#22 - Waffles

By Ryon- Waffles! Everything about these remind me of my childhood and growing up at home in Vermont: The smell of cooking them. Watching the waffle maker rise as the waffles cook. The bacon in the middle of the waffles (That's right. I said bacon.) My dad would always cook us breakfast on the weekends, but it was always a real treat when we could get him to cook us waffles. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something really fun about eating waffles that apparently has lasted into adulthood for me... because they still make me happy. By the looks of this picture, they make Caitlin want to put her head in a waffle maker.
Not much to these, really. Except access to a waffle maker. (Thank you mom and dee for my birthday present!) This is just the Bisquick recipe with a few modifications... most importantly the bacon. Before you put the waffle batter on the waffle maker, put a small piece of bacon on each waffle square and close the waffle maker to let it cook for a few minutes. Then add your batter and cook waffles as you normally would. Now you have a small gift of deliciousness in every waffle!
I have cooked these every weekend since my birthday...
(Always serve with real maple syrup!)

Rating: SECCDI

#20 and #21 - Beer Battered Fish Fry and Tartar Sauce

By Ryon - I have to admit, deep frying has intimidated me for a long time. It's not so much that I'm afraid of of large vats of oil kept at 375 degrees. I scoff at thee! I'm just afraid of throwing FOOD in large vats of oil kept at 375 degrees and then expecting it to come out edible. Well, it was time for me to overcome that fear in front of a dozen of my friends. Nothing like a little trial by fire... or hot oil.
Turns out it's not hard at all! Who knew? (Don't answer that question.)
For this fish fry I used talapia, which is not the most flavorful fish in the world but it was on sale at Harris Teeter for $2.99 a pound. I could not pass it up. I made the batter using two different kinds of beer. One beer was a local brew: Starr Hill Dark Star Stout. The second beer was a Yuengling. This made the batter pretty dark and oh-so-tasty. I heated the oil over medium-high heat for about 10-15 min. While the oil heated, I dredged the fish in the Bisquick and let it sit. When the oil was ready, I just dipped the pieces of fish in the batter individually and slipped them into the oil. Because it was my first time doing this, I had to watch the fish like a hawk, turning it every so often, in order to make sure I didn't overcook it. When it turned a nice golden brown (think DJ Pauly D from Jersey Shore), I took it out of the oil and let it dry/cool on paper towel for a few minutes before throwing it to the group of hungry people behind me. I did about 3 pounds of fish in batches because of the size constraints of the pot I was cooking in. The timing worked out perfectly because each time a new batch was done the hungry mob had just finished the previous batch.
I cannot emphasize enough how much of a difference it makes to serve this fish with the tartar sauce in the recipe book. This stuff is amazing. At first I was worried I made too much of it, but it got completely flattened before we were out of fish! And everyone was raving about how good it was. This is really not your typical tartar sauce. It is fresh and light and really tasty. Not, as my dad says, like the "gloppy shit" you get in most restaurants.
A big "thank you" to Stephen Tanner who brought over his fryer and did the french fries for this meal and Caitlin for chopping up the potatoes. Stephen was a machine with his fryer. Overall, I was really happy with how the meal turned out. Even better than I could have hoped. I think everyone else was pleased, as well.

Rating: RHC

#19 - John Wayne Casserole

By Ryon - Happy Easter! For Easter brunch I decided to make John Wayne Casserole, a breakfast that my dad has recently started to make for us on Christmas mornings. Before two years ago, I don't think he ever made this. At least not that I can remember. So I was a bit surprised when I found out that he had been holding out on us all of these years.

John Wayne Casserole, as the recipe is written, is truly an artery-clogging meal. I love cheese. Love it. But this might be almost too much cheese. 4 lbs of cheese, to be exact. My dad says that he transcribed the recipe directly from his American exchange family brother, Hoyt Fields, and I did not want to mess with perfection, but I decided to cut the amount of cheese in half. It still came out to be very cheesy, but not overpoweringly so. You can add as much or as little cheese as you would like. Tailor it to your taste for the fromage.

The green chilis give this breakfast a great zip and for even more spice I recommend bringing your favorite hot sauce to the table. I also recommend inviting more people over when you cook this! This recipe makes enough to feed a small army, so Caitlin and I will be eating John Wayne Casserole for breakfast the rest of this week. Not that I am complaining. It makes for awesome leftovers.
Serve with your choice of sides. We had ours with some local Organic Butcher bacon while we ate outside on a beautiful Charlottesville Sunday morning.

