Smoked Trout Spread

Posted on April 17, 2024 by tbuzzee

We were out with friends at a restaurant on a Saturday evening, and they had a special appetizer of smoked trout spread topped with dill and salmon caviar served with crisped pita slices.

It was wonderful, we actually ordered a second jar to share.

The same group of friends was coming over for Easter lunch, and I decided to try my hand at making a batch of my own to offer at our feast.

INGREDIENTS
•8 oz smoked trout, skin removed, flaked
•8 oz cream cheese, softened
•1/3 cup sour cream
•1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
•1 scallion, finely chopped
•1 tsp garlic powder
•1 tsp paprika
•1 tsp lemon juice
•1/2 tsp prepared horseradish
•1/4 tsp dried dill weed
•1/4 tsp black pepper
•1/8 tsp Cayenne
•Salmon caviar, for garnish

It actually turned out pretty well, if not as flavorful as the restaurant offering. I used canned smoked trout, and it wasn’t until we were all my table that I have pretty terrific fish monger and smokehouse just down the street by my village center.

Next time I make this, I plan on seeing if they smoke more than my fave salmon.

Or, I shall try using smoked mussels.

Putting it together is dead simple…

Whip the cream cheese together with the sour cream and seasonings, then stir in the trout, reserving the caviar for serving.

Transfer to a tightly covered jar and stash in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to blend together.

To serve, transfer to a container, top with the caviar, and offer crackers.

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Flanken-Cut Beef Ribs in the Pressure Cooker

Posted on April 16, 2024 by tbuzzee

My old, trusty Multi Pot died in December, just in time for me to get this beauty as a kinda cool replacement.

It is, as a friend terms it, “kinda spendy,” but it also takes care of locking the machine when pressure cooking, and then (freaked me out the first time), does controlled release of the pressure on its very own.

It doesn’t make yogurt, as most of the other machines seem to, but, considering I have gotten this far without ever making it…

INGREDIENTS
Ribs:
•1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
•Flanken-Cut beef ribs (I used 5 here)
•Steakhouse Seasoning

Sauce:
•1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
•1 cup of your fave barbecue sauce
•1/4 cup water
•1/4 cup lower sodium tamari
•1 pear, cored, and diced
•2 tbsp brown sugar
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•3 cloves garlic, minced
•2 tsp grated ginger
•1 tsp mesquite liquid smoke
•1 tsp Sambal Oelek

*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.

Flanken-cut ribs are long, thin slices across the bone of beef short rib. To best fit them in the multi cooker, I cut each in half.

Season your ribs with your fave steakhouse seasoning, then set your multi cooker to Sauté and add the oil.

My new machine beeps when the oil is up to temperature for sautéeing.

Add the seasoned ribs in a single layer in the bottom of the pot – I usually do four at a time, then repeat.

Sauté for two minutes, then turn the ribs over and sauté for another two minutes.

Remove the browned ribs from the pot, arrange on a plate, and repeat the process with the remaining ribs. They will not be cooked through at this point, and that is totally fine.

Once all the ribs have been browned, let them rest on the plate while you turn off the multi cooker and let it cool down.

Once the pot if cool, wipe the interior down with a paper towel to get rid of any fat or browned bits in the bottom.

Add the second tablespoon of oil to the pot and set it back on Sauté.

Add the pear chunks, garlic and ginger, then sauté for five minutes or so, until the pear is tender and the garlic and ginger aromatic.

Add the remaining sauce ingerdients and stir to blend well, cooking for another few minutes before turning the pan off.

Now, it is pressure cooker time!

Layer the ribs on top of the sauce in the pan, mebbe tossing them in it to coat.

Set your pot to 15 minutes under High Pressure, then seal and lock the lid.

When the cycle ends, allow the multi cooker to rest for another ten minutes. As I noted, mine will automatically reduce pressure in bursts during this rest time.

Unlock and open the lid, then remove the ribs to a clean plate and keep warm.

Only one last step!

Return your multi cooker to Simmer and cook the sauce, stirring every now and then, until it has thickened up and reduced a bit.

Serve as you will.

We had ours with Waldorf Coleslaw and some pan fired potatoes, green beans, and baby carrots.

