Jamaican Beef and Pumpkin Curry

I know what your thinking - Jamaican Curry? Whaaaat? Curry is Asian! Well, yeah, it is. But also, it's not. Despite the infamy of the African slave trade in the Americas, many indentured servants (read, slaves) from India were also brought over to work, and as a result curries are common throughout the Caribbean. Need proof? Read about Nicki Minaj. (Her real last name is Maraj.) She's the most famous person that I can think of with crossed African/Indian ancestry, and was born in Trinidad.

Anyway, moving onto the food! Pumpkin - who doesn't love it? Great in pies, breads, lattes... but pumpkin is also very good in savory and spicy dishes like this one. MAKE SURE to get a pie pumpkin! They possess much more flavor than your regular ol' jack-o-lantern variety. If you can find a pie/baking pumpkin, another form of squash, like acorn, will work just as good. I just enjoy working with pumpkin, feels like I'm doing something fun and adventurous, putting the orange gourd in a main dish!

What makes this dish 'Jamaican' in nature is the teaspoon of allspice added in. I prefer to use McCormick's Red Curry Powder when making this, but technically regular old curry powder will do. I would NOT recommend the Hot Madras curry, however. The Red Curry Powder is somewhat sweeter than others, and creates an intense aroma when you first fry up the beef.

I used precut stew beef for my meat, but feel free to use something fancier. I'm cheap, and so I bought the cheap. End of story. Add the dry ingredients (salt, pepper, curry powder, allspice, ground coriander seed) to the beef, making sure that all pieces are well covered. Then place in a bowl, set in refrigerator, and allow to marinate for an hour or more.

About chopping up the pumpkin: it's not exactly the easiest thing to do. One of the big differences between this recipe, and pretty much every other one I've ever done that has pumpkin in it, is that you need to leave the fruit in big chunks. This means that you can't bake or microwave the pumpkin and scoop its guts out. Which means you have to remove the rind. Oh boy. So, here's what I do - I stab the whole pumpkin a few times, place it on a microwave safe plate, and then microwave it for about 1 minute 30 seconds, rotating it every now and then. This softens it up a bit. Then cut pumpkin in half, remove seeds and weird nasty feeling stringy stuff, cut off stem area. Cut the halves in half again. Cut those halves in half. Then, carefully, with a sharp knife, set a piece on its side and carefully start slicing the rind off. Some pumpkin rinds are easier to remove the rind than others, each one is a unique creature.

For the tomatoes, make sure you remove the skin and seeds. The easiest way to do this is to set the tomatoes in boiling water, until the skins split. IMMEDIATELY RUN UNDER COLD WATER. This stops the cooking process. I forgot to do this, and as a result, created a huge mess when I cut into them. The skin should just slide right off, once they are cool enough to handle.

If your going to add the habanero, I have a secret method of not getting the burning pain up under my fingernails. Cut the habanero in half, and then deseed and rib it under running water. Helps prevent the burning. Remember to wash your hands immediately afterwards nonetheless, or use gloves when working with them.

Once you've browned the meat, onion, garlic, added the tomatoes, and habanero (for those who dare), then add about a cup of tomato sauce, a cup of water, and a chicken bouillon cube. Let it cook forever. Then enjoy with lots of rice!

Oh, you should smell this cooking. Blows you away with its wonderful scent. A perfect fall dish.

Surinamese Herbed Chicken

This recipe I adapted from Kayotic Kitchen, an absolutely beautiful food blog by a woman based in the Netherlands.

What, I asked myself, is Surinamese cooking? Kay from Kayotic Kitchen just LOVES food from this country, but I know little about the place or its history. Sounds Asian, right? Wrong! Suriname is located in South America, on the northern border of Brazil, and it was once a Dutch colony. Hence the connection to the Netherlands. This recipe does have a very Asian feel to it, despite its South American origins, (umm, Galangal doesn't get much more Asian to me). This is because of the many immigrants from South Asia, ala
Indonesia, to the country, of course!

Kay's original recipe calls for Laos (galangal powder), Walnut oil, garlic oil (never did find this exact thing, so I'm using garlic infused olive oil), and Chervil (nope, can't find that either). For the Galangal, I purchased from Importfoods.com. The Walnut oil I purchased at my local Kroger, actually! As for the Chervil... This is a fresh herb, a form of Parsley, beloved of the French, spread around Europe by the Romans. I boldly substituted a bit of mint in its place, but just a few leaves. Alternatively, you could use cilantro. I won't, because I hate the stuff.

Kay pounded her chicken flat. Because I'm lazy with a full time job, I simply bought mine already thinly cut. Once you've created the spice mix, rub it into the chicken breasts and let them sit, ensuring that the spices stick.

