Grilled Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans

On Saturday I usually go grocery shopping for anything we need over the weekend and through Monday including Saturday night dinner, Sunday night dinner, and lunches.   I try to cook something on Sunday that I can serve as left overs on Monday.   I don't enjoy left overs unless its something I really like and since I generally plan on eating left overs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that means I need to make something delicious on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. 

Sometime on Saturday morning, before I go grocery shopping, I plan what we are going to have for dinner on Saturday and Sunday.  One of the reasons I started this blog is to keep a good record of what I have had for dinner.  I find that if I don't write it down, its hard for me to remember what I had for dinner even a week ago.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday which put in the mood to do some grilling, so I planned to grill pork chops on Sunday.   Each member of the family likes grilled pork chops prepared slightly differently.   I like them lathered in barbeque sauce.  My current favorite sauce and Everett and Jones Super Q Medium Barbeque Sauce.   Everett and Jones is a barbeque restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

My wife likes a spice rub on her pork chops.  I usually use the same rub I use on the spice rubbed pork tenderloin.   My daughter likes her pork chops plain.

I used the grilling technique I used the other day on the Tandoori Grilled Chicken, banking the hot coals around the outer edge of the grill.   This keeps meat from charring.   It worked great on the pork chops, but I have to remember that 1) I can't use the amount of charring as an indicator of how well cooked the meat is 2) it does take a little longer to cook this way.    The slightly longer cooking time, plus the fact that I forgot I was out of charcoal and had to run to the store to buy some, resulted in dinner being a little late.   Luckily, the grocery store is 5 minutes away, although the amount of time I had to wait in line at the checkout was longer than the time it took me to drive to the store.

To go along with our pork chops, I made mashed potatoes and green beans.   Nothing special about our mashed potatoes.   Peel, boil, add milk, sour cream and salt, mash to cream smoothness.   Now the green beans are a different story and I don't make these in a very healthy fashion.   I drop about 2 teaspoons of bacon grease in a dutch oven, dump in the beans, add salt, sautee the beans for about 4 minutes, pour in about a half cup to a cup of water, bring to a boil, and then let the beans simmer for about an hour.   They are super tender and very flavorful, but I know the bacon grease is probably a very unhealthy thing to add.



Anyway, it was a delicious dinner and this dinner makes great left overs.  

Roasted Red Pepper and Herb Pasta with Shrimp

I was in the mood for something with pasta and shrimp and found a Cooking Light recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Herb Pasta with Shrimp on myrecipes.com.   Several people had reviewed this recipe and given it very high ratings in myrecipes.com   Since its a Saturday night dinner, I didn't need to have left overs and that makes it a good night to try something new. 

This recipe uses a fresh herbs including parsley, sage, and thyme.   I don't use sage or thyme very often so I though this recipe would also provide with an opportunity to get more familiar with these herbs.  I was a little concerned that they might over power the other flavors in the dish, but that did not turn out to be the case.

There is a fair amount of chopping (onions, parsley, sage, thyme, peppers) to do before you can start cooking with this recipe, but once this is done, the cooking time is fairly short and the process moves along quickly.   My wife roasted the red peppers while I chopped, they were ready just as I finished all of the other prep work. 

The onions and garlic sauteing in olive oil and butter smelled great.   And a few minutes after we started cooking the onions, we where mixing the shrimp and herbs and pasta together.   Dinner turned out great and we enjoyed a wonderful sauvignon blanc with our dinner.  

Grilled Fusion Chicken and Black Bean Salad

Since I didn't cook anything last night as I normally would on a Thursday night, I had no left overs for dinner tonight, so I needed to prepare something.   Nothing from my list of recipes seemed appealing so I decided to try something new.   I grilled some marinated chicken breasts.   The recipe for the marinade came from a Sunset magazine recipe I found on myrecipes.com.  

The recipe is called Grilled Fusion Chicken but a better name would be Grilled Tequila Chipotle Chicken.   The marinade is basically oil, lime, tequila, salt, chipotle, fresh ginger, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.   The chicken had a wonderfully unique flavor and my wife and I both liked it.   The Sunset recipe for Fusion chicken also called for a rich creamy sauce made from whipping cream and some unused marinade, but I forgot to save some marinade for this so I did not end up making the sauce.

