Grit-ty Chicken and Herb-y Broccoli

Last nights dinner menu consisted of:

Polenta-crusted Chicken in a Balsamic Caper Sauce
Broccoli Tossed in an Italian Herb Sauce
Mashed Yellow Potatoes

I gave up trying to find escarole and broccolini but decided to make this dinner anyway.

This was a fabulous meal, the kind you might serve for guests. I used chicken tenderloins instead of chicken breasts but the results were still fine. Actually a bonus because Rose loved the chicken tenders without the sauce, dipped in "red dip" (ketchup). I ended up with probably three servings and I think two pounds of chicken would have yielded four servings. Or just get four chicken breasts.

Luckily I know that polenta and grits are the same thing. That still didn't help me in the grocery. I had to ask Dinah to show me where the grits were located. Being a true Georgia girl she was able to steer this Yankee to the breakfast aisle and point out that they are right next to the cream of wheat and oatmeal. There was one bag marked polenta but I was looking for "quick-cooking." So if you don't see grits up North, look for polenta.

The sauce is deep and complex. Very good on potatoes also. The balsamic vinegar adds a nice sweet tangy-ness. Dinah described it as having hints of blackberry. I like capers but if they are not your thing, don't leave them out just strain them out when you serve. Since I couldn't find any escarole which is used as an edible garnish on top of the chicken, I just left it out. I think some wilted spinach tossed in the balsamic caper sauce would be good next time around.

The broccoli was outstanding. The herb oil is somewhere between a Caesar dressing and an Italian dressing, easy to make and fresh and light. Don't be turned off by the addition of anchovy paste. You won't taste it. The anchovies add a savory saltiness to the oil. It's the main ingredient in Caesar salad dressing and Worcestershire sauce so you've proabably had it before and didn't mind. I'm sure broccolini would have been good too but I wasn't interested in making a two hour drive to Publix just to find some.

On Coffee

I like coffee. I don't HAVE to have it. I'm not my parents who can't function without their morning coffee. I can go days without. I think for me it is more of a ritual. I like the routine of preparing it every day. I guess I am a coffee snob but I don't know if I qualify as a connoisseur. I usually do not get coffee at restaurants or gas stations unless I am desperate for caffeine. And if I do I have to, I load it up with sweetener and cream, just to be palatable. Once exception, ALL of the coffee I had in Europe was superior to anything I have ever had over here. I don't know why. And no, McDonald's, Hardee's and Dunkin Donuts do not have the BEST coffee. If you think so then your palate has not been fully developed.

I do have a routine. I French press my coffee. I have three presses. I splurged when we moved to Bainbridge and bought a kick ass KitchenAid burr grinder. It is massive overkill for my purposes but the key to French pressed coffee is even and consistent grind and it does that. I prefer my coffee in glass. Don't know why. Maybe because it cools faster. Maybe because I like to watch the cream swirl. It is my belief that old people are the bane of good coffee and coffee shops. There is no need for coffee to be lava hot or even boiling. It should be just hot enough to drink. Technically it should be brewed with water at 190°F, not boiling water. It really sticks in my craw when some old lady wants her coffee microwaved. I digress. My choice of choice at home is to drink my coffee out of my two Coors' Killian's Red beer pints. Because I drink pints at a time, I only get two cups worth. The first I always drink black, the second with cream no sweetener. I don't stir. I like to watch the thermal currents swirl the cream through the coffee. I have the same routine at coffee shops.

