May 31: Chicken With Forty Cloves of Garlic

This morning, Dan and I bought some herb seedlings at Eastern Market on Capitol Hill and have planted them and have them growing on top of a bookcase in our dining room. Our dining room is very bright and sunny, as opposed to our old apartment. It's a perfect place for herbs to grow.

It is silly to be excited about $20 worth of herb seedlings, but I can't tell you how happy all of this makes me. Fresh herbs are one of my favorite things: plucked right off the stem and tossed into a simple green salad, chopped and tossed with hot pasta and butter and parmesan cheese, stirred into a sauce just as it comes off the heat. I can't think of a single application for fresh herbs that I don't think is sheer genius.

We are keeping it simple, just because we're limited on space: chives, thyme, rosemary, and basil. We're also going to put a couple of tomato plants on the deck, and I am pushing for some arugula and a hot pepper plant, because yum, hot peppers.

I have a new job and am going back to work on Monday. I'm quite thrilled about this and I really can't wait, but I have a significantly longer commute than I used to (although the new location is in Dupont Circle and I am really just incredibly excited about the good restaurants and). I have been cooking a lot in preparation for this longer commute: pork barbecue in the slow cooker (not bad, had to use the fattiest pork loin I could find because my supermarket didn't have shoulder, so it's not quite as juicy as I like, but still incredibly tender and delicious), ground turkey taco filling (this is so good, almost better than ground beef), and my mother was here and I took her to the Penzeys Spice outlet in Vienna, Virginia last week, and gave into temptation and bought bratwurst seasoning, mixed it into a mixture of ground beef and ground pork, and made the best burgers I have ever had in my life--they really taste like brats! It's like magic. I highly recommend this stuff. Tomorrow I'm planning on making a mushroom-spinach-chicken stromboli with roasted garlic, and making two so that there'll be an easy dinner one night next week.

I'm also planning on making this dish from Everyday Food's May issue, and making chicken salad or chicken enchilada filling with the leftovers. This is classic French bistro food, simple, clean, intuitive eating, mostly hands-off. I do plan on brining the chicken before roasting it; I really think that brining is to chicken what vanilla is to cookies. Is that analogy too cerebrally foodie? I hope not. Anyway, it also calls for a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Which I have now! Whoo-hoo!

40 cloves of garlic sounds ridiculous, I know. Do it, you won't regret it. The heat mellows the garlic to this sweet, toasty gorgeousness. Take half the garlic and mash them into some potatoes with lots of butter and whole milk, and save the other half in an air-tight container in the refrigerator, toss it with sauteed shrimp and pasta or into risotto or mash it and spread it on pizza under the sauce and toppings and cheese. You're welcome.

Chicken With Forty Cloves of Garlic

40 cloves of peeled garlic from 3 or 4 heads
1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds), rinsed, patted dry, giblets removed
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
Coarse salt and ground pepper
6 sprigs fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 475.

Place chicken in a large oven-proof skillet or roasting pan. Rub all over with 1 tablespoon butter; season with salt and pepper. Add thyme, garlic, and remaining butter to skillet.

Roast, basting occasionally with juices and stirring garlic, until instant-read thermometer inserted into meaty part of thigh (avoiding bone) reads 165, 45-60 minutes. Remove from oven, rest for 10 minutes. Carve and serve with pan juices.

May 1: The Basic Pantry, Easy Beef Stroganoff

Kimberly and Michael asked me, while I was in Kentucky recently, about a pantry primer. I love this kind of post: a list of what should be in everyone's pantry, whether you can barely boil water or whether you entertain regularly and cook like a domestic goddess (I loathe that term, by the by, much as I loathe the term by the by.)

These are the kind of things that make a wide variety of basic recipes. If your talents or interests are limited, if you're on a tight budget, if you're just learning the ropes, or if you live in a tiny little condo at the top of two flights of stairs and you hate carrying up groceries like I do, these are the things you can't live without.

This list may seem absolutely outrageous to you; it's not short. But imagine if you were starting from scratch, with an empty kitchen. This is what you'd need to get by.

So let us start here, with the basics, and a basic recipe made from the basics. It is not traditional beef stroganoff, which is made with expensive beef tenderloin and sour cream--this is a little lighter, still filling, and a quick weeknight dinner, made from things that are probably already in your kitchen.

If they're not, they should be. Go on, make a grocery list. Do it now.

