ChickenFlicken
Warm Scallop BLT Salad
10-14 large scallops, washed and dried, salted and peppered
4 slices thick-sliced bacon
I bag of bibb/boston lettuce mix
2-3 ripe tomatoes, sliced thin
1-1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
heaping tablespoon brown sugar
fresh french bread baguette, sliced for toasting..and, uh, toasted
salt and fresh ground pepper
In a med skillet, cook bacon til crispy, remove from pan to drain. Pour off all but about 2 tbsp. of the grease and turn heat to med-hi. Place scallops in the pan (you can do just 5 or so at a time to keep heat consistent, or you can be like me and just put them all in there because you are not a professional chef and you could care less whether the heat is consistent as long as they get cooked and don't kill you with some scallopy disease) and sear them for a minute or two on each side. While this is going on, toss lettuce and tomatoes in a large bowl with a little s and p, and chop that bacon up, why don'tcha? Also, dump the sugar into the balsamic vinegar and give it a brisk stir. Don't forget to turn your scallops!
Once the scallops are seared, throw those suckers on top of the salad in the bowl and deglaze* the hot pan with the balsamic/sugar mix. Turn the heat to med or med lo and simmer until it is reduced about half. Drizzle this warm deliciousness on top of the salad and scallops, then top with the chopped bacon. Serve on a plate with the toasted baguette slice and listen as your tastebuds moan with culinary pleasure.
*to deglaze a pan, you pour the liquid in it while it's hot and scrape all the crispy bits off the bottom!
NOTES:
- I used frozen, bagged raw scallops that I got on sale b1/g1 at Bi-Lo and they tasted fine.
- I think that regular-sliced bacon would work out a little better, as the thick-sliced bacon sometimes just doesn't get as crispy as I like. Who wants a fatty blog of not-crispy bacon in their salad? No sane person, that's who.
- You could also use this as a sort of appetizer/salad course for a larger party, but this was plenty of food for dinner for two adults. I actually didn't like the scallops, so I gave mine to my boyfriend, who ended up eating 13 of them. I guess he liked them.
- I did not use all of the hot dressing on the salad. I drizzled enough to sort of touch everything, then we added more to our own portions as we wanted.
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Grilled Chicken Pita Wraps
Enough chicken breast to feed whomever you're feeding
Balsamic Viniagrette dressing - enough to marinate chicken, and some for the wraps
Lettuce
Tomato
Feta Cheese
Pita or Flat bread, heated
Tzatziki Sauce (i don't know how to spell it and I don't friggin' CARE.)
Rinse chicken and place in a zip bag or lidded bowl with enough balsamic viniagrette dressing to coat. Let marinate at least half and hour, but longer is better. Preheat the grill to medium heat, place chicken on grill, 5-7 minutes each side. Meanwhile, prep other ingredients by tearing lettuce into bite-size pieces, chopping tomatoes, crumbling feta and heating pitas. Also prepare your sauce, recipe follows.
When the chicken is cooked through, cut it into strips. Arrange your chicken, tzatziki sauce, veggies and cheese on your pita the way you want them. Eat it all up, and thank me later.
Tzatziki Sauce:
1/2 container of sour cream
1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded, then grated (juice and all) into sourcream.
1 tbsp or so of lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
Mix all ingredients together and put in the fridge for a bit. Put on your pitas, on your french fries, on your morning toast, on your aching arthritic elbow... just know that if you eat this, people can smell the garlic a mile away, so it's advisable NOT to make it on a first date. Or if you're going to be smooching someone you'd rather not kill.
Delicious Frozen Pizza is super easy. You wait til Totino's pizza is on sale at your local grocery store 5/$5, and you buy all you can stuff into your freezer. Then you open the package, preheat your oven, and cook that sucker. Then, eat it. See? Simple as (pizza) pie.
Yeah, I suck. I haven't cooked anything new lately.
Corned Beef with Vegetables (Crock-Pot, People)
One 3-4 lb beef brisket with pickling spice packet
3-4 red potatoes (or more, depending on the size of your family and your Crock-Pot)
Small onion, or half a large onion, cut into med chunks
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
One cabbage head
Bag o' Carrots, because it's easier
1 c. water
Rinse your brisket, you dirty thing, and then trim off* as much fat as you can. If there is a vein of fat that travels through your hunk of meat, cut into it and get as much out as you can. Cut potatoes into largish chunks, hack up your onion, chunk that garlic like it's going out of style. Throw the veggies into your Crock-Pot and toss in a little salt and pepper**. Put your beef on top and sprinkle the contents of the pickling spice packet on top. Toss a little more salt and pepper just for so. Add about a cup of water. Turn that puppy on HI for 6 hours, or LO for 10 hours. About 20 minutes before dinner, quarter your head of cabbage and put it into a pot that you've filled with a cup or so of the beef broth from your Crock-Pot and some water. Cook the cabbage on Hi for a bit, until it loses it's 'crunch', or until it begs for mercy. However you like your cabbage, okay?
