Craving something sweet

Today was a good day to make Poppycock. Crisp popcorn with a wonderful glaze and almonds and pecans.

Poppycock

8-12 cups popcorn
1 c almonds toasted
1 c pecans toasted
Large bowl sprayed with cooking spray

2 sticks of butter
1 1/2 c sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 corn syrup
3/4 t vanilla

Cook the first 4 ingredients to 280 on a candy thermometer. Remoive from heat and add vanilla. Pour over corn and nuts and mix thoughly. Spread on wax paper to cool. Store in gallon bags.

Pinterest Recipes...and reality

I admit I am a "pinner" and pin a  lot of stuff that looks good to eat or to make. Sometimes the recipes are way over simplified but sometimes they hit the mark but not often. 

Last night was a super simple recipe for chicken with a Feta sauce. I realize that Feta cheese must be an exotic ingredient in some parts of the country but in our house its kind of a standard. This recipe called for a roux with condensed milk and melting the cheese in the resulting sauce. Frankly, it was a little 'meh'.

I believe that we are attracted to beautiful presentation like the photo here and imagination runs wild with expectation. In reality, I knew this recipe was too simple to be very good and I don't use condensed milk to make sauces. The chicken browned up nicely after I brined it (not called for in the recipe) and sauteed it in a cast iron skillet in butter and olive oil. I usually halve my breasts but this time left them whole which presented an issue with cooking through, especially the thicker end.  After a short stint in the oven to finish cooking I focused on the sauce, just as written sans the condensed milk ( I was out anyway). Pretty salty from the cheese and pretty one note because there just wasn't much else. I am not sure that Feta is a great cheese to make a savory sauce from anyway. There are so many more complimentary cheeses that would have elevated this simple dish that I always seem to have on hand, Fontina, Parmesan or Gouda. And flavorings like mustard or any seasoning like paprika. Maybe a bit of lemon or white wine, now you're cooking!

This is not the first or the last recipe I will try from the site. I often pin what I consider successful recipes from my own blog. So far with Pinterest,  its a crap shoot. I will certainly be more choosy regarding ingredients and complexity though.

I live to eat...in a literal sense

Yesterday after consuming leftovers from Saturday, Brenda noticed a bowl on the counter, covered with a towel. Another pizza crust variation made with the countless varieties of methods for preparing crust. This time it was a Ken Forkish recipe that captured my imagination.

I am unable or unwilling to get my oven hot enough for pizza nirvana but this was close. enthusiasts will take their oven to blast furnace status to achieve the perfect Leopard spotted crust. I am not that brave but I do long for bubbly, chewy perfection.

This is the way my head works... During my rummaging for eats on Sunday I spy leftover meat sauce from earlier in the week which leads to a quick inventory of our cheese situation, 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella, 2 ounces of Monterrey Jack and a bit of Fontina.  Check. The pizza crust from a blog entry I read on a lazy Sunday afternoon. OK. I can do this.

1 1/2 cups AP flour
3/4 c warm water
2 t salt
1/8 t yeast. Wait what? Yep 1/8 t. Very long rise.

I mixed flour and water, set the timer for 20 minutes. (Autolyse)

Mix  yeast in a tablespoon of water.

Pour salt and yeast over flour mix. Mix and stretch from the bottom till you can no longer feel salt crystals. Wet your fingers if it gets sticky. Place in an oiled bowl and cover for, well all day or overnight. I put mine in the fridge after 12 hours (18 hours fridge time) and took it out about 2 hours before I spread it into a crust.

I heated the oven to 450 on roast (both top and bottom burners come on) I spread a bit of flour on parchment paper and worked the dough into a 12 inch circle with the help of a bit of olive oil. Spread out my sauce and cheeses then I am ready to bake!

Bubbly, crispy crust but not New York crusty and fine toppings despite the leftover status. Yum.

I will do this again.

Grilled Salmon with Horseradish Dill sauce

A nice summer supper with a great piece of salmon on the grill. No fuss just a piece of non stick foil, a bit of olive oil, some Crazy Jane's salt and high grill temps to sear the fish. Now,  we love the crispy belly portion and like our salmon more to the done side but I do tend to remove it while the very center is still a bit translucent. This whole side of salmon had the skin on it. It gets very crispy around the edges and makes for good eats.

