Welcome back chicken

I've been neglecting my blog, I know. You may poke me in the eye with dried spaghetti as punishment. But I come bearing barbecue sauce - MADE WITH BOURBON - as a "please forgive me" gesture. I know this photo is terrible. It's from a video I took while camping at Assateague National Seashore, and it was getting dark outside. If you live anywhere near Assateague, and you've never been - it's so worth it. There are wild horses on the island, and you basically camp right on the beach. A few years ago (the first time I was there) the wild horses wandered into our campsite and tried to eat the corn we were grilling. It was a little awkward - I mean, didn't their horse moms teach them that food on the grill would be WAY too hot to eat right away? Plus I didn't even get a chance to spread it with a chive butter yet. Patience, my little horsie friends, patience! No horses wandered into our camp this year, possibly because the whole thing was ringed with poison ivy. There was so much it was almost comical. At least the horse moms taught their foals something.

Back to the sauce - I slathered it on some chicken thighs (bone in, skin off) and DAMN, was it good. So much so that I risked a horrible photo to share it with you. God - it's awful. It looks like something the National Enquirer would publish - "Look, there's a Sasquatch off in the woods making out with Nikki Haley!"

Bourbon bbq sauce (adapted from a July 2004 Bon Appetit recipe)
(makes enough sauce for 3-4 people)

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely minced onion
1/2 cup ketchup (Heinz is the only brand of ketchup one should ever use)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon brown sugar (well packed)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons bourbon
6 chicken thighs or 12 chicken legs

Melt the butter over medium low heat in a small saucepan. Add the onions, and stir constantly until they are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in all the rest of the ingredients except the bourbon and let it come to a simmer, stirring often to keep it from burning. Let it bubble for about 10 minutes. Add the bourbon and cook for another minute or two. 

Keep sauce refrigerated until ready to use. Grill chicken thighs or legs until done on one side, then turn, and slather with sauce. Dredge the other side with sauce once you've taken them off the grill. 

Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beatloaf. I LOVE meatloaf

Yes, that's (modified) from the Christmas Story movie, right before the mom encourages Randy to eat his meatloaf "like a little piggy!" I do not need to be bribed to eat my meatloaf like a pig; I do that on autopilot. Once I made a meatloaf in college and all three of my roommates said they weren't interested in having any because they didn't like meatloaf. I was briefly excited, thinking this meant I could eat it for six meals straight. Until I took it out of the oven. Then everyone was interested and immediately recanted their statements. Sadly, I think all of them had been scarred by bad meatloaf experiences as children.

Herb and sun-dried tomato turkey meatloaf, loosely adapted from Bon Appetit, March 1996
Serves 6 (or two for dinner, then leftovers for two days of meatloaf sandwiches)

1 lb ground dark meat turkey (We ground our own from two big turkey legs, but if you use pre-ground, don't use the really lean stuff.)

1 small onion, finely diced
2 celery ribs, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, stems removed and caps chopped (discard the stems)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh pepper
2 tablespoons white wine

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes*
1 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
fresh pepper
a few tablespoons of ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a few teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, carrot, cooking for five minutes, or until softened, then add mushrooms and saute until all the vegetables are tender. Season with salt, pepper, thyme; cook two minutes. Add the white wine, and cook until the liquid evaporates. Transfer to a large bowl to let it cool a little.

To the vegetables, add the turkey, eggs, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Mix it all  together VERY GENTLY. Pat it into a loaf pan and smear the top with some ketchup. Pop it into the oven for one hour, until it is 165 degrees in the middle. Let cool 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

*I like sun-dried tomatoes that come in a container or bag - not packed in oil. If yours are really dry, cover them with water and put them in the microwave for 15 seconds, then drain and chop.

Haiku for the vealcake...

You had me swooning
"This is SO good I could die"
Twelve times during dinner.

Um, yes, so there's a reason I'm not a poet. MOVING ON.

My parents bought half of a baby cow last year from a butcher last year. Don't worry, he was hugged and snuggled and loved to his last days. Is it odd that I only buy responsibly raised fish, but will eat veal? Maybe. But this was a LOCAL cow. So I justified it in my head. Plus if you had to live in an area where high school football dominates the newspaper year round, you might not mind dying young either. So there. Anyway, back to the veal. My parents found out they could buy a half cow when my dad showed up at the butcher and said he was ready to pick up his order. The below exchange is approximate.

Butcher guy: We have the whole lamb you ordered processed and ready to go.

Dad: I'm not allowed to take something like that home without a note from my wife.

But it gave them the idea! After my mom wrote the note, they got a lamb, and this past year was half a baby cow. So that's how I ended up with a couple of pounds of ground veal a few weeks back. And how this luscious vealcake came into my life. And now my pants will never fit the same...

Vealcake with mushrooms, from Gourmet, February 2006
Serves 2

1 slice of bread, torn into bits
3 tablespoons cream, divided
1 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper
3 tablespoons chopped chives - divided
3/4 lb ground veal
1/4 cup bread crumbs*
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoon butter
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, chopped


Put the torn bread and two tablespoons of cream in a large bowl to soak for five minutes. Add the egg, salt, pepper, two tablespoons of chives and veal, then mix gently with your hands. (No squishing and squashing between your fingers allowed.) Form the veal into two patties. Spread the bread crumbs on a plate and dredge the vealcakes in the crumbs.

Heat the vegetable oil and one tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet. Cook the vealcakes 4-5 minutes per side, until golden brown on the outside. If you have a meat thermometer, it should read 148 degrees. If you don't - well, go with your gut or use the time-honored method of cutting and peeking to see if its done.

Remove the vealcakes to a plate and cover with foil. If there's enough fat in the pan to cook the mushrooms, then just toss them in. If not, add a tablespoon or so of butter. Cook until they are softened, about 5 minutes. To really guild the lily, add a tablespoon of cream and let that cook for a minute or so. Serve the mushrooms on top of the vealcakes, and garnish with the remaining tablespoon of chives.

*When I have fresh bread that gets too stale to eat, I zip it up in the food processor to make crumbs, which I keep in a bag in the freezer. It's a motley mixture of crumbs - English muffin, whole wheat bread, sourdough, etc. But they work just fine for most coating and stuffing jobs.

No applesauce

Have I mentioned before how much I adore the PBS show America's Test Kitchen? Working there would totally be my dream job. Well, behind the scenes. The people on that show also do another program called Cook's Country which as far as I can tell is pretty much the same thing. My favorite part is The Equipment Corner with Adam. He gets a bunch of people to test out, say, 15 different vegetable peelers, and then tells you which is the best peeler, and which peeler is the best value. Oh, I love him. Adam, if you need an assistant, you call me, ok? Or find me on Twitter!

So the main point of the show is that they show you the BEST method to make a certain food something. And they tell you all the ways they tried before they got to this very BEST way, so you don't feel tempted to cheat and take a shortcut, because you know it will end up a sticky mess, or it will burn in the oven, or your sink will explode and flood your bathroom. Now, I'm not usually a real big fan of pork chops, but The Husband loves them, so when we saw this show together I agreed we could make them. I mean, they make everything look so good! Plus it had a crust. I think we all know how I feel about crusted protein.

I served the pork with sunchokes and a green salad. 

Crunchy Pork Chops, modified from America's Test Kitchen episode: The Crunchiest Pork Chops Ever
Serves 2

2 boneless pork chops, 3/4-1 inch thick*
1/8 cup salt

2 slices white sandwich bread, torn
1 tablespoon minced shallot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
5 tablespoons flour DIVIDED
1 egg white (if you double this recipe, use 3 egg whites), beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons dijon mustard

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in two cups of water in a flat bowl. Add the pork chops for 30 minutes, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, pulse the bread pieces in a food processor until you have crumbs. Pour the crumbs out onto a cookie sheet and add the shallot, garlic, oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together well with your hands until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring twice, until they are brown and crispy. Take them out, but keep the oven on. Pour the crumbs into a flat bowl, let them cool, then add the cheese, thyme and parsley.

