Wendy

Well, I have to admit I haven't done much with the Gordon Ramsay recipes yet. A sudden spate of warmer weather cut my interest in the soups, and the only one of his recipes that I've done so far is the Spaghetti with broccoli, garlic and chili. It made the list because it looked quick and easy, and it was. That's why it got made. :) It will be familiar to anyone who has ever dressed their pasta with some garlic oil -- heat the oil in the pan, saute the garlic and chili, and then toss in the broccoli with some water and put the lid on. Let it steam for a few minutes, and then throw in your cooked pasta. Toss and serve. We sprinkled on some parmesan cheese and inhaled it. The good thing about doing this is that I hadn't thought about including broccoli and steaming it in the pan like that. I now see all sorts of vegetables that could be added in like that. Sweet peppers? Snow peas? And the seasoning in the oil could be varied too.

It's looking like it will be cooler and drizzly next week, so I'm hoping I can manage both the oxtail soup and the Alnwick soup then. I believe I already have the ingredients for both.

I did something else quick and easy last night. The last time we went to visit them, my mother-in-law pointed out a recipe to me in a community cookbook she had. She thought it sounded horrible, but it clicked with me and so I made a copy and brought it home. The recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

Chicken with Cranberry & Sauerkraut

4 chicken breasts
1 (16-oz.) can whole cranberry sauce
1 (16-oz.) can sauerkraut
2T. brown sugar

Two 16-ounce cans can be used if you like sauerkraut. Place in slow cooker or in a casserole dish with a cover. Bake at 350 degree oven until chicken is tender and done.

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Okay, I have a couple of issues with that. First, if you don't like sauerkraut are you going to be making this recipe at all? Second, they give no idea of how long this should take. Even with lots of variables (quantity of sauerkraut, size of chicken breasts, etc.) I like to have a rough estimate. But I had a reasonably good feeling about the cranberry sauce/sauerkraut combination, so I tried it.

Around here, my preferred sauerkraut brand comes in either 14-oz. or 28-oz. cans. I decided to go with the 28-oz. can. I had a feeling that if I just used the smaller can that the dish would wind up much too sweet. I put four chicken breasts in a 1 1/2 quart (I think) casserole, then topped them with the cranberry sauce, the brown sugar and the sauerkraut. It was filled up nicely -- more sauerkraut would have been too much for the dish.

After looking at recipes online, I set the timer for 40 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, the chicken was not quite done. However, they weren't completely thawed through when I put them in the dish, and I think 40 minutes would be enough time for fully thawed chicken.

I served the finished dish with mashed potatoes, figuring that if it was too sweet or too sour that the potatoes would help it to go down. It didn't need the potatoes. The cranberry-sauerkraut mix had mellowed nicely into a slightly-sweet, slightly-sour combination. The chicken was done and moist, and had picked up a slight sweetness from everything else.

It's an easy recipe, and I will hold onto it.

I think that's it on the cooking front from me. Paul has been working on golden fried rice, which is quick and easy (once you get the technique down) and, to my mind, makes a good starch/protein to go with spicy or sweet vegetable dishes. Yum!

...you know, the ones you didn't get invited over for? :) (see last post)

8 jalapeno peppers
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
8 slices bacon

Halve and seed the jalapenos. Mush the two cheeses together in a plastic bag until well mixed, then cut a corner off the bag and use it to pipe the cheese into the peppers. Cut the bacon slices in two, then wrap each jalapeno half with half a slice of bacon.

Line a cookie sheet/jellyroll pan/something with edges with foil, then put a rack on it. Place the peppers on the rack -- cheese side up! -- and place into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the bacon is crispy. We had thick bacon, so we left them in an extra 5 minutes.

By our calculations, these came out to 68 calories per half pepper (with the thick bacon slices -- YMMV), which is about what one of those frozen jalapeno poppers runs also. Ours tasted better and was probably cheaper too.

I just put a rack full of jalapeno peppers, cheese and bacon into the oven. It should perk up our leftovers a bit, or possibly be a dismal failure. I'll let you know. And if we don't think the leftover peppers will keep, I may put out a call for volunteers. :D At least a couple of you are close enough to consider taking us up on it!

I just got Gordon Ramsay's latest cookbook, "Cooking for Friends", out of the library. I don't have any interest in watching him on TV, but he's supposed to be good. Flipping through the cookbook...yum. I found quite a few things that sounded like I might want to try them. And I thought I'd try something new, complete with ticky boxes!

Here's the question: What recipe(s) should I try/would you be interested in hearing the results of later? These are the ones that sounded the best to me. My first poll! (Hope it works.)

Poll #1482169 What should I try?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

Which recipes should I try?

Laura's Halloween costume:



Marian's Halloween costume:



I'll let you know how it turns out.

I knew they had 'Doc Savage' available and hadn't done anything about it. And then they put up 'Urgh! A Music War'. But now I'm informed (THANK YOU!) that they also have the 1988 Michael Caine/Lewis Collins 'Jack the Ripper'. So I go and look...and they *also* have 'Planet Earth' and 'Genesis II'! Glorious cheesy goodness!

There goes any potential Christmas money...*sigh* But at least I'll be able to get rid of the ancient videotapes!

I finished Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" yesterday. Still haven't seen all of the movie. But I learned a new word -- psychowank. Now I feel like I need a sign on my desk, one that says "It's all just psychowank".

Has anyone done a Leverage vid for The Monkees' "Mr. Webster"? Admittedly, at only 5 episodes in I don't know if the footage exists, but the iPod was on shuffle today....

"Wiseguy: The Complete First Season" shipped today.

In less than a week, I will know what they mean by "Complete".

A lovely interview with David Tennant and Russell T. Davies that took place during/just after Comic-Con. It's twenty minutes and it took quite a while to download, but it was well worth it!!!

Thanks to joshuwain for pointing this out!

Click here.

Okay, that's not the actual trailer. But take a look at the actual trailer for 2012. I know not everybody will get this, but my brain says it should be coming from the writing team of Brian Clemens and Glen Morgan. They've both done work that I love, but..."Research? We don't need no steenking research!"

Watch the trailer. You will enjoy it.

And guess where we're going to be at the time? :D

A while back (six weeks ago? A month ago?) we got rid of most of our TV channels, and kept only the most basic of basic cable packages. Since then, I have watched more network TV than I have in *ages*. So far, I think I'm up to two partial episodes of things. I'm going to keep my eyes open for both "Castle" and "Numb3rs" in the future -- anything else I should give a minute or two of my time?