Yesterday was not what I would call a fun day. I raced home from work to find Jennifer in excruciating pain. Luckily, she had an appointment with the pain management doctor already scheduled. Let me tell you, it is not easy to watch someone in so much pain when all you can do is rub their back not knowing if it will ever get better. She did get yet another shot in her spinal cord. I can only hope these start to help. The last one reduced the pain by half but not all the way, and returned a few days later. Right after her doctor visit, we came home and I needed to make something for dinner. Sam offered to run out to the store so I gave him a list of ingredients for Penne Ala Vodka to pick up.

Surprisingly or not so strikingly depending how you look at it, I had Vodka on hand, so I only needed him to pick up a few ingredients: Pancetta, heavy cream, tomato sauce, and of course Penne Pasta. I have butter, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese on hand.

Sam returned with a bag full of groceries. There was the pasta, it was Ronzoni which is what I grew up on. Then there was the heavy cream. He also got apples for himself. In the freezer, he put Heath flavored Klondike ice cream bars as a surprise for Jennifer. Then I reached into the bag and when I pulled out the pancetta, it was not pancetta at all. Sam said I had asked for Prosciutto instead of Pancetta. Anything is possible I guess. Now is when you have to ask yourself. DO I go BACK to the store and get what I want or do I make do with what I have? Besides what’s the difference between Prosciutto and Pancetta besides the enormous cost? Well for one they come from opposite ends of the hog. Second, Prosciutto is cured and meant to be eaten raw. Pancetta is not cured and must be cooked before its eaten. The taste however, well, the difference is debatable. The real question is will Jennifer, Sam, or my mother in-law care? Certainly not my mother in-law.

Needless to say I said “what the fuckin hell” (to myself) and decided to use said expensive cured meat in my Ala Vodka Sauce and opened a beer.

Here is a brief synopsis of how I made dinner last night. I also live streamed it on INSTAGRAM if you were watching.

Once the water was at a rapid boil, I added the pasta to it and set the timer ticking. A few minutes before the pasta was al dente, I added the heavy cream and parmesan cheese to the sauce.

I drained the pastas and poured it into the sauce and coated it the pasta evenly. I served it with a small salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

HERE is the Official recipe below.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg penne or ziti rigati or rigatoni

4 tablespoons butter

½ pound pancetta bacon

2/3 cup vodka

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 28 oz. can tomato sauce

1 28 oz. can crushed

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1 clove garlic minced

½ small onion minced

1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

1 tbsp. Fresh parsley (chopped fine)

DIRECTIONS

Boil a large pot of water with salt added for the pasta.

In a large sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in ½ pound pancetta bacon and cook while continue to stir occasionally until brown. Add garlic and onion continue to cook until onion is translucent being careful not to brown the garlic (fried brown garlic is bitter unlike roasted garlic). 

Add vodka and stir until it is reduced by half, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.

Remove the sauce from heat and stir in the cheese, parsley and crushed red pepper. Toss sauce with pasta to coat evenly and serve.

NOTES: serve with garlic bread. Double recipe and serve in buffet tray for comany.

So that was my day. At least penne must have been good everyone went back for seconds and there were no leftovers. HUH, no leftovers, its been a long time since that had happened. Jennifer is resting this morning and I’m am off to the old grist mill. I wonder if that’s where they get “back to the old grind” from?

Have fun today and stay healthy!

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Guacamole is a staple at my house. We use so much of it I often buy it premade. There are rare occasions when I have ripe avocados that I need to use up, so I use them in this recipe.

Ingredients

2 avocados

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon dry or fresh Cilantro

1 to 2 tablespoons Salsa

1 clove garlic Minced

1/2 a small Onion, minced fine

1 tablespoon Recaito (optional)

A few drops of Cholula (optional for heat)

Cut the avocado in half. Twist apart. Scoop out meat from its shell using a tablespoon. Remove the pit from the other half, scoop out second half. Place avocado in bowl or mortar and pestle. Add all your ingredients that you want on top of the avocado, and mash using a knife and fork at first, and then the back spoon, unless your crazy like me and own a food grade mortar and pestle.

Serve with chips or just about anything else!

Yummy.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Last night before I left work, I received an alert from the local electric company informing me of a thunderstorm warning with high winds expected. They also said their crews would be standing by. This meant I would not be out at the grill barbequing dinner. I needed something new, something I have not cooked in a while, but also blog worthy. BEEF EMPANADAS sounded like the perfect solution. I stopped at the local grocery store and picked up what I needed.

