Spring Travel and Food

Cogito has hit the road.

While Atlanta has been good for food and fun, the time for a change has arrived.

But just because one has no kitchen is no reason to stop enjoying eating, cooking, and good friends.

Over the next several weeks, the food and fun will travel cross country, with the bow pointed west, eating and writing all the way.

The first stop was at the home of relatives in Michigan. The menu consisted of grilled pork tenderloin (imagine) with a blueberry maple syrup sauce, sauteed spinach (a Cogito favorite), roasted potatoes with rosemary and some grilled bread.


Upcoming cooking and eating destinations include Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City.......

Bacon. one of three

My Friend, CJ came over the other day to hang out and cook some holiday appetizers. As we discussed our favorite holiday dishes over a pot of coffee, a trend emerged. Bacon.

Now, of course bacon is always tasty and delicious, but especially so, in this season of comfort food, of hot food on chilly Winter evenings. One of CJ's strong seasonal food memories is a classic appetizer from the middle sixties, bacon wrapped water chestnuts. We headed to the kitchen.

These are very simple to create. I like thin sliced bacon for this one or you end up with something like bacon wrapped bacon. (more on bacon choice in further posts.)

One can of whole water chestnuts
1 package bacon
skewers

We wrapped the chestnuts in bacon until there was about a half inch of overlap, then skewered through the seam and the chestnut. You could manage this without skewers by just laying them on a cookie sheet, seam side down. Delicious bacon can also be glue.

They went into a 450 degree oven until done, about 15 minutes.

While we waited we reduced a mixture of equal parts water, sugar and vinegar, with a couple of tablespoons of fresh pepper to create a pan sauce. The water chestnuts, warmly ensconced in their delicious bacon coats, went for a turn around the pan, then off to the plate.

Liberally garnished with Italian parsley, crushed red peppers, salt, (I salt my bacon) and more pepper.

Let the leftovers continue

This should be the last of the leftover ingredients posts. I've just about made it through the remainder of the Thanksgiving stores. I am pretty pleased. While I did go vastly over budget on the feast grocery shopping I have made those ingredients extend for a week with some really good meals.

So, I had leftover....
Whipping cream
Turkey
Brussels sprouts
Pine nuts
Parmesan and Provolone cheese.

So I put that together with some bow tie pasta for some Alfredo. Aside from clearing out some leftovers, this was ridiculously simple to make and looks a Little fancy. It's also remarkably quick to make. Once the pasta was cooked, the whole thing took less than five minutes to make.

I tossed the turkey and the Brussels sprouts in the microwave for a few seconds.

Next I melted a quarter stick of butter over lowish heat, then whisked in a half cup of the cream, until it just came to a simmer.
Next I drizzled in about a cup of shredded cheese, again stirring to combine. Then, I removed it from the heat and tossed in the pasta.
The turkey and sprouts went into the pan and the whole thing went onto the plate. I managed to hold off my Om Nom Nom Nom instincts just long enough to garnish it all with some freshly cracked pepper and another grating of Parmesan Reggiano.



A couple of notes:

Blogger doesn't exactly make it look easy to follow a blog, but it is. If you have a gmail login, this works, here. Otherwise, an account is free, comes with a gmail address and doesn't require your own blog....

Also, I ran across an interesting article on healthy takeout. Take out is a regular part of of our lives, whether we like it or not. none of us can, or want to, cook every meal.

http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/make-take-out-as-healthy-as-home-cooking/article15996.html