I didn't have any 'garlic oil' that Kay called for, and I failed to find any. I believe its an Asian ingredient, but Owensboro's brand new little Asian grocery store didn't have any. (No, there really is an Asian grocer in Owensboro. For real real! Miracles do exist.) So, I went to TJ Maxx and found this. Thought I'd give it shot. Stuff smells amazing when opened, and the chicken came out tasting great. Works for me!


Place the oil in the pan and heat it to medium high. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the chicken.

Cook the chicken for about two minutes, then dump the onion and red pepper right on top and around the edges. The chicken will need about 5 minutes each side - once you've hit that mark on the first side, flip it. Stir the vegetables occasionally to prevent burning, although YOU WANT DARK BROWNING OF THE ONIONS AND PEPPERS. This stuff that gets stuck to the bottom of the pan is an important part of your sauce.

Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, add the water, herbs, sugar, bouillon and lime juice. I actually added more sugar than the original recipe called for, because I'm an American and we like things sweet. (Don't deny it, Americans!) Ditto for the lime juice, the original recipe called for only 1 TBS, and I added about 2.

Let the sauce simmer for few minutes, scraping some of the stuff off the bottom, creating a very unique and scruptumpulicious sauce. John loved it! Put this one in the 'make again and again' pile.

Fried Chicken BLT Grilled Cheese

The Surgeon General ordered me to post this warning before the rest of this blog: This sandwich is SEVERELY bad for your cholesterol, triglycerides, waist line, thigh size, cellulite fighting efforts, and everything else you might be worried and/or vain about.

Oh, but it is so good.

I mean, look at that. Look at it. Who comes up with stuff like this? KFC ain't got nothing on John and me. (The chicken came from Lee's Famous Recipe, fyi.) This sandwich was largely John's idea, so I give him credit. In all honesty, I was reluctant to make the thing. I value my figure. I'm supposed to be getting in shape for a wedding! 

A bit about assembly - place mayo on one bread piece, and then cheese slices on the other piece. Set bacon on top of cheese, stick chicken to mayo. Then add tomatoes, lettuce. Try to keep the lettuce away from the heat. Look at them towering out of the fry pan! Sheesh. Was not easy to flip, but I got her done.

 I used the same pan I made the bacon in to fry the sandwiches. Dumped most of the grease out, and then wiped it down. This is a very fried sandwich, no? Fried chicken, fried bacon... Technically the grilled cheese is a type of fried sandwich. I didn't butter the outsides of my bread, but instead placed the butter slab straight into the pan. Oh, yeeeeaaaaaah. You know you want some!

I swear, I sweat grease afterward. At least no one will wonder why I've gained weight.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Katie, where have you been?? Or so I like to think people think. Reader's could be thinking 'Oh look, another blog entry from that woman that likes to talk about what she occasionally cooks/bakes. How nice. Pffft.'

Truth can be so painful.

I've been busy, okay? I've got a wedding to plan (September of next year, y'all), and, for those of you who don't know, I have another hobby which I'm obsessed with, writing fiction. I'm sure there are some people rolling their eyes about now, but I've been PUBLISHED. And that's kinda like a big deal, m'kay? A new story of mine will be released soon in The Realm Beyond #5, titled 'Ugly Roses'. Buy a copy! Buy one for your Mom! Your Dad! Your dog! It's Sci-fi! That's right, I write SCI-FI. And Fantasy. And Horror. My coolness factor just climbed by like, 3 massive points.

So, who here has had pumpkin something-or-other mixed with chocolate before? In the foodie world, this is a popular combination. Really big last year. Why? Because its AWESOME. Pumpkin hot, pumpkin cold, pumpkin mixed with chocolate just one day old!

This is a quick bread recipe, adapted from Taste of Home. The recipe on TOH seemed a bit lacking to me, as if it wouldn't come out pumpkin pie-y like it should. Called for cinnamon only in the spices, and no brown sugar. A pumpkin pie uses so much more. So much more!

So, I left the original amount of cinnamon, but also added some nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice. (There are those who say you don't need cinnamon or nutmeg when you use pumpkin pie spice. Me no care. Me no listen to anyone, anyway.) Gave it a very nice spice kick, and the brown sugar adds that caramel flavor that underlies a good pumpkin pie.

A beautiful, sweet and spicy combination. Maybe next time I'll add pecans?

The BLT

Anyone need some tomatoes? I planted 3 bushes this spring. Just 3. And I've got so many tomatoes they are going to waste! It's criminal.

However, someone, or should I say, SOMETHING, has been helping itself to what I'm not using. I noticed there were big holes in some of my roma tomatoes, like someone had opened up the side and eaten just the guts. Weird, I think to myself. Birds, maybe? I've seen the local cardinals going in and out of the bushes. But you wouldn't think they'd be so messy. I mean, they're just little birds, right? But I've found the gutted bodies of tomatoes dragged out to the front yard! How mysterious.

