June 29 -- Pork and Pico

I went back to pork ribs tonight with a little pico wrapped in a tortilla. I took the pork ribs and seasoned them. I threw them in the oven for an hour at 300 for a nice slow cook.

While they were cooking, I put three plum tomatoes, four green onions, and two cloves of garlic in the food processor to make fresh pico de gallo.

The pork and pico were wrapped in tortillas for dinner. Nothing too exciting but an easy meal.

June 22 -- Ravioli Lasagna

I make about one lasagna a year because it takes a while to construct and cook. Lasagna was a suggestion last night but everybody makes lasagna. It's not unique, but with ravioli, that's different.

I took one package of ground beef, browned and drained as the ravioli boiled. Then I greased a casserole with olive oil and layered ravioli at the bottom, put on a layer of meat, sauce, and mozzarella, then repeated the layers. Into the oven for 40 minutes at 375 and it was done. It made a lot of food, good for the week when I don't feel like cooking after camp.

June 15 -- Leftovers... so a side of risotto

As the party wound down last night, we realized there were 15 uneaten chicken parmigiana left in the chafing dish. They brought out plenty of containers and I was the lucky recipient of two pieces of chicken along with roasted potatoes and the string bean mix. This would present a problem, what should I cook for my adoring readers?

Phyllis, who is an excellent 4th grade teacher and an excellent cook too, told me "risotto is easy" after I found a kit on a one week sale at Aldi in the early spring. I found the last container of arborio rice at Pathmark and went to down. A little arborio goes a long way in risotto and I'm going to have fun with this one.

I did the arborio the way I was told. Chicken broth after you slightly roast the rice in butter and oil, 2 minutes. You put 3 cups of broth in a pot and bring it to a boil. Drop in your rice. After the rice soaks up the broth, pour on one more cup and let that simmer until it's all soaked up.

While soaking, go to town with your food processor. Tonight was parsley, garlic, and a bit of green onion from last week's dish. I poured in a half cup of parmesan and topped with a few turns of milled black pepper. As with every time I make rice, there is a ton left over so that will be a side this week. I am thinking a bit of chicken chopped into chunks.

This recipe was the basis for my cooking this week.

June 8 -- Gaucho Style Steak

I picked Argentina to win the World Cup that begins this week so I figured I'd go with a traditional Argentine supper, steak and roasted vegetables.

The steak was prepared on the Foreman grill then slices and put back on the grill. I like my meat done well. I wish I could've gotten it crispy like burnt ends but it was good.

The vegetables were yellow squash, zucchini, and bell pepper pan fried in a little olive oil and black pepper. They came out nice and tender and added some good color to the plate.

Finally, there was chimichurri, a parsley-olive oil based spread for the steak. I misread the recipe and added too much vinegar. I tried to cut it by adding some brown sugar to cut back the acid then drained off some of the liquid. It was good, but for the leftovers, I think I will make another batch of chimichurri since I have plenty of garlic, oil, and parsley.

Here's the official Food Network recipe.

As for the World Cup, everyone I know is from somewhere. I have students rooting for Brazil, Argentina, and Portugal. Another friend is for Bosnia. I have the blood of several nations in the tournament running through my veins, five off the top of my head. So let's hope it's a good tournament without anyone being headbutted in the chest.

Edit: Round two I did just oil, garlic, parsley, and two chopped scallions. It is exceptional. I can't wait to use it on chicken or some toasted Italian bread.

June 1 -- Stuffed Mexi-Chicken

I wanted to make stuffed turkey croquets with Thanksgiving dinner inside, stuffing, cranberry sauce, but there is no turkey to be found in June so I settled for chicken stuffed with pico.

I split 3 large chicken breasts for the filling. The pico is a large tomato, a few sprigs of cilantro, three cloves of garlic, and four diced scallions. I threw them in a the food processor and pulsed it a couple times. It smells great.

I will stuff the chicken with the pico and some queso blanco crumbling cheese and top with sour cream. The chicken will be put in the oven for 20 minutes or so at 400. I'll put the stuffing in with five minutes to go. A light meal for the hot days ahead.

May 25 -- Tomato Salad

Quick and easy for the first weekend of 'summer' plus I am taking this weekend off from heavy cooking. There is no lunch needed on Monday, so that means only two days of lunches for the week. I'm going with Foreman grill burgers tomorrow, I may try stuffing them with cheese and spices. I will make two extra for lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday. I also bought potato rolls for the burgers. Tonight is spaghetti with jarred marinara sauce. I will look in the freezer to see what kind of protein can be thrown on top., quick and easy.

I still need to give you something to use though because you are counting on me. This week is tomato salad, my go to for a summer backyard affair that is versatile.

1 container (12 oz.) grape tomatoes
1 large bocconcini (mozzarella)
1 tbsp. olive oil
basil and pepper to taste

Cut the grape tomatoes in half. Slice up the bocconcini into pieces the same size as the grape tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil and throw on some basil and crushed black pepper. Put it in a container and shake so everything is drizzled. Takes about 15 minutes to cut everything.

This reminds me of my grandparents and their six tomato plants in the yard that were always planted around Memorial Day and would start producing tomatoes around July 4. You can't find that flavor anymore in the store-bought food.

May 18 -- Chicken Spiedini

The 5th graders cook on Wednesday. This week is their final dinner and chicken spiedini is on the recipe. When I googled the recipe, it came up with a Paula Deen concoction with chicken, asiago, and breadcrumbs. This is rosemary and tons of olive oil.

The recipe is here and my changes are here: I cooked the chicken for six minutes each side instead of five. It was still tender, almost falling off the stick, but after 5 it didn't look done enough on the first turn. I added cilantro to the salsa. The parsley has to be real fine to make the traditional salsa, verde or rojo/tomate, but it is nice to put the chicken on your fork then stab at a bit of the seasoned leaves of parsley and cilantro.

I also did a full jalapeno for the hot salsa. I bought two for 49 cents. Is it worth buying a single jalapeno pepper?

This was also the first time I used the fresh herbs at Acme. They worked but man are those things expensive.

I made enough to share this one. A 2 1/2 pound bag of chicken gave me a dozen full skewers. I did a double batch of salsa. I think I will un-skewer the meat and put it in the container with a bit of salsa for the lunch portions. A skewer and a half should be enough for each day. I had three skewers for dinner.