To go with the chicken, I made a Black Bean Salad from a Cooking Light recipe I found on myrecipes.com.   The salad turned out great.  My wife put her chicken in the salad along with some tortilla chips.   She really liked the combination of the chicken and the salad. 

Overall, it was a really delicious dinner.   And after getting the tequila out for the marinade and since I had lots of limes on hand, we decided to make margaritas, which were also very good. 

Kung Pao Chicken at Hunan Home's

It was Ocean's night at my daughter's elementary school and it would be too late to eat dinner by the time we would get home, so my wife and daughter ate before the event.   I drove separately and met them at school and then stopped at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Hunan Home's in Mountain View, California on the way home.

I don't really understand why there is an "apostrophe s" after Home in the name of the restaurant.   I think the name is supposed to mean this restaurant is the home of hunan style of cooking, in which case, it should be Hunan's Home or even Home of Hunan. 

I have been a customer of this place since 1998 when I worked for a startup company in Mountain View.   And then, a few years ago, I worked for another Mt. View company which is located only a few blocks from Hunan Home's. 

Most people I know do not like this restaurant and my wife has never really liked Chinese food.    So, this tends to be a place I go when I am alone.    My favorite dish at this restaurant is Kung Pao Chicken and that's exactly what I had for dinner tonight.   It was delicious and I left feeling stuffed.

   

Italian Sausage Puttanesca

I was thinking about making lasagna tonight, but it just seemed to rich and cheesy.   I thought maybe I could find something similar to lasagna but lighter so I did a search on myrecipes.com for Italian recipes which required baking and which were published in Cooking Light.    I found several, and decided to make Italian Sausage Puttanesa.

This was the first time I have made this recipe, and this dish was pretty easy to make--  chop up some onions and peppers, throw them in a pan with sausage and garlic and cook.   Add in some canned chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, olives, capers (from a jar), and some anchovy paste and cook a little more.   Then mix everything with some cooked penne pasta, sprinkle freshly grated parmesan on top, and then throw it in the oven for 15 minutes.

And it was delicious.   My wife liked this, too, to this is something I will definitely make again. 

Pan-Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri

I made Pan-Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri for dinner tonight.   This is the second time I have made this dish and its been really great both times.   I also made charred vegetables with rice to go along with fish.

The Chimichurri is basically fresh basil, fresh cilantro, shallots, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.    Its hard to go wrong with this combination of fresh herbs.    Every bite of fish with the chimichurri is a delight.  

This is a Cooking Light recipe on myrecipes.com.    I originally cut this recipe out of the Cooking Light print publication and the print version includes a recipe for charred vegetables with rice.   The charred vegetables with rice is basically stir fried frozen corn, fresh zucchini, green onions, and grape tomatoes, some salt, mixed with plain white rice.   Surprisingly delicious.   The online version of the Halibut recipe shows the charred vegetables in the photo but does not include the recipe for the charred vegetables and rice.   However, I did find the recipe for the Charred Vegetables with Rice online today.

Overall, a very satisfying and healthy dinner tonight, and my wife really liked this recipe as well.

Gnocchi with Shrimp, Asparagus, and Pesto

After the pesto pizza a couple of weeks ago from Willow Street, I found myself craving another pesto dish.   I came across a Cooking Light recipe for Gnocchi with Shrimp, Asparagus, and Pesto on myrecipes.com this morning while browsing and planning meals for the weekend.   On Thursday, Whole Foods had a lot of perfect looking fresh asparagus on display and I was thinking that I wanted to make something with asparagus this weekend.   I really enjoyed this dinner and the fresh asparagus and pesto were really delicious.     

The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of minced garlic, which seemed like a lot of garlic, but I went ahead with it.   I thought the pesto was maybe a little too garlicky but my wife said it was too garlicky for her.   I will definitely make this dish again in the future, but with less garlic.

Saturday night dinners are one time meals with no left overs planned.   I like to try new dishes on Saturday nights so that if it things don't turn out well, I haven't ruined dinner for two nights.

It took me about an hour to prepare this dinner, plus make poached salmon and some mac and cheese for my 9 year old daughter who has not yet developed a taste for pesto or shrimp or asparagus.

