Fixin' Supper

Don’t be fooled by the name.
It doesn’t taste like the dip.

I am not even kidding when I tell you I made risotto with Rotel tomatoes tonight. Nor am I joking when I tell you I love it, and I’m going to make it again.

I know some of you are now fainting. Wait, if you’re still standing, I had Taco Bell for lunch. [Which just reminded me that I really hate Taco Bell, after years of it being my favorite fast food fetish, and that I don't ever go there anymore because I never like it when I do. Apparently I have to remind myself of that about once a year.]

Back to the Rotel risotto.

I had in the back of my head that maybe I’d make some risotto tonight, when I absentmindedly opened my cabinet. And there — crowded in with everything else — sat the Rotel. I buy the mild version, finding it more than plenty hot for me. And every once in a while I just get a craving for it. Most of the time, I use it in soup — it is so handy. It’s a great shortcut for getting a bit of heat and some spices in a vegetable, bean or tortilla soup.

Tonight I just sat there, trying to decide between risotto and soup, and I realized maybe I didn’t have to decide. Here’s what I did — and unlike most recipes, I can’t think of any way I’d change this one!

Rotel Risotto
1 c. arborio rice
2 T. butter
3-4 cloves garlic
2-3 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. white wine
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes
1 c. cream-style corn [I had some leftover from Thanksgiving, but I'm sure canned would work.]
1 jar Kraft Old English cheese spread
Oregano

Bring chicken broth to a simmer and hold it there.

Melt butter over medium heat and add rice and garlic. Stir frequently until rice begins to turn golden. Add 1/2 c. or so of broth and stir frequently. Turn heat down on rice to medium low or low, just enough to keep it at a slow simmer. Add more broth each time the liquid is absorbed.

When the rice approaches al dente, spoon in three heaping spoonfuls of Rotel, draining the liquid. This is a little more than half the can. Add the corn. Add 1/2 c. wine, and stir until absorbed. Add 1 t. or so of oregano and the cheese spread. Turn off the heat and stir until cheese melts.

This is rating very high on the comfort food scale for me.

  Delicious!! 

This is what we had for Thanksgiving breakfast. I did look at a recipe but I decided it was wrong and made up my own. It turned out well but not nearly so rich as lots of cheese grits I’ve had….which I regarded as a good thing.

Cheese Grits Casserole
3 c. water
1 c. grits [I use real stone-ground grits, not the quick kind]
Salt
1 T. butter
1/2 stick butter
1 roll garlic cheese
1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
3 slices bacon, crumbled
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk

Boil the water with a little salt and 1 T. butter. Add the grits and turn to low. Stir frequently until water is absorbed. Watch out; grits stick easily.

Remove from heat when the grits are done, and stir in garlic cheese and 1/2 stick butter. Cool slightly then stir in cheddar, bacon, eggs and milk. Bake at 350 degrees 30-45 minutes until set.

More photos from Thanksgiving so far….

  Meat sauce, sans meat so far

For years, my family has eaten spaghetti the day before Thanksgiving. I think the original idea was, it’s something everyone will eat. You start it early in the morning and barely have to touch it again….a perfect meal.

Normally when I make spaghetti, I use the tomato sauce recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook. It’s fresh and very tomato-y. But bowing to tradition, I’m making both that, and an adaptation of my mom’s recipe today. I think my mom’s recipe started from the cookbook Well Seasoned. That is a really great cookbook, btw.

Spaghetti Meat Sauce
4 medium onions
2 T. olive oil
4 garlic cloves

Chop onions and garlic. Saute in a great big pot with the oil until tender. Then add:

28 oz. diced tomatoes
16 oz. tomato sauce
2 cans tomato paste
3 c. water
Mushrooms
Oregano [I used about 2 t.]
Black pepper to taste
Tabasco to taste
1 t. Worchestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 T. honey

Simmer on low 6-8 hours.

Brown 2 lb. ground chuck. Drain and add to the sauce. Add salt if needed. Cook 1 more hour.

  Butternut risotto

Glory hallelujah, the nice man — they apparently have one — from Nashville Gas came out this morning and set my gas meter. One and a half hours after he arrived, I had a gas meter "big enough for commercial use" and my brand new stove was in working order.

A few more hours of work by my friend Tom the plumber, and my new hot water heater was, too. Later this week, my gas grill will be operational.

Y’all, it’s amazing how all that changes your life.

