The debut

Since about August posting my first post on Las Sisters Jones has been on my ToDo list. I got so sick of writing it I now just put a little "-start LSJ" at the bottom of the list and I know what needs to be done. Anyway, here's the deal: I'm a little late to the party but I'm here. I also brought Sutter Home and Costco cookies, but I made it. Not really, but none of my recipes are all that gourmet or labour intensive (sorry for the annoying spelling but my new computer is British and the red squiggles under every word devoid of a superfluous "u" has forced me to just be a Madonna/Gweneth/Red Coat traitor and add them in). Oh yes, nothing is going to be all that gourmet or labour intensive because that kind of business requires timing...and I'm late for everything. (Except for adolescence... I was actually early for that show. I digress...)

Some little factoids about what's going to happen when I post. My recipes will be most suitable for:

• Poor people...who live lives and shop for foodie food that is inconsistent with their socioeconomic status as they forget they are poor, randomly buy really expensive things from posh markets, feel bad about it/fret about being able to pay their CC bill so they buy cheap crappy other things (morally malleable filler foods we'll call them), and then feel bad about not using locally sourced food/killing off all the poor over-farmed sardines in the world so they go back to their expensive habits. Basically, a hypocrite. Be aware of inconsistencies...because I really don't have time to notice them.
• Social carnivores: I not a vegetarian, I just don't buy/eat meat on my own time because I am too cheap/don't really care about it, so I only eat it in social situations or when feeding the Boy...(this statement will probably not be true by the end of this post)
• People who buy fruits and vegetables and let them rot. The reasons are twofold: 1.) The aforementioned inconsistencies between my personal beliefs and actual lifestyle lead me to only buy the best and most natural foods. I shop like a health nut. I eat like a fat kid. 2.) British people eat garbage. I'm serious. They are repulsive. It's like the war isn't over here. I swear my nice, posh flatmates pick my old food out of the garbage and then smother it in booze, stick it in a cupboard for a month and then make something out of it that would last until the next world war. British people can (and will) make and then eat anything made out of American refuse. It's amazing. I've been taking notes. Suddenly, I have a purpose for letting all my healthy food go off- I can turn it into delicious fattening treats that will last longer than a twinkie (and be au naturale!). It's amazing...all my hypocrisy all rolled up into one sweet little Swiss cake that allows me to be an honest liar all at once. Britain: truly Great.
• People who like to hear random facts about how British people eat and why they are weird in general.
• " " only applied to Indian people
• People with an overabundance of potatoes who also just so happen to hate them. I hate them. Truly. The stupidest, waste-of-a-sin on the Atkins diet. But I have a lot of them. So I have some recipes to help dress up the insipid little balls of watery dirt-flesh. (Obviously, french fries are cool...but only if they are skinny because there is a higher oil:potato ratio.) Note: the surfeit of potatoes is due to my extreme loyalty to my mixed veg box that I dutifully get (and let rot) each and every week in my extreme support of local and sustainable farming. I pay a fortune to ferment locally sourced goods.
• Those who do not like lemon desserts
• Cooks that are afraid of knives
• Those who believe in the power of cheese

So, to be consistent with my inconsistencies, I will not actually post a recipe...but leave this as an open ended post. A half ticked box. I tried.

Loving regards,

Eliza

Casseroles for Cool People

So, I have a thing for casseroles. And now that I'm a mom (and was, at one time, a working mom), I understand why they were invented: meat, veg, carbs in one big dish that you can usually put together ahead of time and bake off before dinner. Brilliant. Plus, I don't care how big of a foodie you are, casseroles taste good. Not like 5 star good, but like cheeseburger good. Or better yet hotdog good (I'm ashamed to admit it but the fact is that assorted meat product in a tube tastes good. Especially with ketchup).
The only thing that keeps me from making casseroles like 3 times a week is that for as much love as I have for the casserole, I have an equal or greater amount of disdain for canned, condensed cream of anything soup. And 99% of casseroles have not one but TWO cans of condensed cream soup in them. So I am regularly in search of that 1% of casseroles that don't, and this happens to be one of them.

It's from The Foster's Market Cookbook by Sara Foster, who runs two specialty food stores in North Carolina, one in Durham and one in Chapel Hill. This was the first cookbook that I ever bought myself. I used it a good bit in college, but it languished on my shelf for a few years until I dusted it off after we moved to Virginia. I was looking for a casserole recipe and found this one, which Mike and I both really liked.

It doesn't exactly fall into the one-pot wonder category, especially if you cook your chicken the same day, but you can assemble it most of the way ahead of time, and just make the mashed potatoes and bake it before you eat. There is a recipe for mashed potatoes here as well... not that either of you need a recipe for mashed potatoes, but I used this one simply for the sake of having the right amount of potatoes to top the pie. It makes a huge casserole, but it seriously tastes even better the second day, so you won't mind having leftovers. I left out the jalapeno and cut back on the chili powder in the mashed potatoes by about half, but that was only so that Caroline would be able to eat it. I roasted a cut up chicken the morning that I made this, but you could definitely either get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store or just roast 3 or 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. I think next time I make roasted chicken for dinner, I'll just roast two at a time and use the second one to make this shepard's pie later in the week.

Southwestern Shepard's Pie with Chicken and Chili Mashed Potatoes
from The Foster's Market Cookbook by Sara Foster


Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 red onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
1 green bell pepper, cored, and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
¼ cup all-purpose flour
8 cups shredded cooked, chicken
¾ cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken broth
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or ½ heaping teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Kernels from 2 ears fresh corn (1 cup fresh or frozen corn)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 recipe Classic Mashed Potatoes (below)
2 teaspoons chili powder
Fresh parsley and fresh thyme, to garnish, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly brown, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, red bell pepper and green bell pepper and cook 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and jalapeño and cook 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour starts to brown slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken and wine and stir until the wine begins to evaporate, about 1 minute. Slowly add the chicken broth, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Reduce heat to low, bring the mixture to a low boil, and cook 5 to 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens and is creamy.

4. Remove from the heat and add the parsley, thyme, red pepper flakes, and corn. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer the mixture to a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. [this is where you can stop and put it all in the fridge... just make sure you take it out with some time to come to room temp before you bake -cjc]

5. To make the chili mashed potatoes, mix Classic Mashed Potatoes with 1 teaspoon of the chili powder in a bowl until well combined.

6. Spoon the chili mashed potatoes on top of the chicken and bake 20 to 30 minutes or until the potato peaks are slightly brown and the chicken mixture is bubbling around the sides of the dish. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining chili powder and the parsley and thyme, if desired. Serve immediately.


Classic Mashed Potatoes
from The Foster's Market Cookbook by Sara Foster

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients:

4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut in half (about 6 potatoes)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
¾ cup whole milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a low boil and cook, uncovered, 25 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.

2. Drain the potatoes and return them to the saucepan while still warm. Add the butter and milk and mash with a potato masher until all the butter and milk are incorporated and the potatoes are creamy.