It’s not the biggest and baddest of all kitchen gadgets but a fun new cooking tool all the same.  Meet Mr. Ball Whisk, the innovative companion for all of your bechamel and stirring needs (please do not confuse with a head massager).  It was fate that brought Mr. Ball Whisk into my kitchen.  I was over my Uncle Rick’s house on Christmas morning sipping on some mimosas watching him cook when I saw the whisk in the sink.  I asked him if it worked well and next thing I knew he was giving it to me!  I graciously accepted the gift and used it for the first time this past week thickening up some gravy.

Verdict is in, Mr. Ball Whisk works magic and is a hell of a lot easier to clean!

My roasted chicken saga goes as follows:all day at work I was talking about roasting a chicken when I got home.  I probably told everyone in my office vicinity at least twice as well as my man crow back at the apt.  I got on my bike, rode down to harvest to pick up the infamous chicken only to find that they were all sold out.  Why do I always get my hopes up that this neighborhood store will have the one item I am counting on!!??  It’s happened to me numerous times in the cheese department but this is the first at the meat counter.  I swallowed my hostility, purchased the overpriced breast, and rode home determined to do what crows do best: improvise.

colorful veggies pre-oven roast

Roasted Root Veggies w/ Shredded Chicken in Gravy
For the Veggies:
Chop up what ever root veggies and aromatics you have on hand into equal sizes.  I used onions, carrots, celery, fennel, parsnips, potatoes (blue and fingerling), and whole garlic cloves.  Toss the veggies in olive oil, salt, pepper and freshly chopped thyme and oregano.  Pour veggies in to a baking dish and add about 1/4 C of stock to the bottom.  Cover with tin foil and bake in a 425 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes; the perfect amount of time to sip on some wine and casually prepare the chicken.  Once the chicken is ready to go in the oven you can remove the tin foil from the veggies and let both dishes bake alongside for another 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked and the veggies are tender.
For the Chicken:
Season the breasts with olive oil, salt, pepper, freshly chopped thyme and lemon zest.  Add some extra oil to the baking dish as well.  Place in the oven after the veggies have already gotten a 20-25 minute head start.  After about 30 minutes, transfer the breasts to a plate to let cool and place the baking dish on a medium low burner.  Add about a tablespoon of flour and whisk until the rawness is cooked off.  If you desire a little more richness in your gravy feel free to add a couple pads of butter.  Take the roasted garlic cloves (I used two) out of the veggie dish and squeeze the flesh into the gravy mixture and whisk to evenly distribute.  Pour in a splash of white wine to release all the browned bits on the bottom of the dish, then add enough stock till the gravy is at you’re desired thickness.  Let simmer on low while you shred the chicken breast with two forks.  Add the shredded chicken to the gravy and let mixture simmer on low for about 3-5 minutes.  Check for seasoning and serve with the roasted veggies.

When a roasting chicken is not available, this recipe can easily fill the void.

After a long journey across the country with my man crow, my cat, and in a strangers car, I’ve arrived in New England. More importantly, I will soon be reunited with the JP crows!

I immediately started missing Oakland, and Oakland taco trucks, the second we left California. The thought of entering a taco-free world, and worse yet, a hard shell taco world (and what I thought would be a ceviche free world, until the crows retreated!), was eating away at my soul with each passing day. I knew that I had to share the glory of a good taco with my parents, who were so graciously allowing me to stay at their house while I got my proverbial “shit together.”

The results? Joyous, wonderful, & delicious.

for proper assembly smear black bean goo on the bottom of the shell. add meat. add cream, pile on cilantro, cabbage, and salsa. drizzle with hot sauce, squeeze 1/4 lime. enjoy!

