Indianapolis Amy

-wibia

It is about that time of year that I consume a good amount of guac.  Salty chips, guac and cold beer…you just can’t beat it.  This recipe is really simple, quick, easy and pretty good.

Before I continue:  MAKE YOUR OWN GUACAMOLE!!!   The stuff is supermarkets is scientific junk.  They rarely contain avocados.  Think I am kidding?  Check out this list from debris.com.

4 ripe avocados
1 lime, juiced
1 garlic clove
1/2 red onion
Cilantro leaves…about a cup.  I never measure.
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 jalapeno, no ribs or seeds.  Want it hotter?  Use a Serrano.  You can add heat later, so default to low heat.
Quick drizzle of olive oil.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Add it all in the food processor, press the button.  If  you want to be a little more authentic, go with a Mocajete.

Garnish with a little red onion and cilantro.  I like a little crunch form the red onion.

-wibia

I love Beef Stroganoff, but it can take a while to make it.  This is a go to meal for me in the winter, but I bet it will be mighty tasty during the early spring or fall too.

Ingredients
Flank Steak
Thyme (5 sprigs)
Rosemary
4 T of unsalted butter
1 lb. mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
2 T Sour Cream
1 T Dijion Mustard
Parsley
1 lb of egg noodles.   Whatever kind you like, thick, thin…doesn’t matter.
OPTIONAL: Add onion.

This is really simple and should take about 25 minutes.   Take the flank steak and add a little rosemary and thyme to cover. Dried spices will do the trick, but use fresh if you have it.  You should be setup like this:

Take the flank steak and either do it on the stove or grill it.  It doesn’t matter.  Keep in mind it cooks quickly, about 4-5 minutes on each side regardless of saute or grill.  You never want to cook flank steak past medium.  The first pic is a solid medium.

Cut your mushrooms in quarters.  I have tried slicing them here and I just think it tastes better with meatier mushrooms.  Two count of olive oil, add a little rosemary and thyme.  If your garlic is fresh, then add it now.  If you are using the minced in a jar type, add it later.  When finished, it should look like this.

Add 2 T of butter to the above.  Low-medium heat.  Add the 2 T of sour cream and the 1 T of dijon mustard.  Fold it all together.  Take the other 2 T of butter and toss it into the egg noodles, add a little parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Add noodles to the plate, put the sauce on top and add the flank steak.

Most awesome quick version of a classic.

-wibia

Take four chicken thighs, add kosher salt (Diamond Crystal is my favorite), pepper (from a pepper mill), rosemary and thyme.  Dried spices are fine.   Leave the skin on, although you may need to trim them.  Roll the skin around so it is stretched around the meat.

Two count of olive oil in a sauté pan and sear them.   Make sure the oil is hot enough for sizzle before you put them it.  Skin side down first for about five minutes, then flip them for about five minutes.  They should look like this:

Put them in the oven at 375 for about 18 minutes and do not cover.   Approximate timing, depending on how long you leave them in the pan, more time in the pan = less time in the oven.   Ya dig?

Now, put some mushrooms and onion in the same saute pan that you just used.  Leave about 2 T of fat/oil…you will probably have to take some out.

8 oz mushrooms, 1/2 large onion.

Toss the onions in the saute pan, they should have about a five minute head start on the mushrooms.

Now pay attention here!!

You should be cooking your pasta now, but before you strain your pasta, reserve 1 cup of the starchy water.  My favorite for this dish is Nicole and Taylor’s Mushroom Pasta.  Sorry out of towners.

The mushrooms and onions are about 10 minutes in the pan and then add the one cup of starchy water and four tablespoons of unsalted butter.  It should be looking like this:

Reduce this for around 5-10 minutes until it looks like sauce instead of buttered water.

Plate, finish with a good pinch of salt/pepper and garnish with parsley.

This just might be the best pasta that you have ever had.

-wibia

Now, I look for a few shortcuts here and there and ways to add flavor to items that are already in my pantry.  In this case, pasta night to a lot of people looks like this:

Look familiar for pasta night?

Emeril’s sauce is okay and I would give it a 6/10, but it is what I had.  Don’t buy the really cheap canned stuff…spend a few bucks more.  Same goes with the pasta, buy good quality dried pasta.  This is a start, a sad start, but if you add a few things, you might have something to talk about.

Getting warmer...