More than coffee I love coffee shops. My favorite of all time is still L.A.'s Coffee Cafe in Three Rivers, MI. I used to spend an hour every morning I wasn't on the road, sipping my coffee and reading a book. It would be my breakfast, usually bacon, egg and Swiss on a well toasted English muffin. Sometimes I'd change it up and order sausage or splurge and get my sandwich on a toasted everything bagel. One year I ate oatmeal everyday. Don't believe the commercials. On weekends I'd get their Spanish tortilla which was quiche-like except made on a layer of thinly sliced red potatoes. I'd order an extra side of spicy ranch dressing for it. God it was good. They graciously gave me the recipe when we moved but sadly I have lost it in all of our moves. For special occasions you could not beat their giant cinnamon rolls, pecan rolls or my favorite, cheesecake for breakfast. Lunch was good too. My personal favorite being the veggie burger with bacon and cheese on an everything bagel. And they had an awesome spinach salad. L.A.'s cooked all of that without even a real kitchen. Everything had to be done in a microwave. This was my routine for nearly seven years. I became close with the family and staff there, some of the friendliest people you would ever meet. And if you ever saw Tori smile, you'd have to go back again and again to see that smile again. She has to be the sweetest, purest person to ever walk this earth. Since I left TR, L.A.'s has moved to a new location and from what I hear is much bigger sporting a real kitchen and even a drive through window.

When I traveled I would always stop in on my way out of town and get two large sugar-free Hazelnut breves to go. Good memories.

When we moved to Bainbridge, I was sans coffee shop. It was a good chunk of my depression. Eventually a coffee shop opened up and I was able to re-establish my routine. It wasn't the same. The coffee was good, the breakfast so-so. Lunch was great though. Unfortunately Donna closed up shop within a year of opening.

In Blarisville, a coffee chop opened two miles from my house the summer we moved here. I was a regular from the second week they opened. I tried to re-establish my reading routine but the atmosphere wasn't conducive to that. Instead I ended up sitting at the coffee bar and socializing with a few regulars every day, I even had an unofficial reserved seat just like I had in Three Rivers. And just like in Three Rivers, I had a standing order, an everything bagel with butter every day. On weekends I would go wild and get the sausage, egg and cheese croissant. The coffee wasn't as good. The only choice was Colombian because the uneducated palates of the area wouldn't drink anything else. One day I suggested that instead of asking customers if they would like Colombian or Sumatran, ask if they would like light roast or dark roast. I bet they would sell more Sumatran. I was right. Everybody that came in switched.

Speaking of coffee roasts. My favorite of all time is Cuban. Not Cuban cafe con leche that you get at Cuban restaurants (which I love) but Cuban beans roasted in Cuba. I had it at Brûlerie Tatum Café in Quebec City. They served coffee in my favorite way, in a French press, just like I do at home every day. Café piston I believe is how they call it. I even smuggled two bags home. Tatum also served what is called a pousse-café which is like a coffee parfait, and fun to order because it just sounds dirty. At L.A.'s I would splurge and get Jamaican Blue or Hawaiian Kona on Fridays, no free refills on those. Otherwise I would get whatever their coffee of the day was.

The funny thing is I never drank coffee before living in Michigan. Even in college, where students are true addicts, I never drank it. And Madison has one of the best coffee shops around, Steep & Brew. I would even hang out there, just for the smells and the classic atmosphere, but I didn't drink any coffee. I even had the ubiquitous Union coffee mug. These were red plastic travel mugs that you would see attached to probably 2/3 of the student back packs on campus. You could get coffee for a buck at either of the two unions when you presented the mug. I always got hot chocolate. I still have my mug though (the new ones aren't as cool). Fast forward to now, when Mountain Java here in Blairsville closed after a year and a half in October of this year, I bought out their remaining coffee stock, which consisted of Colombian and the Italian roast they used for espresso (it makes great coffee, don't let that word 'espresso' fool you). I used up the last bit on Saturday. I had to make a weak pot. But delight of delights my package from Coffee AM arrived Saturday afternoon. Five pounds of Indian Malabar roast. FIVE POUNDS! It was cheaper than ordering three pounds of three different roasts.

So now I am back to my routine. I'm on my second cup and the cream is swirling on its own. A good start to the week.

