Rainbow Trout in Maple-Dill Brine

In my ongoing quest to try to expand our fish palate, I got some Rainbow Trout from Publix yesterday. Once I got home, I decided to try this brine, even though it called for 8-10 hours of brining in the fridge, and I only had about 3 hours. I also did NOT use real maple syrup like the recipe calls for.

Here's the brine ready to go, featuring fresh dill from my herb garden, brown sugar, garlic, and (of course) kosher salt.

The fish after brining. I don't know what 8 hours of brining would have done to this filet, because it had already started to cook a little.

Here it is, in a not-so-good picture on the plate.

We also had parmesan-crusted potato wedges and steamed broccoli with parmesan cheese. The fish turned out much better than the picture! I didn't think it needed any more time in the brine - maybe a more firm filet (tuna or salmon?) would require that extra time. This was very different, and we both enjoyed this recipe. I think we'll be trying it with other types of fish as well. Oh, and I got real maple syrup today, so we'll see if that really makes a difference :)

Seriously.

I have been cooking...really. It's just that once I get it all over with, get the kitchen cleaned up, and do whatever else I need to do, blogging has lost it's appeal. Here's a look at what's been cooking at the Wolfe House:

I thought this was salmon, but according to the guy at Winn-Dixie, it's actually steelhead trout. It cooked up and tasted like salmon, but the texture was a little different...more flaky? It was a nice change. I wish I could find a REAL fish market that features more than tilapia and salmon. One more thing I miss about Gainesville!

Chocolate covered strawberry for dessert. Local strawberries are on the market right now, and I've gotta say they aren't as good as I was expecting. Maybe it's just the apples are so good I can't think of anything else. Have you ever had a Honeycrisp apple? As of today, I have, and HOLY COW.

Pizza on the Big Green Egg. Nothing special, but very tasty.

I came home from class on Friday night and this meatloaf was waiting for me. It was really good! AND I didn't have to make it!

By the way, I hope you all like my new look. I never actually said anything about it, but Mike put together the banner for me, and I think he did a bang-up job!

Dinner Pictures

After Christmas I cooked down the carcass from the turkey and got two gallon freezer bags full of stock. This week I pulled out one of them and made a turkey soup with carrots, celery, sweet Florida onions from the farmer's market, and basmanti rice.


I had never tried basmanti rice in soup before, but I liked it better than regular ole rice. I'd really prefer pasta, but Mr. Picky won't have any of that!


Next up, another Big Green Egg adventure: shrimp! I marinated them for a few hours in beer, canola oil, lime juice, minced garlic and Trinidad Lemon-Garlic Marinade from Penzey's Spices.

Here they are plated up, along with some beer bread with cheddar cheese, and a green salad made with veggies from the Farmer's Market, along with a Roasted Garlic-Parmesan dressing I made that turned out very tasty. I get tired of the bottled stuff from the store!

Christmas Food!!



Mike did the Christmas turkey for my mom on his Big Green Egg. It was a 20-pound turkey, and the instruction booklet says the Egg holds UP TO a 20-pound turkey, so he was a little concerned about fitting it on there, but he needn't have worried. He made a brine out of water, kosher salt, soy sauce, brown sugar, allspice, pepper, and garlic, then let the turkey sit in that for 36 hours.

Mike puts the finishing touches on the bird, right before letting it sit on the Egg for about 3 hours.


Isn't it beautiful?!? Mike cooked the bird on Christmas Eve, but had to leave right before it was done for band practice. He nonchalantly told me to "take it off in about 20 minutes," which is a lot more complicated than it sounds!! What he really meant is that he wanted me to lift a flaming hot broiler pan off a 375-degree smoker, which is full of boiling, popping water and grease, and oh yeah just happens to have a 20-pound turkey on it. No problem, hon! Luckily, my uncle was over for Christmas Eve dinner, and he was more than happy to help out. I wish I had gotten a picture of him almost burning his eyebrows off (he didn't realize you have to "burp" the Egg before you open it all the way)! We got it in the kitchen, despite the dog trying her best to trip my uncle, and wrapped it in foil until the next day:


Do they look like brothers? Not really, but then again they're only related by marriage. My brother and Mike expertly carve the turkey at my mom's house.

The bounty. Beautiful. And delicous!!

Mike followed Smokin Okie's Brining 101 instructions, which can be found at cookshack.com.

Post-Christmas Roughage

I'm still waiting on Christmas food pictures, but we've been eating well since then. I always crave lighter, strong-tasting foods after a big holiday.

Here's Mike with a post-Christmas sale find: a chili-pepper light swag! I don't know what it has to do with Christmas, but it was still half off at Wal-Mart! He's also sporting his new apron: Too Hot to Handle!!!

