My Man's Birthday Dinner- Steak Au Poivre, Cauliflower Puree and Feta Stuffed Peppers

A few weeks ago, we were invited to join some of our good friends' on their family's cattle roundup in Wyoming. I had so much fun and did my best to fulfill the role of the wide-eyed New Yorker, who marveled at every part of this very awesome and very foreign lifestyle. I snapped a ton of pictures, helped the little boys climb on tractors and ate!

Emmett and Ellis rolling around

Boys "posing" in front of the cows

One of the best parts of the day was when my friend Sarah handed me two grocery bags and walked me back to the meat freezer, teeming with frozen, beautiful cuts of all-natural beef. Because I hadn't had any fun and had toiled so much while playing with the little boys and hanging out in the kitchen with Sarah and her sister, I definitely deserved two giant bags full of steaks.

This amazing beef came in handy as Sam's birthday approached the following weekend. We were putting all of our birthday budget into a big ole' Spitzer backyard BBQ, so I didn't have a lot to spend on birthday dinner for my boy. I decided to use one of the delicious sirloin steaks that Sarah had given me. I made steak au poivre with a vermouth pan sauce, cauliflower-parmesan puree and charred, feta stuffed mini peppers. It was dang good!

Steak Au Poivre with Vermouth Pan Sauce
*Serves 2
1 large [16-20 oz-ish] sirloin steak [feel free to use whatever cut you like] or 2 smaller cuts
2 T black peppercorns
2 t kosher salt
1 T olive oil
1 T butter

Pan Sauce
All of the amazing bits of steak and pepper stuck to the bottom of the frying pan
3/4 cup beef or chicken broth
1/4 cup sweet vermouth [dry vermouth or red wine would be delicious as well]
Whatever juices may pool after the steak rests for 5 minutes

About 15 minutes before cooking, remove your steak from the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature. While the steak is losing its chill, smash the peppercorns by placing them inside a gallon size ziploc bag, spreading them out and smashing them with the underside of a sauce pan. Smash your peppercorns until all of them seemed to have cracked open. Remove them from the bag and mix the salt into the cracked peppercorns. 

 Place your steak on a cutting board or other flat surface and press half of the peppercorn and salt mixture into one side of the steak, and half into the other. 

Melt the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. When the butter has melted, add the steak to the pan. Cook for approximately five minutes a side for medium.

Once the steak is done, place on a plate, cover with a loose aluminum foil tent and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

While the steak is resting, make a quick pan sauce. Your pan should look something like this before you start:

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the vermouth to this seemingly burnt looking pan and stir with a wooden spoon, being careful to scrape up all of the delicious bits off of the bottom of the pan. Add the broth to the vermouth and scraped bits and let simmer until halved in volume, about 5 minutes. Right before serving, pour any steak juice that accumulated while the steak was resting and 1 T of heavy cream or half and half into the pan sauce. 

Our sauce was still pretty liquidy, so we served it in dipping cups on our plates. It was delicious!

Cauliflower and Parmesan Puree
1 large frying pan or stockpot with a lid
1 head of cauliflower 
1 t kosher salt
2 t butter
1 T sour cream
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
1 T half and half or whole milk
1/4 tsp each salt, pepper and garlic powder

Remove the leaves and the core of the cauliflower and slice the head into large florets. Pour about an inch of water into the bottom of your pan and add the teaspoon of salt and the cauliflower florets to the water.  Cover and steam for approximately 10 minutes or until the florets are fork tender.

To get the silkiness of mashed potatoes, drain the cauliflower and add it and all remaining ingredients into a food processor. Process until smooth and silky, approximately one minute. 
 
Charred, Feta- Stuffed Mini Peppers
1 lb. of mini bell peppers, approximately 12 
3 oz. softened cream cheese
6 oz. crumbled feta
1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper
1 T lemon juice
*We had friends make this dish with Alouette, herbed cheese. It was awesome. Feel free to experiment with any of your favorite soft cheeses or cheese spreads.

