Comfort Food Galore

I had kind of a rough time of it Friday, got sucked into some pretty weird church politics at someone else's church, so the weekend started out with my wanting comfort food. Friday night, that worked out to Indian food out. For some reason, one of the foods I find myself really wanting whenever I have a bad cold or a bad day is Indian food. I am missing Ajanta India in Kettering a lot right now because we haven't found a place we really love yet here. Cafe Tandoor (at least the one in Westlake) is simply not good at all and India Garden is good, but way too hot for us and lacking in bhatura. I suspect there may be just the right place over on the east side, but for now, India Garden will do. We started with a vegetarian appetizer sampler that was decent and some rather bland pappadum. Next was really hot but quite tasty chicken tikka masala (even though we asked for a 2 level-next time, I go with a very wimpy zero!) with lots of rice and very good garlic naan to calm our tongues. Finally, we split an order of the best gulab jamun I've had yet, just perfection in a dish. If you like it very hot or if you want luscious gulab jamun, you will probably quite like India Garden because the flavor is good, the atmosphere is pleasant and the service is terrific! www.indiagardencleveland.com is the website.

Saturday we got hungry while we were out & about, so we popped into Tommy's on Coventry for the first time. The atmosphere was not very conducive to comfort or coziness and our server was downright unfriendly. However, it was really refreshing to see a menu with so many great options for vegans and vegetarians. I would go back, but probably not when the weather is cold because it is uber-drafty. I ended up eating with my coat and scarf on! I had the very yummy Colleen, which was a pita sandwich with falafel (which was pretty good, although not as good as the falafel at Aladdin's), bacon, cheese, sprouts, onions, green peppers & tahini sauce. J had a meat pie with cheese, which was also quite nice. We also had a good laugh when J didn't realize "homos" is another spelling of "hummus" and was rather shocked to see it written on the menu. "Homos??? What do they mean???" she exclaimed. You can find the menu, as well as more info, at www.tommyscoventry.com.

Saturday night, our dinner went with our K date theme, "Kid Inside Day." I fed our inner children with cheeseburger sloppy joes, tater tots and chilled canned pears. I got the sandwich idea from the Dayton Junior League cookbook and made it my own. "How can you have a cheeseburger without ketchup?" I thought, and added it.

Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes

1 lb. burger

1 onion, chopped

8 oz. colby-jack (or whatever cheese you like best), cut in 1/2" cubes

Salt & pepper to taste

A dash of chili powder

2 tbsp. pickle relish

1/4 c. mustard

1/4 c. ketchup

1/3 c. mayonnaise

12 buns (or make as many sandwiches as you need and freeze the rest of the sandwich guts for later-and trust me, it does make enough for 12!)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brown and drain burger. Add onion and cook until softened. Add cheese and cooking, stirring, until melted. Add seasonings and allow to cool. Mix condiments together and add to cooled meat mixture. Spoon onto buns and wrap each in foil. Bake 20-25 minutes. I liked mine with extra ketchup squirted on as I ate it, so having some extra condiments on the side is a good idea.

Sunday night, J wanted to use the chicken she'd bought for chicken marsala. She'd forgotten the sauce at work & didn't want to drive all the way over there, so she scanned Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons Too cookbook and came up with the very tasty and very downhome chicken boudine. The recipe can be found at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chicken-boudine-recipe/index.html. I made steamed cauliflower & broccoli to go with it and J added some good olive oil bread.