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce

I seem to be back to my normal cooking routine of cooking on Tuesdays and Thursdays.   Today, I made Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce.    This is another Cooking Light recipe I found on myrecipes.com.   

This is a great vegetarian dish and we do like to go without meat once in awhile.   I would really like to cook one vegetarian meal per week, but there are just so many more meat or seafood dishes I like better.   I was a vegetarian when I started learning to cook, but that was many years ago.

Its the sauce that really makes the enchiladas so delicious.    The fresh oregano, onions and garlic cooking together smelled so wonderful when I was making the Ranchero Sauce.  

This is probably the fourth or fifth time I have used this recipe, so I am starting to get better at it (which means the dish has turned out well the last few times and I didn't skip a step or leave out a key ingredient.)

One thing I do find really annoying in most recipes is that the amounts are not included in the step-by-step description.    Most recipes list the ingredients and amounts of each ingredient and then leave the amounts in the step-by-step instructions.    I am often looking at the recipe on my phone or my Samsung Galaxy tablet while cooking and I frequently have to scroll up to see the amounts of each ingredient.    When the instructions say... "add broth to pan," then I have to scroll up to see that the amount is 2 cups of broth.   And if they say something like, "add remaining broth to pan," then I have to scroll up to find the amount of broth and then find the other place in the instructions where broth was used to see how much I should have left.   This process can sometimes ruin a dish when you are trying to cook something which should be over heat for only a minute or two or you don't have a free hand to scroll. 

Well, the enchiladas turned out great tonight and the Ranchero Sauce was excellent.

Thai Beef Salad

A Thai salad is often a great choice when we feel like we want something "different."   The combination of fresh mint, cilantro, and fish sauce give this Thai Beef Salad a really fresh and exotic set of flavors and aromas.   This is another Cooking Light recipe from myrecipes.com.

I made this dish once before and it turned out well.   Tonight's version was probably a little better than the first time because I marinated the steak a little longer and I used New York Strip instead of flank steak.   I also added rice noodles to the salad which makes the meal more filling.   Its a little too light without the extra calories added by the rice noodels.

When I grilled the Tandoori chicken the other night, I banked all the coals in my charcoal grill around the outside of the grill which seemed to create a more optimal grill temp in the center of the grill.   I did that with the steak for the Thai salad tonight and it worked well with the steak cooked almost perfectly on the inside and just a little charring on the outside.   I think I can do even better with the grilling if I continue to work on it.   I realize now, after the last two meals, that I have been putting way too much heat on the meat.

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Tandoori Grilled Chicken

I have been wanting to make Tandoori Grilled Chicken for a few weeks, and around the middle of the week it was looking like Sunday was going to be the day.   Nice weather for grilling and I would have time on Saturday night or Sunday morning to start marinating the chicken.    Tandoori chicken is one of my all time favorite Indian dishes.   I tried making it in the oven a few months ago and it was OK, but not nearly as good as Tandoori chicken from a good Indian restaurant.

As things turned out, I didn't end up starting the marinade until around 1pm and the chicken was in the marinade at about 2:30pm.   I put the chicken on the grill at 6:30pm, so the chicken was able to marinade for about 4 hours.   Next time, I make this, I am going to marinade the chicken for longer.

The Tandoori Grilled Chicken recipe I used is another Cooking Light recipe I found on myrecipes.com.   The recipe called for slow cooking on the grill.   For a charcoal grill, which is what I use, the recipe said to push all the coals to the outer edges of the grill and to cook the chicken in the center of the grill.   My grill isn't very large, so I followed the recommendations and with 4 pieces of chicken on the grill (2 breasts and 2 whole legs), there were no coals directly under the chicken.   But, I think had too much heat on the chicken though, because the recipe said to cook the chicken this way for 90 minutes, but my chicken cooked in 30 minutes.  

The skin on the whole chicken legs was charred pretty good, but the skin ended up coming off and the chicken underneath the skin was perfect and had a wonderful flavor from the marinade.   The chicken breasts were boneless, skinless, but they were more towards the center of the grill so they did not get charred as much.   However, since the chicken breasts no skin, it was more difficult to remove the parts which were blackened.    I prefer whole chicken legs in general and my wife likes boneless skinless chicken breasts.    My wife said she really liked the chicken breasts.

