Experiment 13 - The Selection

This week's dip into the box brought up a clipping from one of my favorite newspaper columns of yore - The Butcher, written my Merle Ellis.  I used to love reading this column every week, although I never did anything but read and perhaps clip it out for future reference.  I guess this is the future, then.  This one is from Wednesday, June 25, 1986 and is entitled "Stuffing Steak Adds To Flavor".  The problem is that there are three recipes in this one clipping.  I'd flip a coin, but I don't have any that are three sided.  The easier thing to do would be to check the ingredients a little closer.   "Carpetbag steak" include oysters.  OK, that's out.  "Maytag Stuffed Steak" calls for blue cheese.  Not my cup of tea.  OK then, I guess that wasn't really a problem at all.  Number three it is ....

Stuffed Steak Florentine
1 lean beef sirloin or top round steak cut 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick (about 2 pounds)
4 cups chopped spinach leaves
4 green onions, tops included, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon dill weed
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

This will also require toothpicks and string, and should serve six to eight.

Experiment 12 - Scallops Mornay - The Results

Ingredients list

As should be obvious from all my posts referencing the Hartford Courant, I lived in Connecticut for quite a long time.  When I think of "scallops", my first thought is little, sweet, bay scallops.  I don't know if those are just generally not available here in Virginia, or what the deal is.  The recipe didn't state which type specifically, but I am almost sure they would have meant bay.  Be that as it may, I went to a local specialty seafood store and ended up buying sea scallops.  I also got a bit of a lesson on sea scallops vs bay scallops, and on dry pack vs wet pack.  It was interesting, but too much to go into here.  At the end of the day (to coin a cliche), I paid $10 for half a pound of dry pack sea scallops.  These recipe experiments can be expensive!

Although this will sound contradictory, the preparation was simple, but complicated.  Simple in that there were no fancy techniques, but complicated because there was a lot going on.

Let's start ...

First step was to combine the wine (I used a pinot grigio, unoaked.  I don't know how dry this is considered, but learning about wine is another ongoing project), salt, pepper, and 3/4 a cup of water (hey, why wasn't that in the ingredients list?) in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Then the scallops and mushrooms got added and everything was brought back to a boil, then covered and reduced to simmer "until the scallops [were] tender" (or about five minutes).  The scallops and mushrooms were then removed and the liquid was put back on a boil for 10 to 15 minutes to reduce to "about 1/2 a cup."  Not really sure how to figure that, actually, so after 10 minutes I poured it all into a measuring cup, saw that I still have over 3/4 cup, so I dumped it back into the pan for the rest of the time.

While I was reducing the scallop stock (so to speak), in another saucepan, I melted the butter and sauted the onions.  I went off-script and added a bit of minced garlic, because who doesn't like some garlic?  When the onions were tender (or in my case, browned a bit), I added the flour, milk and reduced liquid.  Stirred and cooked until it was thickened and bubbly, then tossed in the cheese and continued to stir until that melted.  I was then supposed to add salt and pepper if needed.  The salt was fine (see below), but I don't mind a little more pepper, ever, so I added some.

The sauce then came off the heat and the scallops and mushrooms got added back in.  The recipe then called for everything to be poured into two 8 to 10 oz individual casseroles.  I don't have any such thing, so I used a ceramic quiche dish, which turned out to be just the right size.  This got tossed into a 375 oven for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, I cooked up some yellow rice and made a salad.  When the main dish was done, I took it from the oven and sprinkled with the chopped parsley.

et voila -

Verdict: A little salty.  Although maybe that's in the whole bay vs sea thing.  Also, I imagine that the official version of this dish might not be so "tan" looking.  This is probably due to a few things - I didn't use "white pepper", since I don't have any on hand, and while I'm sure there may be a subtle taste difference, my cabinets are overflowing with spices as it is.  I also cooked the onions until they were browned, which wasn't really called for.  But this recipe is definitely a keeper, it tasted really good, saltiness be damned.  I might add  a touch more cheese, but I don't think it's supposed to be a really cheesy sauce.

Lessons Learned - While fresh ingredients are the preferable choice in most cases, the frugal person in me has a problem with the wastefulness inherent in fixed size packages available in the supermarkets.  I bought a "bundle" of fresh parsley and a package of sliced mushrooms this week.  Here is what is leftover -

I might eat a few things this week that would look nice with a parsley garnish, and I guess I could make something that calls for mushrooms.  But that's 7.1 ounces of parsley!  (Yes, I weighed it).  Maybe with the warmer weather, I'll be able to visit some farm markets and get more appropriate sizes.  Alternately, I will not be afraid to go ahead and use dried herbs, or canned/jarred vegetables, for future recipes.  Fresh

Tools needed - nothing new.  I don't need to fill up my cabinets with "individual casserole dishes" that would only get used once in a blue moon.

