Seafood Chowder!

The weather is getting colder. In our house, that roughly translates into “lots of soup.” Seafood Chowder is one of my very favorites, as I like a thick and hearty soup. This one can get kind of pricey BUT it’s worth every penny. You’ll want to leave lots of time to prep because it takes a good long time to get the sautee going and get everything together and ready to go. Once you get past the sautee part though, it cooks pretty fast.

What You’ll Need:

A bag of frozen corn
Green onions
Celery
Green bell pepper
1/4 cup white rice
Flour

Thick-sliced bacon
Haddock, Whiting, or Cod filets (I sometimes use monkfish as well but it has stronger taste)
Shrimp
Imitation Crab (this holds up in the chowder better than real crab)
Large scallops

Butter
Chicken stock
Heavy Cream (you may use Whole Milk to lighten it up a bit if you don't like it thick)

Coarse salt
Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper

How To:

• Cook the corn and then mix half of it with whole milk or heavy cream and put in blender to make a cream corn mixture
• Sautee bacon, onions, pepper and celery in butter - when they are just about done add a quarter cup of rice and a tbs or two of flour to thicken it up
• Add chicken stock
• Add whole milk or heavy cream
• Bring mixture to a boil
• Once boiling turn heat to medium and add shrimp, scallops, imitation crab, and fish
• Let cook for about 20 minutes
• Add cream corn mixture (if its not thick enough for your taste, add some flour and water mixed together- just a tablespoon or so though)
• Add coarse salt, black and cayenne pepper- stir in and let cook another 15 minutes or so

Canned Banana Peppers Stuffed With Pepperoni

This is a personal fall favorite of mine. You can can them in whatever way you are most comfortable with. I find that “cold packing” (described below) is a pretty quick and very efficient way to do it. Less mess and less time overall.

What You Need:

Reasonably wide banana peppers – you can fit approximately four to six per jar
Stick pepperoni (Sugardale is the least greasy but Hormel seems to hold up the best in my opinion)
Vinegar, water, salt, sugar, pickling spice
Quart size jars and lids

Suggested Pickling Solution:

Two cups of vinegar, one-half cup of water, a tablespoon of salt, one-half cup of sugar, and a third of a jar of pickling spice per quart jar.

What To Do:

Cut tops off peppers and remove seeds
Cut small “X” in the bottom of each pepper (for drainage)
Cut pepperoni into sticks

Put pepperoni sticks into peppers and place in jars
Place pepper and pepperoni filled jars into 250 degree oven until fairly warm
Pour boiling vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and pickling spice mixture into jars
Place lids on quickly and as tightly as possible
Place upside down on a countertop and allow to sit until cool
Be sure to check that lids are sealed about an hour after you have placed them upside down.

An Appetizer and A Dessert

From Eric Stephens:

Tortilla Chips. We all like them when we head over to our favorite Mexican restaurant and have always wondered how they make them or where they get them from. Ashley found out from a friend that knew someone that worked in a Mexican restaurant the secret to making those delicious Tortilla Chips they always give you before your meal arrives. This is very simple, but the reward is eating those restaurant style chips any time you want.

Ingredients:
White or Yellow Corn Tortillas, I would buy the ones that are delivered by one of your authentic Mexican food vendors like Mission or Ole' in this area.

Directions:
Cut the Tortillas up into triangles of whatever size you want

Deep Fry your triangles in Vegetable Oil until they are just a golden brown, don't get them too brown or they will taste burnt

There you go now you have your own Tortilla Chips just like the Mexican Restaurant makes. So next time you have a Mexican food night you can impress your friends.



From Adrin Fisher:

Syrupy Fried Apples

This one is a great use for apples slightly past their prime. It’s awesome alone or on vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:
Apples
Sugar
Cinnamon

If you feel like it, peel the apples. Cut apples into slices. Put into a frying pan with a splash of water. Cook the apples over medium heat. Add cinnamon and sugar to taste. Don’t walk away for too long—burnt fried apples are totally disgusting. When the apples are soft, sweet, and syrupy, eat them!

Here’s an interesting stir fry idea that Kent McChesney sent us. He’s a chef so we’ll definitely be trying it out!