Grilled Salmon with a spicy glaze that caramelized wonderfully on the Egg. With roasted red potatoes and steamed green beans.

Morgan approved of the fish!!

From tonight's dinner: I tried a new technique with the bread, based off a recipe I found in Taste of Home - I let the dough mix in the bread machine, rolled the dough into about 20 balls, and dipped each ball in a mixture of butter and minced garlic. Then they all went into a bread pan and onto the Egg for cooking! We haven't done much bread on the Big Green Egg, so this was a learning experience. I don't think using a half whole-wheat dough works too well with this recipe! It was good, but not as light as I'd like it to be.

This stuff redeemed the bread: roasted garlic! Mike lopped off the top of two head of garlic and wrapped them in double thickness aluminum foil with some olive oil, then threw it on the Egg for about 30 minutes. It went on the bread, and also on top of the sirloin steak, as you can see below:

Mike says he wishes he had marinated the sirloin, and I tend to agree. Still tasty, though, especially with all that glorious garlic!!

Today we went to downtown Mount Dora and had lunch at The Frosty Mug, and Icelandic Pub. It was so cool! What a unique place.

Not food-related, but the wood floors were so beautiful I couldn't resist taking a picture!

And that was the lunch portion!! Me with my fish and chips. The haddock is imported from Iceland! I have now decided that I want to go to Iceland.


Onto tonight's dinner. Mike has been enjoying experimenting with his Big Green Egg, as you probably can tell from all the recent postings. Tonight he did a Cornish Game Hen.
Fresh off the Egg. My mom got Mike the Ceramic "Chick'n Sitter" for his birthday - you fill it up with beer and whatever else you want (onion in this case) and unceremoniously shove it the the bird's butt. Nice.


All plated up with brown rice and roasted green beans. The meat was tender and flavorful, but my favorite part of the meal was this:
Beer Bread from the Egg, with Garlic and Chipolte Cheddar Cheese from Sargento. This was sooooooooooooo goooooood! I highly recommend that you try the Chipolte Cheddar, by the way. It's great on everything!

Dinner Photos


Honey-Chicken Stir Fry from Quick Cooking. This recipe is going into my stir-fry rotation, to be switched off with my black bean and garlic stir-fry sauce that I get from ImportFood.com.


Grilled Salmon from the Big Green Egg, with roasted potatoes (also on the Egg), and steamed green beans and corn, topped with Parmesan cheese. The salmon was drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Penzey's Tuscan Sunset. The potatoes cooked a little faster than Mike expected, so they were singed on one side, but the fish was peeeeerfect...


Another dinner from the Egg: hamburgers, tator tots , and steamed broccoli.

Food Pictures

First up, the Key Lime pie I made for Mike's birthday. Plain ole' pie, plain ole' Nila Wafer Crust...Mike and I have been together long enough for me to know that he always picks a very simple dessert for his birthday. I always offer to make him something elaborate - truffles, a torte - nope. Pie. But it was good.


Next, a new muffin recipe: Apple-Oat Muffins. These were really good and very satisfying! The recipe calls for two cups of shredded apple, but I can think of many things I'd rather be doing than standing there with my cheese grater and an apple, so I pulsed chopped apple in my food processor a few times and it worked fine. I also used strawberry yogurt instead of plain like the recipe calls for - I usually do this for my recipes because I don't keep plain yogurt around and don't want to wait for my next shopping trip. Give this recipe a try! I'm going to freeze a few and see how they keep.


Next up, tonight's dinner: Pizza on the Big Green Egg!

Let me tell ya: I thought I knew what pizza was. I have never had a pizza until tonight. I could eat this for the rest of my life. This was SO good! Did I mention I really liked this pizza? I did? Well...I LOVED this pizza!

The Big Green Egg Pulls Through Again...

Beef baby back ribs, broccoli and corn tossed in olive oil and Penzey's Tuscan Sunset (both done on the Egg), along with french fries. Mike says he's still getting used to cooking on his new toy and the rib were a little overdone. I say they were really good!

Sophie on high alert, hoping Daddy will share the wealth!

Old-Fashioned Whoopie Pies

On Friday I tried this recipe from Taste of Home and brought them into the family business so the guys could test them out. I used a one of my new finds from Wal-Mart: Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder. That stuff is the best! It's also great with my mom's famous Microwave Brownie Recipe.

The Whoope Pie recipe calls for buttermilk, which I divide into 1/2 cup baggies and freeze so I always have some on hand. The cookies came out perfect for sandwich-making - firm and flat.

