Frank’s Beer Battered Fish

So simple.

1 package Trader Joe’s cod tips
Salt and pepper
1 bottle beer
1 cup flour
Oil for frying.

Season the fish. Mix the beer and flour together. Dredge the fish in the batter. Fry in hot oil. Enjoy.

Indian-Spiced Cauliflower

I used to collect recipes from magazines. At first I would cut them out, sort by category, and tape them into binders. Eventually, this system degraded into piles. I loved Sunset Magazine's recipes; they were so interesting and fresh. They used to collect a full year's recipes into a hardbound book.

This is one of my favorites, from the Sunset 1992 Recipe Annual.

It's pretty flexible. In this case, I had a variety of cherry tomatoes, and no fresh ginger so I used ground instead. And I probably used more wine!

Carne Asada and Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 white onion, diced
1jalapeño, diced
1 handfuls cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Mix everything together.


Carne Asada Rub

1 tsp chile powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano, crumbled if the leaves are large
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix together and rub on beef ahead of time.

Grill or fry beef.
Make tacos!

Turkey Meatloaf

When you're craving Thanksgiving flavor, but aren't able cook a turkey.

2 lbs ground turkey
2 eggs
1/4 - 1/2 c. milk
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. dried sage
1 cup grated carrot (optional)
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
Cranberry sauce

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together and form into loaf. Or for fun, form into two small loaves vaguely shaped like drumsticks! Drizzle a few spoons of cranberry sauce over the top (in lieu of the usual ketchup). Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. (Smaller loaves will take less time.)

If possible, serve with one or more of your other favorite Thanksgiving dishes, such as stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, or green beans with fried onions.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a pantry/leftovers meal.

(all measurements approximate!)

1 small onion, diced
olive oil
2 cups (at least) chicken, preferably leftover
1 can chicken broth
1 can pinto or black beans, drained
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes, or 1-2 cups fresh diced tomatoes
1 can diced green chiles, or fresh diced chiles
1 cup chopped cabbage*
1 cup salsa
chili powder to taste
tortilla chips**
grated cheese
sliced avocado
chopped cilantro

*Usually when I have leftover taco fixings, like cabbage, tomatoes, and onions, I freeze them in a baggie. Then just dump the frozen lump in the soup!

**It's really best to fry your own.  I cut tortillas into narrow strips, and fry them in vegetable oil until they are crispy. Salt them as soon as you take them out of the pan. The salt sticks better to the hot oily chip.

Saute onion in olive oil, when translucent and browning a bit, add the chicken, broth, and vegetables. Stir in the salsa and chili powder.  Simmer until hot and cabbage is cooked through. Ladle into bowls and garnish with tortilla chips, cheese, avocado and cilantro.

Stroganoff

This is the stroganoff we made after Christmas 2016, using our leftover prime rib and fresh pasta from Eataly.

My non-recipe...

Cube the beef.  If you have mushrooms, saute them in a little butter.
Make some gravy (right in the pan with the mushrooms): make a roux of 2 T butter and 2 T flour per cup of liquid. Amount of liquid depends on how much leftover cooked beef you have.  When roux has browned a bit, slowly stir in liquid. Season to your taste: salt and pepper, a hearty dash of Worcestershire Sauce, a little Johnny's Au Jus if you have it, perhaps a spoon of tomato paste, etc. Add beef and simmer until hot. Stir in sour cream, at least a cup, maybe more.

Poached Eggs and Guacamole Toast

One of my co-workers, who loves good food but isn't really into cooking, gave me a tip on how to make the perfect poached egg.  He saw it on a youTube video. Simply crack the egg into a wire sieve. The extra-runny white will drain off. Then plop the rest into gently simmering water. Voila.

So I made some yuppie (or is it millennial now) Avocado Toast. Well, this is Guacamole Toast because it's California.

I thought it looked better with two eggs.

That's Dave's Killer Bread underneath. 

One of my better breakfasts.