Parmesan Asparagus

With the Creole Catfish Cakes we had asparagus with Parmesan cheese, a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything cookbook.

Simply steam asparagus, which I usually do in the microwave. Put asapragus in a cold water bath to stop it from cooking, then lay in a single layer in a caserole dish. Top with a few pats of butter and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake until cheese is good and melted.

Roasted Asparagus and Onion Risotto

We tweaked a recipe for Asparagus Risotto and came up with this one, where we roast the onions and asparagus together. I think roasted or caramelized onions are one of the best things under the sun and this risotto has become our go-to side dish recipe. It tastes rich without being heavy and is the perfect side for roasted chicken and makes a great Sunday night meal.

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
7 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups uncooked Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (We often use closer to 1/2 cup cheese.)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put asparagus and onion pieces on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for about 20 minutes.

In a large saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and maintain at a simmer. Spray large heavy skillet with cooking spray and add rice. Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes, then add the wine and cook until absorbed.

Stir in 1 cup simmering broth. Cook until broth is almost completely absorbed, stirring frequently, then add another cup of simmering broth. Repeat until only about 1/4 cup of broth remains (discard remaining broth)*, which should take about 20 minutes.

Add roasted asparagus and onion; heat through. Remove from the heat; add the butter, Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper and serve to appreciative eaters.

*This note is from the original recipe. It's odd, isn't it? One time we made it and didn't need that last bit of chicken broth. One time we used it all. Just do what feels right.

Long overdue!

Well to say I have been procrastinating just a bit would be an understatement... Last Friday night, Keetha and I made a trip to our glorious grocery located in beautiful Cleveland, MS. That would be the place that she likes to visit everytime she comes here (Ha! Don't try to deny it girl!). We picked up some shrimp, asparagus, proscuitto, grape tomatos, and a sweet yellow onion. Beginning to get any ideas yet?

Yep. You're exactly right, kabobs on the grill!

We began by placing the deveined and peeled shrimp on bamboo skewers alternating shrimp, onion chunks (we need to find a better way. The onion didn't stay on the skewers very well), and grape tomatos. We then marinated with Lea & Perrins and Cavender's Greek seasoning. What else could we have to compliment this lovely meal, but the now infamous proscuitto wrapped asparagus aslo marinated with Lea & Perrins and Greek seasoning.




Yeah, it was every bit as good as it looks!!

And least I forget, we also had our mainstay of bread, a multigrain take and bake loaf drizzled with honey garlic butter.

Stay tuned people...we have a fantastic meal planned for this Friday night as well.

Yes, back out to the grill again!

Y'all come back now, ya here!

Back to the Grill

For the second time in as many days, we cooked on the grill. One time with my very own grill that I removed the cover from. ALL BY MYSELF.

That meal was great - grilled chicken and grilled asparagus, which we made like we did last time. I could eat it approximately every single day.

Or so I thought until Saturday night when we grilled.

We made happy hamburgers, hamburgers that were made happy by the addition of pepper jack cheese smack dab in the middle of the hamburger patty. Man alive, as the burgers cooked, the cheese melted and was it ever good.
This is the bottom layer of the hamburger patty with the cheese. This was topped with a thin patty and the edges crimped together to keep all that preshus cheese in there. The end result was very moist and really tasty.

That spawned a lively discussion of any number of variations on stuffed burgers. It's going to be pretty great.

Before that, we snacked on cheddar and edam cheese, dusted with a homemade Cajun seasoning blend and crackers. It made me think of the Rendevzous.

This was late in the afternoon, after a day spent outdoors. My son played in the backyard with a disabled lawnmower deck. Something about the belt or chain or something interested him. He asked me where the fan went that turned the belt.

THEN.

There is the aspragus, wrapped in proscuitto, sprinkled with Cavender's Greek seasoning, drizzled with olive oil; it was all kinds of good.
Seriously good.

If I needed an excuse to fire up the grill, which I didn't, but if I did, that would be it.

A Girl and Her Grill...Part I - Stuffed Pork Chops with Grilled Asparagus

Hi all! Jeffrey here. I thought I'd try my hand at this blogging thing, so please be patient with me as I work on my first ever post! As you may have read, Keetha decided that she (we, I should say) needed a place to share the things that we cook in the kitchen as well as outside on the grill, so here we are.

Friday night we christened her brand new charcoal grill with a dish that has been a frequent visitor to my grill over the years...with a twist that I hadn't thought of trying before.

