Trav's Guacamole

I invented this recipe several years ago, soon after I discovered that avocados were actually very tasty. I was raised to believe they were poisonous or something...hardly anyone in my family eats them.

Trav's Guacamole

4 large ripe avocadoes
2 medium tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 large lime
1/2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. Mexican oregano
1 T. dry cilantro (or 1 t. fresh)
dash of Tabasco sauce
salt to taste

Peel, pit, and chop the avocadoes into a large glass bowl. Squeeze the lime over the avocadoes (the lime juice keeps them from turning dark). Wash and dice the tomatoes, mince the onion, and add to avocadoes. Using a wire wisk as a pestile, pound the vegetables together until a coarse paste forms. Stir in the remaining ingredients, adding more or less chili powder to taste. Cover tightly and refrigerate until cold; serve with corn chips. Properly refrigerated, this will keep for up to 5 days.

VARIATIONS:A shortcut to this recipe is to use a packet of taco seasoning mix instead of the chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Use more or less of it to taste.

Some people like it spicy. To accomplish this, add 1 T. of hot jalapeno juice (from a jar of pickled jalapeno peppers) and 2 chopped jalapeno peppers (from that same jar).

Trav's Recipe Collection

Welcome to my newly-rebuilt Recipes page, the little corner of the Web where I keep track of all of my kitchen experiments. It might be hard to believe, but every single one of these recipes was crafted in my kitchen and enjoyed by my friends, family, or guests.

Wow. There's, like, almost fifty of them. I can remember when there were only three...it seemed laughable to need to format an index for my chili, tuna salad, and spagetti sauce recipes. Now, it looks like I am well on my way to building a respectable online cookbook, and I figured it would be a good idea to sort them out into some sort of logical order. Who knows? When I hit 300 recipes, I might publish a book.

Check back often; I'm always cooking something.

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Appetizers
Cranberry-Hazlenut Compote+
Guacamole++
Vegeterian Egg Rolls+
Stuffed Cucumber Slices+
Wild Mushroom Pate+

Beverages
Fresh Strawberry Limeade

Breads
Beer Biscuts+
Cornbread and Sage Dressing
Simple Cornbread +

Breakfast
The Best Damn Bowl of Oatmeal Ever +

Casseroles
Church Lady Mac-n-Cheese+
Green Bean Casserole+

Desserts
Amaretto Pecan Pie+
Apple-Brandy Cobbler+
Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce+*
Chocolate Chip Cookies+
Poached Pears in White Wine++*
Fresh Pumpkin Pie in Hazlenut Crust
Snickerdoodles+
Shoo-Fly Pie+
Cookies -n- Cream Fudge+
Valentine Brownies+
Whiskey Apple Pie+

Entrees [Beef, Pork, and Sausage]
Bourbon Barbecue Sauce
Brats and Cabbage
Brats and Cabbage II
Chili Pot Pie
Clamenza's Spagetti Sauce
Fresh Portabello Marinara
Green Chili
Manly Pot Roast
Quiche O'Brian (Bacon Pie)
Spicy Meatballs

Entrees [Chicken and Poultry]
Asif's Red Curry
Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo
Chicken Gumbo
Herb Roasted Turkey
Roasted Duck in Orange Sauce
Prosciutto-Stuffed Duck
Trav's Spicy Stir-Fry
Trav's Homemade Chicken Soup

Entrees [Seafood]
Jambalaya
Shrimp Etoufee

Entrees [Vegeterian and Vegan]
Canless Marinara ++
Cheesy Rice Enchilladas +
Fire-roasted Winter Vegetables++
Pene Tapenade+
Rotini Primavera+
Spinach Quiche +
Stir-fried Pumpkin (Pud Fud Tong)++
Trav's Three-Day Chili+

Ramen Noodles
Ramen Quiche
Ramen Drop Soup
Ramen Foo-Young
Ramen Pasta Salad
Spicy Curry Ramen
Sloppy Ramen Joes

Salads
Gazpacci++
Trav's Peppercorn Ranch Dressing+
Ultimate Tuna Salad

Sandwiches
The Ultimate GCS

Snacks
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds III ++

Soups
Beef and Barley Stew
Potato Chowder
Tomato Florentine Soup+
Butternut Squash Soup+

Beer, Wine, and Mead
Imperial Hefeweizen*
Mulled Wine*
Blackberry Melommel*
Trav's Cinnamon Metheglin*
Viking Mead*
Pear Honeywine*

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Legend
+ = Vegeterian
++= Vegan
* = Alcoholic

And in case you didn't already know:

T = Tablespoon
t = Teaspoon
C = Cup
pkg = Package
oz = Ounce
lb = Pound

Roasted Duck in Orange Sauce

I guess that, failing all else, you could always just roast the duck like any other piece of meat and use that little sauce packet that comes with the bird. But where is the fun in that? This is my version of Julia Child's famous recipe, from 1968.

