Parmesan-Sage Popcorn

Once upon a time, kids didn't eat chicken nuggets, popcorn was popped on a stove, and families watched television together. During this fabled time, my family settled down on Saturday evenings to watch Love Boat and Fantasy Island. While watching these kitschy shows, I'd munch on popcorn and wash it down with my only soda of the week.

Times have changed. Popcorn is prepared in a microwave, and while it's nice to throw a bag in the microwave, check my email, and return to a perfectly popped bowl of popcorn, I believe something is lost in the process. Microwaving popcorn is a detached experience and doesn't fully engage the senses like popping corn on the stove. There's something joyful about the first ping of kernels ricocheting off metal, a musical freeform Buddy Rich-like solo. Then as the popped kernels fill the dutch oven, the musical notes deepen to a chorus. There's just something romantic about the whole damn experience, and I miss it.

You could call me overly sentimental, but I'd like to see America return to popping popcorn on the stove. To spearhead this movement, I offer up this recipe for Parmesan-Sage Popcorn:

Parmesan-Sage Popcorn

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
• 3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preparation:

1. Place a large, lidded dutch oven over medium-high heat, and add oil and popcorn kernels.
2. Cover the saucepan,t hen begin gently shaking the pan over the heat.
   
3. Listen for the joyful pinging of the kernels, after 4-5 minutes, and continue shaking the pan until the popping slows. I find it helps to sing and shake my body to facilitate the shaking of the pan.
   
4. Remove the lid and pour the popcorn into a large bowl.
5. Wipe out the dutch oven, turn the heat to low, and add the butter.
6. Melt the butter, and then add the sage. continue cooking for an additional 30-60 seconds, until the sage crisps. Add the butter and sage mixture to the popcorn, along with the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Toss well to evenly distribute.
7. Settle down with the family in time to hear Tattoo shout, "Ze plane! Ze plane!"
   

My mother would sometimes make popcorn with bacon grease? What are your favorite popcorn memories?

while we're at it, let's get rid of baby carrots and return to old-fashioned carrot sticks,
muddy

Restaurant Style Mexican Cheese Dip

Forget chocolate-dipped strawberries. The next time I woo my wife I'm doing it with a nacho cheese fountain. My wife loves nacho cheese, the industrial yellow concoction that's served with tortilla chips and is ubiquitous at sporting events and amusement parks across the United States. Throw in some pickled jalapenos and she's happy.

However, there's a cheese dip she loves more. She goes ga-ga over the white queso they serve at most Mexican restaurants across the nation. For the past five years, I've been trying to find a recipe that replicated those dips, and I've finally found it in the following recipe:

Restaurant Style Mexican Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

• 16-ounce package of Velveeta Pepper Jack diced (It's labeled as "White Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product with Jalapeno Peppers")
• 1/4 cup-all purpose flour
• 1 cup of half & half
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1-2 tablespoons minced jalapeno chile peppers
• I also add a bit of tomato and onion

Preparation:

1. Toss together cheese and flour in a large resealable plastic bag until cheese is coated with flour.
2. Heat half and half in a double boiler over medium heat. When it begins to simmer, add cheese. Stir occasionally until it melts.
3. Stir in jalapenos and sour cream.Keep dip warm over low heat.
4. Enjoy!
   

Again I've given my wife another reason to stay married to me.

Forgive me for using Velveeta. Tonight I'll place my my hand on my copy of The Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins and pray for salvation.

I do think a lot about Velveeta though, and I believe there should be a book written about the history of everyone's favorite pasteurized cheese.

do i have cheese on my chin?
muddy

Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down: Feta Cheese Puffs

Greetings! Mr. Crankypants is in the house. Today muddy delegated the post to me because he claims he's too busy. I guess he hasn't considered the possibility that I'm also busy, and I have better things to do than post for his little food blog. If you ask me, he needs a new hobby. All this writing and taking pictures of food seems a bit asinine. If he decides to Twitter or create a Facebook profile, I'll dissolve our partnership. I don't tolerate such nonsense.

Anyway, I am busy too. I'm teaching with no planning period. I'm one of the prom sponsors this year. Prom is this weekend. It should be noted that I hate proms. My daughter has developed a love for all thing High School Musical, so these damn kiddie pop songs have been trampling my cerebellum for two weeks straight. I'm not well, and I'm really in no mood to post. I'd rather be outside lounging in the hammock. It is spring after all.

While I'm here in front of the keyboard, I guess I should post a recipe. This recipe goes out to Zeke, the character in High School Musical who has a passion for baking. Stuff a few of these tasty bites in your pie hole. They'll make you happy. Promise.

Feta Cheese Puffs

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 pound feta cheese or blue cheese, crumbled

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease two baking sheets.
2. In a saucepan, bring water and 4 tablespoons of butter to a boil.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the flour. Beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.
5. Stir in the cheese.
6. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes, and then drop batter by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets. You should have about 2 dozen puffs. Bake until golden, 20 to 30 minutes.
7. Serve.
   

Ugh!
Mr. Crankypants

Crispy Cajun Toasts

This weekend we prepared pasta for a small crowd, so we have a lot of leftover bread. Since I hate to throw anything out, I decided to use this three-day-old bread. Tonight I'll be making a chocolate bread pudding, but this afternoon I fixed a batch of Crispy Cajun Toasts, a recipe from Terri Pischoff Wuerthner’s In a Cajun Kitchen. Preparing these little snacks help me avoid the guilt of wasting food, and they're tasty. I sometimes use these in place of bagel chips in my Chex Party Mix.

I know this recipe doesn't seem like much, but these are quite tasty.

Note: If you wanted to cut the bread into cubes, you would prepare a batch of Cajun Croutons.

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 loaf soft French bread, at least one day old

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Combine all the spices, sugar, and oil in a bowl and blend thoroughly.
3. Using a serrated knife, slice the bread in 1/4-inch slices. Place on baking sheets.
4. Brush bread with oil-seasoning mixture on top of bread.
5. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the bread is crisp.
6. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy,
muddywaters

Black Bean and Mango Salsa

To accompany our cocktails yesterday afternoon we made this sweet, tasty salsa. It's a nice alternative to your typical tomato-based salsa and goes well with grilled fish, pork, and poultry.

If you don't have any mangoes on hand, you could use pineapple. Even canned pineapple works well with this recipe. When the winter blah's have a stranglehold on me, I'll whip up this salsa with pineapple to give me a taste of the tropics.

We grilled hamburgers this afternoon and served this on the side. The salsa's flavor improves with time.

Black Bean and Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 mango, peeled, pitted, and chopped fine (How to peel a mango)

• ½ red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped fine

• ¼ cup minced red onion

• ¼ cup pineapple juice

• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

• 1 jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced or you could use a serrano pepper if you'd like more heat.
  

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together and season with salt to taste. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest to blend flavors. This salsa will keep 2-3 days.

Enjoy,
muddywaters