The Hanging Judge

I've got a line of annuals in baskets hanging outside of our laundry room. There's also a dendrobium orchid but the rest have died off. 

The green you see is weeds of oxalys growing in their place. The metal frames have also rusted through, so it's time to toss 'em.

Since each basket also has a dripper on our drip irrigation system, I need to plug them so the water isn't wasted just flowing onto the patio.

It can be hard work pulling the crusted up drippers off of the hose but I finally get them.

I have some plugs that I stick in to plug the holes.  Come spring, I can plant some new baskets and put the drippers back in.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Intercontinental Egg Scramble

I had a late lunch with an old high school friend recently. A very good dish of chilaquiles and eggs overlooking a harbor a bit north of Los Angeles.

The next morning, the mix of the eggs and tortilla chips stayed with me and helped inspire this dish, which pulls a bit from Mexico, France, and the good 'ol USA.

INGREDIENTS

4 eggs
1 merguez sausage
1/4 cup bacon bits (leftover from another breakfast)
6 leaves of spinach
1 teaspoon half and half.
1 stalk of broccolini or broccoli
2 tablespoons soft goat cheese
2 cloves fresh garlic
pinch of salt
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 corn tortillas

Cut the tortillas into small triangles.  Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan on high heat. When very hot, cook the tortilla triangles until crispy. Remove and set on a plate with paper towels to drain and save for later.

Chop up the merguez sausage into small bits. Add another 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. 

Cook the sausage and spinach together until the spinach is well wilted.

Chop the garlic finely. Do the same with the broccolini. 

Add to the pan and stir until the broccolini begins to soften.

Add the bacon and goat cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted.

Put the eggs into a bowl. Add the half and half plus a pinch of salt and stir until well combined. 

Add the tortilla chops to the pan and pour the egg mixture over the top. Stir with a spatula until done.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

A Ribeye Steak, French Toast, and some Sunday Sauce

Welcome to the debut of the latest Musick Channel blog. This one is for food.

No, I'm not a professional chef or even that experienced of a cook. My wife, Letty, is the cook of the family but I am trying to do my part to pitch in.

I've had some successes, and some failures (ask my son about 'caramel beef' sometime) but I am seeing a gradual and steady increase in quality of my cooking.

I've also found out that cooking good food to be enjoyed by others is actually really fun.

The weekends have become mine in the kitchen. Letty cooks a couple of dinners during the week so I'll give her a break and cook on the weekends. What the means, logistically, is that I'm responsible for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday plus dinner on Sunday (we go out to eat Saturday night).

My plan here on the blog is to present my Sunday menu (hence the name of the blog), with recipes and cooking instructions, to document my journey and, hopefully, to inspire you to pick up a spatula and frying pan to join me. After all, home cooking is the best cooking of all.

Let's kick it off with our first menu...

Breakfast: French Toast

The best way to use up your stale bread and have an absolutely delicious meal.

Dinner: Barbecued ribeye steak

The king of steaks and a classic meat to cook on the grill. 

Served with roasted potatoes and corn on the cob.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The Price of Beauty

A well-trimmed tree is a work of art. My neighbor has hers pruned every couple of years by her gardener.  This weekend, the crew showed up and did their magic.

The Japanese elm looks magnificent. Feathery, open, airy, without looking chopped.

The next morning, however, I go out to my patio and see this.  Seems like my walkway bore a bit of the brunt of their work.

No worries...when the gardener showed up for his regular Wednesday mow and trim, I pointed it out. He was over with a leaf blower immediately afterward.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

French Toast

You might notice that, although the recipes I put here don't take a lot of wok to put together, they often take quite a bit of time to get to the point. 

My French toast recipe is no exception.

This dish was created to take something old (stale bread) and turn it into something absolutely delicious and avoid throwing out wasted food.  We often buy some French or Italian bread to eat with dinner. We don't always eat it all.

What's leftover is put in the freezer to await it's turn to be changed into French Toast.

INGREDIENTS
1 loaf French or Italian bread, sliced an inch thick.
5 eggs
2 cups milk
Clarified butter (Ghee)

Start with a sealable bowl big enough to fit the slices of bread, laying flat, in it. I will stack 2 or three layers high, as tight as I can get them in the bowl.

