Dinner with Mangoes

 

   

Okay, another food post. I really should try to shape this blog a bit. Not today though. Today I’m making something delicious to eat. Here’s what I’m going to have for dinner.

I’ve got a boneless, skinless chicken breast that I’ve cut in two and placed into the oven. They are already cooked from yesterday, so they simply need to be warmed up. I rubbed some olive oil onto them and then covered them lightly with cinnamon.

I love cinnamon on chicken but it often burns if you start your chicken with it, so, because I’m only warming, it should work. It just adds such a mild, almost innocent, flavor to your chicken. If you are preparing chicken and add the cinnamon about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before it is ready, add some juice to that baking dish because the cinnamon added to the chicken makes a delicious gravy.

I’m also having a tomato and avocado salad that I saw on youtube. A very fresh tasting salad that combines chunks of tomato, avocado, sliced cucumber, and red onion, with a simple lemon juice / olive oil dressing. I added some chopped garlic and some capers. I also sprinkled a bit of celery seed into the bowl and mixed all of this goodness together and put it into the refrigerator until dinner.

For the chicken, I made up a sauce with mangoes. I diced those up with finely chopped ginger, more garlic, a hit of orange zest, some dried thyme, chopped fresh cilantro,and some salt. I turned it into a pulpy sauce with one of those hand mixers that works like a blender. Once mixed, I added a small bit of finely chopped jalapeno pepper.

This sauce came to me in a daydream, so when I did the taste test and my mouth cheered in delight, I was thrilled. I will serve this on top of the chicken sprinkled with sunflower seeds.

If there is any sauce left over I’ve decided I will mix that into a cucumber salad for tomorrow. I’ll shred the cucumber like a coleslaw, only a bit bigger strips, I’ll add onion, celery seed, and dried cranberries, probably a twist of black pepper to finish it off.

I love that such beautiful and delicious meals can come from basic and simple ingredients. It always feels like some kind of great victory. It is especially great when those creations are this healthy.

Maybe I’ll hit that cucumber salad with a slight hit of mint. What do you think?

 

 

 

Fried Egg Sandwich

       

Okay folks, I admit it, my blog is odd, but today we’re going to talk about food.

I had a western sandwich for dinner tonight. We all know what they are, and you may think they are overrated, that they are nothing but glorified fried egg sandwiches with ham in them, but no, they’re not.

You see, there’s something curious about food. Consider a bowl of noodles with some meatballs, some sauce, and throw on your favorite cheese. Excellent. Sounds yummy, right?

Now take those meatballs and wrap the noodle around each one. Then drop them in some sauce, sprinkle on some cheese, and bake. A whole new taste experience! The interesting thing about this perspective on food is this – once you consider wrapping the meatball in the noodle, you start thinking of other things you could wrap in with the meatball. Bacon comes to mind, or maybe several layers of spinach.

Now you’re getting the picture. A western sandwich is so much more than a fried egg sandwich with ham in it. Add some onions, nice chunks, dice as much ham into that egg as you desire. Fill the pan with this concoction and make some toast. I like ketchup on mine. You’ll see. When this comes together, it’s a Western Sandwich, capitol letters.

The beauty of this is that, like the noodle and the meatball, your mind can start to wander. I’m imagining chicken in there instead of ham, maybe with a bit of chopped oranges and fresh ground pepper. I’m thinking beef, mushrooms, and green onions. Why not throw in some chopped green beans?

Food. It’s like that. You could even go as far as to call it transcendent. Take two or three ingredients and consider how many ways to transform them into something with capitol letters. A dish.

Oh, oh! I’m picturing meatballs in that pan mixed with the egg and the onions. Hmmn, I think some cherry tomatoes sound delicious, and a baguette. Yes, a baguette. La dee da!

By the way, when you make your Western Sandwich, fill that pan. Divide it like pizza and you’ll have more sandwiches later. This heats up really easily, even in the pan.

Go forth folks. Make food and transcend!

