Bouquet Garni for You from Me!

I’m coming up on halfway day (3 more weeks to go on crutches) which means I haven’t set foot in my kitchen for three weeks except to heat up all the wonderful goodies people have been bringing me. I must say, my friends sure can cook!

Never to be one to let guests leave empty handed, I put together an easy gift from my garden to show my appreciation for the nice thoughts and yummy food. I must have got this from my Grandma who used this maneuver to get us moving on our merry way. We would go for lunch and a visit and when she was over us being there, she would start to pack up food and treats for us to take thereby signaling to us it was time to leave.

Since I have a blossoming herb garden, it was easy for me to put together a few bouquets garnis for my visitors to take and use at home for their own meals. For those of you who don’t know, a bouquet garni is a small bundle of herbs that can include thyme, parsley, oregano, bay leaf, and the like. It is often tied in a cheesecloth bag (although I just tied mine with string) and used as flavoring for soups, stews, stuffing a chicken, etc.

If you don’t have an herb garden, you should. It doesn’t take much room or maintenance. You can have it inside or out. It can be in the ground or in pots or even in hanging pots. I can’t express enough how nice it is to have fresh herbs on hand. You could buy them but those small packages at the grocery store always cost $2-4 which is more than it would cost to plant the same thing that would last forever.

Fresh Bouquet Garni

Ingredients

1 branch oregano
1 branch parsley

1 branch thyme

1 branch rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 piece of string

Directions
Neatly stack the herbs so their stems match up. Take your string and tie the stems together. The end. You could do this with dried herbs and a cheesecloth bag and keep them on hand in the pantry for up to a year. The fresh ones will last about a week in the fridge.

I Have a Strawberry Patch and So Can You!

When I first bought my house, my goal was an edible yard. My first order of business was to clear out a planter in the front and convert it into a strawberry patch. Although the clearing of the planter took a little time (due to the unsightly and ridiculously large bush left in it by the previous owner), the prepping of the soil and planting of the berries only took about 30 minutes. Not only that, the upkeep is minimal and they produce pretty much year round here in California. I know that isn’t necessarily the case in other places but strawberries are very hardy and they do stay green year round most anywhere in the country so they never become an eye sore. They can even be used as ground cover since they send out shooters to reproduce, covering more ground and filling in gaps as time goes on.

Strawberries, like most outdoor plants, like a lot of sun so choose a spot that gets a lot of sun exposure. We're talking "all day long on the beach" exposure. The plants will need to be spaced 4-6” apart so select your location and decide how many plants you’ll need based on this. I personally wouldn’t plant less than 15-20 plants if you want to see any kind of return. The great thing I experienced was that my plants started producing berries within a month of being put in! Trust me, you will be happy you did this when you’re eating ripe, juicy berries straight off the vine this summer.

Ingredients:

Plot of land, area of yard, planter, or garden box to locate your patch
Good quality vegetable or patio soil (sold in large bags)
Strawberry plants
Shovel
Trowel (hand shovel)
Water

Directions:

Clear the location you’ve selected so there are no roots, weeds, grass, or any other things growing there. Use your shovel to upturn the ground. Cover with a couple inches of the good soil and mix it in by chopping the shovel into the dirt to break up the clumps and mix in the new soil. Set out the strawberry plants on top of the soil where you intend to place them. Make any needed adjustments then plant each one according to the directions on the package. You can use the trowel to dig the small holes for the plants. Once you have them in the ground, gently pack soil around them and soak each one with water for 15- 20 seconds. You should water them every day for the first three days; after that, you can reduce watering to every-other-day for a week. Once the plants have enjoyed their new home for 10 or so days, you can cut back on the watering and hit them once a week.

Pro tips:

- To keep weeds to a minimum, use the clippings from your lawn to pack around the base of the plants and to cover all the dirt in your patch.

- Pruning encourages plants to grow. Prune your strawberry plants by pulling off dead leaves from around the base and removing berries that have gone bad.

- Don’t be sad if you only get a few in the first season. Each season gets better and better so be patient.
- You will soon be picking a quart every-other-day (like me)!

Let the BBQ-ing Begin!

While I was sunning in the back yard, icing and elevating my knee (rehab is a B!!), my mom was busy as a bee tending to my yard. Amongst other things, she did all my spring planting and picked a few goodies for us to use in a Sunday afternoon BBQ. It just so happens that Summer BBQ-ing is the topic of my next cookbook (out this summer) and I decided to be nice and give you a preview by sharing one of its recipes with you today.

