Ballpark food Part 2: Pittsburgh Fries

This past weekend we were in Pittsburgh and to celebrate the UPitt win, we went to the fattest restaurant in southside. One very appealing and delicious fat dish caught my eye, the fries covered in buffalo sauce, topped with a little Parmesan cheese and served with blue cheese dressing. OMFG.

So In order to celebrate Game 2 of the World Series and cheer on my boy Torres on the Giants, I recreated this to accompany our burgers...

3 Sweet potatoes

1/2 cup red hot

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

"blue cheese" dipping sauce..

3/4 cup Blue cheese (I had Gorgonzola, just as fat and just as good)

2 cups Greek yogurt

1/4 packet of ranch dressing packet (yea I cheated)

1 tbsp mayo (yea CHEESE AND MAYO in one post)

For the blue cheese dressing:

Mix in all ingredients except cheese, whisk well then add in the cheese and mix a little more

I also cut up celery to the go with the blue cheese and it was thebomb.com.

I've blogged about sweet potato friesto in a previous post, so I will keep it short. Wash the potatoes really well, slice them into steak fries size, spread on to cookie sheet and drizzle very lightly with olive oil. Bake on 425 for about 30 mins.

Once they are out, pile onto a plate.

 Lightly heat up your buffalo sauce in the microwave and drizzle allll over the fries. Lightly sprinkle some parmesean cheese on top and serve. Ignore the steam rising from the pile of goodness on the plate.

Ball Park Food Part 1: Black Bean Burger

The Giants are in the World Series and to watch Game 2 I wanted the realll ball park feel. That means burgers and fries. This is a recipe my friend from college Mary Kate sent me. She raved to me about how great these black bean burgers were it was so I had to have it.

2 Cans black beans
1 egg (Mary Kate suggested 2 egg whites which is healthier but I'm lazy and can't just throw away yolk)
1 tbsp Cumin

1 Onion Minced

1 cup cornmeal (I used  panko breakcrumbs because that is what I had on hand)

For The burger assembly:

Whole wheat hamburger buns
1 avocado
5 slices bacon  (I added this bc I live with a Carnivore)

The egg isn't pictured. I think it rolled out of the pic, oops.

Drain and Rinse your black beans really well. You want that weird goo completely washed off. Let the beans drain in the colander for a min or two. Meanwhile, mince your onion nearly to a pulp..

To the mixing bowl add your beans and onion.

Add in the cumin

Now give the beans a good chop..I chopped them about halfway through, then added in the egg, and continued to chop up. Make sure the onion, cumin,beans and egg are mixed/chopped very well this is to be similar to a ground meat consistency.

Pour your cornmeal into a side plate to coat your black bean burgers. Once you form into patties (I got 6 patties out of this)  I coated them in the plate with the cornmeal(panko breadcrumbs)..



Bake the burgers on 400 for about 20 mins. Once the look golden browned take them out.

In order to entice Alex into eating a black bean burger and feeling satfisfied, I fried up a few pieces of bacon to the top the burger. Thats right, full fat, REAL bacon.

Also to give the blackbean burgers a little bit of 'fat' taste once I took them out of the oven I pan fried them for about 1 min on each side in the same pan I cooked the bacon. Tricky, I know.

Top the black bean burger with avocado, lettuce and tomato (and bacon for the carnivores) and serve...MMMMM.  This was totally guy approved, I would recommend the bacon to trick them into it, I thought it was great without the bacon though! Thanks Mary Kate!!

Ummm whats for dinner?

So on my way to the gym the other night I was talking to Alex and mentioned that we should have leftovers for dinner, his reply : ummm you mean the salmon cakes and I said  yea, we'll make them into salmon cake sandwiches...... Alex: oh I took those to work for lunch today. So yea, no lefites, no dinner ideas, no time.  I started to look around, I had leftover chili in the freezer, some frozen corn and polenta I had seen a recipe very similar to this so I went with it, last minute.

1 tube polenta
about 2-3 cups chlii
1 1/2 cups corn
1 tbsp chopped green onions (for topping)

I was thinking cheese would go well but instead made a 'sauce' for the top..

1 cup greek yogurt
1 tbsp margarine/butter
4 tbsp salsa verde (you could use any salsa)
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
and lots of texas pete.

