Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
For Um, TEACHER ARRESTED IN NEW YORK A public school teacher was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al-Gebra is a problem for us," the Attorney General said. "They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values. They use secret code names like 'X' and 'Y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country." As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "There are three sides to every triangle." When asked to comment on the arrest, President Obama said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes." White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President; It is believed that another Nobel Prize will follow.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Sloppy Joe Meatloaf
Description:
I'm not a big fan of Sloppy Joes but my wife and kids love them. I am reminded of my School cafateria's version when ever I have one. To me a Sloppy Joe consist of ground beef browned with some onions, peppers, some garlic and seasonings and then sauced with about a half a bottle of catsup to pull it together enough to hold it on a bun.
My wife likes to use Manwhich Sauce.
Ingredients:
I took about 2lbs of ground beef, seasoned it up with salt, pepper, a few cloves of garlic minced up, a medium sized onion diced fine and a small green pepper diced. I mix that all together and then mixed in a couple eggs. I cut up 4 pieces of white bread into small cubes and then used them to firm up the meat mixture to form a meat loaf. I shaped the loaf into about an 8" round giant burger. It was about 4-5" high.
Directions:
Now for the twist. I put a couple tbls of olive oil in the pressure cooker and heated it up on medium high. I then browned the meatloaf, top and bottom, then stood it up and rolled it to brown the sides. Just to get a good crust on it as if doing meatballs or a pot roast. After the meatloaf had the nice brown crust all the way around I removed it from the pot.
Into the pressure cooker now went 2 cans of Manwhich Sauce. Thats about 3 cups. I tasted it and thought it needed a bit more tang so I added about a half cup of catsup and a shot of vinegar. That seemed to give it the flavor I wanted. I brought this liquid up to a boil, gently set the meatloaf into the sauce, covered, waited for the pressure to come up, lowered the heat and allowed it to pressure cook for 20 minutes.
I preheated the oven to 375*
After the 20 minutes I released the pressure and then removed the meatloaf to an oval shapped casserole dish that I like to use for meatloaf. It has high sides on it. I placed the meatloaf into the oven.
In the pressure cooker is the sauce. I put it back on the heat on medium high and while stirring I reduced the Manwhich Sauce to a BBQ sauce consistancy. (The stirring spoon left a trail in its wake) This took maybe 6 minutes over medium heat.
I then glazed the meatloaf with the sauce. I baked the glazed meatloaf for another 20 minutes.
After removing the meatloaf from the oven I let it rest for a good 10 minutes before cutting slices for the serving platter. I took the remainder of the sauce I had leftover and spooned it over the pieces on the platter. It was a good looking presentation.
I served homemade buttered noodles and a nice salad along with the meatloaf. The Meatloaf turned out excellent. I had a nice sandwich later in the evening that was very enjoyable too.
The pressure cooker is a great tool for making things like pot roast, stuffed peppers or cabbages or anything else you want to have flavor injected into.
We usually have meatloaf either made and served with a brown gravy or our Italian version which is slow cooked like a giant meatball in sauce with mozzarella cheese over the top. This was the first time attempting a meatloaf by starting it in the pressure cooker and I'm glad I did.
I'm not a big fan of Sloppy Joes but my wife and kids love them. I am reminded of my School cafateria's version when ever I have one. To me a Sloppy Joe consist of ground beef browned with some onions, peppers, some garlic and seasonings and then sauced with about a half a bottle of catsup to pull it together enough to hold it on a bun.
My wife likes to use Manwhich Sauce.
Ingredients:
I took about 2lbs of ground beef, seasoned it up with salt, pepper, a few cloves of garlic minced up, a medium sized onion diced fine and a small green pepper diced. I mix that all together and then mixed in a couple eggs. I cut up 4 pieces of white bread into small cubes and then used them to firm up the meat mixture to form a meat loaf. I shaped the loaf into about an 8" round giant burger. It was about 4-5" high.
Directions:
Now for the twist. I put a couple tbls of olive oil in the pressure cooker and heated it up on medium high. I then browned the meatloaf, top and bottom, then stood it up and rolled it to brown the sides. Just to get a good crust on it as if doing meatballs or a pot roast. After the meatloaf had the nice brown crust all the way around I removed it from the pot.
Into the pressure cooker now went 2 cans of Manwhich Sauce. Thats about 3 cups. I tasted it and thought it needed a bit more tang so I added about a half cup of catsup and a shot of vinegar. That seemed to give it the flavor I wanted. I brought this liquid up to a boil, gently set the meatloaf into the sauce, covered, waited for the pressure to come up, lowered the heat and allowed it to pressure cook for 20 minutes.
