That's What Bob's Cooking: December 2014

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped Potatoes

Looking for a great and quick side dish, or a special side for your holiday dinner. Well, this is a side dish I started making when I received a food processor for Christmas a few years back. I’ve made scalloped potatoes for year, and always done the butter/flour/cream….etc, so when I found this was like, well, I give it a chance, but I’m not expecting much from it. Boy was I wrong! This is the easiest recipe for scalloped potatoes, I have EVER used.

Example, tonight I got home from work at 6pm, turned on the oven, walked the dog, then started the dish and had them in the oven cooking in 25 minutes. No I’m not superman….just organized!

Scalloped Potatoes

2 large Russet Potatoes, washed and sliced
½ cube butter
2 T Chopped Garlic
1 Cup Whipping Cream
1 med Shallot, thinly sliced
2 Cups Shredded or crumbled cheese (I used Swiss, but have used parm, blue, cheddar, just to name a few)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Russet Potatoes and Shallots...and my V-Cutter

Sliced potatoes and shallots

Place butter in a pan, and melt. Add garlic to butter, and stir. Add cream and warm to a low boil. Add Salt and pepper.

Place the ½ of the potatoes, shingled into an oven safe pan. Top with ½ of the shallot and ½ of the cheese. Repeat, and pour the cream over. Place the last of the cheese over the top.

Melted Butter and Garlic

Add the cream

Season with love

Arrange the potatoes and onions

Don't forget the cheese

Top with cream and bake!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Chicken Pot Pie

I have a few memories of pot pie….the first is burning my tongue on the potatoes when my sister and I would make Swanson Pot Pies from the oven. We would flip them out, upside-down onto the plate…molten gravy creaminess....and enjoy.

The second was when an assistant manager and I were discussing what she was going to make for dinner. I brought up making homemade Chicken Pot Pie. I came up with a quick recipe for her and she was set. She came back the next day, and reported that it was a hit….below is the recipe. (By The Way, I had never made it, at that point!)

Lastly, Craig and I have been making that recipe for years, and tried many different versions of it from using fresh vegetables, to making my own “cream of” soup, to using gravy, but this is has always been the hit. Also, I noticed that I have posted many picture of this pie, but not the recipe….so here it is.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 Premade pie crust (2 crusts) (buy Pillbury…it make a HUGE difference-make sure you keep this COLD! It's the difference between flaky and soggy- I prefer flaky!)
2 Chicken breasts, chopped (Now you can use precooked Rotisserie, leftovers or cook it fresh yourself. I BBQ a couple of grilled boneless skinless breasts)
8 oz frozen Peas and Carrots (1/2 bag)
16 oz Southern Style Hash brown potatoes (cubes) (1/2 bag)
3 cans of “Cream of” soup (chicken, mushroom or celery-your choice or combination)
½ onion, diced
Salt and pepper

Place 1 of the pie shells in a pie plate.

Mix together chicken, veggies, potatoes, onion and soup.

Put mixture in pie shell and top with second shell. Crimp edges and poke top of shell.

Bake at 350°F, for 1 hour, or until golden brown.

Cut into 6 or 8 pieces…and enjoy. 8 means you’ll enjoy seconds….6 means you’ll have leftovers!

Sautéed Mushrooms

I’ve always struggled to get sautéed mushroom to the right brown-ness. I was amazed when I recently read what my problem was (with sautéing mushrooms).

From what I read, I am impatient with waiting for the mushrooms to dehydrating. So to eliminate the waiting time, by dehydrating the mushrooms in the….get this….microwave! So, I was like that’s BS….and then I tried it. And imagine this….it WORKS!!!!

First step, leave the mushrooms whole….or chop them…it works the same. I have tried it both ways and it works!

Then place the mushrooms in a microwave safe container for 5 minutes. Stir and microwave a few minutes more.

Drain the microwaved mushrooms.

Place mushrooms in hot oil/butter and sauté until golden brown.

Then use the mushroom broth to help flavor whatever it is your cooking!!!

My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!