This took about 3 mins to prepare, it took longer to make the sauce. Preheat the oven to 375. Karen gave me a GREAT polenta tip and that was to cut it using the egg slicer, or polenta slicer as I like to call it. Cut the tube into thirds and just slice away..


Before




After

This gets the polenta into very pretty, even  and thin slices. It has changed my polenta life.  Moving on..place your polenta into you baking dish....I started to cover it in chili then remembered to take a pic..

After you cover in chili add more corn (my chili had a little corn in it already)

Pop it in the oven for about 20 mins, everything is fully cooked so you really just want the flavors to blend. If you are adding cheese which I'm assuming most people would, I would add it between the polenta and chili layer and a little over the corn

While that was baking in the oven, I added my sauce ingredients to a microwave safe bowl

Then just cover with a towel and place in the microwave for about 1 min, take it out, whisk it up a bit, then put it in for another few mins.  Once the polenta dish comes out, Pour the sauce all over the top.. The sauce reminds me of the creamy/fat sauce that you get on some mexican dishes at a restaurant. It added good flavor.

Top with green onion, then serve...We put it on lettuce to make it a fake taco salad...

Salmon Cakes

This is one of my go to easy recipes.. Sometimes I make two batches and freeze one for a last minute meal down the road.

3 eggs

30 Oz Canned salmon.

1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs.

1 tbsp old bay

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

I don't add salt because the old bay is so salty on its own. Drain the canned salmon  and add to mixing bowl. To be honest this was the first time I bought this brand canned salmon but I prefer the 'pink salmon' brand from costco.
Mix all ingredients in the bowl. Mix really well to get everything blended together.

Form into patties & Bake in the oven for about 25-30 mins on 375.

Once they are baked in the oven I like to pan fry them for about 2-3 mins on medium high heat on each side to get them cripsy and pretty.. lightly oil your frying pan and just pan fry both sides for a few mins.

Meanwhile, make your cocktail sauce:

You need:

Old Bay
Ketchup
Horseradish (not the weird mayo kind..straight up horseradish)

Add about 2 tbsp ketchup to 2 tbsp horseradish and sprinkle in about 1 tsp of old bay.. If you don't like as  much horseradish just adjust according to taste.

Mix it up, and serve on top of your salmon cakes fresh off the pan....mmmm



River and Range Burger

This is a burger that Alex and I saw on a menu at a restaurant in Chapel Hill. We didn't order it because I immediately recognized that I had all the similiar ingredients at home and we would just  make it ourselves.  This is a bison burger with smoked salmon and Herbed cream cheese(well greek yogurt).

1lb Ground Bison
1 onion minced
Few slices Smoked Salmon
Hamburger buns
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Franks Red Hot

For the Herbed "Cream Cheese":

1 tbsp Dill
some Lemon Juice
salt/pepper
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon capers
1 clove crushed garlic

Alex is the burger man, I was in charge of the 'cream cheese' and mincing the onion. For the cream cheese mix all the Herbed cream cheese ingredients to taste. I keep saying cream cheese, its really not but you get it.

For the hamburger meat in a mixing bowl combine the minced onion, defrosted meat, and seasoning and mix well. Alex always uses this mix of ingredients and the burgers are the bomb.com. Form into patties and throw them on the grill. I don't know how to grill hamburgers and if Alex weren't home I would probably just bake them in the oven on 400 for about 20 mins.

Add the cream cheese to the bun, layer the salmon (the "River" part of the burger), add lettuce if you like, we had no tomatoes but that would've made this even better. This is a great mix of flavor and if you don't like smoked salmon you should probably just make the "Range"(bison) part of the burger and leave off the salmon because the burgers are that good.

Spaghetti Squash Dip

If you don't know what Spaghetti Squash is. You are missing out and aren't fully enjoying fall. Its like fall without football, impossible. Most recipes that I make including spaghetti squash, the squash is a replacement for a pasta. My friend Karen made a yummy one doing just that. Because I always steer towards that route I wanted to try something new and also use my new dip stoneware. Yes, loser, I know.

1 Spaghetti Squash
1 cup cheese (I did feta)
3 cups Greek Yogurt
1 tbsp Mayo
3 cloves crushed garlic
plenty of s&p and even some cayenne pepper
1/2 c breadcrumbs (for topping)
1 tsp paprika (also for topping)

In case you aren't familiar with Spaghetti squash, its  typically sold by the pound unless you are at Trader Joes and they sell it at about $4 per squash, its a steal. So I buy two at a time. If refrigerated they last at least two months so if you see one pick it up and save for a day you're feeling adventurous.