What You Need:
Your favorite vegetables (water chestnuts are ideally included)

*Kent also told us that if you want to go with frozen vegetables then you should go with Bird’s Eye brand*

Cooked chicken breast
Soy sauce
Dry mustard
Honey

What to Do:
Cut up your favorite vegetables and the chicken into bite size-ish pieces
Add the soy sauce and dry mustard and fry it up
Use the honey to thicken up the stir fry whenever it is cooked almost to your liking

Interesting Alternatives:
Marinate your chicken breasts in a Mayo and Hot Sauce mix and cook it on the grill, adding it to the finished stir fry.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

I decided to kick the recipes here at Mancipes off with a really simple and really tasty one. Our family absolutely loves grilled chicken and vegetables and it requires very little time and effort with respect to preparation and cleanup (always a plus with little ones that are anxiously awaiting desert popsicles, right?).

The basics of how to cook the chicken on the grill came from a Grilling University class Adrin and I took. The funny part is that it totally changed how I view cooking chicken and the conversation was really just a side note as the instructor was cooking a big ol’ hunk of beef as the main course! So thanks to those who ask seemingly unrelated questions – at least as long as they don’t ask too many of them.

What You Need:

Olive Oil
Coarse Salt (I prefer Kosher because having your ingredients blessed can’t hurt)
Dill
Some kind of Pepper (I would use Cayenne if anyone in my family was into the spicy stuff but I usually stick to plain old ground Black Pepper)
Basil
Chicken (boneless, skinless breasts work best for this)
Whatever vegetables you enjoy the most cut into big, fairly thick slices so that they won’t fall through the grill

* Dill and basil are pretty readily available in any grocery store but you should try planting some yourself if you’ve got a little space. We have a small herb garden and basil and dill are our “power herbs” because they are basically weeds so they spring up on their own every year and require zero maintenance. Plus, they are way cheap to plant and not so cheap to buy always.

Chicken:

1. Chop up the basil and dill until its fairly small – big chunks of basil especially don’t taste very good.
2. Throw the chopped herbs into some Olive Oil and add coarse salt and ground pepper – mix it all up as good as you can.
3. Coat chicken with the mix with a basting brush- make sure the chicken doesn’t drip Olive Oil or the grill will start flaming when it drips!
4. Throw on the grill (I usually go with medium heat on my propane grill) and as soon as the chicken no longer sticks to the grate, flip it over and cook about two or three more minutes TOPS (maybe five to eight minutes total?)
5. The chicken should still be slightly pink on the inside still- not super pink but you should be able to see a faint whisper of it. Don’t let it scare you, I’m told that it should be that way as that is when it’s at its most flavorful and when you taste it you’ll be hard pressed to disagree.

Vegetables:

1. Cut whatever vegetables you like into “big, fairly thick slices” – we always use green onions (no slicing needed!) and zucchini, often adding green or red pepper and broccoli or asparagus (both of which are THE BEST when grilled).

*Occasionally I’ll throw in some mushrooms as well, generally using the grocery store’s “Exotic Blend” pre-mixed stuff. I sauté it separately and then add it in at the end. I really like the mushrooms but it’s a little more work as you have to cook them separately.

2. Coat both sides of the vegetables with Olive Oil and apply a generous amount of Kosher Salt to both sides as well.
3. Grill it! Just throw it on and when it starts to soften a bit, flip it over and let it go another minute.

To wrap everything up I usually just slice up the grilled vegetables and throw a chicken breast on top of each plate. This is sooooo easy and something we enjoy doing all summer long when the vegetables are all basically in season here in the Eastern U.S. The trick really is to make sure you don’t overcook the chicken.

If you try it or have a variation or thoughts or even a question that you’d be willing to share, be sure to post it here so we can all check it out!

The Beginning

Welcome to my new project... (da da da da) Mancipes!

I have had this idea floating out there for awhile and have decided to try and flesh out exactly how to approach this by offering a blog format and seeing where it goes from there. I first was struck by the idea of creating some kind of "recipe medium" based on the way many men cook about 10 years ago.

Way back at the turn of the millenium I was working in a little shop in Holland, NY (outside Buffalo)as a laborer. There were only a few of us that worked there and it was (almost always) a great atmosphere. One of my favorite things about it was the fact that the three of us that primarily worked there were all amateur cooks. We all had pretty varied tastes and often traded recipes for everything from Broccoli & Artichoke Pasta to best practices for grilling to Dilly Beans, Freezer Pickles, and Pickled Venison to great soups like Pepper Cheese and Borscht. The way we traded recipes though were very similar because none of us wrote out exact amounts- it was more of a "find your own taste" kind of approach. Hence the "Mancipe" bit.

So, I'll be posting some of my favorite recipes and tips that I have found helpful in my cooking experiences here as well as those of my friends, old and new. So, get your sporks ready and fire up the grill, smoker, oven, or whatever else you dare to cook with and let's eat!