Oh, I also scattered some chopped scallions over all, just because.

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Chicken and Pineapple Sammiches

Posted on April 15, 2024 by tbuzzee

Late at night and early into the morning, I can usually be found sitting at the kitchen table with my latest novel.

This one particular night/morning, the characters were talking about bringing lunch back for a friend, who promptly asked for the chicken sandwich with pineapple.

Hmmm.

Off to da google I went, and came across a version of this on allrecipes.com.

INGREDIENTS
Marinade:
•1 (8 oz) can pineapple tidbits with juice
•1 cup lower sodium Tamari
•1 tsp onion powder
•2 tbsp sugar
•1/4 cup lemon juice
•2 tbsp barbeque sauce
•1/2 tsp curry powder

Chicken:
•Boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Sammich:
•Everything brioche rolls
•Thousand Island Dressing
•Sliced pineapple
•Provolone cheese
•Shredded lettuce

Combine the marinade ingredients together (an immersion blender works a treat here) and pour over the chicken in a glass container with a tight fitting cover.

Note: most recipes I came across called for boneless, skinless chicken breast that was pounded to a uniform thickness; bit I think that boneless, skinless thighs have more flavor, and they are already kinda burger shaped, so did not bother with the whole pounding to a uniform thickness bit.

Cover the chicken and stash in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

Note: if you like, once marinated, you can grill your chicken, but I opted for my trusty air fryer.

Heat your air fryer to 400º.

Note: I am on my third air fryer, and they all work a bit differently. My current model seems to work best at 400º and needs to preheat. By all means go by your experience with your model for cooking temps and all.

Line your cooking basket/tray with parchment paper, then remove the chicken from the marinade and arrange in a single layer. My air fryer is pretty big, so I added some frozen sweet potato fries.

Air fry the chicken for 12 minutes, then turn them over, place a slice of pineapple on each piece, and air fry for another eight minutes or so, until cooked.

Top each piece with Provolone and air fry just until the cheese is melted.

To serve, toast your rolls, then spread with Thousand Island dressing. Top with the chicken, pineapple, cheese, and lettuce.

 

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Ham and Swiss Croissant Casserole

Posted on April 12, 2024 by tbuzzee

For his birthday recently, we had some friends over for a brunch.

Since we had just had another group of friends over for Easter dinner, my husband thought that a brunch would be just the thing; and, since we still had some of that lovely Snoop Dogg Ham leftover, I went in search of ham-based brunch recipes.

Closet Cooking came up with the winner, which I based this recipe on, only adjusting the seasonings and going full Swiss cheese.

INGREDIENTS
Casserole:
•12 cups (about 12-16) croissants
•6 oz ham (deli sliced or cubed)
•8 oz shredded Swiss cheese
•1 cup milk
•1/2 cup half and half
•6 large eggs, lightly beaten
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce – or your fave hot sauce, to taste
•1 tsp dried thyme
•2 tbsp Dijon mustard
•1/2 tsp steakhouse seasoning
•1/2 tsp black pepper pepper
•1/8 tsp Cayenne

Sauce:
•Honey Mustard Dressing

*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.

Note: I bought croissants from ALDI early in the week (very nice, actually, but a bit small). The original recipe suggested using 12 to 16 croissants and cutting them into pieces. I decided to sort of cram eight whole croissants into the bottom of my baking dish, and it worked a treat.

Heat your oven to 350º and apply cooking spray to a 13×9 inch baking pan.

Line the bottom of the baking pan, then scatter the ham pieces on top.

Note: that spiral sliced, Snoop Dogg Ham was really, really good in this.

Top the ham and croissants with the shredded Swiss cheese.

Whisk the milk, half and half, eggs, Dijon mustard, Sherry Peppers, hot sauce, and seasonings together (as almost always, an immersion blender works a treat for this), then pour over the layered croissants, ham, and cheese in the baking dish.

Set it aside to rest for 20 minutes or so.

After resting, cover the baking dish tightly in foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes, until everything is bubbly and mebbe just a bit crusty in places.

Remove from the oven and let rest for ten minutes before serving.

