Apricots, apricots everywhere.

On our property is a large apricot tree overloaded with fruit.  The birds and ground animals will eat a good portion, some I will give away to folks and some I will cook with.  While Roy enjoys snacking on these little fruits that look like miniature peaches, I don't actually care for them; but I will make dishes for Roy to enjoy.

Asian Apricot Chicken

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces

1/2 cup Hoisin sauce

1 Tbsp ground ginger

2 Tbsp orange marmalade

2 lbs frozen stir fry vegetables

1/2 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup hot water

1 tsp sea salt

2 dozen apricots, halved and pits removed

Preparation:

Place the chicken, Hoisin sauce, ground ginger and marmalade in a plastic bag; mix together to coat chicken, seal bag and refrigerate overnight.

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat and brown chicken.  Add in vegetables, soy sauce, water, salt and apricots; bring to a boil and let cook for 5 minutes before reducing heat to low.  Let mixture simmer for 15 minutes; sauce will thicken.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Note: I do intend to attempt an apricot crumble with some of the fruit; if it's a success, you'll be reading about it.

A Tale of Two Dogs.

Last weekend was the one year anniversary of the death of our beloved Doberman Pinscher, Bonnie. I had written a blog post about her and her loss to us hoping that it would bring closure. Letting go is hard to do; it's easier said than done. To say that last weekend was hard to handle is an understatement as I was an emotional mess. Losing one of my pets is equal to someone losing a human child as they are as children to me.

Luckily, we were able to get in contact with Utah Doberman Rescue and the strange thing was that a female Doberman had been given up the same weekend that our Bonnie girl had died. Coincidence...I don't believe in coincidence; Bonnie left us knowing that there was someone out there who needed us badly. That someone was Jenna, a 5 1/5 year old female black and tan Doberman Pinscher that had been given up by her family.

At first Jenna was shy, afraid to come up on the bed or couch, and did not bark. Now I had had experience with another dog like this, Lili, who had been beaten every time she barked, so knew how to handle this. We simply treated her as a member of the family, as if she had always been with us. Slowly, but surely, she began to understand that it was all right to act as her natural self. When she barked at a noise or a stranger near the home, we rewarded her; she doesn't excessively bark, only when she feels the need to warn and protect. She loves her comfort whether it is sleeping on the bed with us, on the couch while we watch television, or on the large dog pillow that is next to Roy's computer desk. Jenna loves to play with the cats and is quite gentle with them; and playing with Nefi and Tippy outside is a big thrill for her. Whether it is "chase me" or "soccer", they all get along great, share toys and love when they get treats.

So we have gone from a weekend of remembering sorrow and loss to a weekend of knowing joy and love. To help in the celebration of Jenna I planned a nice barbeque meal.

Sweet Bourbon Marinade

Ingredients

1/4 cup each of bourbon, olive oil and honey
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 lb London broil
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Preparation

Mix together the bourbon, oil, honey and garlic powder; reserve 1/4 cup in plastic container and refrigerate.

Place meat and chicken in separate plastic bags or containers and pour remaining marinade over them. Seal and refrigerate for 24 hours; this will allow the marinade to not only flavor the meat and chicken, but to tenderize.

Day of barbeque, remove reserved marinade from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Spray grill with nonstick spray and heat to 350F. Place meat and chicken on grill; cook until internal temperature on chicken is 180F and London broil is medium-rare. While they were cooking, baste with the reserved marinade. Set chicken on a plate; set meat on cutting board to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Makes 6 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Comfort doesn't need planning.

Comfort food recipes usually are not planned ahead, they're spontaneous. Think about it, how do you know when you're going to need to eat something that comforts and soothes you? Maybe you had a lousy day and you know that a bowl of a particular recipe will make you feel all better. Or a memory came into your mind that made you smile, and you remember a particular food in that memory. Heck, it might just be a sudden craving for a comfort type food.

I experienced that yesterday when I suddenly wanted a meatball parmigiana sub....toasted sub roll with melted provolone and mozzarella cheese, sauce dripping and those softball sized meatballs. Going to someplace local, I knew...knew that I would end up with rubber meatballs, jarred sauce and that was totally unacceptable. So off to the market I ran to throw together my homemade pasta sauce and meatballs. No store around here sells real Italian bread, so had to do with regular sub rolls, but once toasted...delicioso!

By the time Roy was home from work, the sauce and meatballs were ready to create my subs. Preheating the oven to 400F, I sliced open the rolls, placed them on the center rack of the oven (open side up) and toasted them for 10 minutes. Then came the assembly: rolls placed in center of aluminum foil; 2 slices of provolone cheese on each side of the roll and overlapping on the crease of the roll. Two meatballs into the roll with some sauce poured over each; shredded mozzarella cheese spread over the meatballs. Fold the aluminum foil over the top of the sub and seal the ends; place onto the center rack of the oven and leave it alone for 15 minutes.

Perfection!!!

So when you need some comfort, forget about what you had originally planned to make for a meal and seek out the comfort food that will make you feel the best.

Mary Cokenour

Simply Fried Fish and the bountiful veggies mutiny.

While shopping, I was lucky to come upon Whiting ( a mild white fish) in the frozen fish section; remember now, I live at the end of the world, so fresh fish isn't available often, if at all.  Now when I lived back East, we would always buy whole fresh Whiting and bake it; the meat of this fish is so sweet and succulent.  The side dish served with it was my grandmother's potatoes which were similiar to hot German potato salad.

However, since the frozen fish were filets, I decided that frying them would be a better justice for them.

