As I mentioned in my last post, I have a few summer grilling specialty items that I like to reserve for when we have company over that I want to impress.  This is an appetizer dish that can actually stand on its own as a main entrée.  It’s called the “Spanish Shrimp and Sausage Kabob”.  It starts with 16 jumbo shrimp and large pieces of andouille sausage that are marinated in oil and spices and grilled along with peppers, sage leaves and onions.   YUM… I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.  Here’s how it goes:

Ingredients:

¼ cup WildTree garlic grapeseed oil
2 Tbsp Sherry Vinegar
3 cloves crushed fresh garlic
2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp hot red pepper flakes (a bit more if you’re brave, like me)
1 package (usually 1 lb) fully cooked andouille sausage cut into 16 large chunks
16 Jumbo Shrimp – peeled, deveined with tail on
8 THICK scallions cut into 16 3-inch pieces
16 large fresh sage leaves
1 large yellow or red bell pepper cut into 16 pieces
½ tsp salt
2 cups prepared yellow rice

Whisk oil, vinegar, garlic, paprika, cumin, and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl; add sausage and shrimp, tossing to coat.  Let marinate for 20 – 30 minutes at room temperature.

Remove sausage and shrimp from marinade (reserve remaining marinade).  Thread scallions, shrimp, sage leaves, sausage and bell pepper pieces alternately onto 12-inch skewers; season with salt.  I use 2 skewers per serving to prevent the items from turning or slipping during grilling (but that’s just me, I’m a control freak).

Grill over medium-high heat turning skewers and basting with reserved marinade, 3 minutes per side or until shrimp are JUST cooked through.  Serve with yellow rice.

This has been a HUGE hit when we’ve served it for our guests.  We even had one person who didn’t like shrimp say that it was fantastic.  Hey, if this dish can convert her, you just have to give it a try.  You’ll be the hero of the party.

Well, that’s it for now, thanks for listening.

My Virtual Project

Please excuse my brief absence from this blog over the last couple of weeks but after all, it is summer.  I love to grill and in the summer, we do A LOT of it.  We go through the standard fare of hamburgers, brats, Italian sausages, steaks, chicken, pork chops, etc.  I even have a few specialties that I could (and will in future posts) share with you but today, because we had some rain and I COULDN’T grill, I made an old standard comfort food dish that I really love, Stuffed Cabbage.  I believe it was originally a Jewish dish, but my version has more of an Italian flare so let’s just say it’s J-Italian.  Here’s how my version goes:

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce –
1½ cups chopped onion
1 or 2 cloves of fresh garlic – minced
2 Tbsp WildTree Garlic Grapeseed oil
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
15 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup raisins
salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onions in the Grapeseed oil until translucent, about 8 minutes.  Add the garlic, crushed and diced tomatoes, the red wine vinegar, brown sugar, salt, pepper and raisins (yes, I said raisins).  Let this simmer on the stove while you prepare the meat mixture.

Meat Mixture –
½ lb each of spicy (hot) Italian sausage and ground sirloin
2 eggs – slightly beaten
¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
½ cup diced onion
½ cup uncooked rice
1 tsp minced thyme
½ of the tomato sauce prepared earlier
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until equally combined throughout and set aside.

Cabbage
Blanch the cabbage in a large pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes.  Using a tong (because this puppy is HOT), gently peel off each leaf of cabbage and set on a cutting board.  You’ll need a total of 8 – 10 cabbage leaves.  Take a paring knife and cut a triangle about 2 inches long from each leaf removing the largest part of the cabbage rib.

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a baking dish.  Put ½ of the remaining tomato sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.

Spoon about ½ cup (I use a heaping ½ cup) of the meat mixture onto the cabbage leaf just past the area where you cut out the rib.  Fold each end in and roll the cabbage leaf around the meat mixture and place in the baking dish seam-side down.  Repeat until your meat mixture is gone and your baking dish is full.  Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the cabbage rolls and cover the baking dish.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Serve with a tossed salad and garlic bread (if you so choose).  YUM, Enjoy.

Well, that’s it for now, thanks for listening.

My Virtual Project

I don’t know about you but I LOVE to cook with chicken.  I’ve prepared it in so many different ways that I can’t even remember some of them.  It’s funny, in a way, because in high school during the summer I worked at Hartwig’s Poultry Farm in Jefferson WI (which is a chicken slaughtering factory).  I worked on the front line to start.  I had to pull the live chickens out of the crates from the back of a delivery flat-bed truck and hang them upside down by their feet on a conveyor belt.  Needless to say, they were not happy about what was going on and showed their displeasure by crapping on you, biting you and generally making it as difficult as possible to get them appropriately secured in the conveyor belt on the way to slaughter.  I’ll spare you the gory details but to make a long story short, I didn’t eat chicken for a VERY long time after that experience.   It’s funny what we’ll do for money when we’re kids.