I served the chicken with raita, plain rice, Indian spiced green beans, and some Indian bread (Naan) we picked up from a local restaurant just before dinner.

For the Indian-Spiced Green Beans, I used a Cooking Light recipe for Indian-Spiced Okra substituting green beans for the Okra.   The beans turned out great.

Overall, this was a really great dinner and a definite repeat.     Next time, I will marinade the chicken longer and maybe steam the green beans a bit before cooking them to make them more tender.  

Steak and Cheeseburgers

Nothing like a juicy grilled steak with a side of cheeseburgers!   Just kidding.   I was in the mood for a grilled cheeseburger tonight, but my daughter doesn't like hamburgers anymore and my wife wanted steak.   So, I grilled some New York strips for my wife and daughter and a cheeseburger for me.

I also heated up some frozen french fries in the oven.   I don't really like these much anymore.   I started serving frozen fries a couple of years ago, but they are always disappointing.   They were kind of a novelty at first because we never deep fry anything at home.   My daughter likes them, so I don't mind making them for her, but I realized tonight that I just don't want to eat them.   I had some really excellent fries at lunch today at Cooks Seafood in Menlo Park, so in comparison to my lunch, the frozen fries were especially unsatisfying tonight.   Well, the cheeseburger was delicious.

I have completely lost any desire to eat hamburgers from most fast food places.   I don't know if its me, but the quality of fast food burgers seems to get worse and worse.    I have just had a few too many cold, dry burgers via the drive through windows.   I think the drive through window is transforming the classic American hamburger into the cultural equivalent of canned spam.

Well, this post marks one month since I started this blog about my cooking.   Its been handy for me to have a record and personal commentary about the meals I have made.   I find now that when I am trying to plan a meal or menu for the week, a quick review of my posts helps me come up with ideas.   I think over a few more months it will help me keep me from repeating some dishes too often.

I started this blog on Feb-16, and over the past month I have made 16 dinners and gone out to dinner twice. and we haven't had the same meal more than once, and most of the dinners were really good.   In general, I enjoy cooking at home much more than going out for dinner and most of the time, my meals are much healthier than what I would get at a restaurant.

Cocunut Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa

I usually don't make something this involved and time consuming on a weeknight, but I slept well last night and the weather was just beautiful today... sunny and in the high 60s and I had a very positive frame of  mind when I was searching for something to make tonight.

I decided on Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa.   This is a Cooking Light recipe I found on myrecipes.com.   I made this once before several months ago and it was ok.   To go along with this I made plain rice and Simple Black Beans, another Cooking Light recipe from my recipes.com.

I got home from the grocery store at about 5:30pm and I had dinner on the table at about 7:40pm!   That's over 2 hours of cooking time.    Now, I also made a separate dinner for my daughter while I was making the adults, but making her dinner was probably only an extra 15 minutes or so.

I modified both recipes tonight, and my version is not as healthy for sure.   In researching black bean recipes, I came across several recipes that used bacon or pork of some type.   The black bean dish is pretty simple- saute onions, red bell pepper, garlic, sugar, cumin, and black pepper.  Then add water and canned black beans and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.   My variation is that I fried some bacon in the pan before I sauteed the onions and pepper and used some of the bacon grease to cook the onions and pepper.   Getting the bean dish to the point where I could just leave it simmering on the stove took me probably 20 minutes with most of the time spent chopping onion and pepper.

After I got the beans on, I started some mac and cheese for my daughter and made her a B sandwich... that's a BLT without L or T.   

For the shrimp I used wild caught, peeled and deveined frozen shrimp.  I take the amount of shrimp I need out of the freezer, put the shrimp in a ziploc bag, and then submerge the bag in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes to let the shrimp thaw.

I made a few changes to the Coconut Shrimp recipe as well.   First I roasted the coconut in a pan on the stove until it was lightly browned.   Another deviation is that I used unsweetened finely shredded coconut instead of sweetened flaked coconut called for the in the recipe.   I shop at Whole Foods and Who Fo doesn't seem to carry sweetened coconut.  I put a little sugar in the batter mixture for the shrimp to the give them some sweetness.   The most significant change from the recipe is that I fried the shrimp after coating it with the batter and coconut instead of baking it.   And, I fried the shrimp in some bacon grease (like my great-grandmother used to do).   The first time I made this dish, I baked the shrimp which is much healthier I guess, since there isn't much fat or oil used.   But, I have been wanting to try frying shrimp with some bacon grease for awhile now to see if brought back childhood memories.

