So Many Dishes

We’ve enjoyed watching some exciting basketball this weekend. Since none of our alma maters is in the tournament, plus Kansas lost, we’re rooting for Florida. Ken spent 32 years on the faculty, so we definitely have a connection.

I do need to explain the Kansas connection. My undergraduate degree was in music, not music education. So I took an alternative route to teaching certification, which required that I take five courses. I was able to find distance learning classes to fulfill my requirements, and two of them were through Kansas. To the schools where I took the other three courses, I was apparently nothing more than a name and a revenue source. Kansas, however, sent communications from the bookstore, the athletic department, and the alumni association. So we bought a couple of t-shirts and started cheering for the basketball team. (It didn’t hurt that one of the professors tried to recruit me into her Ph.D program).

Let’s get back to food! We decided to have Saturday lunch at our local barbecue joint, Mississippi Sweets. It’s a small neighborhood restaurant in western Lake Worth that we really enjoy. My usual lunch is one of their grilled chicken sandwich variations, but yesterday I opted for a crock of Brunswick stew. It was satisfying and delicious, loaded with shredded chicken, potatoes, lima beans, and corn. When I make Brunswick stew at home, I add barbecue sauce to the broth, and I detected some when I tasted the dish. I didn’t need to add any additional sauce. And I loved the slab of warm, grilled cornbread that accompanied it.

As I often do, I made a main course salad for dinner last night. Ken had spotted a Thai chicken salad with peanut dressing in one of our Cooking Light annual recipe collections that he thought we should try. The salad part looked fine: shredded cooked chicken breast, thinly sliced celery, shredded carrots, romaine, and bean sprouts. However, I wasn’t thrilled by the dressing, as its base was coconut milk. I like the taste of coconut milk, but I don’t like the saturated fat it contains. As luck would have it, I have another peanut dressing recipe that I’ve made before. So we decided to use that. It worked just fine, and I’ve included the recipe for the dressing.

Ken volunteered to cook tonight. He’s in the midst of physical therapy for his elbow, so he hasn’t been cooking for the past month or so. But he wanted to make one of his chili recipes, and I was perfectly happy to have him do so.

Ken cooks several different chili recipes, and he made my favorite tonight. It’s a Cooking Light recipe called Easy Elk Chili. He’s actually made it with elk, which we found at Sprouts a couple of times, but he has made it more often with ground bison, and that’s what he did tonight.

Ken cooks with the philosophy that a recipe is just a guideline. I looked at the cookbook page that contains tonight’s recipe, and it’s full of handwritten notations. I know that he made at least one other change this time, so I don’t think there’s any way to accurately share this recipe. I do know that he seasons it with chipotle chili powder, Penzey’s Chili 3000 seasoning, and a “generous pinch” of allspice. It also includes red wine, which adds an incredible richness and depth of flavor.

The only contribution I made to dinner was to bake a small batch of Bisquick drop biscuits. We served the chili with shredded cheese and sour cream, and the biscuits were just enough.

We’ve definitely had a great weekend, with good basketball and great food. I hope your weekend has been as enjoyable. I’m including the salad dressing recipe, because it’s incredibly versatile, as well as being delicious.

Thai Peanut Salad Dressing

• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 lime, juiced and zested
• 11/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon sriracha hot sauce, or to taste
• 2-4 tablespoons water, as needed

Place all ingredients except water into blender and mix until smooth. Add water, if necessary, to achieve desired consistency. Taste for salt and adjust as desired. (Amount of salt depends upon the brand of peanut butter). Makes one cup.

When I tasted the dressing, I decided to add extra lime juice; my limes were pretty small. Also, I added considerably more ginger than the recipe calls for, because I love ginger. This is a recipe where you can easily adjust to your taste.

Happy eating!