Well, low and behold, I come home one day early from work, and guess what I see? Squirrels. Squirrels, resting on the tomato cages, having themselves a grand old time! I got out to ask if they'd like some basil and mozzarella to go with that, make a nice caprese salad. Afraid they took off before I got the chance to ask, however. Oh, well. I'm not going to put nets over my plants to keep them out. Apparently they do that for water. Can't begrudge 'em, if they're thirsty. And I've got plenty to share.

So, BLTs. The Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. A jewel of a sandwich, that summertime essential.

Hard to mess this one up. Bacon, (done extremely crisp as John likes it), lettuce, and fresh tomatoes, either from your garden, somebody else's, or from a local farmer's market. The taste of summer, as far as I'm concerned. Look at that deep red color!

Mine sandwiches were made with Nature's Own Oatnut toasted bread. Have y'all ever had that before? Very good stuff. I highly recommend. A little light mayo on both pieces of bread. (If your having bacon, might as well go for broke and put plenty of mayo on, too.) Then cut it down the center. Serve.

Ugh, the mouth is watering right now, and its 10 in the morning!

Buffalo Chicken Salad

It's been a long time since I've blogged! Not since the end of June... I should feel bad about that. But, I've been busy, busy, busy. All kinds of things happened in July, including John and I getting engaged!

I can't tell you how excited I am about that last bit. It was a wonderful surprise, and I'm thrilled to exchange vows with the man I love, committing ourselves to something bigger.

On to food! I've done some cooking over the past weeks, but not much. Too much summer fun going on around here. John and I have been boating quite a bit. Hard to argue with going out on the boat on a hot summers day.

This recipe - Buffalo Chicken Salad - is one I found and adapted from Pinterest. Who doesn't love Pinterest? I used to laugh at friends who couldn't stop talking about things they discovered on the site (the fools!!), and then, what do you know, I've become just like them! 'Do you see this? Yup, found the idea on Pinterest!' Karma. She always comes back around.

I love me some spicy food. The spicier, the more I tend to like it, too. I'm a glutton for punishment. If you want less spicy salad, use less buffalo sauce. I used Texas Pete's Buffalo Sauce, but I'd also highly recommend Tabasco's Buffalo flavor sauce. Good stuff, either way.

Instead of using just mayonaise, I've substituted half of it for no-fat Greek yogurt. Also added bits of celery and carrots, like you'd get with you chicken wings. (Plus, vegetables are good for you. Sneaky, sneaky.)

Cracked pepper, some green onion, and two cans of pre-cooked white chicken meat. This is actually a fairly lazy recipe. Perfect for hot summer days, when there is so much to do, and the warm weather only lasts so long!

Pan Bagnat

I am, to put it simply, obsessed with this sandwich. Cannot get enough of it! The fresh, juicy tomatoes, tuna mixed with a home-made vinaigrette, capers, celery, sliced boiled egg... And two secret ingredients, my own herbs de provence mix, and anchovy paste.

I know, right? Anchovy paste, ewww! Well, I've yet to actually eat an anchovy, but the paste adds something special to recipes. It's commonly used in Cesar salad dressings. If you're at a nice Italian restaurant, for instance, and the dressing there has a certain, savory quality that you just can't find in the store bought Cesar dressings, that's the difference. Anchovy paste! No grocer in Owensboro carries Anchovy paste, naturally, so I ordered it from Au Marche, an online European grocer. I also purchased the lavender for my herbs de provence mixture, and Cornichons, a French cucumber pickle.

Cornichons are a small, French style Gherkin. Its flavor is rather like a cross between a dill and sweet American pickles. No sweetness, but they are spicy and sour. Turns out, I LOVE them. Can't get enough of the little things! Never really saw myself as a sour food eater, but I'm wrong. Capers, lemon juice, vinegar and cornichons. All sour. All get a big *heart* from me.

Pan Bagnat translates to a 'bathed' or 'wet' sandwich. The tough beignettes are given time to absorb the juices from the tuna salad mix and the tomatoes, softening up the bread. It's delicious and amazing. The Pan Bagnat reminds me of Nicoise salad, only on bread. Most recipes call for olives, but because I'm not fond of the fruit, I left it off.

For the vinaigrette, you'll need a lemon, white wine vinegar (red wine or sherry vinegar will also work), herbs de provence, a shallot, dijon mustard, and capers. Finely dice the shallot, mix together all the ingredients, and allow the lemon juice and vinegar to semi-pickle the shallots. This is a classic vinaigrette, and goes very well on all sorts of foods. 

Sandwich assembly goes like this: mix your vinaigrette, let it sit. Then add the celery, onion, capers and tuna. Set aside.

