Two Happy Bellies

Going on Sabbatical

Hey all,

As you have probably noticed, posts are coming more and more sporadically. This is due to a dish which is taking us nine months to make. With the interesting changes going on in our lives we spent the first trimester not cooking much at all (food aversions on my part), the second trimester eating mostly familiar favorites (quick and easy to throw together, already blogged about), and expect to spend the third trimester frantically busy (nine months is a really long time, what do you mean the baby is almost here and look how much is still on the to-do list). Therefore Two Happy Bellies is going to take a break. We do hope to be back in the future as Three Happy Bellies. We sure hope you have enjoyed the past three years and three months with us (look, 3 and 3 and we will be 3 . . . this must be a sign!).

Love,

Two Happy Bellies (plus one)

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

We were first introduced to this soup at our niece's birthday party last year. She was born in the winter and there is always a huge family and friend's party in December for her (there is also one for her brother in August). Scaled up to serve 20, the recipe as given to us calls for quite a bit of ingredients. We scaled it back down to a more managable 6-8 servings and enjoy every bite. The orzo does continue to soak up the broth so leftovers either become "not" soup or need additional broth added.

• 9 C. chicken stock
• 2 t. olive oil
• 1 1/3 C. carrots, chipped
• 1 1/3 C. onions, chopped
• 1 C. celery, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 t. fresh thyme
• 2 t. salt
• 1 C. shredded cooked chicken
• 8 oz. orzo pasta, uncooked
• 1/4 C. fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 1/2 t. lemon rind, grated
• 1/4 C. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 t. fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 C. romano cheese, grated

1. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven.
2. Add carrot, onion, celery, garlic, thyme, lemon rind, and salt. Saute over medium heat until vegetables begin to soften.
3. Add chicken stock and lemon juice. Bring to a boil.
4. Add chicken and orzo. Simmer until orzo is cooked through.
5. Just before serving, add parsley. Garnish with black pepper and romano cheese.

Enjoy every last tasty drop of soup that night or as leftovers. Yum!

Soba Noodle Vegetable Salad

Inspired by an Ellie Krieger recipe, this one was a definite hit! Aaron made this to go along with a coconut lime chicken tender which we weren't all that excited about (hence we haven't blogged). We will continue to work on that recipe though as it does have potential and when it is worthy, we will let you know. In the meantime, enjoy these noodles whenever you have a need for some asian flair to your side dish.

Salad*

• 4 oz. soba noodles
• 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, cut into strips
• 1/3 C. shredded fresh basil leaves
• 1 T. chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 6 large lettuce leaves

Dressing

• 1/4 C. rice vinegar
• 1 t. sugar
• 1 T. canola oil
• 1/2 t. sesame oil
• 1 t. finely minced garlic
• 1/2 t. chili flakes
• 1/2 t. lime zest
• 1 t. lime juice
• 1/2 t. fish sauce**
• Salt

Boil noodles according to package directions. Drain and cool. In a large bowl, combine noodles, shallot, pepper, basil, mint, and cilantro. Combine all dressing ingredients except salt. Season with salt to taste. Add dressing to noodle mixture, and toss lightly. Place lettuce in bowls and top with noodle salad right before serving.

*The original recipe called for 1 1/2 C. of shredded carrots and 1/3 C. shredded fresh mint leaves in the salad. While this sounds great and we'll try it that way next time, we didn't have any carrots or mint in the house and didn't feel like going to the store just for them. The salad was tasty as is.

**If you don't own fish sauce, please do give it a try. I was skeptical and so glad Aaron convinved me it is a condiment worth keeping around. We use the bottle with the three crabs on the label because the little ol' lady at the Asian market insisted it was the best brand.

 

October is National Chili Month

Did you know this? We didn't and it was pure happenstance we enjoyed chili for dinner last night. Yum! Too bad we didn't take any pictures . . .

Don't Panic - Books 1 and 2

While I don't do nearly as much "freezer cooking" in the summer, I've started back up again and realized I've not raved about one of my favorite resources. I call them the "Don't Panic Ladies" . . .

       

These two cookbooks help create many delicious dishes in our family. I've mentioned a few of them here and there however there are many more that we do use and even more that should definitely be explored. Some new ones we plan on trying include the Grilled Coconut Lime Chicken Tenders, the Bangkok Chicken Satay, and the Orange Teriyaki Chicken (I'm sure Aaron would love for me to try the Chicken Pot Pie as well). Can you tell I'm on a chicken kick? I find it so easy to "freezer cook" with beef and pork, however not too many chicken dishes have made it into my reportoire and I'd really like to change that.

