Chow on Some Chowda: Clam Chowder in Bread Bowls

Clam Chowder in Bread Bowls

Mmmm...clams.

The weather in DC needs to wake the heck up and realize that it is MARCH
and not DECEMBER. After very little snow in November and December, we have been hammered in late February and so far in March. It is so not cool when the weather is 65 degrees and sunny and gorgeous (hence my blogging about grilling) then plummeting into the low 30s and absolutely dumping snow. I had to dig my car out of 6 inches of snow on the windshield, and Lord knows how much that the snow plow pushed over the doors. Happy St. Patty's to me. Since it was getting all cold again, I decided I needed some soup of some kind to warm my rapidly re-freezing soul. Seriously, weather figure it out.

I can't claim that I am a chowder expert. In fact, I pronounce the "R" in "chowder," so I don't even have that going for me. Apparently it tastes better if you buy it from someone who says "chowda." These are also the people who say "cah" instead of "car" and "cawfee" instead of "coffee." God bless the Northeast. Anyway, I found out that cans of clams are super cheap, so I wanted to at least try my hand at clam chowder. I adapted my recipe from AllRecipes.com, added extra creaminess, and bacon, because obviously everything is better with bacon. If the chowder is too creamy for you, add 2 cups skim milk instead of the half and half.

Everyone knows that soup tastes better if it comes in an edible bread bowl. I mean, duh. It adds carbs, and I have already established how much I love carbs. I love sourdough bread bowls at restaurants, and I figured they can't be that hard. And they aren't. Except for the sourdough part. Apparently you need sourdough starter? Yeah, couldn't find that, so I decided to go with regular every day boring bread bowls. But they are still bread bowls and therefore awesome. I used AllRecipes.com again, with minor changes. Use the bowls for chowder, chili, soup, dips, whatever. They will definitely impress your guests, especially if you call it chowda instead of chowder.


Clam Chowder in Bread Bowls

Bread Bowl
1 packet active yeast, (2 1/4 tsp)
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 tbl sugar
1 tbl olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour

Clam Chowder
4 pieces of bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
3 6.5oz cans chopped clams 
2 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
1 pint half and half
1 pint heavy whipping cream
2 tbl red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
parsley for garnish
 
Make the bread bowl (makes two big ones, or four small ones)
Combine yeast, warm water and sugar in a large bowl. Allow yeast to proof until foamy, about 10 min. Add olive oil, salt, and 3/12 cups flour. Knead until well combined and springy, about 8 min. Allow to rise for 45 min. Split risen dough in two or four balls. Allow to rise for another 30 min. Preheat oven to 400 deg F. Bake risen bread for 30 min. Allow to cool for 10 min, then cut a hole in the top and scoop out some of the bread inside to form a bowl.

Make the chowder
 Fry bacon in a large skillet until brown. Crumble, and set bacon aside. Add chopped onion to bacon grease and saute until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain fluid from the clams, and add all the clam juice to the skillet with the onions. Add cubes of potato to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Cover, and simmer until all potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

While potatoes are simmering, melt butter in a large pot. Add flour, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in half and half and whipping cream. Simmer until thickened. Add potato and clam juice mixture to the pot. Allow to simmer and thicken. Add clams and crumbled bacon to the cream mixture. Stir in red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Serve chowder in bread bowls, garnish with parsley.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Crock Pot Corned Beef with Cabbage and Potatoes

 

Corned Beef with Cabbage and Potatoes, accompanied with the mandatory Guiness.

I love America. We really are the melting pot of the world. No other country has our diversity. It's a wonderful place to grow up, and I thank the good Lord for the blessing of being born into the good ol' U. S. of A. We do lots of things particularly well, like basketball, winning world wars, and generally being awesome, but we really excel in incorporating other countries' holidays for the purpose of intoxication. Two that spring to mind immediately: Cinco de Mayo, and more topical for this post, St. Patrick's Day.