Ingredients:  L->R  Garlic, Parmigiano Reggiano, Italian Sausage (links), Spanish Onion, Baby Bellas, Sauce, Pasta, Italian Seasoning, Fennel and Red Pepper.

Again, this is quick, easy..cheap and pretty flippin’ good.   The trick is, how you prepare this.  Let me explain.

So take the pork sausage links (4), cut off the casing.  Roll it into a ball like this, and then cover it with the whole fennel, red pepper, and italian seasoning.

TIP:  A lot of times, pork sausage is cheaper than ground pork.  Watch your prices.

Then break it into pieces, something like this…

Two count of olive oil into a pan and drop the balls of sausage in the pan.  Have a big enough pan that they are not sitting on top of each other.  Could you have put all the sausage in at one and then break it apart with a spatula?  Sure, but that is more of a bolognese and not what we are doing here.   After a few minutes, add onion and garlic.   Be careful not to burn the garlic.

After about 10 minutes, it should look like this.  TIP:  the sausage needs to be dark on the outside.  In fact, almost a little burnt.  Don’t stir this a lot, otherwise it will not carmelize.

It's ready

Add the sauce to the pan above (if most of the oil/fat is gone, if not, dump the oil out).  Cook for about 3 minutes until it is warm.  I sautéed the mushrooms in a separate pan with 1 T of butter and a two count of olive oil.  If you time it out correctly, you can cook the mushrooms in the above pot.  Either works just fine.

Add it all together and give it a snow shower of Parmigiano Reggiano on the Microplane and call it dinner.

In future segments, I will teach you how to make all of this from scratch.  This is my version of “Semi-Homemade” from wibia.

Enjoy,

wibia

What I Got: Portillo’s Italian Beef Sandwich (part of the Portillo’s Party Pack for $23.70)

I’ve shared my love of Italian beef sandwiches and of Portillo’s on this blog before.  Needless to say, I love them both and have been looking endlessly for an acceptable substitute in Indianapolis (see my prior C.R. Heroes review; I may have found one).  But sometimes the planets align and I end up at a party where someone has gone and gotten Portillo’s at their Northwest Indiana location in Merrillville and brought back a party pack for the party that they are hosting and then life is good.  At a Super Bowl party this past year, a friend of mine did just that.

I know that there might be better Italian beef sandwiches in Chicago, but since I live in Indianapolis, I don’t have the time or convenience of trying them all out, so Portillo’s serves as my harbinger for everything that is good about this sandwich and I love it.  It’s VERY thinly sliced roast beef cooked and served dripping in au jus juices on Italian style roll and everything about it is delicious.  It has tender meat and the au jus juice is flavorful and peppery without tilting toward being too hot.  If you really want to get frisky, you can get it with either hot (Giardiniera) peppers or with sweet peppers and turn up the heat and/or sweetness of your sandwich just a little bit more.  Also, you can have them serve it dry (no extra au jus), wet (extra au jus dumped on the bread to make it soggy) or even dipped (they take the completed sandwich and dip the entire thing in the au jus; you need a fork to eat this one).

I usually choose wet so that I can somewhat hold the sandwich and allow the flavorful au jus to just run down my arms as I eat it.  I also had both hot and sweet peppers so that I can add even more kick, but if you don’t get any peppers, it’s not a big deal because it is still delicious.  You just have to make sure that you get it either wet or dipped though.  Having this sandwich dry is just not the same and whenever my order gets screwed up and I get it dry, it really makes me sad.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, absolutely, definitiely, no question, etc. I would list out every single word for yes in the English language, but that would take me hours.  This is truly my favorite sandwich in the world (and maybe even my favorite food in the world) and Portillo’s does it the best (remember, that is out of all the options that I have had).  I try to get it every time I go to Chicago or pass by the Merrillville location on Interstate 65 and I would HIGHLY recommend that you do the same.  You will not regret it.

-IndianapolisEater

Oatmeal is kind of a controversial food.  Some people like myself absolutely love it, while others like WIBIA absolutely despise it.  Personally, I can eat it no matter what meal it is.  Yep, that’s right, I eat oatmeal for dinner sometimes too (at least once a week)!