Note: I used my own Honey Mustard Salad Dressing as the sauce, and it was pretty darned nice (that spinach salad would’ve been a nice side, too), but next time, I believe that I will go kinda classic and make a Blender Hollandaise Sauce.

Very happy brunching, for a birthday, or, just because!

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Chorizo & Sweet Potato Appetizer Balls

Posted on April 11, 2024 by tbuzzee

Yesterday, I posted about one of my new fave Roasted Sweet Potato recipes.

Today, I am gonna mash some of those tasty sweet potatoes and turn them into appetizer meatballs with Chorizo, Pepper Jack Cheese, and a bit of biscuit mix.

They were very good, but very rich and I should’ve used a smaller scoop to make the meatballs. I still ended up with 24 kinda large (two tablespoon scoop) meatballs, but a smaller scoop would’ve been better.

The good thing is, they freeze really well, so even with 60 meatballs, you can just stash ’em in freezer bags and grab ’em as needed.

INGREDIENTS
•1 lb Chorizo sausage, casings removed
•2-1/4 cups all-purpose biscuit mix
•1 (8 oz) bag shredded Pepper Jack cheese
•1/2 cup mashed roasted sweet potato
•1/8 tsp ground allspice
•1/8 tsp steakhouse seasoning

Important Note: the nice folx at Southern Living, where I came across the recipe this is based on, suggested simply “stirring together” the ingredients.

Do not do it!

This recipe calls for the food processor fitted with the metal blade.

So…

tumble all your ingredients into that food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until nicely mixed.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and scoop the mixture into balls.

As you can see, these were pretty big for a munchie, but I got two dozen.

If you’d like, you can bake them right away (poistion them about one inch apart, becaase they will spread a bit)in a 350º oven for 20 minutes before serving, or…

Just pop that pan in the freezer until the balls are well and truly frozen, then transfer to freezer bags for use as needed.

When ready to bake, simply take out as many as you need and bake from frozen until done, mebbe 25 minutes.

I served ours with sweet chili sauce, but you could try stirring 1/2 cup of plum jam into three tablespoons of Dijon mustard for a spicy sweet dipping sauce.

 

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Roasted Sweet Potato With Tamari and Ginger

Posted on April 10, 2024 by tbuzzee

A looong time ago, I had a pretty memorable lunch in the Napa Valley. It was rabbit in a black bean sauce and sweet potato marinated in Tamari and ginger, then grilled. This sweet potato is peeled, cubed, and roasted, but comes in a pretty close second to that particular lunch.

I made this batch as part of an appetizer recipe I will cover tomorrow, but it came out tasting so very good, that I feel it deserves its very own stand alone post. We are about to have a lot more sweet potatoes around here.

INGREDIENTS
•1 sweet potato*
•1 tsp ginger
•2 tbsp Tamari
•2 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
•1/2 tsp steakhouse seasoning

*Or more, I did not need a lot for my goal recipe, but you may want to roast several.

Preheat your oven to 425º and line a large baking pan with parchment paper.

Peel your sweet potato and cut into similarly sized chunks.

Toss in a bowl with the remaining ingredients then arrange in a single layer on the parchment.

Pop into the oven and roast for 25 minutes until tender. Serve immediately, or save them and use in other recipes.

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French Carrots

Posted on April 4, 2024 by tbuzzee

This is a deceptively simple dish.

The biggest deal is that you should make it the day before serving, so the carrots have absorbed some of the flavor from the French dressing, which you can make (this is my current fave), or simply use your favorite store bought, creamy or Catalina.

I usually serve this as an appetizer, but I suppose one could make an argument that it is more like a salad course. Either way works a treat.

INGREDIENTS
•Carrots
•French dressing
•Parsley

Peel and slice your carrots into thin strips.

Pour French dressing over to cover, then cover and stash in the fridge overnight.

When ready to serve, toss with freshly chopped parsley.

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Orange and Honey Glazed Ham

Posted on April 3, 2024 by tbuzzee

This is a variation on Snoop Dogg’s Ham, which starts with a spiral sliced ham and features a home made honey glaze.

It is one of my fave ways to serve a ham, but this time, I replaced the called for pineapple juice with orange (due to the preferences of one of our guests), and added some hot honey and steak seasoning into the mix.

