Seared Tuna Steak and Sauteed Spinach (I Love Alliteration)

Friday evening we enjoyed tuna steaks and spinach. We heated about a tablespoon olive oil and a tablespoon of butter and added about half of a yellow onion, diced and 2 cloves of garlic, minced. We covered the skillet and cooked it on low for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, we set tuna steaks out to come to room temperature whilst we enjoyed an adult beverage. Or two.

We walked in and out of the kitchen a few times to stir the mixture and MY GOSH did the onions and garlic smell good! Man alive.

When we were ready to eat, I added a bag of fresh spinach to the skillet. I don't know how many ounces or whatnot but just a bag of spinach. I mashed it in there the best I could and put the lid on top.

Jeffrey heated about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a skillet. He coated the tuna steaks with blackened redfish seasoning and Greek seasoning. He cooked them for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side.* About that same time, the spinach was done.


In other words, in less than five minutes, literally, we had dinner on the table.

The dinner was GOOD, too.

* The tuna was rare, as it should be.

It's a Party, It's Chicken, It's Party Chicken

I recently bragged about my ability to time travel.

I did it again last night – time traveled, not bragged about it - wherein I prepared a chicken dish my mother used to make a lot in the late 70s. It’s called Party Chicken. Bacon and a can of Cream of Mushroom soup are involved. Sounds like a party, doesn’t it?

Party Chicken

1 (2.25-ounce) jar of dried beef
Bacon (can use turkey bacon)
4 chicken breasts (bone in or boneless skinless)
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup (I used Healthy Request)
8 ounces sour cream (I used light)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Shred half the jar of dried beef and place in a 9x13 casserole dish.

I could not find a photo of the jar of it the way I usually see it, but this is the same brand, just different packaging. Maybe it's a southern thing? I don't know?

Save the rest to use in another recipe. Like a cheeseball – recipe to come.

Wrap chicken breasts in bacon, 1 to 2 slices each, depending on the size. Place in casserole dish.

Combine soup and sour cream and pour over chicken. Bake for about an hour.

Last night as I was pulling this dish from the oven, I remember that my mother always baked this at a lower temperature, about 250 degrees, for a longer time, about two to three hours. It made the entire house smell so good! Growing up, we often had it for Sunday dinner because you could cook it so slowly.

I bet this would work nicely in a slow cooker, too, although I haven't tried it yet.

We had brown rice and sautéed spinach with the chicken. I love sautéed spinach. We sautéed about half a yellow onion and a clove or two of garlic in olive oil and a bit of butter, then added the spinach, and covered until it was cooked. It’s really tasty and so easy.

All in all, a delicious and easy, easy meal everybody liked. There were happy plates all around.

We’re planning to have seared tuna steaks with spinach Friday night for dinner, tailgate food Saturday afternoon and evening while watching the game, and filets and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus Sunday night. Maybe hamburgers Monday.

What will you eat over the Labor Day weekend?

Snickers Cheesecake

Snickers must be the most beloved candy bar in the U.S.of A. What's your favorite? I'm in the majority as Snickers are probably my favorite, although I like Reese's peanut butter cups, too. And Baby Ruth and Butterfinger. Apparently, I just like candy.

I also like cake, all kinds of cake, including cheesecake. I have known people who don't like chocolate but I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like cheesecake.

Snickers + cheesecake = out of this world


I first got this cheesecake recipe from Bon Appetit magazine in the early 90s. I've made umpteen variations of it and it always turns out very tasty.

4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 package Snickers miniatures, chopped
plus a regular size Snickers bar to garnish
various and sundry enhancements like caramel sauce, fudge sauce, peanuts - all optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

For the graham cracker crust, combine about 1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers with 2 tablespoons of sugar and about 6 tablespoons melted butter. Press into springform pan. Wrap outside of springform pan with aluminum foil; this will be important later.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. I love the way vanilla smells. The original recipe undoubtedly called for less vanilla but I always put more so I upped the amount some. I don't know by how much; the original recipe has been lost in the annals of time.

Pour about half the batter in the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle with the chopped miniature Snickers bars. Top with remaining batter.

Place cheesecake pan, wrapped in aluminum foil, in a larger dish, like a casserole dish. Pour warm water into the casserole dish so that it comes within an inch of the top of the springform pan, creating a warm, toasty water bath. I think that must be the secret of this cheesecake, and why it comes out so darn creamy.

Bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the center of the cheesecake isn't jiggly when you shake it.

Let cool on wire rack for an hour or two. You can remove the foil whenever you want, but leave the cheesecake in the springform pan.

Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. When ready to serve, remove springform pan and garnish the cake. You can take chocolate icing (like from a can, pipe rosettes around the top of the cake, and press a piece of Snickers bar in each chocolate rosette. Or you can drizzle store-bought ice cream toppings, such as caramel and fudge, and toss the whole thing with peanuts and pieces of Snickers pie. Or you can leave the whole thing blank if you want to. Whichever way, it still tastes good.

It's Been a Long, Been a Long Time

My apologies. It's just that a lot has happened between then and now.

We have posts - lots of them - to come. Like the one about the marinated, grilled pork tenderloin that was SO GOOD. We carefully wrote down all the ingredients. Aaaannnd then lost the piece of paper everything was written on. We have a grill tutorial in the works. Oh and there's the Snickers cheesecake. And a bunch more stuff.

I burned cinnamon toast this morning, so I feel pretty awesome about my kitchen prowess.

Food posts are coming anyway.

Traveling Sugar

We made a batch of sugar cookies to take on the beach vacation last week.

Classic Sugar Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
4 scant cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
dash salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until fluffy.

Add vanilla, sifted flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
Cover and refrigerate. (Dough can be refrigerated for several days. In this case, I froze the dough for about a week.)