Anyway, it all turned out good, but I don't think the taste was much better than when I baked the shrimp.   So, I will probably bake it next time since that is a much healthier way to go.

Also, the Pineapple Salsa is a very important part of the shrimp dish, and the salsa was great!   I think the strong flavors of the salsa make the baked shrimp work as well as fried shrimp.

The whole dinner was really good.   The beans over rice were my favorite.   My wife said dinner was delicious and she really liked the shrimp a lot.

Chicken Piccata

I was in the mood for Italian food tonight so I decided to make one of my wife's favorites... Chicken Piccata.   I have made this particular recipe once before and it turned out well, but I find this dish challenging.   I did better this time around and had all my ingredients prepped ahead of time.   The sauce is really the tricky part and this part of the process moves quickly so, I really need to have ingredients pre-measured and laid out.   Also, the way the recipe is worded makes the process seem more complicated.

Here is the Cooking Light Chicken Piccata recipe I use from myrecipes.com:

1. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Place 1 teaspoon flour in a small bowl, and place remaining flour in a shallow dish. Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour in shallow dish; shake off excess.

My version:

1a. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet.    Sprinkle both sides of the chicken evenly with salt and pepper.

1b.  Place 1/2 cup of flour in a shallow bowl.   Dredge chicken in flour in shallow dish; shake off excess.

Next step from Cooking Light:

2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan; sauté 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

This is fine.  I would keep the text the same in my version except maybe say cooking time was closer to 6 minutes per side.

Third step from Cooking Light (this is the part that moves kinda fast for me):

3. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in pan; swirl to coat. Add shallots to pan; sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add wine; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until liquid almost evaporates, stirring occasionally. Add 1/4 cup broth to reserved 1 teaspoon flour; stir until smooth. Add remaining 1/2 cup broth to pan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced by half (about 5 minutes). Stir in flour mixture; cook 1 minute or until slightly thick, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, juice, and capers. Place 1 chicken breast half on each of 4 plates; top each serving with about 2 tablespoons sauce. Sprinkle each serving with about 2 teaspoons parsley.

ok... there is a lot going on in this third step!   I had to read this like 20 times to get this straight.   And if you get confused while you are cooking, the sauce is not going to turn out well as your scallions are going to burn or you will end up burning off all the liquid...

Here is my version:

3a.  Add 1/4 cup broth to 1 teaspoon flour and stir until smooth.  Set aside.

3b.  Heat 1 tablespoon oil in pan, swirl to coat.    Add 1/4 cup shallots to pan; saute 1 minute, stirring frequently. 

3c.  Add 4 minced garlic cloves; saute 1 minute, stirring constantly.

3d.  Add 1/2 cup dry white wine; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.

3e.  Add 1/2 cup broth to pan; bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half (about 5 minutes)

3f.  Stir in broth and flour mixture from 3; cook 1 minute or until slightly thick, stirring frequently.

3g.  Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons butter,  2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 1/2 tablespoons of capers.

3f.  Place 1 chicken breast half on each of 4 plates; top each serving with about 2 tablespoons sauce. Sprinkle each serving with about 2 teaspoons parsley.

 I served the chicken on a bed of angel hair pasta which had been coated with melted Parmesan cheese.   This is the first time I served Chicken Piccata on pasta and I liked the way it turned out and the sauce mixed with the pasta.

I also made Warm Bruschetta to go along with the meal.   This is the first time I have made Bruschetta and it was delcious.   This is another Cooking Light recipe from myrecipes.com.

So, overall it was a delicious meal.    I left for the house to go to Whole Foods at about 4:45pm and had dinner on the table at about 7:00pm. 