In the above photo you'll see the fish dredging station I set up.  The blue rimmed bowl contains Panko (Japanese bread crumbs), the plate is the 2 lbs of Whiting seasoned with salt and crushed dill, and the white bowl contains a mixture of 2 eggs mixed with a cup of whole milk.  There were 9 pieces of fish altogether, so I planned on frying 3 at a time.  On the stove, I had 2 cups of peanut oil heating up on medium-high heat.

The simple process was to soak 3 fish filets in the egg/milk mixture until the oil was hot enough to fry in (a flick of cold water into the skillet made the oil begin to sizzle).  I then placed each filet into the Panko, making sure to press it into each side of the filets and then slide them into the hot oil.  I let them fry for 3 minutes on each side before removing to a paper towel covered plate to drain the excess oil.  Also, while the first 3 were frying, I had the next 3 filets soaking in the egg/milk mixture, and I just repeated the whole process for the remaining 6 filets.  Simple done fried fish with a crispy crust, but moist, flaky flesh.

So where does the bounty of veggies come into play?  It all started before I began frying up the fish of course.  One of Roy's coworkers had an excess bounty of veggies from her garden and Roy brought some home...green bell peppers, banana peppers, eggplant, green beans; and I just happened to have a head of cauliflower in the fridge....Evil Vegetable Gratin!!!. Cutting all the veggies up into bite sized pieces, mixing with the cheeses and other listed ingredients from the recipe; it was placed in the oven and timed to be ready at the same time as the fried fish.

My grandmother's potatoes is another simply made dish:  boiled potatoes cut into chunks or slices (your choice - leave the skin on!), mix in a bowl with olive oil, red wine vinegar, ground black pepper and salt.  I'm not putting any measurements here because it is all according to taste.  I like the tang of the vinegar and snap of sea salt, so add more than someone else might.

Comfort cooking can be simple or it can be complex; it's all up to the cook in the kitchen.

Mary Cokenour

Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago

When I first started Food Adventures of a Comfort Cook one of my earliest posts was about pizza. Now that was all about New York style pizza which I still feel is the best overall in the United States.

Part two of my three part pizza series was about Chicago pizza, and one of Chicago's famous pizza places is Lou Malnati's. While I cannot go to one of the locations in Illinois, I can still order online at their site: http://www.tastesofchicago.com/ and feed my craving for Chicago pizza. However, Tastes of Chicago is not all about pizza; oh no, you can get ribs in a delectable barbecue sauce, Vienna hotdog kit with all the fixings for an authetic Chicago style hot dog, cheesecake to die for, cookies that are absolutely awesome with milk and much, much more to satisfy any craving.

My favorite is the pizza though; all set up to just pop in the oven and devour when done. The crust is buttery and light, the cheese gooey, packed with sauce and fillings of sausage, pepperoni or vegetables. While it is not as good as a pizza cooked fresh at the pizzeria, it is as close as I can come to when living at the end of the world in Utah.

When ordering from Tastes of Chicago, the prices include shipping; there is a pizza of the month club; a specialty package for holidays and special occasions, and if you join their email club you'll be notified of any sales. Have never had a Chicago style pizza, well no excuse now when you can have it shipped directly to your door. So try Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Mary Cokenour

Oven Fried Chicken stays crispier.

My family loves fried chicken, but I hate the mess and any excess grease in the crust ruins the crispiness the next day. Making fried chicken with pieces that still have the bone inside are also sometimes difficult to get done correctly. Sometimes undercooked, so finished off in the oven; sometimes overcooked and the crust is dark brown to burnt while the chicken is still raw inside.

After some trial and error, I have come up with this recipe for oven fried chicken; the chicken stays crispy when cold, reheats well in the oven, and tastes delicious. I served the vegetable medley I had made from the zucchini and yellow squash I had purchased from Fresh for Less.

Oven Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

10 pieces of chicken (thigh, leg or breast), bone in and leave some skin on
1 quart buttermilk, divided in half
1 1/2 cups dried Italian flavored bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 tsp each ground black pepper and ground cayenne pepper

Preparation:

Place chicken into sealable bowl; pour half of the buttermilk over, making sure to coat all the pieces. Seal and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a large aluminum roasting pan with foil; spray rack with nonstick spray and place inside pan.

Set up dredging station - chicken in buttermilk, large bowl with bread crumbs, cornmeal, black and cayenne pepper mixed together, large bowl with other half of buttermilk. Dredge each piece of chicken in the dry mixture, coat again with buttermilk and dredge in dry mixture a second time. Place on rack (meaty side up); once all pieces are double dredged, place pan in oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Do not open oven door, do not move chicken around until then. Check internal temp of meatiest section of breast; should be at 185 to 190F.

Makes 10 pieces of oven fried chicken.

Mary Cokenour

ATTENTION: STOLEN BLOG POSTS

It has come to my attention that someone has had the nerve to steal my blog posts and post them as their own at: http://such-sweetdish.blogspot.com/ ; the user name is either MS, Adsense Blogger or Muhammad Salman, as he keeps changing it. His profile states he is from Pakistan and obviously has nothing but disrespect for those of us who work hard on our own personal blogs. He is simply nothing more than a thief.

I have contacted Blogger to report this and have requested that it be deleted from their system. I have also posted a comment on each of the stolen posts that they were stolen from my blog.

I would appreciate if everyone reading my blog would also contact Blogger and report http://such-sweetdish.blogspot.com/ as a PHONY and that they have stolen their posts from my own blog.

Thank you,
Mary Cokenour


He is now stealing blog posts from TastyKitchen.com and Food.com I have already emailed the owners, alerting them to the theft.

~ Aug 01, 2011 ~

Update: Google has removed the stolen blog posts. Thank you Google!!!

~ Aug 02, 2011 ~