C. Villeneuve

 

 

 

 

Homemade Mushroom Soup

Many years ago I read in Herb Mindell’s Herb Bible that basil cheers you up and I never forgot that.  From then on, whenever I put basil in anything I would feel a surge of love for my daughter or whomever I was cooking for because I knew that I was cheering them up.

I’ve also learned that eating an apple outside on your lunch break cheers you up as well.  There is something about being under the sky and sinking your teeth into a lifeful, crisp, crunchy, and juicy apple that just makes a body feel good.

Why am I talking about apples?  No reason, just wanted to mention that apples, as well as basil, can cheer you up.

I stayed up quite late last night working on an assignment for a freelance writing site and then found that I couldn’t sleep.  I decided that since I was up anyway I might as well use my sleepless time productively.

I got out of bed, went to the kitchen and took out a pot.  I filled it with about 6 cups of water and threw in about a cup and a half of mixed dried mushrooms that a friend had given me from her stash.

I brought them to a boil and now they are smelling great.  You know, that broth already had mushroom flavor to it by the time it came to a boil and now, after simmering for about an hour, it is almost a black color.  I threw in some basil and some pepper and I’m going to let it go until it reduces a bit.

I just came back from the store.  I bought some cream there.  Crazy expensive at the Quickie but I figured it was worth it because when I’m good and ready to, I’ll add it to the mushroom broth and complete a homemade cream of mushroom soup.  I may throw in a few dices of celery for good measure.

I can’t tell you how delicious it smells.

I should probably save you a bowl but I’m thinking you could make some yourself.

Just remember though, that this is a cream soup that you don’t blend afterwards.  Leave those beautiful mushrooms as they are.

Enjoy.  I know I will.

C. Villeneuve

A Couple of Hints

So let’s talk a little bit more about food.  Here are a couple of ideas for you.

I posted a recipe called Piled Pear Mushrooms, and in that recipe I instructed that you remove the stems of the mushrooms and put them aside.  You should always do this when you make recipes with mushrooms that require you to remove the stems.

Those stems are, in fact, very flavorful.  Here is one way you can use them,

Using a cutting board, chop up enough fresh garlic to equal or complement the amount of mushroom stems that you have.

Then using a plate, not a cutting board, drizzle some olive oil and scrape the chopped garlic into that.  Take out your paper bag of mushroom stems and dump them onto the plate.

Chop the mushrooms, finely into the garlic and olive oil mixture, and I will tell you, adding some basil to this will finish it perfectly.

Now you have somewhat of a pesto that can be used in a pasta, on bread, or even on a piece of fish or pork.

Here is another idea for you.  It is a great way to spruce up fruit salads.

When you want to make that fruit salad a little bit special, or just revive a fruit salad from yesterday, mix in a bit of honey, a spritz of lemon juice, and enough fresh or dried mint to cause those you serve this to to ask, “what is that?”

One more tip.  When you want to make french toast or pancakes yummier, warm the syrup up with a spritz of lemon and a small dab of butter.

Happy Eating!

Piled Pear Mushrooms

Okay, a recipe for you today, but you’ll have to excuse me, this is one of my recipes and I have no camera, so no pictures.

I tend to enjoy daydreaming about food.  This will often happen mid-afternoon as I start pondering what should be for dinner.  It usually begins with considering what I have available to spend on food or what is in my kitchen to work with.

I start to consider these things and my mind just wanders and the strangest creations appear there.  This is one of those creations that came about because I happened to have some pears that needed to be used up and some portabello mushrooms.

This was the vision I had, and believe me, they are delicious

Cut the stems out of four portabello mushrooms and keep them in a paper bag for a future use.  Then rinse off the mushrooms and place them either on a baking sheet or in a fairly large, deep pan that has a lid.  I usually usually use the pan because it retains the moisture better.

Drizzle olive oil onto the mushrooms, grate just a touch of orange zest into them, and add a drop or two of vanilla extract.

Next, peel and slice one pear per mushroom.  The slices can be messy, they don’t have to be perfectly shaped.  Think apple pie.

