Let it snow, Let is snow, Let it snow!

White Christmas? In Texas? You gotta be kidding me. This is the view on Falcon Trail this wintery Christmas Eve. Go figure!




MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Balvenie

Scotch whisky is one of those things you either get or don't. It's hard to explain. For those that don't know the difference between whisky and whiskey, you need to learn about single malts. This is one of those guilty pleasures I learned about while working in downtown Ft Worth in the investment world. I had always considered myself a bit of a Glenmorangie man. I received a bottle of the 10 year original as a gift when Andrea and I married and have long considered it my favorite. It has a wonderful flavor and never disappoints. My favorite may have just changed.

My boss learned of my like of whisky as we shared a glass one evening last summer. He caught me completely by surprise today by giving me a bottle of The Balvenie Doublewood 12 year. Wow! The second cask of sherry oak to finish really does add a smoothness to the flavor that I have never experienced. I poured it neat, as always, and enjoyed the complex tastes. I've never been one to pick out the hint of this or that, but I can definitely tell when something tastes good and this does!



The Scots may be crazy as can be, but they sure can make some whisky! Merry Christmas and thank you Ted!

Green Chili Posole

We've been busy beyond belief and not doing much cool cooking as of late. I had a chance to be at home last night and experiment a bit. Hominy is a vegetable that often goes unnoticed. I mean, its just a form of corn right? This time of year, in Northern New Mexico you will often see Posole served. Its warm, inviting and very functional. It's a stew made from hominy that can be tweaked around to accommodate whatever you might have in the pantry. And since you're in New Mexico, it's easy to add the chilis. So I made some last night mostly just using a parcel of items that aren't very expensive and you might just have in your pantry for the most part.

Green Chili Posole
1 lb of diced thin cut pork chop
Half a red onion rough chopped
Bell Pepper rough chopped
2 cans of diced green chilis (fresh would be preferred, but you aren't going to have that in Bedford, TX in December!)
2 cans of white hominy drained
Handful of sliced carrot
Chicken Broth
Sea Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder (could use fresh, I just didn't have any in the pantry)
Cumin
Green Chili Powder
Mexican Oregano

I browned the pork in olive oil and added the bell pepper and onion before it was browned. Add some salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin and green chili powder to liven it up. After the pork browned and the onions were soft, I added all other ingredients and brought to a boil. I added more green chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic and the mexican oregano to the liquid. Reduce the heat and let it simmer covered for a while to come together. Taste and adjust your spice level to what you want.

I'll admit, I probably went too heavy on the heat level of the green chili since I couldn't blow the face off of any family members. Likely would back it down for others. I think it turned out great and was a great warm up for me after getting blanked while fishing for rainbow trout yesterday afternoon. Serve it with a warm tortilla and enjoy.

Biscuits

I've been wanting to make biscuits for a while now. I had not ever attempted them from scratch. So it was time to do it! But wait. I didn't have shortening. Ahhh, but we have real butter in the house.

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 cup of BUTTER(supposed to have been shortening)
3/4 cup of milk

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Cut in the shortening/butter. The 2 knives technique was a beating, so I used a hand mixer to speed it along. It should look like fine crumbs when its mixed well.

Stir in the milk. The mixer is not a great idea for this part unless you have one that has about three horsepower. The dough is gonna be thick!

Kneed it TEN times the recipe said. I'm not sure how many times exactly I kneeded it, but it wasn't very long. As a helpful hint, coating your fingers with flour before kneeding is a good idea. :)

I rolled it out on flour covered parchment paper to a log that was about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Cut into equal width pucks and put on a pan to bake.

15 minutes later at 450 and we had biscuits for breakfast!

Spaghetti squash and shrimp

I found this recipe in my Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine and changed it a little.

1 large spaghetti squash
1 pound of shrimp
salt
pepper
olive oil
Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning
1 large lemon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut spaghetti squash in half (easier said than done, be careful!). Scoop out seeds. Coat the inside part of the squash w/ olive oil, salt, pepper and chipotle seasoning. Roast in the oven for 45-55 min or until squash is tender. Once tender, scoop out the inside w/ a fork into a new bowl/serving dish and add more seasoning/salt/ pepper and olive oil to taste. In the meantime, turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Spread shrimp out in your roasting pan. Cover with the juice of one lemon, dash of olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 5-8 minutes or until they just turn pink. Remove from oven and add shrimp and its juices to your spaghetti squash. Makes about 4 servings or if you and your husband and really hungry, serves 2. :-)

Cider Update

A little over a week ago I blogged about making hard cider. I started with two gallons of Whole Foods 100% Apple Juice in glass bottles and a package of s-O4 yeast. It bubbled for a week and then stopped. It was actually pretty cool to see the science going on in the laundry room. When it stopped bubbling I moved the jugs to the Sub-Zero to let the yeast settle to the bottom. We finally sampled the hooch tonight. It was good enough for Andrea to ask for a second round. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the dry hard cider. It was tasty and not too sweet. It has a bit of a kick to it as well. In a couple of days I will siphon out the cider and discard the yeast collecting in the bottom of the jug. Something tells me I need to make another trip to whole foods. This is good stuff!