Apparently in some places in the world, St. Patty's is actually a celebration of a saint. Like, the actual St. Patrick, credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland, and being the patron of the Emerald Isle. Instead of celebrating the man and his life, Americans have taken the holiday and turned it into something I'm not sure he would quite approve of. Check out any college campus on March 17. Everyone wears green, and if you don't, you get pinched. The Guiness flows like water, and frat boys extort kisses out of co-eds by claiming to be Irish, when they are clearly from California.

Don't get me wrong, I love St. Patty's. I think it's fun to celebrate Irish culture. I also look pretty good in green, so there's that. I even tried to grow shamrocks once, which didn't go so well, as I tend to kill any and all plants. What I really love about St. Patrick's is, you guessed it, the food possibilities. This is the time to use up any green food coloring you may have lying around, and Guiness is surprisingly versatile for cooking and baking. If you want to be all traditional, though, you have to go with corned beef and cabbage.

I am actually pretty lazy when it comes to cooking. You might
think that a crock pot would be perfect for me, because you don't have to do much work. The problem with that is that it requires lots of foresight, of which I have none. Usually, I decide what to make for dinner about an hour before and just go with it. Crock pots make me make a decision 10 WHOLE HOURS before dinner, which is a long time! Still, this particular corned beef recipe is pretty easy if you have the ability to plan ahead. You don't have to do anything, just throw everything in a pot in the morning before work, turn it
once or twice when you get home, add some veggies, and boom- leprechaun munchies. You don't even need many ingredients, but it is absolutely essential that you serve this with Guiness. If you don't, St. Patrick will be sad, and you don't want that.

Corned Beef with Cabbage and Potatoes
 2 lb package of corned beef
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup water
1/8 cup white zinfandel

1 lb baby potatoes
1 small cabbage

Place corned beef in crock pot. Mix together corned beef spice packet (should come with the corned beef), brown sugar, mustard, water, and zinfandel. Pour over beef. Turn beef a few times to coat with mustard mix. Set crock pot on low for 10 hours. Turn at least once.

When there are about two hours left, add potatoes to the crock pot. When there is one hour left, add cabbage to the crock pot. Slice beef and serve with cabbage and potatoes. Don't forget the Guiness!

Happy Pi Day! Rhubarb Pie

Rhubarb Pie

This post was a request from my sister, who, as a current college student, celebrates geeky holidays like Pi Day. Pi Day (March 14, or 3/14) celebrates that little Greek letter that terrorized you in algebra and calculus, useful for calculating circle stuff and doing various physics problems. I at one point had pi memorized out to, like, fifteen digits. Yeah, file that under useless information. It's per-programmed into your TI-83! So March 14 became Pi Day because its 3.14. If you want to be extra geeky, you celebrate it at 1:59 (3.14159) I guess you could go really into it and celebrate at 1:59 and 26 seconds (3.1415926). Math majors out there, don't deny that you have this exact time programed into your phone so you can celebrate at the exact time. I'm not nearly that geeky. Obviously Mole Day is far superior to Pi Day. Except on Pi Day you get to eat pie.

I have to say that I make spectacular pie. I won a ribbon in the county fair once. Yeah, so basically I'm awesome. But seriously though, I love to make pie, and rhubarb pie is my favorite. It's something that reminds me of summer, lakes, cabins, and sunshine. My family is full of rhubarb-strawberry pie devotees, but my husband absolutely refuses to allow any other fruit in his rhubarb pie for some ridiculous reason. Good for him I still make great rhubarb pie. I think it might actually be the reason he married me. The recipe was originally based off my Better Homes and Gardens cook book, but I've modified it so much I think it's really just mine now.