Here is the shopping list:

Organic Free Range Chicken Broth...  $2.19
Organic Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast  (2 lbs @ $9.99/lb)... $19.98
Sourdough Baguette... $0.99
Capers... $0.79
Organic Shallots (0.12 lb @ $3.99 / lb)... $0.47
Aged Parmesan (0.5 oz @ $22/lb)... $0.88
Cherry Tomatoes... $4.00
Fresh Organic Basil... $4.00  (Sold in a package which includes much more basil than I need!)
Angel Hair Pasta... $2.99

Total:  $36.29 or $9.07 per serving

Kind of an expensive dinner, but the Bruschetta is contributing $2 per serving to the total.  If I had served a veggie like zucchini or spinach the price would probably be around $8 per serving.

Even at this cost, though, I think its worth it because 1) I like my chicken picatta about as much as at a decent restaurant which would cost me more 2x this amount and 2) lots of bonus points for me cause this is one of my wife's favorite dishes and 3) makes for an enjoyable @ home family dinner which, although it takes more of my time, is actually more convenient than going out to a restaurant.

Halibut with Spicy Mint Cilantro Chutney

Halibut with Spicy Mint Cilantro Chutney is a family favorite and another Cooking Light recipe I got from myrecipes.com.    This is probably the 5th or 6th time I have made this and each time resulted in a delicious dinner.    I make the chutney first.   Pulling the leaves off the cilantro and the mint and then chopping the mint and cilantro takes about half of the prep time for me... I'm a slow cook.    So, this meal usually takes me a little over an hour to prepare.

I used wild caught, previously frozen Alaskan halibut for tonight's dinner.   Fresh halibut turns out even better, but its not in season at the moment.   The fish monger at Whole Foods said that he should start getting fresh Alaskan halibut and King Salmon at the end of March.   I am really looking forward to that.

For Christmas, my wife gave me a screen to cover the pan when I am frying fish.   The screen has activated charcoal inside to absorb the fish smell.   This really keeps the house from smelling like cooked fish and I highly recommend.

I served the halibut with plain rice and a side of zucchini sauteed in olive oil.    I love mixing the chutney with the rice.

My 9 year old daughter loves plain white Thai Jasmine rice and she is starting to eat zucchini!  The halibut is much too spicy for her, so whenever I make fish, I usually make poached wild caught salmon for her.   She loves to dip each bite of salmon in lemon juice and olive oil and she can put away a half pound of salmon when she is really hungry.  Its one of her favorite foods. 

 

Take out from Willow Street Pizza

On Saturday, we decided to get take out from Willow Street Pizza.    We spent the afternoon looking at materials for a kitchen remodel we have been wanting to do since we moved into our house in San Jose over 10 years ago.   It got too late to go shopping and make dinner, and we were all getting a little cranky because we were hungry.

We ordered a Pesto e Pancetta pizza which is prawns, Italian bacon, pesto, and mozarella.   Its not a pizza I would ever order on my own.   This is the kind of thing my wife would order and since she was crankier than me I told her to order whatever she wanted.   I cringed a little bit when she ordered this pizza, but it was actually really, really good and I am really glad she ordered it.   We shared a pizza and greek salad.

My 9 year old daughter had Annie's Macaroni and Cheese and some left over roasted chicken.

Classic Roasted Chicken

Classic Roasted Chicken is one of my all time favorite dishes.   Its very easy to prepare and always turns out great.    When I first started making this a few years ago, I was really surprised how that we didn't have this more often when I was growing up given how tasty roasted chicken right out of the oven can be.   I have roasted turkeys for Thanksgiving for years and one year I thought, you know I should be able to roast a chicken the same way I roast a turkey, I wonder why I have never roasted a chicken?   I actually like roasted chicken better than roasted turkey.

I made some mashed potatoes (also very easy to make) and sauteed spinach in olive oil.   This meal easily makes enough for left overs.   So, this was dinner Thursday night and Friday night.

When I first started roasting chickens, I did it too frequently and my wife kind of got sick of roasted chicken.   I try to use this dish sparingly because I still get a groan sometimes when I say I am going to make roasted chicken.   Now I roast a chicken maybe 5 or 6 times per year.

I always start with fresh, organic, whole chicken.   I rinse the chicken and pat dry.   Then I rub butter all over the chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper and then Herbs de Provence and then I roast uncovered in a roasting pan at 350 to 375 degrees until the interior of the breast meat reaches 180 degrees.   Pretty easy!      I also pour a little bit of water in the roasting pan (maybe 1/4 cup) and then baste the chicken in the juices from the roasting pan a few times while the chicken cooks.

On Thursday night, I roasted about a 4 pound bird which took a little over an hour at 375 degrees.   And dinner was really delicious.

Ground Beef Kabobs and Jerusalem Salad

My house guests were back in town tonight and came by for another dinner.   They stayed in San Francisco last night and had planned come back for dinner and to stay the night tonight.   The first night they were here, they were pretty tired from the international flight.   They went to bed right after dinner, so the next morning I invited them over for dinner and stay the night another night before the ventured off to other parts of the country.

For dinner tonight, I made Ground Beef Kabobs, Jerusalem Salad, Hummus, and Rice.   This is a family dinner I had many times growing up.   Jerusalem Salad is a well known dish with many variations.  If you google  "Jerusalem Salad" Recipe you get over 3000 search results.     My variation of this dish has the basic cucumber, tomato, and parsley and the dressing consists of salt, tahini, yogurt, and fresh lemon juice.

The dinner was pretty good.   I would have liked the kabobs to have a little more salt and be a bit more done in the middle.   The grill temp got too low towards the end of the cooking process.

After dinner we sat outside around the fire pit and drank wine and told stories.   Before Monday night, I had not seen my friends for 18 years.   I hope we will be able to get together again before another couple of decades go by.

I had planned to have leftovers from this dinner, but we ate too much, so I will have to cook again tomorrow night.    I feel a chicken dish coming on...

Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

We had guests over for dinner tonight.   This is a very rare event in our home.    I really enjoy having dinner guests, and I wish I had more friends who I could invite over for dinner.   A friend of mine from Germany, who I have not seen for 18 years visited us with his wife who I met for the first time tonight.   It was really nice to see my friend again after so many years.  

I had been planning to make an especially good dinner for them.   I decided to make Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin along with Lemon-Parmesan Broccoli and Roasted Potatoes with Parsley.   Both the pork tenderloin and the broccoli are recipes from Cooking Light I found on myrecipes.com.

I have been making the pork tenderloin now for a four or five months and it consistently turns out great.   Everything turned out great and it was a delicious meal.   A bonus was that tonight my 9 year old daughter asked me for some pork with the spice rub on it.   (I usually cut out outside of the pork off for her because she doesn't like bold or spicy flavors like the spice rub).   Maybe her taste buds are starting to mature a little bit.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

I heard back from our pending house guests this afternoon and they will be arriving Monday afternoon.   So, for tonight, instead of the Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin I was planning for the guests, I made Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.    This is my mother's recipe and this is what spaghetti is supposed to taste like, in my opinion.   My mother's recipe uses canned tomato sauce and canned tomato paste along with pan fried crumbled hamburger cooked with minced garlic, dried oregano, and onion powder.   Its a hearty meal and one of my favorites.   This was the very first meal I learned to cook (I mean besides toasted cheese sandwiches) in college. 

I remember when I was a kid and my family discovered Ragu spaghetti sauce in a jar.    We loved it and for a few years we always used Ragu when making spaghetti at home.   I am not sure why we started using Ragu brand sauce at home.   I thought maybe that's when Ragu came onto the market, but I just looked it up and Ragu has been around since 1937!   Maybe there was a marketing push that finally reached us.   I do remember the Ragu television commercials about the time that we made the switch.   After awhile, maybe a couple of years, we grew tired of Ragu and about that time my father retired and took over the culinary duties.   His spaghetti sauce wasn't quite the same as my mother's recipe and in fact the sauce was a little different every time we had spaghetti.

A few years after I got married, I was eating spaghetti made with some sauce from a jar and I realized that the reason I liked Ragu when I was a kid was that it was loaded with sugar.   It was the sweetness of the sauce that had appealed to me as a kid.   And as an adult, I really didn't want such a sweet spaghetti sauce.   I tried several major brands of spaghetti sauce and I did not find any that I liked.   I was craving that sauce I remembered my mother used to make.

I called my mother and asked her about it.   She said, we used Ragu and I said, "no, before we used Ragu... you used to make the sauce."  "Oh, that sauce she said, well I used a can of tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste and half a tomato paste can of water."

