoon olive oil
8 to 10 saltine crackers, crushed fine
2 Tablespoons dried dill
2 green onions, chopped
4 Tablespoons (or more!) crumbled Feta cheese

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl (get your hands into it!) .
Form into patties - I usually make 5 or 6. Don't make them too fat, but not too thin either.
Brown in olive oil over medium to medium-high heat.

We usually have these with a salad, creamed spinich, sometimes even with baked steak fries.

Enjoy

Sweet Horshradish Chicken

I don't roast whole chickens too often, but when I do, I usually use this recipe for Horseradish Chicken. It comes out amazingly sweet and juicy, with a wonderful flavor. If you make it (and you should...), serve with mashed potatoes because the gravy is fabulous.

The recipe:
Horseradish Roasted Chicken
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons softened butter
1 Tablespoon grated fresh Horseradish(or a little more if you like)
OR
1 Tablespoon (or more!) fresh Horseradish from a jar (the kind in the refrigerated section by the cheese/butter/eggs - DO NOT USE that white mayonaise-y prepared horseradish sauce !!! BLECCCCH !!!
3, 4 or more cloves of garlic, minced
3.5 - 4 lb Whole Chicken
Salt & pepper

Heat your oven to 350 F.
Combine the softened butter, garlic, and Horseradish in a small bowl.
Starting at the neck end of the chicken, gently separate the skin from the flesh over the breast. Put your hand all the way in and loosen the skin over the thighs, too, being careful not to tear the skin.
Spread as much of the butter as possible UNDER the skin.
Pat the skin back in place and rub the remaining butter on the top of the skin.
Sprinkle with salt & pepper.
Put the chicken on a roasting pan .
Bake until the juices run clear when an inner thigh is pierced to a temp of 160 with an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast, about 1 hour 15 minutes 15-20 minutes/pound.
Remove the chicken and add 1/4 cup water to the pan and bring to a simmer on top of the stove over medium heat, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Cook until reduced and thickened, about 5 minutes.
Carve the chicken and serve with the sauce.

I generally use a little more butter and horseradish than the recipe calls for. It's also a little easier to work with if you melt the butter, add the horseradish & garlic, then stick the mixture in the freezer for fifteen-twenty five minutes or so. It spreads better.
You can also roast some small red skinned new potatoes with this and of course, some healthy steamed veggies, like sugar peas are also a good compliment.

Serves 4 - 6 (Depending on the size of the bird - I used a big 6 pound "Sunday Roaster" once & LOTS of butter/Horseradish mixture both inside AND out - 6 people were very happy and we still had lunch the next day!)
I once made this dish using just chicken breasts (with the bones and the skin still on) - just bake the breasts at 350 F for 30 minutes or so in a foil lined pan. This dish also makes a nice gravy for rice.
Enjoy.

Dinner at Cafe Istanbul

We recently had a fantastic dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Istanbul at Easton Town Center. We've been there several times, but our experience witht he menu is quite limited because we never seem to be able to order anything different. The place smells great, and the food we've had (and the service) has been wonderful. Our regular order is to start with the small "appetizer sampler", which has Humus (Pureed chickpeas with tahini , garlic & lemon juice), patlican salatasi (Smoked mashed eggplant blended with tahini & garlic), yaprak dolmasi (Grape leaves stuffed with rice, herbs, currents & pine nuts), kisir (Cracked wheat salad with red & green peppers, parsley, onions, olive oil & lemon), pilaki(Pinto beans with carrots, green peppers & diced potatoes seasoned with light tomato sauce & olive oil.), soslu patlican (Cubes of fried eggplant in fresh tomato sauce) and, my favorite, ezme (Blended tomatoes, onions and hot peppers mixed with olive oil & herbs). Oh, my the ezme is good stuff! I'm searching for a good usable recipe for ezme and will post it as soon as I try it. The appetizer platter is served with very fresh and flavorful hot, right out of the oven turkish bread. After we devour the appetizer platter, we then split a dish called "Karniyarik", which is described as "oven-roasted eggplant stuffed with ground beef, chopped tomatoes, green peppers and herbs". I have absolutely no refernce for to describe to you what it tastes like - I can never remember until I taste it again. All I can say is that it's great. After a hot turkish tea or turkish coffee, we usually roll out of there stuffed to the gills and with our tastes buds completely satisfied for about $30 + tip. If you're anywhere near Columbus, go there! If you aren't, find a turkish restaurant near you.

Kapusta, Kapusta

What the heck is Kapusta, you ask. Well, simply put, it's baked pork and kraut with a polish twist. I first made this several years ago by just tossing some stuff into my crock pot but my polish mother-in-law came by and declared it the best "Kapusta" she'd ever had! I'd never heard of Kapusta before and was just making up the recipe as I went along, so I was surprised, but inlooking at several other receipes for it, I too think mine's the best. Here's one that's close, but not as good as mine: http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/polish/cerveny-kapusta1.html">RecipeSource: Cerveny Kapusta

And now here's mine:

Lorence's Kapusta
1 lb polish sausage, cut into inch long slices
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork chops, cut into bite sized cubes
4 or 5 hot dogs (leave 'em whole!)
1 tablespoon caraway seed
3 medium potatoes, cut into bite sized cubes
1 large tomato, diced
2 tart apples, pared and cut into cubes
1 large onion, sliced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
32 ounce bag of sauerkraut, (juice and all)

Turn a large crock pot on high. Put all of the ingredients into the crock pot and try to get it all mixed as best as you can.
Cook on high 4 hours or so, and stir it up after about 2 hours.
Turn it down to low and cook for another 2 or 3 hours (or as long as you want!).

That's it. Serve it hot with some bread. We often use steamed hot dog buns (let them sit on top of the Kapusta in the covered crock pot for 5 minutes or so...

Try it and tell me what your think.

GARLIC! I LOVE GARLIC!

I just came across this Website/Blog - a must read for anyone who loves garlic:
Garlicster.

I've just read a couple of pages and I'm ready to go out and buy a case of fresh garlic.

Quick shrimp and pasta

I know, I know, I said I was going to cook tonight. Friday's are just kinda hectic, and I'm usually pretty tired, so I just threw some stuff together.
I started some penne cooking, then in my big pan, I heated up some olive oil (oh, about 3 Tablespoons or so) and threw in 4 or 5 large minced garlic cloves, about half of a roasted red pepper (cut up) and a couple of choped up roma tomatoes. I had a pound of peeled shrimp tossed with half a teaspoon each of oregano and basil which went into the pan. I tossed it all around 'til the shrimp were done, then dropped the drained pasta in and shook that all about. Served it with a tossed salad and Ken's Creamy parmesan peppercorn dressing. Not too bad for a throw together.

Lunch was that leftover tarragon-rosemary chicken. I also had some greens with cabbage and ginger honey glazed carrots from the cafeteria. The greens were great (they're always great - the cafeteria has the best greens in town!) and worked well as an accompaniment to the chicken, but the carrots were way too sweet and didn't really go with the chicken at all.

I'm not sure what's up for tomorrow. Maybe some salmon on Sunday, though.
----Lorence

BBQ Ribs and cabbage tonight...

Tonight I just did some quick bbq ribs. They were country style ribs, bone-in. I just gave them a good rub all over with some granulated garlic and Old Bay (I love Old Bay!) and stuck them under the broiler. I kept turning them until they were cooked through, then smothered them in Kraft brown suger BBQ sauce, popped them back under the broiler again, turned them and smothered them again. They had real good flavor but were a bit too fatty. I served them with some Glory Foods Country Cabbage that I just heated straight from the can. Glory is a Columbus, OH company that makes some of the best southern style foods available to those of us north of the Mason-Dixon line, even better than Sylvia's Soul Foods (which are pretty good, too.). Not a bad quick meal, but I need to really cook something. Soon.

Lunch was tasty - not healthy, but tasty. The caferteria had wing bar today and I can't ever resist the hot wings. I had 7 or 8 drummie pieces and plenty of napkins. Now that was yummy! I'll be eating the leftover tarragon-rosemary chicken tomorrow...

----Lorence

Welcome to the Kitchen!

Hi, and welcome to my kitchen!
I hope to use this "space" to record my kitchen adventures, post my recipes, receive comments about them and maybe even some new recipes, if you'd like to share. I've never kept a journal before, but since blogging is all rage these days, I figured I'd give it a try. So let's get started!

This first post actually has nothing to do with MY kitchen, since we went to PF Chang's tonight. Karen and I had the Spring Roll appetizer (I'm not a fan of the lettuce wraps), then the Beef a la Sichuan and Garlic Noodles for Matthew. He insists on eating with his "Hold Stix" kiddie chopsticks, and does a pretty darn good job with them, too! I have a great photo of him when he first tried them - I'll dig it up and post it soon.

I can't start this out without a recipe, so here's what I made last night:

Tarragon-Dijon Chicken
2 Tablespoons Course Ground Dijon Mustard
2 teaspoons Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon tobasco
vegetable oil spray
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 6 oz each

Heat oven to 350.
Combine the first 5 ingredients in a box.
Spray the bottom of a 13x9x2 glass baking dish with vegetable spray
Place the chicken in the dish in a single layer
Spoon the Mustard mixture evenly over the chicken
Bake the chicken for 35-40 minutes

The original recipe called for baking 40-45 minutes, but I think this came out a bit dry at the length of time, so try adjusting it down a bit. Just make sure the chicken is cook all the way through. I'll probably try this dish again - flavor was great - but I'll probly try covering the dish with foil for a while in the oven so it retains more of it's moisture.

Try it and use the comments here to tell me what you think!

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow we cook again!

----Lorence