An Orgy of Cooking

After nearly a month of being unable to really cook, first because I was down a hand and then because of the great shower disaster, I tried to make up for at least a week of it, all this weekend. I was, in fact, so busy cooking I forgot to take pictures!

It began on Friday night, after an afternoon of joyous grocery shopping. I rubbed a bone-in/skin-on split chicken breast with a dry brine* and let it sit, uncovered, in my fridge for a few hours before roasting it on a bed of stuffing with some carrots and serving with a caesar salad as a starter, and mini desserts from Whole foods for dessert (pecan tarts for Dear Husband, cheese cake drops for me. I have perfected neither). After weeks of take out and frozen dinners, it tasted like heaven, and it had a lovely presentation to boot.



On Saturday, I began the day with my oatmeal pancakes. Lunch was a little low key, but a celebration of my increased carb tolerance (thank you meditation and jogging!) with a PB&J sandwich (low sugar everything and 9 grain bread). For dinner, I pulled out all the stopped on my 'Football Food' menu. Pepperoni Pizza Rolls. Mozzarella Sticks. Stuffed Mushrooms. The first two were so filling (I also made too much) that the mushrooms got rolled over to Sunday.

Today, I really went at it. I started with thick bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It was glorious. I have perfected my stove-top bacon technique, I am on the verge of perfecting my scrambled egg technique**, and I got my timing right so everything arrived on the table in perfect condition.

Not only did I make a lovely ham and sweet potato dinner (with the aforementioned stuffed mushroom appetizer), I got a head start on my weekday cooking by braising a chicken, stripping it of the meat and simmering the carcass to make a lovely chicken stock. Tomorrow I will make a chicken pot pie, and an apple pie, and perhaps a little chicken soup for lunches this week. There is nothing like homemade chicken stock, made from pastured chickens who got to run around and build up ligaments and bones, for gravy or soup.

 I feel on top of the world with the only black spot being some homework that has been thwarting me for weeks. But that's tomorrow's problem at this point.

~PhysicsGal

Stuffed Mushroom
1 lb white or porchini mushrooms
3 slices thick cut bacon or 6 slices normal bacon
1/2 cup onion
Pepper to taste
Optional: 1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Wash mushrooms, removing and discarding the stems, and then remove any that are small, setting aside for the stuffing. Any mushroom that is too small to hold a teaspoon of stuffing at least is too small to stuff.

Cut the bacon into small pieces. Simmer in a large frying pan with enough water to cover to help render the fat. Let water boil away, and brown the bacon to taste. While bacon is cooking, chop small mushrooms and onions as fine as possible without it turning into a paste. Use 2 tablespoons of bacon fat to grease the bottom of a baking dish large enough to hold the stuffing mushrooms.  Keep 1-2 tablespoons of fat in the pan, and reserve or discard the rest. Cook the mushroom/onion mix, leaving the bacon pieces in the pan, until the onion is brown and the mushrooms have mostly cooked. Add 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, or enough to absorb any moisture in the pan. If not using breadcrumbs, continue to cook until reduced by a half.

Place mushrooms upside down in greased baking dish, and stuff with mixture so that each is slightly heaped, or until mixture is used up (no one has ever complained that their mushroom is too stuffed!)

Bake in a 375 degree oven  until mushrooms are cooking and stuffing is browned on top, about 20 -30 minutes depending on the size of the mushrooms. Let cool slightly before serving.

Pepperoni Rolls
1/2 cup warm water
2 packets dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup olive oil
~2 cups flour
Sliced pepperoni
8 oz low fat mozzarella cheese
oregano and parmesan to taste.

Mix together the first five ingredients and let sit 10 minutes to proof. Mix in about a cup of the flour by hand, then slowly add flour while kneading by hand or in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment until dough is soft, but forms a neat ball. Knead until stretchy, about 10 minutes in the stand mixer, 15 by hand.  Let rise an hour, covered in a greased bowl, in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in volume.

Punch down and roll/stretch out until it forms a rectangle the size of a half-sheet pan. Sprinkle mozzarella [parmesan and oregano] on all but 2 inches of the long side. Part-skim mozzarella is desirable so as to not make the rolls greasy. Lay pepperoni down in eight rows. Carefully roll it up, using the un-cheesed portion to seal the whole thing. Cut roughly along the rows of pepperoni into 8, arranging them so they are 2 inches from their neighbors. Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes, until browned and the cheese is melting out the centers.

*Alton Brown's in fact--it's amazing on all things poultry
**Again, Alton Brown's technique is highly informative.