Three Minute Gourmet

Do "gourmet" recipes scare the beejebus out of you?

Unwilling to spend a ton of money on all the kitchen gadgets that you need to do all the fancy-pants stuff?

Only have a few precious minutes to get something on the table?

Is your comfort level of cooking pretty much pressing buttons?

You'll love Blender Hollandaise.

Cut up a stick of butter.  Put that in a microwaveable container.  I like my glass measuring cup.  Nuke that for 30 seconds.

Meanwhile, separate 3 eggs and dump the yolks in your blender.  I also like to add a blob of dijon mustard.  A few drops of fresh lemon juice is nice, too.

Stir your butter, then nuke for another 30 seconds.

Take the butter out of the microwave.  Take that little middle insert thingy off the top of the blender, and then start the blender on high.  SLOWLY pour the melted butter through the hole in the top of the blender while you let the blender run.

In 60 seconds or less, you'll have Hollandaise that is far better than you'll ever find at a buffet or most restaurants. 

I love the "light hollandaise" I usually make (it's a lightened version, uses flour to thicken the sauce with a LOT less butter) but sometimes it's just a pain to think about making it.  Never the case with blender hollandaise.  Easy and very hard to mess up.

Crazy old Southern recipes that actually work

Peach Cobbler.

It's one of those recipes that you look at and wonder how in the world it work (and how someone came up with the instructions) - but it works.  And it is super easy and so tasty.

I had some peaches to use up... I actually found a nearby farmer's market over the weekend that was semi-decent, and I bought some peaches.  I had to use them up.  What better way than some peach cobbler??

You start your oven.  You throw a stick of butter in a pan and toss that in the oven so the buter can melt.

 Meanwhile, you cook some sliced peaches (I don't bother to peel) with some sugar and water....

 Then it is batter mixing time.  And it is an odd batter.

Flour....

Add milk and mix....

Take the pan out of the oven and the craziness begins.....

Pour the batter OVER the butter...

Pour the peaches OVER the batter....

And then you just look at it for a minute and go "WTF have I just done?  This is never going to work."

But... it does...

The batter bubbles up thru and around the peaches, and it's just wonderful.

Add some vanilla ice cream and let the happiness begin.

Uninspired

Hey.

Yeah... it's been pretty quiet around here.  I have been in a cooking rut.

Lots of the "same ole, same ole" recipes being done.  Partly because regular work has been swamped and a couple of projects for my old old company popped up after we got back from Vegas and I've been busy (but busy is good), but I really haven't seen anything in WEEKS that has had me going "wow, I need to try that!".


For example... the recent cover recipe from one of the food mags I get.. Cooking Light.

Really?

I mean.... REALLY?

This used to be a pretty good magazine with some actual innovative recipes.  Now, we get shredded store-bought chicken piled on to store-bought tostadas.  Thank GOD they finally managed to work out the instructions on how to do THAT.  Because I just wouldn't have been able to figure that out without their help.

I love cookbooks, I love recipes.  I am totally in love with all the recent America's Test Kitchen "extra" issue-thingies I've been finding at the store that are nice compilations of recipes (usually mostly of recipes I've already tried).  Magazines have been a big FAIL lately.  And the last cookbook I bought, I just haven't gotten that into.

Hopefully I'll break outta the funk soon.  Hang in there, folks.