Just a quick post today, since we're running late. Stuff in the Fridge Sunday this week was Twice Baked Potatoes and Buffaloaf, using up some leftover potatoes, chives, bacon and bison that desperately needed to go.
We also served it with creamed corn. Ignore that.
Twice Baked Potatoes
What We Used
- 3 good sized russet potatoes
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 grated cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped chives
- 6 strips of bacon, cooked crispy
- A little bit of butter, to help mash the potatoes
Poke the russets with a fork and wrap them in tin foil, baking them in the oven at 350 until they're soft-ish. They need to be able to hold their shape, so don't bake them until they're completely done.
Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop the insides out and put them in a seperate bowl. Make sure to keep a little bit of the potato flesh in the skins to help them keep their shape.
Mash up the potato flesh in the bowl with a little bit of butter and mix in the sour cream. Grate the cheese, chop the chives, cook the bacon then chop the bacon into tiny pieces to mix into the mashed potato mixture. Spoon the mix back into the potato skins and bake again until the cheese is slightly bubbly and the potato is slightly brown on top.
We reserved a bit of the potato and sour cream mix prior to adding the cheese, chives and bacon to use as a garnish.
Buffaloaf
What We Used
- 2 lbs ground bison
- 1/4 onion, chopped
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp seasoning salt
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp hickory barbecue sauce
Mix everything in a bowl. Seriously, that's the instructions for this thing. Mix it all in a bowl with your hands until it's a beefy lump, then press it into the bottom of a loaf pan. We have a glass pyrex loaf pan that's pretty much only used for this sort of thing.
Cook at 375 until it's done. It should be brown on the top, and any visible onions should be browned as well. Cutting into it slightly should reveal no pinkness. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
Anyway... busy busy.
-Jess
It was Bread Day!!
We got an early start because bread is a bit of an all day chore. We wanted to pratice making buns, too, since bread can be done up in pretty much any shape you'd like. The bread recipe I use is one I found online, but I modified it heavily one day without even realizing it till the dough was already rising. Turns out, the bread was better the way I did it anyway!!
What We Used:
- 2 packages yeast ( If you're using it out of a bottle, the measurements are on the back)
- 3 cups lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oil (I used grapeseed cause I had the most of it, you can use whatever)
- ~8-10 cups white flour
Start by putting the water in a bowl and sprinkling the yeast and sugar into it. When the yeast turns foamy, add the eggs, oil and salt. Stir everything together and start adding in flour a cup or two at a time, kneading it in well. When the dough no longer sticks to the side of the bowl, place it somewhere warm and cover it with a cloth. Let it rise for two hours, or until it's doubled in size.
Meanwhile, grease a cookie sheet or bread pans, depending on what you're doing. We used cookie sheets since I don't really have a bread pan available in the Kitchen of Despair. Yet. (Hobo kitchen, remember?)
Punch the dough down in the bowl and move it to a counter or other work surface that's been sprinkled liberally with flour. Knead it about 10 times, and then it'll be ready to shape!!
What we did was cut off bits with a bread knife and experimented with bun shapes. Our favorites were braided and simple round buns, as well as a nifty knot that Jess did. I tried... mine weren't nice.
Place the shaped dough on the prepared cookie sheets or in the bread pans, cover and let rise for another hour at least.
We opted to grind up some garlic in the food processor with rosemary, black pepper and olive oil to brush on top of the buns before putting them into the oven. This produced a LOT of smoke, but man, does it taste good! Luckily the weather was nice, so we could open the window.
When it's done rising, put it in the oven at 375 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes. It works best when you only do one pan at a time, otherwise things start baking unevenly. The result should be golden brown buns or bread that sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of them.
We brushed more of the olive oil mixture on top of the buns when they came out of the oven. Not only does it make them look really nice, the taste is awesome!
-Sam
In lieu of a bad day, I decided (for Sam) that we were going to do comfort food. This one may be of some intrest to Miss Carmen who requested we post the recipe to the cold day favorite 'Mush'. As for me, my preferred food when I'm feeling down is a cheeseburger (contrary to popular belief which would state that my favorite comfort foods are chocolate and potato chips)
So here we go!
Mush
(looks like sick and tastes like GLORY.)