When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour various colored sugars or sprinkles or what have you in bowls.

Pinch off dough and roll into balls. Roll in the colored sugar and place on a baking sheet.

The Child, who is six, enjoyed that part. Really enjoyed it.


Using a glass, smoosh the cookie dough down a bit to form disks.


Bake until done, about 9 to 11 minutes. Cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.


This was easy-peasy. When we finished and the cookies turned out so pretty and we all had such fun making them, I knew we'd employ this method again. So much so that when we visited the shops at Foley, we got an assortment of sprinkles with these very cookies in mind.
Can't you JUST SEE the autumn cookies - the sugar cookies rolled in sparkling pumpkin orange sugar and assorted fall-shaped sprinkles? Can't you?? BECAUSE I TOTALLY CAN.

Not that I didn't already have an abundance of assorted, seasonal sprinkles in the cabinet.
Now that I think about it that looks like an intervention waiting to happen.

Don't mind me and my obsessive tendency toward sprinkles. Enjoy the sugar cookies.


You can also roll out, cut out, bake, and decorate these cookies:

Working with a small portion of dough at a time, roll out on floured board until about 1/4-inch thick. Dip cutter in flour and cut out shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets and refrigerate while working on the next batch; this will keep cookies from spreading, making their shapes more defined. (For best results, put cookies of the same size on each sheet.)

Bake cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, or until cookies are just beginning to brown on the edges.

Cool on pan for a minute or two then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Completely cooled cookies can be wrapped and frozen for weeks. Thaw cookies in packaging at room temperature before decorating.

Like these at Christmas.

Or these that made great Easter happies.

Again With Pizza

We eat pizza more often than I mention it here because I figure how many different ways can I write the same thing over and over? This time it is a little different in that it starts with homemade pizza dough.

I love homemade pizza dough. Love. It. It's not much trouble; I don't know why I don't make it more often. I think it's the idea of the homemade dough -- the kneading, the rising, the waiting, and whatnot.

This particular recipe is one of my favorites.


It's made in the food processor so the hand kneading is kept to a bare minimum (big plus). The dough is a joy to work with, too, nice and elastic and smooth - not sticky at all.

(One trick I learned from a bread baking class taught by Betsy Oppenneer is to use a bit of oil, such as olive or vegetable, rather than flour, when rolling out dough. Dough won't stick to the oiled surface and you don't run the risk of incorporating too much flour in the dough, as I almost always did when I'd use flour. The dough would stick to the surface, stick to my hands, stick to everything so I'd dust it with flour and more flour and even more flour, and the end result was often packy and heavy.)

Caveat: This recipe is from, um, Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook. I know. I'm generally not a fan of her recipes as they tend to involve ten steps too many, and obscure, often expensive ingredients and specialty equipment. Howevah, this book I really like. The handful of recipes I've tried in it have all turned out very well. I especially like this pizza dough because it can be made anywhere from 12 hours to three weeks ahead of time.

Pizza Dough
Makes enough for three 10-inch pizzas or four 14-inch pizzas.

1 cup warm water (110 degrees) - You may want to invest in a good instant read thermometer to be sure.
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4-ounce (about 2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for oiling the bowl

1. Pour the warm water into a small bowl. Add the sugar and sprinkle in the yeast. Using a fork, stir the mixture until the yeast has dissolved and the water has turned putty colored. Let the yeast stand until becomes creamy and foamy, about 5 minutes.


2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine 2 3/4 cups flour and the salt, pulsing 3 to 4 times.


Add the yeast mixture and 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil. Pulse until the dough comes together, adding more flour as needed until the dough is smooth,not tacky, when pinched between two fingers. Transfer to a clean surface. Knead the dough 4 or 5 turns and shape it into a ball.

3. Brush the inside of a medium bowl with olive oil, and place the dough in the bowl, smooth-side up.


Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 40 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap, and push your fist into the center of the dough to punch it down. Working in the bowl, fold the dough back onto itself 4 or 5 times. Turn the dough over, folded side down, cover with plastic wrap,and return to the warm spot to rise again until the dough has doubled in size, about 30 minutes.


4. Punch down the dough again, and transfer it to a clean surface. Using a bench scraper or a sharp knife, divide the dough evenly into three or four pieces, kneading each piece four or five times.

TO MAKE AHEAD: Follow the recipe through Step 3, tightly cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 12 hours. When ready to use, remove the plastic wrap, punch the dough down with your fist, and let it sit at room temperature until ready to soft and pliable, about 30 minutes. Which is what I did last Sunday afternoon when we made pizza.

TO FREEZE: Punch the dough down after it first rises in Step 3. Fold it back onto itself 4 or 5 times as instructed. Divide the dough and roll it out to the desired-size rounds. Stack the rounds, separated by parchment paper, then double-wrap the stack tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. To use,m unwrap frozen dough and thaw slightly until the rounds are easily separated. Place each round in a lightly oiled bowl and thaw at room temperature for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until each is completely thawed and the dough has doubled in size. Proceed as in Step 4 of the recipe.

About an hour and a half before we planned to eat, we began caramelizing a yellow onion in olive oil and butter.

We preheated the pizza stone, along with the oven, to 450 degrees. After rolling out the dough, I plopped it on the hot pizza stone and topped it with our usual: pesto, shredded rotisserie chicken, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and mozzarella.


The pizza baked until the cheese was melted and the crust nicely browned.

Saturday Night Dessert

Here is what we made for dessert on Saturday night. You might have remembered reading about it here. We didn't make the Sock It To Me cake, just the ice cream part. And after sampling just a small, small bit of it on Sunday evening, it can tell you it was great!

Y'all come back now ya hear!