Remove the stem of each pepper by slicing the top off of each pepper. Scoop out any seeds that remain in the pepper with your finger. 

Mix the cream cheese, feta, salt, pepper and lemon juice together in a medium bowl until the mixture is homogenous. 

Using a small spoon [I used one of my son's baby spoons], stuff about a teaspoon of the cheese mixture into each pepper.

Preheat a large skillet until it is searing hot. Place the stuffed peppers in the pan and cook until both sides of the pepper have charred spots on them. You can also broil or grill your peppers to achieve the charred spots.

 These were so yummy, sweet and tangy. They were the perfect compliment to the creaminess of the cauliflower and the heartiness of the steak.

Peanut Butter Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ground chicken was on sale the other week and I was looking for a way to sass it up beyond burgers or tacos or in a sauce. I had an assortment of veggies on hand and thought that I would try my hand at making lettuce wraps. The main dish was light, really tasty and SO quick to make! And, lo and behold, the toddler version of the meal was enough to make my son forego his nightly request for "just 'nacks" instead of dinner. Wonder of wonders!

Peanut Butter Chicken Lettuce Wraps
*Yields approximately 4 servings of two lettuce wraps
1 lb. of ground chicken
2 tbsp oil
1/2 a large onion, diced
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 heaping tbsp peanut butter
2 tsp sesame oil
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

8 large lettuce leaves [I used red lettuce and held up very well]
1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
3/4 of an English cucumber, julienned
Optional toppings: bean sprouts, additional cilantro, sliced jalapenos or crushed peanuts

*We served with a side of brown rice. This was a nice way to make the meal very toddler friendly. We added the chicken mixture and chopped veggies to the rice and stirred it up!

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and black pepper and cook until the onion is translucent, roughly five minutes. At that time, add the grated ginger and garlic and stir to combine. *Sidenote, I keep a large piece of fresh ginger wrapped up in my freezer. Whenever I need fresh ginger, I grate a bit of the frozen ginger on a microplane [small side of a grater would be fine as well]. There is no need to peel the frozen ginger, just grate off what you need and put the rest back in the freezer. Before I froze my ginger, I always felt like the ginger root would go bad before I could use it up. 

Add the ground chicken to the onion mixture and cook for approximately five minutes or until the chicken is cooked through, all the while breaking the chicken up into small pieces with a wooden spoon. 

Once the chicken has cooked, add the soy sauce, peanut butter and sesame oil to the pan and stir to combine. Once these condiments are combined with the chicken mixture, turn off the heat and toss in the cilantro.

For serving, place a couple tablespoons into each lettuce cup, top with the sliced cucumbers and peppers, wrap and enjoy!

Chicken Sausage and Kale Tuscan Soup

 When you live in Colorado, you jump whole heartedly into Spring. In late March, you begin to get some freakishly warm days. You bust out the flip flops, let the children roll in backyard dirt piles and begin dreaming about the bounty of vegetables that you will surely find in your garden in a few months. All the while, you know it's coming. You know that you will see one last snow storm but you don't acknowledge it. If you acknowledged it, then it wouldn't really be Spring. Today is our hopefully last snow storm. After a weekend of slight sun burns and 60 degree days coming in two days, we have a freakish day today. What do I do with a weird Colorado snow day? Make hearty soup and allow myself one last wintery meal.


I thought of this soup a couple of months ago, when I was day dreaming about Tuscan Florentine soup and then my sister called and told me about how she was treating herself by making Ina Garten's minestrone. I needed hearty soup and I needed a soup that had all the earthy goodness of Italy: tomatoes, veggies, spices, greens and slight spiciness and oily goodness from sausage.

Chicken Sausage and Kale Tuscan Soup
1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano or italian seasoning
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1.5 lbs of bulk Italian chicken sausage
5 red potatoes, chopped
28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
16 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
8 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 small to medium head of kale, chopped
*Serve topped with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and crusty bread

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, carrots, black pepper and oregano. Saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes or until the onions are translucent. Once the onions are translucent, add the rosemary and garlic and stir to combine.

