Are 365organic Chicken Injected With Anything to Plump Them Up

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Finished Ribs with Smoke Ring (that's the pink edge) and Sweet BBQ Sauce

New York is one of the biggest cities in the world…OK, like 38th, but that's pretty big. Still, there are things you just can't do here.

Like big meat grilling…I mean unless you have a big terrace, deck, back yard (ha!)…you just can't outdoor grill. And, then there are those pesky laws about transporting gas tanks – like for a gas grill – through any of the tunnels or over any of the bridges. Uhm, this is an island, how am I supposed to transport my off-island bought gas tanks?

No worries…With any luck, we have all found friends and relatives with places outside of the city. In a perfect world, these generous people who open up their homes to us, have a grill. While I prefer a gas grill, no need to be picky…In many cases a charcoal grill is actually better.

On a recent trip to Cincinnati – remember, where my people live and cheerleaders date minors – I marveled as the grill master (aka, my brother) made some unbelievably good smoked and bbq baby back ribs using his old school charcoal Weber grill.

Tiny Apartment Tip: Make friends with homes off the island….

Hickory and Applewood Smoked Baby Back Ribs (serves 6)

Warning: This is an all day event….but, you're in the country or at least out of the city, what else would you be doing?

Ingredients:

• 

  Kroger Baby Back Ribs – I think these were each over 3.25lbs – and very moist and tender

  2 giant packages of pork baby back ribs – 3.25 – 3.5 lbs each

• 

  City Barbeque Original Sauce

  1 – 2 cups City Barbeque Original Barbeque Sauce

• 2 TBSP Sea Salt
• 2 TBSP Garlic Salt
• 2 TBSP Garlic Powder
• 2 TBSP Onion Powder
• 1 TBSP Paprika
• 2 Meat Injectors worth of Bacon Grease  – just go with it
• A Bunch of Hickory Chips
• A Bunch of Applewood Chips

1. In a large bucket or pot or bowl or whatever, combine the wood chips, cover with water and soak for at least 2 hours…

The Bucket Method for wood chip soaking

2. Remove the ribs from packaging and peel the membrane from the back side. This was a bit tricky because the membrane is slimy and tough to pull off…but, you can lift the edge of the membrane with a butter knife and then use a paper towel or rubber tongs to pull back the membrane

Paper Towel Pull Back Method

3. In a bowl, combine the Sea Salt, Garlic Salt, Garlic Powder, Paprika, Onion Powder. We also threw in some Hickory Flavor Rub…

4. Rub the meat on both sides generously with the spicy mixture – my anal retentive brother puts his hands in plastic baggies and then rubs…but you can also just use your bare hands and, omg, wash them after – your call

Generously Season both sides…

5. And, this is pretty OTT…but, whatever…Using your meat injector (a tool only found in Sweeney Todd's or Hannibal Lector's collection…or the home of teenage boys who like science and bacon) Inject each rib with a good squirt of bacon fat…Yeah, that's right, we injected pork fat into pork ribs…

OTT Meat Injection: Bacon Fat into Pork. Yeah, we did that.

6. Wrap the ribs tightly in tin foil and put in the fridge – ideally overnight – but, at least 3 hours

Wrap the Ribs tightly in Reynold's Wrap

7. After the overnight dry rub fridging….Prepare your grill – this is a charcoal grill only event:

Indirect Heat…And, snow. Grilling knows no season (see no charcoal or wood chips in the middle)

• Set the grill for indirect heat – that means the center of the grill basin doesn't have any charcoal in it…but, instead, the charcoal is in two piles – one on either side of the grill basin. My brother used bricks to keep the charcoal piles contained to the side of the grill – he's smart like that.
• Get the charcoal going, then cover the charcoal with the wood chips and replace the grate
• Cover the grill…and, yes, it's going to smoke…a lot…that's the point