Mush is one of those glorious foods that warm you up from the inside out. It's an easy to make stove-top casserole which makes it perfect for camping (provided you have a fire-proof pot or a camping stove). It's also extremely tasty, despite it looking like the name it owns: Mush.
What We Used:
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 6 Potatoes, Mashed
- 1 can Corn Niblets
- 1/4 Onion*
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 can Mushroom Soup
- Black Pepper and Salt (to taste)
Everyone knows how to make mashed potatoes, right? You peel the potatoes, put them in a pot with water and a little bit of salt, boil them until they're soft enough to cut with a fork, drain and let the mashing commence!
That's the first step of Mush. Mushing the potato.
Sam followed it up with chopping the onion and the garlic and throwing it in a pan with the ground beef. The beef was browned and seasoned with the pepper and salt, then the corn was tossed in when the beef was almost finished.
Back to the potatoes, we added the can of mushroom soup to the mash and then the ground beef and corn mixture. Mix until awesome.
Sam wants to note that this is where you add some milk if it gets too thick, but that's optional.
Bison Burger with Bacon on Bannok
Obviously, I needed a manly burger for dinner and I happened to have a couple pounds of ground bison sitting in the freezer. I mourn now for my ground bison... the idea of it always being there kept me happy on cold, lonely days.
Bison is leaner than beef, we find, and the taste is almost a bit... sweeter? It is also SO DENSE. I make meatloaf (buffaloaf?) from this stuff and I feel like I ate a brick when I'm done.
A delicious, delicious brick.
Anyway... Bannock, too! Bannock is awesome, and when toasted it makes a wicked bun for a burger. Especially one as epic as these.
What We Used
- 1 lb ground bison
- 1/4 Onion
- Bread Crumbs
- 1 egg
- seasoning salt
- garlic
- Worchestershire Sauce
- Monterey Jack Cheese
- Bacon
- Bannock
- Left over Spicy Chipotle Mayo
The first step was to drive over to the Kekuli Cafe and purchase bannock from a member of their fabulous staff. We could've made it, but we're still being lazy and theirs is fantastic.
Sam says: Tomorrow will be less lazy. Tomorrow there will be bread.
The bison, egg, onion (chopped), and garlic (minced) were deposited into a bowl. I seasoned liberally with seasoning salt and Worchestershire, then added bread crumbs until it had a drier consistancy (without the bread crumbs, it's a cold mess that can't hold a shape.)
Patties were formed and put on the grill. The Kitchen of Despair doesn't have a BBQ attachment, so we used Sam's George Foreman thing.
M-Jack was sliced, bacon was fried, and the Bannock was toasted (We find that it holds it's shape longer if it's toasted.) and spread with the spicy mayo.
This, of course, is the point where you can add vegetables (if you swing that way.) In this case, the vegetables didn't make it onto the burger... I just snacked on them while other things were going on.
Construct the burger and enjoy it. :D
What the n00b learned:
- *We have a lot of quarters of an onion lying around. The heck!?
-Jess
Wednesday movie night again, with Mina at the helm and showing us...well... actually we have no clue what we're watching, really. All she sent us was a violence disclaimer and the following:
"It's about this guy with superhuman powers, and he's kind of mysterious and his story is told over the course of the movie. He seems to be a very dangerous guy, but as the movie goes on, you realize he's on the side of good. Once that is established, the fights are hilarious. The gore is met with "who the hell is actually THAT tough?""
So...hilarious fights, lots of violence. Apparently it's dubbed, which only adds to the awesome. Either way, I'm looking forward to a gloriously bad movie (I like them. It's a personal love of mine, bad movies)
Besides all that, we were told that it was set in Hong Kong. Lazy as we are, we decided that chinese food was the way to go and sent out a general plea to movie night participants for donations. Meanwhile, the Kitchen of Despair decided to make a favorite of Sam's: Hot and Sour Soup.
What We Used:
- 4 1/2 cups Chicken Broth (Yes! We actually had some on hand this time! I had bought a couple cartons of Campbells anticipating a recreation project i'm interested in, but we're using it prematurely.)
