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10 Legs in the Kitchen

~ Food. Dogs. Life!

10 Legs in the Kitchen

Monthly Archives: October 2016

Kitchen Therapy

23 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by Stacey Bender in the kitchen

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

dogs, food and cooking, hobo Buddy, pressure cooked beef stew, self-awareness, simple beef stew

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I believe things happen for a reason, good or bad.  Every decision we make becomes part of our story and that story, often has a deeper meaning.  I chose to get a dog my freshman year of college and that dog, Buffy, became such an integral part of my life that I wouldn’t know how to describe that middle part of my life without including her, just as Ginger and Buddy consume our story now.

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it was a long journey

Most of you know Buddy of course.  The scruffy little yorkie that came into our lives at the age of 10, as if he knew he was meant to be with us all along. I sometimes picture him ringing our doorbell with a hobo stick slapped across his back declaring that he’s finally come home. The powers that be brought him to us and then tried, several times, to take him back. Somehow, he has managed to beat the odds and remains a deeply entwined part of our lives today and for everyday in the foreseeable future (knock on wood).

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mommy and daddy, i’m home

Buddy, recently, has had a newly found appreciation for food.  He has never been one to turn down a meal, or a treat (I’d go as far as to say that this one is certainly motivated by food), but now when he eats, it is with his whole heart and he is taking in every flavor, texture and aroma. Buddy eats greedily but thoughtfully, offering gurgles and sound effects that mimic what maybe Snoopy or Woodstock might express or, more aptly, a human might make as they bite into a meticulously cooked meal, enhanced with only the skill and finesse of the worlds finest chef.

He is also experiencing the finer things in life, such as spa days (with bubble baths),  acupuncture sessions and deep massages every night from his daddy. We too are experiencing the finer things in life, such as more time with Buddy (and Ginger) and much more awareness of our mortality as well as theirs. We are embracing the future but enjoying the present with much more gratitude and self-awareness.  This is a choice we should all be making but is hard to see through all life’s craziness and stress.

So to combat the craziness and stress, I am headed to the kitchen where I will emerge happier, healthier and hopefully well-fed.

I choose  Kitchen therapy.

Our lives are busy.  But we still need to eat!  There are so many shortcuts available and it is easy to take them all, which includes eating prepared meals or eating out every day.

I usually feel better when I head into the kitchen and begin cooking…anything. Buddy and Ginger eagerly follow (these days, Buddy usually gets carried along). Then, Ginger sitting on her orange square and Buddy, either stumbling blindly underfoot or tucked in one arm as I work aptly with the other, anticipate the nibbles and bites they will get as the cooking noises and smells begin to permeate the air.

Chop, chop, chop, sizzle, sizzle… A rhythm begins to take hold and an easy, familiar dance begins to carry my stress away.

I taste what I am making. It is very important to taste. Buddy and Ginger are taste-testers too.

Music is playing.  Music must always be playing…
…and Tom is playing the music.  In the background, and in the foreground, chatting with song.

Last night it was our favorite chicken dish and tonight it will be a comfortably quick beef stew.  I know a stew need not be quick, but quick is what we needed, so into the pressure cooker it went.  It emerged an hour later, prep time and all, a fragrant, creamy and comforting meal that carried us away from a busy week and welcomed us into a cozy Fall weekend.

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SIMPLE BEEF STEW (flavored with balsamic, red wine and mascarpone) – serves 4

Stew always seems to taste better the next day, but with the addition of a little mascarpone and the help of a pressure cooker, this stew tastes as good day one as you might expect it to taste on day two. I am looking forward to days three and four, if it sticks around that long.

