It’s All About The Stuffing – Ciabatta Chestnut Stuffing That Is

December 7, 2011 By 2 Comments
ChestnutCiabattaStuffing-Final
Hol­i­day time always meant that when I vis­ited my Bampa’s house, there was a strong like­li­hood that in addi­tion to the typ­i­cal stuff­ing you might find, over­flow­ing with cel­ery, onions, raisins, etc., there would be a small dish of chest­nut stuff­ing for those that might enjoy it. Now, I was a snotty lit­tle kid who liked all things processed – Cool Whip, Stove Top and god knows what else and, if I had a time machine, I would go back in time and tell my Bampa I was sorry for not appre­ci­at­ing his culi­nary wis­dom. I’m sure he must have shaken his head a few times at my turned up nose and excla­ma­tions along the line of “Chest­nut stuff­ing – YUCK!” Like I said – I was a brat.

I attempted to give Chest­nut stuff­ing a try over the hol­i­day and, guess what, Giada had a recipe for Cia­batta Chest­nut Stuff­ing that rocked! It’s a stuff­ing that even my Bampa would thor­oughly enjoy. Giada’s recipe called for pancetta but I wound up using some bacon I had in the fridge. Also, as I didn’t have a 15 x 10 x 2 dish, I used two of my Le Creuset bak­ers. Cou­pled that with some great cia­batta from Whole Pay­chex, roasted chest­nuts from Williams Sonoma and some turkey stock – it was a dish that was not only great with din­ner, but bet­ter the next day. Chest­nut stuff­ing will become a fam­ily tra­di­tion, once again.

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Filed Under: Cooking In Stilettos, From Bampas Kitchen, Giada de Laurentiis, Holiday, Recipe, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , ,

From Bampa’s Kitchen: Recipe Flashback

December 8, 2010 By 3 Comments
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I dis­cov­ered a host of mem­o­ries in my mail­box today – hand­writ­ten recipes from my Nana and Bampa’s kitchen.  My aunt had come across them recently and was so sweet to send them to me.  In an instant, a flood of mem­o­ries came rush­ing back – their kitchen, the cre­denza in the din­ing room that always held a stack of bananas that needed ripen­ing and my Bampa’s infa­mous choco­late pie, my small high chair/step stool that sat smack dab in the cen­ter of the kitchen and the big super­sized bot­tle of Chivas Regal that was always present.  It’s amaz­ing how see­ing someone’s hand­writ­ing was like a mem­ory time portal.

FBKRecipeFlashback thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Recipe Flashback

These recipes def­i­nitely reflect the time period.  There was a recipe from the 50s for a Tuna Casse­role, a Frozen Pear Salad that incor­po­rates French dress­ing (!), and one that took me by sur­prise – a Shrimp Won­ton recipe that is a bit daunt­ing.  I had no idea that my Bampa even dab­bled in Asian cui­sine.  How­ever, this recipe for Tuna Loaf that was noted “1973 Meat Boy­cott” was one that piqued the curios­ity.  I always pic­tured meat­loaf with meat – not tuna.  I don’t know if I might try to update this par­tic­u­lar one for the times but here his recipe in the entirety.

TUNA LOAF

Ingre­di­ents:

  • 2 seven ounce cans of tuna, flaked
  • 1 can of cream of cel­ery soup (undiluted)
  • 1/2 cup of chopped onion
  • 1 table­spoon of lemon juice
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten

Direc­tions:

  • Mix all ingre­di­ents together.  Mix­ture will be soft after mixed together.
  • Place in loaf dish/pan in an oven pre­heated to 375 degrees for an hour. [Note: there’s also a nota­tion that you might want to try it at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes]
  • After bak­ing, place on plat­ter, loaf inverted and, if wished, cover with can of cream of cel­ery soup, diluted with 1/3 cup of milk.
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From Bampa’s Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

March 5, 2010 By 3 Comments
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When I was younger, I remem­ber my Aunt Deya help­ing my Bampa in the kitchen while he was mak­ing break­fast.  She intro­duced me to some­thing that I thought was so amaz­ing – that being huevos rancheros.  Sadly, she lived in Cal­i­for­nia or you know I would have been pes­ter­ing her to teach me the recipe on the daily.

Lately, I’ve been toy­ing with dif­fer­ent styles of cui­sine, namely Mex­i­can & Span­ish.  It was only nat­ural that I attempt some­thing that is syn­ony­mous with Mex­i­can cui­sine right?  Now, I do have a quick con­fes­sion – eggs and I have a love/hate affair.  Can I make a over hard fried egg – sure, with my eyes closed.  Scram­bled eggs and I have kissed and made up after learn­ing how to FINALLY cook them cor­rectly.  Poached Eggs and Sunny Side Up eggs and I are still on the outs but I resolve this year to learn how to do both types of eggs perfectly.

I decided to per­fect my own take on Huevos Rancheros and I’m happy to say that after mul­ti­ple kitchen exper­i­ments, this ver­sion just sang.  The addi­tion of chipo­tle and smoked paprika left some heat that hit the back of the throat.  The fire roasted toma­toes add a earthy qual­ity along with the cumin and the lime adds bright­ness, just tying every­thing together.  Cou­ple that with the yolk from the eggs that moist­ens the crispy corn tor­tilla and you have a new take on break­fast that, quite sim­ply, can be great for din­ner as well.

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HUEVOS RANCHEROS, MY WAY

Ingre­di­ents:

  • 1 15 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes
  • 1 small red onion, diced
  • 1 or 2 cloves of gar­lic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. smoked Span­ish paprika
  • 1/4 tsp. Mex­i­can oregano
  • 1 tsp. Worces­ter­shire sauce
  • 1 tsp. of minced chipo­tle in adobo (you can add more but yes, I admit – I’m a wimp)  Alter­na­tively, you could add 1/2 tsp. of chipo­tle chili pow­der or chili powder.
  • Juice of 1/2 a lime
  • Diced Green Chiles (optional)
  • Salt & Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 corn tortillas
  • But­ter
  • Olive Oil

Direc­tions:

  1. In a sauté pan, sauté the onion over medium heat in olive oil until translu­cent. Gen­tly salt the onion to make sure the mois­ture is released.
  2. Add the gar­lic and let the fra­grance develop.
  3. Add the fire roasted toma­toes and allow it to bub­ble for a minute or two.
  4. Add the Worces­ter­shire sauce, Mex­i­can oregano, smoked Span­ish paprika, cumin, and chipo­tle and stir gen­tly.  (You can add the diced green chiles.  I made an exec­u­tive deci­sion to omit them.)
  5. Add the lime juice and add salt and pep­per to taste.
  6. Allow to sim­mer gen­tly while you move onto the eggs & tortillas.
  7. Toast the tor­tillas until lightly browned and crispy on a non­stick skil­let.  Keep warm while you make the eggs.
  8. Melt a tea­spoon of but­ter in the same non­stick skil­let that you used for the tortillas.
  9. Crack the eggs into the pan and fry until the yolks are runny and the whites are set.
  10. Plate with tor­tilla, a small amount of the fire roasted salsa, the egg and top with a driz­zle of the salsa on top and enjoy!

Gather Your Ingredients

HuevosRancherosIngredients thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

Sautéing the Onions and Garlic

HuevosRancherosOnion thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

Sim­mer­ing the Sauce

HuevosRancherosSauce thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

Paula Dean – back away

HuevosRancherosButter thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

The per­fect egg… for now

HuevosRancherosEgg thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

The tor­tillas have a bit of color

HuevosRancherosTortilla thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

The end result – so good.

HuevosRancherosFinal thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Huevos Rancheros, My Way

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Filed Under: Breakfast, Eggs, From Bampas Kitchen, Recipe, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , ,

From Bampa’s Kitchen: Corn Fritters

May 26, 2009 By 2 Comments
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Grow­ing up, my fam­ily would often go to “the cot­tage” in Old Lyme dur­ing the sum­mer.  The cot­tage was a place where I knew that if I walked into the kitchen, more often than not in the morn­ing, my Bampa would be mak­ing “frit­ters.”  Now I’ve dis­cussed my issue with any­thing pan­cakes before how­ever I never regarded Bampa’s frit­ters as pancakes.  

One of my favorite com­fort foods that I make is my ver­sion of his corn or blue­berry frit­ters.  They come out per­fectly every time and I keep them in the fridge to snack on if there are left­overs.  He used Bisquick so that makes it a bit eas­ier for this gal here.  It’s one of those dishes that keeps him just a lit­tle bit closer to all of us.

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CORN FRITTERS

Recipe adapted from Bisquick and, of course, my Bampa

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups Bisquick pan­cake mix
  • 1 tsp. bak­ing powder
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 small can of corn ker­nels, drained and rinsed.

DIRECTIONS

  1. Grease or spray grid­dle or skil­let if nec­es­sary. Heat over medium-high heat
  2. In medium bowl, com­bine all dry ingre­di­ents thor­oughly.  Add in milk and eggs.
  3. Stir all ingre­di­ents until blended.
  4. Pour bat­ter by slightly less than 1/4 cup­fuls onto grid­dle or skillet.
  5. Cook until edges are dry and bub­bles form in center.
  6. Flip and cook until golden.
  7. Serve with but­ter and [Good] maple syrup.

 

dscf1043 thumb From Bampas Kitchen: Corn Fritters

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