The Good, The Bad and Margaritas

Lots of things were happening this weekend in my neck of the woods.

First the Bad News:

Someone tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square.

If you are a regular reader you know I visit NYC frequently. In fact, I was in NYC last Sunday, and the Wednesday before that too. Right there. In Times Square.

This is frightening to me. Truly frightening and disturbing. Frightening because someone wanted to KILL people. Innocent people. Disturbing because as the police were clearing Times Square, people were crowding the barriers and taking pictures. Have people learned nothing about personal safety? I mean, if I had been there I would have been running, YES RUNNING, in the other direction.

WTF on both counts. WTF to the deranged maniac who parked an SUV with a home made bomb in the middle of Times Square and WTF to the tourists who milled about waiting to see what was going to happen next. I just don't get it. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm getting old.

Now the Good News:

No one was hurt and I wasn't there.

And TBHITW and I went to an Uno de Mayo Party on Saturday night. Yes, we know it's Cinco, but we are way to old to party on a work night.

Margaritas were plentiful and very, very good.

There are a lot of Margarita mixes on the market but if you want a really, really good one you have to make it yourself, from scratch. Both events of this past weekend called for a double batch. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

A Perfect Margarita: (makes one, but can easily be doubled, tripled, etc)

1 1/2 ounces Tequila

1/2 ounce triple sec or Cointreau if you are feeling rich

1 ounce lime juice

Pour all three ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously.

Slide a lime around the outer rim of your margarita glass. Dip the rim in salt (optional). Strain drink into glass.

Salud!

And where ever you are, be safe.

Cleaning and Soft Shell Crabs

I hate to clean.

I mean really, really hate. it.

I don't mind making beds or doing laundry, although neither is on my favorite, can't wait to do list.

I don't mind gardening in the spring and summer or raking leaves in the fall.

I don't mind sweeping the porches.

I diligently load the dishwasher, morning, noon and night.

I can live with emptying the dishwasher.

Everyday I pooper scoop the dog's, um, stuff.

I pick up wet towels and clean up small spills and do all the little things that allow us to actually walk through the house without tripping over stuff.

But cleaning, that drudgery packed dusting, vacuuming, washing, scrubbing, polishing thing.. I despise.

Years ago I convinced TBHITW that anyone who worked full time outside of the home deserved, nay, NEEDED, a cleaning service. Reluctantly, he agreed. Well, he not so much agreed as also decided that he didn't like cleaning. Or like me so much, on cleaning days.

I was lucky enough to find the best, most reasonably priced woman in the world (perhaps I should call her TBMRPWITW?) to come to my house and lovingly, carefully and with the best eye for dirt, clean up our mess.

She is a doll and I love her. I mean really, really love her.

A few weeks ago TBHITW asked me what I was going to do when we move "up to the land" about cleaning.

After I stopped shaking I informed him we will need to add a wing onto the proposed new house. For the cleaning lady.

Here in the Northeast the first of the season's Soft Shell Crabs are hitting the markets. I have always loved these delicate crustaceans and I always cook them the same way, every year, week in and week out until the season is done. The fresh greens somehow make me feel less guilty about all that butter - and you only live once right?

Soft Shell Crabs over fresh spring greens: serves 2

Two soft shell crabs (make sure they are alive, you should see movement and they should be brightly colored with no missing claws) Have the fishmonger clean them by removing their lungs. You can do this yourself easily, but it's nicer if the FM does it)

1 stick unsalted butter

1/4 cup flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper

4 cups Fresh greens

1/4 cup grated carrots

hand full of fresh pea sprouts if you can get them

1/2 cucumber, sliced

Toss all the vegetables together and set aside.

Pea sprouts are popping up in local markets, try them, they are tender, sweet and add a nice light crunch to your salad.

Dry the crabs between paper towels.

Season flour and dredge crabs in the flour, shaking off excess.

Melt butter in a heavy saute pan over medium heat.

