Getting Older and Double Dose of Cooking

You’re in luck this week, to celebrate my 33rd year; you get not one but two meals my dear reader.  Every Thursday a friend of mine (who is a bit shy so will remain nameless in this blog, just imagine that it’s someone super famous and doesn’t want the press to mob my house and wreck our good time) comes over for what we call movie night.  This tradition started with my old roommate Becky as a way to make sure we kept in touch and would get to spend time with each other.  It is so easy to get busy with life and work that you lose touch with friend.  Having a night where you know you will get to spend with the people you like is a great way to keep that from happening.  Truth be told half the time we don’t even watch a movie.  As people have moved away and new friend have come into my life the cast has changed, but once I week I know I will get to spend time with some friends. 

Most movie night we will just grab some quick food out or have something easy like cereal, but this night we stop off at the grocery store to get my nameless friend some coffee and somehow had the epiphany that breakfast for diner was just what the doctor ordered.  We picked up some Maple Sausage and planned to make French Toast.  Now, I haven’t made French Toast in years but I do have a book of breakfast recipes.  Almost every recipe in there was far too ambushes and would have necessitated another trip to the store; however there was a bare bones recipe that called for just eggs and milk.  I took that recipe and just started adding to it and thus was born Old Man Mitchell's Off the cuff French Toast.  It was quite tasty and there was enough of the mixture that I was able to have French Toast the next day for breakfast, which was nice since it was my Birthday!

Old Man Mitchell's Off The Cuff French Toast

What you will need:

• Your Favorite Bread
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup Milk
• 1 Tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/4 Tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 or 2 Tablespoons of Honey (to taste, I just eyeballed it)
• A non-stick griddle

1. In a midsize shallow bowl beat the eggs
2. Add the milk and mix thoroughly
3. Add the spices and mix thoroughly
4. Add the Honey and mix thoroughly
5. Put the griddle on medium heat and let the surface heat up for a minute or two
6. Dredge a piece of toast though the mixture until it is full coated and has absorbed a bit of the mixture
7. Cook on the griddle till golden brown on each size, it should take a little less the a minute a size, you will need to play with the time and temp to get the each piece to come out just right.

While I made the French Toast I also cooked the sausage in a cast iron skillet.  I cannot recommend picking one these up enough.  When it comes to cooking things like sausage a well-seasoned skillet add so much subtle flavor and lets you cook them to perfection.  We then topped of our plates of toast and sausage with a healthy dose of real Maple Syrup.  All of these things came together to make a perfect pre-birthday breakfast for dinner meal

For my actual birthday Laura and I caught an afternoon showing of Pixar’s latest, Brave.  Brave is simply a delightful film.  The story is a straightforward and compelling tale of forgiveness and understanding.  The central conflict rang true to me as I have seen it echo between nearly every Mother and Daughter I have known.  Even if the film did not feature a compelling story it would have been enjoyable for the visuals alone.  Pixar has set the bar so high with their previous films that some reviews have glossed over how good this film looks.  I was mesmerized by the attention to detail in Brave.  How each characters tartan showed unique signs of wear and the princesses hair was a spectacularly beautiful mess of tangles and curls.  Both Laura and I loved this movie and can’t wait to see it again.

Saturday brought on one of my favorite birthday traditions, a trip to Kabul and Franklin Fountain.  Each year I gather a small group of friends and got to my absolute favorite restaurant, Kabul, a wonderful Afghan establishment in the heart of old city Philadelphia.  They make the best Norenge Palaw there and I get it so often the owner know what I’m going to order before I open my mouth.  After diner we walk down to Franklin Fountain for handmade ice cream.  This year’s meal and company did not disappoint; a wonderful time was had by all.

Sunday I cracked opened the Hunger Game cookbook for dinner inspiration.  The Orange You Glad I’m Chicken caught my eye.  I fully intended to make a change or two in order to make the dish my own.  What I didn’t expect was for the cream sauce to go so far off the rails.  Once I got to that step I just started to wing it.  Amazingly despise looking like a disaster it came out deliciously.  Below I have attempted to document how to make the sauce we had that night, but there will definitely be some cooking by instinct when you make this for yourself.

Also learned that Orange Extract is damn expensive!  Next time I make this I will try using Orange Zest instead at a 2 to 1 zest to extract ratio.

Creamy Orange Chicken

What you will need:

• 8 pieces of skinless boneless chicken thigh
• Heavy Cream
• 2 tablespoons of Honey
• 3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 5 tablespoons of Orange Extract
• 1/2cup Olive Oil
• 1 can of mandarin oranges
• 2 cups Orange Juice
• 1 cup Flower
• 3 tablespoons Corn Starch
• Large Non-Stick Sauce Pan
• Some mixing bowls
• A Fork

1. Pat dry the Chicken and use a fork to create a number of small holes in the surface of the chicken to allow the marinade to absorbed
2. Mix the orange juice, 2 Tablespoons Orange Extract, salt, oil, garlic and Honey in a bowl
3. Place all of the chicken into a sealable storage bag
4. Add the marinade and mix thing around so the chicken is thoroughly covered
5. Let chicken marinade in the fridge for 5 hour
6. In a bowl mix together the cornstarch, ½ cup of Heavy Cream and Orange extract; mix till smooth.
7. Chop up the mandarin oranges and add them to the cream sauce
8. Take each piece of chicken out of the marinade and coat in the flower.
9. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in the pan over high heat
10. Fry the chicken for about 3 to 4 minutes per side
11. After the chicken is done set it aside under foil to keep it warm
12. Lower the heat on the pan to medium
13. Ok here is where things interesting add the cream sauce to pan and start mixing it in
14. Keep mixing till it reduces down a bit then add more cream sauce as you see fit, letting that reduce down too.  Really your cooking by instinct now, add whatever you think works and it’s done when you feel it’s done.

I pared this chicken with Jasmine Rice and Oven Roasted Asparagus.  We were out of the O brand Blood Orange Olive Oil that I would have liked to use, but the Asparagus came out pretty good with regular old extra virgin olive oil.  When you make this, try out different flavored oils and let me know which you think is the best.

Oven Roasted Asparagus

What you will need:

• A deep pan (I use a broiling pan with the top grate taken off)
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil
• Asparagus
• Kosher Salt
• Cracked Black Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Line the pan with foil
3. Place Asparagus in the pan so that each piece can lay flat
4. Drizzle the oil over the Asparagus
5. Give the pan some good shakes so that the Asparagus rolls around and become completely covered with oil
6. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the Asparagus to taste shake again.  Note a little salt goes a long way.
7. Roast the Asparagus in the oven for 7 minutes
8. Take the Asparagus out and give the pan another good shake
9. Roast for 6 more minutes

I have to say despite the hiccups in preparation, this dish got one of the better reactions of the things I have made this year.  Laura cleaned her plate in record time.  I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we have.  If you make it, please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Speaking of your thoughts, this is the 10th post of Old Man Mitchell Kitchen and I would like to hear how you think it is going.  What do you like about the blog? What do you want to hear more about? Any meals you want me to try my hand at?

Till next time, get the hell out of my kitchen.