Get out two more flat bowls or pie plates. In one, put 2 tablespoons of flour. In the second, add the beaten egg white and mustard. Whisk the other 3 tablespoons of flour into the egg/mustard.

Crank the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Put a wire rack on the same baking sheet you used for the crumbs and spray it with cooking spray or brush lightly with oil.

Remove the pork chops from their brine (you may have already done this if the 30 minutes has expired) and rinse with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels. Dredge them first in the flour, then in the mustard mixture, then press them into the crumbs. Put each chop on the baking sheet.

Bake for 17-25 minutes (depends on your oven and chop thickness). If you have an instant read thermometer, you want the inside of the chop to be 150 degrees.

*I bought our chops out of the butcher's case, rather than pre-packaged, and they were SUPER thick, so I just bought one and had the butcher split it in two.

Who rigs every Oscar night? We do!

I love it when dishes have secret ingredients. It makes me feel like part of a secret foodie club, kind of like an epicurean version of the Stone Cutters. And the only way to learn about the secret ingredient is to get the secret password from someone who's tried it, vouched for it, and passed it along. So consider this blog entry a secret handshake that opens the door to the best beef (or buffalo) stew you've ever had.

And what exactly is the secret ingredient? The brined green peppercorn. I know! I had never heard of it either! But in the pack of my mind, I knew I had seen it at my tiny little neighborhood grocery store near the capers and other various pickled things. If you can't find them in the store, there is always the interwebs.

Porter beef (or buffalo) stew, adapted from Gourmet, October 2004
Serves 3

1 lb. beef or buffalo stew meat, cut into small (1-inch or smaller) bites (I used buffalo)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Guinness-Pie-230754#ixzz0grtZ57Kx

1 tablespoon flour
salt and papper
vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz. shitake or crimini mushrooms, stems discarded and the heads chopped
3 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1 cup beef broth
1 cup porter beer (I used Rogues Mocha Porter)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme, or a teaspoon or dried

1/3 sheet puff pastry, taken out of the freezer when you put the stew in the oven (even when its frozen, you can break off one of the folds, which is 1/3 sheet)
1/2 tablespoon melted butter
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat the meat dry, season with salt and pepper, and dust with flour. Heat a small amount of vegetable oil over medium high heat in a heavy ovenproof pot, and brown the meat on all sides. You may have to do this in a couple of batches, depending on the size of your pot and how much meat you are using. Don't crowd the pot. Remove the browned meat to a bowl.

Add the onion, garlic, mushrooms and water to the pot, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook until the onions and mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mustard, stirring for another minute. Add the meat with any accumulated juices, broth, beer, Worcestershire, peppercorns (yes, the secret ingredient!!) and thyme. Let it come to a bubble, then transfer to the oven to cook for about 75-90 minutes, until the sauce is nice and thick and the meat is very tender. This is a good time to drink the rest of the beer that didn't make it into the stew.

Right before you take the stew out of the oven, roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured board, until its about half as thin. Cut it into however many pieces you need (I just did two, but you could easily get three pieces per 1/3 sheet.) Brush both sides of the pastry with butter, and place on a baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper. When you take the stew out of the oven, raise the heat to 400 degrees, then put the puff pastry in the oven for about 10 minutes, until puffed and golden.

Ladle the stew into bowls, then top with a puff pastry "cracker."