When butter is hot and foaming, add crabs, top side down.

Saute over medium high heat for about 4 minutes or until top is crisp.

Flip and continue to saute bottoms for another 4 minutes or until browned and crisp.

Plating: Divide salad among 2 plates. Top each salad with one soft shell. A simple oil and vinegar based dressing will do, or if you really want to be decadent, try this dressing, my favorite. Pass hot, crusty bread and a nice cold bottle of white wine.

Dressing:

2 anchovy fillets (don't be afraid of anchovies, they add a rich, not fishy, taste - you can also use anchovy paste)

2 egg yolks**

2 cloves garlic, smashed

2 lemons, juiced

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the anchovies, egg yolks, garlic, and lemon juice into a blender and process until smooth. With the blender running on low, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until thick and emulsified. Stir in the parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

**if you are queasy about raw egg yolks, substitute 1/2 cup mayonnaise.

A Cook's Notes: Is there anything in your everyday life that you just absolutely can't stand to do? How do you get around it? Hire someone? Ignore it? Get the significant other to do it? Or do you just cook your favorite food and forget it even exists?

Cake Bite Scooper Winner and Morels

Oh, I got so caught up with Birthday Week I forgot to announce the winner of the restaurant grade scooper - just perfect for making Cake Bites, the absolutely delicious, pop-one-in-your-mouth dessert that is sweeping the blogs.

Whitney Lee - From Somebody Else's Nose.

Whitney, email me your mailing address and I will get a scooper right out to you!

thegoodcooknj@comcast.net

I'm sure you will find many uses for this mini scooper. It makes the perfect size cookies, miniture cupcakes and of course cake bites!

Congratulations and enjoy!

Look, look, look! This is what I got yesterday from Carlo's Bakery (The Cake Boss) in Hoboken.

It's my birthday cake.

It was very hard to choose - look at the selection!

YUM!

And this is what I got today fresh from Oregon Mushrooms:

Double Yum! Morels.

Guess what we're having for dinner tonight?

The Perfect Morel:

1/2 pound of fresh morels

4 ounces fresh, cold, unsalted butter

Very gently wash each morel just prior to cooking. Drain and dry on paper towels.

Melt butter on medium low in a heavy saute pan. When sizzling and slightly foamy, add morels. Saute quickly, shaking pan to coat each morel with butter. When morels are soft and have just a slight golden sheen to them, remove from pan. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and serve.

Perfection.

A Cook's Notes: I am saving the other half pound until the weekend. I will quick saute the morels, let cool, then stuff with goat cheese and run them under the broiler. I WILL get back on my diet eventually - right? RIGHT??

King Tut and Lobster Mushroom Stuffing

Today, Monday, April 26th, is the last day of birthday week. Today is my actual birthday. At 1:08 pm I will officially be ahem years old... anyway,

I share my day with Carol Burnett, Stevie Nicks, Count Basie, Gracie Allen and a host of other famous and not so famous people.

Lucille Ball died on April 26th., 1989.

It has been a wonderful, fun filled week.

Yesterday was a day that was 3,430 years in the making.

Let me explain:

Liz is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We met in the 7th. grade. We were 12 years old and have been buddies ever since. That's a long time in friend years.

As is typical of 12-year olds we spent many hours at each other's homes. Where else do 12 year olds have to go?

As a tender preteen fresh out of St. Paul's Elementary School, Liz's family were to my young eyes, the most glamorous people I had ever met.

Fred, her father, played classical music on a huge grand piano that took up half of their large living room. Peggy, her mom, smoked long brown cigarettes and at dinner sat at the head of the table serving petite lamb chops from a silver platter.

They had worked and lived in New York City in the 40's which made them fantastically interesting and exotic (in my opinion) They both drank amber bourbon over ice from cut crystal glasses that clinked every time they set them down.