Add the sausage to the vegetables and stir occasionally over medium heat for about five minutes until the sausage has slightly browned and crumbled.

Add the potatoes, can of tomatoes and garbanzo beans to the sausage mixture and stir to combine. Cover with the chicken broth and simmer for at least 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. 

In the last twenty minutes of cooking, add the chopped kale to the soup to soften.

Serve the soup with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and, of course, some good crusty bread.

 

"Snowmade" Vanilla Ice Cream

As a displaced New Yorker, one of my unsatisfied cravings, besides pizza, is Italian ices. They just don't exist out here in Colorado. My college summers, spent working at a day camp on Long Island, were amazing and full of insane amounts of Italian ices. When we grew tired of night swimming or having impromptu dance parties, we would all borrow my parents' mini-van, pack in as many bodies as possible and drive to Ralph's Italian Ices. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Italian ices don't simply come in lemon or cherry. Ralph's had more flavors than an ice cream shop: snickers, almond joy, jelly ring, toasted coconut. It was so good!

Yesterday, while frolicking in the snow with Emmett, I wanted a sweet treat. I vaguely remembered my mom letting us gather snow and pour juice over it. Then I thought, "Maybe a little milk, sugar and vanilla would work instead of juice?" I left the boy outside to play with the snow mountain that we made for his cars, and gathered my supplies. I filled a bowl with clean, non-yellow snow, whisked together my other ingredients, poured them on top of the snow, mixed it all together, took a taste and was whisked back to Long Island. The vanilla snow ice cream had the same texture and flavor as my beloved, long-lost Italian cream ices. If you decide to try this recipes, the world is your oyster. Try tossing in some mini-chocolate chips or blending some raspberries or strawberries into your milk mixture! I currently have a batch chilling and solidifying slightly in the freezer. Can't wait to save it for my "child is napping" treat!

"Snowmade" Vanilla Ice Cream
*Yields about 6 cups of ice cream
1 1/2 cups of whole milk [if you don't have whole milk, feel free to play around with a mixture of milks: equal parts half and half and nonfat milk or nonfat milk with a couple tablespoons of heavy cream added in]
2 t good vanilla extract
3 T sugar
8 cups-ish of snow

Whisk together the milk, vanilla and sugar. Let stand for a minute or two while you gather your snow.

Fill a mixing bowl with approximately 8 cups of snow. Pour the milk mixture over your snow, feel free to let little ones help with the whole process. This boy could hardly wait!

After the mixture has been poured, it will look like this:

Mix the snow and milk mixture until the milk mixture is fully incorporated into the snow. The snow will melt slightly during this process.

Dish up immediately or scoop some into tupperware and freeze for later.

 

Amazing Homemade Soft Pretzels

I took the little one on a trip to the library last week. As soon as I stepped foot inside, I swear that the lights dimmed, "Let's Get It On" came on and a shimmery spotlight shined down upon the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook. Of course, I threw my two year old to the side and ran to get it into my little paws.

I have been having luxurious moments sipping coffee while staring at her photos, pretending not to hear the little one sneaking playing with his trucks while he is supposed to be napping. She has a recipe for chocolate chip brioche soft pretzels in her cookbook that looks unbelievable and has had me craving soft pretzels since I read the recipe. 

Of course, we also decided to watch calories a week or so before I picked up her book. I keep getting inspired by her and wanting nothing more than to spend my days baking and frolicking in the kitchen, but alas.

This weekend was a different story, it was our cheat day and it was chilly and slightly snowy outside. As soon as the little one went down for his nap, an urge to knead dough and have fresh baked goodness took over. 

I started to make a generic bread dough and then thought, "What if I finally tried to make soft pretzels, the kind that you boil first?" Well, they were awesome and all that you could over hope for on a snowy afternoon! 

The trick was in the boiling method. I checked with Alton Brown first and am so glad that I did. He added baking soda into his boiling water. The boiling before baking creates the signature doughiness of a soft pretzel and the baking soda changes the water's acidity to alkaline which encourages the chemical reaction that beautifully browns the outside of the soft pretzel. I really think that this boiling method covers over a multitude of dough issues too. I basically made a pizza dough and used it, but you could use any dough you want and trust that the boiling before baking method will yield a doughy and delicious soft pretzel.