- 2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts (apparently you can also use shrimp and tofu and whatever else, but we're being friendly to me (I'm allergic to most seafood) and Luke (who has a wierd thing with Tofu))
- 1 cup Julienned Carrot
- 1 cup Thinly Sliced Shittake Mushroom
- 1/2 cup Bamboo Shoots cut like matchsticks
- 2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper
- 1/4 tsp Hot Pepper Sauce
- 2 tbsp Corn Starch
- 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 Green Onions, thinly sliced
- 1 Egg
After all the veggies and such are prepared, throw the chicken broth, chicken, carrots, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, vinegar, pepper and hot sauce in a medium sauce pan, though I used my biggest pot because I like it. Bring everything to a boil over medium/high heat, then turn it down to low and cover it. Cook for about five minutes, or until the chicken's not pink anymore.
While this is going on, stir together cornstarch and soy sauce in a bowl until smooth. Once the chicken broth is done cooking the chicken, stir the cornstarch mixture into the pot. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. ( Yes, I was vehement about not boiling your soup, but this is a little bit different. You HAVE to boil this type of soup. )
In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Add the green onions to the soup, and while it is boiling, slowly stream the egg into the soup while stirring or whisking in one direction. This should make the egg cook in the high heat of the liquid, forming long threads. Continue stirring it in one direction for about one minute, or until the egg is fully cooked.
Verdict?
"Oh my god, yum yum yum yum." -Sam
What the N00b Learned:
- Don't boil soup. Except this one, apparently.
- Julienning carrots makes my brain hurt
-Sam and Jess
On a recent shopping trip, Sam picked up a turkey breast tied up to roast which we figured would be nice for tonight.
'Open face turkey sandwiches' I declared...And then proceeded to fill up on cheese, crackers, and cucumber while we waited for the turkey to finish.
Nothing really to open faced turkey sandwiches. Roast yo turkey. Slice yo bread. Pile it up and top with gravy. Yum.
Anyway, peace out. Tomorrow is Movie Night Wednesday, which tends to be a bit more involved, so until then... Cheers!
-Jess
Tonight, it was Doctor Who Monday!! And we had an asparagus off. Our friend Carmen told us that she would like to see us make a delicious proscuitto wrapped asparagus recipe thing she had done before, so we decided to take her up on her challenge!
Then...
Well. Lets be frank. I like bacon. In my opinion, it is greater than everything and anything ever made. Bacon > Sliced bread... The moon landing... and definitely Proscuitto. So I said to Sam...
...It's a battle!
We decided to have a mini Iron Chef type thing tonight. I purchased the asparagus, we had a few other things on hand that we could use for the battle left over from previous adventures.
Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus
What We Used:
- Asparagus
- Proscuitto
- Cream cheese
- Fresh basil
- Fresh chives
- 3 cloves garlic (what I used, you can use less or more! )
First of all, I trimmed the bottoms off the asparagus and washed them so that there was no clinging dirt.
I then put the cream cheese and the herbs and garlic into my handy dandy food processor and blended them together till they made a brilliant greenish herby cream cheese mix. That was spread onto the strips of proscuitto and wrapped around the asparagus spears. Easy!!
Bake the spears in either a Pyrex dish or a baking pan lined with tin foil, since it's a little messy. I had the oven pretty high since all we were doing was cooking the asparagus and crisping up the proscuitto a bit. Proscuitto is already cooked, after all.
Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
What We Used:
- Asparagus
- Bacon (I used thick sliced, but in retrospect thin might have been better)
- Mayonnaise
- Chipotle pepper spice
- Wierd squeeze tube of habanero and cayenne chilis
- Worchestershire sauce
In hindsight, I should have kept more accurate measurements since the Spicy Mayo also made a perfect chip dip.
Sam already prepped the Asparagus, so I didn't have to worry about those. I was too busy dumping the chipotle, squeeze tube chilis and Worchestershire sauce into mayo until it tasted right. And really, that's the key right there. Add as much or as little as you want until it tastes the way you want it to.
The bacon was just simply wrapped around the asparagus then put on a foil lined baking sheet and baked at 375. It needed to be turned a lot... more than the proscuitto did... and I was baking for longer at a lower temperature. At the end, when the bacon was starting to crisp and the asparagus was at my desired level of done-ness, I turned on the broiler to finish it off. Served with the mayo it was fantastic.
Verdict?
It was pretty much a tie. Both Sam and I liked the Bacon better, but some of the people there liked the Proscuitto since it's less fatty, and the herbaceous cheese was fantastic (if a bit salty). Both are fantastic appetizers, though.
