New England Clam Chowder

The perfect bowl of clam chowder

 There is a great debate over which is better New England or Manhattan Clam Chowder. There is no such debate in our house. We all agree that New England Clam Chowder is superior. I think I made Manhattan Clam Chowder once. If I am going to make a tomato based seafood stew/soup it is going to be a bouillabaisse or cioppino. This is a clam chowder recipe that has been developed over years. I finally measured everything as I made it so that Katie could make it someday. I think it her favorite soup, at least for now. The secret is the seasonings. I know it looks like a lot of herbs and it is. But it is awesome and just right. Also the carrots add just a bit of sweetness to the soup. I think the perfect balance with the herbs. Every once in awhile, I add a bit of cayenne- just to spice up the soup. I don't like celery in my clam chowder but if you do go ahead and add some diced celery with the carrots.  

The herb mixture

New England Clam Chowder

3 Slices of Bacon, Finely Sliced
1/2 cup (75 g) of Onions, Diced

1/2 Cup (75 g) of Carrots, Diced

3 Small Potatoes (450 g), Peeled and Diced
3 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1/8 Tsp Each of Dried Oregano, Parsley, Dill, Basil, and Rosemary

1/16 Tsp Each of Dried Marjoram, Tarragon and Thyme

1 Tbsp Flour
2 Cans (6.5 oz. 184 g each) of Clams, Chopped
1 Cup (240 ml) of  Clam Juice (You should have enough from the Canned Clams)
1 Cup (240 ml) of Milk

1/2 Cup (120 ml) of Half and Half
1/4 Tsp of White Pepper

In a heavy-bottomed dutch oven or large sauce pan, sauté bacon.

Bacon and butter is there anything better?

Once bacon is starting to brown and is releasing its grease, lower heat and add onion, carrots, potatoes, garlic and the herbs.

Everything chopped and ready to go

Heat for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

An amazing mixture

(Take a moment to savor the incredible mix of bacon, onion, garlic, and herbs). Do not allow to brown. Drain clams and set aside, reserving the juice. Slowly stir in the flour and clam juices. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Add the half and half and milk and simmer 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

A low slow simmer works best

Add white pepper and clams. Heat on low until clams are heated through approximately 5 minutes. Do not allow to boil, as this toughens the clams. 

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes, I love it. This is my favorite clam chowder. To quote my husband "it rocks." 

Cheese Garlic Grits

Cheese garlic grits

I love cheese garlic grits. I make them every year for Thanksgiving and whenever else I can work them into a meal. They are great reheated the next day. I love the combination of cheese garlic grits with cranberry relish. I actually just ate a plate of leftover grits and cranberry relish. Yum! I only use Bob Red Mill's grits. They make the best grits. 
I interchange the cheeses depending on my mood. Somethings I add extra cheese. Steven likes garlic cheese (well cheese food) in these grits but lately it has been hard to find. I have used sharp and medium cheddar cheese, colby cheese, and a mixture of Italian cheeses. I do grate cheese for these and I do not use preshredded cheese from a bag. I love string cheese in my grits (I have no idea why but I do) so I tear up pieces of string cheese and add them to the grits. String cheese certainly isn't necessary and is not traditional. Some people use milk instead of water to cook their grits. I don't think it adds that much except calories. I also have been know to mix and match the spices. My current favorite is Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning. I also have used cayenne pepper; ancho chili pepper, chipotle pepper; and curry in place of the Creole seasoning. I use fresh minced garlic but I know people who use garlic powder (just don't use garlic salt). 

Cheese Garlic Grits

6 Cups (1440 ml) of Water
2 Cups (360 g) of Grits
1/2 Cup (113 g) of Butter
10 oz. (227 to 255 g) of Cheddar Cheese, Grated
3 Sticks of Mozzarella String Cheese, Cut into Small Pieces (Optional)
3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced 
1 Tsp of Creole Seasoning
Salt and Pepper, to Taste
Preheat oven to 350F/176 C/ Gas Mark 4. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add grits. Lower heat and cook slowly until thickened about 8 to 10 minutes. Add butter and stir to combine.

Mmmmmm butter

Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined.

Adding the rest of the ingredients

Stirring in all of the cheese yumminess

Pour into a 2.5  quart (2.4 L) casserole dish and bake for 35 minutes.

Ready for the oven

The botton line: will I make these again? Yes, I love them. I am so sad that I already finished off all of the leftover grits. 

Greek Chicken

Greek chicken

I went on a trip with my family and we ate at this amazing Greek restaurant. I loved the food. Everything had tons of lemon and oregano. It tasted to so fresh. I decided to try to replicate the tastes. We are having a very mild winter so the oregano (and most of our herbs) are still growing.
This dish took me a couple of tries to get it "right." I tried it first with boneless skinless chicken breasts and it just wasn't as good as using chicken pieces with the skin on. I use thighs in this recipe.
I also used different types of potatoes. My favorite turned out to be small red potatoes. I like lots of lemony taste so I used two lemons and their zest. If you aren't crazy about lemons- well you may not want to make this dish. I also used lots of pepper (but then I love pepper).