Even though it is simple, it feels more refined due to the size of the meat, veg and potato;  I usually keep them chunkier but decided to reduce all in size. Using leeks rather than onions and balsamic vinegar along with red wine, an aroma fills the room reminiscent of Italy or France. The mascarpone is stirred in to help thicken without extra time and lends a distinct creamy, sweet quality that might typically be heavier and more familiar.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lbs grass fed beef stew meat, cut into 1/2″ dice
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to season
A handful of semolina flour to dust the meat
1 large leak, cut in half horizontally, cleaned and diced
2-3 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 TB balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup diced potato (skin on is fine)
3 stalks celery, cleaned and diced
1/2 cup diced carrots
1 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups water
2 TB veal demi-glace

1/4 cup diced haricot vert / green beans
1- 1 1/2 cup diced potato (can be a mix of sweet potato and red or white potato)

2-3 TB chopped parsley
1-2 TB chopped rosemary and thyme combined (more or less is fine too)
1 TB Dijon mustard
1 good dollop mascarpone

PREP

1. Prepare all of your vegetables as instructed above so they are at the ready as you begin to cook.

2. Season the beef with about 1/2 tsp kosher salt and fresh ground pepper then dust it with semolina flour just to coat.

3. If you have an electric pressure cooker, turn it to brown and add about 2 TB olive oil to the pot. Brown the meat on all sides.

4. Add the leeks and garlic to the pot and continue to brown until the leeks begin to wilt slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir.

5. Add the 1/4 cup diced potatoes, celery, carrots, red wine, water and demi-glace to the pot, stir and turn to high pressure for 15 minutes.

6. When the pressure releases and you can open the lid, add the rest of the ingredients and turn the pressure to high for 30 minutes.

7. When the pressure releases, stir, adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper if needed. If it is not thick enough, add a little more mascarpone. It should sit and simmer for at least 15 minutes or until you are ready to eat as it will continue to thicken and the flavors will meld together.

8. Serve in warm bowls with a crusty loaf of bread or a crostini. A simple salad does well to round out the meal.

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g’night Ginger, I wuv you too!

Operator, I’d like a German Oven Pancake please.

02 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by Stacey Bender in Breakfast/Brunch, Ginger + Buddy, the kitchen

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Betty Crocker, breakfast, Brunch, Buddy and Ginger Bender, the Telephone Game

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Do you remember the game Operator? It is now known as the telephone game (so I am told); a silly game that we used to play as kids where everyone sits around in a big circle (usually during a sleep-over or birthday party) and one person whispers something into the person’s ear next to them, and that person in turn, whispers the same thing into the next person’s ear, who then repeats it to the next person, and so on.  By the end of the circle, the last person is to repeat what they heard out loud.  The original statement might have started out saying, “Hey neighbor, your cat’s on our fence.”  But the last person to hear it might have heard, “Hey dummy, your elephant is in our backyard.” or some such nonsense.

The point is, as things get passed down, they get reinterpreted, mis-told or misunderstood.  The small details or misconceptions can end up having significant impacts on the final outcome.  I thought of that game this morning as I went to make brunch.  We were down in Hoodsport three weekends ago (as you already know), and my mother-in-law made a wonderful brunch.  It was a German Oven Pancake which came from the oven puffed-up and delicate.  We slathered it with a little butter then topped it with maple syrup (except silly Tom, who decided to make it savory by coating his in ground pepper).  We also had sausages and a plate of fresh fruit.  And mimosas, of course.  The pancake seemed almost crepe-like.  Oh and I do love a good crepe.  This was a good (crepe) pancake!

As we were leaving, Lois ran upstairs and copied the recipe for me, which she had  hand-written on a recipe card, copied from Tom’s cousin Karen.  I didn’t look at it but thanked her, folded it in half and tucked it into a magazine that I was planning to read on the road (home).

The following weekend, I decided I wanted to make the oven pancake for breakfast.  I pulled out the magazine (which I still haven’t read, because it had been in the trunk of our car) and unfolded the recipe.  The copy was very faint and difficult to read.  Tom sat in the daylight (aging eyes struggling), trying to decipher the writing, reading it off to me, stumbling over some of the words and I typed what he said (sic):

“German Oven Pancake – serves 2-4 (or is that a 6?)
1/2 cup flour, sifted, 3 slightly-beaten eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 2 tsp butter or margarine (what?!), melted, 1/4 tsp salt, something, something, confectioner sugar or lemon juice butter.

