Mashed Cauliflower

I know it is hard to believe but even in The Good Household, we get a tad tired of mashed potatoes all the time. Blasphemy you say! But every once in a while it is nice to have some other form of mashed vegetable.

Now, I should have googled a mashed cauliflower recipe before I made this, but being hardheaded like I am, I figured I could just wing it. I mean, all I needed to do was replace the potatoes with the cauliflower, right?

I think the final result turned out well. While the cauliflower didn't have the same texture as mashed potatoes, they were still tasty. I would make this again in a heartbeat but maybe I will google it first.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, chopped

2 cups of chicken stock

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of milk

1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder, roughly

1/2 tablespoon parsley, minced

1 cup cheddar cheese

Directions:

~Add the cauliflower and chicken stock and bring to a boil on the stove top. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is soft.

~Drain the cauliflower and add it back to the pot. Add the butter, milk and garlic powder. Mash with a potato masher. Add cheese and serve immediately.

recipe by: The Good Wife

Roast Beef Tenderloin

First let me apologize to all vegetarians reading this post. This is probably akin to a slasher movie for vegetarians, and I am sorry, but I love meat so much that I have to blog about it.

This again is one of the foods I am not supposed to be eating due to scary bacteria and a low immune system due to pregnancy. But, damn it, I am almost 8 months pregnant and I wanted some rare meat. This actually turned out a little more rare than I wanted it, but it was still delicious.

This was the first time I have had beef tenderloin in anything other than a steak or a fried sandwich. I wasn't quite sure how to cook it but after reading my copy of The Joy of Cooking, only two options were given - roast or grill.

I didn't feel like having The Good Husband mess with the grill, so I decided that roasting it would be the way to go. Roasting made for an easy dinner. I just slathered it with oil and spices and threw it in the oven. It took a little longer to roast since the meat wasn't thawed all the way and I ended up getting rather impatient and just pulled it out before it reached medium rare. But it was so delicious. You could cut it with your folk.

Ingredients:
Small beef tenderloin roast (about 3-5 pounds)
Oil or butter, I used canola oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Grill seasoning, a palm-full
Seasoned salt, half a palm-full
Black pepper, half a palm-full

Directions:
~Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

~Combine the oil and the spices and rub generously over the entire roast.

~Place roast in a shallow roasting pan and roast for 25 to 45 minutes until the roast as reached the desired doneness. (I cooked this roast for about 45 minutes and it was almost too rare for me.)

~Remove from oven, cover with foil and allow roast to rest before carving.

~Slice meat as thin as possible and serve.

recipe by: The Good Wife

But you might be asking yourself what to do with all the leftovers? From this roast TGH and I were able to enjoy a hearty roast beef sandwich of super sharp cheddar, horseradish and red onions for lunch the next day and a steak salad the next night.

Cornish Hen

Does this count as roasted chicken on my List of 100 Foods I Want to Make? I mean a cornish hen is like a small chicken and I cooked it the same way that I would cook a normal sized chicken? Quite the quandary.

Roasting a chicken, or in this case, cornish hen is really more about technique than anything else. You can change the flavors every time but there are four basic things you will need to roast a chicken - 1. A fat, like oil or butter; 2. Seasonings - herbs and/or spices; 3. Salt; 4. Pepper. Measurements are not really that important; just choose any combination of herbs and spices and the amount you want and you really can't go wrong.

The trick to a really flavorful chicken is to season the chicken on the inside and out. Rub the inside of the bird with all four ingredients and rub a hearty amount under the skin of the bird. To loosen the skin of the bird, start at the tail end and gently work your fingers under the skin, between the skin and the meat. You should be able to loosen all of the skin on the breast of the chicken.

Next roast the chicken at 425 degrees for 20 minutes for every pound or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the bird reads 180 degrees.

Ingredients:
Cornish Hen
Canola Oil (probably about 1/2 cup)
Crushed garlic (3-4 cloves)
Rosemary (2 bunches, chopped)
Thyme
Poultry Seasoning
Rubbed Sage
Lemon Pepper
Salt
Pepper
Lemon Juice

Directions:
~Squeeze lemon juice on both the outside of the bird as well as in the cavity.

~Combine the remaining ingredients and rub generously on the outside, under the skin of the bird and in the cavity.

~Roast the bird, breast side up, at 425 for 20 minutes for every pound or until a meat thermometer reads 180 degrees. Allow the bird to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

recipe by: The Good Wife

Stay tuned. This blog might be changing

In light of this being my 101 post, as well as some other life changes I have been going through, I have decided that I might shift focus a bit here on the blog.

The majority of my posts have been about the food I cook and how I learned to cook it. But The Good Wife is going to be The Good Mother soon so a few baby posts might creep in here and there.

Also, The Good Husband and I just bought our first house. So while there is still a lot of unpacking to do in preparation for The Good Baby, I am settling into home ownership nicely and have had to modify the way I cook, clean and otherwise adjust.

So along with all the food I cook and the way I cook it, I can't help but think that some of the things I do to keep the house clean, to stay organized, to become more environmentally friendly, to save money and time and to be a better good wife, might be of some value.

So, what would you like to see more of on The Good Wife? You can answer in comments or by filling out the new poll I posted.

Thanks.

For my 100th post...Pasta Salad

Wow! I can't believe that I am at 100 posts already. If life hadn't gotten in the way, I'm sure I would have 200 by now. But I will celebrate this small milestone with a festive and colorful dish.

To me nothing say summer like pasta salad. It is at every family get together and BBQ. I can't wait for summer this year, since The Good Baby will be making her appearance then and I think my summer social calendar might be booked this year. So, I wanted a taste of summer now. I also had a huge craving for salami and lunch meat and took a pregnancy gamble.