Anyway… After a long day behind the computer, I was trying to come up with a new way to cook chicken (because I had a few boneless breasts in the freezer that I bought on sale… go figure).  I decided to “wing it” again and see what I had in the fridge and pantry.

SO…. We begin:

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts
¼ cup chicken stock
¼ cup Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic – minced or crushed (your choice)
1 jalapeno pepper – finely diced (include ribs and seeds… you know I love the heat)
1 tbsp WildTree Adobo Seasoning
½ cup bread crumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 slices mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp fresh parsley
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease small baking dish.
Combine the chicken stock, Dijon mustard, garlic and jalapeno pepper in a bowl.  In another shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs, parsley and parmesan cheese.  Rinse and dry the chicken breasts and coat them with the mustard mixture.  Place each in the bread crumb mixture and before turning, season one side with the Adobo, salt and pepper.  Then flip the breast over and make sure to get a good coating of the bread crumb mixture on all sides of the breast.  Place the chicken in the baking dish and carefully brush each with melted butter.  Bake for 30 minutes, and then put a slice of mozzarella cheese on each and bake for an additional 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 170 degrees.  Remove from the oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes.

To accompany the chicken on the plate (they hate being alone), I made buttered sweet corn and a mixed green salad served with honey Dijon dressing.  The chicken was moist, tender and had an absolutely great flavor.  The mix of the spices and garlic along with the heat from the jalapeño pepper was a treat to the taste buds.  This was another quick, healthy (mostly) and great tasting chicken dish that will go into the Schuele Family Cook Book.  Enjoy.

Well, that’s it for now, thanks for listening.

My Virtual Project

Sorry for the posting delay.  Susi and I returned from an 8 day business trip.  Well, to be honest it was both personal and business.  We attended my nephew Paul’s wedding in Delaware for 3 days and then traveled to Phoenix for a business conference for the remaining 5 days.  Our flight arrangements were already set for the conference when we found out about the wedding so we had to change the first leg of our flight destination to Philadelphia instead of Phoenix.  Southwest routed us through Tampa to get to Philly (a bit of a round-about route wouldn’t you say?) and our flight was delayed in Tampa so we had to hang out in the airport gate area for 3 and a half hours.  I think there is a conspiracy going on here.  The only thing you can do in the gate area is shop, eat and drink.  We parked our weary butts at a sports bar for a late lunch, which consisted of a couple of sandwiches and fries, along with cocktails to soothe the weary traveler’s spirit and the tab was $60.00 plus tip.  ARGGGG.  These vendors should be arrested.  How can you charge $16.00 for a cocktail when the entire bottle costs $25.00 and produces about 20 drinks each????   I think they plan the flight delays just so they can split the profits from the food and drink sales.  I’m just sayin.

Also, we each returned home with a nasty sinus infection and I have felt like crap.  I’ve been on antibiotics for the last 9 days (which is another reason for my absence from posting).  You don’t really feel like cooking when you’re sick, at least I don’t.

I digress, excuse the frustration.  Anyway, my point is that when you’re away from home for business or personal reasons, you eat in restaurants and probably in more quantity than you would if you were at home.  The bottom line is that with all the going out for dinner and lack of physical activity, I gained back the weight I lost over the last month… DOHHHHH.  Back to square one.  Back to “Special K” w/ skim milk for breakfast and smoked turkey for lunch.  I won’t, however, completely abandon my dinner plans.

OK… back to the basics.  I have wanted to try the Enchilada recipe from the WildTree Catalog for quite a while now and with “Cinco de Mayo” upon us, what better time to do that?

Now you know that I have a hard time sticking to recipes as written, so forgive me here because I did add a slight twist.  Here is the recipe as listed in the catalog:

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Natural Grapeseed Oil
1 lb lean ground beef, chicken or turkey
1 tbsp Adobo Seasoning
1 bottle Tia Rosa’s Red Enchilada Sauce
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 6” flour tortillas

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease small baking dish.
Sauté ground meat of choice, Adobo and oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until thoroughly cooked. Transfer to a large bowl add ½ cup Enchilada sauce, 1 cup cheese and cilantro; toss to combine.   Microwave tortillas on a plate, about 1 minute.  Top each tortilla with ¼ cup chicken mixture and roll tightly. Arrange, seam side down, in prepared baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake until cheese melts and enchiladas are heated through, 15 to 20 minutes.