As I was making the icing, I realized that this recipe on the whole is very similar to my Moist Chocolate Cake recipe, which I was very happy about, since I've always had trouble with that cake cracking.

I think the guys at work were more than happy to be the guinea pigs this time :)

Mike's New Toy...

It's a Big Green Egg!!!

When Mike's parents came for Thanksgiving, they brought this as a surprise for Mike. It's his housewarming/birthday/Christmas/New Year/Valentine's Day/Anniversary gift, as my father-in-law is fond of saying. He's had one for a few years, and LOVES it, so I always figured he'd want Mike to have one once we had a house. This is the maiden voyage:

Setting it up

The bounty: ribs, chicken wings, baked potatoes, and corn.

In case you don't know what a Big Green Egg is, it's a ceramic cooker that is used to smoke food, but can also do a lot more. It's a grill, a smoker, and oven that can cook just about any food better than other methods. Check out the website; it's pretty cool. Apparently the Big Green Egg has a small niche, but it is made up of very loyal fans. We've been loving ours so far. Last night we tried a recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken, which was very good. We want to try it using some flavored wood chips for smoking. Stay tuned for more Big Green Egg fun!

One Week Ago Today...

My house was full of people, and I was running around trying to pull off hosting my first Thanksgiving. I'm really pleased with how well it went. My in-laws smoked the turkey and they also brought a ham, potatoes, and stuffing. I was especially relieved to not have to cook the turkey myself! One of the hardest parts was allocating oven space. My mother, grandmother, and great-aunt helped with the rest of the food, and everyone seemed to be satisfied. Even my great-uncle found nothing to complain about! (just kidding, Uncle Jerry!) Now onto pictures and recipes of the food!

The Thanksgiving table

Dig In!!



My sister-in-law Kathleen stayed with us a few days and helped me get the house ready. We also made a Chocolate Mousse Pie together, which was very tasty. I was glad to pass on some of my cooking knowledge to my young padawan!



The luscious result.



Black Bottom Cupcakes, a family recipe.

Apple Streusel; a new recipe from Penzey's Spices! It wasn't the prettiest dish to grace my table, but it cooked while we were eating dinner and tasted great warm!

My mom made pumpkin cheesecakes. We almost never have pumpkin pie in favor of another, more unique pumpkin recipe. We've also had a delicious pumpkin dip in years past.

My dad and uncle, post-gorgefest

Edited 11/30: I thought you all might like my mashed potato casserole recipe. It's been in the family for years, and was one of my grandfather's favorite things to eat. I hear he was a very picky man, so that's saying a lot!

New Recipe: Taco Tot Casserole

This recipe was on the back of a bag of Ore-Ida Tator tots. This isn't something I would usually make, due to the fact that it's not exactly health food, but I wanted to make something special for Mike, and anything involving potatoes, meat, and cheese is great in his book. Corn is an added bonus.

I did make a few changes in the recipe, as noted. It calls for something called Nacho Cheese Soup, which I have never heard of, and frankly the idea grosses me out, so I just used Cheddar Cheese Soup by Campbell's. I also used no salt-added corn instead of corn with peppers.

Mike really liked this dish, and was glad there were lefovers for him to bring for lunch the next few days.



Again, apologies for the poor quality of the picture. SOMEONE still has not found the camera, so this is from that SOMEONE'S phone.

I have been busy setting up the house for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. My great aunt and uncle (okay, really just my aunt!) usually host this holiday, but they just got back from Hawaii and thus will not be doing it this year. I volunteered because this is the first holiday where I have a house and can fit everyone. Of course that was BEFORE we moved in, and now I find myself wondering what I was thinking when I volunteered! But really, I'm looking forward to it. It's been a lot of work, but I'm glad I can finally be the hostess! Hopefully my mom will take pictures of the food, so I can post them. I WOULD take some myself, ahem.....

Wellllllllllllllllll...

I DID have a few pictures of food from this past week, but once again, SOMEONE has misplaced the camera. So you'll have to do with tonight's dinner taken from Mike's cameraphone:



Sirloin steak, mashed potatoes, grilled corn, and green beans. After a busy week and weekend, we wanted to go out somewhere for dinner, but decided on grilling a nice dinner ourselves in lieu of spending all that money. Spending nine dollars for both of us was nice, as opposed to close to thirty.

The busier I get, the more my cooking style is changing. I don't consider myself a "new" cook anymore. I still enjoy trying new recipes, but if I'm too busy that week, I have "standby" recipes to fall back on. I'm putting together a series of my most-used recipes to show you all. And you can expect a lot of pictures from Thanksgiving, which I am hosting for the first time. So......lots to look forward to!