Now, of course, my taco was not “authentic” either. I used no lard or deep frying, and chose to fill my taco with more than meat + onions + cilantro. Nonetheless, it filled a void in my tummy. My favorite animal meat is pig. I love me some pig, especially when it is cooked by several men in a taco truck. I, of course, could not replicate this on a New England grill, so I had to think fast! I went with some extremely thin sliced-bone in- somewhat fatty-pork. Marinaded in Lime zest, oil, hot peppers, cilantro, salt and pepper, then grilled to a tender but done perfection, I sliced it as thin as possible to form the base of our tacos.

Soft Shell Taco Essentials (the players)

small taco shells- I prefer a yellow corn tortilla, but white corn or flour will do, I suppose
cilantro
red onion
hot sauce
red cabbage
sour cream
salsa
karen’s magic bean goo creation (recipe below)
limes- juice and zest
meat product of your choosing!

So, one could just use these ingredients as is, and have a delicious taco. I made a few small, simple, and fast additions to really make it delicious.

Sour cream: Zest a lime and add 1/2 the juice to a 1/2 of sour cream
Salsa: A pico de gallo style salsa would work, this time I cheated and bought some. If you feel like being 100% home made you: take 3 large tomatoes & dice them finely. Zest 2 limes, add all juice. Dice 1/2 a red onion. chop a full bunch of cilantro. dice very finely at least 1 jalapeno, more if you like heat. Finely grate 2 garlic cloves. Mix everything together with a heafty dose of S & P.
Karen’s Bean Goo: The first time I made tacos at home was with our Oakland friend Karen. She made a black bean “hummus” earlier in the day that went SO WELL with our dinner tacos. Drain & rinse a can of black beans. In a blender combine, black beans, a tomato, a green pepper, cilantro, S & P, and some onion. Blend until smooth.
Cilantro & onions: In a bowl, mix a bunch of cilantro with 1/2 a diced onion. Juice a lime over it and add a good amount of salt. It should taste salty.

Recipe for delicious cornmeal poundcake to come!

Also- a thought. Let’s combine our ceviche with a tostada shell, these taco toppings, cucumber and have a ball!

Mac & Cheese w/ Manchego and Jalapenos
My strategy for making a bechamel or cheese sauce is simple: I wing it.  I follow the same technique but I never measure out quantities, sometimes it comes out perfect and other times it takes a little tweaking.  I start with a couple pads of butter and some olive oil and sautee finely diced onion and minced garlic until softened (for this batch I added some diced jalapenos to compliment the manchego).  Season with salt and pepper and stir in a couple Tablespoons of flour and cook for a minute or two.  Slowly add warmed milk or stock* and whisk to combine the mixture.  Stir in grated cheese and check for consistency.

If the mixture is too thick add additional liquid, you want this to be a little on the soupy side because it will be baking in a warm oven and some of the liquid will evaporate.  Once the cheese sauce is complete, stir in pasta and top with breadcrumbs and additional diced jalapeno.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until the top is crusty.

My cast iron was the perfect size to produce enough food for my man crow and I to eat a hefty portion and have a little leftover for lunch the following day.  Next time I make this version of mac and cheese I would like to add a pinch of cumin for some smokey flavor and top it with freshly chopped cilantro.

*to make this dish on the lighter side I use veggie stock for the liquid combined with a little cream.

Another post about pasta?! This woman must be carb-crazy!

Well, you’re right. I am a little carb-crazy but I think it’s more about my love of sauce!  A couple of nights ago, my momma made some delicious linguine with clam and shrimp Fra Diavolo.  Now, I’d like to say that we made the sauce from scratch but sometimes a Crow needs to cut corners. My mom opted for the Wegmans jarred Fra Diavolo sauce and I have to say, I wasn’t displeased.

grillin those clams!

Erin stirring the sauce

Overall it was a bit of a family affair…my sister Erin and I worked the sauce and pasta on the stovetop while Mom grilled the clams. My brother was in charge of sitting on the couch and occasionally flexing or chiming in with his two-cents.

Once the pasta is all rolled out, you can cut it up however you’d like. I opted to stuff raviolis with ricotta, spinach and parm. Just a few minutes in boiling water and it’s done!

