Make Mine a 4-Way, Please!

Oh. Hi. O...I know I haven't done a legitimate cooking entry in over a month now, but here I am with a discovery that I have been wanting to share for awhile! Back in August my friend Ryann from A Working Mommy's Blog, and a Cincinnati girl, asked our collective mommy's board if we thought this was weird:

Chili served over spaghetti with shredded cheese & onions.

As a New England girl, I had never heard of such a thing, nor have I ever travelled to Ohio. My first thought was about Texas-style chili over spaghetti, which sounded interesting. She claimed (her claims have now proven to be beyond reproach, hehehe) that she got it that way at a restaurant called Skyline. Our friend Terri, also a Cincy girl at heart, backed her story up. The whole idea intrigued me, but I had never heard of it being served that way. So I went to do some reading.

Not only do people, indeed, eat their chili over spaghetti in Cincinnati but there are lots of restaurants (or chili parlors) that cator to this very demographic! In reading the Wikipedia article found here, I discovered that the chili in question was not at all like Texas style chili. Same basic idea but with more eastern European and middle eastern influences with the use of cinnamon, cloves, and chocolate! The culinary adventurer inside of me was starting to get really piqued.

I also read some about Skyline which appears to have more than just a cult following among Cincinnati natives and extends to those who've relocated all across the country. People have cans of it shipped to where they are. Apparently the chili is traditionally served as a 2-way (chili over spaghetti noodles), 3-way (chili, noodles & completely covered with shredded sharp cheddar cheese), 4-way (chili, noodles, cheese, fresh chopped onions) or a 5-way (chili, noodles, cheese, onions, and kidney beans).

I looked up recipes for Cincinnati chili, and lo and behold, there was one at allrecipes, under my nose the whole time! In reading the reviews of the recipe over and over were the words "very similar to Skyline." So follows the recipe that would change my culinary presuppositions forever, or at least taste really, really good.

Cincinnati Chili from AllRecipes.com (with a few slight modifications by me).

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
2 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 6 minutes.

Add beef, in batches if necessary, and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned. Now here is where I altered the recipe just slightly. In reading the reviews on allrecipes, many people stated that the "authentic" way to make this was to boil the ground beef in the broth. So that is what I did, I added the broth to the sauteed onions, brought it to a boil and cooked the ground beef in it. I get a finer consistency from the ground beef this way.

Add chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, chocolate, beef broth (see above), tomato sauce, cider vinegar, and red pepper.

Stir to mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
It is the best if you now refrigerate overnight. I did not let it sit over night, and it was still DELICIOUS!

Remove the bay leaf. Reheat gently over medium heat. Serve over hot, drained spaghetti. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. End recipe.

The chili is supposed to be a thinner consistency and mine turned out pretty thick, but it is because I should have added another cup or so of beef broth after the meat was cooked. That being said, both DH and I loved it with a thicker consistency and he even said he likes this better than traditional spaghetti sauce.

It was very good, and this recipe makes more than enough to freeze for future meals. We ate ours as a 4-way, DH is not big on beans, and it was just so delicious. The picture at the top of the entry shows a scant amount of cheese compared to how it is served in restaurants, but I was trying to be good. Hopefully I will get to visit Ohio one day and stop by for some authentic Skyline chili! And a big thank-you to Ryann and my Cincy girls for introducing me to it.

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Scrumptious Strawberry Season Vol. 2 - Strawberry Banana Shortcake

Finally! Here is the long awaited (or long forgotten about) 2nd half of my Scrumptious Strawberry Season entry! What is strawberry season without strawberry shortcake? Try explaining that to Dear Husband while he is grumbling and complaining about the can of Reddi-Whip he had to make a special trip to the store to get ("I thought picking your own strawberries was supposed to be a way of saving money!" No silly, picking your own strawberries is a way to ENJOY the season and an excuse cook and eat yummy food, DUH!!!).

Thus follows the recipe I used to make this year's favorite beginning-of-summer dessert...with an unexpected twist!

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, but I basically only used the shortcake part of the recipe, not the berry part or the cream.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Strawberry-Shortcake/Detail.aspx

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour one small cake pan or small rectangular casserole dish. I prefer my strawberry shortcakes to be rectangular, they are easier to work with, I think.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. With a pastry blender cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I washed my pastry blender to have it ready right away, as I use it to crush my berries instead of slicing them!

Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack.