We had a little lamb

I used to love watching Crossing Jordan on Sunday nights. Her dad had the best accent! But he was usually in hiding because I think he was kind of a shady character. People were always trying to kill him, and then Jordan would try and rescue him by going out to the pier alone at night. Oh Jordan. She never learned. Once she fell down an abandoned mine shaft that started filling up with water. And she was a medical examiner! It made no sense - which was why it was so awesome. A couple times NBC (who I'm totally mad at right now - Team Conan!) did a Crossing Jordan/Las Vegas crossover. Which I never watched. Well, I watched the Jordan parts, but not when Jordan was on Las Vegas. Anyway, so now I'm doing a crossover with my friend Emily, who has a delightful blog called Wild and Crazy Pearl. She and her superfun sister Rebecca came over for dinner - which had to be scheduled a month in advance because they are both very cool and know lots of people and are always doing fun things (I, on the other hand, am not cool, know only 12 people, and will be spending my Friday night putting together Ikea furniture) - and we ate and drank and much merriment was had by all.

Even though lamb isn't really a game meat, people sometimes say that it tastes game-y. So I'm including it in game meat week. (See also: it's my blog and I can do what I want.) Plus it's cute and cuddly like the rabbit from the other day's post.

Lamb with pici, from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano
Serves 6 (he says it serves 4, but we had loads leftover)


Lamb ragu
4 oz. pancetta, chopped
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped (you can chop and add the fronds if you like)
1 carrot, chopped
1 bunch of basil, picked from the stems, and roughly chopped
1 lb. of freshly ground lamb shoulder (yes, I put mine in the meat grinder)
salt and pepper
1 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (either homemade, or the simple stuff in a can in the tomato aisle)

Pici (a type of pasta)
2 cups semolina flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1 1/4 cups water, room temperature

To serve
Ample amounts of grated Parmesan cheese


Heat a little bit of olive oil in a sturdy dutch oven and add the chopped pancetta. Once it browns, add the onion, fennel, carrot and basil and cook until the veggies are softened, stirring frequently. Add the lamb and continue to stir to allow all the lamb to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the pan with the wine, making sure to scrape up those browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato sauce, and stir to combine. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for at least an hour. Stir occasionally.


To make the noodles, mound the flours on a really large cutting board or countertop. Make a well in the center, and slowly add some water. Swirl in the water with your finger, but still maintain the well-like shape. Add some more water, swirl, etc., etc., until you form a dough. (The amount of water will depend on how humid your kitchen is.) Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Note: this dough is REALLY stiff, and kneading the dough will likely be exhausting. You may need to take a shower afterwards. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it stand for at least 10 minutes before proceeding.

Okay, so now you've rested from all that kneading. Pinch off a 1-inch ball of dough and roll it between your hands to make a snake of dough. This seems like it should be easy - I mean, who hasn't done this same thing with play-doh? But, again, the dough is stiff, and it will seem like quite a process. I highly recommend that you recruit at least one other person to do this with you. You want the pici to be about 1/8 - 1/4 inch in diameter. You'll have long snakes of dough, so cut them into 3-5 inch pieces for easier eating.

To cook the noodles, place in salted boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Toss with the sauce, and serve with the Parmesan cheese.

Hippity, hoppity, into my belly you go!

Many things in life baffle me. Several that are on my mind right now are:
1) Why on earth the Director of Uniforms at the Pittsburgh Pirates insists on dressing the team in those heinous baseball vests. They a major fashion don't. Sure, they were big in the '70's, but now they are ugly. Maybe their seventeen consecutive losing seasons can be blamed on the fact that they hate what they are wearing. I, for one, feel better about myself when I put on a cute outfit.
2) What the hell was the person driving the SmartCar buying at Ikea this weekend? He or she was there longer than I was, and I was there for two hours. I'm sorry, but most of the SNERGS and FLOYVECS that one buys at Ikea cannot fit in a SmartCar.
3)And finally (here's where I get back to talking about food), why are so many meat-eaters skeeved at the idea of eating rabbit? Is it because you had one as a class pet? Because they are cute? Well, the ones you eat were never someone's pet, they are actually big and not-so-cute (think Bunnicula) and lambs are cute, and if you eat meat you probably eat lamb for Easter every year at your mom's house. So please consider yourself debunked of the myth that eating rabbit is weird. Because rabbit is really delicious.