8. Prepare your ribs for the smoking process…In my brother's case this meant:

Murderously Fabulous Grill Gloves and Rib Rack

• Don some murderous looking grill gloves….these are like totally jacked up kitchen gloves – specifically designed to withstand great heat
• Spray a rib rack (again, not a city accoutrement, but apparently quite the rage off the island) with non stick cooking spray
• Place each rib in its own rack slot
• Using a large skewer (preferably a wooden one that you've soaked for at least :30mins) pierce through the ends of each rack to elevate them

Racked and Elevated Baby Back Ribs Smoker Ready (not murderous gloves)

9. Place the racked ribs on the grill and cover. Cook for 2 – 2.5 hours

Smoker in the Snow…Ribs Racked and inside

10. Remove the ribs from the rib rack and place in a large, high sided pan. Preferably a tin foil one you can pitch afterwards…

11. Generously cover the ribs with Barbeque/Barbecue sauce – we used City Barbeque Original Sauce…pretty good

BBQ Saucification of the Ribs. A family affair.

12. Preheat oven to 250 degrees

13. Cover the ribs with tin foil and put in the oven for 2 hours

14. After the low baking process…remove the ribs from the oven and from the pan…BUT, don't eat yet! Nope, put the ribs on a cutting board and cover with tin foil for up to an hour to give the meat a chance to rest and re-juicify

15. Slice and serve

At Last….Slicified and Ready to Serve

The ribs were fall off the bone amazingly smoky, sweet and fabulous. Took all day…but, more than well worth it.

If you're lucky enough to guest at the home of a Killer Griller…try this.

My brother and I have always been pretty competitive with one another – it's a gene, I think. And, let's just be honest, I'm the much better cook. That said…my brother is a Killer Griller.

Dinner Table Set and Ready. And yes, that's my recycling in the background.

When I first moved to NYC, people had dinner parties. Sure, we were young and couldn't really cook so the food fare was far from fabulous. Sometimes it was even sorta gross. But, we had dinner parties anyway. It was a big deal…acting all grown up and stuff.

I love a good dinner party…but, no one seems to have them any more. Much more a rarity than the norm. Maybe it's because our apartments are small and a lot of us just don't have the space for a sit down dinner.

It's true…space is at a premium in NYC and sometimes difficult decisions must be made when choosing how best to maximize the limited space. I mean, when I moved from my house to this apartment…I gave away, yes gave away, about 2/3 of my kitchen stuff…When confronted with the choice between giving up some of my shoes or storing a second Le Creuset 6 qt pot…You know what won out.

Everyone told me my dining room table would be too big for this apartment. It's true. The table is enormous. Even without the extensions that live in a lovely climate controlled storage space in CT, I can easily seat 8.

Nemo!

So, because I cook AND I have a proper dining table in the 'dining area' of my apartment, I host dinner parties. And, there's no better excuse for a dinner party than a good old fashioned snowstorm.

Last night the posse rallied chez moi to ride out Nemo – the Blizzard of 2013. For storms, I tend to make comfort food. Good, crowd pleasing, stick to your ribs, comfort food. And, last night was no exception.

Lasagna (Serves 8)

Small apartment tip: If at all possible, have a dining area in your tiny space.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Barilla brand no-cook lasagna sheets – you only need 1 box, but get two as you're bound to break at least one of the sheets. Trust me.
• 1 – 1.25lbs of ground beef – I used 93/7 because it was on sale at Whole Foods
• 2 sweet Italian pork sausages…OK, they didn't have any yesterday, so I bought some awesome Pork Broccoli Rabe sausages

• 

  365 Brand

  1 1/2 Cups of whole milk ricotta cheese…normally I am a Poly-O loyalist…but, WF has its own brand and I was trying to avoid a 2 grocery store day.

