Asparagus & Potato Tart

So here we have a lovely asparagus tart made with phyllo dough. It is yet another recipe I actually followed! (Well, me following a recipe is relative. I used most of the ingredients it called for, but I did not measure anything. Measuring is evil. Ok, it's not, but I never do it. Call me lazy, I don't care!). I got it from Jamie Oliver, from his new show on the Food Network, Jamie at Home.



Working with phyllo isn't too tough, but it does take some preparation. It is very, very thin, paper-like dough that easily breaks if you're not careful. It also dries out very easily, so you want to work with one sheet at at time. Have a damp towel on-hand to cover the stuff you're not working with so it does not dry out.

So, here I assembled about 8 layers of phyllo, brushing each layer with olive oil. I put it in my square baking dish and filled it with mashed potatoes mixed with a little milk, 3 eggs and grated cheddar cheese. The dark spots you see are the potato skins. I never peel potatoes because the peel is perfectly edible, give the spuds an interesting texture, and provide a bit of additional fiber.

After I put the potatoes in, I topped them with asparagus I had steamed 'til it was al dente.
Isn't it pretty?

I folded down the edges of the phyllo and then baked 'til golden brown. It looked like this:

It was really good! It was crunchy from the layers of phyllo and creamy from the potatoes, and the asparagus on top was an interesting flavor. I would definitely recommend this!

Crispy and Delicious Asparagus & Potato Tart (ok, so this name is a little cheesy, in my opinion. But, I guess it's better than calling it "The Super-Bestest Most Awesome Asparagus & Potato Tart in the History of the World").
Recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver, from Jamie at Home

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (I never peel. See why above).
Sea salt
1 pound asparagus spears, woody ends removed
8 ounces filo pastry (I used about 8 sheets of phyllo. Those crazy Brits spell it "filo." I have no idea how much 8 sheets of phyllo weigh).
1/2 cup butter, melted (I used olive oil instead)
1/2 cup freshly grated Lancashire cheese (I didn't use this. I don't even know what kind of cheese this is.)
1/2 cup freshly grated Cheddar
3 large organic or free-range eggs
1 (8-ounce) container heavy cream (I dumped in enough milk to make it creamy. I definitely didn't use this much, and it was nonfat milk, not heavy cream. I need to fit into my jeans tomorrow, people!)
1/4 whole fresh nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper.

Put your potatoes into a pan of salted boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. Meanwhile blanch your asparagus in a separate pan of salted boiling water for 4 minutes, and drain in a colander.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Get an ovenproof dish - I've used many different shapes and sizes. Layer the sheets of filo pastry in the dish, brushing them with melted butter as you go and letting about 1-inch hang over the edge. You want to get the pastry about 5 layers thick. Put a clean, damp kitchen towel over the top and put aside.

When the potatoes are done, mash them with the cheeses. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs and cream and stir into your cheesy mashed potato. Grate in the nutmeg, season well with pepper and mix together. Spread the mashed potato over the filo pastry, then bring up the sides of the filo and scrunch them together to form a rim. Take your blanched asparagus and line them up across the filling, making sure you cover it all. Brush all over with the remaining melted butter and pop into the preheated oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Serve just as you would a quiche for a quick lunch or supper, with a salad.

Chicken Curry

I try to change it up here in Chez Stadium. Of course, Cookie Monster and I have our favorites--pasta, salad, garlic toast, sauteed vegetables, etc.--but you gotta branch out now and again, you know? (One of us--I won't say who--requests cookies for dinner almost daily. But I won't say who, to protect this monster's privacy.)

So here we have VCK's foray into the Wonderful World of Indian (and/or Thai) cooking. Hey, wouldn't that be a cool TV show? "So, what'd you do last night?" "I watched The Wonderful World of Indian and/or Thai Cooking! It was interesting and/or informative!"

I don't know if this is technically an Indian dish. It could be Thai since it has coconut milk. But I'm not too worried about technicalities here. Will it be good? Will it go in my tummy? Sold!