The best part of these books, to me at least, is they come with instructions on how to create the recipe with a reasonable amount of servings and they also tell you how to scale it up, sometimes by 2, 4, and 6 and sometimes by 3, 6, and 9. While I haven't done a cooking session with friends in a long time, the scaling up feature makes it easy to cook and share in a group setting. One person makes a specific recipe times X and then each person in the group gets to take that dish home with them as well as all the others. Or, if I'm being honest, I might make the recipe in multiples and keep them all for us if it is one of Aaron's favorites ;-).

I did also just discover they had a new book (Don't Panic - Quick, Easy, and Delicious Meals for Your Family) come out last April - I see a new addition to my cookbook shelves in the near future!

 

FTF - Twice Baked Potatoes

We did some freezer cooking on Sunday and tried something new . . . twice baked potatoes. I've known for a long time you can freeze twice baked potatoes, however we've never actually done them. Inspired by the Don't Panic ladies (and a huge bag of potatoes sitting in our kitchen) we made the leap.

We used 6 potatoes, 8 oz. low fat cream cheese, milk, onion powder, butter, fresh ground mixed pepper and some leftover parsley from our Meat Sauce.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and clean your potatoes. Season the outsides if you are used to doing this (we enjoy EVOO or butter and coarse salt), then bake for 1 hour or until done. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle. Then cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides into a large mixing bowl. Add other ingredients, then mash away. You can also add any herbs (parsley, dill, etc.) at this point.

Spoon mashed potato mixture back into your shells, then sprinkle with any additional items that catch your fancy such as paprika. Wrap each potato half individually in plastic wrap and insert into freezer bags. The only thing you have to do when you are ready to eat them is to thaw potatoes completely and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until heated through.

While they turned out just fine, one tip I have for future attempts is to not let them cool as much as we did. It made it hard to get the flesh out without tearing the skins, so we had to leave a fairly large "wall" around the twice baked part. We do look forward to enjoying these yummy potatoes and they are easy enough, we'll be making them again.

FTF - Green Chile Pork

I have an old tattered copy of this recipe from (I think) my friend Jenn. I say old and tattered b/c it has been used so often there are food stains everywhere. This is one that we threw in the slow cooker late last week to have for dinner that night, and then froze the rest for easy meals later on. We have modified the recipe a bit to stretch the servings a bit more and allot for less meat in each serving. This would be an attempt to make it slightly more balanced.

(I know the picture isn't the most appealing, however once the fat is skimmed off, this is very tasty.)

• 3-4 # pork roast
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 t. ground cumin
• 2 t. oregano
• 2 C. homemade stock
• 2 4 oz. cans diced green chiles
• 2 16 oz. cans stewed tomatoes (Mexican style if you can find them)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Pour undrained tomatoes in bottom of insert, add all remaining ingredients, finishing with the pork roast on top. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 5-6 hours. When finished, shred meat. This is great on nachos, burritos, tacos, or over a baked potato or rice.

Iron Chef Hawaiian Birthday

Okay, yes it has been two weeks since we lasted posted anything but we've had a lot going on. A couple of days can be blamed for internet routing going kaput. Another few days can be blamed in that we were out of town. Last weekend we went to KY to be with my family for my nephew Liam's birthday. This year he wanted an Iron Chef birthday party with Hawaiian food as the theme. This was a great idea!!!

Anyone one who knows anything about Hawaiian foods knows that SPAM is a big deal on the islands. Spam in Hawaii is big deal like BBQ is a big deal in Memphis, like wine is a big deal in France, like Pad Thai is a big deal in Thailand. There are family recipes for Spam that get handed down through the generations. Alas, many of us know not of the importance of Spam to Hawaii. Tracy says she had a coworker in LA who made some killer Spam fried rice.

My entry for competition was a variation of the snack food Spam Musubi. I thought for sure that someone would throw in a Spam fried rice dish to pit Spam against Spam but I was the only one. Would this be a good thing or bad?

I spent a few weeks before the competition searching Japanese markets in the Nashville area for a musubi mold like many of the recipes use but struck out. One market had a neat sushi kit that with a little creativity would serve my needs and thus making the recipe my variation. Two weeks ago I tested out the mold by making a batch of sushi rice, fried some slices of Spam, and used strips of nori seaweed. I wanted to get an idea of how hard it was to go through the assembly process and how labor intensive it would be start to finish. Here is the mold with the two halves filled with cooked rice and a slice of Spam cut in thirds.

Next I measured out the nori to be cut into strips. Nothing exact, just kinda eyeballed it.

Now that the rice halves have been pressed together with a piece of Spam in the middle they popped out of the mold pretty easily but need care in handling. Here they are ready to be rolled in the nori wrapping. The middle one started to fall apart on me. 