A Study in Contrasts

Wednesday night, we were on the road back from a wrestling match and I decided to stop for dinner at the Chardon/Painesville exit. I'd seen a sign for the Red Hawk Grille and was intrigued. However, we did not spot the Red Hawk Grille until after we'd eaten. I did see John Palmer's Bistro 44. Since I'd heard good things about the restaurant, I decided to pull into the strip mall and check it out. J just shook her head when she saw the menu prices, but since I was paying, she had no say. It is pricey for just a stopping-for-dinner-on-the-road meal, but we'd not been out to a swank place for quite awhile. It was well worth it! The first thing I noticed was the row of Asian-looking paper-shaded lights above us and the roaring fireplace we didn't get to sit next to. You can't get the fireplace seat every time. I started us with a cheese plate. It was about double the price of the cheese service at The Winds and the cheese selection wasn't as good, but they did have fruit and a very nice balsamic vinegar on the plate, along with lovely toast "points" that were actually small slices. The pears and raspberries were perfect with the 8 year aged balsamic. The sole strawberry was showing evidence of being out of season, while the raspberries, surprisingly, were good. Neither of us touched the blueberries. Those are one of the foods whose actual flavor I truly dislike. Their texture is none too pleasing, either. The cheeses were a fairly unremarkable Cheddar (we weren't told the provenance of any of the cheeses), a tasty blue cheese in really unflattering shades of orange and blush red and a quite good aged Gouda, not quite as delightfully granular as some I've had, but no slouch at all. No Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam, no Cypress Grove Purple Haze, no Mahon or Pierre-Robert. But good, nonetheless.

For our main course, we split one of the specials, a certified NY Strip, medium-rare, with a blue cheese crust and a thyme-red wine reduction. The steak was splendid, perfectly cooked & with just the right crust to meat ratio. It was served with good skin-on mashed potatoes and a gorgeous tangle of sauteed wild mushrooms.

Dessert was called Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, but for me, I could have totally skipped the chocolate mousse cake with ganache. Not that it wasn't good, but I am picky about cake and really prefer to eat my own chocolate nemesis cake or traditional wedding cake, frothy white with white icing, or no cake at all. Call it spoiled, if you will. However, the raspberry sorbet was so over and above the cake that no cake was required at all. It was magnificent, even capturing the heart of my dear sweet tooth wife, who generally eschews sorbet because it's "too sour" and makes faces when forced to try it. I don't believe I've ever met a sorbet I don't like but this one was high on the list. Not quite Jeni's Splendid (www.jenisicecreams.com and they ship!), but ahhh anyway Along with the cake and sorbet was a tall shot glass of "Bailey's hot chocolate" that earned the place of "favorite" among the desserts for me. A sumptuously silky elixir of goodness, I didn't want to share, but J loved it, too. Not as much as she adored the sorbet, but I must learn to make it. That golden texture!

All in all, the dinner was just perfect for soothing our kid-drama jangled nerves and making the evening more pleasant. The food was wonderful, the atmosphere really calming and warm and the service top notch. So, if you're in the Cleveland area & want a very special dinner, I do highly recommend this spot. www.johnpalmers.com is the website.

Now, for the contrast. Last night was J's night to cook. She got home late & then we went to Trader Joe's to shop for today's manager's lunch at the plant. By the time we ate, it was 10 p.m. We sat down to big bowls of cheeseburger Hamburger Helper, corn, olive oil bread and applesauce. And I skipped my corn (turned out funny, texture & temp-wise) & applesauce (too bland & found some black flecks in it-creepy!). Ha ha! No pretentious food snobbery here.

Pasta for the Plant

J is hosting a little lunch in the middle of the work day for the managers, so we picked up a bunch of good-lookin' lunchmeats & cheeses last night for sandwiches, as well as hummus and pita chips. I made a big ol' pasta salad and sent it to work with her this morning in my favorite green-glazed pottery bowl, the one I always use for my popcorn. I do hope she's careful with it! I had also made some cupcakes, white with either chocolate or white frosting and blue sanding sugar. She's coming back later for those and a kiss. I wish I had little snowman picks to put in them!

Athenian Pasta Salad

24 oz. organic tri-color vegetable radiatore pasta, cooked

1 red onion, choppped

1 c. oil-cured kalamata olives, sliced

12 oz. feta

1/4 of a green pepper, chopped

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

3/4 c. oil, plus some more sloshed in the bowl

7 generous tbsp. red wine vinegar

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 scant tsp. sugar

3 tsp. Dijon mustard

Mix all together gently in a big bowl and chill overnight (or for at least 4 hours).

