The Way of the Cook

is almost too delicious. I made chicken stock yesterday and turned it into squash soup today. Big success! I used a big ol' butternut squash, an onion, some tiny purple carrots and a good amount of some country ham that's been sitting in my freezer since Christmas. Seasoned with a big pinch of my own chili powder it created a well rounded flavor. I served up some grilled fennel on the side and the combo worked nicely. I just need to start working on my bread skills and create some rustic bread to accompany the meal in the future. Margaret particularly liked the outcome of my hand-squished squash. There were some loose clumps of butternut that provided a nice creamy texture when encountered.

I broke new culinary ground today, I fixed collard greens for dinner. I first browned some garlic in a bit of olive oil to flavor the it then wilted the greens in the oil. Added a little salt then off to the plate they went! They didn't wilt near as much as I expected so we had about 3 times as much as we could eat. They tasted good, but were older leaves so a bit tough and we could only keep eating them for so long.

For the main dish I quickly cooked some somen noodles while broiling chicken-cheddar-poblano sausages that I picked up at HEB. I sliced them up and put them on the noodles with the browned garlic. We had no problem finishing that. I usually find the chicken sausage from HEB to be way too dry (their butcher agrees) but the addition of cheddar and carefully not overcooking left them quite tasty indeed.

We picked entirely too many veggies from our friends garden on Sunday. I wanted a quick fix dinner tonight so I cut up a small chicken and shoved salt, pepper and fennel fronds under the skin. I then put it all under the broiler, flipping when the skin was golden and removing when the temp reached 160. While the chicken was busy in the tanning bed I cut up couple stalks of broccoli and threw it in my cast iron skillet for about 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring when my cooking sense said I needed to (it smelt like it was about to burn). So in about 20 minutes we had an excellent dinner! The fennel was quite good as a seasoning for the chicken. Margaret commented on how well the black pepper and fennel worked together. I topped it off with a nice Sunshine Wheat beer from New Belgium. I look forward to the leftover chicken for lunch!

We were walking through the grocery on Sunday looking for something different. The pineaple smelt great as we walked by and it was on sale so we picked it up. To go with it I chose some soft mozzerella cheese and some pork loin chops. When I got home I went to work beating the pork as thin as possible. It got a bit of salt, just a pinch of chili powder and a dust of flour. It took no time at all to cook in a hot skillet with some butter, then off to a plate. The pineapple went into the same hot skillet then onto the pork. The flour on the pork, besides turning a nice golden brown, caught the juice from the pineapple, increasing the delicious quotient significantly. Some thinly sliced mozzerella on top finished it off and balanced the tart of the pineapple and spice of the pork with some creaminess.

Next time though, I would definitely change things up a bit. I'd probably put a bit more spice into the pork as the pineapple turned out very sweet and not as tart as I expected. I'd also go with a different cheese, maybe marscapone, that would kind of turn into a sauce on the hot pineapple. I was also thinking about adding some onions for a little more flavor. I'll have to play around and see what works.

This week has been a week of leftovers, but I did get in some baking for my breakfast goods. I made yet another batch of granola, based on Mr. Brown's recipe. I excluded coconut as my wife never lets the stuff in the house and added a bit of cinnamon and ginger to spice it up. I also substituted honey for the maple syrup (because that's what I had). The honey made a stickier end result which I appreciate for making more cohesive spoonfuls. For nuts I used walnuts and almonds because they are supposed to be high in soluble fiber and good for my cholesterol. We'll see how well that's worked when I go back to the doc next month.

Last night I made banana bread. I've been making it quite frequently lately as we always seem to have some ripe bananas around. This time I used local wildflower honey instead of sugar (we were out of sugar) and increased the flour a bit to take care of the extra moisture. I used whole wheat and some oat flour. This was the first time I've used oat flour and the results were quite good. The bread turned out very moist and not too sweet with a deep, complex flavor and a creamy texture from the oat flour. I'll post the recipe later.

I love 'em. Margaret's aunt brought some salmon over to be cooked up for dinner. Since I had recently found some inexpensive sesame seeds I decided there was no time like the present to put them into action. A bit of salt, some nice mustard a little parmesan and a solid coat of sesame seeds went onto the fish and then under the broiler! I accompanied it with some green beens and fried potatoes. An excellent array. I always like coating the my salmon with some parmesan or what have you to protect the delicat flesh while under the broiler. It makes a wonderfully moist and tender end result, as long as you don't overcook it. Put it close to the broiler and flip it as soon as it's brown then take it out as soon as the other side is brown too. Good stuff.

I had a hankering for some spaghetti with tomato sauce, but lo! The pantry held no jars of prepared tomato sauces! There were, however, plenty of cans of diced and whole tomatoes (pretty much the only fruit/vegetable that I buy canned) calling out to me to be the base for my latest creation. I had a couple of old poblanos and an onion that were quickly chopped and sauteed in some olive oil. I added two cans of diced tomatoes, half a clove of garlic and fresh herbs from my balcony. After a simmer of about an hour it made a fabulous sauce. I decided it needed a higher concentration of tomato, so I added another can. I quickly heated up some of the leftover pork from the other night in a skillet and dumped it all on some spaghetti with a heap of parmesan cheese. Delicious. It took a little longer than my typical dinner but the sauce was worth the wait. The tomato flavor was very bright and this simple sauce beat most of the jars you can find at the supermarket hands down.