My shopping list and ingredients included: 2 eggs beaten (I had eggs at home), 1 pound of chop meat, 1 cup beef broth (I had Better than Bullion on hand too), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons Cholula sauce, 2 onions (diced fine), 2 tablespoons of tomato paste (I own a tube of this), 4 cloves of garlic (I always have garlic), 1/2 teaspoon oregano (yup), 2 teaspoons cumin, 1/4 teaspoon cloves (I had to buy this and this shit is expensive), 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons sugar, and shredded Monterey Jack Cheese. Lastly, in the frozen food aisle was Goya Empanada premade circles of puffed pastry. See below.

Now, you could always make your own dough.

Dough

3 3/4 cups (18 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and frozen for 10 minutes

1 1/4 cups ice water

To make the dough: Add the flour, sugar, and salt to your food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. It’s not dough yet. Dump the contents of the food processor into a large bowl. Gradually add ice water (about 1/4 cup at a time up to one cup), and use a wooden spoon to work it into the dry. Continue until the dough comes together. You may not need all of the water, or, you may need slightly more. It depends on the flour and weather that day, more specifically the humidity. Turn the dough onto your work surface and divide it in half. Shape each half into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. The flour needs time for its gluten to do its thing.

Preheat oven to 425 F .

NOW for the filling. To make the filling: Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet set over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion. Give it a stir occasionally, until the onion softens in about 3 minutes. Now, I added the tomato paste, garlic, oregano, cumin, cloves and cayenne pepper. Then, heat that all up, stirring just until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in the ground beef, using a wooden spoon to break it up. Brown the meat—this will take about 5 minutes. Add the beef broth and bring the mixture to a simmer.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue simmering until most of the liquid has cooked off. The meat should be moist but not wet, about 8 minutes. Turn off the heat under the pan and mix in the sugar, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer the filling to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until completely cool.

To assemble the empanadas: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If working with fresh dough, work with one ball of the dough at a time, place it on a lightly floured work surface and roll into a circle about 1/8-inch thick. Use a 3-inch round cutter to cut out as many circles of dough as you can. Place them to the side on the baking sheet with parchment paper. Repeat with the second ball of dough, placing those circles on a second baking sheet.

I used the premade ones, which saved me an enormous amount of time.

Assemble: Use a spoon and dip it in a small bowl egg wash (two eggs beaten until pale yellow) and moisten the edges of the dough. Place 1 large rounded teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle of dough. Sprinkle with cheese. Now fold the dough over into a half-moon shape so the edges meet. Press them together with your fingers to seal, then use a fork to crimp them shut tight. (TIP: dip the fork in egg wash if it’s sticking to the dough). Transfer stuffed empanada back to the parchment-lined baking sheet. I used a butter knife to carefully scrape the empanada off the counter. You could also use an icing spatula the same way. Continue this process until you’ve filled and sealed all your disks.

Now let’s bake them immediately. In a preheated oven to 425 F with racks in the upper and lower third, brush the empanadas with the egg wash, then bake for about 20 minutes (rotating the baking sheets halfway through), or until the empanadas are golden brown.

While those were cooking, I made a salad and some guacamole.

Enjoy this recipe now, or save it for May 5th. More importantly, enjoy your family, friends, and LIFE.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Good morning. As always, I have the coffee perking. I’m also typing with an ace bandage around my wrist. I don’t know what I did, but it’s killing me this morning. Sharp pain like I fractured one of those tiny little bones in there. I hope it is just a sprain of some kind. Jen did not sleep well either. She was up in the middle of the night as her back is always keeping her up. To make matters worse, the doctors office canceled her appointment yesterday and can’t see her until Monday now. This is not fun. Its been over 8 months now that she has been in severe pain. Enough about our problems. Let talk food.

Last night I made baked ravioli. This was one of my favorite dishes growing up as a kid. My mother always made her sauce from scratch and once in a while she would venture over to the Italian Pasta Store Pastosa and buy fresh ravioli. I did not go there myself this time, but in hind sight I should have. I still can’t believe after all these years they are still in business.

You know how to make sauce. You know how to make garlic bread and now I hope you enjoyed this little picture demo and know how to make Baked ravioli. If you need a vegetable, try a salad of zucchini.

Enjoy cooking…Enjoy Life and be well!