OK, now here’s what I added to the process:

First, I stopped at the nearby Pick ‘N Save and got a 3 lb rotisserie chicken, a package of 8” flour tortillas, a red onion, a yellow bell pepper and a red bell pepper.  I thinly sliced the onion and peppers, then sautéed them in the WildTree grapeseed oil until tender.  While that was cooking, I pulled the rotisserie chicken off the bone and sliced it as well.  When the onions and peppers were tender, I added the sliced chicken, mixed it all together and then transferred it to a bowl where I added the ½ cup Enchilada sauce and cheese.  The rest of the process was the same, with the exception that I used more than a ¼ cup portion for each tortilla, and I didn’t use any cilantro (for whatever reason, I just don’t like the flavor of cilantro).  Otherwise it was the same process.

So the entire meal took less than 45 minutes to prepare and the results were great.  The enchiladas had that very familiar Mexican flavor and the onions and peppers added a bit of a sweetness to the dish that I personally liked a lot (maybe because it was my idea to add them).

Anyway, if you like Mexican and want a quick meal that delivers that authentic taste, this is IT.  Just add some refried beans, some sour cream and if you want to live on the edge, add some jalapenos’ or hot salsa to the plate… YUM

Well, that’s it for now, thanks for listening.

My Virtual Project

My mission to make healthy meals and eat lighter has been slightly derailed (dohhh).  We had company over for the weekend and what do you do when company stays for a couple of days?  You EAT, of course.  So… we started on Saturday night with Steer Fillets (Black Angus, of course) on the Weber, sautéed mushrooms, roasted Asparagus (as long as the grill was out), homemade Cheese Bread and a tossed Salad.  The steak was very easy.  I lightly seasoned them with salt, pepper, and WildTree Rancher Steak Rub.  I slapped them on a the hot side of the grill (all the coals were under one half of the grill while the other half had none) for about 2 minutes, then flipped them for another 2 minutes on the other side.  This was to char the steaks on both sides to hold in the juices.  Then I moved them to the other side of the grill and let them cook on indirect heat until they reached 130 degrees on my instant read thermometer (for medium steaks… pink and juicy in the middle but not raw or red in the middle like a medium-rare steak).  Then they came off the grill to rest for about 10 minutes (so that they could finish cooking and retain the juices).  For the Asparagus, I like to use thin Asparagus because they just seem to have more flavor, and the texture is less “woody” than the fatter ones (IMHO).  I take one from the bunch, hold it at the root end and bend the top down until it breaks off.  Using this as a gauge, I cut the rest of the bunch off at the same length.  I rinse them in a colander, dry them with a paper towel, lay them on a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, drizzle them with WildTree Garlic Grapeseed Oil, add salt, pepper and a dusting of WildTree Garlic Galore (you know how much I love garlic).  Then I fold the top and bottom of the foil together a few times to make a seam and then do the same with the sides.  The result is a pack of Asparagus that you can just “plop” on the hot side of the grill for about 3 minutes or so per side.  This depends on how you like your asparagus.  I like mine hot, but with a hint of a crunch.

I digress… anyway… the star of the show was the sautéed mushrooms.  This is a recipe that you absolutely MUST try (if you love mushrooms as much as I do).  Here’s how it goes:

Chuck’s Sautéed Mushrooms (Awesome with Steak)

12 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms (whole or large chop depending on the size)
½ stick butter – sliced into pats (I told you I was off the wagon)
1 medium onion – minced
3 – 4 cloves of garlic – minced (I use 4 large cloves – go figure)
1 cup beef stock (not broth)
½ cup dry red wine (I use Merlot)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley – rough chop
Kosher Salt – To taste
Freshly ground pepper – To taste

Cut the stems off of mushrooms leaving only caps; chop and reserve stems.

Distribute pats of butter in sauté pan; place over high heat.  As soon as butter is melted (or if butter begins to brown), add minced onion; sauté until onions turn brown then, working VERY quickly,  remove from heat and add garlic and mushrooms and immediately toss/stir vigorously to retard further cooking of the onions.  Continue cooking until pan cools down a bit.

Place pan over medium heat; stir in beef stock; add chopped mushroom stems, red wine and parsley; stir to combine.  Allow sauce to thicken and reduce until to your liking, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add a splash of red wine just before service (because you can).

What can I say?  This is probably the best steak dinner you can find… ANYWHERE.  The steaks were AWESOME and when you added the sautéed mushrooms and asparagus to it… WOW… indescribably delicious.

