Good Things Come in 3s

Or is it Bad Things Come in 3s?

Anyway, here we are, 3 weeks behind. Any teacher will tell you that starting a new project/blog/hobby in September is one of the stupidest things you could do, but oh well. So yes, we have all been very busy with Open Houses, Grading Essays, Lesson Planning and Staff Meetings, but we have continued to keep our Wednesday Night dinners going, with only 2 total absences so far, and one was for Religious Reasons!

Anyway, onto to 3 weeks ago:

It was my week to host, and I picked Grilled Tuna Skewers with Rosemary and Orange. Or something like that. I don't have the book with me, and I can't find the recipe online, so I'm winging it. I was very excited about grilling TUNA, because I love Tuna Steak! However, I went to Whole Foods (not my normal shopping haunt, but I'm a little weird about seafood/fish and I knew whatever I bought there would be good quality), the fishmonger told me that they only stock Tuna on the weekends because it's so expensive. This was truly saying something, because when the Whole Foods Employee tells you that something is expensive, you KNOW shit is expensive!!

Um, I'm pretty sure I can't afford any of this.

I asked if I could use Swordfish in place of Tuna, and told the dude that I would be grilling it on skewers, and he agreed that would be my second best option. So I bought almost 2 pounds of Swordfish, which is what the recipe called for, and still nearly broke the bank. Glad the Tuna wasn't even an option.

The general gist of this recipe is to skewer the fish, smash a bunch of rosemary, parsley, orange zest and juice, olive oil, and steak seasoning in it, and grill it up. Ms. A doesn't do fish, so she substituted chicken breasts that it took her about 45 minutes to cut to her liking.

In the meantime, we prepared a huge (huge) slaw with radicchio, red romaine in place of something else I couldn't find in the store, red peppers, purple onion, and probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting. The slaw was finished with orange juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper.

Mr. M did a beautiful job grilling in the rain - the kabobs were browned and delicious without being dried out. The slaw was delish, and we all agreed that it kept really well and was excellent for lunch the next day (I told you, it was a huge slaw!) We were all skiddish about eating leftover fish, so the little bit of Swordfish that was left went in the garbage (sad), and we split the leftovers of Ms. A's chicken over our slaw.

Overall, I believe this meal earned a solid 3 (again, this is from memory, I don't have the book). We all agreed that it was good, and the flavors were wonderful, but it was a LOT of prep, and a lot of work! I would not plan it as a quick weeknight meal, but it would be fun for entertaining on the weekends.

2 Weeks Ago:
Ms. D and Ozzy were our hosts, our meal was Mixed Mediterranean Grill. (I also cannot find this recipe online to cut and paste, so I will not be typing it out for you, sorry). Mr. M. was absent due to open house, so we had to make due without him. This was also the first "real" meal cooked in Ms. D's new apartment -exciting! We were thrilled when we picked this recipe, because who doesn't love a bunch of random grilled vegetables? The meats featured were Hot and Sweet Italian Sausage and Shrimp. Compared to last week's massive amounts of chopping, this was relatively simple: Cut 2 roma tomatoes in half, grill them, cut 2 peppers in half, grill them, trim fennel, cut in half, grill. You get the idea.

We did all of the grilling on Ms. D's grill pan, which, according to the recipe, was the preferred method of preparation. We started with the veggies, and when they were grilled assembled them on a platter. We then grilled a LOT of shrimp, and followed it up with the two kinds of Italian sausages. Once it was all grilled, we piled the platter high and set it down to dig in.

The vegetables: were good! I think they could have used a bit more oil, salt, and pepper than the recipe called for, and maybe if we'd cooked them at a higher heat they would have browned a bit more. As it were, they were a bit more bland and mushy than I would have liked. This also could have been due to the fact they were cooked first and sat for a bit while we cooked everything else.

The shrimp: The shrimp were very good, and I think between the 3 of us we ate almost all of the shrimp. They were grilled shrimp - 'nuff said.