For this dish, I actually followed a recipe. Gasp! I wanted to do this since I really have no idea what I'm doing in this genre of food, so I figured a solid template would be appropriate. Here is the recipe I used. However, I still did not measure anything, and I most certainly did not use the 1/4 cup oil it calls for. Blech! That is way too much oil! I added some zucchini, as well as a little bit of harissa to add some spice.

Here we have the curry cooking away:

And here is the finished product. I served it over brown rice, and with it I warmed up some of Trader Joe's frozen naan and some mango chutney.

Verdict: It was pretty good, but missing something. It lacked that depth of flavor that most curries have, be they Indian or Thai. It's probably because the restaurants put copious amounts of ghee or other really-bad-for-you ingredients into their curries. I think next time I would add more of the spices it calls for.

This is a good introduction into this type of food. It didn't take long to cook and it was a satisfying, fairly healthy meal. I recommend it.

Homemade Focaccia Bread!

I've been making a lot of homemade stuff lately--branching out my culinary repertoire. I also have a lot of self-rising flour leftover from some recipe from a long time ago, so I needed to make something that used a lot of flour.

I had a foray into the wonderful world of bread this winter when I was getting over being sick. I was stir-crazy with some serious cabin fever so I decided to bake some bread. It didn't turn out that great. The center was still doughy. Yeast is scary stuff.

But I figured, hey, what the hell? I'll give it another shot, this time with a different kind of bread. I have great memories of the focaccia I had in Italy. It was chewy, very salty and just ... transcendent. Of course, the fact that I was eating it in Italy contributed greatly to its allure.

I got the recipe from my ghetto binder that has various recipes copied from the Internet or torn out of magazines hole-punched and thrown in in no particular order. My mom clipped this recipe from her local paper about 5-6 years ago.

Here we have the ball of dough. Let's call him Marcello.

Here we have Marcello hangin' out, rising away.

Here Marcello has risen significantly, doubling in size. Oh lord. This could get dirty.

I put Marcello in his place by squishing him into a circle and then poking holes and rubbing oil all over him. Uh oh. I said it could get dirty. You didn't believe me?

And here he's done! After I took him out of the oven, I sprinkled on some kosher salt to try to replicate the delicious salty bread I had in Italia. But since I wasn't wandering down a small cobbled street in the Otr'Arno in Florence, some of the flavor was lost.

I think, on the whole, this venture into the world of bread was pretty successful. Kneading the shit out of the dough gave me a good workout and was quite cathartic. As was being able to punch down Marcello. The bread was a little on the dry side, but was otherwise pretty good. I'll have to do it again sometime! Watch out, Marcello!

Easy Focaccia
From The Statesman Journal, circa 2003ish

2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour (I used self-rising)
1 package or 1 tablespoon quick-acting or rapid-rise yeast (I think mine was just regular)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I omitted this since I was using self-rising flour)
1 cup warm water, about 120-130 degrees
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and yeast. Stir in the warm water and olive oil. Add another 1/2 cup of flour and combine. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, adding more flour as necessary until the dough is no longer sticky but smooth and elastic. Form into a ball.
Oil the bottom and sides of a large bowl with olive oil and set dough ball in the bowl, tossing lightly so all sides of dough of dough are lightly oiled. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and/or clean dish cloth and set aside in a warm place. Allow to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
When dough is risen, preheat oven to 400 and lightly grease two baking sheets with cooking spray. Divide dough into two smaller balls. Using fingertips, press to flatten out dough balls, working each into about an 8-inch circle.
Place each disc on a prepared sheet. Allow to rest and slightly rise a few minutes before baking, if desired. Bake 20-25 minutes until very lightly golden.

Homemade Cream of Celery Soup

This was very, very simple.

I had some celery in the fridge that needed to be used up, and I was craving something warm and creamy. Ta da! Cream of celery soup was born! Aren't I a genius?

