House Westerling: Mussels in a Beer Reduction

There Is An Ancient Celtic Axiom That Says ‘Good People Drink Good Beer.’ Which Is True, Then As Now. Just Look Around You In Any Public Barroom And You Will Quickly See: Bad People Drinking Bad Beer. Think About It.

Hunter S. Thompson

This recipe is all about the sauce, and the sauce is all about the beer.  I chose to use Saw Works Dirty South Brown Ale.  The best part is it pairs wonderfully with the beer it's made out of.  You could use this sauce on a variety of dishes, such as steak.  I used it to boil mussels.  

What you need:

• 4 cups of beer (I used Dirty South Brown Ale from Saw Works)
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp brown sugar 
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped carrot
• 1/4 cup diced onion

In large sauce pan add beer (I think this recipe works best with a dark beer), garlic, brown sugar, and olive oil.  Bring to boil then reduce to medium heat.  

After 15 min add celery, carrot and onion.  

Cook at medium heat for 30 to 45 min while stirring occasionally.  At this point I added the mussels, covered the pot, raised the temperature to medium-high, and cooked for 8 min.  If you're not using the sauce to steam something like mussels then continue cooking it until it is the thickness you desire for your use.  For a steak I would aim for the consistency of thick maple syrup.  

Pretty Pig: Orange Dijon Pork Roast

Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.

Robert Heinlein

Pork paired with wild rice

This is an exceedingly simple holiday roast, perfect for the person who would rather spend the holiday hanging with family and friends than slaving over the stove.  It's so easy in fact, that I only bothered to take photos of the final product.  The rest was just kind of boring.

What you need:

• Pork Roast, mine was 2.5 lb 
• ~1/2 bottle orange juice
• ~1/2 bottle Dijon mustard
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 2 tbsp paprika

Grab your roast and toss it in a freezer bag.  Throw in enough orange juice to cover the bottom quarter of the roast, and then add in about a quarter of the bottle of mustard.  Add in the thyme, rosemary, 1 tbsp cumin, and 1 tbsp paprika, close the bag, making sure to get the air out, and rub everything into the roast to get it good and coated.  Refrigerate.  Our roast marinated for about 3 days, and we just made sure to flip it once a day.  On Christmas morning, we tossed it in the crock pot with the marinade, added in more orange juice to cover about half the roast, add another 1/4 bottle of mustard, 1 tbsp cumin, and 1 tbsp paprika.  Set the slow cooker to low and cook for about 8 hours, flipping the roast occasionally.  When it's cooked to falling apart delicious, serve!

Aegon V: Brie and Egg Breakfast Strata

Pippin: What about breakfast?

Aragorn: You've already had it.

Pippin: We've had one, yes.  What about Second breakfast?

Lord of The Rings

Crusty, delicious Strata fresh out of the oven

Growing up, my mother always made a breakfast strata for Christmas morning.  I didn't make it home this year, so I decided to make the Strata myself.  It was incredibly easy and turned out perfect!  It's also not TOO unhealthy (if you can keep yourself from eating half of it in one day, which we could not).

What you need:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups diced, unpeeled Yukon Gold Potato
• 1 cup chopped red pepper
• 1 cup halved grape tomatoes
• 3/4 lb. ciabatta bread, cut into 1" pieces and toasted
• 8 oz. Brie, rind removed and chopped
• 1 cup Egg substitute
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp herbes de provence
• 3 cups 1% milk

What to do:

Cut the bread into 1" pieces and toast, and de-rind the brie, cutting into 1" pieces.  Put those aside.  Chop the onion, pepper, and potato.  Heat the oil in a large skillet or pot, and add the chopped ingredients, cooking until tender.  Halve the tomatoes, and add to the skillet once you have achieved tenderness.  Cook with the tomatoes for 2 minutes and then add the Ciabatta bread, cooking for 2-5 minutes.  

Place half of your bread mixture in a greased 9x13 dish, layer half of the brie on top.  Repeat.  Stick that mixture in the fridge overnight, so all those flavors can just soak into the bread and make it extra-delicious.

The next morning, whisk together the milk, eggs, and egg substitute until everything is combined.

  

Pour the mixture over the bread mixture, and let sit for about 30 minutes.  Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees while your mixture sits.

Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown and set.  Let cool for 15-20 minutes.  Try to avoid eating the entire pan in one go.

The Mountain and the Viper: How to press Tofu

"Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end."

George R.R. Martin, The Faces of Fantasy

For the longest time, I didn't know how to make tofu correctly.  It always ended up crumbly and soft, never those nice little squares you get in restaurants.   Then, a few months ago, Stoney attempted a new trick with the tofu before cooking, and like magic, we had beautiful little squares of tofu that didn't lose their shape while cooking.  The secret?  Pressing.  So, the point of this post is to show you how to press your tofu without one of those fancy tofu presses, so you can avoid having it fall apart while cooking.