Brenda wanted a new sauce so I found this online:

1/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup sour cream
1 t lemon juice
1 T finely chopped onion
1 -2 t prepared horseradish
3/4 t dry dill
1/4 t garlic powder
Salt and pepper

We served with a nice cucumber salad and I made a macaroni salad with some of the zucchini I picked, a few cherry tomatoes, a bit of red onion, chunks of cheddar and mozzarella and dressed it with Allison House dressing.

My favorite things...lately

Vegetti spiral slicer. I know this seems gimmicky but in the post pasta, low carb era of our house, I love this little Veggetti gadget. It makes zucchini into perfect little spaghetti. I mix it with one serving of real pasta by adding  the cut zucchini to the boiling water when the pasta is almost ready. Tossed with your favorite sauce and well,  that's just good eats. It takes 2 medium zucchini to make 2 servings.

All Clad Skillet. I found this 10 inch All Clad skillet  at TJ Maxx in the clearance aisle. I believe they normally run in the $100 or more range. They had several and I watched them keep marking it down until it became an irresistible buy at $28 or so. Now,  I cook with natural gas and I have grown weary of temporary, Teflon coated pans with questionable quality and short lives. I was hesitant about clean up here but so far, it has never been an issue and I use this for nearly everything. It is just a balanced wonder and cooks like a dream.

Fiber Gourmet Pasta. I know I posted this stuff before and I can only find it in one store here in Omaha, but it's the greatest, low calorie, very high fiber pasta product that does not seem to affect my fragile blood sugar that much and allows me the occasional indulgence. They are stocking it in several varieties now including lasagna noodles and fettuccine. I am in heaven. 

Allison House Dressing. We have been in a bit of a dressing rut lately and rediscovered this tasty treat. I am not sure if it is sold anywhere but here since it is made in Omaha, but its just so good.  We usually lightly dress our salad with this then follow it up with a smattering of our favorite Blue Cheese dressing.  Just to mix it up a bit. Great stuff.
OPA! Greek yogurt Dressing. We are and always have been Blue Cheese junkies and love this brand (Litehouse) and even more since they make a tasty,  lower calorie version of our favorite flavor and cheaper too! Bonus!




Cast Iron. Since I moved to a gas range, I started using cast iron and now I can't get enough of it. I have grill pans, pizza pans and griddles and I am always eyeballing a deep skillet for frying but I am not a huge fried food eater lest I be huge so it remains on the shelf every time I see it at the store. Long lasting, easy care, pretty much non stick, cheap and versatile. Whats not to love?

What is your favorite thing? What makes you happy to cook?

Change isn't always a good thing.....

After attempting to alter my URL to make things easier, I found that I cannot edit all the page references and make it all work so I changed it all back to the original obscure URL that starts with icxcpainter.

ICXCpainter was originally chosen because I paint icons and the Greek abbreviation for Christ is IXCX. I thought it was clever at the time but now it is difficult to share the blog. Changes however are difficult to manage and after this attempt it is better left alone so I don't orphan all my posts. I use this as my own personal recipe book besides and I have my whole cooking experience to date here. Some of these recipes I just don't want to lose.

Sorry for the confusion. Back to normal.

4th of July Feast

We had a few pounds of ground Lamb in the freezer and I was looking for something unique for the 4th of July weekend. Nick and Mackenzie were in the house as well as Jill. Despite my immobility, I wanted to try my hand at hamburger buns again. The first time were Ok but I could do better. It took about 4 hours to make the rolls most of rising time and it was well worth the effort and there was not much. I let the mixer do all the work and heavy lifting. I set the time for the knead at 7 minutes and walked away. What a difference! Bread is all about hydration and developing gluten and that long, mechanical knead produced a beautiful crumb and soft delicious bread.


Mackenzie also wanted a salad to use her figs and candied pecans. We used spinach and baby kale with a Balsamic Honey Dressing to die for.