It all felt terribly sophisticated to me, one of six children whose mother didn't work and whose father drank a beer on occasion and dinner was always "family style".

Peggy was always trying to teach us culture and etiquette. Actually, she was trying to teach her daughter culture and etiquette, me and anyone else who happened to be visiting were included in the instruction.

She wanted us girls to learn how to play bridge (my parents played pinochle), or she wanted us to play the piano or watch the McNeil Report or try some odd type of food or would instruct us on the proper serving technique. We would constantly be admonished to sit up straight, cross our legs at the ankles or remove our elbows from the table.

One day, thirty years ago, when we were in our early 20's, Peggy got tickets to see the world premiere of the King Tutankhamun Exhibit; treasures of the like had never before been seen outside of Egypt. Of course, she wanted us to go. Of course, we said no. Why on earth would newly minted adults want to spend a day viewing dusty artifacts from some dead guy? Puhleeze..

Well, yesterday, this very unsophisticated, not so newly minted adult spent the day viewing the magnificent exhibit of King Tut's Tomb. The exhibit is in New York for a scant two weeks. It is making its final journey around the world (never to be in New York again) before it returns to Egypt, forever.

TBHITW and I followed up our exhibit tour with a lovely lunch at the world famous, Sardi's on West 44th Street, where I did not put my elbows on the table, even once.

Here's to you Peggy, you would have been proud of me.

I just received a sampler package of dried mushrooms from Marx Foods.

Until 2007, Marx Foods only customers were top restaurant chefs in the country. Now, they have opened up their online store to home chefs, allowing us to buy the finest and freshest foods driving current food trends.

Marx Foods is a family business. Five generations have overseen the company since its inception in 1895. They work with foragers, farmers, fisherman and artisans to supply only the finest food products available.

My most recent purchase consisted of 24 game quail, but more on that in a later post. An added bonus was a sampler package of wild foraged, dry mushrooms. Today, I'd like to share a brand new recipe I created using dried Lobster Mushrooms. You can use this stuffing for chicken, fish or vegetables. I used it to stuff eggplants and ended up with a wonderful vegetarian dinner that everyone agreed was flavorful and satisfying. Peggy would have loved this.

Lobster Mushroom Stuffing (makes about 1 cup stuffing)

1/2 ounce dried Lobster* mushrooms soaked in one cup hot water for about 10 minutes (1/2 ounce is about 1/3 cup of dried mushrooms) then squeezed dry. Reserve soaking liquid.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small shallot, minced

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped fine

1/4 cup reserved mushroom soaking liquid

3 tablespoons fine, dry bread crumbs

1 tablespoon heavy cream

One large eggplant, peeled and sliced thin on a mandolin. (about 1/4 inch, thin enough to be pliable)

Melt the butter and oil in a small heavy skillet. Add the shallots and sweat over very low heat until soft and translucent. Add garlic and saute for one minute, until fragrant. Add mushrooms, stir and saute one minute, add parsley and soaking liquid. Turn up heat and simmer for about 3 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons or less fine bread crumbs - be stingy with the bread crumbs, you just want the mixture to hold together. Continue to saute for one more minute to thoroughly combine flavors. Off heat stir in heavy cream. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pour a thin film of olive oil on a heavy rimmed cookie sheet. Set aside.

Lay out the egg plant slices. Place about a tablespoon of stuffing on the wide end of eggplant and roll up. Secure with a toothpick. Continue until all stuffing is used.

Place oiled cookie sheet in oven for 2 minutes to heat up the oil. Place the rolled eggplants on hot cookie sheet - careful! Drizzle with a little more olive oil, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper and roast for 8 minutes, turn gently and roast other side of rolls for another 8 minutes. Serve hot - about 3 rolls per person.

A side salad and a hot loaf of crusty bread make a satisfying meatless meal.

*I love the color, texture and flavor of Lobster mushrooms. They have a beautiful orange/red hue and a rich, yet delicate, meaty quality to them. If you can't find Lobster Mushrooms, substitute your favorite type of fungi - fresh or dried!