What makes oatmeal great, in my opinion, is that it is one of the most versatile foods that you can find.  You can mix it with a variety of toppings and end up with a different flavor profile each time.  Over the years, I’ve mixed mine with brown sugar, real sugar, sugar substitute (i.e. Splenda), cinnamon, raisins, maple syrup, grape jelly, peanut butter, chocolate syrup, blueberries, strawberries and those are the only ones I can think of right now, so I’m sure there are more.

So, I guess my question is, what is your favorite oatmeal topping (the one that you use the most often)?  If you have a particular combination that you enjoy most, let us know what those are in the comments section of this post.  I’m just curious to see what everyone else does with their oatmeal, assuming that you eat it, because I’m always looking for new ideas on how to eat mine.

By the way, the oatmeal combination that I use most often is low calorie syrup and raisins (pictured above; I also make mine with water and not milk).  Occasionally, I’ll pour a little Walden Farms no calorie chocolate syrup on top too.

-IndianapolisEater

Chili is a great way to warm up on a cold winter day and last week, we posted a recipe for King David Dogs’ chili recipe.  This week, we have another At Home segment with another chili recipe, but this one has a twist:  it is my recipe!

My recipe has won the chili contest that WIBIA, EatHSE and several of our friends have had the past couple years.  Yep, that’s right, I’ve won with this recipe twice and had rave reviews on it when I’ve brought it out to football tailgates in years past (it’s actually a sore spot for WIBIA that I’ve won both times).  So, what I am saying is that with this recipe, you are guaranteed a flavorful chili that is simple and cheap to make!

FYI, this is a recipe you would want to make a day or two before and let sit in the refrigerator.  Also, you’ll notice one thing about this recipe…no beans!  Beans themselves are great, but they don’t belong in chili, in my opinion.  Without further adieu, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
[The spice level of this chili recipe tends to be hot, so that is just a warning.]

• 2 pounds hot/spicy ground sausage (if you want to cool the recipe down some, use mild sausage or ground beef)
• 4 cups of tomato juice
• 29 ounces tomato sauce
• 12 ounces tomato paste
• 1 large onion (chopped and diced)
• 1/2 medium-sized green pepper (chopped and diced; seeds removed)
• 1/2 cup of celery (chopped and diced)
• 1/4 cup of chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (I often use Splenda as a substitute)
• 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika

Steps

1. Brown ground sausage and drain fat out of skillet.
2. Dump ground sausage in large pot and then cover with all other ingredients and stir.
3. Leave mixture in pot and simmer on LOW for two hours (if it comes to a boil, turn off burner and let the pot simmer with no heat source).
4. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
5. On the day of eating, pull chili pot out of refrigerator and re-heat on LOW for one hour.
6. After one hour, increase temperature of heat source in order to get chili to desired temperature (simmering on LOW will probably get you there).

After you get the chili to your desired eating temperature, serve it up plain, with cheese or whichever way you like it and enjoy.

-IndianapolisEater

I love Chili and my second annual chili fest was held last weekend…good times.  So I asked a few WIBIA friends for a Chili Recipe to get you through the winter.  It is no secret that I love King David Dogs.   Here is a chili they like to make:

Makes 8-12 servings

2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup chopped onions
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1/2 cup red or green peppers
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 4 oz. can diced green chili peppers
2 15 oz. cans of chili beans
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1 fresh diced Jalapeno pepper (optional depending on desired level of heat)

In large pan brown the ground beef.  Add the onion, garlic and green peppers; continue cooking until the onion is browned.  Drain the grease from the pan.

Add the tomatoes, chili peppers, chili beans, chili powder, cumin, thyme, salt, and cinnamon.  Also add fresh Jalapenos at this time if you choose to crank up the heat.

Mix well in the pan, and place a lid on the pan and allow the mixture to simmer for an additional 10 minutes.  Add the honey and stir well.

Add cheese, crackers, green onions, etc. as desired. (Extra sharp cheddar is highly recommended) Also very good with cornbread.

-WIBIA

A few weeks later, I was intrigued enough to give this Calorie Free food a test figuring that it would be flavorless and awful.  Since then, I’ve bought several of the other calorie free products and here’s my review of the products I’ve tried so far:

Bleu Cheese Dressing

Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing:  This was my first purchase a few months back and what originally caused me to dive into my Walden Farms adventure.  To preface this, I should say that I LOVE bleu cheese dressing.  I love it on chicken wings, on salads, on celery and just about anything else that I can put it on.  The one thing that has always killed me about bleu cheese dressing though is the fat content and calorie count.  Because of this, I’ve always tried to curtail my usage whenever possible.