The Pantry

• Granulated sugar
• Light brown sugar
• All-purpose flour
• Instant-acting yeast
• Kosher salt
• Table salt
• Cornmeal
• Cocoa powder
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• A long strand pasta, like spaghetti, capellini, or linguine
• A short, stubby curved pasta, like shells, rotini, or penne rigate
• Wide or extra-wide egg noodles (sometimes labled "dumpling style" or "homestyle")
• Long grain white rice
• All-purpose, Russet, or Yukon Gold potatoes
• White or yellow onions
• Garlic
• High-quality, fruity, fresh extra-virgin olive oil (find a brand you like and get it from a reputable source with a stock that turns over quickly; I like 365 brand from Whole Foods. Also, buy it in small quantities--it may cost a little more over time, but it won't go bad before you can use it)
• Corn, vegetable, or canola oil, or some other non-animal-based, "healthy," neutral-tasting fat for cooking and baking
• High-quality white sandwich bread (Pepperidge Farms Hearty White is excellent; even if you don't think you'll eat sandwiches, this makes the best fresh breadcrumbs around)
• Apples
• Oranges
• Dried spices: oregano, Italian seasoning, thyme, rubbed sage, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, whole peppercorns

The Canned Goods

• Good quality canned diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen Organics, but they are pricey. A good, lower-priced stand-in is Redpack.)
• Good quality canned crushed tomatoes
• Good quality canned tomato sauce
• Good quality canned tomato paste
• Chunk light tuna in water
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Cream of chicken soup
• Reduced sodium chicken broth (I buy broth in aseptic cardboard cartons--it just tastes better to me--but canned is fine too.)
• Reduced sodium beef broth

The Refrigerator

• Unsalted butter
• Skim or reduced-fat milk
• Half-and-half
• Brick medium-sharp cheddar cheese
• Lean ground beef
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Carrots
• Celery
• Iceberg or Romaine lettuce
• Flour tortillas (come on, you didn't seriously think I would leave tortillas off this list, did you? Are you new here?)
• White mushrooms (may also be called button mushrooms)
• Eggs
• Bacon

The Gadgets and Tools

• Garlic press
• High-quality, sharp 3-4-inch paring knife
• High-quality, sharp 9-10 inch santoku or chef's knife
• Vegetable peeler
• Rolling pin
• Box grater
• Plastic or silicone spoon
• Silicone-tipped tongs
• Plastic or silicone pancake turner
• Plastic or silicone spatula or "spoonula" or scraper
• Heavy-bottomed 3-4 quart saucepan with a lid
• Heavy-bottomed 8-10 quart stock pot with a lid
• 12-inch nonstick skillet
• 9x13 inch casserole or baking dish (I use my late grandmother's old Pyrex)
• Rimmed cookie sheets (I recommend at least two)
• Oven-safe wire rack
• Pepper grinder

Easy Beef Stroganoff

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced small

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 pound white mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and quartered

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 lb. lean ground beef

2/3 cup half-and-half

1 cup low sodium beef broth

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 pound wide or extra-wide egg noodles, cooked according to package directions and kept hot

Over medium heat, preheat 12-inch nonstick skillet and oil until shimmering. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook, stirring, until softening and translucent but not browned. Add mushrooms to pan and stir until mushrooms are softening.

Add ground beef to pan and cook over medium, breaking up with a spoon or spatula, until browned. Add thyme and flour to pan and cook 2 minutes, stirring to combine.

Add broth and half-and-half, stir and raise heat to medium high and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until thickened to saucy, gravy-like consistency. Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately over egg noodles.

Food Geek Nirvana

Sorry about the awful picture, it's my cell phone. I can't find the digital camera.

Remember back a week or so ago when I declared that my husband could forego any kind of traditional Valentine's Day gifting and substitute a big pile of Penzey's Spices?


Penzey's Spices has...wait for it...retail locations. Did you hear me?

Two of them in the D.C. area, to be exact; one on Rockville Pike, not terribly far from the NIH (ahem, Kimberly) and one in Falls Church.


This morning, we drove out to the Falls Church location. For those of you who are interested and local, it's located on Broad Street, which evidently is what Lee Highway turns into...I don't know exactly how we got there, Dan made a total of three recommendations for turns this morning and all three turned out to be totally wrong, but we got there. There's a parking garage in back, so plenty of parking. We stopped in Cosi next door and got a snack and some coffee.



I think the coffee might have made me a little giddy by the time I made it into Penzey's. I could have done a little more damage, I think, but not without effort.



Here is a list of what I bought:

• French Thyme
• Albanian Whole Leaf Sage
• Shallot-Pepper Seasoning
• Shallot Salt
• Mexican Chile Piquin
• Rocky Mountain Seasoning
• Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Base
• Black and Red Spice
• Turkish Aleppo Pepper
• Salsa Salad Seasoning
• Sicilian Salad Seasoning
• Tsardust Memories Russian Sausage Seasoning
• Rogan Josh Seasoning
• Sandwich Sprinkle
• Italian Sausage Seasoning
• Buttermilk Dressing and Dip Seasoning
• Ground Red Chipotle
• Northwoods Fire Seasoning
  

$60 worth of seasonings and herbs, seriously? I am out of control. But really, I am so fantastically excited about this, I can't even tell you. That Northwoods Fire seasoning? It smells so good. Well, really, everything does. Very seldom have I ever made such a thoroughly satisfying purchase. Pound for pound, when it comes to what this stuff is doing to my imagination, $60 is a relative bargain I would say.

