Chicken Cacciatora

Tonight I have to make a quick chicken dish when I get home from Kidz Club. Then it's the season premiere of Lost, which I am totally pumped about. Even though I am not of Italian extraction I find myself doing a lot of Italian dishes because they are quick and easy.

Chicken Cacciatora is "hunter's chicken". It is chicken browned and then stewed in mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and green peppers. I try to sneak a little heat in in the from of crushed pepper, but the girls don't like hot stuff so I have to be careful.

I am going to serve this over farfalle pasta. It would also be nice with a side of potatoes roasted with garlic and rosemary.

Chicken Cacciatora

1 frying chicken cut into pieces
2 T. olive oil
1 green bell pepper, cubed
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 12 oz can of tomatoes
10 or so mushrooms (porchini will give the most flavor, but white mushrooms are OK in a pinch)
1/4 t. crushed red pepper
1/2 c. dry red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the chicken until well carmelized in 1 T. olive oil. Remove from pan. Cook the bell pepper, and onion until soft. Remove from pan. Saute the mushrooms in another T of olive oil. Deglaze the pan with red wine and reduce by half. Add the tomatoes and the red pepper. Return chicken and vegetables to the pan. Cook for about 45 minutes until chicken falls off the bone. Taste and adjust seasoning

Serve over pasta.

Mary's Spagehetti Sauce (Gravy)

Well, today I am cooking my wife's best friends spaghetti sauce. Since I am not Italian I can get away with calling it spaghetti sauce. It is actually known as "gravy" a term I have picked up since all the paisanos from Brooklyn started moving down the shore. One of the wonderful benefits of that migration to us beach bums is that our stores are now filled with the best Italian provisions and there are several Italian specialty stores where you can get fantastic bread from Brooklyn or Newark, NJ.

Before Mary taught my wife to make sauce, I was never very happy with our attempts. It just was never right. Mary generously unfolded for us the secrets of the best sauce I have every had. Here are some of the secrets. First of all, you must brown the tomato paste in olive oil before adding the rest of the tomatoes. The carmalization of the tomato paste adds to the depth of flavor so it is important not to skip this step. Another secret is to infuse the olive oil with onions and garlic rather than cooking the onions and garlic along time in the sauce. A final secret has to do with the tomatoes you use. It is important not to use imported tomatoes. The reason this is the case is that imported tomatoes are a cooked product. This is to get around import taxes on imported vegetables. If you use American tomato products you get more actual unadulterated tomatoes. (Who knew?)

So here goes the recipe. The recipe make quite a bit and it freezes well.

Mary's Tomato Sauce

1 #10 can of crushed tomatoes (not imported)
1/5 #10 can of tomato sauce
1 18 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 c. olive oil
2 large onions, diced
3-6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 T garlic powder
salt & pepper
sugar

3 lbs sweet Italian sausage, well browned
meatballs (recipe below)

In a large stock pot, sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are soft and translucent. (Adding a couple of pinches of salt at the beginning of cooking helps this along). Remove onions and garlic from pan, drain as much olive oil as possible back into the pan. Over high heat brown the tomato paste in the olive oil. Add the garlic powder, about 2 t. of salt and 20 grinds of pepper to the tomato paste. Blend in while continuing to cook a bit longer. Add the crushed tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Taste and correct for seasoning. If the sauce is to acid add a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Bring to simmer. At this point I put aside a couple of cups of sauce for my son who is a vegetarian. Add sausage that has been browned on all sides (again the browning is important as it adds to the flavor profile) and the meatballs. It is actually the addition of and cooking with the meat that turns the sauce into "gravy". Cook at a slow simmer for 3-4 hours.

Mary's Meatballs

3 lb. of ground beef
6 eggs
6 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup of dried parsley
1/2 cup of pecorino romano cheese
salt, pepper
unflavored dried bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375%. Beat the eggs together with the parsley, cheese, salt and pepper. (Go easy on the salt as the cheese is salty). Mix in the garlic. Mix the meat into this mixture. Add enough bread crumbs so that the wetness is gone and the mixture holds together well. (About 3/4-1 and 1/4 cups). Make sure the everything is mixed together well.

