Jul 13 2010

Pretzel Dogs

When Dan and I had our overnight camp out with people from his work, some of the other wives were talking about their love of Craig’s List and all of the great “furniture deals” they have found. One of the wives was talking about how she refinished a farm table for her backyard. It sounded fabulous!

I logged into the site late last week and found something that interested me. I’ve been looking for a distressed black dining room table with a leaf . You would think that would be a pretty easy thing to find. Sure, for$1000 plus – Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Ballard Designs – no problem.

My Dad has refinished some pretty fabulous pieces for me over the years and I’ve been on the hunt at consignment stores to find another table project. He’s getting backed up with projects – refinishing a piano, a sewing table, tiled coffee table – I knew it was going to be a while.

I found a black table without a leaf – I was primarily interested in the wooden chairs – they looked pretty sturdy. I became more interested when I saw that the price for the table and 4 chairs was $115.00. I jumped at the deal. My parents lived close to the seller, so they went and checked out the dining set. It needed to be cleaned, had some scratches and marks – but they thought I would like it. They loaded it into their truck and even delivered it.

I got some new cleaning products, touched up the scratches and purchased some chair cushions and placemats and it was good to go. I snapped a quick photo with my iPhone. Sucky lighting, but I doubt anyone minds.

I am still on the hunt for a table with a leaf – but the chairs are definitely worth keeping – super comfortable, even without the pads. Now I need a lighter carpet to switch things up a bit. I even managed to sell my old table and chairs at a garage sale over the weekend – $225.00 – woohoo!

The First Meal…

My BFF Hilly joined me for my first meal at the new table. I found a recipe online for pretzel dogs. I’ve been obsessed with pretzel dough croissants and bread at the farmer’s market, so I wanted to see what I could do with the left over package of turkey dogs from the 4th of July. (My niece doesn’t like hamburgers, so I got them for her).

I found a recipe on the San Jose Examiner’s website from April 2010 in honor of National Pretzel Day. It was supposed to be an easy Auntie Anne’s Pretzel knock-off recipe.

The Ingredients:

1 Package of Hot Dogs
1 Can Pillsbury Refrigerated Breadstick Dough – 12 breadsticks
1 Cup Water
3 Tablespoons Baking Soda
Coarse Sea Salt

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray (I didn’t use enough – give it a really good coating because mine still stuck a little bit)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop in the hot dogs for 3-4 minutes. Remove and cool enough to handle.

Separate the refrigerated breadsticks. Starting at one end, leaving about an inch of hot dog exposed, wrap the dog with the dough.

Use the extra dough to make regular breadsticks – a package of dogs is 8 and you will have 4 extra, so twist 2 together to form two breadsticks.

Boil 1 cup of water and pour into a bowl large enough to fit a dough wrapped hot dog.

Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda to the boiling water and mix well – it will fizz up…

Dip each dough wrapped hot dog in the water/soda mixture for 30 seconds, turning so that all sides are coated.

The dough will start to unwrap a little bit, just re-wrap the ends if that happens. Place each dipped dog on the prepared baking sheet after dunking.

Sprinkle coarse salt over the tops of each pretzel dog. I definitely used too much, you really don’t need a lot due to the hot dogs already being pretty high in sodium.

Bake in the 400 degree oven until golden brown. They suggested 5-10 minutes – mine took the full 10 minutes. Watch carefully – check at 5, you don’t want the dough to burn.

Remove from oven and serve with your favorite hot dog condiments – We went with mustard.

I would make these again for sure. I’d just dial back the salt and I’d also use a different baking sheet and I’d coat it better. Definitely brought me back to “Pigs in a Blanket” – “Dogs in a Blanket” or whatever you called them as a kid in the 1970’s/80’s.

We had a great girl’s night out and I look forward to many more meals on my new Craig’s List find.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=609

Jul 08 2010

Minced Chicken in Lettuce Cups

I spent another evening with my friend Kristen at the Co-op for a cooking class. Last night’s class was a one recipe class. After class they gave us the opportunity to sign up for Summer classes. Purchase 3 classes (Ranging from $35 – $49) and get one free. It was a packed room and more of a cooking demo environment – we weren’t at tables like the taco class.

Our chef for the evening was Dionisio Esperas. He and his wife own a business specializing in private cooking classes, demonstrations, interactive dinner parties and personal chef services. Besides the co-op, they teach classes through the Learning Exchange, Shallots Cooking School at the Nugget Market in Vacaville, Bel Air Markets and William Sonoma. They have a combined 20 plus years of culinary experience.

He was great! I liked how he explained things and he added little tidbits of information while he cooked like Chef Gigi did.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Meat
1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Large Egg White
1 Teaspoon Sherry (a drinking sherry, not a cooking sherry – could also substitute rice wine vinegar)
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch
2 Tablespoons Safflower or Canola Oil  – (the best oils for cooking at a high heat)
3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
2 Green Onions, finely chopped (greens and whites)
1/4 Cup Fresh Water Chestnuts – finely diced – can used canned, but likes fresh better
1/4 Cup Celery – finely minced
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Toasted Sesame Oil
Garnish – 1/2 Cup Picked Cilantro Leaves and 1/4 Cup Toasted Pine Nuts
2 Heads Lettuce – he used baby butter lettuce, could also use iceberg or red leaf
Hoisin Sauce for Service

Instructions:

Remove whole lettuce leaves from lettuce head – being careful not to tear them. Rinse the leaves in cold water and stack neatly on top of each other. Cover with a damp towel (paper) and refrigerate until ready to use.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown and then set aside.