  1. Add flour to eggs, beating with rotary beater.  Stir in milk, melted butter and salt.  Thoroughly grease bakers joy baking dish pour into mold dish, bake at 450-degrees for 15-17 minutes.  It will get puffy.  Loosen at wide spatula.

     2.  Add butter to flour and eggs then add milk and salt.  Can pour over canadian bacon.”

Seriously, that looks better than what he said.  It mostly made sense, only because I had sat down to brunch with her as she explained that you could sprinkle confectioners sugar over the top, but she didn’t do that.  She also mentioned something about pouring it over Canadian bacon to make it savory.  Which, again, was not done.  If I had just taken the card and tried to follow the recipe, I would have had many more questions.  As it were, my only questions were these:

  1. Does this not use baking powder?
  2. What kind of dish do I bake it in?

I texted over those questions but was inpatient as I was in the thick of my execution and decided to Google, “German Oven Pancake” instead.  The first page that came up was from the Betty Crocker website.  Seeing that the only cookbook my husband, Tom, came to me with was a later edition of the original Betty Crocker cookbook that he had in college (and I don’t think ever used, but he claims Pete did), I suspected it was quite possible that Betty was the first person in the circle to kick-off our little game of Operator.

So it might have started out with Betty saying, “Operator, I’d like a German Oven Pancake, please.”  And I might have finished it by stating, “Operator, I’m a German with a Pancake to Please.”  Finally!  I’m ashamed to admit, it has taken me three tries.

German Oven Pancake (or so I am told)

Adapted from Lois (Bender) Casto via Karen (Bender) Lieberman, via Betty Crocker (maybe?)

Needless to say, my first attempt at this a few weekends ago was not a success.  I think it was because I used whole wheat flour since I did not have any all-purpose flour.  I used almond milk rather than cow’s milk, but it might also have been my choice of pan (Tom says sure, blame it on the pan).  I had not waited for my mother-in-law to respond to my email before heading into the kitchen.  Betty had told us to heat a cast iron skillet before pouring the batter in.  After I did this, I got the email from Lois telling me specifically not to use a hot pan.  I also decided to make it savory, using proscuitto.  Tom thinks it tasted more like a “real” whole wheat pancake.  Not what I had in mind, but edible.

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I treated it a bit like Margharita (not the best choice)

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The proscuitto was tasty.

The following weekend, I thought I might borrow a cup of all-purpose flour from my neighbor Piotr (who was away on job assignment; we were tending to his mail and his garbage).  Turned out he too was with whole wheat flour only (good boy).  So this time I used a cold pan, but still had the wrong flour.  Admmitablely, it looked prettier and (sort of) puffed up but it was a bit dense and not that great (BTW Piotr, your flour is stale).

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Puffy, yes.  Flour, a tad stale.

So now this time, I did use all-purpose flour, but had to use Greek yogurt (thinned with water) instead of milk (yup, you guessed it, I had no milk).  My cake did not bubble up, nor did it get pouffy, like a soufflé (as Lois’ did), but the flavor was spot on!  More eggy than cake-like, fluffy, light and a perfect partner for maple syrup, butter and sausage (and not appropriate for pepper).

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Ahhhh, success (even if the picture tells a different story).

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Prepare

Heat an oven to 450-degrees.

Butter a baking dish (preferably glass).

Whisk the milk, butter and salt into the eggs

Slowly, whisk in the flour being careful not to over-mix

Pour into the prepared baking dish and cook for 15-17 minutes.  It should puff up, but even if it doesn’t, it should still taste quite good.  Divide amongst four plates, put a dollop of butter on top and pour some warm maple syrup over.  Serve with fruit and breakfast sausage if desired.  A mimosa washes it down well (as often he case).

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Can I have some too?

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Anyone gonna’ eat that last bite?  I will, even if I’m about to lose a toof.  Did someone say toof fairy leaves treats?

 

 

 

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