Sesame Chicken

Jacqueline and I went to the store tonight and just started randomly grabbing vegetables that made pretty colors. I wasn't sure at first what we would do with them, but we figured it out. We made a stir-fry. She had fun helping pick out the produce, scan everything in the self check line, cutting up the bounty and then cooking it with me. It was a good time.

Sesame Chicken
1 lb of thin chicken breast
1 green bell pepper
1 carrot
1 yellow squash
1 anaheim chili pepper
1/3 of small red onion
1 clove of garlic
Rice Noodles
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Rice Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Savory Seasoning (some random seasoning in the spice rack)
New Mexico Red Chili Powder
Sesame Seeds

First, start soaking the rice noodles in hot water. They need a few minutes to soften up. We then diced everything else that was produce or meat. Saute the chicken in sesame oil over high heat with some salt, savory seasoning and chili powder. When the chicken starts to brown, add all of the vegetables and continue to saute, stirring frequently. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the chicken is cooked, add soy sauce and rice vinegar until there is a slight broth in the bottom of the pan. Allow this sauce to permeate and coat all of the pan contents. Just prior to finishing, drain the water off of the noodles and then add to the pan and stir. The noodles should turn brown as they attract the sauce from the pan. We sprinkled sesame seeds on top for a nice little touch.

It turned out to be a nice, quick, healthy meal that Jacqueline and I could do together. That makes it more fun too. We had some left-overs, so hopefully Andrea will get to sample some when she gets here on Sunday. Jacqueline did say that we didn't really need the noodles, but they tasted good too.

Celery

So Jacqueline decided to have some fun with celery. I don't like the stuff, but the picture is pretty funny.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ok, so we are on a squash kick. This recipe is modified from something that we found online.

Ingredients:
2 Acorn squash
3 Chicken sausage links- remove from casing
1 red bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 pound grape tomatoes- cut in half
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 - 1 cup of chicken stock
1/2 cup bread crumbs
New Mexico red chili powder
Cumin
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
Cheese (optional)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds. Brush with olive oil, salt and pepper and place face down on a baking sheet. Bake 40-45 min or until soft.

Cook the sausage, onion, bell pepper and garlic together in a skillet until all ingredients are soft. Add 1/4 cup chicken stock. Stir in the grape tomatoes and cook through. Add the next 1/4- 1/2 cup of chicken stock until mixture is saucy. Add cumin, red pepper flakes, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Add bread crumbs and set mixture aside.

Once squash is done, spoon stuffing into the center of each squash. Sprinkle top with cheese if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 - 10 more minutes or until tops are brown and stuffing is heated through.

Makes 4 halves of squash.

My husband and I loved this for a simple, healthy dinner. Next time, we are going to scoop out some of the squash and mix it in with the stuffing so that it gets seasoned through.

Cider

Well, the experiment has begun. I have always been told I would love to make my own beer, but never wanted to deal with all of the variables that are in place. I read a a post on The Paupered Chef the other day describing the process of making your own hard cider. Their description made it seem quite easy. So we swung by whole foods today on the way to the supply store to grab some yeast and airlocks. We came home and set up the process and its now in the laundry room fermenting. We will know in a week how it turns out.

Pork Loin and Acorn Squash

So we get a magazine called Everyday Food by Martha Stewart. Yeah, I know. It has actually given us several good ideas during our time as subscribers. I took one of their recipes and tweaked it a little this past Sunday. The wife loved it. I'll try to remember what I did.

• Prepare a large acorn squash just like you would a sliced canteloupe
• Prep a pork tenderloin for roasting--Salt and Pepper to season. Brown entire outside in the cast iron and then transfer to the roasting pan.
  

Sauce to go on top was as follows.

• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of New Mexico Red Chili Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons of water

We placed the tenderloin and squash in a roasting pan and drizzled the sauce over the top. Apply liberally. Use it all! Baked in the oven at 425 for 40 minutes. I turned the squash a couple of times during the process. Core temp on the tenderloin read 135 when we pulled it out. Let it rest. Slice the pork and enjoy.

I'm generally not a huge cinnamon fan in my savory food. This turned out great!