The rest of the weekend was similar; we had hot fudge sundaes for dessert, oh, and drank more wine.  We had a ton of pancakes and sausage for breakfast, appetizers Sunday afternoon and a huge spaghetti dinner on Sunday night (I brought out the big guns with my famous homemade spaghetti sauce recipe)…  Oh, and some more wine.

I know I fell off the wagon over the weekend, but you know what I say?  “There’s always next week” (sorry Doc).

That’s all for now, thanks for listening (burp).

My Virtual Project

I’m still on my mission to make healthy meals.  But first, a progress report……….. (that’s a drum roll)….  I am now 6 pounds lighter than I was 5 weeks ago.  My goal is 10 pounds, Hey Doc, I’m getting there.  SO… Last night I tried something I created in my “not so normal” mind while looking for dinner “parts”.  I had some whole grain Linguini in the pantry and a couple of very nice porterhouse pork chops and a package of broccoli slaw in the fridge (which is basically julienned broccoli and carrots).  I also took 3 stalks of celery and a half of a red onion and also julienned them for this creation.  SO… we begin with a marinade made up of:

¼ cup WildTree garlic grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cloves of minced garlic (of course)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon WildTree Jalapeño pepper blend spice (bring on the heat)
½ teaspoon WildTree Adobo seasoning
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

I washed and dried the chops, put them in the marinade turning them a couple of times to fully coat them and then put them into the fridge for about 20 minutes.  I put a pot of water on the stove to boil and added a couple tablespoons of salt to it.  I put a pat of butter into a hot sauté pan and seared the chops for 2-3 minutes on each side and then slid them into a 350 degree oven until they reached 160 degrees on my instant read thermometer (I did turn them once).  I pulled them out, put them on a plate and covered them with foil to keep them warm.  Using the same pan the chops were in (don’t worry, I used an oven mitt this time…LOL), and a touch more WildTree garlic grapeseed oil, I sautéed the celery and onions.  After a couple of minutes I added the broccoli slaw and let that all steep in the remnants of the marinade still in the pan from cooking the chops.  While this was going on, the pasta was boiling until it was almost done (el dente) and then I added it to the slaw mixture, tossing gently for a couple of minutes to combine all the flavors.

When it was all done, I put a generous portion of the pasta slaw mixture on each plate and placed the chop on the slaw (on an angle because it just looked cool).  DONE.  Another nice healthy meal that tasted great.  The chops were moist tender and flavorful.  The pasta slaw was superb.  It had picked up enough of the marinade to really give it a nice flavor.

This is another great inspiration that will go down in the Schuele Cook Book’s new “Healthy Cooking” chapter.

That’s about it for now, thanks for listening

My Virtual Project

I’m still on my mission to make healthy meals so last night I tried something I saw in the Sunday’s Journal/Sentinel, but of course I had to put my own spin on it.   Here’s how it goes:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 tablespoons WildTree garlic grapeseed oil

3 stalks celery chopped

1 large granny smith apple cored and sliced

½ red onion chopped

¼ cup toasted pine nuts (toasted in a dry non-stick pan until browned)

1 cup blue cheese dressing

8 ounces baby spinach leaves washed and dried

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon WildTree Adobo seasoning
¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

I washed and dried the chicken breasts and seasoned them with the salt, pepper, paprika and Adobo seasoning (I use this stuff all the time… love it).  Then I heated two of the tablespoons of garlic grapeseed oil in a sauté pan on med-high, seared the chicken breasts on both sides to get a nice brown crust then lowered the heat to medium and cooked the breasts the rest of the way through.  When done I put them on a plate, covered to keep warm, and using the same pan and the remaining garlic grapeseed oil, sautéed the apples, celery and onion until they were tender (about 6-7 minutes).  While these were cooking, I put the cup of blue cheese dressing in a saucepot and heated it gently until it was warm-hot, not to boiling though.

Plating was easy.  Start with a bed of spinach leaves; add the apple, onion & celery mixture, then place a chicken breast on top of that, spoon some of the warm blue cheese dressing on that and top it all off with some of the toasted pine nuts.  WOW, this is one of the best chicken salads I have ever tasted.  A definite keeper and believe it or not, the leftovers were great the next day for lunch… even cold.

This is another great tasting and very healthy meal that will satisfy most anyone (that likes chicken).

That’s all for now, thanks for listening

My Virtual Project

If you haven’t already guessed, I’m trying to cook more health conscience meals lately.  The doctor told me to lose 15 pounds, lower my cholesterol and “Lay off the salt” (a fate of those that like to EAT).  He put me on the D.A.S.H. diet (DASH spells “no fun”).   Well, by now you know that I can’t totally lay off the salt, but I CAN use less and be more judicious about what I cook.  I used to eat eggs and sausage for breakfast quite often.  Lately I’ve been eating cereal, like Special K for breakfast… with SKIM milk no less.  For lunch I’ve been eating light as well… turkey, whole grain bread, tomato lettuce… you get the picture.  It’s not TOO bad but certainly not like the old days.  However, I’m happy to report that over the last few weeks I’ve lost 5 pounds… still a way to go but we’re on the right track.   SO… Thinking along those lines was the inspiration for this dinner.  Here are the basics.