A Cook's Notes: I was developing this recipe so made it several different ways, experimenting with the eggplants. Some eggplant I sliced into thick rounds, scooped out the center and placed the stuffing inside. Other eggplant slices I stuffed, then dipped in egg, then panko and baked. Everyone at the table agreed the plain roasted eggplant rolls were the best. The rolled eggplant roasted up soft and buttery and the filling added a rich, creaminess to the dish. The panko coated rolls were too much a contrast in textures - good, but not best.

Don't be afraid to experiment! Cooking, like love, should be approached with abandonment!

Legal Stuff: I am not employed, nor am I affiliated with Marx Foods in any way. I have not been asked to review their products and have not received compensation for a review. I'm just a consumer and foodie - like you!

Experimental Eggplant Proving Ground

Birthday Week and Fresh Morels

Is there anything more delicious, more delectable and more fleeting than fresh morels in the springtime?

These little forest morsels are so delicate, so illusive and so short-lived, few of us have the opportunity to savor them.

But now, because it is my birthday week, because you are dear to me and because that's just the way I roll I'm letting you in on a little secret:

Of course if you win I'll expect dinner at 6:30 pm (prompt). I'll bring the wine.

The Legal Stuff: I am in no way affiliated with Marx Foods, other than being a customer. Nope, not employed, not paid, not even on their Christmas card list. I just love morels and want to share the goodness. Like I said, that's the way I roll.

Country Girl Meets Times Square and Cake Bites and a Giveaway

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Michele and her daughter Jenna, just left after a two day visit.

Their visit was part of Jenna's spring break from school AND it just happened to coincide with my birthday week. How lucky is that?

Jenna and Michele live on 110 beautiful acres in upstate New York. They call their home, "Windswept Farms". It is a far cry from the crowded streets of New York city.

We started our day by driving into the city. What was I thinking??? Hello, you live 4 minutes from the train station. Anyway, somehow we made it through the Lincoln Tunnel, found parking and walked to Time's Square. Every visitor to NYC has to go to Time's Square, right?

Jenna in Time's Square

And what visit would be complete without a stop at the Ed Sullivan Theater?

The highlight of our day was seeing the Broadway production of "Promises, Promises" starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. Chenoweth may be small but boy can she belt out a tune.

The first time I witnessed this singing dynamo was in the production of "Wicked".

If you ever get a chance to see her perform, run, don't walk to the ticket counter. Truly worth every penny. (Sean Hayes was awesome, too... but we just loved hearing Kristin sing)...

Anyway, Jenna has a legendary sweet tooth so I decided to test what all the hype is lately regarding Cake Balls - only I refuse to call them that and have renamed them Cake Bites. I have my boundaries.

The newly named Cakes Bites were a glorious hit. I can't wait to begin testing all different types of combinations. For Jenna, I stuck with her favorite flavors, chocolate on chocolate. I did, however, experiment with a few different toppings for the more adventurous in my house.

I also decided to throw kitchen snobbery to the wind and just go with cake mix and pre-made frosting (I know, and the roof DID NOT cave in)...

If you are tempted to try something a little off the wall and finally find out for yourself what all the hype is about, I urge you to try the newest home kitchen confection and internet sensation:

Cake Bites: Makes about 70 "bites"

1 package Cake Mix (I used Chocolate Fudge, but use any you like)

1 16 ounce can ready frosting (I used chocolate)

12 ounces confectioner's melting chocolate*

Make the cake according to package directions. Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn out into a large bowl and crumble. It will look like a big bowl of loose dirt.

Add all of the frosting to the loose dirt, I mean cake crumbs.

Stir it up until thoroughly mixed. It will look like this.

Now put this concoction in your refrigerator (covered) for about an hour or until completely cooled.