Rating: SECCDI

#18 - Chili

By Caitlin- Chili holds a special place in my heart. I have many fond memories making chili and enjoying it with groups of friends. In fact, chili is the one meal that I have made multiple times all by myself. This time, however, is my first time making Barry's recipe. In the past I have made my friend Marissa's chili, though I think the recipe is actually her Nana's. I remember Marissa calling Nana from a grocery store while on a vacation to the Outer Banks, asking about quantities of peppers and onions, and before now I would be calling Marissa. There is also the famous inaugural ski trip to Killington four years ago with our esteemed Boston buddies, where I wooed Ryon with my chili making skills. Little did he know that this recipe encompassed my entire culinary repertoire, you know, beyond cereal and toast. But he was already hooked.

Barry and Nana's recipes are actually quite similar. The biggest difference is that Barry uses butter instead of oil to cook the meat and onions, adds a beer and, of course, maple syrup to the base. Nana also includes green, red, and yellow bell peppers, and a variety of beans. We stuck to Barry's recipe for the most part this first time. Though Ryon and I decided to jazz it up and use a mixture of diced chuck steak from the Organic Butcher and hamburger. I thought the cubed steak was a delicious addition. I feel like another vital addition to this recipe was the second beer that I consumed while making the meal :o)

Don't be intimidated by the number of ingredients. Honestly, collecting the ingredients was the most challenging part of making the chili! After melting the butter and cooking the beef, onions, and garlic on medium until brown, I added all of the dry seasonings. This is when it starts to smell really good. It took a long time to measure out all of the spices and grind the cumin seeds, so next time I think it would be helpful to do all of that first, mixing them together, and adding them at the same time. Is this a normal cooking technique??? Well I am certainly learning! So next I added the beans, tomatoes, the beer, and the maple syrup (these last two give this chili a bit of sweetness that was surprising in such a spicy dish). At the very end comes the fresh cilantro. We ended up eating it the night that we made it because it was a cold 45 degree day here in VA. . Sometimes we like to put it over freshly made corn bread, but this time we had it on its own. The sweetness came out a little more after a night in the fridge, and this recipe makes enough for a gazillion (or 6-8) servings so you will have plenty of opportunities to taste the differences.

The first time I made chili at Killington Ryon and I weren't dating yet, but I remember him opening all of the cans of tomatoes and beans for me. I am proud to say that after all these years I still get to be head chef on the chili.












Rating: SECCDI

#17 - Green Mountain Bobotie

By Ryon - For those of you who have never had or heard of bobotie, you are probably wondering what the heck this is and how to even pronounce this dish (bah-boo-tee). This is the South African version of meatloaf or, as my dad states in the recipe, "South African comfort food". As the name suggests, however, there is a New England-style twist to this version of the South African favorite and that twist is... you guessed it... maple syrup. Seriously, is there anything that maple syrup doesn't make better? (Think about it for a moment.... ok, now move on.)

Be prepared to get your hands dirty. This essentially requires making a huge messy meatball with ground beef (or lamb), soggy bread, eggs and onions. I'd say it's fun mixing this all together, but really it feels kind of gross.

The hardest part for me in the making of this recipe was finding a pan to fit inside of another pan for the actual cooking process. I'm not sure what this is supposed to achieve, but the recipe calls for placing the bobotie dish inside a larger baking dish filled halfway with water. No matter what combination of pans I tried, I could not get it to fit. I eventually just used a cookie sheet and filled it with as much water as it could hold. Mission accomplished? I think that requires me to know what my mission was trying to accomplish in the first place. Oh well. It came out great.

This makes tons of leftovers and so we enjoyed the bobotie multiple ways: on it's own, with naan and sweet mango chutney, over rice with spicy chutney, etc. It keeps well in the fridge or you can freeze it for later when you need a delicious meal and don't feel like cooking!

This particular bobotie was made with a curry powder that had no heat and therefore gave a sweet, mild flavor to the dish. You can play around with different curries that will give you much different flavors. Next time I think I will turn up the heat a bit and try a spicier curry powder.

A note from Caitlin- I brought some of this bobotie with me to school for lunch and my professor, Antoinette, essentially stopped in the middle of her sentence to ask what I was eating and where I had gotten it. This dish has such a distinct and delicious aroma that I think we may have some new followers to our blog!

Rating: RHC