2 boneless pork loin chops 1” thick
2 tablespoons WildTree garlic grapeseed oil
2 slices of thick bacon
1 red bell pepper chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced (can’t stop using the garlic)
1 bunch of broccoli robe (that’s pronounced “Rob”… I think)
¼ cup of 50% Italian seasoned bread crumbs and 50% grated parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon WildTree Hot Chili pepper & garlic blend spice
½ teaspoon WildTree Jalapeño pepper blend spice
½ teaspoon WildTree Adobo seasoning
¼ teaspoon Basil
¼ teaspoon Oregano
½ cup chicken stock

I washed, dried and seasoned the chops with kosher salt (sparingly), seasoned pepper, WildTree Adobo Seasoning (one of my favorites) and a pinch of WildTree Jalapeño Pepper blend (Yup, bring on the heat).  I sprinkled the bread crumb mixture on both sides until coated (a very thin coating).  I seared both sides in a hot pan with WIldTree Garlic Grapeseed Oil (about 2 minutes per side).  When the chops were browned on both sides I slid the pan into a 350 degree oven to finish cooking (about 12 – 14 minutes).  I cooked the bacon until crispy and set aside.  In the same pan I added the garlic and red bell pepper to cook for about 3 – 4 minutes.  I blanched the broccoli for a couple of minutes and then tossed it in the pan along with the chicken stock, Basil, Oregano and the WildTree Hot Chili pepper & garlic blend.  That cooked for another 4 – 5 minutes tossing lightly.

When it was all done, I plated the chops and with a tongs, placed a nice sized portion of the broccoli next to each and topped that with the crumbled bacon.  That’s IT, just pork chops and a spicy broccoli salad.  A nice healthy meal that tasted really good, had just the right amount of spice and heat (at least for me), and along with a glass of red wine made for a great dinner.  Light but filling.

This is another one that will go down in the Schuele Cook Book, but in a NEW chapter called… “Healthy Cooking”… (who knew?).  It may be healthy, but using the WildTree spices to “kick it up a notch” is what made it taste so good.

That’s about it for now, thanks for listening

My Virtual Project

Sorry for the delay in posting here, work has been crazy.  I had to come up with a relatively quick meal for dinner and all we had in the freezer was boneless chicken breasts (I got a ton of them on sale at Pick N’ Save).   I took two out and defrosted them while I chopped:

1 cup of celery
1 cup of mushrooms (crimini)
1 cup of carrots
1 cup of yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 Jalapeño (including the seeds)

I washed, dried and seasoned the chicken with kosher salt, seasoned pepper, WildTree Adobo Seasoning (one of my favorites) and a pinch of WildTree Jalapeño Pepper blend (Yup, bring on the heat).  I seared both sides in a hot pan with WIldTree Garlic Grapeseed Oil and a pat of butter.  When the chicken was browned on both sides (but not cooked through), I removed them to a plate and tossed in the onions.  I cooked the onions for about 4 – 5 minutes until they were just getting soft, then I added the garlic, Jalapeño, celery, carrots and mushrooms.  I sautéed that for about 8 minutes until the veggies were beginning to get soft and then I added a dusting of corn starch.  I mixed it in and then added some chicken stock, about a cup.  I let that simmer and thicken for a couple of minutes and then added the chicken breasts back in, covered the pan and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, until the chicken registered 170 degrees on my instant read thermometer.  While this was simmering I steamed a cup of brown rice in chicken stock (I also added a couple of pinches of WildTree Garlic Galore to the stock… go figure).

When everything was done, I plated the rice, placed a chicken breast on the rice and covered that with the veggie-gravy.  Holy Smokes, you’ve never tasted chicken like this before.  What an awesome combination of flavors and just the right amount of heat.  This was a relatively quick meal (albeit for all the chopping at the beginning), healthy (what could be better than chicken and vegetables?), and the best part…. One portion of this was only 455 calories.  For an entire dinner, that’s pretty darn good.

A little creativity, some WildTree products and viola… another winning meal for the books.  I’m adding this to our Schuele Cook Book as “Chicken & Vegetables w/ Rice”.  We will definitely be making this one again.

That’s about it for now, thanks for listening

My Virtual Project