When Knitting Was a Manly Art

I love to cook.. I’ve spent the whole day in the pizza kitchen cooking for other people and since I got off early tonight, I decided to cook a quick and easy dinner.

German Shepherd’s Pie… Sauerkraut, Kielbasa and mashed potatoes.
I’ve got a big pyrex casserole dish and in it I place 4lbs of a good bagged sauerkraut, drained in a colander. Mix in a nice sized bunch of green onions, sliced thin. About 3 tablespoons of brown sugar on top of the sauerkraut. I usually slice the kielbasa thick and brown the sausage than place it on top of the kraut. Then mashed potatoes spread over the top — I usually cheat and use potatoes flakes — and then Parmesan spread over top. Oven preheated to 350F and pop it in for about 55 minutes, until top is light brown and kraut is bubbling. Yum…

Eggs — Thanks to Mark Bittman and Alton Brown I can now cook the Perfect™ fried egg. The secret is low heat. On my stove, I set the burner at *about* three (range of 1-10). Heat pan for about 5 minutes and add a small amount of salted butter (salted butter provides all the salt I need for eggs). If it sizzles, it’s hot enough. If the butter starts to brown, you’ve got too much heat. I crack the eggs into little pyrex dishes we got for other purposes. This allows me to dump both eggs into the pan at the same time and no worries about broken yolks. Preset your timer to 3 minutes. Once eggs are in the pan I like a little fresh cracked pepper and place a lid on the fry pan and start timer. Don’t peek… If you’ve hit the sweet spot, you will have two perfectly fried eggs. Tender, whites done and just enough loose yolk to dip your toast into. If you didn’t hit the sweet spot, the yolks will probably be completely set, but the eggs are still pretty good and you can make adjustments the next time.

Food related — sort of… This could be the start of a hectic couple of weeks. We’ve got a young cook who is most certainly going to be fired before the start of next week. He’s one of three kitchen closers (myself and the owner’s son are the other two) and already his imminent loss has me working an 8am-6:30pm shift on Sunday. Sigh… Just when I think things are settling down…

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It’s been nearly a month since my Mother’s death and it’s time for me to quit feeling sorry for myself and try to start connecting with the real world. Eileen says I’ve been too withdrawn and if she notices, it’s time for me to make some changes.

First, I really want to thank everyone who left comments. Sometimes I wonder if *anyone* is really reading this blog and especially since there hasn’t been much in the way of posts recently.

I’ve started to knit a bit again. Nothing special. Just the beginnings of a toe up sock the Queen Kahuna way. I don’t intend on any pictures until I’ve made some real progress.

A bit of cooking, including a spaghetti sauce that came mostly out of my head and was a big hit in the household.

3 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, medium dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28oz can whole tomatoes (try to find Muir Glen Organic)
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes (once again try to find Muir Glen)
8 oz sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons dried Basil
1 teaspoon dried Thyme
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce (honestly.. try it..)
Kalamata olives — pitted and sliced — a goodly amount you probably can’t over do the olive

Heat oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Add onions and cook until the onions are translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (another minute).

Add diced tomatoes and whole tomatoes, crushing the whole tomatoes and all the juices. Add sliced mushrooms, herbs, fish sauce and sugar and simmer for about 30-40 minutes until thickened. Add olives and heat through for about 5-10 minutes.

While all this is cooking, boil 4 quarts of water. When the water begins to boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and then 1 pound of spaghetti/linguine (I really like Ronzoni) until done to your satisfaction (10-12 minutes). Save about 1 cup of pasta cooking water and drain the remaining.

Combine sauce and pasta and use extra pasta water to thin the sauce down if needed.

Sprinkle on a good Parmesan and enjoy…

Afterthought You’ll notice that there is no added salt or pepper. Between the salt in the canned tomatoes, the added salt from the fish sauce and the salted water for the pasta, *I* didn’t find a need to add anything. You might want to add either to taste.

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A large part of yesterday was spent up in Washington at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill for their yearly Cider Press. They ran out of apples and cider before they ran out of people and some folks went home empty handed.

And a recipe for very simple Pumpkin Cake that’s perfect for this Halloween holiday and one that gets raves from everybody that’s tried it (and no.. It’s not one of mine).

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15-ounce) can plain pumpkin puree

Frosting:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces and softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9 inch baking pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat eggs, oil and granulated sugar until thick and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add pumpkin, and mix until incorporated. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until only a few small lumps of flour remain, about 1 minute. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool completely.

2. For the frosting: With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and confectioners’ sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese 1 piece at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix until smooth. Cake can either be turned out onto a serving platter and frosted or left in pan and frosted.

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Today is my first day off in 9 days. 8 of those were closings or late shifts. For the most part I love my job of cooking, but this run has really burned me out.

Knitting again, of sorts. Nothing on the little sweater, but I’ve started working on a couple of scarves that have been sitting on needles for way too long. It’s *good* to be knitting again.

Brownies. Does anyone like brownies? I’ve run across a very simple recipe that makes the tastiest and fudgiest brownies I’ve had in a long while. And dead simple.

3 oz Unsweetened chocolate
1 stick of butter (salted or unsalted) (8 tablespoons)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt if you’re using unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Preheat oven to 350F. Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan at very low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate is just about melted, remove from heat and stir until smooth. Stir in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at time until incorporated. Add flour and vanilla and stir until no traces of flour remain.

Pour into a greased 8×8 pan. Even out the batter and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until set and barely firm in the middle.

Enjoy.

And finally an optical illusion that I just received in email.

Sitting on the edge of your seat, looking the the image, Mr. Angry is on the left.

Now stand up and move away about 10-12 feet. Now Mr. Angry in on the right. Weird….

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Yesterday afternoon, before I arrived at work, a young lady called the the restaurant and asked if she could get a special pizza for her boyfriend’s birthday.

She wanted a pepperoni pizza, with the slices laid down in a heart shape. When I arrived, the counter gal asked if I had any problem doing this. No big deal…

Later the young lady called again to confirm the order, but wanted to add a topping of black olives and plenty of topping cheese.

We decided all that stuff would obscure the heart, so…. I rolled out a sheet of dough and hand cut a heart shape, sauced it, put down pepperoni and olives and baked it.

I think it turned out pretty nice, huh…?

Oh.. The pizza was a success…

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First off… Still alive. Little sweater still not complete, but I’m working on it — Slowly —

Life is slowly turning around. I had two days off this past week and it looks like I’ll get two days off next week. We’ve picked up a couple of new people, including a guy with a printed resume and a recommendation from one of the big name pizza joints, but the owner is still pushing hours on me and we’ve managed to make more money on Thursday and Friday dinner than was brought in all day for the first part of the week.

I’ve been spending long hours in the restaurant kitchen lately and it seems that every time I turn around, there’s something foodie to relate to.

One of the gals I work with is married to an Hispanic gentleman and we talk about Mexican/Hispanic food from time to time. A little place in my closest city serves Mexican food and is consistently frequented by Hispanics. Along with the usual burritos and tacos, they serve the less usual. Like Tripa (Tripe) Burritos and Lengua (Tongue) Burritos. I’ve tried the Lengua and it’s quite good and next time I’ll get the Tripa. Jessica mentioned eating Pupusa when she was in Los Angeles and said she hadn’t had a decent one in a long time. This afternoon I discovered a little food cart in Portland selling made-to-order Pupusa and it was delicious. Hand made, grilled in front of me with homemade fresh salsa, a very nice cabbage salad, homemade tomato sauce and sour cream for $4.00. A delicious, filling lunch for less than McDonald’s. How can you beat that

In the mean time, I’ve been reading Anthony Bourdain’s Nasty Bits. While I don’t cook at any where the level that Tony does, his books do speak to me. Michael Ruhlman is my favorite overall food author, but the down and dirty of Tony Bourdain hits more chords for day to day work.

If things continue they way they seem to be going, I should be back to *somewhat regular* posting from here on out.

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A quick Friday post to let you all know I’m still around and still alive.

Work is still hectic. Still only two of us qualified to close the kitchen, and while I’m not getting much overtime, I’m still pulling 9-10 hour shifts and folks seem to think that late night pizzas are the way to go.

Life is a bit quieter, but only because I’m only getting a single day off each week and don’t have time to dwell on how crappy my life is…

Back to work on the little sweater. Most of one sleeve finished. One more to go and then the collar and we’re done. I’ll see if I can get some pictures later.

Harold McGee is a food scientist who wrote one of the most intriguing books about food — “On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen”. He also has a column in the New York Times that also dwells on the science of food. His latest article looks at The Five Second Rule. You remember the rule, right? If a piece of food drops on the floor and you pick it up in less than 5 seconds, it’s safe to eat. (If you don’t have a New York Times login, you can use BugMeNot for some usable username/password combinations).

Later….

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One of my favorite food writers has a blog that I read regularly. One of contributing writers is an outspoken Chef named Anthony Bourdain. Tony is not a fan of the Food Network and he’s recently posted a review of the recent Food Network Awards that were broadcast on their network.

If you love the Food Network and don’t have a sense of humor, you probably should skip it, but it’s pure Tony and funny as h*ll…

Off to work for another fun night of making pizza…

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Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day. Go grab a handful and celebrate the day…

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Thanks for everybody’s birthday wishes. It was a pretty good day.

Banana bread turned out delicious. Really nothing special, but it is so tasty with very ripe bananas. Be gentle with mixing of the flour. Just enough to incorporate.

Greasing and flouring only the bottom of a regular loaf pan causes the bread to cling to the sides and rise higher. If using a nonstick loaf pan, on which the sides are very slick, grease and flour sides as well as the bottom.

I’ve begun to use a scale to weigh out dry (and sometimes wet, yogurt in this case) ingredients, so gram weights included. I skipped the walnuts this time. Good site for conversion from volume to weight here.

Makes one 9-inch loaf
2 cups (200g) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (143g) granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 cups (115g) toasted walnuts , chopped coarse (about 1 cup)
3 very ripe bananas , soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup (63g) plain yogurt
2 large eggs , beaten lightly
6 tablespoons (88g) unsalted butter , melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of regular loaf pan, or grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.

2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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