Italian tradition lived out in Lodi

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A guest blog by Wendi Warren

I have been blessed to be married to a wonderful Italian man for the past 16 years. During that time I have learned many things from him regarding his Italian heritage. One that is lived out every holiday, is the assurance that I will be making some Italian dish to go along with the rest of the holiday feast. See, growing up in an Italian family, Bobby would have all the “traditional” fixings as any family in the great United States of America would enjoy, but then they would also have gravy (spaghetti sauce), ravioli, eggplant parmesan and the like. So we have continued this tradition in our home since we have been married.

 

 

 

I have tried many different recipes. Sometimes easy and sometimes more complicated. One of our favorites is stuffed manicotti. We have used the America’s Test Kitchen recipe and it turns out great every time. (Incidentally, I don’t think I have ever had a recipe turn out badly that I have followed from America’s Test Kitchen. Which I guess is their point—they make a dish dozens of times to find the best way to do it so that cooks at home don’t have to find it by trial and error.)

 

 

 

 

Anyhow, this year for Easter I wanted to try my hand at chicken parmigiana. So I turned to our trusty America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and found their recipe. It was a little involved, but totally worth it. I bet it would have been even better if I had remembered to mix the parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs. (I had them measured out, but forgot to add them. I had to sprinkle the parmesan on top of the already breaded chicken, but it worked out O.K. anyhow.)

 

 

 

 

Bobby was pleased as was the rest of the family and I felt good that it was so well received. Another holiday, another Italian dish, another chance to share Bobby’s heritage with family in Lodi; what more can a girl ask for? I know, enjoying another Italian tradition—“the sweetness of doing nothing.” I think I’ll go and put that into practice right now!

 

 

 

 

Flat iron steak: Flat out tender

During one of my lunches with Bryan Schaaf, who handles publication relations and communications duties for Wooster-based Certified Angus Beef, I told him how I recently bought some CAB flat iron steaks, and they were better than I thought.

I had no idea from what part of the cow flat iron steaks come, but in my cooking days, I never broiled a flat iron steak. At Valle's Steak House, I broiled filet mignons, New York strips, top sirloins and ribeyes. I basically believed this was about the only cuts you wanted to broil or grill.

So, I was surprised when Bryan told me the flat iron steak, in terms of tenderness, trailed only the filet mignon. It further intrigued me the steak came from the chuck region. So, when Buehler's, a Wooster-based grocery chain, had flat iron steaks on sale, I picked up a couple of them.

I decided I would marinade the steaks. I did not measure anything, but for the marinade, I used: Soy sauce, dark rice wine, sugar, granulated garlic, salt, pepper, celery salt, Old Bay Seasoning and parsley. After allowing the steaks to marinade for about eight hours (while I was at work), I grilled them, sliced them and served it with macaroni and cheese and steamed broccoli.

Do you cook flat iron steak? Why not share your recipe in the comments below.

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Unorthodox coffee brewing

Ice coffee to the residents of Revere, Mass., is like iced tea to Southerners, just a staple of life.

I grew up in the coastal town, and I remember in the 1970s my mother buying coffee syrup to add to milk. It wasn't a fresh-brewed iced coffee, but it was close enough more me as a kid.

About two decades ago, my sister got me hooked on Dunkin Donuts ice coffee. I have been a big fan of ice coffee, but I was living in Florida, and now Ohio, which was not a haven for ice coffee beverages.

When McDonald's came out with an ice coffee, the vanilla one, I was hooked. I would drink one to two large ice coffees a day. As big a fan as I am of Dunkin Donuts' ice coffee, especially the toasted almond variety, to me, McDonald's vanilla ice coffee is the best. It is sweet and creamy, the way I like it, with just enough coffee flavor poking through.

I am not a coffee connoisseur. I do not like a dark, bold coffee. I like it milky and sweet, and that is what McDonald's delivers.

However, at nearly $2 a pop, ice coffee was quickly eating into my discretionary cash. I had to do something.

So, I purchased a Mr. Coffee espresso machine. Keep in mind I do not drink hot coffee, and I do not drink coffee all day long. So, I was looking for something to deliver coffee in small doses. I spent about $25-$30 for the coffeemaker and got just that. I could not make a good cup of iced coffee with it. Coffee was way too strong and bitter. I scrapped it.

Next, I picked up some type of drip coffeemaker from a Goodwill. It was OK, but I eventually got rid of it. I tried using instant coffee to make my ice coffee drinks, and it was passable, but not great.

I don't know how I came up with the idea, perhaps it was my memory of a coffee episode on Good Eats, but I decided to come up with another method for making ice coffee, which is what I now do nearly every day.

My mother-in-law bought me an electric kettle as a gift. I got to thinking, I could put a coffee filter in a funnel, pour the hot water over it and make one cup of coffee at a time. This is what I do nearly every morning.

