Single Guy’s Kitchen

There’s no better way to enjoy a meal than with a good group of friends. I like to cook so why not cook for my friends? If you don’t enjoy cooking as much as I do then just look at it as an excuse to get together with friends and have a good time. It’s not as simple as just inviting everyone over and throwing some food on the table though. Planning is the key to a successful supper with friends or dinner party if you will.

The first step is to set a date and determine the number of guests you will be hosting. It is also important to find out if anyone has a food allergy or other food related issues that would restrict the menu. Don’t be afraid to try something new but you don’t want to turn off any of your guests either.

Next you need to figure out what you’d like to fix. Like I said above, don’t be afraid to try a new dish but try to keep it within your cooking comfort zone too. If you’ve never made a quiche before now would not be the time to try it. My menu was simple:

Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Country-style Green Beans with Bacon

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Cornbread/Biscuits

These are all things I’ve made before but it was the little touches or additions that I think made the meal. I used fresh green beans instead of the usual canned like I make for myself. I added cayenne pepper to my sweet potatoes; something I’ve read about and wanted to try but never had. I also marinaded the tenderloin before cooking rather than just doing a spice rub alone.

Once you have a date and a menu, all that’s left is to prepare and serve the meal. This is a lot more work than it sounds though. There are a few things to think about ahead of time too. Do you have all the ingredients? Will you be using fresh ingredients? How long will it take to make the meal? Is there anything that can be done ahead of time?

I did not have all the ingredients and I wanted to use fresh items where I could so I did my shopping the day before. This way I was able to get quality fresh items and use them almost immediately but I wasn’t stressed about doing my shopping on the same day I had to cook. Timing is one of the more difficult aspects of planning a meal. Different dishes take different amounts of time to prepare but you want everything to be ready to eat at approximately the same time. I recommend sitting down and writing out a “schedule” of sorts. This is especially helpful if you have multiple items that need the oven or only have a limited amount of time. Lastly do as much as you can ahead of time. I baked my sweet potatoes ahead of time but I wish I had snapped and sorted my beans ahead of time too. That was much more time consuming that I thought it would be.

The benefit of all this work is a tasty meal, the good company, and of course the compliments. People especially loved the sweet potatoes. I had one guest state that she normally didn’t care for them but really enjoyed how I prepared these. Hearing things like that and seeing almost everything eaten made it all worth it for me.

We had wine with the meal too. I purchased a lower cost bottle of a Pinot Noir. I really know nothing about wine and was planning on getting a Pinot Noir since I had a little experience with it and knew it was a pretty neutral wine that shouldn’t offend anyone. A quick google search also confirmed Pinot Noir as a good choice for pairing with pork. I think the wine added a nice “adult” touch to the event even despite my lack of wine glasses. That’s right, we drank out of beer glasses.

All in all it was a total success in my eyes. Everyone had a good time and it made the mundane week a little less mundane. On a different note, I gained an appreciation for the amount of work my Mom goes through when she makes meals like this the family. She would do that at least 3-4 nights out of week too. It’s a lot of work but very satisfying too.

Remember no reason to stress if you plan things ahead and time and know what you are doing before you get in the kitchen.  Enjoy!

Moby, yes the musician, is also an amateur cook. While in NYC Sandy and I visited TeaNY, his cafe on the lower east side of Manhattan and quite enjoyed it. Moby is vegan and TeaNY is vegetarian/vegan friendly. Sandy is vegetarian so this was a natural choice for us.

Since there’s no TeaNY in Augusta, Georgia (or any vegetarian fare to speak of) that leaves cooking as our only option when she’s over for supper or breakfast for that matter. Could Moby come to the rescue for a good vegan breakfast? We decided to sample his quick banana pancakes.

The recipe is exceedingly simple. Here’s the ingredient list:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

soy milk (the amount varies, I used about 3/4 cup)

2 bananas

Mix the flour and baking powder and gradually start adding soy milk. The goal is slightly runny batter that looks like, well, pancake batter. I wasn’t keeping track of how much I added but I would guess about 3/4 cup. I added a little, mixed, checked, and added more if need be. Just keep this up until the batter is the right consistency.

Heat your griddle, skillet, or whatever you’ll be cooking on and spray it down with cooking spray. While that’s heating slice up your bananas into thin pieces like you were making a banana sandwich. Scoop your batter onto the pan (3-4 tablespoons per pancake) and place the slices on top. From here on out just cook them like any other pancakes.