Dip your fingers in oil. Roll mixture into balls about 1 and 1/2 times the size of a golf ball. Place in baking dish. Add about 1/4 of an inch of water to the baking dish. Bake in oven for about 40 minutes until the meatballs are browned. Add the meatballs to the sauce.

Enjoy!

Beefsteak Dinner (Whole Beef Tenderloin Roasted in a Kosher Salt Crust)

It is our family tradition to cook a Beefsteak dinner on New Years Eve. For those of you who don't know, "Beefsteak" is what a whole beef tenderloin roasted in a "cast" of Kosher Salt is called in North Jersey. The meat is cooked rare, sliced thin, dipped in melted butter, and served on thin sliced Italian or just plain white bread. It is always accompanied by a "relish tray" of raw carrots, celery, scallions, radishes, olives and pickles. Sometimes people serve fries at a Beefsteak dinner, but I have always thought they fill you up to much to have room for the star of the show.

I have never heard of this style of cooking a beef tenderloin outside of my native North Jersey, but in those parts there are whole businesses built around doing "Beefsteaks". It is common for organizations to hold Beefsteaks as fund raisers. They are also often done for political fund raisers. The best way to do a beef steak though is with a bunch of friends for a special time of celebration.

When I was growing up my uncle used to cater Beefsteaks and this is how the tradition got handed down to me. I have old eight millimeter films of my parents hosting new years eve Beefsteaks our house in Clifton. (My folks were quite the party people in those days.) One wonderful memory I have is of sitting in School # 4 on West 2nd Street and smelling the delicious aroma of beef steak roasting in an open pit at Hap Nightingales, the beef steak caterer next to the school. (By the way, Hap Nightingale is still owned by the Nightingale family in the same location they have been cooking Beefsteaks for the last 60 years.)

This year we had our beef steak at the home of Russ and Debbie, in Lancaster, PA. We introduced the tradition to them a few years back and Russ always wants to get together to Ring in the New Year with this decadent tradition. He invited a few friends over to join us, so the tradition is spreading outside of it's North Jersey environs.

You can find different recipes for salt crusted beef tenderloin on the Internet, but all of them complicate this simple way of cooking this select cut of beef.

Here is my recipe for how to cook a Beefsteak. You have to follow it to a T to get the full North Jersey experience.

North Jersey Style Beefsteak Dinner

1 whole beef tenderloin, trimmed (about 6 or 7 lbs.)
1 box Kosher Salt
Water
1 lb butter
2 loafs Italian Bread

Preheat oven to 400.

Moisten kosher salt with enough water so that it just sticks together.
Place tenderloin in a low sided pan, bend thin end of tenderloin up so that the girth of the meat if fairly uniform. Put a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the beef. Encase the beef fully in the salt so that is completed covered with about 3/4 of an inch of salt and no meat is showing through.

Roast the meat in the oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the thermometer reads 120. Let meat rest in the salt crust for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour. It will continue to cook in the salt crust. Remove salt crust when temperature is between 140 and 145.

While meat is resting heat butter in a roasting pan until it is just melted.

Rinse salt off meat. Slice it thin. Place sliced meat into melted butter. Meat should be rare to medium rare. You can cook it to be more well done in the butter if desired, but this is not recommended.

Serve meat on thin slices of bread. Pass around the relish tray, and the fresh ground black pepper. A traditional thing to drink with a beefsteak dinner is red birch beer on tap.

Merry Christmas From the House Hubbie!

I miss Uncle Luke!

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$29,000

That is the amount a family saves in child care, transportation costs, medical cost, food expenses, etc if one parent stays home to watch over the kids. according to The Simple Dollar.
hat tip The Job Board

What's For Dinner? (During A Crazy Week)

I have a wild, crazy week ahead of me. Since my main vocation is serving as the pastor of a small church, the week before Christmas is one of my two busiest weeks during the year. Add to that the fact that my college age children are returning from school and then the family is headed in ten different directions for college events, and you get the picture. Yesterday I picked my daughter up from the airport, Wednesday my son comes home for Christmas break from Montclair State. Today the girls are headed up to Granma Glady's to bake Norwegian Christmas cookies with their cousins. Wednesday we have our youth group Christmas party at our home. Thursday the girls go over to my mother's house to make olie koeken. I will make a half hearted attempt to publish this weeks dinner menu, and share a few recipes, but I will also use this week to publish a couple of our family's traditonal dutch and norwegian recipes.