Your eggs should already be boiled and sliced. Tomatoes should also be chopped. Cut the cornichons in half lengthwise, roughly chop romaine lettuce. Assemble whatever other goodies you want on your 'wich, like olives, green pepper, radishes, etc.

Once the prep work is done, cut the beignette into fourths. Cut each fourth in half, lengthwise. Take the bottom half, and remove some of the breading. Carefully place a layer of tomatoes down, into the area where the bread has been removed. Then place lettuce.

On top of tomato/lettuce, place the eggs, cornichons, green pepper, etc. The tuna mixture should be the last addition, so that it touches the top piece of bread. Place the top half on, and carefully wrap it up into wax paper. Repeat with each loaf chunk. Place in fridge, and allow to sit for at least an hour. Eat!

Make sure to have napkin and fork on hand, because these sandwiches are quite sloppy.

Herbs de Provence

French food, and cooking, is something I've only spent a small amount of time on. I make a mean Coq au Vin, but that's about it. I like French wine, does that count too?

This recipe is the most famous of French herb mixes. It will be needed if you want to make my most recent eating passion, Pan Bagnat. And it's also perfect for the theme of this blog, which is how to handle not having unusual ingredients easily available in town. (In this case, the dried lavender flowers.) I purchased the flowers online, from a grocery store called Au Marche. Quick delivery, excellent quality items. Wish I could go to the actual store itself!

There are 10 different types of herbs in this mix. I had to buy 5 fresh off the shelves just for this: Tarragon, Marjoram, dried Rosemary (I keep a bush in the back yard for fresh), Summer Savory, and of course the Lavender. My friend JH asked if it was my '$65 herb mix'. Oh, the painful stab of truth! Yeah, JH, it is. It is. More expensive than that, honestly. *sigh* Whoever said cooking at home is cheap? (Actually, cooking at home IS cheaper. It's the building up of the pantry that's expensive!)

This mix makes enough to last a looooong time. Herbs de Provence possesses a wonderful scent. Reminds me of summer fields, when they are ready for baling, back in Nebraska. (This thought then makes me groan, as I remember how hot, difficult and itchy baling hay is.)

Dried savory, or dried summer savory as its also called, is similar to sage. It is NOT a reference to savory flavoring.

I've been placing this stuff on just about everything lately! Fish. Potato salad. Be creative!

Also, a Princess pic. Because she's just so darn cute! Not supposed to have milk, but she really, really, really, reeeeaaaaally wanted it.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken Burger

Summer is here, baby! At long last, the heat has come out. It gets steamy here in Kentucky, and the rain fall can be incredible! (The humidity is so thick, that sometimes, when you're running your air conditioning in the car, it starts to SWEAT on the outside of the vehicle. Like your ice cold soda pop glass. Crazy.)

In honor of the heat, I made a meal with a powerful hot pepper-powered punch, Jerk Chicken Burgers. These things were awesome! And really not that difficult to make. Don't be intimidated by the ingredient list. Assembly is simple, and you can be eating in about 30 minutes.

Jamaican Jerk is a barbeque glaze made with allspice and Scotch Bonnet Peppers, which are some of the hottest peppers in the world. No, you're not going to be finding any Scotch Bonnie's here in Owensboro, KY, Small City USA. So, instead of chopping up one of those bad boys, I substituted red pepper flakes and a couple dashes of cayenne pepper. These burger patties can be made without the heat however, if you'd prefer not to have it.

For my topping sauce however, I did add Captain Rodney's Scotch Bonnie Pepper Boucan Glaze. 3 TBS Mayo, 2 TBS lime juice, 1 1/2 TBS Captain Rodney's. A great, tangy sauce with just a bit of heat. I highly recommend making the sauce to top the burgers off. Make the sauce!!

The seasoning I made first, then added the ground chicken meat. (Ground chicken, not chicken breast, FYI. More flavorful, holds together better when grilling.) Wet your hands when making the patties, makes it much easier to shape and stops the sticking to your skin. Also oil the grill before placing your patties down - they will stick badly without it. Cook about 5 minutes on each side, flipping only once to get those pretty grill marks. Flip carefully, too. They won't hold together like a hamburger patty.

Garnish with the sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onion. These chicken burgers are quite hot.  Have a refreshing margarita on the side to cool it down.

This plate above is literally about 30 seconds before I started eating. I paired the burgers with grilled avocado and baked mango chunks. Fantastic.

Key Lime Pie

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Also to John, who served in Afghanistan, years ago now. Thank you for your service. :*

Key Lime Pie. It's a sentence in itself. This cool, refreshing dessert originates from the Florida Keys, but gets its name from the key lime, a small, naturalized version of the Persian limes seen in grocery stores in the US. My local Kroger, by some miracle, actually carries real key limes, and so I picked some up to make a from-scratch pie.

