I find cooking to be a relaxing and enjoyable thing to do.  There is something magical in prepping the food ... chopping onions and garlic, the aroma of freshly minced herbs, the sizzle of a skillet.  It's fun to read a good cookbook.  It's fun to follow the recipes in these books ... however it's even more fun to use them as inspiration.  Unfortunately these inspirations frequently lead to some very bad meals ... just ask my wife!  The following are recipes that I've lifted from cookbooks, have been inspired by them and I've just invented. 

         If you like bold flavors here's an easy to fix meal or appetizer.  It comes from The Antipasto Table by Michele Scicolone.  I've fixed it by following the recipe exactly and by changing the cheese to mozzarella.   If you don't like  anchovies (I'm sorry for you if you don't) cook  and drain some Italian sausage and mix it in.  Be careful to get good olives, not the ones that come in a can!  A nice variation is to prepare an egg and water wash for the top of the focaccia.  Brush it on and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cracked black pepper.  This not only will look nice but it will add an extra flavor and texture.

1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 to 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1.  In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the water.  Let stand for 5 minutes

2.  Stir the mixture until the yeast is dissolved.  Ass the olive oil.  Add 3 cups of the flour and the salt.  Stir the mixture until a soft dough forms.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding more flour if the dough feels sticky.

3.  Oil a large bowl and place the dough in it, turning it once to oil the top*.  Cover with a towel** and let rise in a warm draft-free place until do doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

4.  Proceed with the focaccia recipe.
 

*Or spray with Pam or similar oil spray

** I like to use plastic wrap for this.
 
 

Focaccia Ripiena di Pomadori
(Focaccia Stuffed with Tomatoes and Anchovies)

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil*
2 medium onions peeled and thinly sliced
1 28 oz can peeled Italian tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1 tablespoon dried oregano**
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 2 oz can anchovy fillets, drained***
1/2 cup imported black olives, preferably Kalamata, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated imported Pecorino Romano
 

*I like to cook the onions in a little dry red wine.  It gives them a wonderful flavor and saves on fat.

**Basil works as well.

***If you don't like anchovies leave them out -- but buy the can and send it to me!

1.  In a large skillet, heat the oil.  Add the onions and cook over medium heat until tender and golden, 10-15 minutes.

2.  Add the tomatoes, capers, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomato juices have evaporated and the sauce is very thick, about 10 minutes.  Let cool.

3.  Preheat the over to 450 degrees F.  Oil a 12 inch pizza pan.

4.  Divide the dough into two pieces.  Roll out one piece of dough to a 12 inch circle and place it on the prepared pan. Spread the dough with the sauce, leaving a inch border all around.  Arrange the anchovies over the sauce.  Sprinkle with the olives, capers and cheese.

5.  Roll out the remaining dough to a 12 inch circle and place it over the filling.  Press the edges of the dough together to seal well.

6.  Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Serve warn or at room temperature.

    Chicken is a wonderful food to work with.  You can fry it, bake it, BBQ it, you can cook it any way you want.   Several years ago I was watching an exciting episode of an unnamed and barely remembered talk show that featured recipes by fire fighters.  One of these involved rolling chicken breasts around stuff and covering it with a sauce.  I found this quite inspiring much to my wife's horror.  Since that show I've rolled a lot of chicken breasts and made a lot of sauces, some good and some quite bad.  The following recipe is in the good category.  You have to do this by eye and individual taste but don't be hesitant about experimenting!  Another good filling is feta with sautéed spinach or sautéed mushrooms and bleu cheese.  If you want to go really wild throw some cream into the sauce while it is reducing.  I like to have this meal with buttered noodles and steamed broccoli.

Ingredients:
 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
 Granny Smith apples
 Sharp Cheddar Cheese
 white wine
 sliced mushrooms
 butter
 olive oil
 salt and pepper
 

1.  Take a chicken breast and place it between two pieces of plastic wrap.  Pound it until it is flat and even, set aside

2.  Peal, core and grate or finely chop an apple

3.  Grate some cheese.

4.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

5.  Spread equal amounts of cheese and apple on the chicken breast, roll, and secure with a wood tooth pick.

6.  Brown the rolled chicken breast in the butter and oil.  Transfer the browned chicken breast to a flameproof dish and finish cooking in the oven.

7.  While the chicken is in the oven add the mushrooms to the oil and butter and cook until done (you may need to add more butter or olive oil).

8.  Remove the mushrooms and deglaze the skillet with a large splash of wine.  Reduce the wine by about half and return the mushrooms to the sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste.