Monday

Norwegian Waffles
and Left Overs

Tuesday

Dinner at Granma Glady's

Wednesday

Fusilli with Meat Sauce
Garlic Bread
Tossed Salad

Thursday

Chicken in the pot
Peas
Rice

Friday

Pizza

Saturday

Meatloaf
Mashed Potatoes
Peas

Sunday

Family Christmas Gathering

Norwegian Christmas Eve

I enjoy Norwegian Christmas Eve by adoption rather than by heritage having married into a Viking Clan. In our family, as in most families of Scandinavian decent, Christmas Eve is a time for the extended family to gather, usually at Grandma Glady's house, to enjoy the family, sing Christmas Carols, read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and enjoy a delicious Christmas smorgasbord.

As our family has grown to include other ethnic groups (including me) the smorgasbord has come to include lasagna, salad (for the vegans in our midst) and other non-Scandinavian recipes, but there is always some Norwegian soul food. Christine usually brings the Creamed Herring and Carol the Kjottkaker (meatballs) which are highlights among other main dishes. Thankfully, we have never had to endure the horror of Lutefisk, a dish made from dried cod fish reconstituted in a solution of water and lye. Although it is traditional in many Norwegian families, it never was in the Pierce home.

The main attraction for Christmas Eve is the sweets. There is always a grand assortment of cookies including Sandkaker, Spritz, Serinakaker, and Krumkaker. Lingenberry jam and whipped cream are on hand to enrich the cookies. Sometimes someone has made it over to Brooklyn to pick up a Kringle, which is a special treat. The main event for the sweets is the Risgrǿt (Norwegian Rice Pudding-see recipe below). It always has an almond buried inside and the lucky person to get the almond in their dish is the winner of a marzipan pig. For some reason this honor is usually won by our nephew Daniel.

This year our celebration is changing to meet the realities of changing family circumstances. Grandma is having trouble walking this year so the celebration will be moved to Aunt Margie and Uncle Richard's house. Also, our celebration will not be on Christmas Eve but the night before as growing families now have to be in different places to share themselves fairly with the in-laws. Whenever it takes place though, the gathering of as much of the extended family as possible around the Christmas tree is one of the most looked forward to events of the year. The warm conversation, the joyful singing, the reverent recounting of the Christmas story and food filled with memories gives us a perspective on what this time of year is all about.

Grandma Glady's Risgrǿt

4 cups long grain white rice
8 cups whole milk
1 t. salt
4 T. unsalted butter
2 cups heavy cream
4 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla

In a heavy sauce pan, cook rice with milk and salt over very gentle heat until rice is thick and tender, stirring frequently. Keep an eye on the rice as it cooks and if milk is absorbed add more milk. When finished rice should be tender (taste it to be sure it is not al dente) and it should be a very thick porridge almost like a soft ball of dough.

Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the cooked rice. Chill.

Serve risgrǿt in a large bowl with an almond hidden in the bowl. Allow people to serve themselves. Serve risgrǿt with lingonberry jam. The person who finds the almond wins a prize.

Chicken Fricassee

This is one of our family favorites. I made it today. It was the prefect comfort food for the rainy, icy weather. I like to use chicken breast on the rack as it produces a richer broth, but I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts because that's what was in the fridge and it was quick, easy and tasty. I serve this over brown rice cooked in a rice cooker, which make this meal a cinch.

3 large chicken breasts
2 ribs of celery, cut into chunks
4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 medium yellow onion sliced into small wedges
enough water to just cover
6 peppercorns
salt to taste
3 T butter
3 T flour

Put chicken breasts, celery, carrots, onion and peppercorns into a medium pan with a tight fitting lid. Add water to just cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Remove any scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover and cook until carrots are soft, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove chicken, celery, carrots, and onions, season these ingredients with salt to taste. Bring broth back to a boil, reduce by half. Knead the butter and flour together (beurre manie). Wisk 2 T of buerre manie to broth, which should result in a white sauce. Sauce should coat a spoon. If more thickening is needed wisk in additional buerre manie. Taste, add salt to taste.