This dish is pretty easy to make, just like most of my other dishes. The most labor intensive part is all the chopping and the cooling of the pasta. But it came together in less than 20 minutes. It took me less time to eat it all.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat pasta, any shape
4 oz hard salami, chopped
1.5 oz pepperoni, chopped (1.5 oz sounds like a strange amount, but it is half a package)
1 can of jumbo black olives, chopped
4 oz fresh mozzarella, diced
4-6 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 small red onion, chopped (I forgot to add this)
1 large handful of basil, chopped
1 recipe The Good Wife Italian Dressing Mix
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Directions:
~Boil the pasta in salted water for 10-12 minutes. Drain and cool, rinsing with cool water.

~Combine the Good Wife Italian Dressing Mix with the oil, lemon juice and vinegar in a jar and shake to combine.

~Combine all the remaining ingredients with the pasts in a large bowl. Toss to coat.

recipe by: The Good Wife

Guacamole

For every cook, there is a different guacamole recipe. I love a lot of garlic and lime in my guacamole. I also like to blend the crap out of it until it is smooth. I could eat this everyday and I tell myself that it would be ok, since avocados have the"good" fat in them.

Ingredients:
2 avocados, ripened
3 cloves of garlic (I told you I love garlic)
1 small onion
The juice of two limes
A big handful of cilantro
Salt to taste

Directions:
~Peel the avocado and spoon the flesh into the bowl of a food processor.

~Combine the remaining ingredients and process the crap out of it or until it reaches the consistency you desire.

recipe by: The Good Wife

Refried Beans

I have a weakness for Taco Bell. Yes it is not the healthiest and you would think that even after working there for a year and seeing how everything is made, I wouldn't like it. But I still can't shake my love for cheap, easy food and every now and then I have to get some refried beans.

Then after staring this blog and reminiscing over my culinary accomplishments, I realized that there is a lot of premade food that would be super easy to make at home. This is one of them.

I had occurred to me that I probably never even had homemade refried beans before. Yes, I eat at other Mexican places than Taco Bell, but honestly, all the refried beans looked strikingly similar to Taco Bell's or the stuff you get out of a can.

I will say that making this was super easy. First of all, I bought canned beans. Now we can debate how much that qualifies this as truly homemade but when I can get one can of organic pinto beans for $1 versus a 1 pound bag for $3 something, well, then cheapness wins out and I went for the can.

The refired beans tasted nothing like what I have ever eaten before. I don't know if that was due to the organic beans or the lack of animal lard (seriously, look on a can of refried beans sometime. Animal lard is in there). They were a cousin to all the refired beans I had ever had before. I need to work on the seasonings, since the beans seemed a little bland, but overall they were good.

And hey, I knocked another food off my 100 Foods List.

Ingredients:
1 can pinto beans
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons butter
salt
Cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions:
~Dice the onion and garlic. In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic. Add salt to taste and cook until soft, about 10 minutes.

~Drain the beans, reserving the juice. Add the beans to the onion and garlic mixture and cook for 5 minutes.

~Using a potato masher, mash the beans until they reach the consistency you desire. If needed add some of the reserved juice.

~The beans will thicken considerably when removed from the heat, so removed from heat when the beans still look watery. Let stand 5 minutes and top with cheese or diced onion.

recipe by: The Good Wife

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I don't remember the first time I had BBQ Chicken Pizza, but I will say that since I have had it, it might be one of the best types of pizza out there. Of course nothing can replace the awesomeness that is Imo's Pizza, but sadly there are none out here in the sticks.
You can see my recipe for pizza dough here.

Toppings
Ingredients:
2 cups diced cooked chicken
4 slices of thick cut bacon
1/2 Parmesan cheese
2 cups Cojack cheese
1/2 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce
1/4 cup chopped white onion (optional)

Directions:
~In a large skillet over medium high heat brown the bacon. Once the bacon has browned, remove from pan and drain on a paper plate.

~Top the pre-baked pizza dough with the bbq sauce, Cojack and Parmesan cheese, bacon and chicken (and onion).

~Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees or until the crust is golden.

recipe by: The Good Wife

Italian Beef

As a foodie, I am supposed to hate the crock pot.

I will confess to not using it all that much, but when I do, boy! I look at it and think I should make everything in this little baby. Then I try a recipe for something like soup and it turns out horribly. Then I remember why I only use it for shredded meat and roasts.

The crock pot really is fool proof, if you stick to the above mentioned two items. Just plop everything in the crock in the morning, turn it on low and come home 8 hours later to your house smelling like a deli. The Good Husband happens to love that smell.

I should try and bottle it and market it as a perfume. While it would attract all Good Husband types to you, the only draw back would be the occasional stray dog following you home, since really, you smell like meat.

But on to the sandwich.

This Italian Beef recipe is my old stand by. I have to eliminate the banana peppers since TGH can't stand them, but you can see I compensate for the lack of pepper spice with a good helping of horseradish. Oh yum.

Ingredients:
2 heaping tablespoons of The Good Wife Italian Seasoning Mix (recipe to follow)
3 - 5 lb beef roast (I usually just get whatever cut is on sale that week)
Banana peppers and juice (optional)

Directions:
~Combine all in crock pot and cook on low 6 to 8 hours.

~Shred meat with forks 30 to 45 minutes before serving, stirring to combine all the flavors.

The Good Wife Italian Dressing Mix
Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried celery flakes

Directions:
~Combine all in a bowl and stir until well blended.

~Store in air tight container.

recipe by: The Good Wife