We began by deciding on a mutually agreeable stuffing for the pork chops. I've routinely used sausage (various types ranging from smoked venison, beef, or pork to Andouille), boudin, crawfish tails, and rice dressing, all of which tasted wonderful! On this occasion, the stuffing of choice was a spinach and shrimp dip (sort of) placed inside a small slit cut into the heart of a boneless pork loin chop. And if that weren't enough pork fat, we wrapped the entire chop with bacon to keep everything nice and moist!! (I know, I know...all I can say in my defense is that when it comes to pork fat, the more the merrier!)

Spinach and Shrimp Dip Stuffing

10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
1 envelope Knorr vegetable recipe mix
1/4 pound cooked peeled shrimp (20 to 25/lb count)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened (I'm sure you could use reduced- or no-fat. Um, we didn't.)
couple of tablespoons of sour cream
1/4 cup or thereabouts freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl of a mixer, adding some sour cream to thin it out a bit. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Most likely better made the night before, although we didn't. You'll have leftovers, which go perfectly with crackers.

Stuffed Pork Chops

2-1 1/2" thick boneless pork loin chops

worcestershire to taste

Montreal Steak Seasoning to taste

Approximately 1/4 cup of freshly chopped parsley

2 sprigs of freshly chopped rosemary

6 slices of bacon (we used Wright's Pepper Bacon)

Cut a small slit in the chop side oppisite of the fat layer. Cut deeply, but be careful not to cut all the way through to the other side. You just want to create a pocket similar to pita bread. Stuff as much stuffing as will fit inside the slit and press firmly.

Wrap the stuffed side with 2 slices of bacon so that the entire chop is circled with bacon, and if that weren't enough...wrap 1 more slice of bacon across the chop in the opposite direction.


Add worcestershire sauce (we prefer Lea & Perrins) & Montreal Steak seasoning to taste on both sides of the chop. Finally, add the chopped parsley and rosemary to both sides of the chop, and this my friends, is what I would consider to be a beautiful sight!

After preparing the above "ingredients", we progressed outside to prepare the grill for cooking! Now, I must digress just a moment to say that The Lady had been told by well-meaning family and friends to not purchase a charcoal grill...it would be "too much trouble" and "too hard" to get just right for cooking. Well...

BEHOLD THE FIRE THAT KEETHA BUILT!!!!! (with just a tiny bit of coaching I might add) :-)

Then it was just a matter of reclining in our favorite lawn chairs (honestly, I just don't know any more Southern a term for chairs out on the lawn, or yard as we lovingly refer to them down here!) with beverage of choice and waiting for the coals to burn themselves down to a nice ashy white color for cooking. But wait, it's not quite time for those chops to be tenderly placed on the grill just yet. No true Southern grilling would be complete without first seasoning the grill with a nice appetizer. We decided on grilled boudin complete with a nice selection of Edam and cheddar cheeses.

Yes, my dear reader, it's FINALLY time! Once the boudin was removed from the grill and plated for enjoying in front of the grill with another beverage of choice, we placed the stuffed pork chops on the grill, slightly off center for a nice indirect cooking.

After the boudin and cheese were casually consumed (actually they were ravenously devoured...we were getting rather hungry by this point!), we moved back into the kitchen to prepare the asparagus.

We simply used these ingredients... a nice olive oil fortified with rosemary, thyme, garlic, and other tasty treats, worcestershire, and Montreal Steak seasoning (anyone picking up a pattern here?)

When the chops were getting close to being done, we placed the asparagus on the grill atop a grilling pan. This would be a small foil pan similar to a cookie sheet, but had perforations in the bottom to allow the charcoal to add a nice smokey flavor to them. The asparagus only needed roughly 5-7 minutes and they were done. Nice and tender with just a hint of crunch...al dente` if you will.

And this is what we ended up with after fixing a small accompanying Salad (Keetha & I chose wine & cheese dressing this time for a different take on The Salad). This was paired with a very nice Pinot noir (hey, give us a break! We're new to this wine thing so we just drink what we like! Ha!). Oh, I almost forgot about the bread. You may have remembered reading about it here.



After time spent enjoying our creation while engaged in great conversation, we retired back to the aforementioned lawn chairs around the grill to enjoy a civilized nightcap...(who could stand dessert after all that food we just scarfed down!) The dishes could wait for later!!!

So that, in a nutshell, was Keetha's and my evening. Stay tuned for the next installment of "A Girl and Her Grill" where we'll be enjoying....... (now you don't think I'd let the cat out of the bag that easily do you?!?)

Y'ALL COME BACK NOW, YA HEAR!!!

PS... I'd be rather wrong if I didn't acknowledge Keetha's assistance with this post.... THANKS KIDDO!!!!