The terrible thing is cutting the squash in half, I don't have any good tips/tricks to make this easy other than to say be careful or make a boy do it...

Preheat your oven to 400. Once the spaghetti squash is halved scoop out the seeds and questionable insides (similiar to a pumpkin) but you won't have to do as much scooping.

 Next lightly drizzle olive oil on the inside then place face down onto baking sheet.

Bake for about an hour. When making the spaghetti squash for this dip you are pretty much overcooking it a bit bc you dont' want the texture as stringy as you would for a pasta dish. The squash comes out REALLY hot so I baked the actual squash the night before, and scooped it out in the morning .  If you are nervous that the squash isn't cooked enough jab it with a fork while in the oven  you will notice it gives a lot more than it did before and the outsides may be browned a bit. Scoop out the insides add salt and pepper.

Add the spaghetti squash to a mixing bowl and add in greek yogurt, mayo, cheese, garlic, and any other spices etc you want.  Mix it all around...

Looks weird but trust me its good. If you are not using stoneware I would lightly grease the baking dish. Place the dip into your oven safe dish.

I topped it with a mix of Italian and panko breadcrumbs just because I had both. I also sprinkled a little paprika to make it pretty.

Bake on 375 for about 30 mins, or until you see it bubbling on the edges. I then broiled it on high for about 3 mins to make it even better looking.

Serve with chips/carrots/celery or just eat it with a spoon, its that good.

Clam Chowder

I know what you're thinking.. how can clam chowder be healthy? This is obviously not as creamy and thick as your typical 1 cup serving at the restaurant with 1200 calories, but this hits the spot on a cold ugly day and doesn't make you feel like a heffer. I slow cooked this for about 16 hours in the crockpot. Yes extreme I know but sooo worth it.

This makes a ton.

2 tbsp dried thyme
1 Bay leaf
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 Cups clam juice (from canned clams)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 flour
1tbsp olive oil(any oil)
1 carton chicken stock

2 cups chopped celery
1 chopped onion
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cloves crushed garlic
2  cubed potatoes (I didn't do this bc I hate potatoes in my soup, not sure why I just do)
30 ounces canned chopped clams


I cooked this on the low setting in the slow cooker for about 5 hours, then turned it down to warm for the remainder. I noticed the chowder when from a bright white to an eggshell by the morning and that is when the soup tasted redic. (in a good way)

First  chop up all  your veggies and dump them in a mixing bowl. Add the crushed garlic to the same bowl.

Take out your cream cheese and either leave it out to soften or melt in the microwave for a few seconds. I did the microwave method because I have no patience.  Add about 1tbsp of oil to this and really mix it up.

 Add this to your crock pot with the clam juice, whisk it.  Turn the crock pot on low at this point. Continue to whisk it and don't be worried if it looks a little clumpy the slow cooker will work its 16 hour magic and fix it. Add in the clams.

Add in chicken stock and veggies and mix it all up. Add in cayenne pepper, thyme, bay leaf and Worcestershire. Pretty much all the ingredients should be in the crock pot except the milk and flour.  I filled it up about 4/5 of the way  with chicken stock I didn't measure. Then mix everything up again and cook on low for about 4-5 hours. (you would add in your cubed potatoes at this point)

After the soup has been cooking awhile, veggies have soften etc..Mix your milk and flour in a seperate bowl. Make sure to mix this well, no clumps. Turn the slow cooker to the lowest setting, for me its WARM. Slowly whisk in this milk/flour mixture. This thickens the soup a bit. Stir and place the lid back on top. Cook for another 10 hours or so.

Keep in mind my cook times are extreme, you could easily do this in a pot on the stove top and just monitor it closely.  Or crank up the slowcooker but again you'll have to watch it more closely.

I am not a huge thick soup kind of person, but in the case that you are and want a more authentic Clam chowder texture...remove about 3 cups of the soup and put in the  blender or food processor till pureed and add back into the crockpot. If you are using a blender only fill up the blender about halfway and keep the little cap off the top if blending when still warm. When you add this back into the crock pot it makes the soup thicker and gives that fake creamy allure so many people love.

Wake up to your house smelling fabulous and lunch and dinner made for the day or week!  Serve with Cornbread Croutons!