A hodgepodge and an old recipe

 

I thought at my age I knew how to cook, but it amazes me how many things I discover daily that make kitchen life and meals better (I feel the same way about computers!). Jordan is the one who figured out my latest lesson: because of the compact space of my toaster oven, when baking or roasting I need to put things on a lower rack and adjust the temperature and time downward. She pointed this out after I overcooked some pigs in a blanket—edible but not as soft as they should be. Her theory: not as much room for air and heat to circulate.

My other lesson was about using leftovers. Last week I made the best sheet pan chicken—pardon me for bragging but it was really good. I mean, the chicken was fine, but the vegetables—carrot, potatoes, and sweet onion—were out of this world. The trick was lots of salt, an olive oil drizzle, and then place the chicken right on the vegetables so that the meat juices drip down and flavor the potato, carrot, and onion. (See the recipe here: Gourmet on a Hot Plate: Chicken thighs and sheet pan cooking) We ate all the chicken but there was a generous helping of vegetables left over—I ate it for a vegetarian lunch the next day.

A couple of days later, I started to scramble some eggs, using olive oil instead of butter (I’m avoiding dairy these days, but that’s another story!). Just in time I remembered there was a tiny two bit of vegetables and some of the juices in the fridge. I dumped it all into two eggs, soft scrambled them, and had a winner of a dinner. (Honest, I did not do that rhyme on purpose.)

I’ll make that chicken again, although I have a new idea. Much as we liked the sheet pan chicken, we also like an herbed butter spatchcocked chicken that I make. So why not put a spatchcocked fowl on the vegetables? Some of my family prefer white meat, which I often find too dry, so this would satisfy everyone.

And the whole thing reminded me of a recipe I’ve cooked over the years. A friend once dubbed it the $8,000 Leg of Lamb because that’s what she said she’d pay for the recipe. You can have it free. It uses the same principle of letting meat juices drip into vegetables. If you like lamb, you’ll love it; if you don’t, just pass on by.

$8,000 leg of lamb with vegetables

About 5 white-skinned potatoes, peeled and sliced

3 onions, thinly sliced (these days I buy only sweet onions)

3 tomatoes, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Dried thyme

Chopped garlic to taste

¾ c. white wine

⅓ c. vegetable oil

6-7-lb. leg of lamb, excess fat trimmed but bone in

Grease a 9x13 pan and layer the bottom with sliced potatoes. Add onions and then tomatoes. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper, dried thyme, and a little chopped garlic. Pour white wine and vegetable oil over the vegetables. Cover pan with a cake or oven rack.

Season lamb to taste with salt and pepper and set it on the cake rack. Roast at 400° until meat thermometer registers 145° (about 75 minutes—the lamb will be medium rare; roast longer for better done, but don’t overdo it!). Turn the lamb every 20 minutes or so and baste with liquids from the vegetables. Remove from oven and let it collect itself before carving.

 

 

Holiday Cheeseball—and a caution on baking

What would the December holidays be without a cheeseball? It’s not too late to make your own delicious snack. This is the recipe that I remember from my childhood. Someone in the family still makes it every year--sometimes my daughters or DILs. This year I made one and divided it in two—one to go with Jordan and one for me to take to Tomball and Colin’s family.

A warning note: Cheese will mold if left in the fridge too long. I’d say a week is safe, so you can reshape the ball and freshen it with more parsley and ground pecans for New Year’s Eve. But if you have any left over after that, better freeze it. It freezes well—just defrost at room temperature.

Cheeseball

½ lb. Roquefort

1 pkg. Old English cheese (no longer available—I use 8 oz. of Velveeta)

l eight-ounce pkg. cream cheese

½ lb. pecans, chopped fine

1 bunch parsley, chopped fine

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 small onion, chopped fine   

½ tsp. prepared horseradish

Let the cheeses soften to room temperature and mix thoroughly. Add Worcestershire, onion, horseradish and half of the parsley and pecans. Mix thoroughly and shape into a ball. Do NOT do this in the food processor, as it will become too runny. Even a mixer makes it too smooth and creamy—wash your hands thoroughly and dig in, so the finished cheese ball has some texture and credibility. Roll the ball in the remaining parsley and pecans. Chill. Serve with crackers.

A cautionary note for those who bake in a toaster oven:

            I made old-fashioned gingerbread, from scratch, this week and learned a negative lesson about baking in a toaster oven. If a recipe has enough baking soda to cause it to rise, it will hit the top burner of the oven and burn. I could rescue my gingerbread by slicing off the burned—it was still delicious—but I won’t try that again. I don’t know if a gingerbread mix would work better or not. The recipe had 1-1/2 tsp. of baking soda.

Don’t forget: You can order Gourmet on a Hot Plate, print or ebook, from Amazon or several other platforms. The Amazon URL is https://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Hot-Plate-KItchen-Recipes-ebook/dp/B07JC75FC5/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545355410&sr=1-1&keywords=gourmet+of+a+hot+plate

A mild complaint and a quick easy dessert

A frustrated cook, one without an audience—that’s me. I clip and find and even invent recipes that sound wonderful to me, but others I cook for turn aside.  I found a recipe the other day for orange-cranberry shortbread—the response to a mention was “I don’t eat cookies.” I want to make kalpudding, a traditional Sweish meatloaf with caramelized cabbage—but someone else doesn’t like cabbage. And I really wanted to try making my own gravlax for a small gathering of friends—but two of them don’t eat raw fish, one for a valid immune deficiency problem.

So here’s a recipe I save for company, because some in my family don’t eat cooked fruit. This is quick and easy. As given it serves two, but you can fiddle with the proportions. Dessert doesn’t often figure in my menu planning—unless it’s chocolate. Seriously, I rarely fix dessert, and I never bake a pie. A whole pie for one is ridiculous—or even for two if I have company. But individual crisps and cobblers are a good way to go.

Fruit crisp for two

2 cups fruit – blueberries, raspberries, apples, pears, whatever

1 scant Tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup flour

¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar

¼ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ cup butter, softened but still firm

Butter two individual ramekins thoroughly. Slice fruit and arrange in ramekins. Mix flour, lemon juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon together. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. (If your butter is too soft, you won’t end up with crumbly; you’ll get paste). Sprinkle over fruit.

Preheat toaster oven to 350. Bake for 25 minutes. Lesson learned the first time I made this: I baked it ahead since I couldn’t use the hot plate and oven at the same time. Then I cooked supper, and while we ate re-heated the apple crisp. At least I thought I was reheating it. What I actually did was cook it a second time. The apples turned to mush, like applesauce—overcooked. If your sense of timing is better than mine, let dessert cook on its own while you serve dinner.

Order Gourmet on a Hot Plate: Tiny Kitchen Tips and Recipes from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and several other digital platforms.