Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

We picked our first 3 small (4th of July) tomatoes today, there are over a dozen showing some color. We've got fruit on a number of other plants that should start ripening in a week or two, but a few days of cool weather would multiply the crop significantly.

[BakerAunt]

Sounds delicious, Mike!

I made and canned four more 8 oz. jars of Black Raspberry Jam on Monday. I waited until evening, having decided that it was not going to rain--we have had three days of rain forecast and never received more than a smattering—and of course it rained after I started. (My husband and I have decided that the internet forecasts are not worth the paper they are not printed on.) I am hoping it will not make a difference. I still have a few black raspberries in the refrigerator, but there will not be enough for another batch of my favorite jam. The blackberries are beginning to ripen, however, so there will be a mixed berry jam. I may have to freeze the remaining black raspberries until then.

[Mike Nolan]

I made my eye of round on the outdoor rotisserie today, it weighs in at about 4 1/2 pounds after cooking. I'm keeping some of it warm, wrapped in foil, for dinner tonight, the rest I'll let cool and then will slice up tomorrow. (This is one of those times when having a good slicer would be handy.)

I'm going to use the juice and drippings to try another batch of Italian beef jus, since my wife doesn't want gravy with her beef tonight. (Sigh, no mashed potatoes either.)

I've got a Meater Plus wireless meat thermometer, this may be the first time I've tried it on the outdoor grill, even with the repeater it barely went 20 feet before I lost connection, but it worked well enough as long as I left the repeater outside and my phone by the patio door.

[BakerAunt]

We are in the process of clearing out the apartment over our garage (the place where we lived during renovation on the house two years ago) as a prelude to a partial renovation of it. That means moving everything out, and stacking it around the house. Sigh. I came across a large pile of recipes that I had printed in the past, some of which are from the Baking Circle. I am going to check to see if any of those recipes are here at Nebraska Kitchen. If not, then I will type them in. I started with a Blonde Brownies recipe from weedsnstitches, which I think was in a Baking Circle thread rather than in the recipe section. The thread seems to date from when Mrs. Cindy's niece, Clare, was hospitalized after a serious accident. Cindy was planning to visit her and wanted a blonde brownie recipe.

Memories.

[BakerAunt]

I came across this recipe in a stack that I was sorting and realized that this recipe from weedsnstitches, posted June 2, 2015, on the King Arthur Baking Circle, is not posted here at Nebraska Kitchen. I am adding it. She says, "This is the recipe my mom has been using since the 70s. It is really, really good. They are chewy and have a butterscotch flavor. She usually doubles the recipe so it is in a 13x9 inch pan because they don't last long."

Blonde Brownies

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Generously butter 8" square pan.

Melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat, add brown sugar and stir until well blended. Cool 5 minutes, then add egg and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients, then add vanilla and nuts.

Spread in pan and bake about 25 minutes. Cut in 2: squares while still warm but allow to finish cooling on cake rack.

[cwcdesign]

Ike Sewell was a friend of my FIL and the story I heard was that he came back from the war with the pizza idea. My FIL had been asked to be an investor (I think in Uno) but declined. My understanding was that the dressing was really his wife’s recipe. But, I heard that many years ago from my husband. In the early 80s when Uno was expanding the Sewalls came and took them out to an opening in Florida in a limo. My husband was able to join them since he was visiting his parents. I can’t remember if I was in Winter Park packing the house or in Massachusetts, but I missed it nonetheless.

I have no idea where the truth lies.

[BakerAunt]

We had enough green beans from the garden to add to dinner tonight.

The black raspberries are ending, but yesterday I picked the first two blackberries from the plants on the terrace. It looks like we may have a lot, and these are larger than those from other years, which I attribute to the good rains we received. We were hoping for some light rain yesterday and today, but we have only had misting so far.

The two kinds of squash plants (small spaghetti and honeynut butternut squash) have some flowers.