Pile the slices of each pear onto each of the four mushrooms.

Put another drop or two of vanilla extract and a hint more orange zest.

Replace the lid and let those cook over medium to low heat for about 25 minutes.

When they are done, the pears have become very juicy and not so soft as to be sauce, but still in pieces, remove them from the heat and let them sit while you grate a nice, sweet, smoky cheese such as asiago.

You may melt the cheese under the broiler in the oven or replace the lid on the pan and return the pan to the heat.

These are a perfect thing to make when you want to impress or appease.  The reason being is that they are wildly delicious and the fragrance of them cooking would soothe the devil himself if not knock him out completely in dizzying bliss.

You can also play with this recipe a bit and toss the pears in chopped bacon or sliced bits of ham before piling them onto the mushrooms.

A bit of fresh ground pepper doesn’t hurt neither.

These are great on their own, but are scrumptious served with juicy, sweet, sliced pork roast.

So, there before you, a daydream I had one afternoon.

Enjoy!

Sunday Soup

You know those peelings that you scrape into the garbage?  Well, throw them into your blender instead.  Why?  Because they add ummppphh to your soup.

When you throw them into your blender, they become the flavor that your long-simmering vegetables lack, or the texture that that thin little broth is missing.  They add color too and vitamins,  vitamins equal food.

I remember when I was a kid, and no, I wasn’t insulted by the term “kid”, I read a story called “Nail Soup”.  It, in fact was taught to us in school.  It was a story about a wanderer who showed up at a woman’s door asking if she had anything to feed him with.

In the story, the woman said she had nothing and the wanderer asked to be let inside anyway and proceeded to make a soup by asking her if she had a pot and a nail.  Of course, the woman said she did have those things.

When the woman had produced the pot and the nail, the wanderer asked her to fill the pot up with water because he knew how to make something called nail soup.  The woman complied and put the pot onto a flame on the stove.

As the water was heating up and coming to a boil, the wanderer asked the woman if she might have an onion just to perk up the soup, and, of course, she did, and produced the onion, which went into the soup.

The wanderer then asked her if she happened to have a potato hanging around her premises, and, well, she admitted that, in fact, she did have a potato or two hanging around her premises, and it got added to the soup.

The wanderer then asked her if she had, maybe a mushroom or two, happening to be lurking in her cupboards or about, and, well, she did, and produced them.

By the time they were done, a most glorious soup was simmering and coming on the stove and the two were bound to a most satisfying dinner, all from a nail.

I never forgot this story.  It made me hungry, taught me wondrously about food and its bounty, and about those spiritual things that can be hard to explain, even if they are the most basic and simple things of life.

In the long run, generosity is easier and more satisfying than miserlyness, greed, or fear of the king.

A good soup is often better than witchary, wizardry, or religion.

And nails make good soup.

C. Villeneuve

Sunday soup.

Good Morning

It’s another day and I think that later I will bring you some recipes.  I have started volunteering in the kitchen at a food bank and I’ve been inspired.  So, we’ll talk food later.

Fully Loaded Hotdog

I’m going to give yas a recipe.  This is what I had for dinner last night.  Lest we forget how good a fully loaded homemade hotdog can be:

Boil weiners first until they split (I’m just more comfortable with knowing they are cooked).  Then fry the weiners in a pan until they are looking almost cajun.  Meanwhile, chop lots of onions and throw those into the pan too.

Take out all of your favorite condiments.  Open up any pickles you are adding.  I like chopped olives and saurkraut  When dogs and onions are smelling good and nearing ready slice weiners lengthwise to make room to put some cheese in there to melt.  Mmmmn, making me hungry, lol.

Then toast buns or bread and spread mayo or Renee’s Ceasar dressing onto the toast.  Put fried dog with melted cheese onto it.  Add condiments and chopped pickles and top with fried onions.

Salt and pepper if you like, and enjoy.  You will need napkins for this simple but amazing treat.

C. Villeneuve