You can also put your meat into the Crock-Pot alone to cook all day while you're at work, and then when you get home: Remove a couple of cups of the broth from your Crock-Pot and put it into a large pot on your stove, crank to HI. Dump all your uncooked but chopped veggies in there and boil it til the potatoes are cooked through. The veggies aren't as flavorfull as they are when you cook them in the Crock-Pot, but they aren't bad at all! And you can control the smush factor this way.
*For fat-trimming, I like to use a longish and slender knife that I've sharpened up. Hold it sideways and saw back and forth so that the fat comes off in a big slice. It's gross, but oddly satisfying. Or! You could make your brisket do a little cardio in the weeks before you cook it, whichever you prefer.
**If you are using granular table salt and the pre-ground black pepper that comes in a tin can thingie, then I am ashamed of you. You should be ashamed of yourself!! Get some kosher salt (at the grocery store) and put it in a little ramekin that you, uh, borrow from your favorite restaurant and then pinch from it. You get a good feel for how much salt you're adding to your dishes, and it has a nicer salt flavor. I tend to add just a little more than I think is enough, and that's usually just right. The pepper thing: Get a grinder and buy your peppercorns at the store. It's just better, people. You get a much fresher pepper flavor, and you don't have to load your dish down with that powdery, ugly-ass pepper dust that they try to pass off as a seasoning. Corporate Bastards!
Dry-Rubbed Pork Loin
One or Two 3/4 to 1 lb pork loins that you buy on sale, buy one get one
Chile Rub: 1Tbsp plus 1 tsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp coarse salt. Put in a container and shake the snot out of it.
Rinse the pork loins and trim the fat and silver skin off (The silver skin is a tendon and is very tough. You can leave it and cut it off as you eat if you wanna.). Preheat your oven or your toaster oven (less wasted heat, people) to 450*. Use about 1.5 tsp. of the dry rub for each side of your pork loin and rub it in good. Put your pork loin on a foil-covered pan and put it in the oven for about 25 minutes. I recommend buying a meat thermometer, because you can use this puppy to obtain perfectly-cooked meat. No worries about intestinal bacteria, no overcooking delicate pork loins.
When the meat reaches about 155* or 160*, take it out. The temp will continue to rise, and if you cook it to the recommended 165* in the oven, it will rise way too high and your loin will be a dry husk of shoe leather. Let the loin 'rest' for 5-10 minutes, then cut into 1/2" slices and serve to your amazed family and/or guests and act like you're a highly-compensated personal chef.
Potatoes Au Gratin
3-4 potatoes, peeled and thinly-sliced*
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 Tbsp butter (I used a little less)
2 Tbsp flour
1-1/4 c. milk
1 c. grated cheddar (But you could use whatever cheese you want! If you're a Gruyere fan, go for the stinky cheese!)
Salt and Pepper
Preheat oven to 350*. Cook onion in butter on med until soft, add flour and cook for about 2 minutes, smooshing well to get out flour lumps. Whisk in mild and cook until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and add about 3/4 c. of cheese, stirring until cheese is all melty-melty. Layer half of the potatoes on the bottom of the pan (I buttered the pan lightly, so my taters wouldn't stick.), sprinkle with salt and pepper, then smooth half the cheesy oniony sauce over the top. Layer rest of potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and smooth the rest of the sauce. Top with remaining cheese. Cover pan with foil or lid and cook for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and check the doneness of potatoes with a knife or fork. (Cooked potatoes will allow the fork to slip through with no resistance, or "crunch" feeling.) If they're done, remove cover and bake for another 10 or so minutes. If they aren't done, keep covered and cook for 10 minute intervals until the fork thing goes well, then bake uncovered for another 10 minutes or so. If you're super-hungry and can't wait the ten minutes to brown the top, whip that oven dial to "Broil" and put your pan right under the broiler. Leave the oven door cracked so you won't forget your yummy potatoes and burn them to a smoldering carbon crisp. It's been done before, winkwink.
*After you peel your potatoes with your handy-dandy peeler, cut a thin slice off one side and you have a flat surface to keep your tater steady while you slice off the other slices!
Salad
Come on people.
Bag o' Salad
Do you have tomatoes? Croutons? Shredded cheese? Dressing? Toss it all together and eat it, for the love of Pete. It's good for you!
