I'm taking the night off!

Jannine, thanks for the amazing post.  I can't wait to try the grilled pizza.  It looks delicious. To all you kitchen klutzes out there, be a guest poster!  E-mail me at klutzinthekitchen@gmail.com if you are interested!

The Kitchen Klutz Dining on Take out ThaiSince it is my night off we had take out Thai food.  We usually order from Thai Square in Arlington--it's delicious and they deliver for free, but I switched it up a bit and we ordered from another highly rated Thai restaurant, Crystal Thai.  Of course I didn't tell my brother or my husband this...hah!  The blind taste consensus was that the food was good, but wasn't as good as usual.  For more details, my husband Jeff is going to write a review.

Update on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 9:18PM by Jeff

Hey, ya'll. My first blog entry. Up to now I have been an eater, rather than a blogger. As Mary's loving husband, I have been the beneficiary of all of the good recipes you have read to date. (I have actually gained 9 pounds since we started living together.) You would think her blog would be the best thing that ever happened to me. While I have benefited from even more good food than usual, I fear I have lost my wife. (Now take my wife . . . please). Mary now spends hours and hours in front of the computer screen. Our conversations go something like this, [Me] "Mary, do you want to go out of town this weekend?" [Long Pause] [Mary] "Hmmmnn." You get the picture. The blog has become the main topic of conversation in our household. Sorry President O.

Overall, I would recommend Crystal Thai, but give the nod to Thai Square. Check out my review

Look for my next guest appearance as Jefe, our cabanna boy (if Mary lets me post again after this).

Guest Grillin' (and bloggin') from Seattle

Lately I've been reading blogs alot more often than writing and right now I'm hooked on food blogs. Food writing is fun to read for so many reasons, but the best reason is that food is fantastic - to make - to eat - to look at - to smell - to read about - well, you get the idea. I found this "klutzie" blog via my college roommate who came for an extended visit and got me cooking again. She spoke of a friend who regularly made her own pasta and just like that - there was a post about just that! (I just might have to guest-post about the working-mother-of-two's attempt at making her own pasta in the future...)

Now that Summer has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest, I've been scouring the blogs for fun outdoor recipes. One led to another, then led to another, until suddenly, all of these blogs led me back to what a friend introduced us to a couple of years ago: GRILLED PIZZA!

Yes, it may sound totally crazy, but I actually even think it was Martha Stewart who was the initial inspiration for these.

Since my children (especially my son) enjoy eating pizza above all other foods, and they LOVE to help roll out the dough, we celebrated the 20th sunny-day-in-seattle-in-a-row by grillin' up some 'za! The kid-caveat here is that they don't always like the burned parts of grilled food, and they didn't get to build the pizza themselves since the grill is hot-ish but it was still a pretty huge success.

My treat was that I got to fill up my pizza with whatever I wanted! I used up all my farmer's market treats (in Seattle, the Spring Farmer's Markets are a little slim pickins).

Here's what we did:

Roll out your pizza dough (either pre-made or bought) into round-ish shapes and let it rest for a little while.

Heat up the grill so it's REALLY hot.

Grab a pizza peel/non-edged cookie sheet and sprinkle some corn meal or similarly-textured flour (semolina) on top and load up the dough.

Slide the dough onto the grill and close it.

Give it a couple minutes to puff up a bit and get brown, then flip it and let the 2nd side do the same.

Then TURN OFF THE GRILL! (otherwise... burn marks)

Dress your pizza time! 

Our kids: prefer just tomato sauce and cheese. 

Hubby: tomato sauce, cheese and any cured meat - preferably Salumi

Mine: olive oil base, potatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, gruyere and bleu cheese. I think if I could have fit more on, I would have!

I think we'll be grilling lots of pizza this summer. I'll keep reading food blogs for ideas, and maybe even find a few more to pass along.

Thanks, Mary, for the guest spot and I hope you enjoyed your day off!

until next time... yum

Why I Roast My Chicken Under a Brick

Chicken under a brickI think the first time I ever had chicken roasted under a brick was at Obelisk, one of my favorite restaurants in DC.  I had never seen it prepared this way before--a golden brown crispy skin with a juicy, juicy, juicy interior-- and honestly I was hesitant to "just get chicken" at a restaurant of Obelisk's calibre.  (It was actually called "poussin" on the menu, which is a chicken less than 28 days old).  Our waiter assured me that it would be chicken like I had never tasted before.  She was right!

I think I finally perfected my recipe, but please comment if you would do something different.  I've tried making Cooks Illustrated's version (in the Jun '09 issue), but I thought that cooking the garlic and herbs added an unnecessary extra step and the grill, although it added a nice flavor, dried out the chicken.  I cook mine inside, starting it on the stove and then finishing it in the oven.  I brine my bird first and then (thanks to the Cook's Illustrated recipe) add a combination of herbs, lemon zest, olive oil, and salt directly under the skin of the bird.  This adds tons of flavor, but prevents the herbs and garlic from burning when you crisp the skin.

If you want to taste the juciest chicken you have ever eaten before, try this recipe.  I promise you won't be disappointed!

By the way, I'm taking the day off tomorrow.  Luckily my friend Jannine has graciously agreed to fill in for me!  Happy eating.

Brine that Bird!

I know we all live really, really busy lives and cooking, especially during the week, has to be simple.  I work full time and I certainly have those nights when I don't want to cook anything so we either go out or get take out.  When I do cook, however, I don't think about how many steps it will take to prepare the meal.  I just think, will this taste good?

So...speaking of an extra step that makes a huge difference, is taking the time to brine poultry.  A basic brine is a mixture of salt, sugar, and water although you can also add spices to the liquid.  The high osmotic content of the brine forces the salt, sugar, and spice mixture into the bird and flavorless poultry water out.  The resulting meat is juicy, flavorful, and incredibly delicious.  It really doesn't take that much more time to prepare (the only difference is that you have to brine the chicken the night before you cook it for dinner), but the result is absolutely worth the extra effort.

Note, a brine is NOT a marinade (a marinade is a simple combination of an oil, an acid, and a flavor enhancer).  The most notable difference is the lack of acids in a brine.  Don't add one.  It will break down the proteins too much leaving a gelatinous mass.  Marinades are great when used correctly, however.  I'll blog more on this in the future!

The Life of a Carnivore (or what we do for love)

I love meat.  I'm not picky on the type...give me beef, venison, chicken, goat, kudu.  You name it, I'll eat it.  At one point in time we had ten different species of animals in our freezer.  When I was in eighth grade I decided I was going to be a vegetarian.  My parents took bets over how long it would last (a month...they both lost).  My always health conscience husband likes meat, but (why I don't know) doesn't like to eat it every night for dinner.  As a compromise we eat fish at least once a week and I try to cook a vegetarian meal just as often. 

Herb Grilled TroutTonight we had herb grilled trout.  I'm the annoying shopper at the market who insists on smelling the fish.  It's the best way to tell if it is fresh (you should also make sure the eyes are clear and the gills, if they are still attached, are spongy).  Fish should never ever ever be "fishy."  If it is, don't buy it.