Ramblings, musings, and most everything in between

The Best Chicken Tacos I’ve Ever Made

This is a recipe I’ve been playing around with in my head for the past week, and I finally decided that it was time to make it. It’s one of the most simplistic things I’ve cooked in a while, but it was incredible how much flavor was packed into the dish. 

Grilled Chicken Tacos  Time: 24 hours

Ingredients:

1.5-2 lbs chicken (breasts or thighs work best)

Tortillas

1 medium onion 

1 bunch cilantro

Juice of 2 limes

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

2-3 tablespoons oil

Preparation:

Cube the chicken and place in a covered container with the lime juice and spices. Cover and shake well to coat each piece. Place the container in the refrigerator for 24 hours, shake the chicken once or twice more over the next day to ensure an even coating.

After 24 hours have elapsed, dice onion and chop cilantro. Set these aside. 

Drain the marinade, and place the chicken on a heated and lightly oiled skillet or griddle (I used a cast iron griddle), and cook over medium high heat until cooked through entirely. 

Serve immediately on warmed tortillas and top with the raw onion and cilantro.

This dish was served with a cold corn and black bean salad. 

Many of you may have noticed that the common vein running through most of my recipes are that they are designed for people who want to eat well, with a large variety of foods, but don’t necessarily have the financial means of eating the stereotypical organic Whole Foodsy sort of dishes which have come to be associated with eating well today. For some people (a truly unfortunate and alarming percentage) this conundrum leads them down the path toward cheaper processed foods that provide maximum bang for the buck in quantity, while leaving that person woefully undernourished. Others, like yours truly, get really creative, because there simply comes a time when you can’t eat like a 19 year old guy anymore. My advice to all of you who seem to have trouble scraping the cash together to buy healthy ingredients, is to give them a second glance. Look at your grocery stores weekly fliers and stock up on what is on sale, my local store recently had a 10 for $10 on frozen vegetables, and routinely offers sales on a revolving door of fresh fruits, veggies, and meats. 

Today’s recipe is one which was born out of this need to be both thrifty and to eat well. It’s one I’ve tweaked since Jenny first introduced it to me way back in undergrad, and one I’m proud to say is the trifecta of taste, ease of assembly, and nutrition. Altogether the ingredients cost about $11, and made plenty of leftovers. It incorporates artificial crab, which is a cheap (and vastly different) substitute for the real thing, but can be made with actual crab meat. I honestly enjoy the slight sweetness the artificial crab gives the dish, particularly as it absorbs the flavors of the other ingredients exceptionally well. As a change up from the norm I also used multi colored rotini instead of my usual angel hair, which added some nice flavor and texture, while making the dish look more attractive overall.

Simple Seafood Pasta.  

Ingredients:

1 lb Pasta (any variety will work)

1 package artificial crab (I prefer the chunk style, but leg style also works)

1/2 pound frozen shrimp (not required, but adds a great taste)

1 large bell pepper (any color works, but I find that green holds its flavor better)

1 medium onion 

2 cloves garlic

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon pepper

1/2 tablespoon basil

1/2 tablespoon oregano 

Salt to taste

Directions:

Boil pasta in a large pot. Drain when finished

In a separate skillet over medium high heat saute garlic and onions in the olive oil until the onions just begin to brown. Add the green pepper, crab, lemon juice, and spices to the skillet. Cook them together for between 5 and 7 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the green pepper to soften a bit. Reduce heat if necessary. 

Stir the drained pasta into the skillet and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes. 

Serve immediately and enjoy.

Eric’s Impromptu Kasseler

I’m not going to lie, I’m addicted to smoking, and no it’s not what you think. A combination grill/smoker was the first purchase Jenny and I made when we moved into our new town home, as we finally had a back deck and outdoor space to accommodate our mutual love of cooking and eating outdoors. Getting that smoker felt like being a five year old on Christmas all over again, as I had literally spent years coming up with and tweaking existing recipes to try when I finally got one. The ad-hoc methods of smoking food I employed with my old grill simply did not compare with with what I knew the dishes could be. Needless to say I really really love my smoker, and I use and abuse it as often as I possibly can. 

At this point dear reader you may be thinking “Gee Eric, that’s all well and good, but this is January, why would you be posting a recipe that requires cooking outside?” Well friends, I’m posting a recipe that requires cooking outdoors because it was 65 degrees and sunny today in Arlington, VA, and I damn well felt like cooking outside. You can blame this gorgeous weather on any number of things from climate change, to Canadians, Zoroastrianism, R’hllor, or whatever else have you. The point still stands that it was an excellent day to be a man cooking with fire. 

