Soup that pairs nicely with Portuguese Sweet Bread, Portuguese Meat Bread or Rustic Cornbread. Or no bread at all! If you’re concerned about the bitterness of turnip greens in this soup it’s pretty much without need. With the little bit of meat, olive oil and vinegar the greens are pretty tame. Let’s not totally take away the characteristic of this vegetable. Piquant can be a good thing.
Backyard chickens are busy this time of year. With the extra eggs I opted to bake this delicious Portuguese Meat Bread, a meal in itself with a little side of greens or green salad. My choice as a side today with my Portuguese Turnip Green Soup … coming up next!
This bread is rich in eggs & butter! What this means to bakers? This recipe requires extra time to rise … about 2 hours. Plus, it’s a little sticky during kneading.
It’s a forgiving recipe and certainly worth the effort because the outcome is amazing.
The potatoes are being popped into the oven for a 25 minute reheat. Another great potato recipe for family or company. Just like a baked potato fully loaded. Add what your family likes on a baked potato and you can’t go wrong. I added our favs: butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese and chives.
So-o decadent! Great over a tenderloin roast or your favorite barbecued or pan seared steak. Fast and easy too. I used Gorgonzola cheese just because. Use your favorite blue cheese. This is a no fail. Promise. Sauté the sliced mushrooms with garlic and butter or just add them (mushrooms and garlic) to your melted cheese and butter and forget the sauté. Up to you!
Let’s see. What else can be enhanced by this sauce? Vegetables, pasta, rice!
But did I say pricey! Save this for a special occasion because a tenderloin roast can cost. This one was $22 a pound and weighed just a little over 3 pounds. Enough to serve 6 generously. A delicious cut of meat you don’t want to ruin. So, if your guests are into medium well or well cooked meat you may want to skip this.
This was served with a blue cheese and mushroom sauce. So delicious.
A salad and potato dish complete the meal. Yes, the slices are a bit thin … about 1 inch. Can you imagine this roast is for 6? 3 pounds! We might be carnivores … This was even too much beef per serving for us. Keep your guests’ appetite size in mind when purchasing this cut. Leftovers are good but not ideal here.
It absolutely works! The little terra-cotta pizza oven I bought at Cost Plus World Market is worth it. Now 40% off too. Start the fire, let it burn for 15 minutes to reach a peak temperature, bake pizza in two minutes. Amazing!
Choose your favorite pizza toppings and add them to this amazingly quick and easy pizza dough. In fact, I would say this is a no fail pizza dough recipe. Yep, while at World Market I picked up this great pizza recipe book, Patio Pizzeria by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig. Lots of good and delicious ideas. I decided to try their simple “Classic Pizza Dough” with slight variations. It was pretty near perfect. They did suggest ’00’ flour for wood burning ovens … providing a thinner crust. But I used bread flour as the original recipe suggested and it worked well. In fact, the recipe was to make four 6 inch size pizzas. I found it made four 8-9 inch pizzas instead … It was easy to stretch out with semolina flour dusted on the working surface.
It was fun using this method of cooking. Just have the right wood for your oven, small enough and safe to use with food. I like the idea of a pizza stone and I didn’t have any trouble removing the pizza when done. When transferring onto the heated stone the pizza dough should be resting on a cornmeal covered surface. This helps tremendously. I had the pizza resting on a large wooden paddle covered with cornmeal and lifted/slid the pizza onto the heated stone with a 6 inch round spatula. Worked perfectly.
This may take away any thought about me being pretentious. I’ve been wanting one of those super duper expensive outdoor pizza ovens for years. You know, the kind that costs thousands. I might even be able to kinda afford one. But instead I opted for this $100 Cost Plus World Market version. This little terra-cotta oven looks like it will hold up for some years. Wonder how the pizza will bake. Will it be crispy and perfect like I perceive it would be if baked in one of those pricey ovens? We shall see!
Don’t be fooled by my outdoor stove. It’s only providing a little more height than the original pizza oven stand. Yes, I’ll be burning wood inside the pizza oven to heat it up. I’m going to include a pizza stone inside as well. The online reviews of this wood burning oven were 3+ out of 5 (best). (Most reviews were 5’s but one review was a 1 because the oven arrived broken.) One particular criticism was the lack of a crispy crust. Although this could be secondary to the heat of the oven, the crust recipe and who knows what else, I’ve opted for the pizza stone. Wish me luck!
The 1930’s Wedgwood stove was my grandmother’s. She used it for many years to cook all our favorites. Try her Portuguese Beans with Linguica or her Portuguese Marinated Pork. My brother has great ambitions for me to fix up grandma’s stove. I was actually thinking of using it in the yard for plants. Oops!
Here’s the second chicken from my discounted double pack. Truth is the second one had a bit of an off smell when I removed it from the package, and although it was not over the draw date given I decided to take it back to the market for a replacement. This is the replacement. Chicken and fish are the two food products I go the extra mile to attain the very freshest.
This recipe is especially for those on the fence about chicken. Often chicken, especially breast meat, is overcooked with dry tasteless results. The richness of this dish will please even the most ardent beef eater.
We’re having chicken noodle soup tonight with these amazing leftovers.
Precooked garlic chicken at your grocer’s can be expensive when you can make it easily yourself at half the price! I know, I know, sometimes the convenience is worth the store bought but just in case you can buy two large roasting hens for less than $10 like I did here you might give this a try.
Yep, I do fast food … Starbucks to be exact! Not too often … Whatever that means! Their Chorizo Breakfast Sandwich has me. Potato bread bun with a slice of scrambled egg that has been cooked with caramelized onion, Monterey Jack cheese and a tender slice of chorizo. It’s the spicy chorizo that makes it. This thin tender patty of chorizo is a mystery. I’m not a chorizo expert but I do know Mexican and Spanish varieties are quite different … the Spanish is more like an Italian salami in texture … so I’ve been told. Mexican varieties are in castings that are not typically eaten. The contents are removed, crumbled and cooked. The Starbucks patty doesn’t seem to be either of these. We have a wonderful market here that provides many chorizo choices. Did I explore before hand? No, I already had a typical Mexican chorizo in the fridge and why go shopping. I’ll make it work. Let’s see what happens!
Why focaccia? Putting together a breakfast quickly is key for me. Buying prepared buns is not an option for this, and I’ve been wanting to try this focaccia recipe I found on allrecipes.com. I did simplify the recipe a bit. No need for a bread hook or mixer. Be cautious with salt here. Chorizo is pretty salty plus cheese and a salty bread? Too much.