[Mike Nolan]

My son says he more or less uses this recipe:
Italian Beef

He adds: with some tips I found elsewhere on jus temp, etc.

I ate Italian Beef for lunch nearly every day for about five years, so I'm definitely a fan.

Italian Beef fans will argue at lengths over Al's vs Mr. Beef vs Buona vs Portillos (and a few other candidates for 'best Italian beef'), as well as over how wet it should be (sopping!) and what toppings to use. When I was younger I liked it with the sport peppers, but these days I'm more a fan of sweet peppers. Giardiniera is IMHO a more recent addition to the mix, I can get it locally (in mild or hot versions), but it is kind of oily.

[Mike Nolan]

Ike tended to embellish his stories over time, the fact that he had his dates off by a few months isn't terribly persuasive.

Back when I was living in Chicago in the 70's, I knew one of the editors and business manager of Chicago Magazine (he was a fellow chess player), and even pitched him on the idea of a 'casual dining' food column for the magazine to complement the fine dining one. We decided to move to Nebraska before he could get the OK for the column, which did show up in the magazine a year or two later.

There was a lengthy story in the magazine on Chicago pizza around 1977, as I recall it divided Chicago pizza into 5 styles (I reviewed an early draft and I thought 7 was more accurate.) It was more a 'state of the pie' article than a historical treatise, though it did delve into the question of whether Nancy's invented stuffed pizza or the original Giordano's did. (My vote would have been for Nancy's.)

I'll have to ask my son what recipe he uses for his Italian beef, when he was taking it to his friend's now-closed restaurant for slicing (the restaurant served Italian beef), the owner told him his recipe was pretty good. I think he does it in an Instant Pot. I've made the Jeff Mauro recipe from scratch several times, it was pretty good but probably would have been much better if I could have sliced it thinner.

I tried the Serious Eats idea of buying pre-sliced meat, I think it has potential, but the real challenge with it is that the deli counters here only have roast beef that has been seasoned with garlic, so my wife either has to cut off the edges (it is probably a rub that doesn't get very far in) or eat something else.

If my wife sticks with her new food regime, with 2 servings of protein at each meal, I may buy a slicer, my son bought a "Chefs Choice" slicer on Amazon recently.

[Mike Nolan]

An ounce of chicken skin has 3 grams of saturated fat, but 8 grams of unsaturated fat (the good kind.)

And as noted, chicken cooks differently if you take the skin off, it dries out.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked another recipe from Elena Paravantes’ blog Olive Tomato: Authentic Italian Lemon and Ricotta Cookies (no butter).

Authentic Italian Lemon and Ricotta Cookies

I replaced half of the AP flour (used Gold Medal) with half white whole wheat flour. I used low-fat ricotta, and I used 7.5 oz. rather than 8 oz., because it comes in a 15 oz. container, and I want to be able to use the other half either to bake this recipe again or to try another. I used a large egg rather than a medium, as large eggs are what I have on hand. I shaped the cookies with a Zeroll #40 scoop (she specifies about a tablespoon each), and I ended up with 29 rather than 25, which is fine by me. I baked them on heavy baking sheets, on the third rack up (somewhat above center).

The cookies are cakey and not too sweet. My husband ate three in a row and remarked that they would make a good snack. They would go well with coffee or tea. I didn't sprinkle powdered sugar over them, but I would definitely do so for a festive cookie plate.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I have the original somewhere, but at the moment, I have what I copied into my baking book:

Night before (7-8 hours) make biga:
2 cups AP King Arthur flour
1 cup water and 1/4 tsp. yeast
(Let sit 4 hours but overnight is best)

1 cup water
1 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. yeast

3-4 cups King Arthur AP flour (I sub in 2 cups whole wheat)
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs. salt

The yeast is proofed in water and sugar, then stirred into biga. Butter and 2 cups flour are added, then another cup of flour, then the salt. Dough is allowed to rest, covered 20 minutes. Knead, adding only as much additional flour as needed for smooth supple dough.