This recipe doesn't include egg yolks, which Wikipedia lists as 'part of the traditional recipe'. Eh. Whatever. I used the version found on Allrecipes.com called, Key Lime Pie VII. It's certifiably amazing, having made it before. Very simple - 3 cups condensed sweetened milk (about 2 1/2 cans), 1/2 cup sour cream (in place of the egg yolks to hold the pie together), 3/4 key lime juice, and some lime zest. Place that in a pre-made graham cracker crust (which I made from scratch, and from cookies, not graham crackers), and bam! Delicious.

I squeezed an entire bag of key limes to get my 3/4 cup of juice! Tiny little things, aren't they? Instead of using a typical squeezer, I grabbed a garlic press. Cut the limes into quarter wedges, place in the press, instant juice. So simple! Takes time to do this, but the tartness of real key lime juice is hard to substitute. However, if you don't have time to squeeze an entire bag of limes like some people, there are perfectly acceptable alternatives. I recommend Nellie and Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice. (It's really expensive on Amazon. I get it for around 4 bucks at Kroger.)

For the crust, I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachel Ray. (For some reason, the magazine just began randomly coming to my house, but under John's name. I don't know.) Take a box of Pure Butter Shortbread Cookies, some shredded coconut, a bit o' sugar, and some butter. Place in blender or food processor to make crumbs, press into bottom of pie pan, and bake your crust. Nice, thick, delicious.

I considered making homemade whipped cream for this. But then I got lazy, and it didn't happen. In the actual Conch Republic, they apparently place a meringue on top. This also didn't happen with my pie. Just the pie, which should be YELLOW in color, not green. Like this one.

Make it, bake it, eat it. Enjoy the holiday!

$500 Blueberry Pie

No, this pie doesn't cost $500. (Well, for for the winning bidder it did). It earned $500 at a charity just a few weeks ago! The Whitesville Lion's club threw a Pie Auction and Chili Supper (old article, sorry) to earn funds for the Wendell Foster's Center, here in Owensboro. I made this same pie for it, fancy crust design and all.

John's dad, (Judge, we shall call him), apparently goes to this every year and buys a pie. He mentioned it to me at dinner (knowing I make and bake), and naturally I wanted to donate one. Wound up being the second highest earner, largely thanks to the Judge. He LOVES this pie, and advertised heavily how good it was. Some smart person then snatched it up!

I have several fruit pie-making secrets. Tired of runny pies? Want your pie to gel like Grandma's? Cook part of the fruit insides first! Cook ONLY PART. Leave some out, to maintain that crunchiness of whole fruit pieces. Otherwise it'll be like the cheap fruit pies y'all buy at Wal-mart. *shudder* There are a few pies I keep as exceptions to this rule, such as apple. I just added the hot blueberry sauce to the dry, in this picture.

The second secret, and I advise this for most pies, is a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Combining a touch of spice with sugar does amazing things. It'll make you fall in love with pie again, I promise you that!

For the crust, which I call sunburst, make your bottom half like you were doing a single pie crust only. Then, take the second, and set it on a large cutting board. Use a small mouthed cup to cut out the center, set aside. Then, using a pizza cutter, cut the crust into small strips of varying sizes. Start arranging them around the edge, doing the long pieces first, then short, layering them until beautiful. (Easier said than done.) This pie turned out a little lop-sided, but once you've got a strip down, its DOWN. Don't pick it back up, especially with blueberries. The dark juice stains terribly. Wet the back of the circle-center, and gently set it down on the petals, pressing slightly to make sure it sticks firmly.

This pie was a gift for the Judge, cause he deserved one. (Funny, it's Mother's day and I made a pie for John's dad....) This pie is a great Mother's day recipe, however. Blueberries are coming into season, and little baskets are everywhere. Use 4 small boxes, or 2 big boxes, for Blueberry pie. Strawberries can easily be substituted.

Cover this pie after 15 minutes in the oven with aluminum foil. Otherwise, it will over darken. 

I was glad to donate something to a cause as good as Wendell Foster's. Next year I will do it again. And again. And again.

Kentucky Derby Pie

Happy Derby Day! It's time for the biggest party in the United States, friends! John and I aren't going to the actual race this year, which is good, seeing how it's rainy and cold. We're going to a party instead. Last year we did go to Churchill Downs, and it was gorgeous weather. We were packed in there like sardines, and I won $0, too. (At a previous derby I attended however, I won $360 off a $20 bet. It rocked.) It'll be a muddy track this year, so its anybody's guess who will win! I will not be betting this year, however.... I'd rather spend my money on shoes. Or kitchen gadgets. I have a lot of kitchen gadgets. Need more!

Derby Pie is probably the most famous dish to come out of Kentucky, which is saying something. There are a lot of recipes unique to this state! The pie is very rich - butter, sugar, chocolate and pecans, with a shot (or two, for you drunks) of bourbon tossed in. What's not to like about a pie like that?? Some people don't like the bourbon in it however, and if you are one of these, suspect you might be, or are feeding someone who is, it's perfectly acceptable to leave the booze out.

Kern's Kitchen, which is still in operation, invented the original derby pie to serve at Brown's hotel (a place also famous for Hot Browns). Derby Pie's are in stores everywhere down here, which come in the box seen above. I bought one just to show y'all. The recipe is top secret! (And highly trade marked, too, fyi.) As you can tell, my pie did come out different. I was handed this recipe from someone down here (I'm sorry I forgot you, whoever you are), and it tastes pretty much the same. My guess is that Kern's layers the chocolates and pecans, then pours the bourbon sauce on top. Just a guess, though. Love the pressed pie crust, do you see it?

This pie is very easy to assemble. Place the eggs in a bowl, beat slightly. Add the sugar, vanilla, melted butter, bourbon. Stir. Slowly add the 1/4 cup of corn starch (not flour.) Then add the pecans and chocolate, and pour into your pie shell. (I used a cheater pie shell this time. Good old Pillsbury ready-mades! I DO have a recipe for a pie crust. Someday, we shall get to it.)

I used Lexington bourbon. (It's named after a famous race horse.) It's a very smooth, mellow bourbon whiskey, and is John's current favorite. Now. For the caveat. I live in Kentucky, the only place in which bourbon can be made. (Hence why Jack Daniels is a Tennessee WHISKEY.) We Kentucky dwelling folk have bourbon selections that can't be found anywhere else, so if you can't find Lexington, I would recommend using the finest bourbon you can get your hands on. Woodford Reserve is my suggestion, but it still won't have the smoothness and subtle flavor of Lexington. Sorry, all y'all from not around here!


Now, for a picture of my backyard. I had thought spring in Nebraska was beautiful. Wrong. I've never seen spring like in Kentucky. The flowers! Those are the azaleas IN MY BACKYARD. The entire city of Owensboro is like this! You should see the street we live on, color everywhere. The dogwoods and redbuds are all in full bloom, too. Flowers, flowers, flowers, everywhere. *sigh* Too bad they only last a few short weeks.

Something is up with the grass in the yard. John and I aren't sure what it is, but it's killing it. Need to get the lawn guy in here, to diagnose...

Strawberry Salad

When I take this recipe somewhere, I ALWAYS get asked for the recipe. It's so good. Sweet and delicate, with a hint of spice.




The secret ingredient, that separates my Strawberry Salad from all others, is cinnamon. Add just a few dashes (or a 1/4 of a teaspoon), and voila, your taste buds will rejoice.

Make sure and add the balsamic vinegar at the end, because once its added, it will start to cook the strawberries. And eat all of it in one night! The strawberries will be pickles by the next morning, mushy and sour.

Add the sugar at least a half hour before serving, placing the strawberries back into the fridge to sit. This will encourage them to make a syrup and absorb more of the sweetness.

Use nothing but fresh basil, too. I add basil more for a touch of color, but I can't imagine strawberry salad without the herb, either.

John ate the entire batch I made last night! I myself got only a few bites - I turned around and it was all gone. Which is just an excuse to make more, right?

Nebraska-style Beer Chili

Okay, so I'm not really sure if Beer Chili comes from Nebraska, but the chili I ate at home is most certainly not like the chili eaten in Kentucky. No, the folks in Kentuckiana's chili is darker in color, and, horror, they add PASTA to it, which confused me terribly when I first saw it.

Beer should be added to more food. It seems to be a running theme for me recently - I made a Guinness Chocolate Cake, and then Wednesday John and I went to a beer tasting, all of which served with beer infused food (see pic --->), at the Campbell Club here in town. Now beer chili!

The other 'secret' ingredient in this recipe is the Southwest Chipotle flavoring. Adds a further depth to an already very hearty, very flavorful chili.

I used 2 pounds of ground beef, 1 pound sausage, in this particular batch. Sometimes I use more sausage, sometimes turkey, venison, bison... Mom's version uses shredded porkloin and beef brisket smoked by Dad. Calls it her '$75 chili'. No joke, that.

Chili freezes really well. People also seem to appreciate receiving some, not sure why. ;)  (I tell you what I can't give away anymore - my deserts! Apparently it makes you fat, or some such thing. Pchah! I won't listen to such negativity!)

Chocolate Guinness Cake

St. Paddy's day is over, and I am (mostly) recovered from the holiday. I wouldn't call my celebrations wild, per se, but it wasn't sober. John and I headed to a friend's lake house, and stayed there most of the weekend, with plenty of beer, red wine (my favorite), and this Chocolate Guinness Cake!

