Update.. I just skipped my first meeting.. or more to the point, I couldn't really find it. I will plan another, but sheesh, a little signage wouldn't hurt, now would it? 

- J

Eating is like the economy.

At least for me. I guess I should have known it was coming, and deep down, I did. I went in for my annual check up, and the scale said....

 248 lbs 

This is not okay, this is much worse than I ever expected it would be. This needs to be remedied. So, yesterday I signed up for Weight Watchers (online and in person meetings). My first meeting is today at noon. 

I'm nervous. I'm FAT. Really fat.

Ah well, so a new chapter has to begin here at Finding the Fat. For at least a while now, my focus is going to be as follows:

1) Dieting strategies

2) Healthy Recipes (I plan to include point counts per serving)

3) Exercise plans / execution

So, perhaps we can start finding the muscles underneath this nice layer of belly fat, eh? 

HUGS

-J

Superbowl chili

So, 

No matter who you rooted for, the big game last night was pretty good eh? My favorite moment was watching the boss slide crotch first into a camera... priceless!

But anyway, this post is about chili, or more correctly, my Superbowl Chili, which is more correctly called a stew (in my neck of the woods chili = beef and sauce. This has beans, corn, and chunks of tomatoes, so it's a stew). The recipe is a modification of one from an old cookbook my mom has from our San Antonio days, and I believe I have improved it mightily!

Ingredients

4 strips bacon

2 tbsp cooking oil (olive, peanut, vegetable, corn, canola, whatever!)

2 lbs of ground beef (I ground mine myself, using a chuck roast and a sirloin steak)

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

8 green onions, sliced, including tops

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Jalapeno (or other chili), diced

1 can of beer (cheap American beer please, no lite or ice or anything odd)

1 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped, with liquid reserved

1 cup Pace brand medium picante sauce (yes, it has to be PACE)

2 tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground coriander 

1 tsp chipotle pepper (more or less to taste)

1 15 oz can pinto beans (rinsed)

1  11 oz can of corn (rinsed)

Toppings:

Chopped Cilantro

Bacon bits

Sour Cream

Grated Cheese

Frito's

Okay, this is pretty straight forward, so let's just get to it. 

Cut the bacon into half strips and arrange on the bottom of a COLD Large dutch oven (mine is stainless, but a good enamelled cast iron would be awesome too) so that they aren't overlapping or touching. 

Put the dutch oven on the lowest heat setting on your stove for 5 minutes. When the fat is starting to render, bring the heat up to medium low and turn over the bacon slices. When the bacon begins to brown, remove and set aside on paper towels to drain (later, microwave or bake to make the BACON BITS!).

Turn the dutch oven up to HIGH heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil (whatever floats your boat). When the oil shimmers, add the ground beef, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and jalapeno. Keep on high heat, stir occasionally, until beef is browned (usually 3-5 minutes)

Add the beer and allow to continue on high heat for another 2 minutes. 

Add tomatoes and reserved liquid, as well as the cumin, cinnamon, and coriander and turn the heat down to medium low, or a strong simmer). Cover and allow to simmer for an hour (or longer, you can let this simmer for a very long time, and the meat will just get more and more tender as you go). 

At this point, taste for heat. Add as much chipotle pepper as you need to get the burn you desire. Then, add the beans and corn, and cover. Let simmer for 30 more minutes. Adjust salt if necessary.

Remove from heat and serve.  I like to put the Frito's in the bowl first, then a helping of chili topped by cilantro, bacon, and cheese. A dollop of sour cream finishes it all off. Oh yeah, and a PBR really does make this a better meal!

Thanks

- J

Inauguration Day

A couple simple things for today:

1) Barack Obama is the President. I skipped the inaugural, mainly 'cause I don't do well in crowds, but we swung into DC as soon as the roads opened, just to say we did (and we bought a few souvenirs from a street vendor). I also took this pic

From Finding the Fat

2) The replacement wheels for the subaru arrived today. Taste the 18 inch wheels!

From Finding the Fat

Thanks
- J

Andouille

Oh how I love thee. Pork fat, heat, and smoke. My favorite seasonings!

Andouille hash is my new favorite thing to serve for breakfast!

1 4 oz Andouille sausage, diced 

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large Yukon Gold Potatoes, par-boiled and iced, diced into about 1/2" chunks

1 large shallot, diced

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp fresh rosemary

Salt and Black pepper to taste

Add diced andouille to a cold non-stick skillet (large, say 10", with a lid!). Place on medium low heat and allow some of the fat to render. When the andoiulle starts to brown, add the olive oil and turn up the heat to medium high. Add the potatoes and toss to coat in the fat. Cook over medium high heat, for 10 minutes, turning occassionally. Add the shallots and herbs. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes. Add Salt and Pepper to taste, and serve with eggs your favorite way!

