ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND PEPPER SANDWICH

Posted on July 13, 2011 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

The Easy Recipe this week is a great quick meal that can be prepared entirely on the BBQ keeping the house nice and cool. My Italian Sausage and Pepper Sandwich recipe adds great new flavors to the basic recipe. This quick meal is perfect for a party or a fun family meal.

This recipe serves 6.

Ingredients:
6 Johnsonville Mild or Hot Italian Sausage links
1 Onion sliced into thin rounds
1 Green Pepper cut into strips
1 Red Pepper cut into strips
2 Tbsp Fresh Basil chopped
6 Mozzarella Cheese slices (or more if you like)
Pizza Sauce
6 Hoagie Buns

Because Sue has had such a great vegetable crop, instead of just suggesting a salad, this week I am providing photographs of her salad. Preparation:
Pre-heat BBQ to medium heat. Do not boil or pierce sausage. Merely place sausage on the grill and close the cover. Grill sausage for 20 to 25 minutes or until appropriate internal temperature is reached (see Johnsonville directions). Use tongs to turn the sausage every few minutes to keep from burning.

Place vegetables into a BBQ basket, add 1 Tbsp of Olive oil. In final 10 minutes of grilling, place BBQ vegetable basket onto grill and sauté the vegetables until very tender.

Remove sausage and vegetables from grill, place in separate containers and cover with foil.

Lightly brown the buns on the grill for a few seconds.

Assembly:
Brush pizza sauce onto each bun, add cheese, add one sausage link, cover with vegetables and serve with a salad.

AND STUFF

My buddy Dan, from Bozeman, Montana, used to make a great Italian Sausage Sandwich.  His recipe was the basis for this week’s Easy Recipe. Dan would slice mounds of onion and green pepper and saute’ them in a huge fry pan on the stove top, and then use them to smother his barbecued-to-perfection hot Italian Sausages. They were great sandwiches, but of course I needed to punch the recipe up a little.

Here is a great vacation idea. Bozeman is a beautiful college town on the western side of the state, surrounded by mountain ranges. Dan and I would occasionally ski Big Sky Resort (http://www.bigskyresort.com/). It is located midway between Bozeman and West Yellowstone. Big Sky is great, and the drive from Bozeman winds though beautiful country with mountain rapids visible most of the way to the turnoff to Big Sky.  It is a fine ski resort, but at least the last time I was there, the apres ski choices were limited.

We often skied a different, closer resort, one that you may not have heard of called Bridger Bowl. Bridger Bowl is a most unusual ski resort in that it is owned by charter citizen skiers in Bozeman. The link (http://www.bridgerbowl.com/) provides a great overview of the ski resort. But it can be summed up quickly as follows: un-crowded slopes; abundant snow; steeps when you want; and oh yeah, more steeps.  Last time I was there, at the top of the highest chairlift after a short hike, there was a tow rope to take you even higher.  Wearing a beeper is a very good idea when venturing in that world.  

So, let’s recap, Bozeman is a college town (MSU), has college football, two ski resorts, and Yellowstone National Park nearby – what more could you want?  Ok, how about this little known gem.  About 15 miles north of the north entrance to Yellowstone lies Chico Hot Springs Resort (http://www.chicohotsprings.com/).  Chico is amazing on many levels. It has cabins and a lodge overlooking beautiful terrain.  It has natural hot spring – fed hot tubs and a large pool. It has country music and dancing in a barn style venue.  And, wait for it, in this pristinely beautiful, yet in the middle of nowhere location, it offers the hiker, biker, or adventurer meals and wine from their on-site gourmet restaurant in the lodge.  

While living in Bozeman it was easy to drive down to Chico for an evening of great dining and dancing, but since leaving the area I have not yet been lucky enough to match my vacation schedule with a vacancy at the resort.  So, my advice is, if you want to use Chico Hot Springs as your base while exploring Yellowstone National Park, book early, real early.

Is that it?  Nope, Bozeman has a marvelous old downtown with bistros and restaurants, and it is close to world class fly fishing creeks.

