Category Archives: Main Dish

SO easy. SO good. SO moist.

I was at the market doing the weekly shopping and saw a “spatchcock” chicken on display, all ready to go. For $18. Right next to it was a chicken likely out of the same hatch, unmolested, for $9. Hey, I’ve got scissors.

It’s rather a pain to remove the chicken’s backbone, but a decent pair of kitchen shears makes it an easy task. One day I’ll buy some. I used a pair of blister-pack Walmart scissors to pretty good effect. Just cut down either side of the backbone and remove it. Then place the chicken breast side up and give it a good whack with the heel of your hand ( or a rolling pin!) to flatten it.

I marinated the bird in Ken’s “House Italian” dressing (also touted as a marinade) for about an hour in a gallon plastic bag, in the ‘fridge.

I fired up the big Weber as the tiny one is, well, just tiny. The chicken was grilled skin-side down for about ten minutes, and turned. After another ten minutes, it was flipped again. I continued to turn it at five minute intervals until the breast measured about 160F.

Another recipe dredged from the annals of history. Along with my grandmother’s recipe for doughnuts, this old favorite was found as Peg was rifling through one of her old recipe books. It’s one of very few recipes her mother, Evelyn, ever wrote down.

• 1 C Minute Rice
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 2 t grated onion
• 2 t salt
• 2 1/2 C tomato juice, divided
• 1/2 t sugar
• 1/4 t pepper

Reserve 2 C of tomato juice and sugar. Combine other ingredients. Form into 18 equal-sized meatballs. Place meatballs in a skillet. Mix the sugar and remaining tomato juice, and pour over meatballs.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer covered for 15 minutes, basting occasionally.

Peg and I don’t eat a whole lot at a time, and we’re headed away for holiday, so I needed to make a small batch of scalloped potatoes for dinner. We always add ham, and I had one on hand.

• Two medium potatoes
• 3 T butter, divided
• 2 T flour
• 2 C milk
• 1/2 t pepper
• 1 t salt
• 1 C cubed ham

Peel and pare the potatoes thinly.

Melt the butter and flour to form a roux, cooking slightly. Whisk in the milk, add salt and pepper, and bring the mixture to a boil until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Spread 1T butter around the inside of a one-quart casserole.

Place a thin layer of white sauce in the bottom of the casserole. Alternate adding potatoes, cubed ham, and white sauce to fill the casserole.

Cover with foil and bake at 350F For 50 minutes. Uncover and bake another 30 minutes…

We like to serve ham and green beans with it.

(2025 update) I tend to make this about three times a month, and I don’t really use a recipe – I just make it by muscle memory. I currently bake for about 30 minutes under foil, and then another 70 minutes uncovered. The flavor of the crust that develops in that extra time is extraordinarily tasty.

Peggy signed us up for meatballs for the annual W1GZ Holiday Party. W1GZ is the call sign for the Montachusett Amateur Radio Club. Peggy and I are both hams.

So, anyway, Peg did a search and found “The World’s Best Meatballs” from a clever lady named Kristen. Well, never one to leave well enough alone, we slightly modified the recipe ( we wanted a less “Italian” meatball than Kristen was offering) by removing the Parmesan cheese and the garlic, and opting for half beef/half pork in the meat department.

Herewith, I guess we can call them “John’s Best Meatballs”, because they did turn out quite nicely. In fact, I’m doing this post as someone asked for the recipe!

Preheat oven to 450F and grease a large rimmed cookie sheet.

• 1 # ground pork
• 1 # ground beef
• 1/2 C breadcrumbs (I used panko)
• 1/4 C milk (any %)
• 1/4 C chopped parsley
• 1 C beef broth, divided (1/4 C in meatballs)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 t pepper
• 1 t oregano (one might argue removing this would make it even less “Italian”)
• 1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes

Combine all but the ground meats in a large bowl, mixing well to form the panade, which will bind the meatballs.

Add the meats and mix until just combined, but not over mixed, which can toughen the meat texture.

Portion and roll meatballs about 1″ in diameter, spacing them closely on the cookie sheet. I use a small portioning scoop to make the work go faster and get better consistency than I manage on my own.

Pour the remaining 3/4 C of beef broth in the cookie sheet, and bake the meatballs for about 25 minutes, turning once halfway through.

The Hawaiian Meatball conclusion

This recipe came from Taste of Home and called for frozen store-bought meatballs, but hey, we can make those, right?

• 1 20 ounce can unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 1/4 C cornstarch
• 1/2 C cider vinegar
• 2 green peppers, cut into 1″ pieces
• 1 10 ounce jar maraschino cherries, drained
• 1 recipe of “John’s Best Meatballs”
• salt and pepper to taste

Reserve the pineapple juice. Add enough water to make two cups. Place the juice, brown sugar, cornstarch and vinegar into a saucepan. Mix well, then heat gently to a boil; cook until the sauce thickens.

Combine the meatballs, peppers, pineapple, and sauce in a slow cooker. Cook on medium until the peppers are tender, mix in the cherries, and serve over white rice if desired.

Christmas Eve was coming up quickly, and I was cooking for the DiRusso sisters. It was Feast of the Seven Fishes, an old Italian-American tradition of eating fish and other seafood in celebration of Christ’s birth. I was cooking in a competitive environment, so lobster was certain (witness last year’s Lobster Arancini, or the Lobster Ravioli the prior year).

