Grills and Girls {Southwest Rubbed Steaks w/ Chipotle Butter}

Grilling is usually a guy thing.  Who's doing the grilling in ads for sausages and BBQ sauce?  Guys.  Who's drooling over new grills in commercials for home improvement stores?  Guys.

Let's just say that grilling paraphernalia is not heavily pushed on Mother's Day.

Growing up, my family didn't fit this norm.  Mom did the grilling.  Aside from the time she caught a low hanging branch of the peach tree on fire, she did a good job manning the grill.  It's a mystery why I've long been intimidated by grilling.

A fear of big hunks 'o meat?  No.
A fear of open flame?  Not one bit.
A fear of cooking outdoors?  One word: S'Mores.  (To answer the question, nope.)


It's only been about a year (give or take) that I've been a girl at the grill.  I'm still learning.  The other day I burned the crap out of my arm grilling burgers.  I also burned the crap out of the same arm in the kitchen too.  On the same day.  The Boy says the burns make me look tough.

Tough enough to grill like a guy?

I'm not professing mad grillin' skillz.  But I do a pretty good job.
Two secrets.
1. Walking away from the grill and letting things be (AKA doing nothing)
2.  Hiding any mistakes with dynamite toppings...

Southwest Rubbed Steak w/ Chipotle Butter

More for your grilling menu:

Muffuletta
Burgers

Grilled Vegetable Sandwich w/ Herbed Mayo

Charcoal-Grilled Corn w/ Cream, Cheese, and Chile

Thyme Griddled
Mushrooms

Double Chocolate Granita

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Watermelon Lemonade

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Southwest Rub 
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp brown sugar

Add all ingredients to a small bowl.  Mix well with a fork.  Makes plenty enough for 4 steaks.

Chipotle Butter
1/2 stick softened butter
1 Tbsp finely chopped chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp adobo sauce from the chipotles

Mash the chipotle pepper and adobo sauce into the softened butter with a fork.  Scoop out onto a square of waxed paper.  Using the wax paper, form the butter into a log.  Roll the butter up in the waxed paper and place in the refrigerator to firm up until ready to use.  Can also be wrapped well and frozen.

For steaks:
Sprinkle rub over both sides of the steaks.  Using your hands rub the seasonings into the meat.  Let stand for 20-30 minutes.  Meanwhile, start your grill.  Grill the steaks to your liking.  Serve with a generous blob of chipotle butter over the top.


Linking with:

Rice Is Nice, But Taters Are Greater

I was reading in the latest issue of Louisiana Cookin' Magazine that the average person in the US eats 10 pounds of rice per year.  However the average Louisiana resident eats 50 pounds of rice per year.

Don't look at me.  I didn't do it.
When it comes to rice consumption in Louisiana, I clearly don't do my part.  Sometimes I cook rice for The Boy and The Husband, but make potatoes for me.

I love potatoes.
I mean, just look at these beauties.

Rice doesn't excite me the way potatoes do.  Sure, rice may be the vehicle for gumbos, etouffees, and amazing gravies (all of which I love).  But rice is a taxi.  

Potatoes are Ferraris

This is an easy, fun recipe from my mom.  It starts out with something similar to blackening seasoning.

Let me tell you, blackened potatoes are mighty good.

What's fun about these potatoes is that the paprika and chili powder turn the oil an orangey-red.  As they roast, the potatoes soak up that orangey-red oil and turn that color throughout.  Kinda shocking when you bite into one.

I should've taken a picture of the weird interior color, but I was too busy scarfing them down.

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Creole Oven Fries

from my mom

6 large potatoes (about 2-2 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces

1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Tony's Creole Seasoning
1/4 c olive oil
salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Place potatoes in a pot of water.  Bring to a boil and cook until almost tender.  While the potatoes cook, mix the paprika, chili powder, and Tony's together.  Drain the potatoes well.  Spread potatoes on a large baking sheet.  Sprinkle with the seasoning mixture, along with salt and black pepper to taste.  Toss with your hands to coat the potatoes in the seasonings.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss again to coat.  Bake until crisped on the outside, about 40 minutes.  Turn every 10 minutes while baking.


Linking this week with:

Food on Friday: Potatoes @ Carole's Chatter

IHCC: Some Like it Hot and Spicy

To this day I'm still not sure if my mom was interested in ceramics or if those two hours once a week were an out. An out from the daily mayhem that my brothers and I caused.

Ceramics is top choice when the alternative is sticking your arm down the toilet to retrieve Hot Wheels that have completed the Tidy Bowl 500.

And it's much less stressful to sit in a ceramics class and paint than it is to sit in your living room staring at someone's butt imprint in the wall. The result of a drop kick off an armchair gone further than planned. (Even though certain boys were forbidden from watching and "playing" wrestling.)

I imagine firing a ceramic cat is a lot easier than trying to fill the large, deep hole in the back yard. The hole that was dug down to the water table (not hard to do in New Orleans) so the GI Joes and Glamour Gals could have a nice, but rather muddy, lake to swim in.

Let's not lay blame. Point fingers. (But that last one totally sounds like me.)

So every Tuesday night, dad had a solo stint in the madhouse. And maybe we tested the waters a little to see if dad could be pushed as far as mom. (He could not). But sometimes the chaos followed by panic, or yelling, or kids in the corner, was sincere.