So, Bozeman is great, yet I left, what gives?  I do have a couple of issues with Bozeman. It is a tad cold in the winter (I seem to recall it being 350 degrees below zero, but I could be off a little on that memory).  And, more importantly to me, it is virtually impossible to walk to the beach from Bozeman.  

But, if one is looking for an outstanding vacation spot, Bozeman should be high on the to visit list winter or summer.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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SHRIMP PASTA SALAD

Posted on July 6, 2011 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

Now that it’s summer I like to make great quick meals that do not create too much heat in the kitchen.   My shrimp and pasta salad is just the thing to keep things cool because the preparation only requires boiling water, and the dish is served cold.

This fun family meal serves four.

Ingredients

20 Shrimp – large 20 to 30 count per pound – pealed and deveined

2 Cups Seashell shaped pasta

2 Celery sticks cut in half the long way and then thinly cut

½ Cup onion – diced

4 oz jar Pimientos – diced

3 oz Sharp Cheddar Cheese cut into small cubes

½ Cup frozen peas

1 Tbsp Basil – chopped

½ Cup Mayonnaise

1/3 Cup Ketchup

1 Tbsp lemon juice

2 or 3 dashes of Tobasco Sauce

1/4 tsp pepper

Salt to taste

1 Lettuce head

Preparation

Boil seashell pasta per instructions on box.  Place the frozen peas in the strainer and when pasta is cooked drain the pasta over the frozen peas. Cool the pasta down by running cold water over the pasta and peas in the strainer. Shake all the water from the pasta and place pasta/peas in a large bowl.

In a pot large enough to hold a metal strainer pour a couple inches of water, place a metal strainer in the pot making certain the water is below the level of the strainer. Place the pealed and deveined shrimp on the strainer, bring water to a boil, cover the pot, reduce heat to medium high, and steam the shrimp for 3 minutes. When done, turn off the burner, and with a covered hand remove strainer with shrimp and place the sink to shower the shrimp with cold water.

Add the cooled shrimp, onion, cheese, and basil to the cooled pasta. Drain pimientos and add to bowl.

In a small stirring bowl combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, lemon, tobacco sauce, salt and pepper and stir. Pour the sauce over the pasta and gently fold the sauce into the shrimp and pasta. Place the pasta bowl in refrigerator.

 

Prior to serving the meal, wash enough lettuce leaves so that whole leaves can be arranged on each serving plate.  Next, scoop a serving of pasta onto the lettuce, and serve your great creation.               

 

AND STUFF

As some of you know, by day I am an attorney. The nature of my practice is evolving, as am I. But, at one point in my career I was a partner in a 40 lawyer firm. I really enjoyed working at that firm. For many years we were able to maintain a wonderful collegial atmosphere.

On a few occasions I was selected as the firm’s representative to travel to London to meet with and entertain clients such as Lloyds of London, and London Underwriters. I grew up in flyover country, and although I had seen the Atlantic Ocean, I had never crossed it until my first business trip to London.

My first flight on British Airways was scheduled to depart LA late in the afternoon for an overnight flight to London. I had flown First Class one time, years earlier, while accompanying a US District Judge to St. Louis to sit on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. But that domestic, short haul, first class flight did not compare to British Airways business class.

Prior to the flight I relaxed in the British Airways club lounge, and when it was time to board we were escorted to the gate and boarded privately. Next I was directed to go up a spiral staircase in the 747 to access the business class section on the second level of the plane. Although I was an “LA lawyer”, my roots were basically rural, so I found the whole experience pretty exciting. There I was sipping a drink in the upper portion of the plane while the other 400 or so passengers boarded. Yes siree, I had arrived.

The next morning, while enjoying my breakfast we flew over Iceland, or if not, something that should have been named Iceland. Eventually our pilot put us on the approach pattern into Heathrow. For quite some time there had been cloud cover below the plane, but as we descended through the clouds I was able to catch glimpses of the lovely green countryside. The Walter Mitty in me began to imagine that the view of the English countryside I was enjoying may have been similar to the view pilots in their Spitfire fighter planes may have observed while scanning the clouds for enemy aircraft long ago.