Thanks

- John

Deep Frying... or how I learned to not buy a fry daddy

First of all, I love fried food, right? Especially Tater Tots. I always resisted owning a fryer of any sort out of fear of ballooning past my already progidous girth, but every now and again I find myself needing to make real tot's. How to do this, when no fryer is available? Do I own a frying thermometer? A frying basket? Nope... Just the stuff I have floating around in my kitchen.

First off, I grab a large saucepan (mine is a relatively ancient all-clad 4qt).

I also grab my probe thermometer (you know,  the one I use for turkey)

 and a large ACCO binder clip, like the one shown below.

I clip the probe of the thermometer to the side of the sauce pan using the binder clip, and then I fill the rig with 2 qts of Peanut Oil.  I set the alarm for 350 degrees, and fire up high heat. 

While the oil is heating, I prep my draining and staging areas.

Draining area is a large sheet pan covered in old newspaper (no colored print tho) with a metal cooling rack sitting upside down on it (thanks Alton).

Prep area for tots is a large colander filled with frozen tots (I try to eat FEWER tots when they are fried, by the way, so think 10 tots a person). 

I use a spider (thank you molto mario) as my loading and unloading device.

So, I load up 10 or so tots onto the spider, and wait for the alarm. When it beeps, I gently lower the tots into the oil, making sure to keep them from sticking together (TOT CLUMPS = Lower crust to squishy interior ratio = not good). The oil temp will drop rapidly. Watch the temp closely, as you need to keep it from going much above 360 degrees. 3 minutes later, the tots should be perfect. Unload onto draining rig, and serve immediately (or you can hold the draining rig in the oven on 200 degrees or so). 

When all is done, I just poured 7 bucks worth of peanut oil into my pan, and I'd like to keep it.  Right now, a funnel and paper towels works pretty well, but I need to tweak the arrangement (too slow).  Then I store the used oil in a large jug in the back of the fridge. 

YUM

Thanks

- J

Laradonna's Ragu - interpretted by Me

Hey all,

My mother's birthday is December 28th, and since we were all in Seattle for the holidays anyway, we had to stay an extra day so we could celebrate her 64th year! This year she wanted to share a cooking experience with us instead of going out to a fancy meal (a little bit of economic downturn and a little bit of being proud of her new italian pied-a-terre). So we made Lasagna, with everything but the Pasta from scratch (something we didn't have the energy to try). So, when I got home, I decided to try making the Ragu for myself, with a few tweaks. It was AWESOME, so I am sharing it.

1.5 lbs meat loaf mix (pork, veal, beef, about 85% lean, leaner if you can get it)
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 large red onion
2 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
5 cloves garlic
1 cup white wine (dry and drinkable)
1 8oz can of tomato sauce (with basil)
8 oz water (fill the can!)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Crushed Red pepper to taste
Salt and black pepper to taste

Cooking Directions:

Put Parsley, garlic, onion, carrots, and celery into a food processor until "chopped fine" (or you could use Laradonna's technique of Mezzaluna'ing it to death, which ever is your preference)

Heat oil in large saute pan (with a lid!) on medium high heat until the oil shimmers, then add the chopped vegetables and a sprinkle of salt and reduce the heat to medium. Saute for 10 minutes, if it starts to change color, turn it down.

At this point add the ground meat. Break into very small bits as you add it to the pan and saute for 10 minutes more, stirring regularly.

Raise heat to high and add wine. Allow to cook off for 2 minutes.

Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed red pepper, and water. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy over pasta with Pecorino Romano or Parmeggianno Reggianno.

HUGS
- J

Hot Pot with the Chou Family (and Jewboy)

Happy New Year!

This year we were blessed with house guests over the New Years weekend, namely Jewboy and Schnoozle. It was a marvelous weekend on the whole, and we spent most of it eating Chinese. First off, JB and S arrived right before our festivities were to begin, and were quite famished, so we had to get a quick run to Ho's Chinese takeout in (Pork Chow Fun, Crispy Orange Beef, Steamed Dumplings, and Chicken with Garlic Sauce). Great food, a pretty typical rushed dinner for me and the wife, especially if the JB and S are in town. 

The following evening, it was off too Golden King Restaurant in RESTON for a NY Day buffet dinner. A really enjoyable and really traditional dinner. Tons of good stuff (abalone, duck, noodles, great shu-mai, and all the basics) and way too much food. 

Friday we had dinner at our new favorite place, Michel Richard Central. So no chinese food here, but eat the cheese puffs. Really. 