9.  Remove chicken from oven (be certain that it’s  not over cooked), pour the sauce over it and enjoy

    One of the great comfort foods that everyone has a favorite recipe for is Chili.  Bland, hot, with or without meat, I’ve even known people to put potatoes in it!  Here’s a recipe that the Steinen family has evolved through the years.  It calls for 1 pound of ground beef -- but have you ever been able to find only a pound package?  What to do with the leftover 1/3 or 1/4 pound?  It’s not enough for another main meal....  What I like to do is use it for breakfast the next morning in one of the great heart stoppers of all time SOS!  If you try to stay away from ground beef try ground turkey instead or leave out the meat and use frozen nibblet corn as a substitute.  The corn/beans combination gives you complete protein.  This recipe can be successfully halved but use the whole can of Ro-Tell.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce
2 15 ounce cans of beans (we use pintos)
1 can Ro-Tell tomatoes and chilies
3-4 tablespoons of chili powder
pickled jalapeno peppers
1 medium onion
2-4 cloves of garlic
 

1.  Brown and drain the beef.
2.  While the beef is cooking peel and chop onions and garlic.
3.  Sauté the onions and garlic in a little oil (to save on fat simmer the garlic and onion in a little red wine)
4.  Add the tomato sauce, Ro-Tell, several slices of pepper and some of the pepper brine to the onions and garlic.
5.  Add about a pound of the ground beef, save the remainder for the next day.
6.  Add the chili powder.
7.  Simmer on LOW until the flavors have developed and the chili is thick.

I love SOS, my family hates it, so I get to eat all I want without having to share.  The only problem is that if you eat very much of this stuff you get your very own Cardiologist to play with.  To avoid a premature stress test (they are NOT fun) avoid this for breakfast or any other meal!

Ingredients:
Left over browned ground beef
3-4 tablespoons of all purpose flour
3-4 tablespoons of butter or margarine
1 cup of milk
Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

1.  Melt the butter in a sauce pan (remember the basic rule of cooking, all good meals are cooked in one pot that can go in the dish washer!) over low heat.

2.  Stir in the flour and cook the for several minutes.

3.  Slowly add the milk and stir constantly until the sauce thickens.

4.  Stir in the browned ground beef

5.  Add salt and pepper to taste for a basic SOS

6.  Add Worcestershire sauce and or hot sauce to spice it up.

7.  Serve over buttered toast.
 

Few things are better than pork chops. Like chicken they can be cooked in a lot of different ways all of which are wonderful.  The idea for this meal came from an old cookbook from Texas that my daughter first saw it at a yard sale and got if more for fun than anything else.  It's good, but it sure won't make the low fat healthy Top 10!.  You really need fatty chops to do this right.  The non-fat variety simply don't generate enough grease for the gravy.  I usually add some butter or bacon drippings after the chops are cooked.

Ingredients:
Pork Chops
Granny Smith Apples (pealed, cored, and sliced into rings)
bread crumbs
salt and pepper
milk
1 egg
2-3 tabs. vegetable oil
flour
1 cup apple cider or juice

1.  season the bread crumbs*
2.  dip the chops in a milk/egg wash and dredge in the bread crumbs, repeat
3.  heat the oil in a heavy iron skillet
4.  fry the chops over medium heat until done, place in warm oven
5.  add the apple rings to the skillet and fry
6.  remove apple rings and place in warm oven
7.  augment oil in skillet if necessary, add 1-2 tbs. flour and mix
8.  add apple cider/juice and reduce to make apple gravy

I like to serve this with rice and fried okra.  It's filling and will probably force you to visit your favorite hospital to get the cholesterol blown out of you system if you eat it very often.

*Try using Old Bay seasoning or some other form of seasoned salt instead of salt and pepper.
 

Sometimes a really good meal comes from desperation.  You look at the refrigerator and have to come up with something.  That happened to me recently.  My wife was going off to the market to buy dinner.  She wanted a salad but knew that I needed something more substantial so she got me a pork chop.  There I was in the kitchen staring at my favorite fry pan with the chop sizzling away as the water for my noodles was beginning to boil and the steamer was working on my broccoli.  Visions passed through my head, what would be good....I opened the refrigerator and what came in view but a jar of Mr. Mustard!  Like a flash one tablespoon of it went into the skillet and the chop took on a wonderful glaze.  When the chop was done I added a bit more mustard and about a 1/2 cup of dry white wine.  This cooked down to a great full bodied sauce that was wonderful on both the meat and the noodles!