The key to Greek chicken is fresh oregano

Greek Chicken

6-8 Chicken Pieces (I use Thighs)
4 Large Potatoes or 8 Small Potatoes, Peeled and Diced
A Couple of Sprigs of Fresh Oregano, Chopped
1/2 of a Medium Onion, Chopped
4 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
Zest from One Lemon
Salt and Pepper, to Taste
1/4 Cup (60 ml) of Olive Oil
Juice of 2 Lemons

Preheat oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4 (regular or convection). Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Place the chicken in the pan and place the potatoes and onions around the chicken. salt and pepper the chicken and potatoes.

The great thing about this dish is it a one dish meal

Sprinkle the oregano and garlic over the chicken and potatoes. Pour the lemon juice and olive oil over the chicken and potatoes.

Ready for the oven

Bake in oven for 55-65 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F/ 74 (the best method is to cook to the proper temperature). If you use your convection oven, you should start checking for doneness around 45 minutes.

Yummy greek chicken!

The bottom line: Will I make this again? Yes. It is wonderful. Next time I may grate the potatoes so they are like hash browns.

Iron Rich Toffee Cereal Mix

Toffee Cereal Mix

I have HHT, which stands for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Never heard of it? It is a genetic disease that affects blood vessels and occurs in 1 in 5,000 people. Approximately 1.2 million people have hht worldwide which makes it uncommon but not rare. The most common sign of HHT is nosebleeds but it can and does strike other areas of the body. Want to know more? Go here or here.
I found out I had HHT when I was in my twenties. I had my pity party (it lasted several months) then decided that I am more than a disease. I am stronger than a disease and I can beat it. I decided to enjoy every minute of my life. Do I? For the most part I do. I love my family, my job, my friends, and my off time. I try to balance my love of food with exercise (not so crazy about the exercise). I take many moments to be awed by the people and the beauty around me. I chose to be positive. Having said that, I also make sure I am well-informed about the disease I have.
Every two years I go to an HHT conference. I find out where we are with finding a cure and what I need to be thinking about. I also go to be inspired by the tremendous, incredible, strong, resilient (there just aren't enough adjectives) people who struggle with the disease. I am continually awed. Also at some point in the conference I have a small pity party for myself and move on. I also have an "a-ha" moment.
This year's a-ha moment was iron deficiency. There were several great presentations on iron and iron deficiency. (People with HHT bleed and our iron stores run down). While I am not anemic, I am concerned that my iron stores are being depleted. So I did some research and came up with a game plan.
Here is my take on iron. There are two types of iron- heme iron (from animals) and non-heme iron (from plants). Most iron supplements are non-heme. Non-heme iron is not as readily absorbed which is why you take vitamin c with it (it needs an acidic environment in the stomach). Non-heme is also the iron with the majority of the side effects. Heme iron is found in beef, duck, fish, lamb, shrimp, and clams. Clams and oysters are the best sources for heme iron. I love love clams. I have already started making clams at least once a week. I will be posting those recipes later as I perfect them. Non-heme iron is found in fortified cereals, spinach (I love spinach), pumpkin seeds, molasses, beans, and raisins. It is harder to absorb and usually has more of the side effects (the big side effect being constipation).
I thought that it was would great to make an iron rich snack mix with some added fiber. The trick was to make it taste good so it would be a joy to eat. I decided to share it because I know I am not the only one who struggles with iron decency. For the cereal I used a mixed of corn, wheat, rice, and cinnamon chex and Cheerios.

Iron Rich Toffee Cereal Mix

8 Cups of Cereal
3 Cups (24 g) of Popped Popcorn
1 Cup (50 g) of Pretzels
1 Cup (130 g) of Pumpkin Seeds
1/4 Cup (55 g) of Butter
1/3 Cup (80 ml) Molasses
1/3 Cup (80 ml) Light Corn Syrup
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 250F/120C/ Gas Mark 0.5.  Combine the cereals, popcorn, pretzels, and seeds in a bowl or cookie sheet.

The cereal mixture ready for the toffee

In a saucepan combine butter, molasses, corn syrup, and salt over medium heat and bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and add baking soda. Mixture will foam. Stir until completely combined.

After you add the baking soda, the mixture will foam

Pour over cereal mixture and stir until well coated. Spread onto baking sheets. Bake in oven  for  30 minutes turning every 10 minutes until mixture hardens. Cool and eat.

Cereal toffee

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes- my family loved it.

Not Your Ordinary Christmas Cottage

Our beautiful leaning house

I have made gingerbread houses before and they were not the most architecturally sound buildings. I did enjoy decorating them. Honestly, I was not crazy about making the gingerbread. It was time consuming and well, tedious. So this year I decided to make them out of crisp rice cereal. Yep! That yummy gooey marshmallowy treat. I made candy sushi out them; why not a house? The result was a quick-to-make but still not architecturally sound house. Making the house was easy and decorating was so so much fun. I am surprised it did not collapse under all the weight of icing and candy.