Finally, no pictures tonight. I'll try to have them up tomorrow when I can grab Luke's camera. Until then, cheers!
-Sam and Jess
Good news back on some of our experiments! Again Sam's landlady told us how much the lemon cake was appreciated, Clara enjoyed the coffee cake, and despite our reservations Kate's Birthday Cake was awesome. (I couldn't even dream of finishing my piece. It was enormous!)
It's that weekly stuff out of the freezer night! This time it's Chicken that Sam wants to use up, along with the last of the chianti we used earlier in the week for the Cormarye and mayhaps this random can of beans we discovered in the cupboard.
B, normally not the most adventurous of individuals in the kitchen (except with pie) surprised Sam a couple weeks ago with this red-wine chicken breast that (apparently) was absolutely amazing. Since B is at work, Sam is endevouring to recreate the dish tonight.
The beans are for something else.
Chicken A La Brandon
What We Used:
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 cup red wine (we have chianti, which is a dry, fruity red. We think B used a merlot.)
- 1 yellow pepper
- 1 orange pepper
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1/4 onion
- garlic powder
- seasoning salt
- white sugar
- 1/4 cup Oil (back to the grapeseed again)
- Olive oil (for frying the chicken)
The oven was preheated to 375... Sam mentions that if your oven has a roast setting it would probably work best, but since the Kitchen of Despair is also known as Hobo Kitchen... well...
B originally used a pre-mixed club house roasted garlic and peppers spice thing, but being wierd and liking to do things the hard way Sam decided that we were going to do this ourselves, gosh darnit, and we sure do have peppers in the fridge that need to be used.
Sam cut the peppers into good sized chunks and put them in a small roasting pan lined with tin-foil. The peppers were joined by six cloves of garlic, peeled but whole, and some leftover red onion that needed to be used also chopped into large pieces.
The peppers, garlic and onion were covered in oil, then a little bit of salt and sugar were sprinkled over. The pan was put into the oven uncovered and then watched like a hawk (garlic apparently is notorious for burning) and stirred occasionally until the vegetables were soft.
Meanwhile, while the veggies were roasting, Sam was butterflying the chicken breasts and setting them aside.
Since the wine is dark, we opted not to roast the veggies for too long to add a bit of color to the dish, and proceeded to chop them into even smaller pieces. The other option was to mulch them, but I liked how they looked.
Once the veggies were finished cooking and set aside, Sam put the chicken into the Mok Wok to fry with the garlic powder. Once both sides had a bit of color, she added the red wine and braised the chicken breasts till they were cooked through. We removed the chicken from the red wine and sliced it into pieces. The wine was emptied from the pan and the chicken was placed back in with the veggies, then when everything was good and hot, the dish was done!
Verdict?
I liked the peppers! I actually did! This is a bit wierd for me, but the roasted pepper flavor all over the chicken was fantastic. Though if I had my way, there would be six more cloves of roasted garlic in.
What the Noob Learned:
So... then there are those beans I mentioned earlier...
Sam's Experimental Veggie Casserole
What We Used:
- 1 can beans (we have fava beans.... and a nice chianti now that I think about it. Heh.)
- 2 cups short grain white rice
- 1 stalk celery
- 3 tomatoes
- 1/4 onion
- 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 3 cups of stock or water
- onion powder
- oregano
- black pepper
Sam started by cutting up all the veggies going into the casserole into bite sized pieces and setting them aside in a bowl, then grating the cheese. Normally I would be doing those honors, but I hate Sam's cheese grater with the flaming passion of a thousand suns. Instead I opened up the beans, drained them, and washed the can-goo off. Can-goo is a technical term.
The rice was pre-cooked on the stovetop in the broth, then placed into a large Pyrex baking dish. The beans, veggies and cheese were all stirred in and it was placed in the oven at 375 (same temperature used to roast the veggies) until everything was a hot gooey mess.
Verdict:
Even before the thing came out of the oven we had to appreciate the smell. Admittedly, I was apprehensive about the casserole since I am the sworn enemy of rice (especially white rice) but it was good! A little less spicy than I like, but that can be tailored to whomever is making the thing.
What the N00b Learned:
- Rice + Beans = complete protien!! Which makes this recipe good for vegetarians!
-Jess