Upon landing I was thrilled to see a Concorde on the tarmac. That was the one and only Concorde I ever saw. The Concorde was such a beautiful plane.

In between meetings with various brokers and claims representatives, I would sightsee about the town as much as possible. But mostly I viewed London from pubs and restaurants because, ironic as this sounds, I was there on business. Pubs are a blast. I love the community feeling of a pub and, oh yes, the great beer.

On one particular night I closed down a pub with a client, and as we had not yet solved all the world’s problems, we taxied over to my hotel to discuss the issues in the hotel bar. I do not know why, but for some reason hotel bars can remain open after the pubs are shut down.
In the moment, the decision to reconvene in the hotel bar seemed brilliant. However, the next morning while dressing for my first scheduled business meetings the prior evening’s idea did not shine so brilliantly.

My midmorning meeting was with a company that was renowned for its beautiful antique espresso and tea brewing equipment in their conference room. Of course we were served tea, which in this instance was in tiny little china cups. My tea cup had an itsy bitsy handle. As I daintily grasped the little handle and began to lift the tea cup off the saucer I was again reminded that my late night post pub crawl was not a good idea. As I lifted the tea cup my hand began to tremble. Very casually I brought my other hand over to assist in the holding of the teeny tiny tea cup. Of course, the Brit that I had been pub crawling with was sipping his tea and doing just fine and dandy with one hand.

How in the heck do they do it? I think drinking is in their DNA. Based upon a Benjamin Franklin biography I read, in the 1700’s the English of pretty much all ages drank beer at every meal because the water in those days was so unsanitary. Hey, I was not around in the 1700’s so I don’t know if the story is accurate. But, if it is accurate, it could explain the apparent immunity the Brits have to the effects of massive amounts of beer.

In any event, I survived the meeting, and was off to a lunch meeting which of course commenced with cocktails followed by wine with the meal. Seems I was adjusting to life in the UK, albeit circa 1700.

That was the nature of all my trips to London. I knew all the good pubs and restaurants. I really must visit London again so I can branch out from pubs and restaurants to better experience its wonderful historical venues. Heck, I hear there is a palace in London with a Queen in residence protected by colorfully outfitted guards. Who knew?

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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Sloppy Wellington

Posted on June 28, 2011 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

This week my recipe for great low cost meals is an easy, fun, and affordable variation of Beef Wellington. The idea for my recipe came from the Cuisine at Home recipe for Mushroom Wellingtons. I liked their idea of using Portobello mushrooms and puff pastry sheets, but I wanted to create an entirely different fun family meal. I concluded that the Portobello mushroom would provide a great platform for serving one of my favorite comfort meals, the Sloppy Joe.
The recipe will serve 6.

Ingredients:
6 Portobello Mushrooms
1 ½ lbs Ground Sirloin
2  8 oz can of Tomato sauce
½ Onion diced
¼ Green pepper diced
1Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 Garlic Clove peeled and diced
1 tsp Fresh Basil chopped
¼ tsp Salt
½ tsp Chili Powder
Pepper to taste
¼ Cup American Honey Bourbon Whiskey or similar sweet liqueur (likely not in your mother’s recipe)
1 box Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets (thaw as directed on the box)
2 Tbsp butter – melted
Step 1: Wash the mushrooms and then use a spoon to remove the stems and gills to create a cup to hold the Sloppy Joe meat.    Step 2: Break up and brown the ground sirloin, remove meat and reserve meat, leaving one Tbsp of meat juices in fry pan.

Step 3: Saute’ the onion, green pepper, garlic, and then add the tomato sauce, basil, Dijon Mustard, chili powder, salt, pepper, American Honey Bourbon and stir. Then add browned meat stir and simmer.