Rabbit braised in wine and tomato sauce, from Gourmet magazine
Serves 4

1 rabbit, cut into 8 pieces* (you'll probably have a neck and a tailbone piece too - toss those in for flavor)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 strips fresh orange zest

2 bay leaves
1/2 cup red wine
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
a pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup water

8 ounces dried egg tagliatelle or egg fettuccine
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


Season the rabbit pieces with half the salt and pepper. Heat some olive oil in a heavy dutch oven and brown the rabbit pieces. Remove the browned rabbit to a plate and add the onions, garlic, orange zest and bay to the pot. Cook until onions start to brown, about 5 minutes. Deglaze the pot with the wine, scraping up the browned bits. Add the pinch of cinnamon, tomatoes and water. Tuck the rabbit pieces in so they are as covered by the sauce as possible. Bring to a bubble, then cover and put in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, then flip all the rabbit pieces over, again tucking them in under the sauce. Braise for another 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta. Toss the cooked pasta with the butter, parsley and salt to taste. Serve the rabbit and sauce over the noodles. (Note: my favorite pieces are the ribs and legs. Please remember this if I come to your house for rabbit.)

*If you want to see before/after pictures on cutting up a whole rabbit, click on the link below. NSFV (not safe for vegetarians)

Read more »

Stear clear, my veggie friends

Welcome to game meat week! If you eat meat, but tend to stick to chicken/beef/pork - this week is for you! I'm going to share some dee-licious recipes about all those fun, fabulous meats that are just a little different. If you are a vegetarian, well, I have a yummy tofu recipe coming up!

Once my husband and I went to a venison farm. The woman who ran it also had a flock of exotic chickens - including one that had feathers on its legs that reminded me of my beloved cocker spaniel, Buffy. (Moment of silence to remember Buffy. Sigh. I miss her.) We talked with her for over an hour about how she runs her farm and manages her flock of fallow deer. (Are deer a flock? A tribe? A murder?) Before she would sell us any meat, she insisted that we peek through the fence to "meet" the deer. (Pun intended.) And no, this wasn't disturbing. I was buying animal meat. It used to be alive. The other members of the flock seemed to be have a good life. But it was also there because it was intended to end up in my belly.

So if you live near a venison farm, or you're lucky enough to know (or be) a hunter with extra bounty, or your local market sells it - give this a whirl.

Juniper venison medallions, from the Shelburne Farms cookbook
Serves 2

6 juniper berries, crushed in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder
3/4 tablespoon gin
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon salt
small fresh rosemary sprig
2 venison medallions, 3/4 inch thick (if yours are thinner, you won't need to cook them as long)

Whisk the crushed berries, gin, syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon salt together in a shallow dish. Add the venison, turning the meat so it has a little of the marinade on the top side. Crush the rosemary in your hand to release the oils, then lay it on the meat. Pop the dish in the fridge for an hour, flipping the meat over halfway through. Don't marinate it longer than an hour or the texture of the meat will get a little weird.

Put a cast iron skillet (or other heavy, ovenproof skillet) in the oven, and preheat your broiler for 15 minutes. (Yes, the skillet preheats too.) Pat the venison dry and reserve the marinade. Sprinkle the steaks with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and place in the superhot skillet. Broil 4-5 minutes per side for medium rare meat. (I think venison is best medium rare, and don't recommend you cook it any longer.) Remove the steaks from the pan and pour the reserved marinade into the hot pan and let it sizzle for about a minute. Drizzle this over the venison.