When cool, begin making the "bites". Using your hands or a scoop, form the batter into 1 inch balls. Place them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze for at least one hour. You can keep them frozen for up to a month (just put them in a ziplock bag) and dip as needed. I needed to dip them all....

Melt the confectioner's chocolate in a double boiler until fully melted and smooth. Take about 5 or 6 bites out of the freezer (you want them to remain frozen, so just work with a few at a time) and dip, one at a time in the chocolate, placing it on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I used a fondue fork and toothpick to aid in the dipping process.

Continue dipping until all bites are coated.

If you want to add another dimension to your cake bites, as you remove one from the dipping process, roll in nuts, coconut, or sprinkle with colored sugar crystals.

Pictured: Chocolate bites coated in both white and dark chocolate, some rolled in pistachios or almonds or coconut, or sprinkled with sugar. Some plain.

A Cook's Notes: *confectioner's chocolate: available at some grocery stores, and all craft and cake or candy making suppliers. Confectioner's chocolate is tempered chocolate, making it have a higher burn point and when dry, it will "crack".. giving the bites a soft, almost truffle like inside and a hard candy shell outside. I did experiment using semi-sweet chocolate chips, with some success, but the bites don't have that hard, crack outer coating, they stay somewhat soft. But still delicious!!

Some suggested flavors:

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting and white chocolate coating

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and white chocolate coating

Yellow Cake with Orange Butter Cream Frosting and white chocolate coating

White Cake with Vanilla Frosting and Milk chocolate coating

White Cake with Caramel Frosting and Milk chocolate coating

What are some flavor combinations you can come with? Want to win a free restaurant grade "scooper" from The Good Cook? Leave a comment on this post and if you are chosen from a random drawing, I will feature your recipe on my blog and send you a scooper.

Can't think of any combinations of your own? Just comment with something like, Hey, I'd like some of those cake bites....

Entries must be received before midnight, EST, Sunday, April 25th.

A Nice Surprise and Fish and Chips

I had just finished hauling the 10th. bag of groceries through the door when I noticed a long green box on the front porch.

The card read, "Happy Birthday Week"

The box contained my favorite flowers, long stemmed yellow roses.

TBHITW has done it again, proven why I call him The Best Husband In The World.

Tonight, to thank him, he is so getting .......

One of his favorite meals.

Fish & Chips (American Style) - that's my apology for my across the pond friends, where Fish & Chips is a national past-time. (feeds 4-6 people easily)

2 pounds Cod

1 bag frozen "steak" cut fries

1 1/4 cup rice flour, divided

1 tablespoon kosher salt

6 grinds of fresh black pepper

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 egg

1 12 ounce can club soda

Vegetable or Canola oil for frying

2 brown paper bags

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Take your fish out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Cut into 4 inch pieces. Dry thoroughly. Shake the fish in 1/4 cup rice flour. Meanwhile:

Begin heating the oil (about 3 inches deep) in a big kettle. Oil should be 350 degrees.

Mix 1 cup rice flour with salt, pepper and baking powder. Beat egg slightly. Add to rice flour mixture and add club soda to make a thick batter. (start with 3/4 can and adjust as needed).

Take rice flour coated fish and dip into batter, place into hot oil and fry for about 10 minutes or until crisp and golden. Transfer to brown paper bag lined cookie sheet with a cooling rack placed on it. This will insure that the fish drains properly AND stays crisp. See cooks notes below.

Place in oven to keep hot.

Add fries to same oil and fry until golden. Drain fries on brown paper bags.

Serve fish and fries with cole slaw on the side. Lemon wedges, malt vinegar (for drizzling on fish) and store bought tartar sauce.

A Cook's Notes: use brown paper bags to drain grease from fish. Paper towels absorb oil, and your fish will sit on grease soaked towels and become soggy. Placing the fish on a rack with brown paper bags on the bottom will insure crisp, grease free fish.

If you don't have or can't find rice flour, use all purpose flour, sifted.