The dish I made today is a German smoked pork loin called Kasseler. I previously made two of them for an Oktoberfest party I had with my classmates, and they were entirely demolished by the end of it. Traditional German recipes call for this dish to be a whole pork loin smoked over alder wood, but being the clever person that I am (read broke) I’ve come up with a variation that preserves the traditional flavor of the dish while having ingredients that are easier to find and less expensive. This dish is a miniature odyssey of sorts, as it takes three to four days to properly execute, but I assure you that it is totally worth it.

The most important ingredient in this dish is of course the pork. As I said the recipe calls for a pork loin, but if you can’t find one at a reasonable price you can substitute a cheaper cut such as a picnic roast or the perennially cheap cut called the Boston butt (it comes from the front shoulder and does have a bone in it). Be mindful that if you choose one of these cuts that you may have to trim away excess fat, as both cuts generally possess a great deal of your arteries’ sworn enemy. However, I have tried this recipe with both cuts, and I will say that the flavor is phenomenal regardless. 

The other big ingredient that probably has some of your scratching your heads is the alder wood for smoking. This ingredient can also be substituted for more common smoking woods such as hickory, maple, or apple (my personal favorite, and what I generally employ). Remember that smoking is a fairly forgiving means of cooking, as the low and slow heat allows for a longer period to absorb the flavor. With that said, if you find you don’t have enough wood chips for instance, you can take the time to soak some more and it won’t hurt the end product. 

Recipe:

Time: 3 days for curing, and 6-8 hours of smoking.

Ingredients:

Brine:

8 cups of water

1 cup salt

1/4 granulated sugar

2-3 cloves garlic, minced 

1 tablespoon dill

1 tablespoon sage 

1 tablespoon thyme 

1 tablespoon coriander (substitute dried cilantro leaves if you wish)

1 tablespoon juniper berries (if you can find them, I generally have to forgo them)

1 tablespoon oregano (optional) 

The Rest
1 whole pork loin/roast of your choice 

Smoking chips of your choice 

Heat source of your choice (note if you smoke using wood instead of charcoal, then you can probably forgo the smoking chips depending on the wood you have).

Preparation

Combine the curing ingredients in one large stock pot and bring them to a low boil for at least a minute. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Place the pork in a large nonreactive container and cover it with the curing mixture. Cover and place in the refrigerator. I generally use my crock pot for this step, as it is both large and ceramic, but any glass, ceramic, or plastic container ought to work.

Allow at least three days to elapse, rotate the roast once daily if it is not completely submerged. Drain after the time has elapsed. 

After three days fire up your smoker, and make sure to soak your wood chips as per the instructions they came with (at least half an hour). They simply burn without releasing much smoke if they aren’t wet. Add chips to the fire periodically throughout the smoking process. 

Place the pork in your smoker so that it receives both indirect heat and smoke. Cook undisturbed for 6-8 hours or until the pork has an internal temperature of at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at which bacteria burns). Add coal and wood chips periodically to keep the heat and smoke constant. If you find the internal temperature is not high enough, then you can finish the dish off in the oven at 350 degrees. It should come out looking something like this.

I served this with German hot potato salad, sauerkraut, and a green mixed salad. My beverage was a Paulaner Bavarian lager. Everything was delicious to say the least.

Guten Appetit! 

Eric 

Hodgepodge Fiesta

Yet another recipe born of what I have on hand along with the wanderings of my imagination.

Hodgepodge Fiesta!

Ingredients: 

1lb Chorizo Sausage

1 Cup Rice Cooked

1 Can of Tomatoes and Chilies

1 Bell Pepper Chopped (I used yellow)

1 Medium Onion Chopped 

1 Tomato Chopped

1 Can Black Beans or Pinto Beans

Juice of 1 Lime

2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 Tablespoon Cumin

1 Tablespoon Black Pepper

Cilantro to Taste (I prefer mine with enough cilantro to choke an aardvark)

Instructions:

Cook one cup of rice (white or brown work depending on preference), and set aside.

Proceed to chop the vegetables and drain/rinse the beans. Drain the tomatoes and chilies as well. Reserve about a quarter of the onion, as the raw onion adds a lovely taste and texture contrast to the finished dish.

While rice is cooling, cook the Chorizo links in a skillet, browning both sides well. Do not cook it completely.

Remove the Chorizo and cut it into chunks. Return it to the skillet with a tablespoon of canola oil. 

While the Chorizo is cooking, add the onions and bell pepper. Allow those to cook together for 3-4 minutes.

Add the beans and drained tomatoes/chilies to the skillet. 

Add this point add the spices and lime juice (excluding the cilantro), and proceed to stir the mixture well. 

Reduce heat to medium low and allow the dish to simmer for 8-10 minutes.

Serve the hodgepodge over the rice, and add cilantro, raw onion, and tomato to taste. Cheddar cheese and sour cream, while by no means necessary, add to the dish.

Finally, enjoy the fruits of thine labor!

Simply Delicious Hot Wings

Hey Gang, long time no post. I have another recipe for you all, particularly those of you who love good food but hate complex recipes. 

Eric’s Wings of Gloriousness 

Ingredients

1 lb chicken wings

1/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot, or any other hot sauce you may have available

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon garlic (dried or minced)

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Set oven on broil, allow it to heat for at least five minutes.

In a large bowl mix together wings, olive oil, and two tablespoons of the lemon juice. Ensure that each wing is coated, add salt and pepper to taste.

Place the wings on a broiler pan and put them into the oven, cook six to seven minutes per side, flipping once. 

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat. Add hot sauce, garlic, and lemon juice once the butter melts. Mix until blended.

At this stage I sometimes turn the heat off on the sauce and allow it to sit. If you like a thicker sauce you can add a thickening agent like flour or corn starch. Be careful with how much you add and make sure that you whisk it into the sauce well. Otherwise you are left with little spicy chunks of corn starch (which may or may not be awesome for you).

By letting it sit you also allow some of the butter fat to rise to the surface which can be dabbed off if so desired. 

Another method of thickening the sauce is simply to carefully cook it down over medium low heat. Be forewarned that doing this condenses the spice and flavor of the sauce, which can lead to unexpected surprises for those with low spice tolerances. 

Remove chicken wings from the broiler and place in a large bowl or ziplock bag. Add sauce to the wings and shake them to coat.

Serve with blue cheese/ranch and celery. Or eat them straight if you’re a real man like yours truly.

Yet another recipe of desperation

Alright, so I’m going to take a break from the recent maelstrom of Republican fueled political insanity to bequeath a recipe upon ye folk of tumblrland. This recipe comes from a combination of a nearly empty fridge and pantry and my genius caliber improvisation skills.

I highly recommend using a cast iron skillet if you have one. If not improvise with a non stick skillet and baking dish. 

Ingredients:

1 pound of chicken, darker meat usually works better in this case, but chicken breasts can be substituted.

1/2 package of bacon

1 cup of heavy cream (milk can be substituted in a pinch, it’s what I had to do)

1/2 cup dry white wine or white cooking wine

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

1 medium sized onion chopped

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 tablespoon cooking oil 

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Wrap each piece of chicken in two strips of bacon and secure with tooth picks. Season each piece with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in the skillet over medium high heat until it starts to smoke. 

Gingerly add each piece of chicken to the pan.

Cook each side for 5 minutes, flipping once.

Transfer the pan to the preheated oven, and bake the chicken for 15 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan, but place it somewhere where it will stay warm.

Place the pan back on the burner on medium low heat.

Saute the chopped onion in the pan drippings until it begins to soften.

Add the milk, white wine, mustard, and additional salt and pepper (if desired for taste)

Reduce heat to low, stir well, and allow the sauce to cook down stirring occasionally.

After the sauce has cooked down by about half, turn heat off and add green onion.

Top chicken with sauce and serve.

I served this dish with baked sweet potatoes and a frozen vegetable mix of buttered green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower. 

I hope this inspires you all to take whatever the hell you have left in your fridge and make something of it!

Revolutions, Republicans, and Budget Cuts…Oh My!

It seems like everything’s been in a flux lately, and I feel the compulsive need to muse on it.

As someone with an extensive historical background and a keen interest in the international, the recent events in the Middle East have really been gripping for me. It’s not everyday that one country, much less an entire region, is able to come together and demand an all around betterment of the human condition. However, this time around the revolutions have an extra fun twist…They’re occurring in the one region of the planet the United States cannot afford instability in. You see, as a country we’ve been addicted to foreign oil since the 1970’s, when most of our domestic deposits dried up, not to mention that most of this oil must pass through the vulnerable Straits of Hormuz and Suez Canal thus we have cultivated a series of friendly strongmen in order to keep the peace. So now we’re at a crossroads between security and the very ideals our Republic is built upon. As of right now the government is playing a defensive game, urging democratic reform in a peaceful manner, while trying to buy time for their political favorites until the State Department is able to regroup. With any luck we’ll take the high road, and simply butt out while providing moral guidance and material assistance when the time for elections comes. We really need to understand that now isn’t the time to play hardball with democratic reformers. We did that with the Iranians and they ended up appointing an oppressively theocratic regime that doesn’t like the United States in any official capacity. Perhaps if we had dumped the Shah earlier and encouraged gradual and peaceful reform, then maybe there wouldn’t be an Iranian nuclear emergency among other things. Now is the time to encourage organic democratic growth, even if the current electoral slate isn’t jam packed with parties and individuals waving American flags. People will remember what the United States does for years to come, and I just hope we handle this situation as delicately as we can.  I’m really anxious (both excitement and apprehension) to see how this all shapes up.

Domestically, things have definitely taken a turn that pretty much no one is happy with. Both the Administration and the Republicans in Congress are doing their utmost to offend people with their completely unprofessional competition to figure out who can cut the deficit in the most destructive way possible. However, I have to say that in my own personal opinion the Republicans are going about it in the worst possible way. Of course, that isn’t to say that they don’t have any competition, as the Obama Administration’s recent budget also demonstrated huge cuts to domestic programs that are crucial to impoverished Americans, not to mention graduate students like yours truly.

Despite this, the Republicans still take the cake, and my personal congressman Mr. Boehner is doing his utmost to piss off anyone with half a brain. Their chant lately has been one of fiscal responsibility, which on its own isn’t bad, I mean the debt and deficit are out of control and must be reined in. But, they really aren’t living up to the responsible part of that plan. The Republicans are determined to remove $100 billion from the budget regardless what it could do. They’re essentially playing political theater to show how quickly they can cut “superfluous” federal spending without taking the time to think about what their actions are doing. In this way the Republicans are showing their political affiliation, utterly refusing to raise taxes by 3% on the wealthiest 2% of Americans (as that would supposedly kill the job creating process), while simply slashing domestic programs that real people actually rely on. They’re basically doing what they espouse to be preventing, mortgaging the future for immediate political gain. By potentially eliminating the thousands of federal jobs Mr. Boehner so carelessly stated were unneeded, cutting education spending, doing nothing to make higher education more affordable, cutting spending for energy research, and subsidies for low income families the Republicans are dangerously close to not only stalling recent economic growth, but derailing progress in key areas like education and scientific research. If that’s not mortgaging the future, then I need a new bloody dictionary.

Their plan coincides with the recent “Reagan Renaissance”, as they are once again espousing the trickle down theory of economics, which has been proven time and again to have very little actual effect on the economy as a whole, as well as good old fashioned supply side economic theory (also known as a modification of Keynesian Economics, but don’t tell them that). Making the rich even richer generally doesn’t mean that the working class, much less the middle class, are bequeathed with large increases in their standard of living in either the near or distant future. I wonder if they seriously don’t realize that supply side economics is just another really fun way of saying deficit spending.

Taxes are a necessity to balance the budget, we pay them so that we may have the privilege of living in a functional society. It is completely unfeasible to balance the deficit and lower the national debt without raising at least some revenue from taxes. Inherently they represent an investment in the government. Sure, I’ll be the last person to deny that the Feds spend our tax money on same insane stuff, but in all honesty I’d much rather the Federal (read also State and Local) Government have the necessary means to continue John Locke’s social contract than have a government too emaciated to function properly. Of course some people will say that the private sector will then swoop in and fill in the gaps, but I have a really big problem with that. The private sector, while having numerous virtues and being the greatest boon to the economy, is a for profit enterprise, and thus something diametrically opposed to the common welfare of all. Thus its ability to effectively fill in the gaps left by a weakened public sector will be limited

Take public libraries for instance, they’re affordable and do the community a valuable service by allowing those with limited means to access information at little to no cost. They’re an awful business model since they offer relatively expensive services at a bargain price, but that’s inherent in their design. Libraries are humanistic organizations designed to let anyone with the drive (if not the means) to better themselves intellectually and thus the community. Now imagine such a place run by a private corporation that makes you purchase those same services at cost. You would very quickly discover that the library is simply…gone. Those who use them are poorer, and thus would be completely unable to afford more expensive library services. The private sector would then quickly pull themselves out of the game, as their motive is profit. Voila no more public service, and the community as a whole is left much worse off for the experience. 

I don’t mean to constantly bash the Republicans here, the original tenants of their party are sound, but they’ve gone off the deep end since 2000. The religious right have utterly subverted the party’s hierarchy, and their allegiance to the free market appears to be more one to large corporate backers. As much as I deplored the utter idiocy of the majority of Tea Partiers, the notion itself wasn’t that bad. The Republican Party was and still is completely out of touch with its base, people who honestly want lower taxes and private innovation over public (I’m just going to discount the Bible thumpers since we do have a legal separation of church and state). However, the Republican brass are literally doing nothing for these people. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts would have had no effect on 98% of Americans (while pumping $40 billion into the economy every year, to you know, work toward the deficit or something), but the Republicans swore up and down that to let them expire would kill the economy dead even though real life economists stated that unemployment would only go down by .01% if the cuts remained in place. And let’s not even get into health care reform and how thanks to the Republicans unwillingness to play nice gave us a monstrosity that literally everyone hates (I’m assuming that was their interpretation of a coup de grace or something). I honestly hope some of them wake up at some point and demand a civil political party that considers the Democrats the opposition not enemies, and looks beyond the corporate avarice which consumes so many Republican politicians. Well, I can hope can’t I?

Alright, well that’s it for one evening. Maybe I’ll post a recipe or something next time to counteract this long winded political rant. 

Playing Catchup

Alright, so I know I promised an update a while ago, which I completely fell through on. But, hey, I’m going to give this one the good old college try. Let’s start from the beginning, as the last time I put up a truly comprehensive post was…Julyish?

So, the first semester of graduate school was an odd combination of great highs and lows. For starters the kids in my program are a phenomenal bunch of individuals, and I am fortunate to count them as friends. We’re an eclectic bunch, from literally all over, but somehow we all get along more or less famously. I’ve had a lot of fun times with them so far, and look forward to more of the same. Now juxtaposed upon this cheerful image like the clichéd Disney-esque villain that it is, is graduate school itself. By and large the classes I’ve been taking have been really interesting, and have challenged me in a really good way, but come the last month of the semester or so, all hell literally breaks loose. I still have PTSD from last semester’s finals, but suffice it to say that by December 27th (when the last paper was due, I’ve never before worked on academics after Christmas), I had composed roughly 75 pages of double spaced academic torture.

Additionally, the month of November was particularly glorious, as I grew out my beard for “No Shave November”. To put it gently and fairly, I was the most rugged badass in all the District. We also went home to Ohio for the first time since July for Thanksgiving and my cousin Gary’s wedding. That was a lot of fun (except for the 20 page 1.5 spaced econ paper I had to work on that week), and it was wonderful to see my family, friends, and native land again.

Because I really wanted to focus on the papers, I stayed out East for Christmas. On the positive side, I got to spend Christmas with Jenny for the first time in our five year relationship. Plus, I really love spending time with her family, and since she still has young siblings I was up two hours before dawn on Christmas Day, and I got a Nerf Gun, my first toy in way too many years. The flip side is of course that I missed Christmas with my family, which was a really weird and kind of depressing experience. I’d never been away from home for Christmas, and it was hard not seeing my parents, my brother, or my grandparents. 

After Christmas was a totally different story. I rapidly went into vacation mode, and slept for about 10 hours a night. (Which was much needed after about three straight weeks of awful sleep and three or four all nighters) This was also the first time that I’ve play video games in years after Jenny got me the first two Uncharted games and my awesome MAGES friend Steven exposed me to the joys of FIFA ‘11. He was even so kind as to loan me FIFA ‘10, so that I can get some practice in and kick his ass later. All in all, it was a very relaxing break, and it was great to spend as much time with Jenny as I did. It’s been rough making the transition from being in college, and hanging out pretty much all the time, to her working 9-5, and me having class in the evenings. I’m sure it’ll be less hectic once I’m out of school, but this whole situations really makes me miss undergrad sometimes. 

Alas, like any good thing, break went by far too quickly, and I’m currently back to the grind of graduate school. This semester I have a class on EU-Russia Security Policy, Belonging and Politics in the US and the EU, The MAGES core culture class, and the History of Political Violence since 1945. It should prove to be interesting at the least. This semester definitely had its fun moments too. Last Friday we went to the Library of Congress to get our research cards, and this surreal tour of the Library by a burnt out old hippie librarian. It was phenomenal, and I don’t know that I could ever do justice to the inanities that turquoise belt buckled man graced us with. Afterwards the Department paid for our dinner and we feasted upon deliciously greasy burgers and fries. Later, some of us when bar hopping around Capital Hill and Dupont. It was a really fun night.

Tomorrow I’m going to the ARD Headquarters in DC (the folks who make Tageschau) to get a tour and talk about a possible internship! Even if I don’t get it, I’m just excited to go see this place. I watch die Tageschau at least three times a week, and read their articles pretty much right after I read the American news, so I’m super excited about this!

Alright, well I think that’s it for now. I’m going to try and update this a bit more often than once every 6 months, since according to some people that falls into the category of “infrequent”. Have a great Friday everyone!

Eric