My mom planted and gathered many new and exciting items for my edible yard. The grape tomatoes, which come from the “miracle vine” that I planted almost a year ago, were skewered onto rosemary branches from my patio and grilled like kebabs. The thyme and chives from the herb garden along the west side of the house were mixed with lemon juice, olive oil, and red pepper flakes to form a marinade for grilled chicken. And, the parsley from the herb garden, strawberries from the small patch in the front (be on the lookout for a post later this week on how-to plant your own patch), and oranges from the tree in the back were used in a dressing for a grilled salad (see recipe below).

Grilled Fancy Lettuce Salad w/ Orange-Herb Vinaigrette

Ingredients
1 head radicchio, quartered
2 heads endive, cut in half
2 small oranges (or one large, half cubed and half juiced) reserve rind
1-2 tablespoons red onion, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch parsley, pretty finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Grill lettuces on all sides until they just begin to toast then remove from heat. It will only take a minute or two per side so you need to stay nearby. Make a chunky dressing (include onions and orange pieces) with the remaining ingredients by whisking them all together. Serve over warm, grilled lettuce and garnish with some of the orange rind zested over the top.

Buy Now - Inflation is Coming!!

Inflation is coming! (according to my mother) And the price of groceries is going to skyrocket. Are you getting a good deal on your meats? Will you be able to afford to eat the same high-quality food if/when it does hit? Do you shop around? Do you check your weekly ads? I personally answer ‘yes’ to all three of these questions and so can you.

Of course, we all know it is best to purchase free-range meats but this is not always possible for a number of reasons. When I am unable to do so, I shop around and buy what’s on sale. This means that each week, I search the weekly ads of the local stores online to see what’s on sale (i.e. vons.com, Albertsons.com, Ralphs.com, henrysmarkets.com). It is only after doing so that I plan what I will be cooking for the week.

I used to cook for anywhere from twenty to one hundred people per day when I ran M Good Meals. Sometimes I even catered for groups of up to 300 people! Because of this, I learned how to spot a deal and I am about to pass my knowledge along to you.

I recently went to Henrys with a friend and he was amazed that I walked out of there with four bags of groceries and spent less than $30 on them when he had one bag that cost nearly $50. It’s all about the sales and knowing what price is a good price.

Here is a handy reference guide that I have pulled from deep within my noggin for you! Buy these items when they meet these standards. Don’t be afraid to buy extra and freeze in portions you will use. For example, the pork loin roasts listed below are usually on sale at Vons about once a month. They come in eight to ten pound hunks. I buy the whole thing and divide it into three or four roasts. Each roast is about five or six hefty portions that cost under a dollar per serving—holler!

Poultry
Boneless skinless chicken breasts, chicken tenders >$2/lb.
Boneless skinless thighs > $1.79/lb.
Bone-in chicken breasts > $1/lb.
Whole chicken > $.69/lb.
Cornish game hens > $.99/lb.
Ground turkey > $3.50/lb.
Whole turkey > $.99/lb. (unless it is Nov. or Dec. in which case it should be > $.50/lb and is sometimes free with a $25 purchase at Vons or Ralphs)

Pork
Pork loin > $2/lb.
Pork tenderloin > $3.50/lb.
Pork butt, Boston butt, picnic roast > $.99/lb.

Beef
Tri-tip, ribeye steak, strip steak, flank steak > $5/lb.
Ground beef > $1.29/lb.
Pot roasts > $.99/lb.
Prime rib > $4/lb.

Fish & Seafood
Salmon, cod, mahi, scallops > $5/lb.
Tilapia/snapper/calamari steaks, clams > $3/lb.
Halibut > $6/lb.
Shrimp > $4/lb.
Lobster tails > $5 each

Lamb
Rack > $10/lb.
Shank > $3/lb.
Roast > $5/lb

Tony Tatonka's Debut Dinners

First off, let me apologize for such a long gap in entries. I was “homeless” for two months while house sitting for friends and looking for a place of my own. One month ago, I bought a house and finally moved into my very first home! Over the past month, I have been busy unpacking, painting, arranging, and more so unfortunately this blog has suffered.

I am back in action now and ready to spread The M Good Life once again. I have so many stories to share already about the adventures with friends in my new place and can’t wait for you to read them!

I just bought a bison (affectionately named Tony Tatonka by my friend Cynthia “Sinner” Lumley) with some friends from the gym and got an amazing deal (about $8/pound) and a variety of meat—roasts, steaks, shanks, tenderloin, stew meat, and ground…lots and lots of ground.