• 1/2 Cup of grated Parmesan Cheese
• 3 24oz jars of Sauce…I use a combination of 2 parts marinara sauce + 1 part vodka sauce. Note the 365 Organic Marinara sauce is a 25oz jar…that was AOK. And, you don't really need all three jars…but you need more than 1 jar of the marinara. And extra sauce for leftovers is good.
• 1 1/2 cups of shredded or grated good mozzarella cheese
• McCormick's or similar Italian Seasoning
• Olive Oil

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

1. In a large saute pan (mine is a 3 qt non-stick All-Clad one) heat about 2 TBSP of olive oil over medium heat

2. Remove the sausage from casing and break into pieces and drop into the heated olive oil

Brown don't burn the sausage

3. Cook the sausage completely….Then remove from the saute pan and set aside

4. Add the ground beef to the pan and brown

Use a wooden spoon to break up the beef

5. Drain the excess oil from the pan and then re-add the browned sausage to the browned beef

Because 2 meats are better than 1

6. Sprinkle about 1 TBSP of Italian Seasoning over the meat/sausage. If you don't have Italian spice (horrors!) just use a combination of dried oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, basil. Whatever feels Italian-y.

7. Pour in 1 complete jar of marinara sauce and about 1/2 C of the vodka sauce over the meat

Dump in and Stir to Combine

8. Stir to combine and then simmer on low for 5 minutes

9. In a small sauce pan, heat 2 cups of marinara sauce over low heat

10. In a bowl, combine the ricotta cheese with the parmesan

365 brand ricotta and freshly grated parm

11. Layer up the Lasagna:

• Coat the bottom of the lasagna pan with a layer of the marinara sauce heating in the small sauce pan

• 

  No Fuss

  Using a small spatula, spread the ricotta cheese-parm mixture on one side of 4 Barilla no cook lasagna sheets…Some cooks will tell you to soak the no cook sheets in warm water before using them, but you really don't need to. So, don't.

• Place the cheesed lasagna sheets cheese side up onto the sauce layer

• 

  365 Ricotta Schmear on Lasagna Sheets

• Sprinkle about 1/4 Cup of mozzarella over the ricotta/parm lasagna sheets
• Cover the cheese with 1/3 of the meaty sausage-y sauce

• 

  Cover with 1/3 of the Meaty Goodness

• Repeat 2 more times
• Cover the final meat layer with a layer of the no cook lasagna sheets
• Using the remaining non-meat sauce, cover the entire lasagna – be generous. It's the sauce that will heat and steam to cook the no-cook lasagna sheets.
• Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese and about 2 TBSP of grated parm over the  lasagna

11. Cover the lasagna with tin foil and put into the oven for :45mins

12. Remove the tin foil and bake an additional :05 – :10 mins

13. Remove from the oven and let stand for :15mins. This is important….It will make the lasagna easier to cut into free standing servings

Let stand for :15mins before serving

Eat.

My table is too big for the apartment. I know that, I do. But, as long as people will still come to dinner, I'm keeping it. I might even go out and get two more chairs.

Fall Off the Bone Tender Goodness

I'm about to be butchered by Ina Garten lovers everywhere. So I'll just start by saying, I love to cook her recipes and I even watch her show(s).

She makes her own chicken stock and never fails to mention it when including it in any recipe: "2 cups of home made chicken stock. It's really the best."

She grinds her own spices.

She uses only "really good olive oil".

She grows her own herbs. "This is rosemary right from my garden."

She's a master of the kitchen and all things kitchen related.

That said….She's a bit of a name dropper.

Each time I tune in she's about to host a luncheon/dinner/beach party for every fabulous gay person east of Nassau County. I honestly think I recently I heard her say: "Truman Capote and Liberace are coming for lunch, so I'm making cornish game hens and apple turnovers."

Or maybe it was more like:"Andy Warhol agreed to paint my hallway so I'm making him salmon with lentils!"

Ah…Jeffrey

 And, then there's Jeffrey. Jeffrey (for the non-Ina aficionado) is Ina's husband. They've been married for like a gazillion years. Jeffrey works and lives in Manhattan Mon – Fri – venturing out to Ina's Hampton's home only on weekends. And, when he arrives, Ina kills the fatted calf – or in her case – chicken.

Friday shows always start something like: "It's Friday and Jeffrey's coming home from the City tonight so I'm making his favorite chicken. My perfect roasted whole chicken in fact."

Ina gives the impression that Jeffrey is unable to do anything by himself – except live in NYC. So, Ina gets busy in the kitchen making all of Jeffrey's favorite meals whenever she has to leave town. And, seriously, sometimes she's planning to be gone for a just a few hours. "I've been invited to go skating with Brian Boitano tonight, so I'm making Jeffrey's favorite cappuccino ice cream for him while I'm away."

OK. I feel better. So, back to the fact that I love her recipes ('How Easy Is that?"), I've made her Scott's Short Ribs a half dozen times and they are easy and delicious.

Ina Garten's Scott's Short Ribs (Serves 8 – hers serves 6, but I was having 8 to dinner)

Important to note:

1. The entire process of making this meal, including chopping…takes about 4 hours
2. In a small apartment like mine…If you can close your bedroom and bathroom doors while the meat is in the oven…do it. The beefy winey aroma is lovely on the evening it's made…Not so much the next day on your linens or towels
3. There's a bit of chopping…so, make Anne Burrell proud and mise en place if you can

Pretty Mise En Place

Ingredients:

• 

  This is Fennel I'm sure of it

  8 Beef Short Ribs, trimmed as best you can of the fat. Ina's butcher does it for her…but that might not be what happens to you….or, me.

• 1/4 Cup Good Olive Oil – whatever you do, do NOT use shitty olive oil! That would really piss Ina off!
• 2 Medium Sized Onions Chopped
• 4 Cups Large-Diced Celery – Ina says that's 6 stalks, but only if the stalks are from her magical giant celery growing garden….It's more like 10 stalks of celery
• 2 Carrots peeled and large diced
• 1 Small Fennel – fronds, stems and core removed and large diced

• 

  WF Owner is a Vegan, But this is good beef broth

  1 Leek, cleaned large diced, white part only – (to clean it best…chop and submerge pieces in ice water then fish out with a spider…the dirt/grit will fall to the bottom of the bowl)

• 3 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
• 1 750ml bottle of Burgundy or Pinot Noir or other dry red wine – plus 14 bottles for your thirsty friends who are coming to dinner
• Fresh Rosemary – from your garden…Or, Whole Foods or other
• Fresh Thyme Sprigs
• 6 Cups of Beef Stock or Broth – I use the 365 Brand at Whole Foods and 6 Cups is a box and a half
• 1 TBSP Brown Sugar
• Salt and Pepper – Ina prefers Kosher Salt, of course

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

1. Place the short ribs on a sheet pan and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper

Try to get the same size short ribs…

2. Put the ribs in the oven and roast undisturbed for :15 minutes (go to step 4) – remove from oven and set aside

3. Reduce heat to 300 degrees

4. While the ribs are roasting, heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven (I use my pretty blue Le Creuset, of course) over medium low heat

Pretty Blue Le Creuset

5. Add the onion, celery, carrots, fennel and leek and cook for about :20 minutes stirring occasionally

Vegetable Softening Nicely

6. After :20, add the garlic and cook for another :02 minutes – or until you can smell the garlic goodness

7. Pour the wine over the veggies and bring to a boil

I heart cooking with wine

8. Continue to cook over high heat until the liquid is reduced by about 1/2

9. Add a TBSP of salt and 1 TSP of pepper

10. Make a bundle of several sprigs of rosemary and several sprigs of thyme and throw them in the pot

Herb Bundle of rosemary and thyme

11. Nestle the ribs into the winey vegetables and pour the beef broth over them – the ribs should be totally submerged

The beef ribs all nestled

And totally covered with broth

12. Throw in the brown sugar

13. Bring to a simmer over high heat….Once simmering, put the lid on the dutch oven and carefully put it into the oven for 2 hours. The meat will be very tender.

14. After 2 hours, remove the pot from the oven and the ribs from the pot. Set ribs aside keeping them warm if possible

Fall Off the Bone Tender Goodness

15. Discard the herbs and skim off the excess fat

16. Over medium, cook the vegetables and sauce for :20 minutes until reduced slightly

Ribs  and herb bundle removed- sauce a-simmer

17. Plate the ribs and pour some of the sauce and veggies over them

18. Plate the veggies separately

Drunken veggies plated

19. Serve

20. Ask yourself: How easy is that?

This is a great meal for groups because it's delicious and impressive. And also because all of the work will be done hours before your guests arrive.

But don't even think of making the short ribs for Jeffrey and Ina on a friday. They're having chicken with Jodie Foster and Neil Patrick Harris.

Table Ready

No one invited me to the Inaugural Dinner tonight. And, truth be told, I'm not sure I could have made it as my car is sick – so $$$$$ad 😦

I heart FLOTUS

I thought I should see what I'm missing and searched for the Obama Part Deux Dinner Menu online. Tonight, his guests will (according to several online sources) be enjoying Mahi-Mahi ceviche with jalapeños and coconut, seared salmon on baby spinach with red potatoes, and pineapple upside-down cake. The menu reflects Barack's Hawaiian heritage and gives a nod to Michelle's fight against American obesity. Though I don't know if the potatoes or spinach come from the White House garden. (As an aside, FLOTUS' book "American Grown" is worth a perusal.)

This past weekend we enjoyed an inaugural dinner of our own. A gaggle of girls had traveled from far and wide and we were upstate in the town of Catskill – not The Catskills. Our host upstate wanted to prepare, in his own words, an elegant dinner for his guests.

After poring through the 8-10 options I sent him for main courses, he settled on maybe the most elegant. I helped him with the menu and guided him through – he did all the work – and I got to be bossy: all was right with the world.

Bleu Cheese Crusted Filet Mignon (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

• 6   1 1/4 inch filets – shameless pitch here for Price Chopper, his grocery store upstate – great meats and where Rachael Ray got her start…just sayin'
• 1 Cup crumbled Bleu Cheese – we bought a block and he crumbled it by hand – better than buying pre-crumbled stuff
• 1 Cup Progresso Panko Style bread crumbs – love
• Butter
• 1 TSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat the Oven to 425 degrees

1. In a small fry pan, melt 1 TBSP of butter over medium heat

2. Add the bread crumbs and toast until browned. Flip 'em around occasionally to brown well. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool

Don't Be Shy About Browning the Panko

3. Salt and Pepper the filets on one side

Salted and Peppered

4. In a second medium/large fry pan, melt 2 TBSP of butter over med/high heat

5. Add the filets salted/peppered side down to the melted butter. This is your chance to salt/pepper the other side

Searing One Side S/P The Other

6. Sear the filets for 2-3 mins per side. They should be well browned

Well browned searing in taste and juices

7. Remove from the pan and place on a rimmed baking sheet lined parchment paper side up with Reynolds Wrap Pan Lining paper – the mullet of cooking papers tin foil one side, parchment on the other

Worth the price

8. Mix together the crumbled bleu cheese, olive oil and toasted panko bread crumbs

Bleu Cheese Crumbled by Hand

9. Carefully top each filet with a heaping spoonful of the cheese/bread crumb mix. You can gently press the topping into each filet

Layer on the Cheese, Bread Crumb Mixture

10. Place the topped filets into the oven and bake for :06 – :08 mins for Medium-Rare

11. Let rest for :05, then plate and serve

The one with the Stick was for our rarest of rare meat eater friend

Barack's 3rd Swearing In Yesterday

Interesting fact about today's Inauguration…This will be the fourth time that Barack Obama will be sworn in as president. He flubbed the words at the first one and had to have a redo four years ago – could happen to anyone. Then, because the 20th was on a Sunday, he was sworn in yesterday and will be re-sworn in today as part of the inauguration celebration. The only other person to be sworn in 4 times is FDR, because he was elected four times.

There's a lunch today too. And the Obamas honored more than just healthy foods and Hawaii today. For lunch they served lobster and bison – the presidential seal of approval for all from Maine to Colorado.

But as far as the big dinner tonight, I liked our elegant meal better than the inaugural double fish fest. And, our bananas flambe dessert tops pineapple upside down cake any day.