But the kicker was on Saturday, we had a really special event. We had Schnoozle's family out to our house for Hot Pot, a traditional new years celebration feast. Schnoozle took us to her favorite Chinese Grocery store Kam Sam Food Products,  and we had an excellent time picking out all the fixings (thin sliced pork, chicken and beef; celophane and udon noodles; bones for stock; shrimp; all sorts of odd fish sticks and meatballs; and of course all the dipping sauces (hoisin, oyster, chili bean, black vinegar etc). We also got some nice Chrysanthymum tea and a new tea pot. It was truly awesome.. and made me want to go buy a hot pot!

Below is what our place looks like with 8 people and HOT POT going on!

So merry new year!

HUGS

-J

Thanksgiving Part II

On second thought, a twelve pound turkey is way too much food for two people. If I eat one more meal of thanksgiving left overs, I am going to start gobbling!

Thanks
-J

Thanksgiving Dinner

So, as some of you may know, our plans for Thanksgiving this year experienced a minor wrinkle. Instead of 4-8 people for dinner, we had just ourselves. I decided to go whole hog anyway, and cook a 12 pound turkey (which we are still eating...). I think it is really important to spend Thanksgiving with someone you care about, and to continue the tradition of cooking the meal, in all its glory. It helps to remind you of all the wonderful blessings we have, right?



Here we are toasting the bounty of 2008:





First off here is a picture of the finished plate, all lovely (and as of yet unmolested):



The plate contains everything we prepared (I do mean we, as Jodi was an extremely efficient helper!): Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole and cranberry relish (minus the giblet gravy). Okay, there is no pumpkin pie on the plate, but we ate that 3 hours later as a pure safety measure (prevention of unintentional rupture!, see below!)




I think a few of the recipes I used are truly excellent, and are worthy of posting, and follow:

Alton Brown Turkey Recipe:
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine: 1 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger 1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics: 1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours.

Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage.

Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.”


Green Bean Casserole

Beans
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon table salt
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces

Bring the water to boil in a large pot. While it's heating, cut up the beans. Add the salt and beans to the boiling water. Cover and cook for 6 minutes. Drain beans in a colander, and then shock in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Let them drain in the colander, shaking every now and then to get off all the water.

Sauce
10 ounces mushrooms (I used buttons)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Generous pinch cayenne pepper (I used hot paprika this time)
Salt to taste
Fresh pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon dry sherry (except I was out of sherry, used Bourbon)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan (FRESH!)

Trim and discard the mushroom stems and chop the mushrooms into pieces. Spray a non-stick pan with canola oil and heat it. Add the mushrooms, garlic, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Cook until mushrooms are very soft and exude their juices. Add the flour to the pan, and stir (think Roux). Add the sherry and let simmer for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and simmer, stirring, until mixture thickens. Add the cream and simmer until thick, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the cheese and adjust the seasonings to taste. Stir in the beans.

Topping
1 1/2 slices whole grain bread
(I used extra bread cubes from the dressing)
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/16 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3-ounce can of French fried onions


Put the bread, butter, salt, and pepper into a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Pour into a bowl and add the onions. Stir to combine.

To assemble:

Put the green beans into an buttered casserole dish and top with the onion mixture. Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes. If you are not serving this right away, refrigerate the topping separately. Bring to room temperature before sprinkling the topping on the casserole and baking for about 20 minutes or until hot throughout.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe :

Crust (modified version of Alton Brown recipe)
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter
chilled 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) Crisco
chilled 6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup ice water, in spritz bottle

Place butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes. When ready to use, remove and cut both into small pieces.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until texture looks mealy. Add Crisco and pulse another 3 to 4 times. Remove lid of food processor and spritz surface of mixture thoroughly with water.

Replace lid and pulse 5 times. Add more water and pulse again until mixture holds together when squeezed. Place mixture in large zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place 2 metal pie pans in the refrigerator to chill.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Cut along 2 sides of the plastic bag, open bag to expose dough, and sprinkle both sides with flour. Cover again with plastic and roll out with a rolling pin to a 10 to 11-inch circle. Open plastic again and sprinkle top of dough with flour. Remove pie pans from refrigerator and set first pan on top of dough. Turn everything upside down and peel plastic from bottom of dough. Place second pan upside down on top of dough and flip again. Remove first pan from atop dough. Trim edges if necessary, crimp edges to make PRETTY! Refrigerate until time to bake.

Filling (modified Libby's recipe)

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon ground Saigon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

PREHEAT oven to 425° F.

COMBINE sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.

BAKE for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

HUGS
-John