Serves one

Ingredients:
1 pork chop
spicy mustard *
dry white wine
olive oil
salt and pepper
 

1.  In a small skillet heat 1 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

2.  Add pork chop and fry

3.  Add 1 tbs. spicy mustard and finish cooking chop.

4.  Remove chop, add 2 tbs. of spicy mustard and swirl in pan drippings

5.  Add 1/2 cup dry white wine and reduce by 1/2

6.  Add salt and pepper to taste (note the mustard is quite salty so be careful)

*Use good mustard -- the kind of stuff you put on a hot dog just won't work here.  Mr. Mustard is ok but a good Dijon is best and the Jack Daniel's mustard is quite good as well.

PASTA YOU WON'T FORGET

About the only food that is a satisfying as potatoes is pasta.  Ziti, spaghetti, noodles…any kind of pasta!

Serve it with butter and a bit of cheese, drizzle olive oil over it with a little salt and pepper, or make a sauce…there are few better ways to spend your time than eating the joyous noodle!

Here's a sauce I did up the other night.  It was one of those wonderful spiritual occasions, a skillet, olive oil and…….

This will serve one

2-3 TBS. or Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Small Onion, finely chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

6-8 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

6-8 green olives with pimientos, chopped

Chopped mushrooms (as many as you want)

2 tbs.  capers

Anchovies (the more the better)

In your favorite skillet (remember, the best skillet can go through the dishwasher) heat the olive oil on low heat

Add garlic, onions and olives, let sweat.  Do not over cook the garlic!

Add mushrooms and capers and cook until done

Stir in a few (or a lot) anchovies

Pour this over your pasta (I like Angel Hair Spaghetti)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Add Parmesan cheese

Enjoy with garlic bread

MORE PASTA

Sometimes the simplest pasta sauces can be the best.  Here’s one I came up with just the other day…as usual I was staring at my favorite skillet and wondering what to do for lunch…this will serve one.  This is a mild variation of the above recipe.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil, 2-3 tbs.
Olives (Kalamata and green), pitted and minced
Garlic, minced
Capers

1. Heat  2-3 tbs. Of olive oil in a skillet
2. Add 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and cook gently, do not brown
3. Add capers and olives, cook until warmed
4. Toss with pasta
5.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper
 

Few foods offer both comfort and speed as does ground beef.  Take a package from the freezer, thaw it and the world of fast dinners is yours!  Two great (but not so good for you) meals with ground beef are Sloppy Joes and meat loaf.  I usually just throw these together but last week I actually made notes!  Both recipes are by feel and taste, measurements are not exact.

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients
1-1.5 pounds ground chuck
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (or more) cloves of garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce
ketchup
dried herbs (basil, oregano etc.)
Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce

1.  brown and drain ground chuck, set aside
2.  Cook onion and garlic in 1 - 2 teaspoons of oil.  do not burn
3.  add tomato sauce and a big glug of ketchup
4.  add a bunch of dried herbs and mix
5.  add the ground chuck back in
6.  add 2-3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and a few drops of hot sauce
7.  salt and pepper to taste (this should not need much if any salt, the ketchup and tomato sauce should take care of that.
8.  Simmer to thicken.  Taste frequently and adjust by adding herbs, sauces and ketchup.
9.  Serve over hamburger buns with your favorite chips and beverage!

Meat Loaf

Ingredients

1-2 lbs of ground chuck
bread crumbs
ketchup
Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce
1 large egg
salt and pepper
 

1.  combine the ground chuck, egg, a glug of ketchup, 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and mix.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
2.  carefully mix in bread crumbs until the meat mixture becomes firm and fairly dry.  The amount of crumbs will vary depending on how much ketchup you've used and how fatty your meat is.
3.  Form into a loaf
4.  Place in a baking pan that has been liberally sprayed with Pam or the like or is lined with alumnium foil..
5.  Place in an oven that has been preheated to 325 degrees.
6.  Bake for about 1 hour.  If you wish after about 45 minutes spread ketchup on the top of the loaf to form a glaze.

Serve with mashed potatoes and green beans.
 

Gravy

Gravy is wonderful with the meat loaf and potatoes.  Here's a recipe for a quick gravy that may not kill you!

Ingredients

pan drippings from meat loaf
milk
flour
butter
1/2 bullion cube
pepper
Worcestershire sauce

1.  Drain off the fat from the baking pan
2.  place the pan over a low to medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of butter, allow to melt
3.  Add the bullion cube (careful, this stuff is salty) and stir until dissolved in the butter
4.  add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir to make a roux, be careful not to burn the flour
4.  add 1 cup (or a bit more) of milk and stir until thickened
5.  Add pepper and Worcestershire sauce to taste.

Use this to pour over the meat loaf and potatoes!
 

    A while ago I was walking one of my wife’s beagles, Lizzy, along Dixie Street in Carrollton.  Just as we were approaching Worthy Park I heard the words “you aint nothin but a hound dog” and the honking of a horn,   There was my old friend Elvis in a big pink Caddy convertible (few people know that Elvis moved to Carrollton when he decided to live a more private life).  Well we got to talking and Elvis told me that he had a big problem.  He’d invited Francis, a waitress at the local Huddle House, over for dinner and he did not know what to fix.  Knowing that Elvis was not a gourmet cook I offered my services.  Lizzy and I hopped into the Caddy and off we went to Elvis’ apartment just down the street.
      I looked through Elvis’ kitchen to see what was available while he and Lizzy worked at cleaning up.  The refrigerator was not bare but there was not much to choose from!  Some leftover KFC, milk, butter, and some fuzzy bread.   The pantry had a bit more -- some flour, minute rice and a can of Veg-All!  My mind raced as I grabbed for a clean skillet and the butter.  Two tablespoons of butter, two of flour and a roux began to cook.  A cup of milk, some salt and pepper and a nice white sauce was cooking on the stove.  Quickly I grabbed the left over KFC and pulled the meat off of the bone, chopped it and tossed it into the sauce.  I drained the water from the Veg-All and added that to the chicken and sauce ... and there it was Chicken a la THE KING!  I fixed the rice, heated a can of green beans and called Elvis into the kitchen for his opinion.  He looked, tasted this unbelievable concoction and wept with joy.
      Our job finished Lizzy and I headed for the door while Elvis was opening a quart of Bud.  As the door closed we heard a very happy man singing the words  “…won’t you be my Teddy Bear”.  We knew that we’d brought happiness to a true American legend !

Ingredients
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 cup milk
boned and cooked chicken
1 small can Veg-All (drained)
slat and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a skillet
2. Add flour and stir
3. Add milk and stir until sauce thickens
4. Add chicken
5. Add Veg-All

Serve over rice with a vegetable and appropriate beverage (if there is one).

    I've gotten like Thai food a lot. It blends a whole range of flavors with the fire of the tiny Thai pepper. One wonderful recipe is called Mahogany Fire Noodles that is found in a cookbook entitled True Thai by Victor Sodsook. When I made these noodles I had to search to find some of the ingredients, which include fish sauce, the Thai peppers, and oyster sauce. The noodles were great! My mouth became swollen while I was eating them and my wife politely declined to sample them (the recipe calls for 30 Thai peppers and 10 cloves of garlic ground into a paste).
     I've developed a quicker and admittedly less dangerous version of this recipe. It's hot, but not dangerously hot.  It has lots of flavor but is not as complex as the fire noodles. It can be made in a few minutes and is a fun meal.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts cut into small pieces
1 TBS Canola Oil
1 (or more) TBS minced garlic
1 TBS minced ginger (fresh)
1 TBS Soy Sauce
1 TBS Oyster Sauce (optional)

1TBS fish sauce
A splash of Toasted Sesame Oil (optional)

1-2 TBS Chili-Garlic Sauce
8 oz rice noodles or very thin spaghetti

Instructions
Cook the noodles according to instructions. Be certain to not over cook. Keep warm,

Heat the canola oil in a shallow pan and sauté the chicken with a little salt

Add the garlic and ginger. Cook over low heat. Make certain that the garlic does not get brown.

Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce and oyster sauce, stir and cook for a few minutes

Stir in the chili-garlic sauce

Toss the noodles in the sauce until thoroughly coated

Garnish with chopped scallions and chopped peanuts.

For some variety try mixing in the juice of one lime and some peanutbutter

Note: Chili garlic sauce can be found in the oriental food section of many supermarkets. This will work however it does tend to be a bit mild and lack texture. If you go to a well-stocked oriental market look for bottles of Tuong Ot Toi Viet Nam made by Huy Fong Foods in California. This is truly wonderful stuff. Their web page is www.huyfong.com and they have a mail order service.
 

    I was recently sitting at home reading Mike Coe’s wonderful book on how archaeologists have been able to read Mayan glyphs.  It’s a great book by one of America’s great archaeologists and snook fishermen.  I was reading about early efforts to understand this rich and complex writing when the phone rang.  Much to my surprise Emeril Lagasse was on the other phone!  He said that he’d been surfing the web for inspiration for menus when he stumbled across my web page.  Well, to make things short he thought that the pork chops in mustard glaze and the Chili-Garlic Noodles sounded good but that the Chicken a la THE KING was perhaps the worst recipe that he’d ever read!  We got to talking and he challenged me to come up with something even worse if I could. Well --- after thinking for a while I thought of a desert that even Elvis would not eat.   So Emeril … here it is!  Bananas on a Shingle!

Ingredients

1 box frozen waffles

2 bananas, sliced

4 tbs Butter (divided)

2 tbs brown sugar

1 pint chocolate milk

2 tbs f lour

Instructions

Place two waffles in the toaster

Put two tablespoons of butter, the brown sugar, and melt together

Add the bananas and cook over low heat

In another skillet melt the remaining butter and add the flour to make a roux

Pour in the chocolate milk and stir to make a chocolate béchamel sauce.

When the sauce has thickened stir in the cooked bananas and melted brown sugar/butter sauce and mix well.

Toast the waffles, and top them with the béchamel/bananas sauce

Enjoy (??)

DUMPLINGS

    I have not been doing much menu development lately.  I guess that the Bananas on a Shingle did me in.  However, I have gotten very fond of the small dumplings that can be found in almost any Chinese restaurant.  These succulent little things may be the most wonderful finger foods around, although hot wings may beat them out....  If you look  at recipes for dumplings in cookbooks the fillings are remarkably similar .. ground pork, shredded cabbage and sauces.  The same for dipping sauces ... soy, ginger, garlic and a few other juices.  Here's my variation on this standard theme.

Ingredients:

Dumplings

8 ozs ground pork

1 package egg roll or wonton wrappers

soy sauce, fish sauce and Hoisin sauce to taste

3 tbs freshly grated ginger

3 tbs minced garlic

2 cups finely chopped cabbage

red pepper flakes or chili garlic sauce to taste
 

Dipping Sauce

2 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs fish sauce

1 tbs lime juice

2 tbs chili garlic sauce

1.  To make dipping sauce mix all ingredients and set aside for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to mature.  Be certain to cover your container because this has very pungent flavor!

2.  To make dumplings combine ginger, garlic, cabbage, ground pork and sauces and mix thoroughly.

    Carefully cut the egg roll or wonton wrappers in half.  These dry out quickly so keep them covered with a damp paper towel.

    Take each 1/2 wrapper and place about a teaspoon of the pork/cabbage mixture in the middle.  Carefully moisten the edges of the wrapper with a wet finger and fold.  You can seal the edges by squeezing them together in various decorative ways of just press them together with the tines of a fork.  Trim excess wrapper dough.

    You cook these dumplings in a steamer or in boiling salted water.  They don't take too long but remember that you have to cook the pork as well as the wrapper itself.

    Serve with the dipping sauce. 

HOT BBQ WINGS

OR

BBQ HOT WINGS

    I sometimes wonder what chicken processors did with wings before the Anchor Bar in Buffalo invented this wonderful finger food.  I  think that everyone has their favorite wing recipe or place to eat wings.  The ones I've had have generally been really greasy and lacking in flavor except for hot.  Now, I like hot a lot but I really enjoy the flavor of chicken so I've worked diligently on my own wing recipe that lets you enjoy the flavor of the bird and still have the thrill of the heat.  My recipe does not follow the true path of winging.  I grill my wings over charcoal (I can't think of a nicer way to spend part of the day than tending chicken over charcoal, sipping a cold drink and reading a good "bad" book) and use a mixture of sauces.  I don't add butter to pre-mixed hot sauce which I find to be too greasy, but I do use a wonderful bottled BBQ sauce mixed with my old favorite chili garlic sauce.

Ingredients:

Chicken Wings

Hot Chix BBQ sauce*

Chili Garlic sauce

1.  Cut your wings at the joints and discard the tips, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper

2.  Cook over a medium charcoal fire until done.  Be careful to keep them from burning but they should have crispy dark brown skin on both sides when they are done.  Be certain to test them frequently when cooking.

3.  Mix equal parts of the BBQ and Chili sauces in a big bowl and toss in your wings.  Mix the wings around until they are liberally coated and serve with traditional condiments, garlic bread and icy cold drinks.

*Note:  Hot Chix also makes a wing sauce that I have not tried.  I got the BBQ sauce by accident and I love it.  I really think that it is the best bottled BBQ sauce that is available in the north Georgia area.