Homemade Soft Pretzels
1 1/2 cups of 115 to 120 degree water
1 t sugar
1 1/2 t active dry yeast
1 t kosher salt
2 T olive oil
3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

For Boiling
10 cups of water
2/3 cup of baking soda

Topping
1 T water
1 egg yolk
2 tsp coarse sea salt 

Lightly stir the sugar and yeast into the warm water to combine. Let sit for about five minutes so that the yeast can start to work. You will see slight foaming after the five minutes. This means that the yeast is working!

Pour the yeast mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add to this mixture, the salt, oil and flour. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon to until it just starts to come together  and then remove your rings to start kneading. 

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead for about five minutes until the dough is so elastic that when you push your thumb into the dough, the thumbprint immediately pops back out.

At this point, roll your dough into a ball and place it back into the mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for at least two hours in a warm place. My little tip, especially on cold days in the middle of winter, is to turn the oven on low [about 200 degrees] and let the dough rise in its bowl on top of one of the burners. 

After two hours, the dough should have doubled in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into eighths. Roll or squeeze each dough piece into a long rope, about 18 inches in length.

Twist each dough length into a pretzel shape. I did this by forming the dough into a "U" shape, then twisting both ends of the "U" together a couple of times before bringing the twisted ends down and pressing them into the bottom of the "U" shape. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large soup pot. Meanwhile, line a large baking sheet with either a silpat or parchment paper. Boil each pretzel for 30 seconds. The pretzels will drop to the bottom of the pot and then float towards the top of the water towards the end of the 30 seconds. Once each pretzel has boiled, retrieve it from the water with a spatula and place it on the silpat or parchment paper. 

Beat together the egg yolk and tablespoon of water. Brush the top of each pretzel with the egg yolk mixture and sprinkle the coarse salt on top.

Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes or until the pretzels are nicely browned.

Eat the pretzels as is or with mustard or, even better, with some cheese sauce!

Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Enchilada Sauce

The other night, we had some of our besties over for dinner. I wanted something special, delicious and winter-hearty; something that made the whole house smell amazing and made you salivate as soon as you opened the front door.

I turned to my beloved enchiladas. For years, enchiladas have been one of my go-to pantry busters. I use any tortillas that I have on hand and saute whatever latin-style ingredients I have in the fridge and pantry. I have done them with a leftover chicken breast. I have done them with a simple can of beans, sauteed onion and cilantro. Basically, as long as you roll them up, coat in some sauce and bake them with cheese on top, you can't lose!

I had always used either store bought enchilada sauce or, in a pinch, replaced the sauce with salsa. It wasn't until my husband decided to try his hand at making his own hot sauce, that I discovered how easy and tasty it is to make your own enchilada sauce. 

When Sam was going through his hot sauce experimentation phase, we went to our local Mexican grocery store and bought a couple large bags of dried chilis. We only used about half of each bag and had the rest sitting, untouched, in our pantry for quite a few months. One day I grew sick of looking at them and thought that I would reconstitute them in some boiling water and then puree them up to make a sauce. The result was a good but really basic red chili sauce. I have since "sassed" the sauce up a bit by reconstituting in chicken stock and adding garlic, cumin, salt and pepper to the liquid. The result is so good!

Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Enchilada Sauce
*Serves 6 people with 2 enchiladas per person
For the Sauce:
12 dried Guajillo peppers [don't worry, these peppers have great chili flavor and next to no heat...for more heat try something like dried Ancho chilis]
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cloves of garlic
2 t ground cumin
1/4 t black pepper

For the Enchiladas 
Meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 red bell pepper [use any color you like], chopped
1 onion, chopped 
2 T olive oil plus a couple more for greasing the pans
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper 
Juice of half a lime
12 large flour tortillas
8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Optional Toppings
Lime juice
Chopped Cilantro
Sour Cream

Begin by placing all of the sauce ingredients into a saucepan. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes over medium low heat until the peppers have begun to plump up.

Once the chilis have plumped, remove the stems from the chilies. They should pull out effortlessly. Place the de-stemmed chilies and the remaining contents of the pan into a blender and blend on high for about a minute. 

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the onion, red pepper, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper to the oil and saute for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent. Stir the shredded chicken into the mix and saute for a couple of minutes to heat up the chicken. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour the lime juice over it, stirring to combine.

Prepare your baking pans for "enchilada time" by placing a tablespoon of oil and a few tablespoons of enchilada sauce into the bottom of your pan. Shake the pan a bit to thoroughly cover the bottom. I used a 9 x 13 and an 8x8 but feel free to use whatever combo of rectangular or square pans you like.

Begin assembling the enchiladas by placing a couple heaping tablespoons of the chicken mixture in a horizontal line across the middle of your tortilla. Fold both the right and left side of the tortilla slightly over the chicken mixture and, holding those sides down, roll the top of your tortilla all the way down, making a burrito-shape. 

Place the tortillas, seam-side down, in the pan. Feel free to pack them in pretty tightly. I had about 8 or 9 in my 9x 13 and 4 in my 8x8.

Heavily spoon the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas and then coat with the shredded cheese. 

Bake uncovered for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the sauce has begun to bubble around the sides.

 
    

S'more Topped Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta

Phew, please excuse the loooooong delay in blogging over the holidays. My only excuse is that us Spitzers cram nearly every family event into a one month  span. Emm's birthday, our anniversary, Christmas and my birthday.

I promise that I will get to my panna cotta recipe but give me a second to do a quick, culinary review of the last two months!

We celebrated and celebrated well over the holidays! Friend trip to San Francisco/ eating everything in sight trip! Below is a picture of my lamb face stew and Sam's kung pao pastrami at Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco. Seriously one of the best meals of my life!

 
Deep fried turkey with friends on Thanksgiving!

Loveless cafe biscuits and jam while in Nashville!

Pizza party for the cute one's second birthday party!

Fresh chicken for Christmas in Montana [jk, but my father-in-law sent me home with homemade elk pepperoni which barely lasted the long drive home].

 
And, sorry no pictures, but we celebrated our belated 7th anniversary with yummy French food in Denver and, this weekend, had an awesome birthday dinner at The Kitchen in Denver. Lardo toasties, sauteed greens and lemon, burratta topped bruschetta with roasted radicchio and my fave meal: harissa roasted chicken with cumin yogurt, cucumber and almond, golden raisin and couscous salad!

Anyways, on to the panna cotta!
S'more Topped Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta
*Serves 5
Panna Cotta
2 tbsp of water                   
2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder 
1/2 tsp salt                       
1 cup of heavy cream                
1 cup of whole milk                    
1 tsp vanilla extract                    
1/3 cup of sugar                   
3.5 oz of dark chocolate [I used a yummy big chocolate bar that was a leftover stocking stuffer]

Marshmallow Creme:
1/3 cup of milk
10 marshmallows, cut in half
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
A half cup of graham crackers, crushed [cinnamon grahams would be awesome]       











Mix the gelatin with the water and set aside for 5 minutes. It will turn into a gelatinous puck, don't worry, it will melt in the hot chocolate. Chop the chocolate into chunks. Place the salt, cream, milk, vanilla, sugar and chocolate chunks into a sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin mixture. Continue to stir for a minute, to fully dissolve the gelatinous puck. Pour the chocolate mixture, through a small sieve, into 5 six ounce bowls, glasses or ramekins. If you have a large  bowl [4 cup or higher] with a spout, it might be easier to strain the mixture into the measuring cup and then pour from there.  Leave a half inch of room on the top of each container. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.

Before service, place the marshmallows, milk and vanilla extract into a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat until the marshmallows have completely melted.

Top each panna cotta with a tablespoon of marshmallow creme and a couple teaspoons  of graham cracker crumbs. Enjoy this luxurious adaptation of a s’more!