Honey Dijon Dressing

Honey Dijon Salad Dressing:  This was adventure number two in my Walden Farms odyssey.  This dressing was again watery (you’ll hear this a lot) and had a fairly weak taste (not the usual strong dijon-type bite to the taste) on my first use on top of a salad.  I have to say that I was very disappointed.  That said, I still had a lot of the bottle to go so I decided to mix it in with a batch of chicken fingers that I had made and it changed the entire complexion.  When you mix this dressing with something that has a strong flavor (chicken fingers), it is an excellent compliment.  When you mix it in with something that has a weak flavor (salad), you probably aren’t going to like it.

Caesar Dressing

Caesar Salad Dressing:  Different from the first two, I’ve only had this on a salad and have not mixed it with any other products.  That said, it was just okay.  Again, it was watery and it lacked the peppery creaminess you get from ordinary Caesar dressing, but when you are trying to save calories, you have to make sacrifices.  I wouldn’t recommend this one unless you really, really want to have a Caesar salad without the guilt of using Caesar dressing.

Peanut Spread

Peanut Spread:  Okay, I admit it, I’m ADDICTED to peanut butter.  I have it on sandwiches, celery and I eat it with a spoon straight out of the jar.  In all honesty, peanut butter is one of my favorite things in the world and when I saw this offering at the store, I was INCREDIBLY intrigued.  So intrigued, in fact, that I decided to open the jar in the car on the way home and scoop it out with my finger like I would with a normal jar of peanut butter.  This was a mistake.  This stuff has the texture of a semi-stiff pudding and is just flat-out weird.  It does have a faint peanut taste, but it is not overwhelming like you get from regular peanut butter.  Even with my bad experience of eating it straight out of the jar, I was willing to try it on a piece of bread to see if it changed anything and it did a world of difference (I also added a little Splenda on top of the peanut spread based on an online tip).  While not nearly as good as normal peanut butter (nothing is), it does make a barely suitable alternative when put on top of something as a compliment and not when it is used as a primary ingredient.

Thick 'N Spicy Barbecue Sauce

Thick ‘N Spicy Barbecue Sauce:  I know I’ve already brought up my skepticism regarding these products previously, but when I saw this one in the store, I was incredibly leery of how it might taste.  But, for the purposes of this blog and the greater good of science (ha!), I decided to plod on.

Prior to tasting this, seeing a Walden Farms sauce/dressing described as “thick” brought a smile to my face.  All my experience with these products has involved the word “watery” and I had no reason to believe this sauce would be any different.  But, they were right about this being thick up to a point.  That point is that it is thicker than all their other sauce/dressing products but it still has more liquidity than most, if not all, commercial barbecue sauces.  As far as taste, it was moderately spicy and actually was pretty darn good.  There are lots of barbecue sauces out there that are runny and still good, so I would consider this one to be in the same boat.  I’m anxious to use it again.

Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate Syrup:  If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably already figured out that I’m weird (if you didn’t know that already from the blog).  Because of my weirdness, I bought this chocolate syrup and decided to try it on top of some oatmeal.  Again, it was watery, but of all the Walden Farms products that I’ve tried, this had the strongest taste and I was actually moderately impressed.  It actually did taste like a dark chocolate and I’m anxious to try it on other types of foods like ice cream, pancakes, etc.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, I’d probably buy all of them solely for the aforementioned fact that I’m always looking for ways to cut calories.  I’m willing to sacrifice authentic taste (in most cases) in favor of an artificial substitute if it helps me accomplish that goal.

That said, if you aren’t as devout about cutting calories as I am, then these products probably aren’t for you.  The only ones that have a taste worth eating (discounting the diet ramifications) are the bleu cheese dressing, barbecue sauce and the chocolate syrup.  The others aren’t worth trying, although I will continue to taste the other Walden Farms products (they have more dips, sauces, etc.) in hopes of finding more winners.  Maybe we’ll have a part two to this post farther down the line…

By the way, you can find these products either online at their website or you can use their store locator to find them at a grocery store near you.  FYI, the prices for these run from about $3.50-$4.00 per bottle at my local stores (cheaper than their website).  You can also find them for cheaper than that in most instances on Amazon.com.

-IndianapolisEater