by Sam Tackeff | Feb 28, 2013 | Poultry, Quick and Easy, Vegetables
So there was a snow storm three weeks ago. Nemo – I’m sure you heard of it. It was officially named by the Weather Channel, much to the chagrin of the National Weather Service. But three weeks ago – that’s about the last time I sat down at my computer to relax. (These are some of the photos I took of the storm!)
The week of Nemo I joined the team at RunKeeper – as a project manager leading globalization efforts! Beyond the job itself – which is absolutely thrilling – I’m most excited about working with a team of people who are kind, silly, and have a lot of fun together. I knew I would be in good company when in my exhaustive interviews I met cookbook lovers, people excited about home sausage making, home brewers, and another whose wife runs a small CSA/recipe club.
This week confirmed it, when our Hackathon had us working on crazy projects, and suddenly I found myself recording audio on ProTools (something I’d never done before), and dressing up as a “real runner” in order to properly make a fool of myself infront of my new coworkers. It paid off – our team won prizes in the “Audio” and “Best Demo” categories, and I personally won a Nerf gun.
The transition has been a little bit jarring – all of a sudden I’ve been thrust back into a daily grind, and it has been a challenge feeding us healthy meals, without resorting to more takeout.
Thankfully, not every night has been a wash. Here are a few of my favorites – easy meals that I put together quickly while I set about getting other things done.
Roasted sausages + Brussels Sprouts: the sausages are garlic thyme from M.F. Dulock (part of my Meat Club subscription). I usually keep extras in the freezer to defrost and cook when I really can’t bother to do any other work. They went into the skillet with a few cups of brussels sprouts doused with some olive oil, salt, and pepper at 350F, and after about 20 or 25 minutes I flipped over the sausages, agitated the brussels sprouts, and roasted for another 25 minutes, until the sprouts were soft and a little bit crispy.
Steak Salad: I don’t usually cook steaks for dinner, because they are expensive, and I’m happier with good quality ground meat or cheaper stewing or braising cuts for my meal. But sometimes, they show up in Meat Club, so I’m “forced” to eat them. Having not eaten enough vegetables, I opted for steak salad.
I seasoned the steak with salt and pepper, and seared it in a little bit of butter in the skillet. This was a thin steak, so it cooked in about 3 minutes on each side.
I let the steak rest as I heated up some leftover roasted baby potatoes, made a quick sharp mustardy dressing, and tossed it with some butter lettuce.
And then there was sausage night two (do you see a theme here?) This was a spicy Italian sausage, freshly made at the butcher, which I served with some mashed purple potato, and a spinach salad.
And finally, quick garlic chicken thighs, with more of those leftover roasted baby potatoes (another theme!), tossed with some steamed green beans, and a lemon-anchovy vinaigrette. The chicken is simply coated with salt, pepper, and garlic powder – yep, garlic powder. It forms a crispy crust that you can’t get from the fresh allium – and cooked on the stovetop in a little bit of coconut oil, about 7 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
This week, there were a few too many meals out… erm… most of them, but I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things!
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 30, 2013 | Meat, Photography, Poultry, Quick and Easy
In the past few weeks, my writing practice has seen several false starts. I’ll get motivated to sit down and craft something delightful, and then I’ll stare blankly at my screen. My mind has been so overloaded this month that I’ve been having trouble tuning things out and focusing. This can be infuriating. I have, however, been enjoying the medium of photography, committing myself to share at least one photo a day, usually here on instagram, out of the dozens that I snap on my walks. This is my favorite shot this week– it’s a bit of trickery. I took the photo of trees reflecting on the water of the semi-frozen Charles River, and flipped it upside down. I love how the flecks of ice look like stars.
I’d like to assure you that despite my lack of creative output, I’ve been eating well this month. Mostly. Of course there have been a few trips to Anna’s for Mexican, a couple of sushi orders, and my favorite yesterday: burgers and shakes at the Met Bar. But, I’ve spent a good amount of time at home making worthwhile meals. Here are a few of them.
One cold afternoon, I played around with Mark Bittman’s recipe for Crispy Pork Bits with Jerk Seasoning from How to Cook Everything, which slow cooks pork pieces in the oven seasoned with lots of allspice, nutmeg, coriander and lime, and makes the house smell celebratory. I tossed in a few handfuls of green beans in the last half hour of roasting.
And then there was this chicken dish, which I’ll call tomato braised curry chicken. It’s the ultimate cheater meal – I’ll season chicken thighs with curry powder and salt, and sear them for a few minutes in a little bit of coconut oil. When cooked through, I’ll pour over a jar of Rao’s marinara, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover, and let cook for about half an hour so that the chicken-y juices infuse the sauce. You can serve it over rice, or spaghetti squash, or eat it just plain in a bowl, like I do.
One night we had my childhood favorite, franks and beans, and big salads. I used to use Pearl hot dogs and the sickly sweet Campbell’s with the little pieces of salt pork like my grandfather liked, but these days I tend to use Applegate Organic hotdogs that I pick up at Trader Joes, and some sort of hippy brand of beans when I’m not making my own with Rancho Gordo’s.
There was this delightful winter lunch – a perfect steak from the butcher shop, which came in my Meat Club subscription, otherwise I’d likely never leave with something so fancy! I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and cumin, and served it with a little Moroccan carrot salad, with a cumin and preserved lemon vinaigrette, and a little handful of cured olives.
Another perfect lunch came in the form of a second childhood favorite: liver and peas. I cooked the (goat’s liver!) with a little bit of bacon, tossed in some frozen peas, and then doused it all with a good squeezing of lemon.
A quick dinner came together one night in the form of garlicky pork tenderloin, roasted green beans, and a dollop of guacamole. I like it when my meals have not one, but two shades of green. I usually parcook the green beans and then let them finish in the roasting pan with the pork.
Finally, one of my favorite meals, which we ate twice: roasted chicken thighs with potatoes, tomatoes, lemon and thyme. I love making variations on this, a fairly typically Turkish or Greek meal. I’ll season the chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and thyme, and then sear them skin side down in some melted butter. Then flip them over, and nestle them on top of a few par-cooked potatoes (in the microwave is just fine) and raw tomatoes cut into wedges. Into the oven for about an hour at 375, and the skin comes out crispy. You can also roast a few lemon wedges in there, and then squeeze out the juice onto your chicken.
And now for some wonderful news: when I returned home from a long walk this afternoon, I found a box from Le Creuset on my doorstep! My beloved 7.25 quart Dijon Dutch Oven, which had died of some fluke chipping, had been replaced! They even sent me the same color! Expect to see a good amount of braising and roasting in the coming weeks from my kitchen.