Here is the process: I heat the water in the electric kettle. I get out my reusable plastic coffee cup and set on it a wide-mouth funnel for stability and height and a regular funnel. Into the regular funnel I place a coffee filter. Into the coffee filter I place 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons of Eight O'Clock Coffee (I switched from Folger's). When the water comes to a boil, I pour enough water over the ground coffee beans to make eight ounces of coffee. I then add 3 1/2 ounces of vanilla caramel coffee creamer and 1 tablespoon of sugar. If I have time, I leave this in the fridge to cool down while I get ready for work. Else, when I am ready to drink it, I fill my reusable ice coffee cup with ice and pour over the coffee mixture. Sip and enjoy.

If you try this, be careful when pouring the water. It is easy to get scalded by the boiling water. Some friends say this is way too much work. Perhaps it is, but I only make one cup of coffee a day. Sometimes I might make two on a Saturday. You might be thinking why wouldn't I go out and purchase a single-cup coffeemaker like a Keurig. It comes down to cost. I cannot justify spending $90-$120 on a coffeemaker that will get used once a day and only by me.

It ain't pretty, but it works for me ... for now.

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Johnny's Garlic Spread - The multi-purpose seasoning

The last time Wendi and I were in Boston, my sister sent us home with a jar of Johnny's Garlic Spread & Seasoning. My sister told us she and her husband used it for everything.

Even before we flew back home to Ohio, we made some garlic bread using Johnny's. I have to tell you, the first introduction to Johnny's was not the best, however, that was then, this is now.

The way we made the garlic bread was to melt the butter and add the recommended amount of Johnny's Garlic Spread & Seasoning. It was just too much for my liking. My sister suggested spreading the butter on the bread, then sprinkling some of Johnny's on it. Much better idea because you can control the amount.

I have never actually looked at the ingredients in Johnny's; it must be garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and perhaps some parmesan cheese. It has a very strong garlic, but it can be controlled by how much you sprinkle on or in.

Despite that initial negative reaction to the product, I find myself becoming a big fan of it because it is so versatile.

Readers of this blog know when I make pizza, I prefer an uncooked sauce. The last time I made pizza, rather than sprinkling salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, parsley, basil and sugar on the crushed tomatoes, I just sprinkled some Johnny's.

When I make garlic bread, I butter the bread, sprinkle the Johnny's and bake.

I had a jar of tomato sauce I wanted to use. I added Johnny's to the sauce, heated it up and had instant spaghetti sauce.

We had some mini-French bread loaves we had to use or lose. I cut one up into cubes, sprinkled on some butter, sprinkled some Johnny's and added some extra grated parmesan cheese (the plastic jar type) and made some good croutons. Because I eat so much garlic bread with Johnny's, I wanted to make sure the croutons were not just toasted garlic bread cubes, which is why I added the extra cheese to alter the taste slightly. They turned out very good.

BBQ wings in a snap

I enjoy Buffalo wings, but it seems as if they are getting just a bit too expensive for me to order them while out at a restaurant. In Cincinnati, Wendi and I would enjoy them on 25-cent wing night at an area restaurant that focused on the famed chicken wings.

Because Wendi does not like Buffalo-style wings, she always orders BBQ wings, so that is why I decided to make some. I have the ability to deep fry the wings, but it can be a risky proposition in a home. A fire could happen in the blink of an eye. Also, frying chicken wings is further complicated because of the high moisture content, which can cause a lot of splatter.

When Wendi and I have made wings in the past, we baked them in the oven at 400-450 degrees for an hour. Our attempts at baking the wings never really produced a crisp wing. So, when I decided to make this batch of BBQ wings, I intended to grill them. I covered the wings with a generous amount of salt and pepper and set them aside in a stainless steel bowl covered on a counter for about two hours. (I am not sure about the health ramifications of this and what this means in terms of food safety, so you will be better off with the wings covered and placed in the refrigerator.)

When it came time to cook the wings, instead of grilling, I placed them on a very small, but durable, sheet pan from Pampered Chef and cooked them at 450 degrees for 45 minutes in a toaster oven. After 45 minutes, I switched the cooking option from back to broil, and I broiled the wings for another 15 minutes. This helped to produce a nice, crisp final product.

For the BBQ sauce, just used some Sweet Baby Ray's original barbecue sauce. As for the side dish, I made none, so we ended up with some Snyder's of Berlin honey barbecue potato chips.

-- Bobby

Jalapeno dogs reengineered

Back in the days when I would occasionally get lunch from a gas station, that would be when Bryan Schaaf was still working at The Daily Record in Wooster, Ohio, I liked the jalapeno hot dogs at Speedway. I think at the time they cost about $2. I enjoyed them.

One day, when my wife and I were picking up some things at East Union Bulk Food Store, I noticed a selection of Woeber's mustards and sandwich spreads. I saw there was a jalapeno mustard, so I thought I would give it a try.