Warm and cuddly

Sometimes as a kid my husband would just have a "fruit and nut plate" for dinner. This is exactly what it sounds like - dried fruit and nuts. Maybe, if he was feeling crazy, he'd have a yogurt too. You know, hippie food. (Have I mentioned he is from Vermont?) But hey, he loved it, and I'm sure it was easy on his parents. I probably wouldn't have touched a piece of dried fruit with a 10-foot pole as a child, and the only nuts I ate were the walnuts I would sneak out of the produce drawer in the refrigerator. But I've come around, and now I actually really like dried fruit as a snack. Once I was carrying around a baggie of prunes in my purse as a treat and I went to the Capitol Visitors Center - where all outside food is banned - and the security person held them up with disdain and was all, "And what are these?" He seemed a little judgy about a 20-something woman carrying around prunes as a snack. And I had to throw them away. I was sad about it when I got hungry later.

So now that we both like dried fruit, I made this great, warming wintery recipe. And no one judged anyone.

Chicken thighs with dried fruit, adapted from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison Serves 2

4 chicken thighs (I used boneless/skinless)
salt and pepper
olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
5 bay leaves
2 large shallots, roughly chopped
1/3 cup red wine
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 dates, 4 dried apricots, 4 prunes (or any combo you like), chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 cups cooked Israeli couscous, tossed with some slivered almonds (to serve)

Soak the dried fruit in the wine.

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Heat a light coating of olive oil in a large skillet and brown the chicken thighs on both sides. Deglaze the pan with the chicken broth and add the bay leaves. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook the chicken until no longer pink, about 10-12 minutes. Remove the chicken to a bowl. Heat a little more olive oil in the pan and cook the shallots for a minute or two. Add the bowl of dried fruit soaking in the wine, the vinegar, and scrape up any browned bits from the pan. Add the chicken back to the pan and cook for another 10 minutes or so to let the flavors come together.

Serve on top of the couscous and garnish with the parsley.

You have to keep your head on a swivel

Every time I go to the grocery store, I like to peruse the meat section. I don't actually cook a lot of meat, but I still like to look. So the other day, I'm trolling the dead animal section of Whole Foods and I swear if my life was a TV show there would have been a bright light shining from the meat case and a chorus of angels singing "Ahhhhhhhh!!!!" There it was - a package of mismarked meat! I think when I first met my friend Emily G. she thought that all my boyfriend and I ever did was hunt for mismarked meats at area grocery stores. That is only what we did every weekend, Emily. We watched Matlock and darned socks during the week.

Anyway - back to the mismarked meat. It was a pound and a quarter of 93% lean free-range ground beef - marked at TWELVE CENTS. Yes, that would be one dime and two pennies. There were actually like five packages marked at that price. But since it was kind of like stealing (only kind of, it was technically and legally on sale for twelve cents), I only bought one package. Of course, when I got home, my husband couldn't figure out why I didn't buy ALL the packages. I like to think that I gave someone else the unadulterated joy of finding mismarked meat.

So what to do when life gives you mismarked meat? Make meatloaf!! (My god, I do love meatloaf.)

The best meatloaf ever, from Bon Appetit
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 package crimini or baby bella mushrooms, stems removed and finely chopped (this should be about 1.5 cups)
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced (you could use 3/4 teaspoon each of dried if you don't have fresh)

1 1/4 lb ground beef or ground buffalo (preferably mismarked to twelve cents)
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup tomato sauce, divided
1/2 cup panko
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onions and cook until softened, about four minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the thyme and sage. Let it cool slightly.

Dump the ground meat, egg, 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce, panko and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add in the mushroom mixture, and VERY GENTLY, using your hands, combine everything together. (Have you ever had a really tough, not delicious meatloaf? It could be because the meat was squished and squashed to death in between someone's fingers.) Dump this on a sheet pan, and form a loaf-like shape.

Cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1/4 cup tomato sauce with the hot pepper flakes in a small bowl. Remove the loaf of meat from the oven, and cover the top with the tomato sauce mixture. Cook another 2o minutes. Let it rest for a few minutes before serving.