They were incredibly simple to make. If your pan is too hot the bananas will burn when you flip the pancake so keep an eye on the heat. The flavor was a little raw as you can probably imagine based on the ingredients. These have a strong wheat flavor and they are rather dense too. They are somewhat bland by themselves but with a little bit of maple syrup they are quite tasty. There’s no denying the health factor either. These pancakes are genuinely good for you. They were actually very filling too.

Would I want to eat these every morning? Probably not. Would I be willing to make them again? I think so. I’d like to try them with other fruit too. The bananas worked well but blueberries or strawberries would work too. Maybe even carob chips for a little sweeter pancake while remaining vegan, who knows. This is a pretty versatile recipe.

The Carnegie Deli - “We smoke, cure, bake, and pickle our own - that says it all!”

The Carnegie Deli, situated across from Carnegie Hall at 7th Ave and 55th St, is synonymous with New York Style Cheesecake. They are the standard. Numerous restaurants and bakeries (including others in NYC) will proudly serve Carnegie Deli cheesecakes rather than make their own. Cheesecake is not the only draw for tourists (like myself), celebrities, and hungry city folk though. The deli is also known for its “Gargantuan” sandwiches.

The store front looks modest and similar to most other delis in the city. When you walk in the meat case is immediately to your left and there are plenty of people waiting around for carry-out or call-in orders. Walk on back and you’re seated by a host or hostess in the main dining area. The distinguishing feature of the deli is that the walls are covered with pictures of various celebrities, politicians, and other famous customers. Everyone from Mike Huckabee to Danny DeVito is on that wall.

On to the food, I went for one of the “Gargantuan” sandwiches, a chicken salad number aptly named the “Bacon Whoopee”. Imagine the amount of chicken salad a normal person would use for four sandwiches and enough bacon to feed a family of six on Sunday morning and you’ve got a good idea for the quantity of food.

That was me after a good ten minutes with the sandwich. Don’t worry I ended up eating my fair share. At the end there was still probably enough chicken salad left for another sandwich. These things really are giant!

The sandwich wasn’t just big though, it was also supremely delicious! The chicken salad was full of fresh tasting chicken in the perfect mayo to chicken ratio. I can’t describe how much meat they managed to pack into it and still get it to hold together. The bacon was nicely cooked and the veggies were fresh. The bread was nothing special but my sandwich just came with white bread so I wasn’t expecting much. Sure the size is a bit of a novelty but the flavor is all there.

Cheesecake is a must for dessert no matter how full you are from the first part of the meal. We decided on a Rugelach Cheesecake. It was different and I had had plain cheesecake (my favorite) several times already. Rugelach is a Jewish pastry, similar to a cinnamon roll I suppose. The Carnegie Deli cheesecake is very dense and rich, like a cheesecake should be. It’s very creamy too. The crust was not heavy at all, only there to hold the shape. The chocolate and Rugelach was a nice addition. It brought another flavor and texture to the dessert but allowed the cheesecake to still do most of the work. I really don’t know how to describe it otherwise. I can only recommend that you try it. They ship their cheesecakes anywhere in the USA.

Delicious!

Making a good batch of Iced Tea is essential if you live in South and are having company over. I love sweet tea but it’s really not the best thing for you to drink. My mom makes her’s with splenda and so do I. It tastes better with sugar but this is a good substitute for everyday consumption.

Ingredients:

1 gallon water (I buy the jugs of drinking water from the grocery store)

4 family size tea bags (I use luziane)

2 cups sugar or splenda

Pour about half your gallon of water into a large pot and bring it to boil. Once it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat, put your tea bags in, and put the lid on. Let the tea steep for a good 25 minutes. Once the tea has finished steeping remove the bags and pour in your sugar and stir. The remaining water is still in your gallon jug right? Using a funnel, pour the tea/sugar mixture into your jug with the remaining water. Put the lid on, give it a quick shake, and tuck it away in the refrigerator. Once its cold, enjoy over ice.

That’s really all there is to it. I like reusing the drinking water jug because its convenient but you could put this into a nicer pitcher if you like. Also feel free to add a few slices of lemon, mint, or whatever flavoring you like. I prefer to add the lemon on a per glass basis. The sweetness can be somewhat subjective also. 2 cups makes it pretty sweet so those with less of sweet tooth might want to half that. It’s best to add your sweetener when the tea is hot though so it dissolves. Alton Brown actually recommends not sweetening the tea at all and instead mixing up a batch of simple syrup in a small bottle to allow people to add their own amount of sweetness. Simple syrup is just a mixture of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water.

Enjoy!

