Category Archives: cooking

Wrist to Turkey Neck

Posted on February 16, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

As usual, it is Wrist to Forehead Sunday. It’s not that I want to add to the litany of griping about the cold, but… damn!

I am cooking the turkey I purchased yesterday, in order to run the oven and thus render my house warmer. It is working nicely and smells pretty good too. It was a bit of a process getting it into the oven, as often happens with me.

To begin with, of course I did not plan ahead and thaw the damn thing in the fridge for two or three days. I had it in cold water in my sink all yesterday afternoon and evening. I set the timer and was pretty vigilant about changing the water every half hour, so I felt safe in doing this. By ten o’clock, I thought the bird was on its way to thawdom, so put it in the fridge overnight.

This morning I discovered that it was no such thing. The center was still frozen. I still was not too worried, because yesterday, when I was consulting the marginally helpful Internet for thawing tips, I had discovered that it is not a bad thing to cook a turkey from frozen. Then I thought I had remembered that you aren’t really supposed to rinse the bird, as I have always done and indeed as the plastic wrap said to do. Back to the Internet.

OK, don’t thaw, but take the giblets and neck out. I know a friend of mine once left the giblets inside the bird, still in the little bag, because she didn’t stuff the bird and didn’t know about the giblets (it was her first turkey), so I was not too worried. But I thought the neck might better come out. It was frozen in there. Damn.

I’ll just add than when I search the Internet I usually go to a site called GoodSearch, www.goodsearch.com, because it seems they donate money to charity (should I have mentioned that when I first mentioned searching the Internet? Should I not already know that, seeing as I have been writing for many years? Oh, it IS Wrist to Forehead Sunday).

The sites I was directed to said it was OK to leave the giblets in, as long as they were not in a plastic bag. Well how was I supposed to know if they were in a plastic bag if they were still inside the turkey? Back to the bird. At last I found the giblets in the neck cavity (the irony is not lost on me that the giblets were in the neck end while the neck is stuck up the butt). Not a plastic bag, but I took them out and put them in the pan as I usually do.

I didn’t mind the neck still being in the bird, because I knew it wasn’t in a bag, but there was a plastic doodah I thought I should remove and that was stuck good. Consulting my Goodsearch sources, I was delighted to find a place where the question was not only asked, they referred to it as a “plastic thingy.” Unfortunately, the answers were contradictory.

At last I resorted to rinsing the damn turkey. After all, every other turkey I have ever cooked I have rinsed and I’m not dead of turkey poisoning yet. But how annoying, as rinsing the bird has always been my least favorite part of cooking a turkey (there is that bad moment when it feels like a body, which in fact it is, but I prefer to gloss over my own carnivorousness). And the neck still would not come out.

Finally I said to hell with it and put the turkey in the oven, which by now was plenty pre-heated (although some sources say that if you are cooking something for more than an hour you do not have to pre-heat the oven. I must say the last thing I felt like at that point was to write a blog post about the ordeal. However, that was three hours ago, and now that I have actually written the blog post, I feel much better about everything.

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No Measure New Year

Posted on January 1, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

I had thought to make a profound, thoughtful post, all about the New Year, how it was an artificial milestone yet useful… Well, I don’t want to write the whole post about what I’m not writing about (although I have done that before). Or I was going to write a mere Pedestrian Post, since my dog Tabby and I took two walks today. Then I thought I owe a few local businesses and destinations shout-outs. Um, what did I say about NOT writing this post about what I’m not writing about?

Then I started mixing and fixing, getting ready for my exclusive celebration tonight. Just me, Steven and Tabby. One of these years I’ll have a big party with family and friends, or go somewhere fun and fabulous. Not tonight, Josephine (that is a reference to the movie Some Like It Hot, and in that movie it was a reference to a book by Jacqueline Susann). I have more stuff to do, so I shall write a fast cooking post and get back on with it.

The first thing I did, as usual, was crush up a bunch of garlic and set it to “breathe” for 15 minutes (which I will not explain yet again). I paused in this laudable endeavor to pour myself a glass of red wine, because I wanted to cook with wine. Yes, I’m pacing myself. I’m still sipping the same glass after almost an hour and I’ll switch to seltzer water till Steven gets home from work. In case you were concerned.