Crisp Rice Cereal House

6 Tbsp of Butter, Divided
8 Cups (20 oz.) (567 g) of Miniature Marshmallows, Divided
12 Cups (1200 g) of Crisp Rice Cereal
Frosting
Assorted Candy

Butter or grease a 13 x 9 inch (33 x 23 cm) pan. Measure a 15 x 10 inch (38 x 25 cm)  piece of foil, grease the foil, and place on a large cookie sheet. Preheat the oven to 250F/120C/ Gas Mark 1/2.
Over low heat melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan. Once the butter is melted, increase the heat to medium, and  add half of marshmallows (4 cups/284 g).

Stirring the marshmallows

Stir until completed melted. Remove from heat and add half of the cereal  (6 cups/ 600 g). Stir until the cereal is completely combined. Dump into 13 x 9 (33 x 23 cm) pan. Butter your hands (trust me- a light coating a butter is a necessity) or a buttered spatula and spread until level.

This will be the base

Clean your saucepan and repeat. Spread onto foil.

We will make the house out of this block

Carefully cut the cereal mixture on the foil into the following pieces: four 5 by 3.5 inches (13 x 9 cm) (the sides) and two 8 x 3 inches (20 x 8 cm) (the roof). Take two of the side pieces and cut off the two corners to form a peak. To make the process easier, I made a pattern out of paper and used them as a template.

The baked pieces. The two small pieces were going to be a chimney 

There will be pieces left over you can use these to make chimney and trees. I ate them. Once the pieces are cut out, place on a greased cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes. Reshape the pieces as needed and cool.

To Assemble

Place the large base on a cookie sheet. (I covered it with sweetened grated coconut).

The base covered in coconut

Pipe a line of frosting where you are going to place the sides. Generously frost the sides and fit the house together.

Putting the house together requires a lot of frosting

Next frost the edges and place the roof.

Ready to add the roof

Add frosting to patch the holes.

Obviously, we had lots of holes

Finally decorate.

The bottom line: will we do this again? Yes- I think this has replaced the gingerbread house. I hope to have a better constructed house next year.

Sautéed Sole in a Lemon Cream Sauce

Simply yummy- sole in lemon cream sauce

This is one of Katie's favorite dishes. We made it after we watched Julie and Julia which launched our all French food week. It was wonderful. We made some incredible dishes. My favorite was the braised chicken with tomatoes and olives. This dish was a lot easier to make. Our entire family is crazy about capers- if you don't like them, don't add them. I also like a bit of spice so I add a bit of Creole seasoning.

Sautéd Sole in a Lemon Cream Sauce

2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp of Oil
1/4 Cup (30 g) of Flour
1/4 Tsp of Salt
1/2 Tsp of Pepper
1/4 Tsp Creole Seasoning (Optional)
1-2 lbs (.45-.9 kg) of White Fish, Cut into 4 oz. Pieces
1 Cup (240 ml) of Fat Free Half and Half
Zest from a Lemon
Juice from Half of a Lemon
1 Tbsp of Chopped Parsley
1/2 Teaspoon of Capers

Melt butter and oil in a frying pan over medium heat. 

Butter melting in the frying pan

Dredge fish in a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper. 

Frying fish

Place fish a couple pieces at a time in the frying pan (don't crowd). Depending on the thickness of the fish sauté for a couple of minutes to several minutes. When the fish is ready it is when it turns opaque. Remove fish to a plate and keep warm.

Making the cream sauce

To make the sauce add the half and half and lemon zest to the frying pan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley. Serve the sauce over the fish and sprinkle capers on top.

The finished fish

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes, I love this dish and Katie always asks for it. I will only make with a thin white fish.

Cookie Brownies

Katie devouring a cookie brownie

I absolutely love these. They are one of my top ten favorites-- well, top twenty desserts. I have a lot of favorite desserts and they change order of preference depending on my mood. They are delicious and they are so easy to make. They are a layer of brownies with a layer of cookie on top. The brownies are then cooked and the result is incredible. I craved these for two to three weeks before I gave in and made them.
I usually make them with a boxed brownie mix and cookies from scratch. Any kind of brownie will work and I have used all kinds of drop cookies. I like chocolate chip and peanut butter.  Want something different? Reverse it and use blonde brownies and white choclate chip cookies.

Cookie Brownies

Preheat oven to 350F/176 C/ gas mark 4. Line a 9x13 inches (23 x 33 cm) baking pan with parchment paper or foil. Use enough so that paper/foil goes up the sides of the pan. Lightly grease the paper/foil.

Brownie Layer

Make your favorite brownie (make enough for a 9x13 pan). I like using a fudge brownie mix. If I am using a peanut butter cookie for the cookie layer (without chips), I put chocolate chunks or chips in the brownie batter.

Making brownies

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared pan.

Layer of brownie

Cookie Layer

Make your favorite cookie dough and drop into the top of the brownie layer.

Cookie layer

Bake for 35- 50 minutes until the middle is set. I like a gooier layer of cookie so I bake it for around 40 minutes. Cool.

Finished cookie brownies

If desired top with peanut butter frosting, chocolate ganache, or melted chocolate chips.

Cookie brownie!

The bottom line: do I really need to ask it? Yes, I will make these again.