I took it down a notch by not making it all lobster, but seafood newburg would be great – a bit lower cost (scallops were only $16/lb while lobster meat was $40/lb. Shrimp a relatively sane $7/lb). And I’d deal with three fishes right off the bat!

I searched the web for recipes, and found a couple to be just unimaginative or otherwise lacking, but then ran into the recipe from the January 1991 issue of Gourmet magazine, courtesy of Epicurious if you’d like the original recipe, or herewith, mine:

2 lobsters, steamed shelled, 1″ cubes
.75# sea scallops, tendons removed – if larger than 1″, halve
1# shrimp, thawed, deveined, tails and shells removed
5T medium-dry Sherry
7T brandy
3 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
cayenne to taste
8 large egg yolks, beaten well

Puff pastry shells
-or-
phyllo pastry cups

In a heavy saucepan at medium heat, melt the butter and add the scallops and shrimp. When the scallops are opaque and the shrimp just turning pink, add the lobster and finish cooking the shrimp and scallops.

Add 4T of Sherry and 6T of brandy, and cook the mixture for two minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the seafood to a warm plate. Add the cream to the sherry mixture and boil gently until reduced to about two cups. Reduce the heat to low, then add remaining sherry and brandy, the nutmeg, cayenne, and salt to taste.

Whisk in the egg yolks and slowly cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it reads 140°F, then cook, whisking constantly, for three more minutes.

Stir in the seafood, and serve seafood Newburg over the pastry shells or cups.

Thanks to epicurious & thanks to Gourmet.

I looked around on the internet for recipes to try, and came up with very close to bupkis. So I made something up. All of the stuffing recipes contained onions or shallots, and some bread. Wow. What imagination. The only smart thing they did was to cut a hole through the middle of the roast rather than cut it open and fill it like a jellyroll.

Herewith, my take on Stuffed Port Roast. I had a chance to get a sample to Peggy, and I had a sample the following day. Four thumbs up. I think it turned out better than I expected.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

1 boneless pork roast, 3-4#
3 T vegetable oil, divided
2 medium shallots, diced
8 dried apricots, diced
8 dried plums (prunes for those over 50), diced
1 C bread crumbs (I cubed a dinner roll into a 1/4″ dice)
salt, pepper
1/2 t ground sage (because it’s pork)
2T water
1t chicken base (we use Better Than Bullion brand for just about everything)

Dice the shallots, apricots, and prunes, then saute in 1 T vegetable oil until the shallots are tender. Mix with the bread. Dilute the chicken base with the water, add to the stuffing, and mix is all up well.

Compress the pork roast from the ends, like a large filet mignon, and with a long knife, stab through the center – lengthwise – of the pork roast. Flip the roast end-for-end and stab again, taking care to align the hole in the roast. Use your fingers to open the hole as wide as possible, and fill the cavity with stuffing. Turn the roast, again end-for-end, and stuff from the other end, until the roast is firmly stuffed. Salt and pepper all four sides of the roast to your liking.

Heat the remaining vegetable oil in a Dutch oven, and sear the roast on four sides. Cover, and place in the oven for 45 minutes. Temp in the stuffing should reach at least 145F. (USDA is now calling for 140F for pork – it used to be 160F, but that always made for pretty dry meat.)

Rest the roast, covered, for 10-15 minutes, slice and serve.

You can make gravy with the drippings, which are mostly rendered fat if you’d like. For each T of drippings, add 1 T of flour, and cook to form a roux. For each T of drippings, add 1/2 C of milk or chicken stock (made from chicken base, just sayin’), stir and cook until you like the consistency, about 5-10 minutes.

For last Christmas, Peg unexpectedly bought me a Dutch Oven, not that we didn’t already have one. This one is enameled cast iron, unlike the plain cast iron models that we also own. So it’s pretty, and very easy to clean.

The dish is nearly trivial to make, and consists of only six ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 T vegetable oil
3 T AP flour

Preheat your oven to 350F.
Pour the oil into the Dutch oven and preheat over a medium high flame.
Rinse the chicken and dry it with paper towels.
Season both top and bottom of the chicken with salt and pepper.

Place the chicken in the Dutch oven breast-side down, where it will cook for five
minutes or so, until the chicken is browned nicely. Watch it for sticking.

While the chicken is browning, you have time to cut and slice the onion.

When the chicken is browned nicely, turn it over to brown the other side. Add the onions to the pot, along the sides. Cover the pot and place it in the pre-heated oven for 45-50 minutes. (My first attempt ran 55 minutes and it was a bit overdone). Set a timer.

When the timer expires, check the thigh with a meat thermometer. The chicken should reach a temperature of 165F to assure it’s done. Remove the chicken to a plate and let it rest.

Pour the onions, fat, and juices into a heat-proof container. Use a ladle to save 3 T of the accumulated fat, and put that back in the Dutch oven. Discard the remaining fat, but retain the other juices. Combine the flour and oil, cooking over medium heat to form the roux for the gravy. When the roux is cooked and smooth, add the onions and remaining juices to the Dutch oven, stirring well to avoid lumps, and cook for several minutes until well-mixed and thickened. If the gravy is too thick, add milk until the consistency is to your liking. A submersion blender may be used to advantage here, but it’s not really necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Carve the chicken and serve with the gravy.

I think it turned out very well. Peg claims that she’s not going to cook any more.