I put some frozen spinach into a colander and poured hot water over it. I mashed up two avocados and chopped half a small onion into very small pieces. I grated some mozzarella cheese. Do my ingredients sound intriguing thus far? Well, I was making two different things at once. Who says I can’t multitask? Oh yeah, me. No matter.

To the avocados I added some of the garlic, minced onion out of a bottle, onion powder, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, a tiny bit of Tabasco, and some cumin. I was making guacamole. I put the onion I had chopped into a baking dish, added the cheese, spinach and the rest of the garlic. Then I chopped a small jar of artichoke hearts and added that, along with the marinade. I’ll bake that to be spinach and artichoke heart dip.

As you can see, I did not feel inclined to consult any recipes. I rarely follow them completely anyways and I’m just in that mood. After I hit Publish on this, I’m going to put some chicken wings in the oven with butter, honey and mustard. Once again, I shall not consult the recipe. I intend to add amounts that look good and guess on a 350 degree oven. I’ll stir it every 15 minutes and check it with a meat thermometer to make sure it won’t kill me.

So that is my No Measure New Year. I hope you’re all enjoying your celebrations or refusal to celebrate, as the spirit moves you.

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A Little Sunday Cooking

Posted on December 22, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I decided to do a cooking post today. As regular readers know, this is far from a cooking blog, but sometimes I like to share my culinary adventures. For one reason, the joys of chopping and stirring are not to be denied. And for me the joy of anything is increased by writing about it.

I had some stew beef in the refrigerator I had meant to put in the crock pot. I decided to do something different and cook it in the oven, so I preheated that to 350 degrees, which I think is the most common cooking temperature. I peeled and crushed several cloves of garlic, setting the timer for 15 minutes (so it could “breathe” and reach its full health benefits).

While the garlic breathed I chopped an onion. I’m not sure of the cooking term for what I did (I did mention this is not a real cooking blog). It was more than sliced, less than diced. The pieces ended up looking like parentheses (how appropriate for me). I’m sure you know what I mean.

My next ingredient was a can of cream of mushroom soup. Real chefs (and authors of real cooking blogs) are shaking their heads in disapproval. Oh well, that little frisson of virtue you feel is my Christmas present to you. It was store brand, if that makes it any better or worse.

I added a little sweet-hot mustard. Full disclosure: it was one of those itty-bitty jars you get with a gift set and I wanted to use it up. Condiments last a long time, don’t they? There wasn’t a whole lot of that, but I put in a good splashing of Worcestershire sauce and a teeny titch of Tabasco (note to self: buy more Tabasco). I sprinkled a little cumin over that, largely because I accidentally bought an extra jar of it.

Whenever I use cream of mushroom soup I like to add a can of mushrooms, which I luckily had. That is something I try to always keep on hand but because I use a lot of it often run out. As I added the stew beef the timer for the garlic went off. I stirred everything in thoroughly and put it in the oven.

It is there now. When I stirred it earlier it smelled delicious. I suppose I ought to wait till we actually eat it to hit Publish, in case it sucks, but I think we can trust that everything will turn out fine. For one reason, I want to hit Publish and go back to enjoying my Sunday. Happy four days before Christmas, everybody!

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NOT Chicken Cordon Bleu

Posted on October 21, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

On Sunday when I asked Steven what he would like for dinner, he said something involving cheese, because we had a brick of colby-jack in the refrigerator. I knew we also had deli ham, so I suggested Chicken Cordon Bleu.

“You’ll need to get some chicken,” he pointed out.

“I’m going to the store,” I said.

“And some cordon bleu.”

We had a good laugh speculating on which grocery aisle that would be in or if I would have to stop at the Cordon Bleu Store. We do get silly.

Full disclosure: what I make is not really Chicken Cordon Bleu. I’ve never followed a recipe, for one thing. I use chicken, cheese and ham. Beyond that, I make no promises. I was happy to find boneless skinless thighs at the grocery store. I have a problem with the breasts drying out. I suppose real chefs know how to combat that dilemma, and here we come to the ugly truth about me.

I was going to make spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer, so I put some frozen spinach in a colander and poured hot water over it to thaw it. Then I crushed up some garlic and set the timer for 15 minutes so it would reach its full health benefits (at our age, we need all the help we can get). I crushed enough for the dip and the chicken. I also grated enough cheese for both. I thought that was pretty efficient of me.

Digging out a bread pan to put the dip in, I remembered I had left my favorite bread pan at Mom and Dad’s house (where I had brought my spinach and artichoke dip for a gathering). It was originally her bread pan, so I guess I can’t feel too bad about it. Anyways, I have other bread pans. I ought to bake more bread, but that’s a whole other blog post.

I chopped up a jar of artichoke hearts then a yellow onion. I hadn’t put onion in the dip before, but it sounded good. I planned to put some in the chicken, too. Steven read somewhere that once you peel and chop an onion, you should use the whole thing right away, because onions become toxic if you save them. If that is truly the case, I probably ought to be dead by now. Just the same, I’ve been buying smaller onions lately.

Artichokes, spinach, garlic, onion and cheese in the pan, I added a couple spoonfuls of mayonnaise, stirred it good, and put in in an oven, which I had preheated to 350 degrees (I perhaps should have mentioned that at the beginning of the description, but I rather doubt any of my readers are cooking along with me as they read). We ate the dip with tortilla rounds. It was pretty good.

For the chicken I put the rest of the garlic and the rest of the onions in with the rest of the cheese and mixed it up. I took the chicken thighs and kind of spread them out. I can never make the pound them down thing work. I put the cheese mixture on along with some fresh mushroom slices I had. I folded the chicken over and rolled it in seasoned breadcrumbs as best as I could.

It was awkward. I dug around in the drawer for some toothpicks and made the resulting bundle as neat as I could. I put them in a pan and put the pan in the 350 degree oven. I baked them for about an hour, testing with a meat thermometer, because I didn’t want to cut them open and look for pink.

They tasted pretty good. I was halfway through mine before I realized I had left out the ham.

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Not Much of a Recipe

Posted on October 2, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today I offer a cooking post. Sort of. Well, regular readers know this is not a cooking blog and I’m nobody’s chef. Still, this is Wuss-out Wednesday and I didn’t quite wuss out on dinner. I’m writing a post about it.

The post really started last week when Steven made rice for dinner. It was brown rice. He put a can of mushrooms in it. There was some left over.

The next step came on Sunday. I wanted to offer food to the lovely people who helped us with our fence, so I put some chicken legs in the crock pot. I put butter, honey and mustard in it. This is from a recipe I got out of a book put out by a church group. The recipe is actually for chicken wings baked in the oven, but I thought it would be fine for legs in the crock pot. I was right. Again, we had leftovers.

It was Steven’s idea to combine the chicken with the rice. I luckily remembered it and decided to implement it before he got home today. The first thing I did was to put the leftover chicken in the microwave to melt the butter, which had solidified. I guess I should have seen that coming.

I put the rice and mushrooms in my cast iron frying pan after spraying the pan with no-stick stuff. When the chicken was once again in liquid, I pulled some of the meat off the bones and added that. I poured in some of the liquid as well. I still have chicken leftover. I probably won’t write another blog post when we eat that.

Before I started heating it up, I added frozen spinach. I love spinach. Steven likes it when it is part of a dish, not just by itself. So I add it whenever it seems appropriate.

It did not take long for everything to heat through. Steven declared it tasty. I hope my readers will declare the blog post OK.

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Soup du Cold Jour

Posted on January 31, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Last night I improvised a soup I thought might be worth a blog post.

I used a smaller pot than I usually make soup in, because I have a tendency to make huge pots of soup that don’t all get eaten. I chopped up a half a yellow onion I had in the fridge and put it in olive oil. I added a green pepper and put the lid on tightly. This is my trick when I cook things in olive oil. The moisture from the vegetables stay in the pot and they end up getting steamed or even boiled if there are enough vegetables.

I crushed some garlic and set the timer for 15 minutes, so it could breathe, or whatever it does. Then I added it to the pot.

When the pepper and onions were soft I added chicken broth, lentils and a can of Great Northern beans. I had originally thought to use black beans, but my back was bothering me and I just couldn’t keep bending over to search the cabinet. It is a most inconvenient cabinet.

When I had been planning the soup in my head, I had thought a can of diced tomatoes would be good, but I did not have any of those. Must remember to add that to the grocery list. I put in basil, oregano, lemon pepper, cumin and parsley flakes. Then I just let it simmer.

I added more chicken broth as some cooked away. It ended up being a not very brothy soup, but it tasted pretty good.

Steven put the leftovers in the freezer, so now we have that to look forward to on a future cold day. Maybe with some kind of hearty bread. I guess winter does have its compensations.

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Where’s the Beef Broth?

Posted on December 16, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

How about a cooking post for Wrist to Forehead Sunday (you may notice, I do not make this a question, because I intend to write it regardless). I think it will make a good post, because I invented another new recipe.

I had some leftover beef I thought would be good in a soup. I remembered buying beef broth, and I always have diced tomatoes on hand. This would work.

I started out by chopping an onion and putting it on to cook in olive oil. I put a lid on the pot, so the steam would keep it from burning to the bottom. I crushed up some garlic and set the timer for 15 minutes (so the garlic could breathe, or whatever it does). After 15 minutes, I put the garlic in with the onion and let them cook together for a while.

The onions got soft fairly quickly. A few even turned brown. I like carmelized onions, so I let them cook till I got hungry enough that I wanted to get on with it.

That was when I could find neither the diced tomatoes nor the beef broth in my pantry. Oh yes, I remembered, I had heated up the beef broth one day when I was feeling sick to my stomach. Soothing and nutritious. I did have some cream of mushroom soup, always a good ingredient (gourmet purists are gasping in horror, but they have obviously come to the wrong blog and must respond as they see fit).

I found some diced tomatoes, but by then the idea of cream of mushroom soup was appealing to me. I put it in the pot, with a can of milk, and stirred well. I added some spices (cumin, parsley flakes, and McCormick Savory All-Purpose, if you wanted to know).

I threw in some frozen green beans and cut up the leftover beef. When it was all heated through we ate. Steven had his with Spano’s Hard Crust Italian Bread, which is made right here in the Mohawk Valley, in Utica, NY. Yum! (I used some of it for an egg sammich yesterday.)

We enjoyed dinner. Steven pointed out that we have a beef roast in the freezer. He suggested cooking it one day soon, so we can use the leftovers to make this recipe again. If I remember it. Oh wait, I can just look here. Silly me.

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A Hastily Thrown Together Post

Posted on November 13, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

I worked on three different posts today and I’m not going to use any of them. Instead I offer a cooking post on tonight’s hastily thrown together supper.

I arrived home close to five o’clock with my husband, Steven, due to arrive at 5:30. I felt pressed, I felt stressed, but I was on the job. After petting my dog (priorities, you know) then washing my hands (food safety, of course), I peeled and chopped an onion. I chopped it fairly small, because onions sometimes take a long time to cook, but not too small, because I didn’t have a lot of time to spend chopping. I put it in a pot with a lid, added some olive oil and put it over medium heat, so I would have something to turn down from when it started to sizzle.

I peeled and crushed some garlic and set the timer for fifteen minutes, so it could reach its full anti-oxidant qualities. Then I realized I could actually sit down for a few. After all, the onions did not need to be stirred constantly.

The onions were practically done, some of them even browning when the timer went off. I put the garlic in the pot and stirred it up. Leave it like that for a while? Check the time. Steve would be home soon. Check the onions. Getting soft.

I added a can of chicken broth and a can of water. Then I put in some frozen spinach. For seasoning I added lemon pepper (actually the bottle says Lemon and Pepper Salt Free), McCormick All-Purpose Salt-Free for Savory (or something like that)(I know I could go downstairs and check the bottle, but it’s been a long day), and parsley flakes. I briefly lamented that I could no longer get fresh parsley from the garden, but after all, people who package dried seasonings need to make a living, too.

When the broth boiled, I added cheese tortellini. It took a little longer to cook than package directions said, because it took a while for the broth to get back to boiling, but that was no big deal. Steven had arrived home just before I added the tortellini, and he had left again to go put air in my soft tire. Did I mention he is a very good husband?

Side note: Yes, I KNOW I can pump up my own soft tires. Steven offered to do it before we ate, so it would be done. Yes, I owe him a favor. Stop shaking your feminist fingers at me (you know who you are).

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Wrist to Forehead Cooking

Posted on August 12, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

So there I was, happily cooking with wine, when I realized — I haven’t done my blog post yet! Talk about Wrist to Forehead Sunday!

What’s a blogger to do? I search for a notebook with blank pages, grab a pen (I recently bought a bunch on sale at Rite Aid) and write while I cooked.

To set the scene: The rice is simmering, the chicken strips are frying, the garlic is breathing, I am debating peeling an onion. I could throw it in with the chicken. It might not have time to carmelize. Lately I have a minor obsession with carmelized onions.

I peeled and chopped an onion and added it to the chicken. Now will the chicken overcook before the onions are done? I did mention this is Wrist to Forehead Sunday, didn’t I?

And what about the garlic?

I should perhaps at this point mention that I began cooking with no recipe or plan in mind. I put on rice because Steven expressed an interest in eating rice. I put on chicken because you can cook this kind from frozen. I put in garlic and onions because that is what I do.

If anyone is interested, I added to the chicken some Roasted Garlic Olive Oil from gusto della vita (it is all lowercase on the bottle). I see they don’t have an address on their bottle, but it is a local or at least an area company.

When the garlic was done breathing I added it to the rice, which still has at least ten more minutes to cook, I think. We will eat this improvised mess — uh, I mean meal with a tossed salad I made yesterday. Won’t that be nice?

Note: As I typed this in, I realized my tenses were all messed up, because I was writing as I went along. I started to change it all to past tense, since it is now, in fact, past, then thought I would leave it as written and see if I liked it. Which I did.

Further note: The website for the oil company is www.gustodellavita.com.

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Chicken Anne Boleyn

Posted on April 21, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, I started the day having Mohawk Valley adventures, until I got sidelined by a sinus headache (could have been a migraine; I don’t know from headaches). After taking a nap and lamenting my wasted afternoon, I managed to fix something for dinner that I thought might make an acceptable cooking post.

First I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees, then sat back down to read my book some more. A wise woman once told me you can’t rush into these things (I think it was my mother). Finally I rousted myself back into the kitchen, where I put some frozen pre-cooked chicken strips into my cast iron frying pan to heat (it always takes longer than the package says). I covered it with a glass lid that just happens to fit the pan perfectly (the pot the lid went to broke a long time ago).

Then I took some fresh asparagus, rinsed it, broke off the tough ends, broke it into pieces and put it in a glass baking dish. I had some oil in the refrigerator with garlic and spices in it, which I had used the last time I roasted vegetables. I poured some over the asparagus and put it in the oven. Set the timer for nine minutes, although I figured it would take longer than that.

I put some water on to boil for some cheese tortellini, then read my book some more. I stayed in the kitchen reading it, though, to keep an eye on the chicken. It’s a biography of Anne Boleyn, which I’ve read before, but these history books always bear re-reading.

After a while I thought to put some frozen spinach in with the chicken. I poured some of the garlic/spices oil over that and kept it covered. It took even longer than expected, but that was OK, because the tortellini water took a long time to boil. The asparagus, too, took longer than expected. I kept taste testing it. I love asparagus.

Eventually everything was done. I put it in a metal bowl, added some pepperoni, feta cheese and Italian salad dressing and stirred well. I had actually meant to do all this at least an hour before I did it, chill it and call it salad. As it turned out (we’ll blame the headache), Steven was due home any minute. I decided it could be warm salad. Leftovers will be regular.

Perceptive readers may have noticed I did not cook with wine, as I like to do. Well, I knew I had a blog post to write. I didn’t want it to be full of typos.

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