I really look forward to cooking the shanks so I can enjoy the tasty and nutrient-packed marrow and I plan to cook the roast and stew meat in a crock pot with some assortment of veggies and spices yet-to-be-determined. They await in my freezer for the perfect occasion.

So far, I have cooked the ground bison two different ways and both have been amazing. I had some friends over for Sunday Funday and served up “sandwiches” of lettuce wrapped turkey and bison burgers with sliced tomato, avocado, and three homemade sauces: ancho-garlic mustard, chipotle barbecue, and roasted cherry tomato balsamic (see August 27th entry for this recipe).

I roasted a turkey on Saturday and made gravy out of the pan juices reduced with fresh mushrooms to test some ideas for the first Thanksgiving dinner I will be hosting at my new place. Since there was extra gravy and gravy shall NEVER be wasted, I decided to use it in the bison burgers to make sure they didn’t dry out on the grill.

Bison is a very lean meat and therefore can dry out and become tough when cooked. The mushroom gravy was a perfectly delicious way to make sure this didn’t happen while adding amazing flavor to the meat because in my opinion, turkey gravy is the BEST gravy.

For lunch today, I made Anaheim chilies (from my CSA Box) stuffed with ground bison and baked with my homemade marinara sauce. To keep the meat moist while baking, I added fresh yellow squash and caramelized onions to the mix before stuffing the peppers. You can use any veggie you want, that’s just what I happened to have on hand. Be creative and share your ideas!

Gluten-Free Turkey & Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients
Pan juices from roasted turkey (about a 23 pounder)
2 packages of pre-sliced mushrooms

Directions
Strain most of the fat off the pan juices and put in a sauce pan. Simmer on medium heat until it reduces by half. Add mushrooms and simmer until it reduces by half again. You will know when it is ready when it can coat a wooden spoon.

Bison Burgers w/ Turkey-Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients
1 ½ pounds ground bison
1 cup turkey-mushroom gravy
1 tablespoon minced garlic (from jar)
Fresh pepper (no need to add salt since the gravy has plenty)
Steak rub

Directions
Mix all ingredients and form into patties (6-8 patties depending on size). Sprinkle with steak rub. Grill to medium (or however you like your burgers). Remember that bison meat is lean and dries out if overcooked.

Ancho-Garlic Mustard

Ingredients
1 cup Gulden’s Mustard
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried ancho chile powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon paprika

Directions
Mix all ingredients. Chill and serve.

Chipotle-Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients
15 ounce can tomato sauce (make sure no sugar is added)
7 ounce can chipotle peppers in adobo
1 tablespoon cumin powder

Directions
Blend all ingredients in your Magic Bullet or food processor. Chill and serve.

Bison Stuffed Anaheim Peppers w/ Marinara

Ingredients
1 ½ pounds ground bison
2 cups marinara (Use your favorite. My recipe is secret but I might share it with you someday)
4-6 Anaheim peppers
1 yellow squash, finely diced or shredded
1 red onion, caramelized
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thinly slice onions and put in small pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until they begin to brown (about 10 minutes). Chop or shred yellow squash. Mix onions and yellow squash with the garlic and bison. Pour marinara in baking dish. Stuff peppers with meat mixture and stuff inside peppers. Place peppers in baking dish and dollop with marinara. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

No Rules Allowed

In my opinion, cooking should be a relaxing, creative outlet, free from rigidity and rules. You should look at your ingredients and get excited because they are a palate for your creativity. Have fun, experiment, and be flexible enough to improvise and change your recipe based on what ingredients are available.

When I go grocery shopping, I just pick out what looks good in the produce section and what is a good price in the meat and seafood departments. I think it is fun to take my items home without a specific plan for them, and create new recipes throughout the week based on what was seasonally available.

A couple nights ago, my friend Courtney and I decided to make “Spaghetti Squash Gemelli” (twins) where each of us would provide a different sauce for the duo. Courtney made her famous “Creamy Deliciousness” and I was excited about steamed clams with basil and tomato.

I stopped by the store where the clams were on sale to find only five clams at the counter! Apparently many others had my same plan. No worries, the peeled and deveined shrimp looked divine so I grabbed a pound of that instead and headed over to cook with Court.

I used the same basic recipe and cooking method the clams called for and only had to change the amount of liquid so I could sauté the shrimp whereas I was planning to steam the clams.

As it turned out, the shrimp made a better half of the Gemelli than the clams would have because the sauce was a little thicker so it could stick to the spaghetti squash and could stand up to Court’s hearty selection. Plus, we got more bang for the buck with the meatiness of the shrimp versus the clam.

