Food and Recipes

Food

I think I've made it very clear I'm not the biggest fan of soup. I prefer heartier meals, and I don't care how hearty a soup claims to be, it just isn't on par with a meal I can, well, 'sink my teeth' into, as they say.  I'm not weird about textures, but I do like to feel like I've eaten my meal, not drank it.  (Also REALLY not a fan of juicing, as you may have guessed. ;)  BUT, I do like some soups, and this is one that I don't even know why I tried, but I immediately loved it and saved the recipe in my files.

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I have been searching for a good clam chowder recips for some time now.  There is nothing better than a hot bowl of flavorful clam chowder, thick and rich and still showcasing the delicate clam flavor.  Oddly, duplicating restaurant quality chowder has proven to be quite challenging!  I originally tried thickening the chowder with flour, which gave it a texture I was not thrilled with. And in spite of most recipes calling for canned clams, I just have not found a brand I can get locally that I like.

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This is such a great recipe for a special dinner, or for entertaining.  The sauce is a bit sweet, and the port gives it such great depth, and the color is just gorgeous.  It is such a welcome change from boring everyday chicken!  The sauce is prepared while the chicken is roasted, so the total time to prepare is about an hour if using chicken pieces, longer if roasting a whole chicken, as the original recipe calls for. 

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Everytime I think of the word 'mole' I envision the Austion Powers movie Goldmember where Austin is fascinated with Number 3's facial feature and can't help but yell "mole mole MOLE!!!!"  hahahahaha ;)  Anyhow, I dgress. This post is abot mole, the Mexican sauce made from dried pepper, dried fruits, and nuts.  It's complicated, I won't pretend otherwise. But it is SO worth the effort. And, it makes enough that you can freeze some for another time.  

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I've been watching movies more often lately, mostly thanks to my awesome little Roku device, which makes streaming movies from Amazon Prime and Netflix super convenient.  I'm finally getting to see movies that have been on my watchlist for ages.  Like The Hunger Games (LOVED it).  And The Girl with A Dragon Tattoo.  I tried to watch the original version in Swedish, with English subtitles, but my attention span is shockingly short, and I couldn't focus through the first 15 minutes, and realized that it was hopeless.

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I normally don't take shortcuts, but I picked up a used breadmachine for $5, and thought it would be fun to play with.  I'm not the biggest fan of the weirdly square shape of the loaf, but I haven't managed to pull the loaf out of the machine before the bake cycle to put it in a different pan and bake it in the oven. Because isn't the whole point of the bread machine the convenience?? ;)  
 
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I turned 41 on Sunday.  Which isn't a big deal, I'm not afraid of aging or any of that, nor am I a huge birthday celebrator.  But I think the occassion warrants a little spoiling, usually in the form of a gluttonous meal.  And since I normally eat pretty gluttonous-y anyhow, that means usually heading toward the high carb end of the food spectrum. Or, in this case, pasta. ;)  So, I broke out the pasta machine.  I really wanted to make cheese tortellini, but that has a higher pasta to filling ratio, and I didn't want to go super overboard.  (Famous last words!)  So I opted instead to make raviolis. 

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Crab legs were on sale at the store, and so I picked a package up, but then couldn't decide what to do with them.  I made crab cakes recently, so those were out.  Crab stuffed shrimp is fun, but not quite what I was in the mood for. I wanted to make something different with them, and also wanted an excuse to heat up the fryer.  Finally, I stumpled across a recipe for crab tater tots, which immediately made my mouth water.  The original recipe was made with pate a choux dough, however, and wasn't quite what I was looking for.

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I love when friends post interesting food ideas to my facebook wall. It's almost always something I haven't come across before, or is something I just needed a bit of a push to finally try. In this case,  a recipe for zucchini ricotta fritters was posted.  I had seen other zucchini fritter recipes, some without flour, some in the same manner as a latke, but none with ricotta cheese.  I immediately wanted to try them. Luckily, I was on my way to the market that afternoon, and picked up the things I needed.

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I love chicken wings.  They are so versatile, and have the perfect meat - fat - skin ratio.  Plus they are smaller than, say, chicken legs, so you feel like you get to eat a lot more. ; )   I have always been a huge fan of frying them, because I love how crispy they get.  But then I discovered roasting them with their sauce on, which caramalizes and adds a new dimension of flavor.  Then, I got the grill, and have become a grill junkie. EVERYTHING goes on the grill now, even brussels sprouts. And pizza. And Indian flat bread. Mmmmmmm.....  ; )  Wings. Right.

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