* I am no longer stressed that my 14-year-old water heater will explode and damage large portions of my home and possessions. Ever since I moved in here 2 1/2 years ago and noticed that the heater was positioned in a way that made it clear it couldn’t be drained, and therefore likely never had been, I’ve had this niggling worry in the back of my head.

Today that is gone, replaced by a tankless, high-efficiency gas unit.

I’m just looking over at the control panel — it has a control panel!! — and seeing that my friend Tom the plumber, ever safety-minded, has set the top temperature at 115. That is so not going to be hot enough for a bath. [I love a nice hot bath.] So, I will just pump up the temp on the control panel!! I love it already.

* My 13-day-cooking-ban imposed by Nashville Gas has come to a blessed end! I still don’t like those people, but I can highly recommend Mike [I may have his name wrong; I was delirious while he was turning on the stove.] to you when you make your next service call. Professional, quick and polite.

* And the stove. Ah, the stove.

Yes, so far it is everything I might have hoped for!! I have not cooked on gas — except for a few times at my mom’s house — since 2001. The stove I cooked on between 1998 and 2001 was probably made in the 1930s, and it looked like something out of the movies. It was a black box on legs, and it was the best stove I’ve ever used. The oven was tiny — just one rack. Big cookie sheets didn’t come close. And you didn’t care. It was that awesome.

And since then I’ve been all electric, bleh.

I won’t say this made up for the wait, but I CANNOT WAIT to cook Thanksgiving on this new stove! More on that to follow.

I made up this recipe as I went along tonight, but I can tell it will be a recurring dish here.

Butternut Risotto
1/2 medium butternut squash
1 medium onion
1 c. arborio rice
2-3 T. butter
1 1/2 t. herbes de Provence
2-3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
2-3 c. vegetable broth
1/2 c. good white wine
1/4 c. parmesan cheese

Cut the butternut squash in half. Place flat side down on a cookie sheet you’ve sprayed with Pam.

Slice the onion into slivers or small dice. Mix with 1/2 t. herbes and 1 T. or so of olive oil. Put this on the sheet in a thin layer.

Roast these at about 375 degrees for 1/2 hour or so, until the onion begins to turn brown and the squash is easily pierceable through the skin with a sharp knife.

–One minute. — I have to go break up a fight. — I’m back. Never a dull moment and all that.

The risotto will not take as long to cook as the squash will. I have been "spoiled" by the fact that my old oven had little to no concern about the actual temperature to which you set it, and tended to bake significantly on the hot side. Witness the many burned items over the past few months. So, when you make this at home, start the onions and the squash maybe 15 minutes before the rest of it.

Melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the rice. Cook for several minutes — the rice will begin to toast a little. Throw in the rest of the herbes at some point, the garlic [smashed and diced up] and a little salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt since you’re adding broth later, which is usually salty.

Start the broth warming over high and turn down to medium or low once it starts to simmer. This really matters. I’ve made risotto with cold broth, and it both takes forever and isn’t as good.

Turn the rice to low. Add the broth 1/2 c. at a time. Stir it a lot. When the rice starts to soak up most of the broth, add another 1/2 cup. You’re aiming for al dente here. I usually fly right past it, just like I do with pasta. Maybe you can make a better effort.

When the onions and squash are done, throw the onions in the pot. Seed the squash and scoop out bite-sized chunks into the pot. Lots of it will "melt" into the rice but you’ll probably have recognizable chunks left. Add the wine as your last 1/2 c. of liquid, then the cheese as the wine is almost absorbed.

Check for salt and pepper. Enjoy!!

Y’all, I have tried for half my life — literally! — to like beer. I started out with Bud Light in college of course, and quickly discovered it was better to be sober in the midst of a wild scrum at a fraternity party dance than to drink such swill. [Don't cry for me....I just switched to hard liquor. I've found very little of that I don't like. :) ]

As is befitting a graduate of Vanderbilt, I learned I could drink one of four beer brands anytime it was absolutely necessary to consume a brew:

• Killian’s
• Foster’s
• Shiner
• Beck’s

Seriously, do a survey of upperclassmen at Vandy today and I suspect you’ll still find those four beers oversubscribed, among anyone who’s rejected the Buds, Millers and PBRs of this world.

But given the choice? Liquor, or even better, wine, any day. Friends have tried without any success to introduce me to quality ales. And porters. And whatever else there are. I just can’t do it.

Yet today, the value of a really good beer showed up in my kitchen. I would never have denied that beer is an excellent addition to soup or bread. Not to drink with these dishes, mind you, but as an ingredient.