I cannot stand having a runny nose or having any sort of sinus congestion. It just throws me off entirely. Well I’m tired of it and what’s a better cure than chicken soup? What? No cans of chicken soup in the pantry? Don’t worry with a few simple ingredients and a little time you can throw something together that’s healthier and tastier. Besides, what woman wouldn’t swoon for a man that brought her homemade chicken soup when she wasn’t feeling well?

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 ribs celery coarsely chopped

1/2 medium sweet onion chopped

1 large clove garlic chopped

4 oz baby carrots halved

leftover cooked chicken (use as much or as little as you like)

2 cups chicken broth

thyme, salt, black pepper to taste

Heat your oil over medium heat in the pot you want to use. In the meantime start chopping your garlic and onion. Throw the garlic in as soon as you get it chopped and then add the onion. This gives the garlic more time to release its flavor. Let these soften and sweeten. Keep an eye on your heat too, I ended up turning it to medium low once I had my ingredients in the pot. While the onion and garlic is working, chop your carrots and celery (or whatever vegetables you want to use). Toss them in and make sure to stir things up. You want everything coated well. I let this cook for a good five minutes or so while I picked apart a leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I ended up using about the equivalent of a thigh I think but how much chicken you use is totally up to you.

Now that the veggies have softened up and lost some of their raw character throw in the chicken and your spices. I was pretty liberal with the thyme and the black pepper. Next add your chicken broth. Mix everything up, turn your heat back up to medium and let it come to a simmer. Once you’ve got it bubbling slightly turn your heat to low and put a lid on it. I let it sit like this for about 30 minutes while I did some other things but you could certainly adjust this to your liking.

Really you can modify and adapt this anyway you want. You even just heat up chicken broth with spices if you really wanted. I liked my veggies chunky and still with a little firmness to them but you can change it up. Cauliflower or broccoli would probably work well too. I’m sure frozen vegetables would be fine too. Flexibility and personal preference is the name of the game with a meal like this.

This is the simple kind of stuff that separates the man who just opens a can from the man that can think on his feet and throw together a quick, homemade meal in a pinch. Who do you want to be? I’ll take this over the can any day.

Hoppin John is a Southern dish with roots in the low country of South Carolina. It consists of rice and black-eyed peas (or field peas) seasoned with fat back, ham hock, bacon, or some smoked pork variant. Most seem to think it has origins as slave cuisine but nowadays it is considered a traditional New Year’s Day dish. Southern tradition insists that one eats pork, greens, and black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day to bring luck and wealth in the near year. The version I fixed would almost be a one dish New Year’s meal since it includes collards.

I found this particular recipe on Recipezaar (one of my favorite recipe sites) and I’ve been trying to use my slow cooker more since receiving it for Christmas, so here it is “Hoppin John” in the Slow Cooker.

Ingredients:

3 cans Black-Eyed Peas (drained)

16oz Fresh Collard Greens (frozen should be fine too)

1 Small Sweet Onion

Handful of Baby Carrots

3 Ribs of Celery

2 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Ham Hock

2 Teaspoons of Thyme

2 Teaspoons Red Pepper (I just eyeball this)

It really doesn’t get any easier than this which is one of the reasons I love my slow cooker. I work ten hour days and have a long commute to and from work so it really makes fixing supper easy. Dice up your onion, carrots, and celery and lay those in the bottom of the slow cooker with the ham hock. Layer your peas and collards on top of this. Finally mix your broth with your spices and pour it over everything. Set your slow cooker to low and come back in about 10 hours. Mine actually sat on low for 12 hours and on warm for another 1 hour. I did pull the ham hock out, picked off any usable meat, and added the meat back in. You can just remove the ham hock altogether though if you like.

I put everything together the night before and threw it in the fridge to save time the next morning before work. Here it is the night before:

The next morning I just pulled it out of the refrigerator, turned on the crock pot and came home 12 hours later to this:

I recommend serving it with rice (I like brown rice) and corn bread. Just scoop some rice into the bottom of a bowl and serve the Hoppin John right over top.

Delicious!

Let me know if you give this a try and how it works for you. I’d love to get some feedback. I may cut back on the stock and add a little more spice next time but we’ll see. This makes a lot too. It filled my 6-qt slow cooker so be ready for that.

Welcome to Single Guy’s Kitchen. I hope you enjoy the site. I’ll post recipes, tips, ideas, and my own random thoughts relating to being single, male, and wanting to eat more than just fast food. Whether you just want to eat better for your own sake or want to impress a date, I hope you learn something. Hungry yet?