Pork Loin with Fennel

I edited this recipe (Barefoot Contessa at Home) to exclude the fennel.  Sorry, fennel, but I just don’t have much love for you.  It’s probably a good thing that I left it out, because even with just the onions in the stuffing, this pork loin was overflowing.  It looks fancy, but it was really easy.  My tip:  place the strings for tying the roast where you want them before stuffing it.  (Think of it as placing strings in the recycling bin before tying up the newspapers.)  It makes it so much easier than moving it with the stuffing on it.

We made this with a side of sweet and sour braised cabbage and green beans.  It would be equally good in the fall with apples.

Brisket with Carrots and Onions

Continuing with our Jewish theme from yesterday, I made this brisket (Barefoot Contessa Parties!).  I don’t know why or how beef brisket became associated with Jewish holidays, but I can see why the tradition continued.  Based on my previous disappointments (here and here) and advice from my more brisket-experienced friends, I changed the cooking directions from the recipe (3.5 hours in the oven at 350 degrees) and cooked the brisket (and all of the other recommended ingredients) in the slow cooker for 10-11 hours instead.  This time, I was not disappointed, and I would not hesitate to make this meal for guests. We served it with steamed green beans on the side.

Even though I’d never actually cooked brisket at home before (with the exception of corned beef), we have a silly little family song that we sing to the tune of Laurie Berkner’s “Victor Vito”:

In our family, though, we made up new words using the names of our dogs:  “Hey Georgia, Hey Tippet, let’s eat some beef brisket!”

Breakfast for Dinner

Because we can.  Because it’s inexpensive.  Because we had potatoes and onions that needed to be eaten.  Because it’s quick and toddler-friendly.  And, because it’s delicious.

Hashed Browns for dinner?

Don’t mind if I do.

Barefoot Contessa Family Style, p. 188

Chicken Stock

It’s rare that a Barefoot Contessa recipe has me scratching my head, especially for something so basic as chicken stock, but I have to admit that I’m a little befuddled.  The recipe for Homemade Chicken Stock on p. 61 of Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics calls for three whole chickens and a series of whole vegetables and fresh herbs.  At the end of the stock-making process, the solid ingredients are strained away and discarded.  My impression has always been that stock should be made from the discards of already-used foods:  shrimp shells for fish stock, for example.  This way, nothing is wasted.  So, I will admit this:  I did not follow the recipe for chicken stock.  I still made stock, and I took a picture of it, but until I have a stock pot big enough to handle three whole chickens and enough money to burn on wasted ingredients, I won’t be following that recipe to the letter.  Instead, I used the carcass from roasted chicken, along with some onions, garlic, and greens.  I froze the greens from the carrots we received in our CSA box this summer, and threw them into the mix.  The leafy parts of the celery for the chicken salad were also put to good use.  This method has served me well for years, and I’ll continue to employ it to make the most of what’s left in the kitchen.

Stuffed Cabbage

From the ugly but tasty files, I bring you stuffed cabbage (Barefoot Contessa at Home, pp. 106-107).  It’s not pretty, but it tasted so good, and it used our last head of cabbage of the CSA season.  It takes a little puttering and a lot of dirty dishes, but the end result was worth the trouble.  I omitted the raisins and the brown sugar listed in the recipe, because I don’t really do the whole savory/sweet thing for dinner.  I used to have a thing about all raisins found in cooked food, because they got all puffy and swollen.  (Not unlike, as a friend pointed out, ticks.  Yuck.)  I’ve expanded my palate to include raisins baked in things like bread pudding, but I just can’t bear to put them in a dish that also requires ground beef and onions.  Someone’s grandmother is probably rolling over in her grave right now because I omitted the sweet ingredients, so I apologize for that, but we enjoyed our dinner sans fruit.  (I added a little Worcestershire sauce to the meat to up the flavor in place of the raisins and brown sugar.)  Also, I assembled this dish in advance and refrigerated it before baking it, so the cooking time was quite a bit longer than what was called for in the recipe.  I used a meat thermometer to make sure it was fully cooked.

Perfect Roast Chicken

I’d only be exaggerating a little bit to say that I haven’t been this proud of something I’ve made since I first laid eyes on my newborn son.  Despite the fact that I can roast a turkey (and have, with success, several times), roast chicken has always been a disaster in my kitchen.  The smoke alarm always, always, always goes off (and this time was no exception), and the chicken never turned out just right, until this time.  Thus, our obsession with the rotisserie chickens from the grocery store.  I’d even used this recipe (Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, p. 130) before, but for some reason I didn’t have success until this time.  This chicken not only tasted better than the rotisserie chicken from the store, but it also cost less and made the house smell fantastic.  I can still see us buying the pre-cooked chickens when we don’t want to heat up the oven (and therefore the house) for over an hour, but as winter approaches, I think this will be a new go-to option.