The Dip and Roll

Yesterday I also made cookies. On their web site, Gourmet Magazine put up cookie recipes taken from their December issues from 1940 to present. I went with the Navettes Sucrees from 1951, because I had those ingredients.

There's is a good chance that people don't remember what a shuttle is. For those of you, here is a picture:














At one time, the textile industry in the US was centered in the Northeast and later moved to the Southeast. I don't think I need to explain why. In the 1990's I worked in South Carolina and at that time much of the textile industry was closing down as jobs and work was outsourced to foreign countries. Remember the Evil Empire's Buy American campaign, with shirts tagged as made in Honduras? I do. At the time, I was melting down looms left and right as mill after mill in the South closed. Milliken took a beating. Sara Lee gone (you didn't know they made clothes?). Too many others to count. We melted a bunch of them.

Anyway, these cookies a named after the shape of the shuttle on the loom they resemble. Perhaps it would be better to describe them as flattened footballs for those that don't know what a shuttle is but Sugar Flattened Footballs doesn't have the ring that Sugar Shuttles has.

The sugar shuttles were a pretty neat cookie to make. Much different than the usual cookie fare. The recipe only made 18 so I sent them off to work with Dinah. Because you dip the cookies in egg whites I found it much easier to form all the cookies first, then go back and dip and roll them.

















It has a nice candy crunch that you get on the outside of the cookie:


















My version of the recipe is here. Enjoy.

Sautéed Beef with Rosemary and Garlic in White Wine

I mentioned before that I have a subscription to Gourmet magazine this year. My first issue was the the January issue which had an Italian theme. Bummer. I'm not a big Italian fan, especially pasta. My taste preferences are Mexican and Latin (any), German, Eastern Europe (any), Asian (any). Probably in that order. I am learning an appreciation for French cuisine from my trips to Canada. Italian is probably my least favorite which often makes me a less than desirable dinner companian as it is a popular cusine for dining out with friends or at friends' homes.

I found this recipe for sauteed strips of steak in my magazine, non-pasta, could even be non-Italian. Not quite stir fry but almost. I had to use dried rosemary and it might have been a little too powerful. As you can see in the picture from Gourmet, this dish is simply served on the plate with a side of pasta. I think the beef would have been better on a bed of rice or egg noodles. I had intended to make that same pasta dish as pictured but I didn't have any parmesan or romano cheese.

Here is my version of the recipe. Regardless of what Dianne Jacobs says in Will Write for Food, I think my style of writing is superior, if I do say so myself (the Gourmet version is considered "correct").

My February issue rocks. Toom nay great looking recipes. Where to start?

Happy as a Clam

In another lifetime I had another family. And in that family I had a wonderful father-in-law. We were quite close, close enough that I think my then-wife was sometimes jealous of us. He taught me a lot in life. How to hunt, how to dress a deer, how to butcher a deer. He taught me the joys of casinos and nightly card games. He taught me cribbage and bad jokes. He introduced me to Korbel and Coke and many, many cheap beers. And most of all he taught me the joy of a close family.

Rocky had a clam dip that he would make, it seemed like every time I visited, and when I lived in Madison, that was quite often. I can't imagine the pounds of this stuff I have eaten over the the years. He took great joy in making and serving it. I can still see him hunched over the bowl with the special bent fork he had just for making this and the crooked smile he'd have on his face.

Sadly Rocky had a massive heart attack in 1999. And shortly after that I found myself divorced. But I still have fond memories of him and I still make his clam dip, though I now use my food processor and a bit more onion than he ever did. Of course, you have to like clams and onions to enjoy this dip. Not a problem for me.

I have everything I need here at the house except for the Pringles so we'll be making a run to the grocery this afternoon so that I'll have my clam dip ready by the Super Bowl. I know the Steelers look good on paper but something unseen is forcing me to pick the Cardinals. Maybe it is from growing up in Ohio and hating Pittsburgh my whole life. Some things you just can't shake.

Rocky's Clam Dip