After rising, dough is shaped into rough logs, placed in greased pan, and allowed to rest 15 minutes before shaping.

It bakes after second rise at 425F for 15 minutes or 190F internal temp.

[Mike Nolan]

As I noted in your recipe (thanks!), the rolls traditionally used in Chicago hold up well to being drenched in jus (though most Chicagoans call it a gravy.) The recipe I posted a link to earlier was said to hold up well when wet, but the batch I made of them yesterday didn't do well, which may be at least partially my fault.

I think I tried the Chicago Metallic pan recipe in an earlier experiment with Italian beef, but I don't remember how well it handled being soaked. I seem to recall that beef recipe was pretty good, but thin slicing is a key component to true Italian beef.

[Mike Nolan]

If there are any butchers in Lincoln willing to slice a roast after you've cooked it, I'm not aware of them. Grocery store butchers aren't very versatile, and sometimes not all that well trained or knowledgeable about meat.

We do have two newer more-or-less full-service butcher shops, I may ask them the next time I'm there. (That's where I went to buy 40 pounds of chicken backs, for example.) They're both on the other end of town, so it isn't somewhere we go weekly.

My son in Pittsburgh has been making Italian beef in his instant pot. He took it to a friend's restaurant a couple of times to have him slice it, but the restaurant closed during the pandemic. Since then he has bought his own slicer, next time I'm in Pittsburgh maybe I can get him to make it for us.

As to the rolls, as several writers on the subject of Italian beef have noted, the Gonnella or Turano rolls that are traditionally used in Chicago hold up to being drenched well. Not sure what their secret is, I think they're softer than most French rolls, though.

I have made this recipe a few times, without the garlic, though.
Italian Beef

[Italiancook]

I don't recall where I obtained this recipe for scrumptious Italian Beef when we lived in Chicago. I've made this recipe a multitude of times & my Chicago in-laws loved it. I've served this at parties in other cities, and it's been a hit. Before the pandemic, I always bought the rump roast at a meat market after they agreed to slice it on their slicer after I baked and brought back the roast. I told them to slice it, "paper thin," and each butcher had no problem complying. I don't know if a butcher would allow roasted meat to come back into the store during the pandemic . . . since we're no longer entertaining.

In every city, I have asked a bakery to make me "hard rolls," and I've used those bakery rolls to serve the beef. A quick search of the KABC website came up with 3 hard roll recipes.

5 pound rump roast
3 cups water
3 beef bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 drops Tabasco
1/2 cup chopped green pepper & small clove garlic, minced

Roast meat on a rack in an open roasting pan in a 325 degree oven until meat thermometer registers 150 degrees (medium rare), about 2 to 2-1/2 hours. I've never roasted this roast on a rack & no problems.

Remove meat. Cool. Wrap in foil. Refrigerate overnight. Next day, take to the butcher who has agreed to slice it paper thin.

Add water to pan drippings, then add 1 bouillon cube for each cup of water used. Stir in seasonings, green pepper, and if desired, a small minced clove of garlic. Simmer 15 minutes. Put sliced meat into mixture; cover & let marinate in refrigerator 4-5 hours (I do overnight). NOTE: I make double the amount of marinade, because everyone I've ever served these to wants plenty on both sides of their rolls.

Reheat meat in marinade to serve on hard rolls. Slice rolls. Quickly dip each cut side in marinade liquid, then add beef to the sandwich.

NOTE: I like to skim off some of the fat, so I add the water & bouillon cubes, dissolve the cubes, then refrigerate the liquid overnight. Next day, I skim off some of the fat. Then add other marinade ingredients & add meat. But, it may be more authentic to serve it full-fat.

NOTE: This is a 4 day project: Day 1, Buy the roast. Day 2. Roast & refrigerate the meat. Day 3 Make the marinade and add beef. Day 4, serve. Of course, you certainly can buy and roast on same day to make it a 3 day adventure.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Italiancook.