I sauteed up the celery along with some onions and an already-cooked potato (unpeeled! You can eat the peel and it adds fiber! Fiber is a good thing. Being regular is a good thing! Trust me, you don't want to be irregular. Then you're very cranky).

I just sauteed everything together in olive oil 'til it was soft, then I added some seasonings: good ol' S&P, dried oregano and basil.



Once everything was sufficiently cooked, I added some flour and cooked it for about a minute, then added nonfat milk and vegetable stock. I cooked it some more, 'til it thickened up nicely, and then I took my immersion blender to it to make it as creamy as possible. If I had wanted it to be really really creamy, I would've strained it through a fine-mesh strainer. But I don't mind a few chunks of veggies here and there. They keep life interesting.

Plus, I was lazy.



And here we have a lovely, delicious and low-fat soup that came together in about 20 minutes. How can you beat that? It's not Campbell's Salt Lick (aka Campbell's Cream of Celery soup), that's for sure!


It was very creamy but not too rich (since the milk was nonfat) and very celery-y. Celery-y? I like to make up words sometimes. Celery-y seems a perfect adjective in this particular juncture, wouldn't you say?


I thought so.

Lobster Ravioli al Fresco

Here we have some lobster ravioli I cooked up for Cookie Monster. I had some leftover pumpkin ravioli in the freezer, so that's what I made for me. I can't take credit for the lobster ravioli. Trader Joe can.


I made a simple sauce for the pasta--just browned up some butter and sauteed garlic 'til it was browned (but not burned!) and tossed the pasta lightly in that. I served the pasta with some steamed broccoli (not shown since Cookie Monster had already eaten it!). I grated some parmesan cheese over the top and voila! A delectable, delicious and delightful dinner.


It was actually nice outside for a change, so we dined al fresco! Note the fallen tree in the background. That fell over when it was decidedly not nice outside. Granted, it was rotting, but the wind gave it that final push.

We got a bottle of this wine from a friend. It's Red Diamond cabernet sauvignon. Frankly, I didn't much like it. And this says a lot coming from me. If it's fermented grapes, I'll drink it. I'll drink Chuck Shaw. I'll drink discount store wine. Hell, I drank wine in Italy that came in a 1 qt. box for 86 cents! It tasted a lot like turpentine.

I will draw the line, however, at white zinfandel. At that point, you might as well be drinking Boone's. And if you're gonna drink Boone's, drink Boone's!




So anyway, I didn't much like this wine. It tasted kinda musty and metallic to me. But then what the hell do I know about wine? I drank turpenwine! All I know is: I didn't like it.


Dinner: Now you see it...

Now you don't!

A Trip to the Farmers' Market

One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday is go to the Farmers' Market. We have an awesome one in our suburb and an even awesome-er one in the big city. There are so many interesting products to sample and see, and so many interesting people to watch. There is great food for sale to be consumed on the premises, there are a lot of cool dogs and people with their kids, and it's all outside, which means when the weather turns nice, it is absolutely beautiful to wander around amongst good food raised by local farmers who make their living less than 50 miles from where you live, and all the people who appreciate that. In short, I really, really love the Farmers' Market.

Here is a cool graphic from A Veggie Venture. It is definitely apropos to this post, since I'm going to showcase all I got at the market this Saturday.

Here is some young garlic I bought. No, they are not green onions. It is garlic. It was very fresh and fragrant and delicious.

Here is the garlic again, with the basil I bought in the background.

Now, I love basil. I wish they made a basil perfume so I could smell it all the time. I seriously considered taking a leaf and just rubbing it all over my body. I love the smell that much. Yes, I'm aware I have issues.


Here is the gorgeous, fragrant basil on its own, highlighted by a lovely, deep-red tomato I also bought.


Here is an extreme basil close-up. Whooaaaaaaoooohhh! (Chez VCK will award a fantastic prize to those who can name that movie quote.*) Look how gorgeous and fresh and .... green it is!