Trim chicken of any fat or connective tissue. Dice the chicken breasts into small cubes, about a 1/4 inch. He suggested cutting the thicker breast end lengthwise to make thinner pieces. You also want to make sure that the chicken is room temperature – you don’t want to drop cold chicken into the hot oil because it cools it down too much.

Combine the chicken in a bowl with the salt, egg white, sherry and cornstarch and mix well. Marinate for at least 15 minutes or as long as overnight. The marinade acts as a tenderizer and binding agent.

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil and mix to dissolve the sugar. Preheat a wok or large sauté pan to almost smoking. He made a joke and said about the only way to get it hot enough is to purchase a $5000 stove – hah!

The next step is to add in the oil and stir fry marinated chicken until it just turns opaque. Then add the garlic, green onions and celery and stir-fry another 30 seconds. Add in chestnuts and soy mixture and mix all of the ingredients in the pan well. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the chicken is done. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

To form the lettuce wrap, spread a bit of Hoisin sauce onto the leaf. Spoon some of the chicken filling into leaf (garnishing with cilantro leaves and pine nuts) and close up forming a small package.

They tasted delicious! I liked the use of the baby butter lettuce – it just folded up really easily while eating and balancing a plate on my knee. 😉

The gal next to me was also taking pictures throughout the class. She leaned over to inform me that the camera she was using was just her “crap” camera, that her normal camera and all of her snazzy lenses were at home. Kind of funny since all I had was my Sony Cybershot, not like I was whipping out a macro lens for my close-up photo. I did however borrow my friend Kristen’s knee for the photo shoot, LOL.

Chef Dionisio got a little crazy with the cilantro on the class demo platter.

My friend Kristen and I talked about substitutions – she thought she might use peanuts instead of pine nuts and I think I might use cellophane noodles for crunch. Chef Dionisio also mentioned that he catered a vegetarian wedding and they made these as appetizers using tofu instead of chicken.

I signed up for more classes that will take me through September. I picked a pretty wide variety, so I’m excited. They also offer some gardening classes through Soil Born Farms – which is a local urban agriculture project – sounds like that might be fun too.

I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it is to have free time to do some of the things that I enjoy. I’m not teaching as many evening classes as I was and I’m no longer selling designer clothing or doing evening trunk shows. I finally feel like I have my life back and life is definitely good!

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=601

Jul 07 2010

Deede takes the gold…

I woke up this morning to an in-box filled with Deede’s 1st place chili cook-off recipe and photos.

Let me give you a little background on our friend Deede. She moved to Sacramento, CA from Reno, NV for work. We met her through Dan’s car club and I immediately knew that she would be a ton of fun to hangout with. She married another member of the car club (Josh) and we’ve all been hanging out since then.

She’s super creative, which is totally my thing. She loves to paint, sketch, knit, cook (baking is her specialty) – she likes everything dealing with architecture, art, farmer’s markets, and she’s definitely a foodie. There’s also the whole car thing. This woman knows more about cars than any woman I know – I think that’s hot.

Deede is the type of friend that would take time off work to hitch up a trailer to drive to South Lake Tahoe to tow her friend’s motorcycle home to Sacramento because of a bald tire. Yep – she did that for Dan last Summer. She’s the type of friend that I can count on 24-7, that brings so much levity to any situation. She’s hysterical, in love with Nerds, Macaroons, Cupcakes and her Great Dane, Max. She also makes a freakin’ mean pie. She is amazing and I’m so happy that a Subaru STI brought us together.

These photos have Deede written all over them…

Decked out in her vintage owl apron, showing off her 1st place gold medal and bowl of chili…

Gangsta pose that turned into “Pirate-ish” according to her, LOL.

Deede’s 1st place chili is based on a Smokey Beef and Bacon Chili recipe from Sunset Magazine, January 2007.

She made some changes to the recipe and they are noted below.

Ingredients:
2 Slices Thick Cut Bacon – finely chopped
1 Large Onion – finely chopped – she used a sweet white onion
1 Large Garlic Clove – minced
1 1/2 lbs. Lean Ground Beef – she used 3/4 lbs. ground chuck and 3/4 lbs. ground pork
1 Tablespoon plus 1 1/2 Teaspoons ground chili powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Cumin
1 1/2 Teaspoons Smoked Spanish Paprika
1/2 Teaspoon to 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Cayenne Pepper – she used a heaping 1/2 teaspoon and a pinch
1/2 Teaspoon Chipotle Chili Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Ancho Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt (Kosher)
14.5 Ounce Can Crushed Fire Roasted Tomatoes – she used diced
8 oz. Can Tomato Sauce
1 Cup IPA or Pilsner Beer – she used Full Sail IPA
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire
1  Can (14.5 oz.) Pinto Beans, drained – she used a little over half a can each of rinsed red kidney and pinto beans

Directions:

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, cook bacon, stirring until it just begins to brown, about 4 minutes. Add onion, lower heat to medium, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent – about 4-7 minutes. Uncover pan, stir in garlic and cook for additional minute.

Increase heat to medium-high and add ground chuck and ground pork; break it up with a wooden spoon and stir gently until it loses the raw color, 6-8 minutes. Stir in spices and 1 teaspoon salt and cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, beer, Worcestershire and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover partially and cook 20 minutes.

Add beans and cook another 20 minutes uncovered. Season to taste with additional salt.

The original Sunset Magazine recipe was found online at MyRecipes.com.

Now you have 2 new chili recipes to try – too bad it’s hot weather in most places – we’re nearing 100 degrees around here. I put my leftover chili into the freezer last night.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=584