Well done, my upstate friend. A truly elegant and more than inauguration worthy meal.

Lovely Lamb Chops

I may have mentioned this…but, I'm half Italian. That means a lot of things. And, it also means that I didn't have a credit card until I was 25. See, the Italians like to have cash; 'Cash is king', my dad would say. Once I got stuck for 7 hours at LaGuardia with only $4 (pre-ATM cards) – no proud Italian would ever make this mistake. I learned the hard way that it's always good to have some cash around.

So, when the credit card companies bombarded all of us in college with invitations to join their elite debt-amassing clubs – I simply wasn't allowed. OK, sounds odd. Here I am 19 years old and I'm … 'not allowed' to have a credit card. Well, yeah. See, parents had to co-sign for the cards and mine refused.

Good thing too.

Very early on, a few of my best friends learned the hazard of credit card debt…Actually, a bunch did. Some had racked up bills by charging things like spring break in Mazatlan or Jamaica or South Padre Island. Others spent their credit fortune on cases and cases of really gross, cheap beer and wine coolers. And, the cards had interest rates of like 25%. I don't claim to be a math scholar, but you don't have to be one to realize that the debt grew really quickly for my minimum-only paying pals.

Others waited until after we graduated from college to use credit cards to live well beyond their means.

'Luuuuuuuu-cy!'

One friend who had really over done it…ended up having to declare bankruptcy. Like before declaring bankruptcy was all the rage. Sure, he tried to avoid this.

He had always been inspired by Lucille Ball (chronic over-spender / negotiator), who in one episode wrote on the back of a check she was cashing at the bank: 'Be a lamb, please don't process this check until Thursday'. He, like Lucy, tried to negotiate with his creditors…but, alas, to no avail. And, at 24, he had declared bankruptcy. No one would just…be a lamb.

Years later…he's all fancy, has a big business – But, he had to overcome the bankruptcy to get there. Now instead of asking creditors to 'be a lamb' he's dining on rack of lamb.

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb  (Serves 8)

Ingredients:

• 3 8-rib lamb chops – we got ours at Whole Foods and the nice butcher guy trimmed them up for us
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves minced
• 1/3 cup fresh leaf parsley chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh thyme – finely chopped
• 1 tbsp rosemary – finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Progresso italian style bread crumbs
• Extra Virgin olive oil
• salt / pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy skillet over high heat.

2. Pat the lamb dry and season generously on all sides with salt and pepper

Should probably trimmed a little more of the fat..

3. Add the ribs to the hot oil and brown on all sides – about 5 mins per side – meaty sides only

Searing in the juices and flavor

4. Transfer the ribs to a broiler pan

5. Make the herb coating by mixing together:

• 

  Yummy Herb Coating

  Minced garlic

• Chopped thyme
• Chopped rosemary
• 2/3 tsp of salt
• 2/3 tsp freshly ground pepper
• Progresso Bread Crumbs
• 2 tbsp olive oil

6. Coat the meaty parts of the seared lamb with the mixture – you may need to gently press the mixture into the lamb chops

Herb Crusted and Oven-Ready

7. Roast uncovered for :15 minutes

8. Cover with tin foil and cook an additional :10 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 120 degrees

9. Remove from the oven and let the meat rest – the internal temperature should rise from 120 to 130 degrees

NOTE: The thermometer may not be your best friend here: The ribs were extremely rare even though they registered at 130 degrees….So, I had to cut the chops and broil them about :02 mins on each side until they were safely cooked through…

10. Serve – I served with bleu cheese mashed potatoes (YUM!) and roasted balsamic Brussels sprouts

Served with bleu cheese mash and roasted sprouts

As a credit-card free half-Italian college student, I was lucky: When I got my first card at 25, my friends were still paying off bills for beers and, sadly, wine coolers long since consumed. Credit card companies, bank tellers, utilities people probably aren't gonna just 'be a lamb' – so better to rack up lamb, instead of debt.

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Are 365organic Chicken Injected With Anything to Plump Them Up

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