A Crow will never let good food go to waste-the next morning I used the leftover ravioli stuffing to make an omelet. I topped mine with fresh chives and Sriracha sauce. Yum!

I took some tips from a couple different recipes via the web and combined it with the ingredients I had on hand.  The only special kitchen equipment you need for this recipe is either a blender and food processor.  If any readers have mastered the art of salsa verde then please feel free to leave suggestions, here is what I came up with:

Salsa Verde

6-8 tomatillos, husks removed and coarsely chopped
1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeno, diced (use more or less depending on heat tolerance)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 scallions, chopped
handful of cilantro or parsley, chopped
2TBS red wine vinegar
olive oil, salt and pepper

In a sauce pan, saute  tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapeno in olive oil over moderate heat until the tomatillos begin to break down- about10 minutes.  Season with salt, pepper and cumin.  Once mixture has broken down turn off heat and add the red wine vinegar.  Stir and let cool.

In a blender or food processor add scallions, cilantro, tomatillo mixture, salt and pepper and pulse until blended.  Add more olive oil if the mixture is too thick and blend again.  This is a great sauce for enchiladas or in my case I used it as a dipping sauce for a spinach, roasted butternut squash and manchego quesadilla.

Penne with Spinach Sauce

I’ve had this in my recipe queue for some time now but I was waiting until I had all the ingredients on hand to try it out.  Either I had the spinach and no

No Cook Sauce

cheese or vice versa.  Fortunately since I used very little creme fraiche on the black bean soup I made last week I decided to substitute it in for the cream cheese-definitely a tasty upgrade.  The only other change I made was in the pasta- I didn’t have any penne on hand so I used some gemelli which has a nice bite to it when cooked al dente.  If you like things more acidic add either some lemon zest to the sauce or a squeeze of juice to your individual bowl.  I also like the fact that this recipe incorporates pureed spinach as well as whole to give it a balance of texture and color.

This is my stand by Bolognese Recipe, and I’ve included some other traditional recipes to follow- just substitute the meat for finely chopped mushrooms.  Mushrooms can also be more cost effective than meat- save those extra dollars for some tasty dinner wine!

Simple Bolognese

Pasta Bolognese

Ragu Bolognese

For the Puttanesca, I used capers, tomatoes, red pepper, katamala olives, and anchovies. I followed  the most “classic recipes” I could find, but still, I failed. This dish is famous because it is considered cheap, easy food to make. Finding excellent quality olives, anchovies, and capers for cheap is, I think, a thing of the past. Until I can find cheap, and high quality ingredients, I will avoid this traditional dish.

My friend Alanna has forwarded me this recipe, which maintains the fast, and cheap aspects of the Puttanesca, without the questionable & fishy anchovies. I must point out I do not condone watching Twilight, no matter how good the food is.

Poor Man’s Puttanesca

by Miss Alanna, guest crow

This is a lovely and fantastically filling veggie spaghetti dish that goes well with anything.  I made it up for an evening of Twilight with my roommate.  Coupled with a few glasses of red wine it made our experience of vampire abstinence porn even more satisfying!

1 large can tomato puree (homemade or store bought)
1 TB tomato paste
¼ cup red wine
4 cloves garlic
½ onion
4-5 TB mixture of coarsely chopped black/green/pimento/kalamata etc. olives
Olive OilSalt/PepperPinch cayenne pepper
Spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

1. Sautee diced onions and garlic in a generous amount of olive oil, S&P
2. Reduce heat to medium and add the tomato puree, tomato paste, and wine
3. Once simmering, add basil and olive mixture.  Add pinch of cayenne pepper and a touch more salt
4. Add between ½-1 more cup of olive oil to the sauce, until it reaches the consistency/richness you desire
5. Mix sauce with pasta, top with massive amount of cheese, and consume whilst guiltily watching Twilight and developing true feelings for Robert Pattinson’s hairdo