Skills needed - nothing new this week.

Experiment 12 - The Selection

Another busy week at work, and late selection post.

Today's selection comes from the Courant's "Recipe Exchange" column, dated Wednesday, November 5, 1985.  I had bought my first house in June of that year.  I suppose I had great visions of cooking all sorts of wonderful meals there.  At least I'm finally getting around to cooking them.  Just in a different location.  Reminders like this do make me miss Connecticut some.  Anyway, this week (possibly even later today) I'll be attempting ...


Scallops Mornay
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon salt.
dash of white pepper
8 ounces fresh or frozen scallops
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 shredded Swiss cheese (1 ounce)
2 tablespoons snipped parsley

This recipe states it serves two, so that's a nice change from having a week's worth of leftovers from a single experiment.

Experiment 11 - Irish Oaten Bread - The Results

Experiment 11 - Irish Oaten Bread - The Results

Ingredients list

Let's talk about the clipping a bit before getting to the making o' the bread.  The bit of the headline that is still intact says "that bind handmade kitchen books".  I've wracked my brain trying to figure out the first part, but I'm coming up blank.  Since I have the date of publication, I will have to see if there are online archives available.  Or go to the library when I visit my family back in Connecticut later this year

This recipe has a lot of waiting.  I started with adding the stout to the oatmeal and letting it sit for about an hour.  Then the sour milk got mixed in and the whole thing got covered and left to sit for eight hours, or overnight.  I chose overnight.  This morning, the first step was to sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  I never had a sifter until week 2 of this project, and I bought one that has a "trigger" type mechanism.  It was good enough for that recipe, but sifting 2 1/2 cups of flour takes a long long long time.  I kept switching hands, but I have to find out if there's a better way.  Once I managed to get all the sifting done, the recipe said to "stir in well the steeped oats and their liquid".  Instead I dumped the flour into the oats and liquid.  I don't think that made any difference.  The ultimate plan was to make a dough, and I think I acheived that.  But then .... the instructions said to knead the dough until it was smooth.  I stirred it a lot in the bowl and got a nice smooth texture, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to turn it out on the the counter and knead, like I'd done for the calzones and pretzels.  Well, I did, and to skip to the end, I had to use a spatula to get the sticky dough off of the counter.  The recipe also told me to add a little flour "if [the dough] is too floppy."  Floppy?  I'm learning lots of terms because of this experiment, even if the meanings elude me.

The dough, floppy or not, went into a medium bread pan that had been lined with waxed paper and covered.  And then it was time to wait again, half an hour this time.  After that, it was finally time to bake, at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until it tested done using a knife.  Mine took about 48 minutes.  I was also confused about the waxed paper.  I'd never heard of baking something with waxed paper lining the pan, but I gave it a shot.

Verdict: This is a crusty, dense bread.  Pretty tasty, though.  I had a slice with my leftover corned beef dinner, and I'm already getting ready to make stew tomorrow.

Lessons Learned - I'd be interested in seeing not only the rest of the headline from this clipping, but the article that accompanied the recipes.  I can't go back in time, but if I cut out any more recipes, I'll keep that in mind.  Oh, and I'm going to skip the waxed paper next time.  It doesn't peel off the baked loaf very well.
Tools needed - What I said last week about possibly needing some kind of wooden surface for dough preparation.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.

Experiment 11 - The Selection

There may not have been as much randomness to this selection as advertised, but it was in a small pile of clippings that were set aside for some reason, so it's not like I went searching through hundreds of recipes just for something seasonally appropriate.  I think the first two or three recipes that I looked at were some kind of pasta/sauce thing, and I've done a couple of them already, plus I eat a lot of pasta/sauce combos on a regular basis, so I didn't want to make any of those.  So I vetoed a couple and this is what I came up with ...

Irish Oaten Bread
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup stout
1 1/2 cups sour milk or buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

At least we have a date on this one ... it's from the Hartford Courant (of course), dated Wednesday March 15, 1989.



I actually have some milk in the fridge which I'm sure has turned.  I have a strange relationship with the dairy industry.  I picked up some of the black stuff  yesterday, and everything else is on hand.  I have to work all day tomorrow (Saturday), and although I usually don't speak too much about the actual preperation in my selection posts, this does call for letting a mixture of oats, stout and milk stand overnight, so although I'll start that bit Saturday evening, I won't be baking this until Sunday.