I learned to make my pie crust from my great-grandmother. The recipe itself isn't difficult but it takes a lot of practice to figure out exactly how much water to add. I wish I could make it easy for you and tell you down to the decimal point how much to put in, but I can't. It really depends on the humidity in your kitchen and the water content of your flour. It just takes practice to figure it out. I highly recommend buying a pastry cutter. It makes the crust more flaky and tender. They aren't expensive and will make all your pastries significantly better. It's also a good idea to roll your crusts onto a piece of plastic wrap. This allows easy transfer to the pie plate without having the crust crack all over the place, and keeps the side
you will see all smooth and pretty. Just peel the plastic wrap off after transfer, and voila, you have a pretty crust. In the end, it all works out and you get amazing pie.

Anyway, Happy Pi Day! What kind of pie do you want to make to celebrate?

Rhubarb Pie
Rhubarb Pie
6 cups thinly sliced rhubarb (1/8-1/4 inch thick)

2 cups sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbl butter, cut into small pieces.

Double Pie Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter flavored Crisco or other butter flavored vegetable shortening.
3-7 tbl ice cold water

Preheat oven to 400 deg F.

In a large bowl, combine sliced rhubarb, sugar, 2/3 cup flour, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Stir well to coat the rhubarb and let sit for 15 minutes.

While the rhubarb is sitting, combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add all of the Crisco to the flour. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, cut the shortening into the flour until the mix looks like coarse sand. Add the ice cold water 1 tbl at a time, tossing in between. Keep adding the water until the dough starts to come together. You should be just able to get it into a ball, and it should not be sticky. Form the dough into two balls, one slightly smaller than the other.

Roll out the larger ball of dough on top of a piece of plastic wrap until approximately 1/8 inch thick. Transfer into pie plate and adjust to cover the entire pie plate. Pile rhubarb mix into the pie plate. Dot the top with butter. Roll out the smaller ball of dough on a piece of plastic wrap and transfer the dough on top of the rhubarb mix. Seal the edges of the crust and flute. Slice the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 400 deg F for 50 min. Allow to cool for 10 min to set up.

Grilling Time! Grilled Lemon Garlic Salmon

Grilled Lemon Garlic Salmon

Today was BEAUTIFUL. Well, at least that's what I was told. I was working all day. But when I got a chance to look out the window, it sure looked nice. Warm, sunny, bright clear blue skies. After the absolutely disgusting winter we here on the East Coast have had, I am so glad to finally have a day of spring time weather. Pretty soon, the cherry blossoms will start blooming here in DC. Very soon after that, the tourists will descend and my allergies will exile me to the indoors until I am saved by the super hero that is Claritin. But seriously I love spring and have missed it during the depths of winter. Since we finally had a nice day, that means it's time to break out the grill.

When one has a tiny kitchen, one has to figure out creative ways to cook. A tiny grill definitely helps. My parents bought us this tiny grill when my husband and I moved into this apartment. We don't have a very large porch, so we couldn't exactly fit a gigantic monstrosity that I'm sure my husband would love to have, but we do have room for our little guy. It's charcoal burning, so we don't have to worry about flammable gases, and it's portable so we can take it camping if we want. Can't ask for much more in a grill.

You can grill lots of things. Steaks, chicken, pork, pineapple, peppers, corn. I figured that most people are pretty decent at grilling hamburgers, but I don't know that many people who grill fish. Okay, so it's not exactly as "summery" or whatever as hotdogs or steaks, but I think it tastes awesome and it's good for you. Salmon is the perfect fish for the grill, and is very easy to make. Using tin foil means that your cleanup is a snap, because the skin just sticks to the foil when you pull the fish off. Roll it up and toss it and done.

This particular recipe is based on my mom's grilled salmon. She always gets fresh Copper River Salmon (the best kind, if you can find it!) grills it up with minimal spicing, and lets the flavor of the salmon speak for itself. You don't need a whole lot to make good salmon. Just make sure you get wild caught salmon. It really does taste better, and has a much nicer pink color than the farmed stuff. Don't over cook it! Dry salmon is sad salmon so make sure you check it a bunch. Cook it until it just starts to flake with a fork. Serve up with a vegetable of your choice (I like grilled bell peppers or broccoli) and enjoy with a glass of white wine.

