Venison loin in the crock pot

My mother gave me some venison so I soaked some in brine this morning. I placed a loin in a solution of water, vinegar, pepper and salt. In a fit of indecision, I added apple cider and balsamic vinegar.

After a couple hours, I tossed it in my skillet with a couple tablespoons of canola oil and seared it on medium high for about three minutes on each of three sides.

I tossed it in the crock pot on low with water, a touch of garlic powder, a few shredded leaves of fresh sage and sorrel and a hearty squirt (about 3 ounces?) of Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut dressing.

Angel vs. the drumsticks

I have 14 drumsticks. Not my favorite thing to deal with. But my family eats anything... So... A gift is a gift.

I divided the drumsticks into two pyrex dishes. Seven in each.

Oven preheating to 300 degrees.

Marinade 1 "fruity":
A total of about 3/4 cups liquid...
- about half of that dijon apple vinaigrette left from the Dole Harvest salad kit
- about 1/4 of that chianti vinaigrette left from the Dole Italian salad kit
- about 3 tablespoons canola oil
- the remainder is apple juice

Add about 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary.

Marinade 2 "savory":
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- seven leaves fresh rosemary chopped and dropped into the hot butter

Meanwhile, sprinkle chicken in the savory dish with four color organic pepper and garlic powder.

Pour on the sage butter. It didn't look wet enough so I went ahead and brush more butter directly onto each drumstick, probably bringing the butter total to 1/2 cup. Then, I added a lemon slice to each. I used a whole lemon in this endeavor, making sure I got all the lemon juice into the pan.

I covered them with foil and slipped them into the oven, intending to marinate every 30 minutes and uncover toward the end... whenever I determine that will be.

I believe I cooked them for about 90 minutes on 300 and then 40 minutes on 375 with the aluminum foil off.

My family ate them skin and all and the "fruity" ones were more moist.

Kitchen Alchemy: Beef Stew

I am making something that resembles beouf bourgogne... I chopped the stew meet and dusted with flour, four color organic peppercorns, and sea salt. I'm browning them with a touch of olive oil, a touch of the petit sirah (on sale for $5 at the liquor store) and a touch of French brandy.

The vegetable stock has been reduced by half, and lots of herbs added. In the absence of a true bouquet garni, I have added a variety of fresh herbs from the freezer and dried herbs. Dill, sage, rosemary, oregano, garlic pepper.

My husband has chopped a mound of potatoes and carrots, which one the beef had browned, I put in the beef juice in the skillet and moved the beef into the vegetable stock. I added some olive oil, some wine. I poured the rest of the wine bottle in with the beef, and then filled it half way with water and poured that over the vegetables in the skillet.

I let them cook for five or ten minutes in this mix before I incorporate them into the stew. Then I mix everything up, put it on medium and wait. My husband has chopped some fresh broccoli and cauliflower, which makes it more beef vegetable stew than beef burgundy, but it need to be used...

These vegetables will be added much later, closer to eating time.

Previous versions:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/beef-burgundy.html

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/boeuf-bourgogne.html

Fancy dinner: Breaded Herb Pork

I have a small loaf of my homemade multigrain baquette in the oven thawing from the freezer... My daughter is arranging a platter of fresh veggies... I have French butter on the table and a nice place setting...

I have four thin boneless pork chops, that I breaded in a mix of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, seasonings from the spinach rigatoni from Aldi, four color peppercorn. I warmed some extra virgin olive oil in the skillet, with two shredded leaves of fresh sage and about two teaspoons of oregano. I cooked the prokchops over medium, for four minutes on each side. Then I put them in the oven with the bread to keep them warm.

Meanwhile, I have my daughter making some pepper ranch dip (for the veggies) Two teaspoons sour cream with an equal amount of ranch dressing, and some fresh ground four-pepper.

Now for the appetizer... I'm going to cook some veggie bacon and some dates in a bit of olive oil, then wrap them and put them in the oven. Debating whether or not to put some cream cheese in the dates first...

Okay... what I wrote before this point was written while cooking, so let's try to organize our thoughts better and present everything in a more manageable fashion.

First course: 'Bacon'-Wrapped Dates
Inspired by Gayle
Ingredients:

• Six dates, in this case sliced in half. I used pitted dates from Aldi's that weren't exactly fresh, but they weren't exactly dried either
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 6 slices Morningstar Vegetarian bacon
• About 3 teaspoons Neufchâtel or Cream cheese

Heat oil and dates in skillet. Add bacon and cook until thawed but not crispy. Flip dates and heat primarily to soften. Remove bacon and dates from hot skillet. Spread cheese on half the dates and top with other half. Wrap in bacon. Broil on high in oven until the bacon browns.

These turned out fantastic. (On the bottom shelf in the oven.)

Second course: Crudités with tangy ranch dip
Using up leftover vegetables my mother-in-law brought Wednesday
In this case some broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red pepper and green pepper
Ingredients for dip (combine and serve):

• About two teaspoons sour cream
• About two teaspoons ranch dressing
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground four color peppercorns
• about 3/4 teaspoon It's a Dilly

Main course: Herb-Parmesan Breaded Pork with corn and greenbeans
Ingredients for the pork (photo on top):

• Four thin boneless pork chops
• About 1 cup breadcrumbs
• About 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper from four-color peppercorns
  
• About 1/8 cup seasoning from the spinach rigatoni I buy at Aldi (it's cheese and Italian seasoning mostly)
  
• One tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• One tablespoon butter
• 2 leaves fresh sage, shredded
• About three teaspoons fresh oregano

Combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, pepper and seasoning in a bowl and bread pork chops with it. Under medium heat, heat the oil and the sage and oregano. Add porkchops. Cook about 4 minutes, flip, add butter, and cook four more minutes.

For the vegetables:
I cooked the pork first and kept in hot in the oven. Then I wiped the pan and prepared the appetizers. Without cleaning the pan again, I dropped half a can of corn in (leftover from last night's casserole) and the rest of a bag of frozen French cut greenbeans. Cooked in the pan until warm.

For the bread:
I think this was the batch... http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/01/multigrain-dill-bread.html

For dessert:
Blueberry bread pudding (from the freezer) with a dollop of vanilla bean ice cream.
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/01/blueberry-crumb-bread-pudding.html

Rabbit with Sage and Lemon (Lapin à la sauge et au citron)

I bought a three-pound rabbit at the farmers market today. I thought I'd make 2/3 of it, but half fit better in my pan. I got the idea of making rabbit from my Venez Dîner C'est Prêt cookbook that Jessica brought me from France.

Now, I didn't read the recipe very closely and so it took me a while to realize I needed a beer, and not just any beer but a "bière blonde" (blonde beer).

The recipe suggests that one rabbit will feed four people.

Ingredients
1 rabbit cut in "morsels" (the butcher cut mine in four center sections and each leg)
1 lemon, not juiced
4 cloves of garlic, whole, in the "skin?"
8 fresh sage leaves
1 bottle of blonde beer
12 black olives
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 410 degrees.
Arrange the rabbit (I only used half the rabbit) on a platter and salt and pepper it. Place in baking dish with the lemon in quarters (I sliced into eighths). Add the sage leaves and the cloves of garlic.
Add the beer.
Cook one hour, adding the olives at the mid-point. Cook until the meat is tender and the sauce caramelizes. If it cooks too quickly, add more beer. If it doesn't reduce enough, return to the oven.

I'm serving with broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil and fresh pineapple.

The rabbit disappeared. I think my daughter could eat two pounds of rabbit meat by herself. Tender, moist, but like buffalo wings-- a lot of work to get the meat off the bone.

The sauce had a lot of flavor for how simple it was.