Fist things first, get yourself some firm or extra-firm tofu.  Next, get out a pan or something to put the tofu in while it's being pressed.  Keep in mind that a lot of liquid comes out.  I used a tupperware lid.  Line your tofu-holder with a dish towel and paper towels, then set the tofu block down.  Place paper towels on top, and then stack something heavy on the tofu.  I ended up putting down a wooden cutting board and then stacking old law school books on there.

Leave the tofu to press for 1-6 hours, depending on your schedule.  Once you have pressed it, stick it in a baggie with your marinade of choice, and then put the baggie in the freezer for 30 minutes - 1 hour.

Like so.

Once you've marinaded your tofu, you can cook it up however suits you.  I did a stir-fry, as pictured above.

The Kingsroad: Avocado Tuna Salad

"I'm a Timelord, you're a big fish... Think of the children!"

Doctor Who, The Vampires of Venice

For our second installment, we decided to take on the low-cal lunch with an Avocado Tuna Salad.

Final product.  It tastes WAY better than it looks here.

Now, I am generally not much of a cook when it comes to lunch, because it always seems like too much of a hassle.  Oftentimes, I will just heat up some veggies or have some tuna mixed with red wine vinegar, but this was so simple, I may be persuaded to make lunch for Stoney and I more often.

I don't know about you, but I love tuna, and I love avocado.  Combined?  Sounded like heaven.  And guess what?  It tastes like heaven, too!  Combine that with the fact that it is only around 145 calories per 1/2 cup serving and I'd say we have a winner.

So what do you need?

Your ingredients

• 1/2 red onion
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 red delicious apple
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 2 oz. packets of tuna (I used this )
• 1 TBSP pickle juice
• 1 TBSP spicy brown mustard
• 1 pinch of coriander*
• 1 pinch of chili powder*
• 1 pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 avocado

*Alternatively, use one big pinch of cumin.

I ended up prepping most of this the day before, but I waited until the morning I was planning to eat it to put in the avocado, so that it didn't turn brown overnight.  

So to start, dump the tuna into a mixing bowl and chop up the apple, onion, and celery.  Once they are diced, throw them in the mixing bowl.  Add the other ingredients, minus the avocado, and stir until the mustard and other seasoning is mixed in thoroughly.  

Like so

Next, peel and core the avocado, and mash it into a paste with a fork.  Add said paste to the mixing bowl, and stir until the avocado paste has combined with all of the tuna mix.

And voila!  You are done.  It took me about 30 minutes to make.  I did the tuna mix during my lunch break and the avocado-mashing before work.  At Stoney's suggestion, I also cooked up some Pillsbury Crescent Rolls to use as bread to put them on.  Those crescents are tiny, though, and only fit about 1/4 cup of tuna salad on them, so eater beware!

Winter is Coming: Veggie Quinoa Chocolate Chili

"Now is the Winter of our Discontent / Made glorious Summer by this sun of York..."

Richard III, Act I, Scene I

I hate winter.  I don't ski or snowboard, I hate the cold, and I hate how it gets dark early.  The only thing that winter has going for it?  It's the perfect season for slow-cooked soups, stews, chills, and roasts.

So for our first post here at Game of Scones, we will be making a healthy, slow-cooked, Veggie Quinoa Chocolate Chili.

What you need:

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 large butternut squash, cut into chunks
2 bell peppers
1 large zucchini
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
2 (15 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, diced
2-3 tablespoons chili powder, to taste
1/2 cup 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips (or more, if you prefer)
1 tablespoon coriander
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Step 1:

Cut up the veggies.  Let me start this step by saying that if, like me, you like to cook but haven't quite mastered the art of chopping, you may want to forego the whole butternut squash and spring for pre-chunked, frozen butternut squash.  That was always my go-to, but for this recipe I thought I would boldly try my hand at dicing a butternut squash.  Mistake.  After hacking it in half, I realized I had no way to get the skin off, so I had to run out to the store to find a vegetable peeler.  Even once I had the peeler, however, it was still impossibly hard to peel, and equally as hard to cut into chunks.  After way too long, I ended up with many enormous chunks, and a few smaller ones.  Anyways, whether you chop the butternut squash yourself or buy it pre-chunked, once you have it in chunk-form, set it aside by itself.

Once the onion and peppers are chopped, put them aside together.
Then, dice up the zucchini and jalapeño, put them aside together and add the garlic.

Step 2:

Heat the oil in a pan or pot large enough to hold all those veggies you just cut up.  Add the butternut squash and cook for 5 minutes.  I alternated between covering the pot and stirring the squash over the five minutes.  Next, add the onion and peppers, once again cooking for 5 minutes.  Finally, add the zucchini, jalapeño, and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.  When you're done, you'll have a delicious-smelling mixture that looks something like this:

Cooked Veg Mixture

Step 3:

Pour the cooked veggies into the crock pot.  Add quinoa, water, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, coriander, chocolate chips, salt, and pepper.  Stir.  Cook on high for 4 hours.

All the ingredients, pre-stirring

Step 4:

Enjoy!