Pickled jalapenos - A recipe from my Grandpa

Grandpa always had a jar of pickled jalapenos.  It was an old Nescafe instant coffee jar.  He even traveled with it going so far as to put a jar in his carry-on luggage when he visited.  I vividly remember that he brought it out at every meal, pulled out a pepper, finely diced it and put it over all his food.  Being a foodie from an early age I had to know what it was he was doing.  Furthermore, I had to have some.  My Grandpa politely told me that "girls don't eat jalapenos".  Well I would have nothing with that!!  Of course I got my way.  I was a wily nine year old.  Plus he was trying to show to me that I would not like it.  Grandpa was right, I didn't like it.  I LOVED IT!!  So now that he had a companion in his jalapeno habit, he taught me how to make them so I could have some with me at all times just like him.  I have only tweaked the recipe to add one thing - carrots...  I adore the semi-crunchy sweet/spicy orange rounds and usually scarf them up first.  You can add pearl onions but that is just not my thing.  Maybe it's yours.  You can add it to a martini to bump it up a notch or three.

This batch is particularly special because the jalapenos come from my very own backyard.  Now that you know the history of the pickled jalapeno, I present you with the recipe from my late Grandpa, Salvador Lozano. 

I started with my freshly picked (and subsequently washed) jalapenos and organic carrots I picked up at The Fresh Market. 

8 jalapenos

1 bunch carrots (peeled and cut into fat coins)

5 cloves garlic (peeled and gently smashed)

1 tablespoon whole peppercorns

4 -6 bay leaves (I used all my broken leaves)

1 tablespoon sea salt

17 ounce bottle olive oil

17 ounces white vinegar

17 ounces water

First you empty the olive oil into a sauce pan.  Fill the empty bottle with vinegar and add it then do the same with cold water.  Add the garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, salt, and carrot.  Slice one jalapeno in half and add to pan along with the other whole jalapenos.  Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and allow to simmer 10 - 15 minutes until the carrots are at your desired tenderness.  I usually go with about 10 - 12 minutes because I prefer a bit of a bite on the carrots.

Discard the bay leaves.

Take a slotted spoon and ladle the veggies into clean mason jars.  I divide things up as evenly as possible.  I include the garlic and peppercorns because I am sassy that way.  Add the liquid and make certain all the veggies are submerged.  Be sure to leave enough room for the lid.  This will keep in the pantry for six months.  I do not think I've ever had a jar that long because I usually have eaten it all. 

The recipe above yielded two full pint jars and partially filled a quart jar.  It left me with a lot of extra liquid.  I kept about a quart of it and I use it to add a little heat to greens or a pot of pinto beans.  Trust me when I tell you it packs a punch and a little goes a loooong way so use your imagination.  Leave me a comment if you come up with some fun, funky way to use the liquid.  Oh!  Gently shake the bottle of liquid to blend before you add, trust me on this.

Now that I've shared just a smidgen of my past with you I hope you will try this.  You just may discover what Grandpa knew and taught me, jalapenos are good on just about anything.  Try it in scrambled egg tacos, over a grilled chicken breast, on fresh corn...  Add a dollop in the next time you make guacamole or salsa.  You won't be disappointed.

Pork burger

I had a pound of freshly ground pork that was just begging to be grilled.  I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it since the original thought was to use it for meatballs.  However, it is too hot to turn on the stove so I decided to make burgers and have Ingo do the cooking outdoors.  Even though it was too hot to turn on the stove I did suck it up and make a fresh loaf of bread. 

What I decided to do was with the pork was this:

1 pound ground pork
1 Vidalia onion (grated)
4 cloves roasted garlic finely diced
2/3 cup bulger
2/3 cup boiling water
1/2 cup diced flat leaf parsley
1 egg
2 tbls freshly grated reggianon parmesan
1 tbl Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Add the boiling water to the bulger, cover and leave alone for a couple of minutes.  Then place in a sieve and rinse with cold water.  Squeeze to remove excess water.

Add all ingredients into a bowl and lightly mix.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours then form into four large or five medium/small burgers. 

Grill on lightly oiled aluminum foil on indirect heat until browned well on both sides.  Unfortunately we left them on a bit to long but they were still tasty.

We served them up on thickly cut sliced fresh bread.  First I generously spread it the slices with olive tapenade, dotted it with bleu cheese crumbles and put sliced roasted red pepper on it. We put that on foil over the grill until it was a bit melty.  Yum! 

PS:  Pardon the bad photo.  It was dark and the flash was not cooperating.

Charcuterie - a love story

To say I love to read is a vast understatement.  I have several hundred books in the house (not including the boundless volumes packed away in boxes in the garage).  I probably have read 90% of them.  Sometimes I have two or three different books I am reading simultaneously depending upon my mood.  With that being said, Barnes and Noble is my friend.  Much to the chagrin of my husband, I order books.  Lots of books.  I sneak them in and hide them on the shelves so I do not have to account for them.  I have a special affinity for cookbooks.  Today a new one was delivered....

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this.  It has it all.  Pork, duck confit , pate and did I mention Ruhlman?  Can it get any better than that?  I'll keep you posted as I have a new book to digest (pardon the pun).

Brunch at Allium - a belated anniversary celebration

It is hard for me to believe that over four years ago I was standing barefoot on the beach at Honeymoon Island... I was worried because it rained for the first time in four days that afternoon. But at 8:00, the sun was just about to set, there was a brilliant rainbow in the sky and there were dolphins putting on our own private show by jumping in and out of the water just behind us... But most importantly of all there was us.

It was almost surreal marrying him in that setting. The waning sunlight sparkled on the water and waves were practically dancing as they softly washed on the shore. We picked a spot with a single palm tree and a weathered picnic table. We sprinkled a few flower petals around on the ground to stand on for good measure although with the natural beauty of the place it was completely unnecessary. There were just five of us, the minister, Amber, Sven, my German and me.

There was no playing of “Here Comes the Bride” or anything by Wagner. Instead we opted for the lyrical sound of the gently lapping surf and the occasional bird. Standing there about to begin I was the kind of anxious that verges on nervous and was glad for the warm, gentle breeze that would blow to take the edge off of the hot July evening. I had nothing to be scared of because I was about to marry my soul mate, my lover, my best friend. I remember trying to not choke up but doing so none the less as my emotions got the better of me and a few stray tears trickled down my cheeks. Happy tears. It was magical to be holding hands and listening to him say to me "with this ring, I thee wed”.


I remember when we were pronounced husband and wife and the first thing I did was exclaim (and loudly) "Oh my God, we're married". Thankfully I managed to shut myself up so as not to ruin the moment. Instead I concentrated on more important things like kissing my husband for the first time as his bride.

We profusely thanked the minister as he made his was to another little oasis on the beach to marry yet another couple that beautiful summer evening. So it was time for a few photos to capture the moment for not only us but for those whom we love who were not able to join us. Amber is an excellent photographer and she had us posing up and down the beach and managed to depict what it was we wanted memorialized.

There was real champagne. And beautiful flutes to drink it with... A wedding gift from Amber and Sven. There were more exclamations of "Oh my God, we are married". I must have said it 10 times. I heard it when I watched the video. We just set the camera down and let it roll and you can hear me pipe in every so often with my little declaration.

Back at Amber and Sven's home there was a celebration with their friends and neighbors. There was cake and fireworks. There were phone calls to parents, mine in Tennessee and his in Germany. There were more toasts. And even without the benefit of music, there was dancing. The sound of the water kept the beat. Perfect.

Today we finally made it out to celebrate.  We were fortunate that a new friend gave us a Groupon for Allium.  We decided that brunch was the way to go and have a relaxing way to wrap up the weekend.  We started with the warm, complimentary cinammon sugar beignets.  There was a delightful strawberry butter to slather on them.  The beignets were fabulous on their own; however, how are we to resist strawberry butter?

We sipped our lovely cocktails as we perused the menu.  (Truth be told, I had already decided what I wanted long before having drooled at a couple of things while reading the menu online.  Don't tell Ingo I cheated, please.)  Ingo had a Bloody Mary with house-made mixer.  It had just the right peppery spice to it.  Neither of us care much for Tabasco overkill.  Unfortunately, he beat me to the olive....  I had the luscious French Mimosa with fresh squeezed orange juice on the side to add at my discretion.  What made it French you ask?  It was the addition of one of my new favorites....  St. Germain....

Anyone who knows us knows that we enjoy food and eating well.  And when it is good we can really eat.  With that being said we both decided upon appetizers.  Ingo had the warm trout salad over spinach with beluga lentils and a walnut vinaigrette.

Due to my passionate obessession with all things cheese, I opted for red onion goat cheese tart.  Either of our appetizers easily could be a nice sized meal by itself; however, did I mention we love to eat?