About twice a year, I get a craving for Welsh rabbit. If you’ve never had it, it’s basically just a cheese sauce, often with tomatoes added, served over toast. Really, it tastes much better than it sounds.

Here’s how I made mine today:

Welsh Rabbit
4 T. butter
1/2 c. flour
Salt
Pepper
1/2 t. dried mustard
1/2 t. paprika
2 t. Worchestershire sauce
1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. beer
6 oz. grated sharp cheddar
1/2 16 oz. can diced tomatoes, and some liquid

Melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, add spices and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn heat down to medium-low. Mix all the liquids, and whisk them in slowly. [I used a beer the Nashvegas' sister's boyfriend left here a while back. Peroni, an Italian number. Tasted great in the sauce. In general, you get the same results with cooking that you do with drinking beer: It's worth the cost to get something nicer.] The sauce should remain smooth  throughout. If it starts to get lumpy, stop adding liquid and whisk a bit more. Cook for 5-10 minutes until sauce thickens further, but do not let it bubble. You’ll curdle the milk.

Add the cheese and tomatoes and stir until the cheese is melted. Serve hot over toast.

Now, I enjoyed that for lunch quite a bit. And then I went for a walk this afternoon, trying to think what I had for dinner. I remembered I had most of a 5-lb. bag of potatoes, and I thought, wow, potato soup. I would really love some potato soup. Then I realized I had the makings of a really great soup. I could incorporate the leftover Welsh rabbit!!

Let’s keep in mind, if you wanted to make a cream- or cheese-based soup, you probably wouldn’t start by making Welsh rabbit, but would instead incorporate many of these separate ingredients at different times throughout your soup cooking. But I already had the Welsh rabbit. So here’s what I did:

Potato Rabbit Soup
Olive oil
1 large onion
5 small Russet potatoes [probably about 2, 2 1/2 lbs. worth]
2 t. Herbes de Provence
3 c. chicken broth
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Garlic
1 recipe Welsh rabbit
1/2 16 oz. can diced tomatoes

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, chopped to your preference. I like slivers in soup — about 1/4 inch tall, 1 inch wide. Add herbs and a bit of salt and pepper, but don’t overdo that right now. Always wait til your soup is almost done and taste then. It’s practically impossible to fixed oversalted soup.

Peel about half of each potato. This is a personal preference of mine here. I really like potato skins in soup, but I don’t want to feel like I’m eating potato peel soup, either. So I think about half the skin works out best.

Chop potatoes into 1/2 inch chunks. Add to softened onions, and immediately add chicken broth, bacon and garlic. If you want the bacon for crunch but not as much for flavor infused throughout, wait and crumble it on top. When you add it now, you get the flavor of bacon in all the ingredients. If you want your garlic stronger, wait and add it at the end, but I like it best as a subtle influence here.

Cook over medium heat [it's fine if it boils] until you can easily pierce the potatoes with a sharp knife. Turn heat down to low and add Welsh rabbit and tomatoes when boiling stops. Heat through and serve.

Note: If you had the Welsh rabbit in the fridge all afternoon like I did, take it out when you start this recipe so you’re not adding it cold.

2nd note: This soup isn’t thick. It’s a rich, broth-like soup. If you want more of a cream soup, two options:

• Remove about 1 c. of broth before adding the Welsh rabbit [But don't skimp on broth to start with. You need that much to cook the potatoes.]
• Puree some or all of the potatoes

This was even better than the Welsh rabbit at lunch. The beer really gives it a delicious flavor.

We are waiting, waiting, waiting for the new stove. It was supposed to come tomorrow, but the plumber [who is installing all the gas lines, including to my new water heater and YAY to my gas grill] had to resked for next week, so I moved the stove delivery too so as not to be without one at all for several days. Unreliable and old as the current stove is, it does at least cook stuff. Mostly.

The big news here at Fixin’ Supper is that I canceled the cable earlier this week.

"What?" you say. "I know that’s not possible, because all we’ve been getting here all week are links to articles on del.icio.us. What the @#$#@ are you doing, if you’re not watching TV and you’re not blogging??"

Hahaha good point you have there, in the conversation we’re having in my head. Whoever "you" might be.

Well this week the 8yo is here, so I’m sure you realize, this week is all about homework.

I have actually cooked several things in the past couple of days, in a last-minute frenzy, as if I’d miss this awful stove once it’s gone.