Italian Steamed Clams

Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh clams
2 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 tomatoes, 1” chop
2 cups dry white wine
2 T butter
1 bunch basil, julienned
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
Put oil, garlic, and clams in pan medium-high heat and cook for about one minute. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook another minute or so. Add wine and stir around to deglaze pan. Cover and simmer on medium heat for about 5 minutes (until clams open). Remove clams and set aside. Simmer broth until it reduces by half. Remove from heat and stir in butter until it is melted. Add basil and stir. Put clams back in sauce and stir to cover.

Italian Shrimp

Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh clams
2 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 tomatoes, 1” chop
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 T butter
1 bunch basil, julienned
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
Put oil, garlic, and shrimp in pan medium-high heat and cook for about one minute and then stir the shrimp to flip them and cook another minute on the other side. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook another minute or so. Add wine and stir around to deglaze pan and simmer another minute or so. Remove from heat and stir in butter until it is melted. Add basil and stir.

Courtney’s Creamy Deliciousness

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 pkg. mushrooms, sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 t. olive oil
1 pkg. Trader Joe’s hot Italian chicken sausage
1 jar Trader Joe’s Rustico Marinara
Splash heavy cream (to taste)

Directions:
Heat oil in pan on medium-high heat and cook sausage until brown then add onion, mushrooms and garlic and cook until onions are translucent. Add marinara sauce and simmer for 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in heavy cream.

There's no such thing as a buffalo turkey!

Yesterday may have been Labor Day to you but to me and two of my closest friends, it was Girls’ Day. I had Nichole and Sage over to hang out, eat, and plan our friend Katie’s baby shower. So yes, we mixed business and pleasure and ended up hanging out well into the night but the tiredness I am feeling today is totally worth it.

I played tennis in the morning with an awesome group of people (who actually asked me to join them again so I must not have been too terrible) so I prepped for Girls’ Day the night before by making the buffalo-turkey patties so they’d be ready to grill when I got home.

Tennis ran long and the girls beat me to my house so I did not hesitate to put them to work when they offered. Sage made the salad and Nichole took notes on the baby shower while I grilled up the burgers even though according to Sage, “there is no such thing as a buffalo turkey.” Sage may be an expert in many areas like Olympic Weightlifting and advice-giving but she doesn’t know that much about cooking (yet) which is why I usually have her over to eat instead of the other way around.

We wrapped the burgers in lettuce and ate them alongside Sage’s lovely salad while sitting in the back yard and catching up on all the things going on in each of our lives. We proved many things that day and one is that time really does fly when you are gossiping with a gaggle of good friends. Before we knew it, it was nearly 5PM and Sage took off for the grocery store and then home to study. Nichole stayed around to hang out so I decided to give her an impromptu cooking lesson. She was in a pretty bad car accident a few weeks ago and has just now got back to a regular routine including proper meals and has, admittedly, never really known how to navigate the kitchen.

I opened the fridge to see what was available. Since I probably should have joined Sage at the store, there wasn’t much to the naked eye but what I saw was potential for an Asian-inspired almond chicken. I quickly thawed a couple chicken breasts and whipped us up a meal in about 10 minutes. Nichole seemed highly impressed so I let her take home some of the leftovers for making me feel so smart.

Buffalo-Turkey Burgers
2 lbs. ground bison (Costco has started carrying this along w/ bison NY strips)
1 lb. ground turkey
3 cloves minced fresh garlic (or 3T pre-minced stuff in a jar)
Fresh basil, finely chopped (I got it from my friend Krazy K’s garden but it was probably 2 store pkgs.)
Salt & pepper

Put all ingredients in bowl and mix well. Form meat into about ten baseball size balls and flatten each into a patty. Grill what you are going to use immediately then individually plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze the rest for a quick meal later on. Serve on large pieces of lettuce w/ all the fixins.

Almond Chicken
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
½ onion, thinly sliced
1 small red or orange bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 cloves fresh garlic (or 2T pre-minced)
1 jalapeno, minced or a sprinkle or three of red pepper flakes (optional for heat factor)
2T sesame oil
4T almond butter
4T (approximately) chicken broth (I always have a container in the fridge for such occasions)
2 cups raw broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces

Sautee onions, peppers, garlic, and jalapenos in sesame oil on medium-high heat until veggies start to soften. Add chicken and cook through. Turn heat to medium-low and add almond butter and chicken broth and mix in until a sauce forms and coats the meat. Toss in broccoli and cook for 2-3 minutes. Serve.