Mushrooms

You, too, can feel like a gourmet chef. Take three simple ingredients. Well, it would be more if you didn't cheat by using tapenade. For those of you who don't know what tapenade is, I'll explain. I get a huge plastic thing at Sam's, but they have smaller, much more expensive glass jars at Fresh Market or places like that. Here are the ingredients: Olives (black & green), olive oil, red pimientos, garlic, capers, mustard, spices. You could just chop up some olives and it would be fine.

Back to the three simple ingredients. Tapenade, goat cheese and mushrooms. Not fancy mushrooms, just the white button kind. Twist the stem out of the cap. If you have trouble, use a grapefruit spoon, but usually they pop right out. Smush in some goat cheese. Top with tapenade. You could add parmesan, or whatever else you can squeeze in. I say, buy french bread, tapenade, goat cheese, mushrooms, parmesan, bruschetta (this is the key), and mix or match and you will not go wrong. Throw in a pepperoni or two for the carnivores, and you'll really be admired.

Pizza Stone

My favorite kitchen thing. Of all time. More than my toaster oven. It's a Pampered Chef rectangular pizza stone. No, this is not a plug. As a matter of fact, I don't even know a Pampered Chef person. If you get a chance, though, buy this. I use it all the time. It's hard to store, so I just keep it in the oven. It's great for anything you want to be crisp and not soggy. Like the Bruschetta in this picture. I loaded up some french bread with the Bruschetta stuff from Sam's (will give details later), goat cheese and fresh grated Parmagiano Reggiano - Heaven!

Cast Iron Skillets

Here's a great thought: If you have an uneven burner like mine, a cast iron skillet is perfect. One of their big pluses is even heating. An added benefit is increased iron in your diet. They take a long time to season, and if you're not careful, they'll rust. Might make your iron level TOO high. I've been coveting my mother's. They're beautiful. Mine's less than 20 years old, but of course, I've only used it a few times.

They're perfect for cornbread. Just grease the skillet with Crisco (no trans-fats any more) and put it in the oven until it preheats. It will sizzle when you pour in the batter. This is key.

There are whole schools of thought about yellow v. white cornmeal, buttermilk, sweet, etc. I don't begin to know all the intricacies of cornbread. All I know is that right before Thanksgiving, I see lots of older, genteel Memphis ladies in line at the grocery store with Jiffy cornbread mix. I understand that's "sweet" cornbread. I figure, if you're making the cornbread, even from a mix, as opposed to the Pepperidge Farm bag, you're authentic. I don't care if it's sweet or not as long as it has oysters in it!!

Oh, my goodness, oyster cornbread dressing. My 16 year old goes nuts for it. It's a treasure hunt for the oysters.

Well,, that's all I have for now. Main sad kitchen point is, if you have an uneven burner, think about cast iron skillets and all the rich traditions they offer.

My Crock Pot

Even if you have a sad kitchen like me, you can find some pretty great small appliances to bring you into the 21st century. For some reason, I never had a crock pot until recently. I didn't receive one for a wedding gift, but got three ice cream makers - you know how that goes. Or used to go. Now everything is a gift card. No more fun of boxes arriving at the door containing beautiful china and crystal. Now my friends' children are getting married - that's the only reason I know. But I digress.

It's just as well I didn't get one of the original ones (I remember when they came out!) with the cord attached. I don't know how you could wash anything you can't submerse into water. I think all the new ones have inserts for easy cleanup. Except it's not so easy when the insert is bigger than your sink! And I have to warn you that the crock pot takes up HALF my counterspace. Seriously.

You can get a crock pot like mine for $30 - $40, check Amazon - they ALWAYS have the best deals. I've never been a slow cooker fan, but I've discovered a few things that are really good and easy, and instead of cooking them on the sad little burners on my stove, I've shifted to the crock pot.

One example is beef stew. It's really much better that way. Start it in the morning and add the potatoes and carrots about an hour or so before you plan to eat. I buy the already-cut-up beef stew meat (I have no idea what cut it is), and throw in beef bouillion and let it go. The other day I only had one beef boullion cube, so threw in a can each of beef consomme and french onion soup, and it was fine. At the very end, I used a couple of packets of brown gravy mix to thicken and wound up with a very happy, simple beef stew. You could substitue french onion soup mix with less liquid to make more of a pot roast. I hate big cuts of meat, and the stew meat is nice because there's not all the fat to deal with.

No pictues of the stew (it doesn't photograph well). I'm going to be thinking of more things I can make in my lovely, modern crock pot.

Parmesan Cheese

At the risk of sounding like a food snob, I have to discuss Parmesan cheese. Parmigiano. Parmigiano Reggiano, to be specific. Hear me now. I'm not opposed to the green can. The bag is better - more melty. But if you have an extra $10 to spend, buy a pound of the real deal. That's what I paid at Sam's for a big hunk. One pound. It keeps till July. I think I will use it all. Come to think of it, it's probably cheaper than the bag, and maybe the green can. There's labor involved, though. But it's nice. It smells so good and it feels amazing. Of course, taste is a consideration - you'll have to judge for yourself.

I used this special ingredient in my Chicken Parmesan. It really does come from Italy, not China. That's where the Reggiano comes in.

That's all I have to say about cheese tonight. It's one of my favorite foods, so more will follow, I'm sure.

Parmesan Chicken + Oven Strategies

My friend Suzanne gave me this easy recipe. Here goes: 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts; 1 stick butter, melted; 1 tube Ritz crackers, crushed; 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese; salt and pepper. Mix crackers, cheese, S&P. Dip chicken in butter, then dry mixture. Place on baking pan lined with Pam-sprayed foil (if you want easy clean-up). Bake about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

I love it when recipes don't specify how much S&P or other spices. And I love most recipes with butter. I'm not so crazy about recipes involving raw chicken because my fear of salmonella makes me feel like I'm handling radioactive material. I swear, how did we survive childhood?

Sad kitchen slant: Things you bake (roast sounds better) in the oven are the best. I have a very small oven, but I know it well. We're bosom buddies. It's a plain old electric, and in my humble opinion (IMHO for you techies), there's no big diff between gas and electric ovens. I get the whole gas stovetop thing - embrace it even and one day hope to have it, but seriously, a box heated to a certain temp is the same no matter what generates the heat. Please - I need a physicist to back me here!

I know that if the frozen pizza directions say 10 minutes at 450, I'm better off to do 12 at 425. I watch it closely. That's the key to good pizza and cookies. You gotta watch it. That's why you need a computer in your kitchen. Believe me. It's the best $800 you'll ever spend. You'll recoup it in burnt food in 3 months. But that's just me.

Another case in point. I made banana nut bread the other day. I cut the recipe into one-fourth. Except for the walnuts. I put two cups instead of 1/2. I realized this when I noticed my batter was a little, how should I say, heavy? Instead of 45 minutes at 350, I did 1 hour at 325, checked it when the timer went off, and it was perfectly springy in the middle. Nuts are good for you, and my BNBread is good. I'll stand behind it. Still searching for the perfect recipe. Let me know if you have it.

I have dirty, salmonella-infected dishes to tend to, so will close. Embrace your kitchen.

My Sad Kitchen - Inaugural Post

Surely I'm not the only one out here. I love to cook, watch the Food Network and Hell's Kitchen (dontcha love it?), and know the difference between a sauce and a reduction (well not really, but I know those words). I also have a decent collection of cookbooks. I have the Joy of Cooking and about 20 church cookbooks (they can be treasures) and a few in between. I gave myself away. I'm not a foodie and certainly not a food snob. A foodie would never go near a church cookbook. I like to think of myself as a hybrid. The best of both. Kind of like a mutt from the shelter.

That brings me to my kitchen. I'm a forty-something, tuition-poor mom of a teenager. I'm working hard to start a home-based business (just a little biz consulting - putting my 20+ years in the CPA world to work). I live in a 50 year old house that's just perfect for us - nothing glamorous. The kitchen needs a major redo. I think the lady we bought it from (the original owner) updated it in the 1970s. We've lived here 18 years, and it's time for a new floor, counters, stove-top... So instead of bemoaning my station in life, I'm going to embrace My Sad Kitchen. My idea is that if I can turn out some good food in a sad little kitchen, I might be able to do great things when I can afford great tools.

I'll be featuring simple recipes (I don't stock fish sauce or truffle oil in my pantry). I'm hoping to find sisters with sad kitchens who feel my pain. In the meantime, I'm going to see this as a niche, an untapped market, and until my dream comes true and some great appliance company or makeover tv show decides to come redo my sad kitchen (or the kid gets a full scholarship and we have some money for a change), I'm going to make the best of what I have.