I'd heard of using Guinness beer as an ingredient in food, in both main courses and deserts, before. Sounded like a unique challenge, and who doesn't want to try a cake with beer in it??? The finished product is not as sweet as your average store bought chocolate cake mix, but not bitter either. The beer adds a unique taste that is hard to describe, giving it depth.

I placed the batter in a 8" spring form pan when it reached the consistency of brownie batter. You can see a crack in the cake, where frosting dips down in the photo above. Cracking creates more space for holding the made-from-scratch cream cheese frosting on top!

One last note - I'd like to introduce you to the most expensive butter I have ever bought, ever.  I'm not going to tell how much I paid for my Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. It's sinful expensive, like eating a cake with an entire bar of it inside! Feel free to use regular old plain butter, if this is bit much for the budget.

Curry Rice

This is the first dish I ever learned to make. Really. While studying abroad in Japan, I made an effort to set the kitchen on fire while making potatoes. Seeing that I needed help, the Japanese RA's, M and N, decided to show me how to do some stuff. The rest, is history!

Curry Rice is probably the most popular Japanese comfort food. Nikujaga is up there, too. And Omurice. YUM. I love them all. Japanese food has got to be the most delicious food in the world! Most Americans think that Japanese food is all sushi, but this just isn't true. (The Japanese DO eat a lot of sushi, however.)

Making Curry Rice is very easy. You need 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into pieces, 2 potatoes, PACIP (peeled and cut into pieces), half a yellow onion roughly chopped, and a meat of your choice. Chicken is the most traditionally used meat. The sauce is readily available in most major grocery chains, including Wal-mart. Just look for it in the Asian foods section. Comes in a shiny little cardboard box with 'Golden Curry' written on the side. English instructions! The curry comes in little blocks, and looks decidedly like chocolate. Funny smelling chocolate...

I've Americanized my Curry Rice. (The horror, the horror!) Instead of chicken or beef, I prefer Jimmy Dean's hot sausage. It is SOOOOO good. Adds even more flavor to a dish that is extremely flavorful to begin with. I'm lazy and simply break up the sausage while browning it, but a more ambitious person could form them into meatballs.

After browning your meat, set it aside and brown the potatoes and carrots, adding the onions when the potatoes start to turn translucent. I keep a glass full of water on the side, and have never actually measured out the quantity, but this recipe will call for around 3 cups total. After the vegetables have browned enough, I add a little water to continue cooking, then pour the rest in later.

Once the potatoes and carrots are soft, add the remainder of the water, until the vegetables are covered. Add the meat. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat back down to a simmer. Take the sauce mix, and break up the curry cubes. Place the curry cubes into different areas of the pot, tucking them under vegetables. Slowly begin to stir, mixing the curry mix in with the rest of the ingredients. When it turns thick and stew like, the curry is done.

Serve with rice on the side. I know its odd, rice and potatoes (starch and starch), but you just can't have curry without rice.

Orange Juice Cake

So, that thing about John and me, being on a diet, losing weight, yadda yadda. Yeah... That was before we were introduced to this piece of heaven, Orange Juice Cake.

I was introduced to the concept of Orange Juice Cake (from here on, OJC) by a friend, CK. OJC is uber retro, and the subject of the cake came up in a conversation about CK's 84 year old mother making it. I'd never heard of the cake before, so I looked it up on the internet. I saw the words 'vanilla pudding' and 'poke the top', and I knew I had to try it.

Did not disappoint, OJC. I've made very few bundt cakes before, and felt nervous about using my nordic ware. Sprayed the hell out of it! I doubt that you really need to use as much spray as I did, because when you pour the orange juice glaze on, it will loosen the cake. But you DO need to grease it.

This cake is so easy to make. Yellow cake mix, box of vanilla pudding, oil, water, eggs, mix and bake. Butter, orange juice and sugar, boil, poke poke poke top of cake, pour on top while cake is hot. Unbelievably tasty.

When you flip your cake, make sure that A) your plate is set on top of the bundt, then flip, and B) be certain your plate has a lip. The orange juice glaze will make a huge mess if you don't! I flip mine over the sink.

See the little puddle of juiciness in the center of the cake? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It will spill out when the cake is cut, soaking your piece with goodness. Oh, yeah.

Eating OJC is addicting. I'm not kidding. Make it anyway!!

Uova in Purgatorio (Eggs in Purgatory)

Yesterday was Meatless Monday! If I'm observing MM, then it can only mean - I am officially on a diet! (This means John too. Well, maybe...He's not very obedient. He did eat this recipe like it was fatteningly tasty, however.)

John and I just got back from a vacation. We visited his brother J in Tallahassee, FL. No idea that the city and area were so beautiful! Northern, pan-handle Florida is an area of the US I'd never visited before. Would highly recommend the city for a visit. Interestingly we ate the best Indian food ever, at a restaurant called Essence of India. If you're in town, go.