Grilled Lemon Garlic Salmon
Serves 4 
1 wild caught salmon filet with skin on
1 tbl unsalted butter cut into small cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dry dill
1/2 lemon, in slices
tin foil

Light coals and allow to burn down. 

Place fish on the shiny side of the tin foil, skin side down. Do not grease the foil. Sprinkle butter cubes, minced garlic, pepper, and dill over the fish. Place lemon slices on top of the fish. Seal the foil over the top of the fish. Put the foil package the grill grate with the skin side down. Grill approximately 5 minutes.

Carefully unwrap the top of the fish and check to see if the fish flakes easily with a fork. If not done yet, grill for a while longer, but check frequently so you do not over-cook the fish. Take the fish off the grill.

Carefully remove the fish from the foil, so the meat separates and leaves the skin behind. Serve with vegetables and a glass of white wine.

If It Has Lettuce, The Calories Don't Count- BLT Chicken Salad

BLT Chicken Salad

I have been so good so far this year when it comes to going to the gym. I do cardio and I lift, like a good kid. It makes me feel so morally superior, until I see that one chick at the gym who squats like 400 lbs and runs 15mph on the treadmill for 2 hours. Then I just feel bad about myself. Anyway, I've been working out a bunch, getting healthy and all that, but I know that to be healthy all the way around, I need to eat better. And that brings us to salad.

Mmmmm.... bacon.

Let's face it. Salad is boring. It don't even really taste like anything, except maybe water. It's a lame food type, and I hate that it's so darn healthy. When you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you put in, and lettuce is so dumb that it doesn't really even have calories, so it's considered one of the go-to diet foods. I have been looking out for a salad that doesn't suck so that I can try to translate my relative gym success into dietary success. It took a while, but I solved the salad dilemma.

To make your salad not suck, the best thing to do is to smother the lettuce a whole bunch of other stuff. Suddenly, you aren't just eating a big bowl of lettuce, but a big bowl full of tomatoes, chicken, cheese, bacon, onions, and whatever else you can throw in there. Boom. Real food. There really is no mystery to a good salad. Just put in what you like and maybe add some dressing. It isn't rocket science, just do what tastes good.
....
Crap. I was just informed that if you add a bunch of unhealthy stuff to lettuce your salad is no longer healthy and has just as many calories as if you ate all that stuff on a burger. I refuse to believe that. From here on out, calories do not count if they come on a bed of lettuce. Because I said so.

Okay so on to my BLT Chicken Salad. I found this in Cooking Light (link) a while ago, and modified it to fit the ingredients I actually have in my kitchen. Seriously who keeps a bunch of buttermilk around? (Side note: one time I accidentally put buttermilk in my cereal. I'm too traumatized to keep it in the fridge for long.)  I also modified the proportions of the salad to have less lettuce and more stuff, because the more stuff makes it tastier. It isn't a hard salad, and I encourage you to play around with it to fit your own tastes.

Enjoy! It's healthy and has no calories, because it comes on a bed of lettuce. And because I said so. 

Nope. No calories at all.

 BLT Chicken Salad
Makes 2 very large salads, or 4 actually reasonably sized salads

 
3 pieces uncooked bacon
2 chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper, divided
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, cut into 4 wedges
1/2 cup blue cheese
1 avocado, sliced into cubes
1 cup sliced grape tomatoes

Preheat oven to 425 deg F. Cook the bacon until crispy in a large skillet. Remove bacon from skillet, retaining bacon grease. Crumble bacon and set aside. Dredge chicken breasts in egg and then coat in bread crumbs. Sprinkle with salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Reheat retained bacon grease to high heat and add chicken. Fry 1 minute on each side, until bread crumbs are golden. Remove chicken and place in a baking dish. Bake chicken at 425 deg F for approximately 15 minutes, or until juices run clear.

While chicken is baking, combine milk, mayonnaise, dill, vinegar, 1/4 tsp pepper, and minced garlic. Mix well. Add salt to taste. Set aside.