* Chocolate peanut butter treats [They probably have a real name but I'm too lazy to go look it up.]
* Roasted butternut squash soup. To.Die.For. Don’t be fooled by the time to make this in the recipe: It takes all day. First you make the toasted spice mix, then the roasted squash and only THEN the soup. Worth every minute.
* Green beans with cracker crumbs. I must have expounded on these before here. [Apparently not. I will share the secret with you soon.] It makes no sense why these are so good, but they are.
* More chicken and rice.

And I’ve spent most of today and tonight reading about the weather online, of course. Someone at work asked me what the heck I’d do about tornadoes, without cable.

Pause.

I thought the whole point of a tornado was to interrupt your cable access, but maybe that’s a unique phenomenon in East Nashville. Of course, as a long-time East Nashville resident, I have both my battery-powered weather radio, and intimate knowledge of every weather website on the web. So whether we’re having a lose-the-power storm or a freakishly-didn’t-lose-the-power storm, I’m all over it.

Spiced beef corn bread cobbler – A keeper.

  Spiced Beef Cornbread Cobbler

Almond green beans

Salad [Fresh greens, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm]

Pear crisps with vanilla brown butter and vanilla ice cream – Not hard. I’ll definitely make again.

I have no idea what inspired me.

  Green beans with almonds

  Baked pears

I’m a huge fan of chicken and rice, but I often dislike the treatment it receives. To be good, it has to be moist and flavorful, like someone’s grandmother might have made. I’ve had more bland chicken and rice in this life than I’d like to recall, but somehow tonight I decided, that’s what’s for dinner. I got some chicken defrosted, some onions and mushrooms chopped, and the oven preheated….and then discovered I’m apparently out of rice.

Now, I’m a pantry shopper. I buy more beans when I have two cans left. I usually have 2-3 lbs. of butter and 10 lbs. of brown sugar in the freezer. So the inability to find any kind of rice in my cabinet certainly alarmed me. In fact, when something like that happens, I don’t believe it, and search the pantry 3-4 times before I give up. Tonight, "giving up" meant dragging the 2yo to the store when he was hungry for dinner — rarely a winning idea — but it allowed me to pick up some Diet Coke [with Splenda of course....no Nutrasweet around here], another item I’d inexplicably allowed myself to run out of. Since I’m not a coffee drinker, the Diet Coke makes everyone happier in the morning. I’m totally grumpy without it. :)

Here’s how I did the chicken and rice. I was really pleased with how it turned out. And leftovers enough to help us start the week right!

Chicken and Rice
2 chicken breasts [If you found a recipe this size in a cookbook, it would call for 4 chicken breasts, but I always half the meat in recipes.]
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 cup rice [I used brown basmati rice]
2 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. sherry
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed or diced
2 T. butter [but next time I'll just use one. It was rich and delicious with 2, but I think I'll like it better a tad lighter.]
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in 2 qt. casserole. I sprayed it with cooking spray first, and that was probably a good idea.

Cover and bake at 350-375 for an hour or so until chicken is tender and water is evaporated/soaked up by the rice.

Here we are at Fixin’ Supper, having one of our regular madcap Saturday nights. The 8yo has a friend over for the night. They are having fun, but let me tell you, I’ve decided it’s best not to be in the room when two bossy 8yo girls play. I have already said about 15 times tonight: I am not getting in the middle of this. You girls work it out yourselves. So far no one has cried, so I’m calling it a big success.

The 2yo has managed mostly to mind his own business.

And I made a zucchini cheese bread that I highly recommend to you.

Also, I have this tip. If you do like I do, and frequently end up with 2 or more cantaloupes in your refrigerator for days on end, because you somehow think it will be such a hassle to slice them, even though cantaloupe is quite possibly your favorite fruit in the world, volunteer to bring snacks to church. The cantaloupe is at a peak of perfection, despite my attempts to kill it, and it will be all I can do to actually take it to church, now that I was forced to slice it. Get some now before summer is gone!!

I have to go now. I’m dividing up animal crackers into zipper bags so the 3rd graders will have sustenance to make it through the day at school next week.

Stop me before I go this crazy next time, will ya?

I rarely miss this many days in a row blogging any more, but I have just been covered up this weeks, at home and at work. We’ll get back on track here in a day or two.

But I had to take a moment to thank Ivy and Heather from Home Ec 101. Each is a blogger I had enjoyed reading even before this joint venture, but I’m a huge fan of HE101. And earlier this summer, Heather posted a recipe for Tomato Pie that intrigued me.

Tomatoes. Onions. Bacon. Cheese. All in a double pie crust. Oh. My. Gosh.

Please just don’t think about it any longer; instead rush out for whatever ingredients you don’t have and make this tonight.

That is all.