Are you looking for something simple, satisfying and perfect for polite company or a living room full of game fans?  If so, I have just the recipe for you today.  It’s a mouthful of flavor in a small package.  The perfect finger food for a party of any kind.  In a word, it’s delectable.

I was thinking about the mushroom and Swiss burger at my favorite diner when I came up with this. It became something I just couldn’t shake.  I had to do something about the craving for mushrooms and cheese before it drove me mad (or to the Diner for a $9.00 burger plate I’d never be able to finish!)

The end result satisfied my cravings perfectly.  It also turned out to be an exceptional dish in its own right. It’s meaty, savory and perfect nosh food.  It’s good hot, great at room temperature and not too bad chilled.  the flavors are bold but the package is small, so there is no need to eat too much, just nibble to your heart’s content and enjoy the flavors.

One warning…  These are addictive, so you might want to make sure you have double the ingredients on hand, just in case…

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: appetizer, appetizers, Cheese, game foods, mushrooms, super bowl food, wine

It sometimes amazes me that in today’s world of high-end restaurants and lofty food shows the simpler cuts of meat are either forgotten or worse, are thought of as something only useful for the most basic of culinary tasks. My issue with this trend is that some of the cuts now shunned by most shoppers have the capability of producing the most wonderful and intense flavors when treated correctly. These ingredients should be commonly used, not relegated to a back shelf in the meat aisle with labeling spelling out their least delectable use.

Take this poor misunderstood specimen:

When I went into the market the other day, I had no intention of braising anything.  It’s still full-blown summertime hot here in Far Northern California with temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees on most days, so having something simmering on the cook top wasn’t the first thing on my mind.  Fortunately for me, my first reaction to the above label was something like;

“For Stock!  Are you kidding me? That’s a perfect braise!”

And with just a little love, it was.

I think too many people get caught up in the idea that braising takes a very long time. In fact, the secret to a great braise is less about the actual cooking time than it is about the love put into the first few steps of the process.  A good sear, the proper accouterments and the ability to simply sit back and let the thing happen are all that is really required to achieve stunning results for very little effort and even less money.

In the case of this dish, a bit of good port, some onions, garlic, vegetable broth, a few herbs and some aggressive seasoning was all that it took to elevate this humble shank cut to new levels of perfection.

Granted, I did use a bottle of port valued at over $30.00, but only because I had it lying about.  An equal amount of a $7.00 port or a $5.00 Marsala would have served just as well in this case. (Even a cheap Burgundy or Zinfandel would have been fine.) A great braise is about methods.  It’s about deep, rich flavors. It’s about taking all the love you can give a dish and letting the meal return the favor.

This recipe won’t let you down.

It may be the dog days of summer, but winter will be here before you know it.  This is most definitely a recipe you should explore and make your own.  Add some tomato paste, a few mushrooms, a bit of whatever else you like.  Toss some potatoes in about 30 minutes before serving.  Top a salad with the beef and make a vinaigrette from the jous.  It really doesn’t matter.  This is worth exploring.  It will satisfy your heart, your mind and hopefully, a good portion of your soul.

It’s that good.

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beef, braise, Braised, entree, Garlic, main dish, Onions, Recipes, slow cooked, wine

Of course there is the other side of the spectrum.  Inexpensive table wines that are fairly well suited to using as a component in a braise or stock, but not something you would happily serve your guests at a party. These barely palatable vintages are the domain of those who either don’t enjoy wine very much, have never tasted anything better or simply don’t care what it tastes like as long as it “gets the job done”.

The real fact of the matter is that it all depends on what you like.  My wife and I very much enjoy several different wines that rarely sell for more than six dollars a bottle.  They’re not pretentious, they’re just good.  Of course there’s also a $30.00 bottle of port sitting on my counter waiting for a dessert I plan to revisit in the near future.  I’ll pay for quality ingredients without giving it a second thought.

Today we’ll touch on two ends of the spectrum.  The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Top Ten Wines of 2008 vs. Bonnie Graves’ List of the Top Ten Party wines for Ten Dollars and Under.  After this, I’ll throw in my own two cents on a few other vintages you might like to try if you’re in the market for something a bit less expensive.

But now, on to the lists!

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: California Wine, Texas Wine, wine, Wines

Turkey may be the star of the holiday table, but I would never dream of hosting a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner without a ham as well. With both on the menu you satisfy everyone’s wants for a great holiday meal with both red meat and poultry, as long as you’ve got a good vegetarian dish somewhere in the mix, you’ve covered all the bases. Since these meals usually turn into a grazing frenzy later in the day, or at least they do when I host them, everyone gets to sample a little of everything before they’re done, and everyone leaves happy.

This year I picked up a spiral sliced ham by accident. I generally go for a full bone in shank, marinade it overnight in a combination of wine, onions, garlic and herbs and then cook it in an oven bag. It’s probably one of my most tried-and-true recipes to date. This year I didn’t have that option.

