Gotta Wonder What a Trillionaire Would Eat

Something about October days...even those that manage to climb into the lowest of low 90's,...makes me think of hearty soups. So, I was game to try this one found on the allrecipes.com web site earlier this week: Billionaire's Franks and Beans. This turned out well for us, and it was also a test run for Oscar Myer Select hot dogs, which were on special today. (Yay!)  Now, in the original recipe the veggies included a poblano chili  and fresh cayenne peppers. Since I could find no comments about how much heat that would entail, I opted to substitute green and red bell peppers for those. Likely that was enough for recipe purists to say I didn't really try that recipe. Everything else, though, was done just as Chef John, whose recipe it is, directed. In fact, we enjoyed ours with buttered toast, as he suggested in his accompanying how-to video. This was good. It was not fabulous, but for beanie weenies....it was very good. The hubs actually dipped up a second bowlful. I'll check the bank account tomorrow to see if this had any magically positive effect there, but I imagine that title is just for fun.

So Good We Had to Celebrate SOMEthing!

Bon Appetit (?) lists this as Grilled Tenderloin with Cherry Salsa. How often do I even HAVE fresh cherries in my kitchen? Maybe every ten years, or so. Anyway, I saw this recipe after having bought about three pounds of fresh cherries. Meanwhile, at Kroger, the pork tenderloins were on special. This sealed the deal. Had to give it a try. 

Red jalepeno pepper for the Cherry Salsa was not available, so I used red pepper flakes instead. BUT, it worked. (Yum). And even though I had to wash and pit the cherries as the meat marinated, the timing was actually just as the recipe indicated... do-able.

The resulting meal was so delicious, I would have proposed to my husband, if we weren't already married.  After about my fourth bite, I told him, "Happy Anniversary", though our next one of those is months away. We thought a bit about it, though, and it actuallyWAS our 45th anniversary of the month we met! So, C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E-!

Plated with last night's grilled asparagus and mushrooms

    Also, we will get three meals from this one cookout. Our freezer has been notified, and looked pretty pleased, too.

Kale! Kale! The gang's all here!

Somehow I had only read about kale until recently. Introducing new foods to old menus can be tricky, but this turned out to be well received even with my pickiest eater. Hint: not me. Oh! I mean "not me" as pickiest eater. Of course, with both lemon and garlic as primary flavoring, it had a pretty good chance of making the grade.

The recipe came from AllRecipes' site: Mediterranean Kale

Three C Hummus in a PB Blend

I had always thought there could not be hummus without tahini; but because of the sesame allergy I had to look for something that would serve as a tahini stand-in. On the AllRecipes site I found Creamy Yogurt Hummus that made hummus using garbanzo beans, lemon juice and yogurt. I mixed some up, but frankly, it was not what I had hoped. I missed the authentic hummus texture rendered by that forbidden ingredient, tahini. I knew I would not be able to eat it as it was, so back to the “Ingredients” feature I ventured, this time adding peanut butter as a possible tahini substitute, and up came Falafel I .

To my previous mixture I added peanut butter, a bit more garlic, some onion, coriander, cumin and cayenne. I think the peanut butter provided the texture I had missed, and the three C’s stepped up with the missing flavor.  Of course, another C (curry powder) might have been used, but this was good, and I met my goal of salvaging the first mixture, as well as finding a way to have hummus again. The mixture was best after having been chilled a few hours, for all the flavors to meld.

Lots of protein in this snack. It could be more interesting looking had I added snipped chives or the green of a spring onion and some of the roasted red pepper I instead used for (photo-primping)  garnish. ;o) Anyway...

[[Maybe my new version should be called "Falafammus". What do you think?]]

Savory Apple Pork Chops

I had a couple of green apples looking for a good use, and also had a couple of thick-cut pork chops that I had bought for a Sunday dinner, so I did an ingredient search on All Recipes dot Com and found this "Savory Apple Pork Chops" recipe. Couldn't beat it for simple ... except to use the crock pot for cooking, which I did.  Didn't use ketchup for it, though, as recipe calls for because I had a partial can of diced tomatoes on hand. The end result was a good (but not great), extremely easy meal. May try it again if I find myself with sufficient lead time and have the ingredients on hand.

Served with broccoli, rice, and caramelized onions.

Balsamic Fig Glazed Fruit-Topped Chicken Breast - Middle of Page 45

Found this yummy fig-glazed chicken recipe in Costco's September 2011 edition of their magazine, The Costco Connection. I substituted apples for the suggested pears because I had a big bag of small organic apples on hand; I used honey in place of the sugar called for; and I used far less salt & pepper than listed. The hardest part of the prep was pressing the fig sauce in my too-small-for-the-task sieve.  I will probably try to round up a larger sieve  before my next rendering of this. Also, I would like to try it "as written"...using pears. 

Here's how Costco printed the recipe (except for abbreviations):

Balsamic and Fig Glazed Pear-Topped Chicken Breast

4 oz. goat cheese                       3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3/4 tsp. dried thyme                  1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp minced garlic                6 boneless, skinless chicken

3 pears, cored & halved                breast halves

1 1/3 cups low-sodium chicken broth   2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups dried figs, plus          1 tsp. black pepper

 diced pieces for garnish            Thyme sprigs, for garnish

Mix goat cheese, thyme and garlic until blended. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of goat cheese mixture into center of each pear half. Puree chicken broth, figs, vinegar, and sugar in batches in blender until smooth. Pour into strainer set over a bowl. Press liquid (sauce) into bowl and discard solids. Pour half of fig sauce into a 13 x 9 x  2 inch pan.

Place chicken breasts over fig sauce in pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place filled pear half cut side down over each chicken breast and drizzle with remaining fig sauce. Cover pan with foil and bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake, basting occasionally, 30 to 40 minutes until chicken breasts reach an internal temperature of 160 F.

Cut chicken and pear in half to serve. Spoon sauce over pears. Garnish each serving with diced figs and thyme sprigs. Makes 6 servings. 

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Thank you, Costco! This is "company special"! 

Counting the Days till the (grand)Boy's Arrival 

Name Still Under Wraps

Travel mode is definitely upon the (grand)man. His communications to the couple-in-waiting have picked up frequency, even as I tell him in the background that they are well aware of  the due date, and also that the baby has not decided to come, just yet. the (grand)man now has several sequential pairs of hotel reservations advancing to the outer limit of what he feels will be the baby’s arrival. This is good, though, as it gives him something to do. He is in charge of tracking these and canceling the right ones in the timeframe allowed. 

Today we have workmen felling a couple of trees in our yard, and an electrician coming to finish up some lighting in the den. This seems to be a likely time for baby to come, but he may not have a calendar on hand to note that he now is right between the two due dates that had been projected.  

Besides, if he were going for inconvenience, he would have opted for the power outage during the recent record-breaking heatwave, wouldn’t he? Of course, my phone weather application  suggests that the high for Saturday in the baby's city is forecast to be over 100 degrees. 

Boy, oh Boy! When that phone call comes, though, won’t we both be ready?