Dinner For Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne

This afternoon, about, oh, say 6 o'clock, Mr. Hawthorne expressed his desire to have cabbage and sausage for dinner. Being the dutiful little wifey mouse that I am, I immediately dispatched Youngest Hawthorne to the convenience store, conveniently located 1/2 mile away, to buy a head of cabbage. I thawed out 2 Italian sausages and a hamburger patty.
Now, I'm thinking stuffed cabbage rolls.
I found out later, after I'm an hour into the project, when he comes in the kitchen, and says, "Oh, you're making cabbage rolls! That's one of my favorites." Seemed like what he was expecting is a fifteen minute procedure where I just saute the cabbage along with some slices of sausage and onions, add some caraway seeds, and ba-da-boom, DONE.
But NOOOOOOOO.
I'm doing the whole she-bang.
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.
Let's start at the beginning.

Here, I'm starting my tomato sauce.

I sauteed my onions and garlic, added some dried herbs - oregano and thyme and a sprinkling of fennel seeds- and added a can of tomato sauce.

Next, I added in a can of diced tomatoes.














I went to the garden and picked fresh parsley, sage, thyme, and oregano.












Chopped up the herbs and added
to the tomato sauce.











Stir the herby goodness into the tomato sauce.

Next, I added 1 tablespoon of sugar.

And 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

I remembered Mr. Hawthorne had vacuum packed some peppers from my garden last fall, so I went downstairs to the freezer to find a pack.

Chopped the peppers and added them to the mix.

Ahh, the tomato sauce is flavorful and lovely.

I found two Italian sausages
and a hamburger patty.

Chopped them up and sauteed them.

Here's my stove top at approximately 7:30 PM.
tomato sauce on the left, my head of cabbage in the middle, boiling in water for 15 minutes, and my sausage and hamburger cooking on the right.

In the back right, is my chicken stock merrily cooking away for HOURS.

The tomato sauce was a tad sweet, so I added some red wine.

Then I added a bit of Balsamic vinegar.

Here's my browned sausage and hamburger.

I added some white rice to the burger/sausage mix.
Golly! Good thing I had some EXTRA RICE on hand. Idiot.

Add in a beaten egg.


Now, in most stuffed cabbage recipes, I think they put in RAW pork and hamburger mixture in the cabbage leaves. I'm trying to cut corners and make time, so I cooked my meat first and drained out the grease.
























Find a nice cabbage leaf, cut the v-notch out where the heavy rib is, and stuff in the burger/sausage/rice mixture.













Roll up, and place in a baking dish with the sauce spooned onto the bottom.

Isn't this pretty?

Top with the tomato sauce.

Then I topped that with a mixture of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Here's the side view.

I baked in a 350-degree preheated oven for about 30 minutes, then turned it on broil
to brown the cheese.

Here's a lovely cabbage roll.

Close up.

Let's slice it and look at the yummy goodness inside.

I took a few bites and it was delicious.
It was all done at 9PM.
I went in to Mr. Hawthorne's room to tell him his custom ordered dinner was ready and served.

"Oh, I'm watching a movie now.
I'll be in there in a little bit."




At some point during the night, during the approximately THREE HOURS it took me to whip up this little dish on Mr. H's WHIM, I remember going INto his room, saying something very bitchy, like "You KNOW, it must be NICE to just SAY whatEVER you WANT for FREAKIN' DINNER, then all of a sudden your PERSONAL CHEF actually MAKES it while you just LIE there WATCHING TV. It must be nice to be you, although very confusing most of the time."


Oh crap.
Then he finally comes in.
When the cabbage rolls are cold.
He says, " You know, I wouldn't have put the cheese on it."

Hey, ASSHOLE, you wouldn't have done ANYFREAKINGTHING.
And you DIDN'T.
I did it ALL.
GAHHHHH!!!!!!



God, I need a wife.

Or maybe, a life.

A Lovely Rainy Day On The Outer Banks.

It's been pouring down rain all gray day long.
I love rainy days.

And what better to do on such a day than to cook.

My good friend Martie had recently emailed me a recipe and you know how much I love trying out something new. So lets proceed on to
Fragrant Curried Chicken with Creamy Yogurt.

Here's my mise en place for the curried chicken.
From top left and continuing semi-clockwise at times, we have diced tomatoes, olive oil, plain yogurt, pepper, salt, cinnamon, curry, cumin, raisins, ginger root, garlic, jalapeno, and onion.
Oh, and I almost forgot the $0.39/pound chicken quarters.