Well, I tried it and it was perfect!   Not too sweet, not too spicy... just right.   I have to hold back and not overeat when I make spaghetti.  The family likes it, too.   Although, I could easily make enough for left overs, my stomach cannot take that much tomato sauce two nights in a row.   So, sadly, spaghetti is a one night show with no left overs.  

Another thing that makes this dish great is fresh grated Parmesan cheese.   I just recently started buying a block of Parmsean and grating the cheese at the table to sprinkle over pasta or other foods.   Although I haven't checked, I guessing this is actually less expensive than buying pre-grated cheese and much tastier.

Dinner at the Hay Market in Willow Glen

We planned to have friends over for dinner Saturday night.   A friend of mine, Wolfgang, who I have not seen since 1995 when I attended his wedding in Germany, called me a couple of weeks ago and said that he and his wife would be in San Francisco this weekend.    I invited them to stay with us one night and we planned to have dinner as well.   I am pretty sure that we agreed that this would happen on the night of March 2, but maybe I had the date wrong.

My daughter was having dinner with a friend and her family tonight, so when we didn't hear from Wolfgang by 5:30pm, my wife and I decided to go out to dinner at a nearby restaurant called the Hay Market.

The Hay Market is located in an area of San Jose called Willow Glen.   Willow Glen used to be a separate town many years ago, but in 1936, by a narrow margin, the residents voted to become part of the city of San Jose in order to tap into San Jose's city wide sewage system.   Over the years, Willow Glen's downtown area has maintained much of its character and has still has the feel of a downtown area of a small town.

The Hay Market claims to have a menu which changes daily.   Its a unique menu for sure both in the way it looks and in the content.   The menu is printed on paper which is inserted into a rectangular copper plate.   The copper plate has the restaurant's logo stamped on the back.   The aesthetic of the restaurant matches the menu.   Its a mix of old meets new and the dishes on the menu seem to be a new aesthetic applied to traditional dishes.   And of course, there is a bale of hay in the restaurant.

I hope the menu really does change often.  I think that will make for a more interesting dining experience and might keep me coming back.   I am sure it makes the work much more interesting and engaging for the chef.

I had the upside-down chicken pot pie which is served with the chicken in the center of plate flanked by the vegetables on one side and the pie crust on the other side all sitting in gravy.   I definitely enjoyed the food.  

Here's a shot of the menu:

The pedal tractor, tricycle, and pedal car in the window are the exact models that kids had in my neighborhood in 1970 and there's lots of other memorabilia from early 1970s middle class americana.  

All the tables are high and bar stools make up the seating.   We sat at one of 2 four person tables in the back.   The other handful of tables seat 8 or 10 and are arranged almost cafeteria style.    As more couples were seated, I noticed that different dining groups were seated at opposite ends of the same large table.   If you came here for dinner during a busier time, no doubt you would end up sitting near someone you don't know... which can be fun.

We never did hear from Wolfang... maybe he is planning to show up on Sunday.

Carl's Jr. Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich

I ended up eating the left overs from Thursday night's dinner for lunch on Friday, so I needed to cook something on Friday (which is not usually a cooking night for me).   Since we are planning to have guests over on Saturday night, Friday night needed to be only a one night meal.

A few days ago, I drove by a Carl's Jr. restaurant and almost stopped in for a Santa Fe Chicken sandwich.   I used to really like this sandwich, but like many fast food places the quality of the food has gotten so bad I have lost almost any desire to eat at McDonalds, Burger King, Carl's Jr., or Wendys.   These days the food is cooked some amount of time before the food is served and then kept in warming bins.  The number of times I have had cold, dry food is enough to put me off for good.   So, when I drove by the Carl's Jr, I was wanting the Santa Fe Chicken sandwich I remember, not the one they currently serve.

I did a google search and found what some people claimed was the recipe for the marinade and the recipe for the sauce for the Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich.   Its basically a grilled chicken breast marinated in teriyaki sauce, and the "Santa Fe Sauce" applied to the bun which consists of mayonnaise, paprika, curry powder, cayenne pepper, and salt.   Melt some cheese on top and thrown on a roasted jalapeno and you've got the Santa Fe Chicken sandwich.

That was dinner friday night and it tasted very close to the Santa Fe chicken sandwich I remember from a few years ago, which I like very much, but as it turns out, my wife does not.