I'll also mention that there is another recipe in this clipping for "Ham Boiled in Stout", but I'll be having the traditional corned beef and cabbage.  I guess I can put this back in the box for possible future selection.

Experiment 10 - Cinnamon Rolls - The Resuls

Ingredients list 

I had great intentions of making this recipe early on Saturday.  Unfortunately, I mislaid the clipping and didn't find it until most of the morning was gone, so I had to decided to wait until Sunday morning.

All these weeks, I've been taking photos of my ingredients all laid out and ready to go, and I didn't even know that was practicing "mise en place", as recommended in this article  and defined here -
Just seems obvious to make sure everything is at hand and ready to go.  So yay me.  And speaking of laying out all the ingredients, here they are.

 I used Jiffy baking mix, because it's been my preference for years, plus it's cheaper than the more popular big brand name.  I also used the turbinado sugar I recently picked up at Trader Joe's, figuring that the richer taste would be a good match for cinnamon rolls.  Also, I have no white sugar in the house anyway.

Preparataion wise, nothing hugely difficult.  Combined the Jiffy and the milk and mixed together for about a minute with a wooden spoon.  Dumped that out onto a floured surface (the recipe calls says to use a wooden ......, but I just used the counter).  Turned the dough over to coat it with flour, kneaded 8 to 10 times, then rolled it all into a ball.

The ball got rolled out into roughly a 16 x 7 inch rectangle.  This was a bit of a challenge, but I kept trimming and recombining until I got approximately the right shape.  The melted butter was spread evenly onto the dough, then the combined sugar and cinnamon was sprinkled all over.

The whole thing got rolled up "jelly roll style", the long way.  Since my dough was only slightly rectangular, I had to scruffy ends to trim off, and the roll tapered a bit from left to right.  C'est la guerre.  The recipe called for cutting into 1" wide slices; at a theoretical 16" long, this would result in the stated yield of 16 pinwheels.  Rather than trying to estimate an inch, I let my math background take over and, using my large serrated knife, I sliced the trimmed roll in half, then sliced each half in half, then again, and again.  Voila, 16 pieces.

Placed all of them on a greased baking sheet (including the raggedy ends), and placed in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.  When I first read the recipe, I was amused and confused when it said to place the pieces "cut side up".  Surely both sides were cut!  This morning I figured out that they just meant to lay them flat.

And then today's goof ... I had to melt some more butter to brush onto the rolls when they came out of the oven, so I placed it into a small bowl and put it in the microwave for a minute.  That would be the same microwave that I use as a timer when I'm baking something in the big oven.  D'oh.  Since the microwave power was set at 0, the butter didn't get melted, and when I had punched in 1:00 for the time, it threw off the timing for the baking.  I cleared the microwave and melted the buter, then I just had to keep an eagle eye on the rolls until they were a light golden brown.

When they were done, I took them out, brushed with the melted butter and transferred them to a rack for cooling.  In the meantime, I made the icing with the confectioner's sugar and (slightly warmed) milk, it's just a matter of mixing until smooth.  I think I used a bit too much milk, because I was supposed to drizzle onto the rolls using a teaspoon, but it all just kind of poured out and sank in to each roll, instead of sitting on top like a proper icing would do.

I remember making something quite similar to these with my Nana decades ago.  I don't know that she used a baking mix, as my part in the process was mostly to get dough samples and to taste the results.  And even though it's been more years than I care to publish, they tasted exactly like I remember.

Verdict:  Meh.  These are very biscuity, although the butter, sugar, and cinnamon certainly help the taste.  The nostalgia factor is nice, but it seems like this was a lot of effort for the end result, not just in the preparation, but in the amount of stuff I had to wash when I was done.  I can get a can of store-brand cinnamon rolls for a buck or two, not have to spend so much time and create such a mess in the kitchen.

Lessons Learned - I was doing "mise en place" without even knowing it.
Tools needed - maybe I should get some kind of wooden surface for dough preparation, I've had a lot of dough recipes already.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.

Experiment 10 - The Selection

This week brings another undated clipping with no other identifying information, just the name . . .
(yes, I copied the above line directly from last week.  Recycling is my new jam.)

Cinnamon Rolls
2 1/2 cups biscuit mix
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unstaled butter, melted
- ICING -
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons milk.

Makes 16 "pinwheels".

I guess I'll try to make this early in the day on Saturday.  I have everything in the house already except biscuit mix (which is odd, because I always used to have some on hand, but that seems not to be the case).  Stay tuned.