I have another project in mind right now: You know those Archer Farms brand sauces and marinades and sauces that they sell at Target? I don't know if it's because I'm always in Target right at dinner time, but they always look absurdly good to me. They were on sale last night so I bought three of them: a mustard beer marinade, a Thai peanut sauce, and a teriyake-shittake mushroom burger topper. I am a little freaked out by these kinds of things--they tend to be salty and taste "off," despite always looking great on a store shelf.

I am going to see how these work. I plan to use the suggested uses from the labels: a "simmer sauce" for bratwurst for the marinade, on simple chicken skewers for the peanut sauce, and on (duh) burgers for the burger topper. I will season everything very simply--salt and pepper on the skewers, same thing for the burgers. The brats I'm planning on not seasoning at all--just like they come from the store. With all these new goodies from Penzey's, that's just frickin' killing me right now, let me tell you. Bratwurst seasoning! Did I tell you? Penzey's sells bratwurst seasoning. I could make my own brats! For a nice German-Dutch girl from the upper midwest, that's music to my ears. I didn't buy any this time but it's on my list. Oooh, think about this: ground pork and beef (a 50-50 mix), seasoned with the bratwurst seasoning and made into burgers, topped with some kind of crazy grainy mustard and onions. I may need to go back to Penzey's for the Bratwurst seasoning.

I will run them past the fam, and I'll let you know how these go. First up: the mustard-beer marinade.

I'm off to the grocery store for brats. More later.

What I Want For Valentine's Day

Have you seen those green tea roses that are around now? Golly, I wish I'd known about those for my wedding--they are absolutely lovely, very subtle, and beautiful paired with blue hydrangea, which my attendants and I carried with white roses--lovely, but I think that these would have had even more impact:

Dan loves to buy me flowers and does so with no encouragement at all. It's really a very nice thing in a husband. Last year on Valentine's Day, three dozen red roses appeared at my office with the sweetest note I'd ever read. And everyone in my office all got together, gathered around my desk, and said in unison, "Awwwwwwwwwwwwww."

You know, I'm a pretty practical girl. The flowers are nice, but this year, I want something else. My mother knows me pretty well, and this year for Christmas, she stuffed my stocking with jars of spices from Penzey's Spices. Are you familiar? It's a spice company that not only sells a wide variety of herbs and spices, but also sells blends. Last night, for example, I had popcorn with Penzey's Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle on it, and it was a great effort for me not to lick the bowl.

My husband rarely reads anything I write; it's the curse of being married to an English teacher. By the time he's done reading 130 essays written by functionally-illiterate 9th graders every week, he's pretty much all done with the reading, although he did mention to me the other night, when I left my laptop open on the couch, that he agreed with everything I said about Shane's Rib Shack. Anyway, I doubt he'll see this, but if he does: Dan, don't send me flowers. Send me these things instead:

Arbol chile peppers

Black and Red spice

Ceylon cinnamon

Sicilian Salad seasoning

Pequin chile peppers

Sandwich Sprinkle

Rogan Josh seasoning

Italian Sausage seasoning

Northwoods Fire seasoning

Parisien Bonnes Herbes

Creamy Peppercorn

Tsardust Memories

Szechuan Pepper Salt

Trinidad-Style Lemon-Garlic

Flowers are great and everything, and you can't go wrong with them. This year, though, I would be willing to forego the traditional Valentine's Day gifts if the mailman were to turn up on my doorstep with a giant basket full of spice blends. Does that make me weird? A little. Am I okay with that? Oh yes.

Fashonista Vintage Floral Bib Apron

My grandmother, as she aged, cooked less and less, but I have memories of her in the kitchen going all the way back to my earliest childhood. She was the daughter of German immigrants, and she liked hearty, sensible, economical food. She made an incredibly simple chopped cabbage salad with an oil-and-lemon juice dressing that was unbeatable, and apparently impossible to reproduce, despite the repeated attempts by her family. She was neither an adventurous nor an exotic eater--pizza was just about as far afield as she would go.

My grandmother died more than three years ago. When I saw these aprons for sale at Wrapables.com, it was almost like she was standing in front of me again. She would have chosen them not for their style or color, both of which I love, but for their practical nature and usefulness--my gran liked to wear clothes several times before washing them, and so strove to keep them as clean as possible for as long as possible--a feat, I am certain, that was difficult while raising four children above a grocery store. These are are neither practical nor useful for me, but I almost ordered them anyway. I could hear her saying, "Well, that seems like a fine waste of your money, Miss Molly."