Neither of us are quitters. Of course that means that we need to move along to a main course! Ingo is a German National. So when he saw sliced Black Forest ham as an ingredient on the Allium Benedict, he had to try it. Not to mention that he is also a total sucker for hollendaise...

 

I mentioned previously, I had already made my choice.  I wanted Shrimp Benedict and I wanted it immediately! 

I must admit that although we both have a "go big or go home" mentally, we hit the wall and could not even think about getting dessert.  We left relaxed, happy and very full. 

We enjoyed our belated anniversary celebration and look forward to what our fifth year anniversary holds for us.  We also send a thank you "shout out" to my new friend for the gracious gift of the Groupon.  Ingo and I are very grateful to you for helping us to celebrate.  The next time I see you out, I owe you a cocktail.

Veggie Pizza or When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

Pizza is one of the basic food groups in our home.  Unfortunately, it is usually some delivered pie from a local place.  Expensive and not very good, yet we keep ordering thinking to ourselves that maybe, just maybe we will be wowed this time.  Never works.

While scanning other blogs I came across a dough recipe and decided to make pizza at home with tons of flavor and loaded with some of our favorite things.

I got the dough rolled out and started layering on the goodies. 

And layering...

For this colorful version I opted for what turned into way too many toppings.  Don't get me wrong, it was tasty; however, we already know how we are going to tweak it.  Because there will be a next time...

Start with the dough recipe. Once you have it rolled out you can top as your choose.   Instead of marina we opted to use black olive tapenade.  I then dotted ricotta and chopped roasted garlic over it.  Next came sliced roasted red pepper, feta, and carmelized sweet onion.  I continued with mozzarella and spinach.  I know, I know, that is a whole lot of items each with intense flavors on their own.  Combined it was a happy sensory overload.  We liked it but our favorite part was this...

I cooked these onions down for almost a full hour in a olive oil and butter with a sprinkle of sea salt and a generous dose of fresh ground pepper.  It turned out to be the best part and next time we are going to eliminate the olive tapenade and use olive oil in its place.  We will probably also go with a smattering of feta and a mozzarella.

The whole thing was popped into a 500 degree oven and fifteen minutes later dinner was ready.  I did; however, allow it to sit for five minutes so it would cut a bit better.  All in all, a good pizza that will not be completely repeated.  I'll keep you posted about how round two goes....

Homemade Ricotta or Blessed are the cheesemakers

I am channeling my inner Monty Python....  Seriously. 
(Audience members at the back of the crowd having trouble hearing the Sermon on the Mount.)
"What was that?"
"I don't know.  I was too busy talking to Bignose."
"I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'."
"Ah, what's so special about the cheesemakers?"
"Well, obviously, it's not meant to be taken literally.  It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."
~ Monty Python's Life of Brian

Ahhh, now that I've gotten that out of my system I am prepared to carry on.

Kase, fromage, cheese, (sorry, much to Ingo's chagrin I cannot get the Umlaut for over the "a" in kase).  We adore cheese.  A few years ago our fridge died.  We were not as concerned about actually buying a new one.  On the contrary, we were devastated that we lost over $50.00 worth of cheese.  It still brings a tear to our eyes.

As much as we love cheese, I never once thought I would actually attempt to make it.  We can easily go to Whole Foods or Fresh Market and get many delectable choices.  Even better, we can visit the Bloomy Rind at Nashville's farmer's market.  However, I found a ricotta recipe that I wanted to try to see if it would be good for our homemade pizzas or some kind of baked pasta venture.

It worked fabulously!  The texture was just right and the flavor was what I was hoping for - just creamy enough, just salty enough and begging for a place on tomorrow's dinner.  Right now my little friend is taking a much deserved rest in the fridge awaiting its destiny as part of tomorrow's evening meal.

So blessed are the cheesemakers of which I am now one.

Alsterwasser - Is it swamp water? Nah, it is my Americanized version of Alsterwasser

When Ingo and I last were in Germany last he introduced me to a local drink.  It is a mix of Pils and Limon Brause.  Roughly translated, limonbrause is sparkling lemonade.  The closest we can find here is Sprite.  Make sure the Sprite is cold and just basically pour it together 50/50 and enjoy.  This is a delightfully refreshing beverage to have on a hot Summer day.  Ingo and I especially enjoy this with a really good Pils.

Prost!