Experiment 9 - Vegetable Lasagna - The Results

Ingredients list

This one was a challenge.  Not in the actual making, just that I had some pork cutlets that had to be cooked before they went bad, and I wasn't really hungry on Saturday evening, but I wanted to make the lasagna so I could take some of it to share with a friend . . . I managed to cook the pork (and save most of that for lunches this week) and I made the lasagna, although it didn't even hit the oven until nearly 8 PM.  But anyway ...

I did end up going to the pasta shop.  I walked in and asked "how big are your lasagna noodles?"  I quickly realized that this was akin to asking "how long is a piece of string?"  Bottom line is that they were approximately right to fit into my 13 x 9 baking dish, so I bought three and left it at that.  I got spinach flavor, because why not?
Everything else was pretty easy to buy.  Of course buying a single carrot is basically impossible, and after last week's surprise of finding Kroger actually labelling "medium" onions, I was flummoxed a bit by needing a "small" one.  So I chose the smallest one in the bin.

First part of the perparation was to beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then mix in the cottage cheese, ricotta, and Italian seasoning.  Once well combined, that bowl got set aside.  Next up was to melt the margarine (I used butter, because, ummm, I like butter) in a large skillet, then saute the onions, garlic, and mushrooms until tender.  I should note here that I bought a container of sliced mushrooms.  I don't know if it was more or less than the called for 2 cups, but I figured I'd just use what I had on hand.  After everything was nicely sauteed, I tossed in the flour and pepper, then added the milk "all at once".  That bit of instruction always throws me off a bit.  I'm not sure what the alternative is -- dribble it in really really slowly?  Anyway, everything got stirred up and combined and cooked up till the liquid was "thick and bubbly."  It all cooked for an additional minute, then got removed from the heat.
Once off the heat, I stirred in the spinach and carrots and sprinkled in some salt, and added 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese.

So then I had a bowl of eggy cheese mixture, a pan full of vegetable mixture, and some pasta sitting on the counter.  Assembly time!  I'm just going to list the order here, with an additional comment to come later.
Into a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan ....
One third of the spinach mixture
One third of the noodles (for me, this was one of the sheets of fresh pasta)
One half of the cheese mixture
One third of the spinach mixture
One half of the mozzarella
Another layer of noodles
Remaining one half of the cheese mixture
Remaining one half of the mozzarella
Another layer of noodles
Top with the marinara sauce
and the remaining Parmesan

My issue here with the way this was written in my clipping is that the last part of the list said "Top with remaining cheese mixture, mozzarella, noodles and spinach mixture."  I had to assume that I should go in the order that sentence was written.  It seems to have worked out.

The final product went into a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.  I let it sit for about an hour before placing in the fridge overnight, the recipe says to wait at least ten minutes before slicing, if serving immediately.

The next day I cut a slice and warmed it up in the microwave.

Verdict:  Pretty good, although missing a little something.  Maybe it needed more salt - the recipe said "to taste" and I didn't actually taste the vegetable mixture prior to baking.  The friend who I shared with said maybe more of a less mild cheese.  So I'll hang on to this one, make a couple notes about blandness and see if the next time could be a little better.

Lessons Learned - nothing new this week.
Tools needed - nothing new this week.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.

Experiment 9 - The Selection

Crazy busy with work these days, so not a lot of intro in this post.  This week brings another undated clipping with no other identifying information (although I can assume it's from that same newspaper); just the name . . .

Vegetable Lasagna
2 eggs
2 cups low-fat cream-style cottage cheese
1 15 ounce carton reduced fat ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons dried italian seasoning, crushed
2 tablespoons margarine
2 cups slice fresh mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 to 1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/4 cups skim milk
2 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach or broccoli, thawed and well drained
1 medium carrot, shredded
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
Salt to taste
9 oven ready lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded part-skim mozarella cheese
3/4 cup bottled marinara sauce

Makes 12 servings.  (12?  TWELVE?  Yeah, no.  Well, it does mention freezing leftovers, so we'll see.)

From the ingredients, I'm going to guess this came from a "eating light" type column, but as I said, there's nothing to identify this clipping at all.

Nothing that seems unobtainable in the ingredients list, and since I'm in love with Trader Joe's Marinara sauce, I already have several jars on the shelf, so I have that covered.

For the lasagna noodles, I might go to the new pasta shop I found out about last week, due to our local cash mob organization.  If I have time to get down there, otherwise I'll see what kind of "fresh" pasta is available closer to home.