While the cake is cooking, I prepare the RIPE berries by crushing them with the pastry blender.
While crushing the strawberries, I glanced over and saw two lonely bananas that would shortly be taking "The Long Walk" to MIL's compost pile. Maybe you can, but I can't leave a dying man....er...fruit behind, so I grabbed them and sliced them up and added them to the crushed strawberries. I added a little lemon juice (about a TBSP) to keep the bananas a nice color, and added 1/2 cup of white sugar. Mixed it well and set it aside.

Need I say more? I think not. But I will :P In hindsight, I would have used a little more sugar. The berry filling was a little on the tart side, probably due to the addition of lemon juice. I like mine more tart, but I would probably add 2/3 cup of sugar next time to suit a more universal palette. But all in all, the bananas were a delicious twist!

Anyway, once the shortcake is cool enough to touch, cut it into squares of a desired size, and cut each square in half. Pour some berry mixture over the bottom half of the shortcake, followed by a good size squirt of Reddi-Whip, then layer on the top of the short cake, some more berries, and a final squirt of the sugary, aerosol goodness that is Redd-Whip. And there you have the finished product: Strawberry Banana Shortcake!

The Little Princess is going through a picky stage right now with food, basically if it's not cereal, peanut butter, Goldfish or a hot dog, she ain't eatin' it. I was somewhat reassured when I put this down on her tray and got the repeated reaction of "Oh WOW! Oh WOW!" :)

Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Scrumptious Strawberry Season, Vol. 1

Remember how I said that I never intended for my blog to become a forum for reviewing Pampered Chef Products? Well, I also never intended for it to be laden with recipes for jams and jellies. I guess it is just the season for it. Here is yet another sweet sandwich spread tutorial for your viewing pleasure (or boredom...)!

Strawberry season in Maine starts late and is pretty short. Depending on how the spring weather has been it runs from late June through early July. So you have to plan picking times strategically to avoid under ripe berries at the beginning of the season, and worse, over ripe berries that start to get mushy and grow mold at the end of the season. If you get them at just the right time, picking can be fun and the strawberries are just plain beautiful!Where we live we are fortunate to have many farms around that open up for "pick your own." The prices this year were around $1.90/lb which is about 1/2 of store price. I am not sure how many pounds of strawberries I picked this year, but I went twice and got this much (a counter top full, hehehe):

My primary objective was to make as much Jam as I could. It's a way to bottle up the season for enjoyment year round, and because jam lasts for more than a year after it is canned, it makes great Christmas gifts in the food baskets that I am so fond of giving out, so really I can never make too much. On to the recipe!

I used the recipe given in the insert that comes with the Certo liquid pectin.

4 cups of crushed strawberries

7 cups of white sugar (yes seven!)

1 packet of Certo Liquid Pectin

I start by filling the canner about 1/2 full with water and bringing it to a boil. This may take awhile as the canner is basically a giant stock pot as you will see below. I fill it by pouring the water in with a 2 quart pitcher, the pot is way too heavy to move once it is filled with water!

Once the water is boiling I place the washed jars inside and boil them for 10 minutes to sterilize them. Then I turn down the heat, leaving the jars in the hot water until they are needed (I also sterilize the ladle & funnel). The next step is chopping and crushing the berries with a pastry blender:

Then I get everything ready to go stoveside - The sugar, the saucepan for cooking the jam, and the canner full of hot jars:

I also wash the new lids with hot soapy water, and then rinse and dry them very well.

Next, I measure 4 cups of crushed berries into the saucepan (if you have any crushed berries leftover, save them for the next batch of jam, or use them in strawberry shortcake or as an ice cream topping). Then I combine it with the sugar.

Bring the sugar and berry mixture to rapid boil that can not be stirred down with a spoon. Add the packet of liquid pectin and boil for exactly 1 minute more. Remove from heat and skim as much foam from the top as possible (as quickly as possible):

While waiting for the berries to come to a boil, use metal tongs to remove jars from the hot water. Place the hot jars on a paper towel or dish towel, they should dry out very quickly. Have the jars ready right next to the saucepan. After the jars are out, bring the water in the canner back to a boil (make sure to have the canning rack up and resting on the sides of the pan, you don't want to try fishing it out when the water is boiling!)

After skimming the foam, immediately ladle the hot liquid into the jars, using the canning funnel. Fill the jars to 1/8 inch of lip. This recipe makes about 7 half pint jars. Something I learned the hard way a few years ago is never to cook a double batch of jam, it just DON'T WORK for some reason (meaning it doesn't jell or "set"). So when doing large amounts of canning you have to cook one batch at a time, so it is important to be very organized and keep a sink of soapy water to throw your utensils and pans in so they will be ready for the next batch.

Use a wet paper towel to make sure the rim is free of any of the liquid because it will mess up the seal when you put the lids on!