If you’ve ever cooked a spiral sliced ham, you’ll know that they don’t come out of the oven in a very attractive manner. (See images below.) The advantage they do have is the ability to soak up the glazes and sauces that they are cooked with, which enhances the flavor of the finished product immensely. Since pork and apple are the perfect combination, I chose to make a glaze from apples and Merlot. A choice that worked out incredibly well.

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: apples, christmas, Ham, Holiday-Recipes, Thanksgiving, wine

Summer is upon us, and with it the need for lighter meals and cool refreshing desserts. For many this means ice cream, gelato, sorbet or a float, all of which are wonderful indeed, but to me it means fruit, preferably with a bit of a kick.

This recipe stemmed partially from the fact that I have quite a bit of frozen fruit in my freezer that I don’t want to move to our new house over the following week, and the fact that my wife’s dietitian stated plainly that she needed more fruits in her diet. Faced with those two pieces of knowledge, there was of course only one clear choice…

Parfait!

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Berries, Desserts, Fruit, Recipes, sugar, summer, sweets, whipped cream, wine

Sometimes things just don’t go as planned, the other night was no exception. The plan was simple and I had high aspirations. I was going to introduce my wife to the epitome of cooking with wine, the extravaganza of culinary wonderment and simplicity that is beef bouguignon (beef burgundy). Not only would it be a wonderful dinner for a cold, rainy Texas night, but it was the perfect excuse to pull out my new casserole/dutch oven.

Unfortunately for me, that’s not the way things turned out. I don’t know if the cards were stacked against me, or if Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa and Robert Goulet got together and decided to play a prank on me. In any case, the dinner I planned was apparently not meant to be.

I was sure I had everything I needed. I’d been planning to make beef burgundy for weeks, and had stocked the ingredients well in advance. Here’s how it played out.

• I bounced excitedly into the kitchen to slice the beef… Not gonna happen, it was still frozen in the middle.
• I went to pull out the mushrooms… Ugh! Those were white mushrooms when I bought them, weren’t they?
• Fine, I can live without the mushrooms, I suppose. I’ll just grab the egg noodles… That I used last week for a pasta salad.

After sputtering expletives and downing one or two glasses of the Gallo Twin Valley Hearty Burgundy that I’d picked up especially for this meal, I gathered myself together and hit the internet for some ideas I could use with the ingredients that were in my pantry.

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beef, burgundy, Julia Child, recipe, roast, wine

Mine is one of the many American households where Ham is a staple at several holidays. I have slightly different methods for preparing this noble cut of meat, depending on the holiday in question.

For Easter, braising is my preferred method. No cloves will be found in my Easter ham, not that I’m against them, I’m not. I just prefer the first ham of the year to be something a bit simpler, with the essence of apples and the robust backdrop of a good red wine, rather than the more traditional pineapple and clove-studded affair.

It’s rich, flavorful and oh so decadent, especially when compared to the lighter foods that seem to come to the fore after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Braised, comfort food, Ham, Peppers, Potatoes, Recipes, wine

Some of you probably remember me waxing poetic on the subject of Twin Springs Wineries’ Texas Sweet Red wine. Being a wine country expat, I very much enjoy tasting wines that are local to the area I find myself living. Wines from different regions have very different flavor components and characteristics, not to mention methods of vintification. The serious wine types call this terroir (/tεʀwaʀ/ in French), which I suppose is as good a term as any, though I’m not wine-snobby enough to use the term often myself.

My wife had the pleasure of visiting the Wichita Falls Vineyards and Winery this past Saturday for a wine tasting with some friends. She was kind enough not only to take notes on her tasting, but to bring home some of the fruits of the vines and labors of the vintners themselves, definitely something I was interested in sampling!

The Wichita Falls Vineyards and Winery sells wines under two labels. Wichita Falls Winery and Vineyards is their primary label and vintages labeled Gates Vineyards are usually a combination of Texas and California grapes, a very interesting combination, as Texas grapes tend to be much sweeter than California’s offerings. (Texas has less water. Less water=smaller grapes. Smaller grapes=higher sugar content.)

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: News and Reviews, wine

I wanted to make something special for Mrs. seat of her Pants this Valentine’s day, not just your run-of-the-mill dessert. I must have hit every site on Google before I stumbled on this recipe. I was looking for a way to use up some of the Sherry or Sweet Marsala we have lying about, but this just looked so decadent that I had to do it.

It’s also my entry for Sugar High Friday #28, hosted by the lovely jasmine over at Confessions of a Cardamom Addict. If you were planning on entering, you’ve only got 4 days to get your entry in!

Let me warn you in advance, this is by no means low calorie or diet friendly. This is a heavy cake with a rich flavor that will linger on your palate for quite a little while. Not too sweet, but definitely all kinds of chocolaty satisfaction.

The sauce recipe is my own adaptation, mostly due to a lack of ingredients, but I think it’s probably a better compliment than the original would have been.
… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cakes, Desserts, Port Wine, Recipes, Valentines Day Recipes, wine