On to the food! Eggs in Purgatory is a classic Italian dish. If you've never tried eggs in tomato sauce, OMG, you've got to. No, really. This is not a joke.

I used my Lazy Spaghetti sauce recipe. In this particular LS sauce I used a yellow bell pepper, half a large onion, 5 small fresh tomatoes and fresh spinach. Delicious, as always. And sooooo easy. I did use more than the normal quantity of wine in it, too. I pan-fried my garlic, onion and bell pepper, then added around 1/2 a cup of red chianti. Reduced to half.

This recipe comes from The Sopranos Family Cookbook, I'd never heard of placing eggs in spaghetti .sauce before find Uova in Purgatorio. I've changed it too my own tastes (of course!) There is so much to learn about cooking, it's rather mind numbing to think about.

Why is it called 'Eggs in Purgatory?' That's what I wanna know! (I've got this insatiable need to know ever more useless information.) Purgatory is a mostly defunct Christian belief, that involved this 'other' place, between heaven and hell, where dead souls went before judgement by Christ. (It's also a Kabbalah belief. Ever seen Lost, anyone?) Nowadays, I'd say that the belief is in pretty much instantaneous judgement - either your going down or up, based on your life's actions, on the moment of death. The eggs 'hang' in the sauce, just like purgatory. My poor eggs. Not sure what they did, I mean, they had such a short, short life, but it was sadly straight down for them! (And it was a quick journey, too.)

A few notes on making your uova:

Make the sauce first, in a wide pan like you see in my photo up top. Do two eggs per person eating. Place the first egg in a ramekin, like you see here. Holding a large serving spoon in one hand, egg loaded ramekin in the other, stand over your pot of bubbling sauce, set spoon in the spot you want the egg to go, and gently drop the egg onto the spoon. Slide spoon out from egg. Repeat for each egg. Voila.

Cover the pan, or else your eggs will cook completely from below. I cooked each egg for six minutes at medium heat. This left a runny yolk, which is how it should be. It can be adjusted for taste of course! You then mix the yolk in with your pasta and sauce, which is delicious and why you SHOULD NOT hard cook the egg. Just do as I say, m'kay?

I served this with whole wheat linguine on the side, mixed with a touch of Parmesan cheese.

Pozole

It is freezing outside! There is something about the Kentucky cold that affects me more than the Nebraska winter ever did. I'm thinking its the damp - Kentucky is the wettest state in the continental US. Owensboro is right on the Ohio river, too, which only adds to the pain. Sinks into my bones, this cold does!

The solution to cold days is soup, of course. Spicy soup, savory soup. Sunday turned out to be a very wet day in Kentucky. It rained, literally, the entire day! And the day before that, too. And the day before that... When the rain stopped, the temperature dropped to around 20 degrees - so, went from 60 degrees, to 20, in a day. Yikes! Shocked my system.

Pozole is a traditional Mexican soup. I found the recipe off another cooking blog - FoodWineThyme.com. A very cute blog, and full of good recipes! I'd never heard of Pozole until stumbling across it on FoodWineThyme. I've been wanting to try more 'authentic' Mexican recipes for some time now, and can never get enough of any food that is spicy, so I gave it a shot.

Finding the unusual guajillo chilies was the first challenge. I'd assumed I was going to have to order them online (available on amazon.com), but while exploring a grocery store I rarely-if-never-ever go to (Save-a-lot, which is kind of gross, but I'm never afraid to explore), I found a HUGE Mexican section. Had all kinds of unusual peppers, got my bag of 12 guajillos for $2.50! Loves me a good deal.

The guajillo chilies released the most amazing fragrance while roasting on the frypan. I'm trying to come up with a word to describe it - pungent, but in a way like Jamaican All-spice. Very unique. I loved it. Soaking them softens the peppers for blending. Mine were still a little tough after 25 minutes, it might be better to let them go for 30 minutes instead.

Roasted tomatoes are a delightful eating joy that I do not take advantage of enough. Roasting brings out flavors in a food in ways that no other cooking method can. The best form of roasting is over an open fire, aka grilling. My only wish was that I'd had fresh, from the garden tomatoes, instead of these store bought ones. Nothing could be tastier than home grown, uber umami garden tomatoes. (Umami, by the way, is a word to describe the unusual savory flavor in a tomato.)

John and I both really liked this soup. Not too spicy, just enough to warm you up. Make sure to blend the guajillos really well, if you leave large chunks, then you WILL be in for spicy shock! Removing the seeds from the peppers reduces spiciness, too. Guajillos are definitely not a hot pepper, however. Mild, with an unusual flavor. There are so many pepper types out there that are mostly unknown in American cuisine.

A very tasty dish! Time consuming, but worth it.