Bits Of Dust

Archive for April, 2008

Last night, we grilled some country style pork ribs, and even though I had to fight the “self-lighting” charcoal for an hour, they ended up pretty good.

When I start grilling, I can’t seem to stop. This time was no different. Since we had the charcoal, I figured I might as well fix that delicious london broil I had sitting in the freezer.

I took four teaspoons of olive oil, three garlic cloves, about 1 tsp of thyme, some salt and some pepper and mixed it all together. Then I used it as a rub on the meat, and let it marinate for 3 hours.

I did screw one thing up though. I forgot to take pictures before I put it on the table for the kids to attack. Sorry. It was delicious though.

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Our middle son wants to be a chef. He loves cooking very much, and helps out in the kitchen all the time. For Christmas this year one of the things he wanted was “cooking tools”.

We made sure he had a small saucepan and a small food processor among other things. Since Christmas he has helped me cook several times, but he has only used his tools twice. I can’t remember what he made the first time, but tonight his tools were used again. This is what was made with his cooking tools:

Any idea what it is? Okay, I will tell you. Lettuce that has been boiled and chopped.

Why? To feed the tadpole he adopted this week, of course.

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Okay, so I went the easy route tonight. I wasn’t in the mood for pot roast, or the time it took to make it. So I made pork chops and orzo, which just happens to be our youngest sons favorite.

To make the orzo, I simply melt a stick of butter, yes a whole stick, and cut up one large onion to saute in the butter. Once the onion turns translucent, I pour in 1 pound of orzo and saute until some of the orzo starts to look “toasted”.

I then pour in two cans of chicken broth and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes, or until done. While that is cooking I pan fry the pork chops with some Cavender’s seasoning on them.

It can’t get any simpler than that, and the dinner table is nice and quite while the food disappears.

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The last couple days have been hectic around here. We had to prepare for two birthday parties in two days.

The first party found us eating delicious German Chocolate Cake and eating fried chicken, and mashed potatoes. The second part found us eating a heck of a lot of pizza.

Now I’m ready for more homecooked delicious quiet dinners.

Last week I bought a delicious looking London Broil as well as a huge pot roast. I can’t decide which one I want to make tomorrow night, but I think the pot roast will win. London Broil is more of a weekend thing, so we may have that on Sunday.

Anybody have any good London Broil tips out there? I sure could use them.

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Lidia Bastianich is an excellent chef. While I have never personally eaten anything prepared by her, I have eaten several recipes we have made from a couple of her cookbooks. In our house, Lidia is beloved member of the family.

When Pope Benedict sits down tomorrow night to say grace before dinner, he’ll have plenty to give thanks for: a four-star feast personally prepared by Lidia Bastianich, one of the city’s premier chefs. The four-course meal for 50 guests at the New York residence of Archbishop Celestino Migliore will feature red and white wines from northern Italy, locally caught Atlantic striped bass and a variety of spring vegetables.

The dinners Friday and Saturday will be prepared under extremely tight security at the Archbishop’s Upper East Side residence by Italian-born Bastianich and her team of high-profile, handpicked culinary stars from the city’s top Italian restaurants.

How awesome is that? I would be so nervous cooking for the Pope. Can you imagine someone asking you to cook for the Pope? What exactly does one cook for a Pope anyway? I hope we find out soon. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

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A while back, Chef John showed us how to make sushi rice using, of all things, sushi rice. Last week he posted the video for making California rolls (for those of us who cannot stand raw fish). He said it was for the people with raw fish phobia. I am not afraid of raw fish, I just cannot stand it so I prefer California rolls.

Oh yeah, it doesn’t hurt that California rolls contain crab and avocado. Hehe. Imagine that, a recipe that includes two of my four favorite foods. (The others being steak and artichokes).

I really want to make these, so I will be buying the crab on payday. I will post pics when I make them.

Make sure you visit Chef John at Food Wishes and tell him how great he is. He singlehandedly makes losing weight impossible in this house.

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The good:

I went out of my way tonight to make a super delicious dinner.

I started by chopping up a few cloves of garlic and peeling 2 pounds of shrimp.

I heated up some olive oil and added the garlic and sauteed it until it was just turning a light golden brown, then I removed most of the garlic (I like to munch on it while I cook).

I returned the oil to the pan and cooked the shrimp til they were just barely done. At this point I mixed together some heavy cream, chicken stock, and butter.

Adding all of these ingredients and a couple egg yolks to some fettucini noodles and topping it all with some fresh grated parmesan cheese made a wonderful version of Garlic Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo. It was so pretty.

The bad:

Before I could walk 25 feet and get my camera, the kids dug into it and I had to hurry back and grab my share else it would be lost to the foraging trio known as the Flying J’s.

Maybe I’ll get a picture of it next time.

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On the advice of a nutritionist, my mother-in-law signed up to receive some specially prepared meals. These meals are supposed to help control her diabetes and help her lose weight.

Here’s what she had for dinner the other night.

It was some sort of chicken salad with so many spices on the chicken itself you couldn’t even taste the chicken. Needless to say, she will be cutting down the amount of food in each meal on her own. No one should be forced to eat that kind of stuff.

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I got brave tonight and tried to make manicotti. I don’t have any special manicotti recipe so I just used the one on the side of the Barilla pasta box. Ha!

I switched it up a bit and added more garlic (as usual). It was a total success, even the kids ate it, which I thought was weird because it had spinach in it. Will wonders never cease?

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I always wanted to know the secret to making crispy hash browns. Mine are always deliciously brown and crisp on the outside, but a bit mushy on the inside. They won’t be anymore, since I found this recipe hint at Simply Recipes. I’ll post photos when I make some this weekend.

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