Using the surplus

A few months ago, my husband and I spent the better part of the afternoon reorganizing our refrigerator and pantry cupboard. Yes, our life is fabulous, we can't help it. Anyway - in this cleaning, we found three jars of hoisin sauce. Two in the fridge (one on the door, and one shoved in the corner of a bottom shelf) and one in the cupboard - our emergency stash, if you will. Heaven forbid Washington, DC, has a nuclear meltdown and we don't have any hoisin sauce! So the other night when we were scrounging a bit for food and didn't feel like walking the 250 yards to the grocery store, we threw this together. You'll see me later this week at H-Mart stockpiling the hoisin, now that we're down a 1/2 cup.

Hoisin chicken with clumpy (in a good way) rice, adapted from Donna Hay's "Off the Shelf"
Serves 2-3

Chicken
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup wine or sherry (I used leftover champagne)
1 tablespoon grated ginger
4-6 chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces*

Rice
1 tablespoon peanut oil
4 green onions, chopped
1 red chili, seeded and chopped
3 cups COOKED rice
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 small bunch swiss chard, bag of spinach, or head of bok choy

*vegetarian option: this would be really good with cubed tofu, too. Sear the cubes in a pan to get some texture on it before plopping them in the sauce.

Heat the hoisin sauce, wine and grated ginger in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and boil it for 2-3 minutes to thicken slightly. Add the chicken pieces and stir, until the chicken is cooked.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok or large skillet. Cook the onions and chili for about a minute. Stir in the rice and cook for 3-4 minutes. (A spatula works better than a wooden spoon here.) Pour the egg over top, and move the mixture around constantly until the raw egg is no longer visible, about a minute. Stir in the greens, adding a tablespoon or two of water to help them wilt down.

Serve the chicken and sauce over the rice.

For my brother, the carnivore

One year for Christmas at my parents' house, there were three Crockpots exchanged between three people. I got two of them. (I kept the bigger one.) It will be forever remembered as the Holiday of the Slow-Cooked Meat. I know people say they can be used for so much more, but I've only ever done meat. Who doesn't love coming home to a big slab of slow-cooked meat? Well, probably vegetarians. Once my friend Rebecca had an incident where hers shut off in the middle of the day, leaving her with short ribs that had been sitting at a sketchy temperature for who knows how long. The pizza we had for dinner that night was DELICIOUS, though.

A piece of advice - only use your slow-cooker when you'll be gone all day. Because otherwise, you'll be smelling amazing smells all day, and you aren't allowed to even peek in and stir it. It's a little torturous.

And a quick note about pork shoulder: Yes, it can be really fatty. I actually trimmed TONS of fat off of mine, leaving us with not-too-greasy sandwiches. And to all those out there protesting, "but fat is flavor," well, we all have to be able to zip up our pants the next day, and I don't see you pitching in for my personal trainer, so suck it. I don't fear the fat, but I'm also not ashamed to say I trim where I can.

Pork Barbeque, from an Epicurious recipe
Makes about 8 sandwiches

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pepper, chopped (I used a skinny red chili, because that's what I had)
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped (with seeds)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons hot Mexican powder
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
3 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed of as much fat as you want (because she who holds the knife is the boss!), cut into 2-inch hunks
1 12 oz. can or bottle of beer (I used an ale.)
1 bay leaf

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers and cook about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, cook one minute. Remove from heat.

Whisk together all the sauce ingredients: brown sugar through hot pepper sauce.

Fish out your Crockpot from whatever dark corner of the kitchen it usually lives. Put in the peppers and onions, pork and sauce, and stir it around. Pour the beer over the whole lot, and float the bay leaf on top.

Set your slow cooker on low and cook for 8-10 hours. DO NOT PEEK OR STIR.