I tried it on hot dogs, of all things, and wouldn't you know, they tasted just like the jalapeno dogs I was buying for about two bucks apiece. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

-- Bobby

The time when the round came out on top

I was shopping at Buehler's Towne Market the other day and saw some good looking steaks. At first glance, I thought I was picking up a couple of packages of Certified Angus Beef top sirloin steaks. I really enjoy top sirloin. I think when you consider the taste, tenderness and price, it is a cut that is a very good value. However, when I got home, I discovered I picked up a couple of package of good looking top round steaks. Not knowing what to do, I sent a tweet to the good folks at Certified Angus Beef. You can see the exchange in the above photograph.

I checked out the recipe, but it contained bourbon. I don't drink, so I did not have it on hand, and I generally do not like alcohol in my food. I have occasionally bought some white wine for cooking, but I don't even like carrying it in the store, let alone purchasing it.

However, I did like the idea of a marinade, so I tweaked their recipe. I turned the marinade into a sauce, using cornstarch and water as a thickener. We had some white rice leftover, so we placed slices of pan-seared round steak on a bed of rice, and served it with a side of steamed vegetables and drizzled the thickened sauce over the vegetables and poured it over the meat.

Wendi is going to have the leftovers for lunch, but we put the sliced steak, vegetables and sauce over some leftover spaghetti noodles, making a faux lo mein.

-- Bobby

Sunday sundae surprise

This past Sunday, April 3, apparently was the anniversary of the creation of the ice cream sundae in Ithaca, N.Y. (Or was it? Seems like there is a split over the sundae, see here). To mark the occasion, my wife brought me a turtle sundae to The Daily Record office on Sunday afternoon. I was working, and it was a nice treat to see my sweet wife and to enjoy the frozen concoction. Whether the sundae was created in New York in 1882 or Wisconsin in 1881, I am not sure. But I do know this, I like sundaes.

Make Your Own Stuffed Crust Pizza

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This morning, I wanted to cook breakfast for my wife. I figured I would cook up a few strips of bacon in the microwave. We have one of those dishes that does a good job of cooking bacon in the microwave oven.

So, I removed the package of Chuck Wagon bacon and was ready to pull apart some of the slices. When I opened the package, there was not one discernable slice of bacon. When Wendi asked what I was complaining about, I said, "This looks like someone asked a baby to put some bacon in a package." I tried to delicately separate just a few slices so I could make Wendi's breakfast.

No, sir. Chuck Wagon was having none of it.

Well, if that was the way Chuck wanted to play, it was fine with me. I removed a slicing knife from the block and proceeded to cut the congealed mass of seasoned and cured pork into little pieces. I was going to make bacon bits.

I cooked up the bacon bits and made Wendi an egg, cheese and bacon bits sandwich for breakfast. But, as I looked at those bacon bits I had a plan for them: Pizza. My favorite pizza is a cheese pizza; my next favorite is pepperoni and bacon. My wife had plenty of string cheese in the fridge, so I decided I would make a stuffed crust pizza.

I didn't feel like messing up our KitchenAid stand mixer, so I decided I would make the dough in a stainless steel bowl (I think it must have been like 1 1/2 quarts).

Dough:

3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1-1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp instant yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp Kosher salt

1 Tbps olive oil

I put everything in the bowl except the water, and then I added 1 cup of water. It needed a little more, so I added some. I actually stirred everything with a wooden spoon until the dough formed, and I next kneaded it for a couple of minutes. I did not work the dough a lot. I formed it into a ball and placed it back into the bowl and covered it with a tea towel. After about an hour I punched it down and reformed it into a ball. Covered and waited until I was ready to cook dinner.

Sauce:

For this particular pizza, I used an uncooked sauce on my half and Mid's Pizza Sauce on Wendi's.

The stuffed crust:

When I was ready to make the pizza, which was probably 1 1/2 hours after I made the dough, I floured the counter and placed the dough on the counter. Using my hands, I started to form the crust, making sure it was round and the air was pushed out of the dough. I used a rolling pin to stretch it out, but it kept wanting to shrink back in. So, I started stretching the dough in my hands. I am not the best at this, so I only do it if it is completely necessary.

Once the dough was big enough to overlap the perforated pizza pan I was using, I placed it on the pan, but not before applying some nonstick spray. I took out four pieces of string cheese, cut them each in half and placed them around the outer edge of the crust. Then, I did my best to fold the dough over the cheese sticks, tuck it under and seal it.

The pizza:

I placed the sauce on the crust, covered it with cheese by alternating slices of mozzarella and provolone (I prefer to use sliced cheese). I covered my half with bacon and pepperoni and Wendi's with bacon, pepperoni and mushrooms. I placed it in on the bottom rack of a 450-degree oven that had been heating up for around 45 minutes. (I want my oven hot when I make pizza. If I am using a pan, I cook at 450 degrees. If I am cooking on a stone or a pizza screen, then I up it to 550 degrees and have the oven preheating for an hour.)

It took about 10-15 minutes for the pizza to cook, and it was better than anything you will get from one of those chain restaurants.