On these Tuesday nights, dad was responsible for meals and baths. Cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes.

One such Tuesday night, dad stood at the sink washing dishes, back turned to his three little monsters. Which was not wise.

A little 5 year old voice asked, "Daddy, can I please have some water? This stuff is kinda hot."

Dad froze. I saw him stop the pot scrubbing and tense up. "What's kinda hot?" As he turned around to face my brother. "Holy crap, stop that!"

My brother sat at the kitchen table sucking--even at that moment--sucking on a bottle of Tabasco.

So, yes, some do like it hot and spicy. Even at an early age.

Spaghetti Aglio, Olio, e Peperoncino from Tessa Kiros's Twelve

Notes:
This is a simple, quick dish. Just the right kind for nights when you're on your own with monsters. Pasta is quickly tossed in a sauce of olive oil, garlic, and dried peppers. My peppers were not spicy--funny how that happens sometimes--so I added additional red pepper flakes. Add a salad and you have a somewhat instant meal that doesn't require you to turn your back for too long.

There is a similar dish from Giada de Laurentiis with lemon juice and zest (and our addition of kalamata olives) that is one of our all time favorites. Especially in the summer. We like that extra salt/tang/acidity from the lemon and olives, which this recipe lacks. However, we liked the inclusion of garlic in Tessa Kiros's dish.

Linking with I Heart Cooking Clubs
This week's theme: Some Like It Hot...and Spicy



Also linking with Cookbook Sundays #9



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Spaghetti Aglio, Olio, e Peperoncino

(Spaghetti w/ Garlic, Olive Oil, and Chili)
from Twelve: A Tuscan Cookbook by Tessa Kiros

1 lb spaghetti
about 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 small, dried red chilies, crumbled {I added red pepper flakes as well since my chilies weren't spicy}
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
handful of chopped parsley
salt
grated Parmesan for the top

Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving about 1/2 c of the cooking liquid before draining.

Meanwhile, add the olive oil, chili, and garlic to a large pan. Heat over medium low until the garlic is fragrant and the chilies color the oil.

Add the pasta and parsley to the oil and season with salt. Toss well. Serve topped with Parmesan.

Catfish Divan "down at da camp"

Every fall my whole family goes "down to da camp" where Louisiana splays her webbed feet into the Gulf.

It's really something to wake up to this.

And end the day with this.

You might remember (if you've been here a while) last year's trip was after the BP spill.  It hurt me to see what I saw.  And the mess and sludge had already been cleaned up by then.  It was more about what I didn't see: life.  Wildlife.  Mainly birds.  So quiet and still and eerie last year.  So different and troubling.

Normally I look forward to this annual trip.  This year I found myself on edge the closer it came.  Almost dreading it.  Not knowing what I'd find.  Or wouldn't, rather.

The pelicans were back!  I couldn't stop taking pictures of them perched on pilings and flying overhead.  Other birds, like egrets and blue herons had returned too (although not in the numbers I saw before BP).

This year we outdid ourselves, throwing in some extra activities.
Like crabbing in Lake Hermitage w/ grandpa.

And a crab boil.

And BB gun mania.

Dahlin', you know you passed a good weekend when
"fun & exhausting"
sum it up.

And no one shot their (or anyone else's) eye out.

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A couple of years before he died, my grandpa gave me From Woodstoves to Microwaves...Cooking with Entergy, a cookbook published in 1997 by the electric company in New Orleans. It's more than a cookbook, it's New Orleans food history. The cookbook is a collection of recipes that Entergy mailed alongside it's customer's bills and used in cooking demonstrations (to show people how to use modern appliances). Recipes that reflect what the people of New Orleans eat and have eaten for many years. The introduction to From Woodstoves to Microwaves explains:
"...this cookbook is a reprint of...many recipes that are, in many respects, the essence of this city. These are as much an archive of New Orleans' culture and community as any work of history or anthropology. And with the history comes a little lagniappe--the opportunity to taste New Orleans."

I love to flip through this book, reminding myself of meals eaten on Sunday afternoons at my great-grandma's house, or dishes my grandpa experimented with.

Today's fish recipe, Catfish Divan, is an adaptation of a recipe found in this book.

I absolutely loved this dish! So much that I made it twice last month. The fish is first poached in white wine and green onions.

Waste not want not...the poaching liquid is used in the sauce. The tasty, tasty sauce.

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Catfish Divan
adapted from From Woodstoves to Microwaves
1 pound catfish fillets
1/2 lemon
3-4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup half & half, room temp or warmed
1 tsp salt, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
about 8 oz frozen broccoli spears, thawed (roughly 1 package)
black pepper to taste
1/4 sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350.

Rub the fish fillets with the cut side of the lemon. Add green onions and wine to a shallow pan large enough for the fish to fit in one layer. Place the fish in the pan. Simmer over low heat, basting occasionally, until the fillets begin to flake.

In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. When the butter bubbles, add the flour and stir. Cook for a few minutes, then stir in the half & half, about 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Stir while cooking until the sauce thickens and bubbles, about 4 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and squeeze the remaining juice from the lemon half into the sauce.

Grease a casserole dish large enough to lay the fish flat in one layer. Place the fish in the casserole and season with the remaining salt (or to taste) and with black pepper. Top with the broccoli. Pour the sauce over the broccoli, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and the sliced almonds. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until bubbly.

linking with:

Cookbook Sundays

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