All in all, a most excellent result, and I think that our dinner guests were pretty happy and well fed.

INGREDIENTS
•1 spiral sliced ham
•2 cups orange juice
•1/2 cup honey
•1/4 cup hot honey
•1/3 cup brown sugar
•1 tbsp steakhouse seasoning
•2 tbsp milk
•1 tsp black pepper

Heat your oven to 300º and line a large rimmed baking dish with parchment paper and position the ham in the pan.

Combine the orange juice, honey, hot honey, brown sugar, milk and seasonings together (an immersion blender works a treat), then pour one cup or so over the ham.

Pop into the oven and bake for two hours, pouring more of the orange juice mixture over the ham every 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes before serving.

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Whoopie Pies

Posted on April 2, 2024 by tbuzzee

My mom made whoopie pies a lot, and I have her recipe around here somewhere, but…

well…

This batch did not quite turn out correctly. I mean, they tasted awesome; but they simply did not puff up the way they should’ve.

I knew leaving baking powder out of the batter was a mistake. Oh well, I have put it back in for this post.

INGREDIENTS
Whoopie Pies:
•1 cup sugar
•1-1/2 cup butter
•1/4 cup mayonnaise
•2 large eggs
•2 cups flour
•1/2 cup baking cocoa
•1-1/2 tsp baking soda
•1-1/2 tsp baking powder
•1/2 tsp salt
•1 cup buttermilk
•1 tbsp plus 1 tsp vanilla

Filling:
•4 cups confectioners’ sugar
•1 cup solid shortening (Crisco)
•1/4 cup water
•1-1/2 tsp vanilla
•1/8 tsp salt

No buttermilk? No problem! Simply place one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup and add milk to make one full cup. Stir,. then set aside to rest for a few minutes.

Heat your oven to 350º and line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Cream the sugar together with the butter and mayonnaise, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Whisk the flour together with the baking soda and the baking powder and salt, then add to the butter and sugar mixture.

Add the buttermilk and vanilla and beat on medium speed for five minutes.

Note: I was making these into “red velvet” whoopie pies, so I also added a tube of red food coloring.

Drop the batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto your parchment lined baking pan, then pop into the oven for ten minutes.

Note: the pies will spread out as they bake (and, now that I’ve fixed the baking powder issue, they should also puff up a bit), so don’t crowd them in the pan. Four rows of three worked pretty well for me.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

I got four dozen little cakes.

Yeh.

I know.

They didn’t come out red, either.

Still and all, though, they tasted great!

While the cakes are cooling, whip the shortening until creamy, then add in the confectioners’ sugar, water, salt, and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

Note: in place of vanilla for the filling, I used this pistachio liqueur.

Once the cakes have cooled, spread the filling thickly on one and top with a second.

So, with 48 cakes, I ended up with 24 whoopie pies.

More than enough for a fun, if kinda flat dessert for a crowd, with several to send home with folx as well.

I am told they were also tasty for breakfast the next day.

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Steakhouse French Dressing

Posted on March 29, 2024 by tbuzzee

We have friends coming for a feast on Sunday, so I am busily making stuff ahead where I can. The cool thing (I think) is that stuff like this Steakhouse French Salad Dressing actually tastes better after it has rested for a day or so in the fridge.

I call this Steakhouse French because the recipe is based on one from a pretty famous steak house west of Boston, although I have cut the honey called for by one third, and the dressing is still wonderfully sweet and just tangy enough.

INGREDIENTS
•1/4 cup honey
•1/3 cup ketchup
•1/3 cup cider vinegar
•1/3 cup chopped red onion
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•1/2 tsp steak seasoning
•1/2 tsp smoked birch salt*
•1 tsp paprika
•1/2 tsp celery seed
•3/4 cup vegetable oil

*Feel free to use kosher salt.

Add all of the ingredients, except for the oil, to a blender jar and pulse until they are well and truly blended and smooth.

With the blender running, slowly stream the oil through the hole in the lid and continue to blend until the oil has emulsified into the dressing. It will take on a creamy look.

Transfer to a jar and stash in the fridge until needed. Like, mebbe for a strawberry and baby spinach salad?

 

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