Slice chicken. Put a wedge of lettuce onto each plate. Divide chicken among plates. Top with crumbled bacon, blue cheese, avocado, and tomato slices. Drizzle mayonnaise mixture over the top. Enjoy!

Happy Mardi Gras! King Cake from Scratch

King Cake for your very own Mardi Gras celebration.

Mardi Gras is on Tuesday, bringing in the season of Lent. That means that for some people, it's time to give something up for a month and stop eating meat on Fridays. It's that fun time of year when fast food joints and school cafeterias start carrying those "fish" sandwiches. I use the word fish loosely here. Seriously I'm pretty sure its cardboard with a splash of fish sauce squished together to form a patty-shaped thing. For the South, though, Mardi Gras is WAY more important than Lent. If you've ever been to New Orleans around this time of year, you know that religion really doesn't enter the minds of most Mardi Gras revelers. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only thing that enters their minds is copious amounts of alcohol, and possibly other mind-altering substances. Why else would someone want to fight a thousand people for a 5 cent string of beads?

I have a bunch of family down in Mardi Gras Land, and even some family members who ride in a Krewe. Yes, that is how you spell Krewe. I've been to a parade or two, but have never risked life, limb, and sanity in the French Quarter to see the famous parades. Instead, I prefer to celebrate Mardi Gras as it was originally meant: a way to use up all of the rich and tasty food before giving up everything for Lent. What better way is there to start such a solemn and religious time than on a sugar high?

Traditionally, King Cakes are made to celebrate the Three Kings visiting Christ on Epiphany (hence the name). They are in the shape of a crown and are topped with symbolic colors. Purple for royalty, Green for faith, and Gold for power. Inside each cake is a tiny plastic baby doll, representing Christ. The person who gets the doll is King of the party, but has to throw the fete (that's French for party... I think?) next year.

The cake itself isn't very complicated. In fact, it really is just a glorified cinnamon roll in a circle. That means it isn't very difficult to make, so even you, my Yankee friends, can celebrate like a Louisianan on Tuesday. When you don't have a doll, you can sub in a penny, but PLEASE let your guests know that there is something in their cake so they won't accidentally swallow it or break a tooth. So bake your cake, grab some beads, and drink up. Lent is coming, and that means no fun until Easter!

Ready to eat!

Mardi Gras King Cake (adapted from AllRecipes)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
2 packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
2/3 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp salt
5 1/2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar
1 tbl cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbl cold milk

1 cup sugar, divided into 1/3 cup portions
Green, yellow, blue, red food coloring

Heat the milk until it starts to bubble. Add butter, and stir until butter melts. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 1/2 cup sugar. Allow to sit until frothy, about 10 min. Add milk mixture, eggs, and salt. Stir well. Begin adding flour, 1 cup at a time, until a dough has formed. Add enough flour so that the dough isn't sticky. Knead until elastic on a well floured surface, and allow to rise for 90 min, or until doubled in size.

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter in a small bowl. Punch down dough and divide into two balls. Form two long rolls (about 20 in long) with the dough and roll out flat. Spread brown sugar/butter mix evenly over the dough. Roll up the dough to form two long logs. Twist logs together, then join the ends to form a circle. Push in a plastic baby doll or penny between a twist. Allow to rise again for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Bake cake for approximately 30 min, or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly

To make the icing, slowly add milk to powdered sugar in a small bowl. Add enough milk that the icing flows, but isn't too liquid. After the cake has cooled slightly, spread icing over the top.

Add 3 drops of gold food coloring to 1/3 cup sugar. In a separate bowl,
add 3 drops of green food coloring to 1/3 cup sugar. Add 3 drops of red and 3 drops of blue food coloring to the final 1/3 cup sugar to make purple sprinkles. Mix each sugar/food coloring mixture well, until all food coloring chunks disappear. You can add more food coloring if you would like darker sprinkles. Top the iced King Cake in sections with each of the sprinkles. Enjoy!