Place the Portobello Mushrooms on an oven sheet which has been lightly sprayed  with canola oil, and cook at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Step 4: Take a sheet of the puff pastry, cut it into 4 squares. Sprinkle flour on your board, and roll each square out to about 10 inches. Place one hollowed out mushroom on the puff pastry, spoon Sloppy Joe mixture into the cavity in the mushroom, and fold the puff pastry over the mushroom and meat leaving a small opening at the top. Repeat the assembly five more times. Brush each Sloppy Wellington with melted butter.


Step 5: Spray oven sheet with canola oil, and bake for 20 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 425 degrees. As oven temperatures vary, keep an eye on the Sloppy Wellington and remove them when puff sheets are golden.

Plate the Sloppy Wellington with a fresh salad, and there you go, you have elevated the lowly Sloppy Joe to a highbrow Sloppy Wellington meal. 

AND STUFF

 It’s hard to believe but the 4th of July is this weekend.  Man time flies!  Seems like just yesterday we were skiing in Mammoth.  Er, well in fact we could have since the  Mammoth ski runs at Main Lodge close on July 4th.  But, I digress.  Point is, summer is here, and I love the 4th of July.

I like how the day builds to the grand finale fireworks show.  I usually start the 4th off with an early morning power walk at the beach with She Who Must Be Obeyed. 

 

 (Heads up, this is a photograph of She Who Must Be Obeyed, deceptive isn’t she) 

Early in the morning the beach is still quiet, and the sand clear of the beachgoers who arrive in mass later. June Gloom this year has been minimal so if that holds, the ocean views will be incredible.

Street parking on the 4th completly disapears as the day progress so, after our walk, we park our cars on the street in front of our house so that our in-laws in their 80’s, and other family can just drive into our garage later.      

     

Next, at midday we walk to the beach with our chairs, boogey boards, and ice chest loaded with appropriate snacks and innocent looking fruit juice (margaritas).  If we arrive before our neighborhood friends we spread our chairs and towels in such a manner as to hold down space for our friends, and if our friends are already there we fill in space they have held for us.  And then, other than talking and watching the kids, we enjoy the rare but wonderful activity of doing virtually nothing. We catch up on what is going on in the hood, and then the conversation almost always steers to how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful area, of such a wonderful country.     

We will hang at the beach basking in the sun until late afternoon. Then, I will leave She Who Must Be Obeyed at the beach with our friends, and walk home to start work on the barbeque. Nothing fancy just burgers, hot dogs, salads, beans and chips. Our deck is on the walkway to the beach and it is always fun when people walk by and tell me the barbeque smells great. 

We time the meal so that after a few drinks, and dinner, the sun is just starting to set.  Because, that means it’s time to go back to the beach, this time with chairs, blankets, jackets, and more “fruit juice” because the first of two fireworks shows will be starting shortly. 

In Redondo the fireworks show is performed from a barge a few houndred feet from the pier.  This year the beach will be more crowded then ever because some neighboring communities have cut their fireworks show due to budget concerns.

If there is no June Gloom, and the sky is clear, there is nothing like sitting on the beach with the waves crashing while watching a fireworks show.  Redondo puts on a pretty good fireworks show. And if that ended the evening it would be just fine.  But,  it’s not the end of the evening.

At the conclusion of the Redondo fireworks show, those in the know (that now includes you) turn the beach chairs to face the other direction.  And there, a few hundred feet off shore in front of a lovely beach side house sits another barge.  This barge is also loaded to the teeth with firworks.  But, this time it is not a city show. Nope, it’s a private citizen who honors her deceased husband every year with her own fireworks show.  Her fireworks show is usually as good and sometimes even better than the city show.

So, let’s recap, a beautiful day at the beach, followed by a barbeque and two fireworks shows at the beach!  What a celebration. What a day.

Happy Birthday America.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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The Lenglet’s Famous Chicken Fricassee

Posted on June 21, 2011 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

( Editor’s Note: You are in for a treat this week.  We have a guest blogger who has agreed to reveal her family’s treasured recipe for Chicken Fricassee.  Sue and I have had the great fortune of enjoying this recipe many times.)      