Place the clean, dry lids on top of the jars, making sure the rubber seal is sitting squarely on the rim of the jar.

Screw the lid rings on tightly and place the jars, one by one, onto the canning rack. SLOWLY lower the rack into the boiling water. The water should cover 1-2 inches above the tops of the jars. Place the lid on the canner and boil the jars for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes, turn off the heat, remove the lid of the canner and use metal tongs to lift the canning rack out of the water. Use a pot holder to hold the rack handles and slowly remove the rack from the canner. Using a potholder (the Jars are VERY hot!!!) place the jars, one by one, onto a dish towel or paper towel. Let the jars rest for 10 minutes, you should hear all kinds of "pops" as the jars seal in the open air. After 15 minutes, test the seal of the jar by pressing the center of the lid with your finger. If it does not pop up and down, it is sealed! If it is not sealed, process it in the canner for another 10 minutes. If it still doesn't seal, store the jam in the fridge and it will keep for 3 weeks or more.

Once sealed, let the jars cool to room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours, tip one of the jars. The contents should be "set" and not slosh around inside the jar. Properly sealed and set jams and jellies last a year or more stored in a cool dry place! If for some reason the jam has not set, but remains sealed, it still makes WONDERFUL pancake and ice cream topping, also a GREAT gift!

I ended up doing two batches which yielded a dozen 1/2 pint jars and a 1 pint jar (pictured here with one of my more underwhelming loaves of homemade bread): I was pretty tired by the second batch and I actually started my first true kitchen fire when the strawberry/sugar mixture boiled over into the drip pan. It was easily put out with a splash of water. I also burned my finger when I touched the inside of the canner by accident! So learn from my mistakes and don't can tired! I wish I could have done more, but I have not had a chance to pick again, and I am guessing this past weekend was the peak. I did have some leftover berries...which you will make there appearance later in Vol. 2 of Scrumptious Strawberry season!

Anyway...this is the first time I have made strawberry jam and had all the jars seal and set properly, so I am excited. We have already demolished 1/2 pint of the jam, and it is so good and so fresh tasting. Now I am looking forward to raspberry and blueberry season! Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Recipe: For The Love of Leftovers (Spaghetti Pie & Roasted Garlic Bread)

I never intended for this blog to become a forum dedicated to reviewing Pampered Chef products, but I have realized that a good portion of my heavy rotation kitchen tools come from Pampered Chef. Also, the fact that I just got a shipment of new Pampered Chef stuff from the party we had a few weeks ago adds to my enthusiasm! Actually, the shipment came the day before we left for our trip to Vermont. Talk about torture! New kitchen tools and no time to use them, hehehe.

Here was the haul from the latest party (keep in mind I got some of the items at half price and 20% because of hosting a kitchen show). It includes: Deep Dish Baker (stoneware with cranberry enamel), Classic Batter Bowl with Lid (will be AWESOME for jelly-making, it's the perfect thing to make and store the infusion in), Deluxe Mini Muffin Pan with Mini-Tart Shaper, and the Medium and Large Scoops (for size versatility in cookies & meatballs):

I am looking forward to making some yummy deep-dish pizzas with the new baking dish, but with stoneware you have to season it a bit with more oily foods before doing bread products in it (the process also darkens the finish of the stoneware). I have a large Pizza Stone that was my very first Pampered Chef purchase about 5 years ago, and it is very well seasoned as you can see:

I was rooting around in my freezer and found a package of frozen leftover chicken spaghetti. I typically freeze leftover pasta with the sauce for use in making pasta casseroles or spaghetti pie. SO I decided to do the maiden run of the Deep Dish baker with spaghetti pie - sans the crust.

I thawed the leftover spaghetti (only keep frozen cooked pasta for 2-3 months in the freezer, otherwise it will become freezer burned), added some pizza sauce, and topped with Monterrey jack cheese. I baked it in a 350 degree F oven for about 25 mins.

It's a great use for leftovers, and the new baking dish makes the presentation so pleasant that it doesn't feel like you are eating leftovers.

However, this batch did make too much for our family of 3. So, you guessed it, we ate left over spaghetti pie leftovers the next day, hahaha. To make this meal feel less like leftovers, I decided to try a new garlic bread recipe that I found on http://www.allrecipes.com/ (of course). But the french bread recipe that I have been using hasn't really wowed me, so I also decided to try a new recipe for that as well.

Here is the french bread recipe (bread machine technique - where I make the dough in the machine and then form the loaf by hand):

Sweet Honey French Bread

3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons olive oil
2/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 teaspoon white sugar
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Here is what my loaf looked like:


In the past I have made garlic bread by buttering the loaf and sprinkling on garlic powder and garlic salt. It's OK, but I wanted to try something a little different, so I tried a recipe for Roasted Garlic Bread . Roasted garlic has been a topic that has intrigued me for quite some time.

3 bulbs garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

The recipe calls for 3 whole garlic bulbs, I only had two, so I had to make do. The tendency is to think that is an outrageous amount of garlic. I had seen cooking shows where they roast the whole bulbs and they always say that roasted garlic loses most of it's pungency and turns sweet, but I have been too intimidated to try it. Well now was the time!

Cut the tops off the garlic bulbs to expose the tops of the cloves, then place them in a baking dish and drizzle with a TBSP. or two of olive oil:

Then roast in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 mins. I had to do a little more than that, probably and extra 10 mins. When the garlic comes out it is very soft. Let it cool enough so you can touch it and pull off a clove at a time and squeeze the bulbs (which are now more like a paste) into a small bowl.

Smash the garlic up with a fork until you have a nice paste. Add the remaining ingredients, except the cheese, to create a sort of garlic butter. I used about 1 tsp dried parsley instead of fresh and I used about 3 TBSP of fresh grated Asiago cheese (my staple hard cheese). Split the french loaf in half, place on a metal baking sheet, and butter each half with the garlic butter/paste. lightly sprinkle the top with the grated cheese. Turn on the broiler.

Broil the loafs, butter side up for about 2 minutes. The finished result is GORGEOUS garlic loaf, and the flavor is incredible! You definitely have to be a garlic lover (which we are), but like I said before the flavor is garlicky but not pungent, it is very sweet and buttery. The only thing I would have changed, is the fact that my brain wasn't working, and I should have used 1/3 less butter as I used 1/3 less garlic...so our loaves were very buttery (or margeriney), but still very delicious.

This roasted garlic bread definitely spiced up our leftover leftovers! In addition, the french loaf recipe was way better than the one I had been using and will now be part of my regular recipe rotation AND in making the leftover spaghetti pie, I got to try out one of my new cooking toys, the Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker. Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

OOOPs, I did it again...

Except that it wasn't particularly by accident and there were no plaid mini-skirts or bobby-socks involved. I would tell you to go back and re-read my posts on violet & dandelion jelly and re-imagine it all back in purple again...except that lilac jelly does not turn purple the way violet jelly does, it turns a sort of amber color. That's right, yet another abundant spring flower that I found out could be made into that sweet, jiggly sandwich spread. How could I resist? I made 4 large jars of it, it tastes fantastic, and I didn't die from eating it, so that's a plus.

Here is a recap of the recipe that has worked for all three incarnations of flower jelly thus far:

2 heaping cups of edible flower blossoms

2 cups boiling water

4 cups white sugar

1 packet of certo liquid pectin


Wash and de-stem blossoms, place in a glass bowl. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over blossoms, cover and let infuse (in the fridge) for 24 hours.

Using cheesecloth, strain the infusion into a large sauce pan and mix with 4 cups of sugar. Bring mixture to a rolling boil, add liquid pectin, and boil for 2 minutes more. Can it.

For more details on canning it read my entry on making Wild Violet Jelly from May 2008: Violet, You're Turning Violet, Violet! Thanks for reading!

Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

P.S. Please note, in my left sidebar, that we are all still praying for Baby Avianna, and ask that you do the same. I will post updates as I get them. Thank-you.

P.S.S If I don't seem very forthcoming with the blog entries recently, it is due to my unexpected bout with Shingles...craziness...but I will try to go into my cooking photo archives (yes they exist) and post some recipes I have done in the past few months!

Recipe: Hearty Healthy Heroes - Italian Food

Heroes, subs, Italians, grinders, hoagies, sammies: if I had learned one thing during my 4 years working as a Subway "sandwich artist" it was that there were many, many names that people called sandwiches, and it mainly depended on what region of the country they came from.

When people would come in and order a "roast beef grinder" it would be relatively easy to figure out what they wanted me to make, and relatively easy to figure out that they probably weren't from Maine.

It was the term "Italian" that gave us trouble at a little Subway restaurant here in Maine. Here we call them ALL Italians (pronounced "eye-talian"). Go into a local, non-franchised, sandwich shop and order a "hoagie" or "sub" and you are bound to get a puzzled look, and don't count on them having lettuce to put in there. The term "Italian" extends to all sandwiches, no matter what the filling, prepared on any form of elongated bun. However, if a Mainer orders an "Italian" with no other specifics given he/she wants Ham, American cheese, onions, tomatoes, pickles, green peppers, black olives, oil, vinegar and salt & pepper on a bun, wrapped in wax paper with a rubber band around it. No shredded lettuce involved.