Pull chicken apart into large shreds. Return chicken, celery, carrots and onions back to the pan and heat through.

Serve over steamed rice.

Home Fried Potatoes

I cook these potatoes when I have steak or for breakfast.

1 medium potatoe per person plus 1 or 2 extra for the whole gang.
(use a starchy potatoe like a russet)
oil
optional (onions, herbs)
salt
pepper

Peel the potatoes, cut the larger ones into quarters and the smaller ones in half. Slice them into 1/8 thick slices. Heat up about 1 or 2 Tbs. of a vegetable oil in a cast iron or other heavy skillet. When oil thins and ripples in the pan add the potatoes, press down into the pan. Turn heat very low. DON'T turn the potatoes until you hear them start to sizzle. Leave for 3 to 5 minutes without turning after sizzeling. Turn potatoes with a metal spatula scrapping all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Repeat this process several times until the potatoes are almost soft. At this point you could also add diced onions and various herbs such as thyme, parsley, chives, or whatever your favorite is. (My daughter doesn't like onions so I just leave them plain). Cover pan with a tight fitting lid and cook until potatoes are tender. Scrape and turn one more time. Add salt and pepper. Turn heat to high and cook until a nice brown crust forms on the bottom of the potatoes. Serve portions by lifting out of the pan and turning the serving over so the brown goodness is on top.

The ones I mad last night were yum, especially with the mushroom, shallot and wine pan sauce from the steak running into them.

What's for Dinner

I thought a great way to use this blog would be to post my weekly menu planning. Breakfasts are pretty simple for me. Usually it's either hot or cold cereal, one in a while I will do eggs, pancakes or frenchtoast, but usually this is on the weekend as since we have to get out of the house so early to get the kids to school. I also pack the kids lunch. They want the same thing every day--a sandwich, piece of fruit and something sweet. Since cold cuts start at $4.99 a pound, I try to save by roasting a cheap cut of beef or a whole chicken which I slice for sandwiches.

Dinner, however is a challenge. Putting together five to seven meals a week that appeal to the whole family and don't take half a day to cook can be a challenge. So I think a great thing for us house husbands would be to share a weekly dinner menus. I will also post during the week the recipes I find and come up with that I think are pretty good that I use in these meals.

This weeks menu plan.

Monday:
New York Strip Steaks w/ mushrooms, red wine and shallot sauce
Home Fried
Steamed Broccoli

Tuesday:
Rob's concert at Montclair State University
Dinner with Aunt Cindy (yea, I have the night off)

Wednesday
Chicken Friccasee
Brown Rice

Thursday
Fish (I'll see what's fresh at my fish guy)

Friday
Meatloaf
Noodles w/ Brown Butter Sauce
Green Beans

Saturday
Navy Bean & Bacon Soup
Bread
Salad

Sunday
Eat out after church
Home Made Pizza's

Enjoy!

Welcome to House Hubbie's Cooking Blog

About eight month ago my wife started a new sales job. It was her first full time job after staying home to raise our four kids. It became pretty clear after about 4 months of her working full time that things were not working in terms of household management.

It was at this point that I decided that I needed to quit my second job and take the responsibility for most of the household management. My main responsibilities are managing the family finances, doing the laundry, keeping the kitchen clean and doing most of the cooking.

The cooking part was pretty cool, because I have always enjoyed cooking, so now I am just doing it on a more regular basis. Pretty soon I realized I was spending time on the web looking for recipes and figuring out new recipes of my own. I figured, hey, why not start sharing these? So today is the launch of House Hubbie's Home Cooking, a blog about cooking, but with particular guy-ward slant. Please read my blog, bookmark, syndicate it, do whatever you have to and be sure to click on the ads as I hope I can maybe help out with the family finances a bit with this new little side project.