Checking Out the Burton Syrup

When we were in Burton, Ohio at the end of December, we picked up a little jug of syrup from the town sugar house. Tonight was the perfect opportunity to try it and it was delicious! I made corn pancakes, served with Bob Evans' regular sausage patties and Del Monte citrus salad. What an easy dinner!

Corn Pancakes

3/4 c. flour

1/2 c. cornmeal (we got ours at a little festival from a couple who make it themselves)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. sugar

2 c. lowfat buttermilk

1 egg

2 tbsp. oil

1/2 c. corn kernels

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add everything but the corn. Beat to a thin batter. Add corn. Lightly grease skillet and make pancakes, flipping when bubbles show up on top. Makes about 24.

Cooking For Comfort

J's been on a real comfort food jag lately. Monday night, she baked kielbasa & kraut and sauteed pierogies with peppers & onions. We had corn & fresh pineapple with it. It was all so good! Then last night, she made goulash and whomp breadsticks. I love goulash, so I was a happy girl. Tonight, she's back to her standard meal, steak with baked potatoes & asparagus (which she adores no matter what the season). So, that's what we've been eating on these snowy single digit nights.

Trying Something New

I celebrated Try a New Food Day a day early, trying a Nigella recipe that I was oh so skeptical of. I mean, raisins in a savory dish are not usually my cuppa. However, everything was super-delicious. I did pappardelle with zucchini, sultanas and pine nuts accompanied by a couple different kinds of flatbread & a spring mix salad topped with raspberry vinaigrette. The pasta recipe can be found at http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/pappardelle-with-zucchini-sultanas-and-pine-nuts or in Nigella's Forever Summer cookbook, which I highly recommend buying. I got it for Christmas and couldn't be more thrilled with it. Not only are her recipes stellar, but her writing is wonderful and funny! As for the flatbreads, I nipped up to the Olive Tree Middle Eastern market in North Olmsted to pick up some halloumi and some Jasmine's pitas, as well as a packet of sesame candy for a surprise for J. While the zucchini was cooking & the sultanas were soaking, I mixed 1 tbsp. each of za'atar and olive oil and smeared it on one pita. Then, I chopped up a few tomatoes, sliced some halloumi and put them on another pita, which I then sprinkled with dried mint & drizzled with olive oil per Nigella's instructions. Those got tossed in a 450 degree oven for a few minutes and served with dinner. I think the halloumi flatbread was what pushed the dinner from a 9 to a 10 in J's book.

Lemon Pork Chops with Tomato & Olive Couscous

Last night, J was in full swing on making soup for her employees. Somehow I managed to squeeze in and fix dinner. I adapted a WW recipe for veal chops with couscous to fit my ethical code about veal and my personal dislike of regular couscous. Then, I added an adapted version of a Martha Stewart recipe for rosemary lentils and a spring mix salad with glazed walnuts, dried cranberries and citrus poppyseed dressing.

Lemon Pork Chops with Tomato & Olive Couscous

2 tsp. olive oil

1 chopped tomato

1 minced shallot

1 c. Israeli "couscous"

5 oil-cured kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1-2 tbsp. chopped parsley

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. lemon zest

1 minced clove garlic

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

6 thin pork chops, trimmed of all visible fat

Spray broiler pan with cooking spray. Preheat broiler. Heat 1 tsp. oil in small skillet. Cook tomato and shallot until soft, about 4 minutes. Add olives and heat through. Cook Israeli "couscous" according to package directions. Stir in tomato mixture. Mix 1 tsp. olive oil, parsley, oregano, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper together. Blot pork chops dry & rub with herb mixture. Broil 5" from heat 4-5 minutes per side, until cooked through. Serve with "couscous." Serves 3-6.

Rosemary Lentils

1 c. dried French green lentils

2 finely-chopped shallots

1 crushed clove garlic

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 generous tsp. coarse salt (I used grey sea salt)

2 tsp. red wine vinegar (more or less, to taste)

2 tsp. olive oil

Freshly ground pepper

Put everything up to the salt in a pan. Cover with cold water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmering, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, discarding rosemary and bay leaf. Stir in salt, vinegar, oil and pepper. Serves 4.