I preheated the oven to 375*
After the 20 minutes I released the pressure and then removed the meatloaf to an oval shapped casserole dish that I like to use for meatloaf. It has high sides on it. I placed the meatloaf into the oven.
In the pressure cooker is the sauce. I put it back on the heat on medium high and while stirring I reduced the Manwhich Sauce to a BBQ sauce consistancy. (The stirring spoon left a trail in its wake) This took maybe 6 minutes over medium heat.
I then glazed the meatloaf with the sauce. I baked the glazed meatloaf for another 20 minutes.
After removing the meatloaf from the oven I let it rest for a good 10 minutes before cutting slices for the serving platter. I took the remainder of the sauce I had leftover and spooned it over the pieces on the platter. It was a good looking presentation.
I served homemade buttered noodles and a nice salad along with the meatloaf. The Meatloaf turned out excellent. I had a nice sandwich later in the evening that was very enjoyable too.
The pressure cooker is a great tool for making things like pot roast, stuffed peppers or cabbages or anything else you want to have flavor injected into.
We usually have meatloaf either made and served with a brown gravy or our Italian version which is slow cooked like a giant meatball in sauce with mozzarella cheese over the top. This was the first time attempting a meatloaf by starting it in the pressure cooker and I'm glad I did.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
No Knead Bread
Description:
I have posted a version of No Knead Bread before but am getting more into the process of making really good bread with this method. This step makes it so much easier and you will really be surprised with the results. I use a Dutch oven in this method so that the bread actually steams itself in the first step, then the cover is removed for the browning. If you want, you could use a pie plate, set a pan of water on the lower rack when preheating, bake for 10 minutes , lower heat to 425, Remove the water, bake for 10 minutes, remove bread from pan and place bread directly on the oven rack, and bake for ten more minutes at 350 or longer until you get the desired brownness.
Ingredients:
3 cups of flour, bread or all purpose
1 ½ tsp of salt
¼ tsp of instant yeast
1 ½ cups of spring water
Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours.
Lightly flour a work surface and scrape dough from bowl onto the floured surface. Flour hands and then gently shape dough into a rectangle shape flattening. Then fold dough one way into thirds, then the other way 3 times. Almost rolling.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.
Either flour a towel or a rising bowl with either flour, cornmeal or wheat germ for the final rise.
Flour hands again and gently pick up the dough and gently shape into a round When the dough is picked up invert it so that the seam side is down. Place the dough onto the floured towel or into the bowl seam side down and then cover with a towel. Allow for final rise of 1 ½ to 2 hours. During this time preheat the oven and a cast iron Dutch oven with a lid to 500 degrees.
Invert the dough gently into the pre heated Dutch oven pan and cover. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, lower the heat to 450* and bake an additional 15 minutes.
After removing the bread from the oven, remove from pan. Allow the bread to cool for a bit on a wire rack before cutting.
Enjoy, IC
I have posted a version of No Knead Bread before but am getting more into the process of making really good bread with this method. This step makes it so much easier and you will really be surprised with the results. I use a Dutch oven in this method so that the bread actually steams itself in the first step, then the cover is removed for the browning. If you want, you could use a pie plate, set a pan of water on the lower rack when preheating, bake for 10 minutes , lower heat to 425, Remove the water, bake for 10 minutes, remove bread from pan and place bread directly on the oven rack, and bake for ten more minutes at 350 or longer until you get the desired brownness.
Ingredients:
3 cups of flour, bread or all purpose
1 ½ tsp of salt
¼ tsp of instant yeast
1 ½ cups of spring water
Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours.
Lightly flour a work surface and scrape dough from bowl onto the floured surface. Flour hands and then gently shape dough into a rectangle shape flattening. Then fold dough one way into thirds, then the other way 3 times. Almost rolling.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.
Either flour a towel or a rising bowl with either flour, cornmeal or wheat germ for the final rise.
Flour hands again and gently pick up the dough and gently shape into a round When the dough is picked up invert it so that the seam side is down. Place the dough onto the floured towel or into the bowl seam side down and then cover with a towel. Allow for final rise of 1 ½ to 2 hours. During this time preheat the oven and a cast iron Dutch oven with a lid to 500 degrees.
Invert the dough gently into the pre heated Dutch oven pan and cover. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, lower the heat to 450* and bake an additional 15 minutes.
After removing the bread from the oven, remove from pan. Allow the bread to cool for a bit on a wire rack before cutting.
Enjoy, IC
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Chicken Parm Dinner
It was requested yesterday that I make my Chicken Parmesan for dinner. I went to town making homemade pasta, bread, the Chicken Parmesan and also made up a no yeast pizza dough just to show inquiring minds what it looks like.
Enjoy, IC
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