Using tongs, remove the meat to a bowl. Transfer the juices and vegetables to a saucepan. If you want to, skim off some of the fat from the top. (I got a few tablespoons without much effort.) Over medium high heat, reduce the sauce for about 30-40 minutes. Turn off the heat, and using an immersion blender, puree into a smooth sauce. You could also put the sauce in a regular blender. Add the meat to the sauce, and shred the meat a little bit with two forks. (Don't make it look like cat food, though.) Warm on the stove until heated through. Serve on buns of your choosing, or just as-is.

I know it seems like this might be REALLY spicy, but we really did not find that at all. I actually shook some more hot sauce on top of mine, because that's how I roll.

On being cured of a severe dislike

Did you know that Glasgow, Scotland has the highest per capita concentration of Indian restaurants of anywhere aside from India? Well, I heard that somewhere. Who knows if it's actually true. It was the first place I had Indian food, and I suffered such intense gastrointestinal distress I thought I might die. Very slowly I tried things that were curry-scented, or tandoori, or yogurt marinated, and now, nine years later, the smell of Indian food no longer sends me running for the bathroom. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that I rather like Indian food. If you are interested in making it at home and don't want to buy those jars of pre-made sauce in the "ethnic" aisle of the grocery store, consider getting Raghavan Iyer's book, 660 Curries. I know that sounds like an exhausing amount of curries, but, dude, India is a really big country. I've probably made 10-12 dishes out of it and all of them have been outstanding. The coconut cashew chicken curry, though, nearly made my head spin around. From deliciousness, not being possessed.

Coconut cashew chicken curry
Serves 2

2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup cilantro
6 garlic cloves
2-3 green chiles, stems and seeds removed
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, or two chicken leg quarters (skin removed)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon garam masala

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Toast the cashews, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until they are golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil as you can.

Combine the cashews, coconut, cilantro, garlic, and chiles in a food processor and puree.

Re-heat the same skillet, and toast the sesame and cumin seeds until they smell nutty and toasted (about a minute or two). Stir in the cashew/coconut puree, and stir about 1-2 more minutes.

Push the mixture to the sides of the pan, and brown the chicken in a single layer. Pile the cashew mixture on top of the chicken so it doesnt burn. Flip the chicken over to brown the other side, again piling the cashew mixture on top.

Combine the salt with 1/2 cup water. Pour this mixture over the chicken, scraping up and browned bits on the bottom of the skillet. Turn the heat down to a simmer, and cover the chicken until it is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir and baste the chicken occasionally.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon. Shred the chicken with two forks. Stir the yogurt and garam masala into the sauce in the skillet. Add the chicken back in and stir to combine. Serve over rice.

For the love of lamb

My friend Walter got me and my husband a meat grinder for a wedding present. And a cleaver. I can turn now anything into ground meat! (Hi Walter!)I love ground meat because you can spice and flavor it however you like. Also, it seems more interesting than other meats. Like it went to art school or something.

Photo is the lamb patties with carrot salad and green beans.

Morrocan lamb patties OR burgers
Serves 4

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon aleppo pepper (or use hot pepper flakes)
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1/2 small onion, diced small
1 tablespoon cilantro
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon currants (Crazy, but trust me on this!)
salt and pepper
1 lb. ground lamb

olive oil, to cook

plain yogurt, to serve

Mix cinnamon through salt and pepper together well. (Everything except the lamb, oil to cook, and yogurt.) Add lamb, mix until just barely combine, being careful not to overmix. (If you keep mushing it together, your patties will be really tough. And not delicious. Also, your house might fall in.) Divide into 12 little patties. Heat a large skillet to medium high, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil, and put your patties in. You might have to cook two batches. Or use two skillets. Cook about 2-3 minutes each side, depending on how you like your lamb.

Serve with a dollop of yogurt on each patty.

VARIATION: Divide the meat into only 4 patties, and serve on a roll, topped with yogurt and carrot salad (julienne the carrots so it is more like a slaw).