The Lenglet’s Famous Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients:

10 drumsticks

1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons olive oil

32 oz tomato sauce

8 oz tomato paste

4 tablespoons Sofrito (see picture; can be found in Spanish Markets)

1 packet of Sazon con Azafran (see picture; can be found in Spanish Markets)

Adobo (to taste)                               

¼ cup white wine

¼ cup water

Cooking spray

¼ onion, chopped

Garlic salt, to taste

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Place the drumsticks into a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil on top; add Adobo powder until there is a light coat covering the chicken; empty the Sazon packet over the chicken. Use a cooking brush to paint the ingredients until the chicken is orange (from the Sazon).                                         

Heat up a large saucepan on medium. Spray with cooking spray.

Add chicken into the saucepan; add the water and the white wine. Add the onion Let chicken saute for 15 minutes (it doesn’t have to be completely cooked).                                                                 

                                                       

Pour the tomato sauce and the tomato paste into a large pot. Add garlic salt. Add 2 table spoons olive oil. Add the salt. Add the pepper. Stir.

                                                           

Add the Chicken and other sautee’d ingredients to the large pot, and set burner to medium and cook for fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat to “low”, and allow it to cook for 30-40 minutes. stirring occasionally.

This dish tastes really good served with plantains. Here’s a quick recipe for those!

Mimi’s Plantains

Ingredients

½ cup olive oil

2 large green plantains

Garlic salt

Directions:

Cut up the plantains into 1 inch slices

Add olive oil to a sauce pan on high; add plantains and cook for 2 minutes.                                       

Remove plantains and put into a bowl; let cool for 2 minutes.

Use a plantain smasher, or a paper bag, to flatten the plantains into circles.

Add back into the oil and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add garlic salt as they cook.

Plate the Lenglet’s Famous Chicken Fricassee, top with a little sauce, add the plantains and enjoy the mixture of French and Puerto Rican cuisine.    

AND STUFF

Before making Chicken Fricassee for the purposes of this blog, I had never once written a recipe down. I grew up with a French father and a Puerto Rican mother who created eclectic and delicious recipes that cannot be found in any recipe books. My father’s quail over linguini, sautéed clams, and barbequed pizza came from his heart , the creative side of his brain, and his desire to entertain. On any given weekend when I was a child, there was a party at my house that included karaoke, wine, and a delicious array of my father’s cuisine. From escargot, which I tried for the first time at the age of 4, to flambéed steak and steamed mussels, my palette was ready for anything.  My mother’s fried plantains, pork chops with rosemary, and fresh pinto beans were derived from her mother’s authentic Puerto Rican cooking, and designated for dinner during the week. Her recipes were much simpler, but delicious nonetheless; because my father had a weak heart, and she was much more capable of making healthier fare, we ate my mother’s cooking most of the time.

When my father died in 2002 ( I was 17), I not only lost a part of me, but also a plethora of gourmet, intricate recipes I’ll probably never be able to emulate. I spent the better part of my dating life from ages 18-21 letting boyfriends think that I had created an authentic  Puerto Rican dish, when it was really my mother’s hands behind the plantain cutting and smashing, and the chicken marinating. And even when I moved to DC 7 months ago with my boyfriend Matt, I would call my mother to give me step-by-step tutorial of pinto beans, or arroz con pollo. Being a spoiled only child, I never bothered writing anything down.

“Mom! Matt’s going to be home in 15 minutes! How do I marinate the chicken?” I would wail.

 As the amazing mother she was, she would talk to me patiently until the recipe was complete.  She passed away 2 months ago, but I can still hear her voice in my head, reading off ingredients as if she were reading them from a cookbook.

Despite my parents’ differences in cooking tastes, they collaborated on a few dishes, one being their Chicken Fricassee, a Puerto Rican dish that consists of chicken, spices, and tomato sauce. When Roger asked me to write this blog, I solicited help from my aunt to recreate it, and remembered my parents’ words, the love they put into their food, and the love they gave to me.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Danielle

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