So here is the test batch kept real simple and ready to eat. I used just a little srirache as a dipping sauce. Spam + Srirache = Good.

Test batch was successful so I was confident to go with this recipe for Spam Musubi for the competition. I got to use my mom's gas stove to fry up the Spam. I could get used to a gas stove. Very nice! The sauce pan on the left is the mixture of soy sauce, mirin and sugar simmering away. That sauce turned out to be one of the best parts of this recipe. I would make another batch of the sauce just to pour over plain rice or Asian noodles.

Here in this assembly I decided to cut the musubi in half for easier bite sized pieces.

Later in the evening it was time for the competition and here is how I plated up the musubi for the judges. My sister Joey let me use these dishes that were our grandmother's that she had bought in Hawaii and the flowers also came from Joey's garden. 

The winning plate......

Nope! I got spanked in the competition. Third place went to a grilled pineapple dessert with Nutella sauce. Second place went to Joey's husband Bryant with his variation on a Portuguese bean soup that is common in Hawaii (interesting history of two food cultures combining). This soup was very good. First place stole the show! My mom entered a pork tenderloin cooked in pineapples and soy sauce and served with rice that contained pineapple and spices. That dish did not last long.

Other desserts included a white chocolate bark that contained macadamia nuts, coconut and pieces of dried pineapple, a pineapple cream tart and a pineapple macadamia nut cream pie. The pie was awesome!

This competition was a lot of fun even if I did not win. My consolation was that several people told me that they knew Spam was important and the were surprised no one else entered a Spam dish. I left the sushi kit with Liam and Kate since they love to make sushi. They will get some fun out of it and that makes me happy too. I wonder what Liam will chose as the theme for next year?

Freezer full of meats

Tracy and I have some wonderful friends at church that have a really nice farm but the coolest part is that they raise sheep. And we bought one. To go in the freezer. Locally raised, farm fresh, hormone free and then processed by a local butcher.

We paid just over $230 for 35+/- lbs of lamb chops, ground lamb, shanks and a few roasts. So far I have cooked up some of the chops and made lamburgers. For the lamb chops I have been seasoning them with some of the Penzey’s Lamb Seasoning. Usually when we do hamburgers we like to spice them up with the Northwoods Seasoning.

Tracy and I love lamb but most Americans do not. This is an interesting article from the New York Times that gives some insight to our aversion to eating sheep compared to the rest of the industrialized world. My understanding from a few people who have lived in Rutherford County for many years is that there used to be lots of sheep and goat farms around here. I also think that some people confuse the ‘gamy’ taste (in the pejorative sense) of lamb, goat and/or deer with a ‘this is natural’ taste of meat or maybe they are just too acclimated to a very mild flavor of beef.  When I went to London and Dublin in April 2007 several of the meals I had there were lamb. One of the very best lamb dishes I have ever had was in a small Iraqi family restaurant in London that served a lamb shank on a bed of rice topped with pumpkin seeds and golden raisins.  The presentation of that dish was just beautiful. While on that trip I snapped this picture of the Avebury sheep. They help keep the grass cut around all the monuments.
Another very good meal I had in Dublin was a lamb Boxty at this place.
So now we have a lot of lamb in the freezer and lots of recipes to try. Shepard's Pie? Rack of Lamb? I have never tried a Lancashire hotpot. Let's see what Tracy has to say about that....

Attributting Recipes

Recently one of the blogs I follow had to change the way she was posting her content due to yet another incident of "scraper sites" stealing her posts verbatim. While I got really annoyed on her behalf - she works hard at creating a beautiful site with lots of great content - it got me to thinking about how little protection there really is in the world of digital content. (The fact that I work in an industry rife with copyright issues probably has something to do with it.) While I'm not a lawyer and the little bit of copyright law I know comes from my graduate classes almost twenty years ago, I do know that U. S. Copyright Law states that:

"Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection." To see this on their website please go here.

Therefore, in an effort to play nicely in this playground called the internet, we are going to change the way we showcase recipes.

• IF a recipe is not easily available due to the fact that is comes from an out of print title, we will still include it in our postings and tell you where we found it.
• IF a recipe has been modified to such a degree that we no longer feel the source best represents the way we cook and eat it, we will cite our source and include our version of the recipe in our posting.
• IF we just want to rave about a fantastic recipe we make that is available, we will link to the source from which it was found (and hope they don't remove that content as has happened to me in the past).
• IF a recipe truly is one that we have created, that will be very obvious as we'll be quite proud of our work.

We hope these practices will work out for the best. Thanks for enjoying the adventures of Two Happy Bellies!

PS - Happy third anniversary to the blog.