That's all fine when you live and work in Maine and everyone knows what everyone else is talking about. The problem comes in when you work at a place like Subway that is a chain, and is world-wide. You see, Subway has two sandwiches The Italian BMT and the Spicy Italian, neither of which are the type of sandwich mentioned above. The BMT has ham, bologna, pepperoni, and Genoa salami (the whole "what does the BMT stand for?" is another post entirely) and the Spicy Italian is a concentrated amount of pepperoni and Genoa salami. These sandwiches are probably more appropriately called "Italians." So you want to confuse a Mainer, tell him to walk into a Subway and order an "Italian."

From the Sandwich Artists' point of view, the trick is to observe age and listen for accent. If the person ordering the "Italian" (pronounced Ah-talian) is below the age of 25 and has a southern, Canadian, or non-regional diction they most likely want something directly off the Subway menu and will want to pick and choose their own veggies, including lettuce. If the person is older than 25 and orders an "eye-talian" then the only question you need to ask is "turkey or ham?" This person does not want any more involvement and the making of the "Italian" until it is time to pay at the cash register.

All of this was to say that I made big yummy sandwich for dinner last Wednesday night, and I am calling it a "hero" for my readers' sake even though in my native tongue we would call it a big "eye-talian."

The idea of making a large "community" sandwich for dinner, may seem like a novel one, but it really is economical, and if you are not making your own bread, time saving. And we all know from Subway's formerly fat spokesperson who shall remain nameless that meat & veggie subs are good for you and melt all your fat away almost instantly. Please note sarcasm.

I started with a fresh batch of homemade Honey Wheat Bread...a recipe that I found a long time ago on allrecipes.com . Simply assemble all ingredients given below in the order they are listed into the pan of your bread machine and set it on the dough cycle.

This is, by far, my favorite bread recipe:

1 1/4 cups warm milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 package of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons butter, melted

The only thing to keep in mind is that this makes way too much dough to actually bake in your bread machine and you will have to lift the cover about 30 mins. before the dough cycle is done to give it room to rise.

Next, turn out the dough onto a floured surface, divide as needed and shape into loaves. For my purposes I divided the dough in half and made one large baguette and one traditional pan loaf for use as sliced bread in later meals:

Allow bread to double in size (45 mins. to 1 hour) and bake in a preheated oven for 35-40 mins:

Allow bread to cool on a wire rack.

A good sandwich spread can make or break a sandwich...it can be the deciding factor between bland and bold. Regular mayo and mustard are fine, but I prefer a more gourmet sandwich spread. I have come up with a few yummy ones, most notably roasted red pepper mayo and sweet garlic mayo. I decided to go with the sweet garlic mayo for this sandwich. Here is how you make it:

You will need 1/4 cup of mayo or salad dressing (I prefer to use the salad dressing - Miracle Whip - type for sandwiches because it is already seasoned), 1/4 cup of Newman's Own Light Honey mustard dressing (the BEST honey mustard dressing on the market) and one small CLOVE of fresh crushed garlic. Yes, I know I put a BULB in the picture, but it was prettier!

I Mix the 1/4 cup of mayo with the 1/4 cup of honey mustard, then crush the fresh garlic directly into the bowl using my Pampered Chef Garlic Press (easily on of my top five favorite Pampered Chef products):

Stir very well with a fork, cover and keep in the fridge until it is time to make the sandwich.

Old habits die hard, and though Subway restaurants have moved on to the "Hinge Cut" I still maintain that their original method of the "U-Gouge" is the best way to cut bread for making a sandwich. It is hard to describe in words how to do a "U-Gouge" but you are basically cutting a wedge out of the top of the bread to form a walled gully in the bottom for holding sandwich ingredients:

Now for the fun part, filling the sandwich with whatever you like (or in my case, whatever I happened to have on hand):

I did sweet garlic mayo, Monterrey jack cheese, Swiss cheese (I put the spread on top of the cheese in these photos because the bread was still PIPING HOT when I made the sandwich, and I prefer the cheese to be a little melted and the mayo not be quite as warm), sliced turkey breast, onions, tomatoes and sea salt and black pepper. I served pickle slices on the side because Dear Husband does not like them on his sandwiches, and wouldn't you know, when we sat down to eat he put pickle slices in his part of the sandwich. :

I serve heroes on a cutting board so that each person can cut off the amount that they like:

Cut off a hunk of hero (or "eye-talian") and enjoy!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen