Brussel Sprouts - because it's all about the bacon

I've never been a fan of Brussel Sprouts. They always struck me as small, stinky cabbages that have been cooked half to death. Also was not a fan of the mouth feel. My family, though, have become rather fond of them so I decided I needed to figure out how to become a fan. I looked through the google-web because that's what I do when I need a recipe anymore. I finally found a recipe I could go with. The family liked them, our dinner guests have liked them and my nephew thinks they're a delicacy. I must've figured out something right.

Brussel Sprouts
Ingredients:
Brussel Sprouts - 1 bag
olive oil
butter
bacon
chopped nuts
garlic and/or green onion
For full recipe use 4 slices bacon. This one is 1/2 recipe so I used 2 slices of bacon. Put bacon in pan and cook over low heat. Make sure you turn it often so it doesn't burn.



 

 While the bacon is cooking chop the brussel sprouts and the nuts. Chop garlic and/or the green onion fine. I didn't have green onion so I used garlic. Other recipes call for shallot. Use whatever combination your heart desires and your pantry has available.

Chop the brussel sprouts in half, then chop fine

Chop garlic fine

Chop walnuts - you can use whatever nut you like

After you cook the bacon, remove it from the pan and drain. Once it's cooled break it into small pieces to be tossed back into the mixture once the brussel sprouts have been sauteed.

Add a little olive oil if you like to the bacon grease. 

Add garlic and saute.

garlic sauteing

Next toss in the chopped brussel sprouts. Add about a TB of butter. Sauteed over medium heat. You want them to still be crisp and not overcook.

Add nuts and bacon pieces.

Continue to saute until everything is warm.

Serve immediately. I like this because the brussel sprouts stay a little crisp. It has lots of flavors and textures with the bacon and the nuts.I really like this recipe but I'm not so sure it's the brussel sprouts. Let's face it folks, it's all about the bacon. Yum.

Happy New Year

New Year's Celebrations always seemed a bit contrived to me. In fact any holiday where you're expected to go out and HAVE A REALLY GREAT TIME just feels like too much pressure to HAVE FUN! Some of the most fun I've had has been a random evening of cards and games and good food with friends. So, I usually try not to put too much stock in something like New Year's Eve. This year for a change of pace we are going out. One of our favorite bands will be playing a small bar in town. We like their music and the atmosphere will be very low key. Put on your favorite jeans and a flannel shirt and you'll be ready to roll.

I have all the black eyed pea fixin's I need so tomorrow I'm planning on staying in, cooking, and taking down decorations. We have some friends who may stop in for a meal if they feel like it. Now, that's my idea of celebrating...enjoying a long friendship with good people no matter what the date.

Wishing you all a happy 2013.
Cheers!
Shortstuff

The Christmas Tie

Many years ago my father's step-mother sent him a tie as a Christmas gift. As ties go, and as they went in the 60's, it was pretty darned ugly. It was a pinkish big-flowered thing as I recall. But, it's the thought that counts, right? And this woman thought my dad looked like a big-flowered pink tie wearing guy. Now, Dad was a curmudgeon and a really good one at that. He held up the tie with one finger and we all had a good chuckle. Sweet, well intentioned Emily had sent that thing for our Dad to wear? Never gonna happen.

Fast forward a Christmas. My oldest brother Jay, in the midst of his present opening orgy, comes upon...you got it...a big-flowered pink tie. Gifted to him by our dear old dad. Thus began the legend of the Christmas tie. Year after year the tie was exchanged between Dad and Jay. As the years went on the gifting became more and more clever in an effort to surprise the giftee. As I recall one year the tie was rolled up tight and presented in a jam jar. Think you're getting strawberry jam or some apple butter? Sucker!! You're now the ?proud? owner of The Christmas Tie.

After the opening the tie would be placed unceremoniously on the mantelpiece in either the living room or the dining room. There it would collect dust until about the beginning of December the following year. At that point it would disappear and we knew something was afoot and that it was assuming a very un-tie like form in anticipation of being surprised upon its next giftee. Sadly, the tie met its demise at the hands of my brother's less than sane at the time first wife. The Christmas Tie was no more.

Fast forward to this Christmas. Regretfully, my dad and my brother are both gone. Dad died in 1994 and Jay died in 2010. I have just become the recipient of Jay's ashes which I am taking to my mother today so he and Dad can hang out on the mantelpiece in the living room together. Not content with taking him down in just a plain white box, this funny guy with a great sense of humor. No that would not do for Jay. So I went down to the Goodwill and picked up not one, but two really ugly ties and I have wrapped up his boring white box with these and will present him to mom later today. I'm guessing she's going to laugh. 'Cause that's the way this family rolls.

Mrs. Eisenhower's Fudge

As far as I'm concerned this should be called, Beth Williams' fudge because that's who taught me to make it. Beth, my mother-in-law, made spectacular fudge. She gave me the instructions many moons ago. I got up my nerve to give it a try sometime in the mid-80's. My first attempt was spectacularly bad. So bad, in fact, that even the residents at the hospital wouldn't eat it and they eat ANYTHING! So, I ended up tossing that in the trash and swearing off fudge making. Fast forward a couple of decades and I decide to take on the monumental task yet again. Lo and behold either I got smarter or the recipe got easier because I FINALLY succeeded in making edible fudge. I generally make a batch around Christmas, although I don't do it every year. Here is this year's attempt, complete with recipe in case you have a hankering to try your hand at it.:

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 TB butter
1 can evaporated milk
12 oz chocolate chips
12 oz German's chocolate
1 pt. marshmallow creme
1/2 c nuts (optional)

Put sugar, salt, butter and milk in a large saucepan; bring to a boil and boil for 6 minutes. Place chocolate pieces, German's chocolate, marshmallow creme and nuts (if desired) in a bowl; pour hot mixture over. Beat until the chocolate is melted. Pour into a large telly roll pan or two 9 X 13 inch dishes. Cool and cut. Can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

Here are some visual aides:

The fixin's: chocolates, sugar, evaporated milk, butter, salt, & marshmallow creme.

This pot of glop is the sugar, salt, evaporated milk and the butter

Chocolate chips and German's chocolate broken into chunks.

The final product waiting to go into the freezer.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Hope you have a wonderful holiday.

~ Short Stuff

Feta Chicken...it's what's for dinner

Wanted to make a nice dinner for my sweetie tonight, it being our anniversary and all. So, I dragged out this old recipe that I think I cut out of a magazine many years ago. I've made it a few times and it's quite tasty. Plus it uses feta and I love that salty bit of cheesy goodness.

Broiled (or baked) Feta Chicken

Ingredients:
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt (I used regular Greek yogurt because that's what I had on hand.)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon leaf rosemary, crumbled
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 skinless, boned chicken breast halves (about 5 oz ea)
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese (2 oz)





I elected to use fresh Rosemary from my yard, so I had to chop it first.




 

Next combine yogurt, garlic, rosemary and pepper.

 

Wash your chicken breasts. I only had three in my package instead of the 4 the recipe called for, so I just used what I had.

 Place chicken in a shallow pan or a marinade container (as shown). Coat with the yogurt mixture.
Refrigerate 1 - 3 hours.
Remove from refrigerator and let come to room temperature for not more than 30 minutes.
Remove chicken from marinade; reserve any remaining marinade in dish.






 Preheat broiler. Line broiler pan with aluminum foil. Arrange breasts, smooth side down, on foil.





Broil 4 to 7 minutes. Turn over. Spoon any  remaining marinade over chicken. Crumble feta over top. Broil just until cooked through and lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes longer.

Since I have an overactive smoke alarm and a not very good broiler I elected to bake these instead. I put them in a preheated 350 degree oven and baked about 15 minutes on one side. I flipped them, added the feta and baked another 15 minutes, increasing the temperature to 400 degrees for the last few minutes to brown the feta a bit.

 Voila! The finished product. Served with French green beans. The recipe notes that the feta chicken is good cold or at room temperature, so leftovers don't go to waste. kali oreksi!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in a baking mood on Sunday. I made an oldie but goodie: easy no-knead whole wheat bread which instructions I posted just the other day. While I was in the mood I asked my dear husband what kind of cookies he might like if I were to make some. He said there is only one answer to that: chocolate chip cookies. These are his favorite. He will down just about any kind of cookie. He used to be quite fond of my shortbread cookies with hot tea on a winter's night. He will chow down on my three-ingredient peanut butter cookies and has been known to consume a significant number of oatmeal raisin (MY personal favorite). But given his druthers he'd take chocolate chip every time.

I got this recipe back in the early 80's. Found it in a consumer reports magazine of all places. They had done a taste test on varying recipes for chocolate chip cookies and this one came out as the staff favorite. I taught this recipe to our daughter very early. I think she was 8 or 9. She very quickly turned into the family baker. He prefers her cookies to mine, but mine will do in a pinch. She lives 1 1/2 hours away and won't come home every weekend to make them for the old guy so he has to resort to whatever I'm able to pull out of the oven. He still seems to like them well enough. He's tall and thin so can go through his evening ritual of filling a dinner plate with cookies and sticking them in the microwave for a few seconds to heat them up and make the chocolate all melty again. That plate and a glass of milk and I have a very happy camper on my hands. He also doesn't seem to gain an ounce...unlike the cook. Sigh.

The Practically Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie...from Consumer Reports
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 white sugar
3/4 dark brown sugar, packed
2 sticks (1/2 lb) sweet butter at room temperature (Use butter. Don't use margarine in cookies.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1-12 oz pkg semisweet chocolate chips

 

I like to gather all my ingredients at the beginning. Then I put them away as I use them.

Preheat oven to 375.

 Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Measure out the two sugars. Use a stand-type electric mixer to mix the 2 sugars briefly at low speed.

Make sure your brown sugar is packed.

Both sugars briefly mixed together.

 Next up: Butter and vanilla extract.

Add small gobbets of butter at a time.

 Add the butter in small gobbets, mixing first at low speed, then high. Continue until all butter is incorporated. Beat the mixture until it is pale, light and fluffy. Then add the vanilla extract at the lowest speed, then beat at high speed for a few seconds.

Add the tsp of vanilla extract.

  

 Next add the eggs, again at low then high for a few seconds. The eggs should be well beaten in and the mixture should look creamed, not curdled.

Dry mixture ready to be added.

Add in the flour, baking soda and salt mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing at low speed for about 1 minutes, then at high speed for a few seconds.

 Scrape down sides with a spatula.









Pour bag of chocolate chips into batter.

Fold in chocolate chips

Fold chocolate chips into batter by hand. Don't use beaters.

                    







Bake on ungreased cookie sheet until pale golden brown.

Takes about 9 minutes in an electric oven and 10 - 11 minutes in a gas oven. Cool on a rack.

Enjoy!