And here we have the makings of a killer dinner. I made some homemade pesto (sans the pine nuts, since I didn't have any) with the basil and the young garlic. More on that soon.

Items not pictured that I bought at the farmers' market: Ancient Heritage Dairy's sheep's milk feta and adelle cheeses. These cheeses are incredible. I also love that this dairy is local, and its motto is "Raised with respect, nourished to nourish you." That's something I can get behind.

The adelle is similar to a brie in consistency, but it has a more pungent flavor and a milder rind. It is creamy and distinct and delicious.

The sheep's milk feta... well, that's pretty much one of the best cheeses I have ever had. It is briny, salty and chewy and it has this amazing strong flavor that is complex, but not too strong. Is is so. freaking. good.

Coming soon: I'll post about the delicious meal I made from these ingredients!

*Chez VCK awards you a pat on the back for knowing that quote was from Wayne's World. Nicely done. Aren't my prizes awesome?

Homemade butter!

So, I like to read food blogs. I read them a lot. If you look at my Food Blogs sidebar, there are about 12 or so I read every day. Yes, I'm aware that I need a life. Let's not get into that right now.
I also like to use Sundays as cooking days. Recently I read on someone's food blog ( I don't know whose! Don't ask me these things! Probably if you offered me a million dollars to tell you, I couldn't) about how easy it is to make homemade butter. So, off I went!

A few years ago, if you'd have told me I'd be making homemade butter, I'd have said "F*$^ that!" Really. I have a potty mouth. A big one. Because butter is one of those things you just pick up at the store, like eggs and bread. Now, I can't make my own eggs--well, I guess I technically can, since I am female. I can make human eggs. But I want a chicken egg cooked up in a pan for breakfast.
...And now we've entered gross territory. Ew. How the hell did we get from butter to here? Sometimes I think I should seek professional help.

ANYhoo, I never knew how easy it was to make butter until I tried it. And guess what? It was easy! All thanks to my handy-dandy butter churner. See? I keep mine in the garage, next to the spittoon and the washboard.

Okay, not really! This is actually my handy-dandy butter churner:



I dumped in a pint of heavy whipping cream, and whipped the serious crap out of it. It whipped and whipped and whipped. And then, guess what it did? It whipped some more!

You'll notice there is a layer of Saran-Wrap over the mixer. This is necessary. Trust me. I didn't think it was as I was watching it mix and mix and mix and mix and nothing happened. But there is a very very small amount of time between the stages of "ohmygod this stuff is never gonna become butter!" and "ohmygod this is really butter!" Like, seconds. And when it does become butter, there is buttermilk, which makes a hell of a mess if you don't have Saran-Wrap. So you'll need this. Take my word for it.


See? Here's the buttermilk. And I have to admit something. It's embarrassing. I never really thought about what buttermilk was. I just kinda thought it was another milk product, like 1%, 2%, etc. etc.
Buttermilk is the milk you're left with when you make butter. I am such a genius. Here is my buttermilk:


And here is the butter!
After you beat the hell out of the cream, it clumps together like this, becoming a very, very pale yellow color. You'll want to strain it , reserving the buttermilk for something else, like pancakes! Then, you should knead it to get out the remaining milk so it's not soggy.



I tried to form a stick like you'd find at the store, but it's not really. It's more of a misshapen Android-borg type of shape. Does anyone know what the hell an Android-borg is? I think it's indigenous to the planet Zoloft.

Anyhoo, this is what my butter looked like after I kneaded it. It's ... rustic.



And here is my homemeade butter spread on the baguette I got from Bridgeport Brewery. They also have a bakery on-site.

The butter was very creamy and rich. Even more so than what you'd get at the store. You can taste the intensity and sweetness of the cream, since, after all, that's what it was literally five minutes before it was butter.


Don't be intimidated. If you have a mixer, you can make homemade butter. It's a lot of fun just to see the process from start to finish. Go for it!