In a mixing bowl, mix the eggs and milk.

Put one layer of bread in the plastic bowl and pour some mix on them, just enough so that the surface of each slice is just covered with the mix. Do the same with the next layer of bread.

If you notice that the mix will not be enough to cover everything, add another egg and some more milk to it and stir up.

Once you have all the slices in the bowl and covered with the mix, seal up and put in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, pull the bowl out of the fridge, turn over, and let sit like that for an hour. That insures that the bread is soaked thoroughly. Since my bowl's lid leaks, I put it in a bigger bowl to contain any mixture that spills out.

On a flat, hot skillet, brush a fine layer of clarified butter. Carefully (the slices are very delicate when soaked), lift a few slices...one at a time...and place on the hot skillet.

Cook for a few minutes on each side, place on a plate, and cover to keep warm while you finish cooking all the bread.

We served with our easy scrambled eggs.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Mashed Potatoes

While boxed potato flakes might be easier to make, they're not that much easier than making mashed potatoes from scratch.  Once you learn, you'll never go back to boxed potatoes.

INGREDIENTS
3 medium russet potatoes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup half and half
1/3 stick margarine (or butter, if you prefer)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

The hardest part comes right up front, peeling the potatoes. Even so, we're not cooking for an army, peeling three potatoes is not too bad.  I peel over the sink to make cleanup of the skins easier.

Put the peeled potatoes in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat town a couple of notches. I like to do a low boil for an hour.

When potatoes are cooked to a soft consistency, drain off the water...keeping the potatoes in the pot. Get a masher and start mashing. This is the second hardest part of the recipe. Add the other ingredients.

Keep mashing and stirring to get a creamy, smooth consistency. Taste test as you go along. Not salty enough? Add a dash or two until it is. Not creamy enough or soft enough?  Splash in a bit more half and half until it is.

Serve with your favorite protein.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Pan Fried Pork Chops

I cook a lot of Sunday dinners on the barbecue but not all of them. Today, I'll stay in the kitchen to make this entree.

When making pork chops, I prefer to cook them on the stove where I can capture the juices in the pan instead of letting them drop onto the coals of the barbecue. This means I can avoid the bane of pork chops, dry meat.

Like beef, look for good marbling. Pork fat is the key to a tasty, juicy pork chop.  I also have a secret ingredient that you'll need to gather when making breakfast...bacon fat.

INGREDIENTS
3 boneless pork chops, 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons Worcester sauce
2 green onions
1/4 white onion
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup bacon fat

I like to start several hours before cooking time. As I said, I have a secret ingredient that delivers great taste and juiciness to our chops. At breakfast, I'll make some bacon and reserved the leftover fat in a small, Pyrex bowl. This I'll set aside for later.

Take one green onion and chop up in a small food processor or dice very finely with a knife.  Put the chops in a sealable plastic bowl. Cover them evenly with the Worcester sauce and green onion. Seal the bowl and put in refrigerator.

When it's time to cook, sprinkle the chops with kosher salt and pepper on both side. Put the white onion and the other green onion in the food processor.

Chop up as fine as you can get them.

Preheat a steel pan (no non-stick) with the olive oil on high. Get it very hot.

Heat up your bacon fat so that it returns to a liquid state. 

Put the chops on the oil, they should sizzle very vigorously. Cover with a lid and cook three minutes. Turn them over and cook another three minutes, covered. This will brown the chops.

Turn the chops over, lower the heat to medium-low. Cook 8 minutes on each side. 

When done, put on a platter and cover loosely with foil.

Turn the heat back up to high on the pan. Splash some red wine vinegar over the cooked on drippings and scrape the stuck on bits with a spatula. Once you've got everything scraped up, put in the onions and bacon fat. 

Stir the onions in vigorously. Let the mixture boil for five minutes on high, lower the flame to low, and stir in the garlic. Let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Plate the chops and pour a few spoonfuls of your deglazed sauce over them and serve.

Leftover rating: 4

Darryl
Copyrght 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved