What makes a "Place Setting"?

Just a little update before I knuckle down and set up some real content updates for my "Introduction to the Kitchen" series.

THEME MONTH + 2 WEEKS

In honor of my sister-in-law moving out on her own, I'm going to dedicate the next six weeks, until the end of September, to a series of articles as an "Introduction to the Kitchen" featuring my recommendations for essential tools, ingredients, recipe sources, etc. as well as some in-a-pinch meals that are easy and quick to make.

Honey Mustard Baked Chicken and Steamed Vegetables

All right! Doesn't that look good?

Today's (or this week's) meal was a lot of fun to experiment with. Before making this one I had never done a baked glaze, nor really baked poultry aside from roasting chicken.

This is a really nice cool evening meal, the tang of the glaze cleansing your palate like a glass of lemonade.

Click "read more" for the production photos.

Peppered Steak, Broccoli with Mozzarella, and Corn on the Cob

Whoah! Actual content posts are in the queue!

After a full-time spring semester and a half-time summer session at University, I actually had some time today to check my pictures folder and found that I have about 6 months of pictures I hadn't edited and uploaded yet.

So, to tide you over while I find the time to write the posts that will accompany the pictures I spent part of the afternoon editing and uploading, here is a wonderful later summer meal.

I do apologize, this is another final-picture-only post.

The steak was rubbed with McCormick's Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning, which I highly recommend for its strong pepper flavor, along with garlic and sea salt. The broccoli is steamed and lightly salted, with finely shredded mozzarella cheese on top while it is still hot to melt the cheese slightly. Corn on the cob is, well, corn on the cob. Served with butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

We're just getting into the corn season up here in the frozen north. The early and extremely hot summer this year has caused an early crop, so I'm looking forward to having some fresh from the farmer's market before August.

Curry and Rice and a formatting adjustment

Okay, I'm going to try a new formatting style: I noticed that all of my posts on here are completely open, showing the entire post on the page, which I don't really like. Back when I was on livejournal, I learned the etiquette of hiding longer posts behind cuts, and it looks like there is a similar option here on blogger.

From now on I plan on beginning my post with the final dish and putting the rest behind a jump cut, that way if you wish to read more about the process, you can, or you can just enjoy the end result.

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So, this post is about one of the dishes I forgot to take pictures of, so all you get is the final dish. It's a curry recipe we made with venison sausage and vegetables.

... I forget where the recipe came from, likely online.

As you can see, it has potatoes, carrots, and peas in it along with the venison.
The rice is my usual Basmati cooked in our rice cooker.

Deviled Eggs

Okay, so I actually forgot to take pictures during the making of process, but the final image turned out so nice, I wanted to share it with you.

I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Cook Book. It calls for 7 eggs, mayonnaise, cider vinegar, grainy mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to season.

Boil the eggs.

Cut the boiled eggs in half and scoop or turn out the yolks into a bowl.

Mash the yolks with the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.

Put the mash into a plastic Zip-Loc bag and cur one of the corners off to create a make-shift pastry bag.

Squeeze the mash into the halved egg whites and garnish.

I like to garnish with chives and cayenne pepper instead of just salt and black pepper.

We made these last summer for a potluck. I think it was a movie night at the Vali-Hi Drive-In Theater.

I remember these disappeared pretty quickly.