Here's the skinned thigh meat taken off the bone.

And here's the drumstick meat,
pulled off the bone.

I saved all the bones and chicken parts.

I put all the chicken parts in a big pot, added water, salt and pepper, celery, carrots, onions with their skins, and some bay leaves.

And I just left it to simmer the
rest of the day, covered.

Rosie will make chicken consomme tomorrow.

Toss the 1-inch cubes of chicken with
1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.

Next, coarse chop the garlic, onions,
ginger, and jalapenoes.

Pulse the garlic, onions, ginger, and jalapeno in a processor, then add 1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, coriander, and cumin. Pulse again, adding a bit of water to make a loose paste.

Here's the finished spicy paste.

Here's the spicy paste mixture, some sliced onions, and a can of diced tomatoes.

Heat the pan, add some olive oil, and throw in the onion slices. Cook until slightly browned.












Add in the paste mixture, stirring and scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan.









You want nice fragrant spices so watch closely so they don't burn.













Next, add in the chicken.













And the diced tomatoes and some water to have about 1/2 inch water in the pan. I just filled the tomato can up with water, swished a bit, and poured that in.

Simmer, cover, and cook for 25-30 minutes.








Uncover and cook a few more minutes until sauce is thick and intensely flavored. Right before serving, add in the raisins, and cook just long enough to warm them through.

Here is the finished dish, served on a bed of Basmati rice and topped with a dollop of yogurt.

Now about the rice. I had asked Mr. Hawthorne to come in and do the rice, since I was doing about 10 other things at the same time and thought he could put some rice in a pan with water, turn the heat on and go back watching TV. Which is what he did. But when I went to plate the dishes, I saw he'd only made enough rice for 1 serving, and there were three of us.
"Why," I asked, "didn't you fix enough rice for everybody?"
"Well," he replied, "we always have leftover rice."
"Yes," I said, "we always do. And it always gets eaten. And we always have enough for everyone to eat."
Since when is leftover rice a bad thing?

Youngest Hawthorne really liked this dish. When he asked for seconds and I sadly told him there was no more rice, he declined.
So now, I'm fixing 20 minute white rice instead of 45 minute Basmati rice
so YH can have seconds.


I enjoyed this dish. I liked the contrasts: the complexity of the spices, the sweetness of the raisins, and the complementing coolness of the yogurt.

Mr. Hawthorne: "So is this Indian or something? Must be, 'cause it looks like ass and tastes good, but I wouldn't order it in a restaurant."

Ahhh, such high praise.

Rosie's Deviled Eggs.

I decided to make deviled aigs today.
Now, I know, I know. I could easily have gotten in my truck, spent $10 on gas to go to the groshry shtore and buy pre-boiled aigs, but no.
I wanted to go to the monkey business of actually cooking my own aigs. Call me crazy.

I covered the aigs with water, put the pan over medium high heat, brought the water to a boil, cut the heat off, put the lid on, and let the aigs set, covered, for 20-30 minutes.

And ... we have perfectly cooked aigs.

I scooped the yolks out and got my ingredients together: mayo, gray poupon Dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish, and my secret ingredient - my mustard emulsion.

I added 3-4 TB mayo, a TB of Dijon,
and a TB or two of the relish.
Mix until smooth. Add salt and pepper.

I started spooning the yolk mixture into the aig halves, when all of a sudden, I had one of those WTF am I doing? moments.

Rosie slaps forehead.

I just had the most f'ntastic idea. So f'ntastic, in fact, that you simply will not believe the genius of it.

Now, jes lemme tell you wacha gonna do. INto a baggie, scoop the yolk mixture. Now, get this. (I'm so excited!) Take some scissors and make a small cut in the corner of the baggie.










And PIPE the mixture INto each aig white!

Am I not the SMARTEST THING ON THE BLOCK?????!!!!???

Pipe away!
And take ALL the credit!
Pretty smart for a girl, huh?

Then simply toss the baggie in the trash.

Super simple!

Now, here are my lovely aigs, with the piped-in yolk mixture. I topped them with chopped smoked red peppers, chopped green onions, and chopped parsley.

And I spooned my Mustard Emulsion Secret Ingredient INto a baggie.

The mustard mixture is just 4 TB Dijon mustard and 4 TB vegetable broth mixed together with 6-8 TB olive oil whisked in.
This keeps, refrigerated, forever, and is good on so many things.

Pipe the mustard emulsion ONto the aigs.

Isn't this pretty?

Remember, keep it simple,
keep it sweet,
and keep it with baggies!