1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 c olive oil
2 T Dijon Mustard
1 T Honey
S & P to taste


Now the Lamb Burgers are on the blog already so search for them. The rolls are as follows:


Hamburger Buns (8)

1 Tbl yeast
3.5 cups AP flour
1 c warm water
1 egg
3 T sugar
3 T melted butter
1 1/4 t salt
1 teas olive oil
1 teas Sesame seeds

Put yeast, 1/2 c of the flour, sugar and the cup of warm water in the mixer and whisk well. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes till foamy.

Add the egg, salt and butter, whisk well then add the remaining flour. I used the Kitchen Aid and mixed till it came away from the sides of the bowl. Scraped it down and then mixed with the dough hook for 7 minutes. Dough will be sticky bu not stick to your fingers.

Turn it out, clean the bowl, coat it with the olive oil and add the dough back. Cover and let rise till double. I let mine go a solid 2 hours.

Deflate the dough and divide evenly into 8 pieces.

I lined a baking sheet with parchment and placed the 8 disks of dough (turn under the balls till smooth on top) and flatten them slightly. I used the 2, 1, 2 arrangement of the pan. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until large and puffy. Mix and egg with a tablesppon of milk and lightly brush the tops of the rolls, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake 375 for 15-17 minutes till golden.

Laid up and not cooking much

As many know I had a total knee replacement paying for the sins of my youth I guess. Since I hardly ate at all the first week and a half post op we hardly cooked last all. I have been in 'stir' for a few weeks now and itch to get out for as change of scenery. So far Brenda has let me go to the grocery with her. I have had a few cravings now that my appetite has come back of sorts. Still not a lot sounds that great to me but we whipped up some NAC and cheese today and are having it with the carry out wings we picked up last night. So far so good. Brenda has been making a most excellent Banana Blueberry Bread. Fantastic!

Banana Blueberry Bread
1 3/4 c flour
1tsp baking powder
1/8 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 c unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c buttermilk
1/2 t vanilla
3 ripe banana mashed
1 c blueberries
1/2 cup walnuts (op)

Combine dry ingredients.
Cream butter and sugar.
Mix wet ingredients incl banana mash.
Combine  dry and wet till just mixed. Add blueberries and nuts. Mix well and pour into greased loaf pan. Bake 350 for 30-35 mins until pick comes out clean.

Brenda's masterpieces...you seriously cannot eat enough of this.

Dessert, the best part of some meals

We had a dinner date Saturday night and we were in charge of dessert. This one,  fresh off of Pintrest,  looked promising and it was. Delicious and light it was a big hit. Of course the meal was fantastic as Matt has a way with a steak. The salad was non stop eating and we made pigs of ourselves. But the dessert, well that was kind of unexpected. Very nice and here is how it goes:





Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake Tart

1 puff pastry sheet
pint of fresh raspberries
4 oz cream cheese
1/3 c sugar
2 T heavy cream
1/3 c lemon curd (Trader Joe's)
1/3 c raspberry preserves heated
egg yolk/1 Tb water  egg wash
Decorative clear sugar crystals
Powdered sugar

Consider doubling the filling recipe above as I did.

Roll out pastry to 11 x 13 or so. Score 3/4 inch from the edge, wet lightly and fold over itself. Prick the bottom with a fork and paint with the egg wash, sprinkle with sugar. Place on a baking pan lined with parchment and  bake 425 for 10-15 minutes.

Mine puffed big time in the middle but was easily deflated and pressed down with a spoon. Allow to cool completely.

Mix softened cream cheese, cream, lemon curd and sugar. (The recipe called for this much but I doubled this and it filled nicely). Fill the pastry shell. Top with raspberries and drizzle over the jam. Top it all off with powdered sugar. Chill till ready to serve.

Lately...

It's not like we haven't been eating. I just haven't ate anything noteworthy. Well, with a minor exception, we hit Nichola's again in the Old Market area for an anniversary dinner with good friends.

Gads I hope I am not as big as I look in this photo but we had a great meal here again. Moderately priced and delicious Italian food. Fresh and frankly too much for me to finish, I took half of it home. 

We spent the rest of the weekend out at Brenda's folks and had a nice visit and a Birthday party to attend. The drive home was peppered with bad weather typical for this time of year but we mostly beat the storm back to Omaha. We both had our leftovers from Friday. Hopefully I will be cooking again in a few weeks after I get my legs back under me again. Meanwhile I will have plenty of time to research some recipes and make some new things.