goat cheese

Braised Beef Short Ribs

/ jeffreyw

20161027_1653381600x1200I just took delivery of this enameled cast iron pot that Amazon had on sale during one of their “today only while they last” sales.  ($80 tax and shipping included – less than half price!)  I’ve been lusting after one of these and I was quick on the trigger when I learned of the sale.

It was perfect for this job.  I went to the Pioneer Woman’s place for her take on this classic dinner and she talked me into going with the goat cheese polenta while I was there.20161027_1726571600x1200The polenta was great!  My mother used to buy those bricks of “mush” when my dad nagged her enough.  He was nostalgic for it but she thought it barely fit to eat and kidded him about his upbringing “in the bottoms”.  She considered herself one of the hill folk.  He would also get her to fix turnips for him and kidded her about not knowing what they were.  She always replied that of course she knew what they were, her people grew them as winter food for the hogs!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

/ jeffreyw

DSC_8156 (1600x1060)I’m on a chicken recipe spree!  At least until I run out of chicken breasts, anyway.  This recipe from Emeril Lagasse looked pretty good, with the added bonus of  the side dish calling for the truffle oil that rounded out a recent online order I placed a while back and was looking for a place to use.

I didn’t have the proper arborio rice so I used the  jasmine variety that I do keep on hand and has worked for me before.  Instead of Parmesan I used fresh grated pecorino.  The mushrooms were the usual supermarket white buttons, nothing fancy.  I think I can take or leave the truffle oil, it not adding any particular enjoyment for me but I’ll wait a while and try it elsewhere before I make up my mind.

The goat cheese filling worked very well, every time I made a cut a little more oozed out and was quickly mopped up.  I used a lot more garlic than the recipe wanted.

Thursday Recipe Exchange: Burger Week, Part 2

/ TaMara

Spicy Lamb Burgers by JeffreyW

I’m travelling again, but made sure to get this ready for you. I decided since I had so many burger recipes I would make a whole week of it. The posts include Cuban Burgers, Dill Burgers, Jalapeno Burgers, Focaccia Burgers and the recipes can be found here.

If burgers aren’t your thing, I also have a week of peach recipes at this link.

That should be enough to keep you busy until I get back. What are you grilling this weekend?

The featured recipes tonight are a Curried Turkey Burger from me and a Spicy Lamb Burger (pictured) from JeffreyW.

Curried Turkey Burgers

Always looking for new flavors to grill and since I love good pita bread, something that would go nicely with that.  Came up with this for a taste treat and a perfect way to use ground turkey since it can be bland if not well seasoned before grilling.  Serve with fresh corn on the cob and grilled eggplant.

  • 1 to 1-1/2 lb ground turkey
  • 3 tbsp plain yogurt
  • 1 tsp ground curry
  • 1/8 tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 4 pita breads

bowl

In bowl combine all ingredients except bread and mix well. Form 4 patties and grill, broil or fry to desired doneness. Serve in pita bread. Ground mustard and mayonnaise make good toppings or a little Greek salad dressing, along with lettuce & tomatoes.

JeffreyW’s Spicy Lamb Burger

The recipe and more scrumptious looking photos can be found here.

Mmm… stuffed peppers

/ jeffreyw

We picked the first two of many (I hope!) green peppers from the big garden yesterday.  Pretty things, and as nice as any bell peppers we have ever grown.  Yay!  Mrs J thought that the classic burger and rice stuffed pepper recipe would work for these.  Hmm… turns out that there are tons of “classic” stuffed pepper recipes out there!  I looked at a few to get pointed in the right direction.  Most all of them mention tomato soup from a can.  I have no problem with canned soup, other than not having any at hand and not wanting to make a trip to town in this heat.  It was 106 at 1:00 PM!  Going to go higher, I’ll wager.  Any way, I did have supplies enough to make a simple tomato soup from canned tomatoes.  Added some ground cloves and a touch of ground allspice, and a few pinches of dried basil and oregano to that recipe.  And a sprinkle of cayenne – shh, don’t tell Mrs J!  We had a package of thawed burger for the stuffing and browned it with a minced onion, and added cooked wild and long grain rice from a box mix. We added a couple ladles of the soup to that and stirred it to combine everything well.  Meanwhile, we boiled the cored peppers for 7 or 8 minutes and set them aside.  We just had the two peppers so a bread tin seemed just right to us for a cooking vessel.  Cheese mixed in with the stuffing was a feature of several of the recipes we looked over.  Mrs J dug out some fresh goat cheese that was approaching its use-by date so we went with it instead of the commonly mentioned cheddar or mozzarella.We both agreed that the goat cheese was a good call.  Not quite as photogenic as mozzarella but delicious!

Mmm…spicy lamb burgers

/ jeffreyw / 2 Comments

I dug a pound of lamb burger from the freezer this morning.  I bought a couple pounds of it a while back, made gyros out of the first pound.  Saw this recipe today while browsing around and remembered that I had some.  We had everything the recipe called for, feta included, but I wanted goat cheese so Mrs J picked some up while on a run to town this afternoon.  Oh, and the cilantro.  Yuck.  She didn’t get any of that, we both suffer from the “tastes like soap” syndrome.

I mixed this stuff up in a bowl and let is sit in the fridge for a couple of hours:

  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon sherry
  • 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

I broiled three patties from that mix in the toaster oven and went from there.  Some tomato slices and the same from a smallish red onion and here you go:

Mmm…pizza! again

/ jeffreyw / 3 Comments

I roasted the latest cherry tomatoes on a baking tray, drizzling them with olive oil and seasoning them with salt and fresh pepper first.  Gave them 25 or 30 minutes at 350 or so, enough time to wilt them some and turn a few edges brown.  They looked perfect for a pizza.  One of my frozen pitas and a smear of goat cheese started the pie, and a good slather of awesome sauce atop that, along with some olives, the roasted tomatoes. and some fresh grated Parmesan made it ready for the toaster.  The fresh basil and the red pepper flakes go on when served.

That was two vegetarian pizzas in a row.  I was ready for some pepperoni on the next one.  It also got some fresh mozzarella to go with the last of the goat cheese.  Alas, I had used all the roasted tomatoes.  We all must share some sacrifice, I suppose.

Potato Leek Soup

/ jeffreyw / 1 Comment

I’ve been walking right by the leeks when I shop the produce aisle.  They just look too much like overgrown green onions to me.  Started thinking, “green onions?  Nothing really bad about green onions.”  Picked up a bunch last time around.  I had my iTouch with me, and my MiFi hotspot so I looked through Google for recipes.  Wanted to make sure that I had everything needed to do something interesting with the leeks.  Hmm, potato leek soup, potato leek soup…more soup.  OK, I can take soup for an answer.

Emeril has a very well rated potato leek soup recipe.  I went with his, and wasn’t disappointed.  It was pretty easy and I had it ready before I had given much thought to presentation.  Hmm….croutons?

Went with some sliced hoagie rolls toasted and spread with goat cheese and sprinkled with the dried Tex-Mex peppers I used in the burgers yesterday.  Yummy.

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Did I mention the ground lamb?

/ jeffreyw / 1 Comment

I added some 80/20 hamburger to this batch of meatloaf, and tweaked the spices just a tad from the Alton Brown recipe I used last time.  This time there is some cumin in the mix, as well as some fresh rosemary, dried thyme, marjoram, and oregano.  It has plenty of garlic in it-I bought a pound jar of fresh peeled garlic cloves at the International grocery store.  Handy time savers, but the last jar I bought went bad before it was all used up.  I’ll try freezing the thing this go around.

Did I say the last jar went bad?  What I meant was Mrs J came to me with tears in her eyes-crying, “It goes or I do”!  And the truth is that the stuff brought tears to my eyes too. Know how a half a lemon down the garbage disposal turns the sink sweet smelling for a little while?  The rancid garlic cloves were nothing like that.  At all.  Just sayin’.