Lastly the sausage: I have to say that by this time of year I am SICK of sausage because my husband's family grills it a lot, and he also insists we have it several times a month. So the sausage didn't really do anything for me, but perhaps my dinnermates would disagree.

No Thanks, I'm good.

So this meal, I think we all agreed, was just okay. I believe the final score was 2.73. We definitely did not make AYP on this meal. I guess it's time for the government to take all of our cooking utensils away, cut back on the variety of food that we can use, and tell us to do better next year or they'll shut us down.

This week!:

It was Mr. M's turn to host, so it was back to Mr. M & Ms. A's home. Ms. D and Ozzy did not join us due to Rosh Hashanah, but Zooey was still enough of a pain to make it feel like there were 2 dogs and 4 people. Oh wait! We did have 4 people! Mr. M's buddy, Mr. R joined us for this weeks cooking adventure: Indian Summer Turkey Chili, complete with recipe and stock photo!!

Indian Summer Turkey Chili

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 2 1/2 pounds ground turkey (85 percent lean) or ground turkey breast (99 percent lean), 2 packages
• 4 tablespoons dark chili powder, 2 palm fulls
• 2 tablespoons grill seasoning blend, any brand, 1 palm full
• 1 tablespoon cumin, 1/2 palm full
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 to 3 tablespoons hot sauce, medium to extra-spicy
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 2 large peppers, any color combination, red, green, purple, yellow or orange, chopped
• 1/2 bottle beer (the alcohol cooks out), about 1 cup
• 1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup smoky barbecue sauce
• 2 cups corn kernels, optional

Directions

Heat a pot over medium to medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 3 turns of the pan, and the turkey meat. Season the meat with: chili powder, grill seasoning, cumin, Worcestershire and hot sauce. Break up the meat with the back of a wooden spoon into small crumbles.

Chop the onion, reserving 1/4 of it for topping the chili. Brown meat 5 minutes, then add onions and chopped bell peppers and cook 10 minutes more. Add beer and deglaze the pan, scraping up the drippings and cooking off the alcohol. Add tomato sauce and barbecue sauce and bring to a bubble. If using corn kernels add them now. Let chili simmer 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings and heat level to your taste. Remove from heat and serve.

Back to the show:

Okay, so Mr. M did most of the cooking, so I don't have much to report on how the cooking process went. I do know that he doubled the recipe, and that he used Sam Adams Octoberfest Beer, which we thought was very seasonal and appropriate. I was busy making a Green Tomato Cake (yes, you read that right) at the direction of Ms. A, who had dozens of pounds of tomatoes, red, green, yellow, and orange, from her school garden. But that's a whole other hot mess that I can't even get into right now.

So the chili took a while to cook, as you might expect (30 minute meals my ass - all of these meals have taken at least an hour), and we also discovered that this was "true" chili (read: no beans), which we were not okay with, I suppose because none of us are from Texas. So we decided to throw in a can of black beans.

When it was all said and done, this chili recipe was a winner! The hot sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, and generous seasonings made it very spicy, which we were all fans of. [Editing Note: Yes. I just ended a sentence in a preposition. What are you going to do about it? Stay out of this, Nick Lachey!] So we decided that we did not like the overall proportion of turkey:beans:corn, but that could be easily adjusted for personal taste, and the seasonings and spices were spot on for a nice spicy fall chili.

We chopped another pound or two of Ms. A's tomatoes, and mixed them with fresh chopped red onion, which made a delicious topping. Along with some shredded cheese and a dab of sour cream, it was a perfect meal for a fall night. However, I might have been swayed by the full fat sour cream, which I never keep at home anymore, so that in itself was delicious to me!

The accompaniment was a cucumber dill salad made by Mr. R, which was a nice cool compliment to the spicy chili. However, we all agreed that a bit of cornbread would have made an excellent side dish. I believe we are regaining ground towards our AYP status, as this meal clocked in with a 3.3 from me and a pair of 3.5's from Mr. M & Ms. A. A 3.4333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333and so on. Go us!

Stay tuned for next week, which we hope will be an Antipasto Salad with Mini Meatball Burgers. Watch out world!