Roast Duck in Orange Sauce (Canard a l'orange)

This is a two-part recipe. In the first part, you stuff the duck with orange peels and roast it in a Reynold's roasting bag. In the second part, you make an orange glaze from the drippings. Finally, you combine the two into a beautiful dish that will impress everyone...even those who claim to "hate duck."

Orange Roasted Duck

1 medium duckling (4 to 5 pounds), thawed and rinsed
4 large navel oranges
Salt and pepper

First, prepare the duck. Remove and discard the giblets from the body cavity. Remove all loose fat from inside the neck cavity, and remove the wishbone from the front of the breast (to make carving easier.) Make sure that the yellow fat glands at the base of the tail have been removed, along with any remaining yellow residue, and rub that area with lemon juice and salt. Prick the skin all over at half-inch intervals with a thin needle.

Peel the oranges using a vegetable peeler, collecting the colorful part of the rind with as little of the white pith as possible. Simmer this orange peel in water for 15 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water. Set the oranges and half of the simmered peels aside for the glaze (below).

Season the cavity with salt and pepper, and stuff with half of the simmered orange peels. Close the cavity, truss the legs and wings close to the body, and place the bird in a roasting bag. Finally, put the bagged bird into a roasting pan. Roast according to the roasting bag's cooking chart until done.

Remove the duck from the roasting bag. Ladel away the fat, and collect 2 cups of the duck stock and drippings. Keep the duck warm until ready to glaze...but work quickly. You don't want the duck to dry out.

Orange Glaze

3 T. sugar
1/4 C. red wine vinegar
2 C. hot duck stock (from the roasted duck)
4 T. cornstarch
1/2 C. dry port
Simmered orange peels (from above)
Peeled oranges (from above)
1 oz. orange liquor (Grand Mariner)
Angostura bitters

Cut the oranges into 1/2" thick slices, and cut away the skin and membrane from the outside of each slice. Finally cut these slices into 1/2" cubes. Place the orange cubes into a tightly-sealed plastic container, and refrigerate until needed.

Cut the orange peels into thin strips, then chop into fine squares. Set aside.

Place the sugar and vinegar into a small saucepan, and stir until dissolved. Boil rapidly over high heat until the mixture turns a caramel-brown color, and immediately wisk in half of the duck stock. Return the mixture to a boil, then add the chopped orange peels, 1 cup of the cubed orange slices, the orange liquor, and the remaining duck stock. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Blend the cornstarch with the port. While wisking constantly, add this mixture to the simmering duck stock, and simmer for another 3-5 minutes. Taste the sauce; if it is too sweet balance it by adding a little of the bitters.

Canard a l'Orange

Arrange the roasted duck on a serving dish, piling the remaining cubed orange at either end. Pour the sauce in a warmed gravy boat, spooning some over the duck. Garnish with orange slices, and serve.

Recommended wines: Bordeaux-Medoc or white Bordeaux.

Cornbread and Sage Dressing

(This is my mother's recipe, which I modified. Because that's how I roll.)

Cornbread Dressing

Unsalted chicken broth
1 C. onion, diced
1 C. celery, diced
1 t. salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
2 pkgs. Shawnee Mills cornbread mix
Ingredients to prepare cornbread (oil, eggs, etc.)
2 eggs, beaten
1 T. rubbed sage (more or less to taste)
1 T. dried parsley
1 can (10 oz.) Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup
Cooked gibblets and livers, minced (optional)
1 can cooked chicken (optional)

Prepare the cornbread according to package directions. Allow to cool overnight.

In a small saucepan, combine the salt, pepper, onion, and celery. Add 1-1/2 C. of the broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

Crumble the cornbread into a large mixing bowl. Add the celery-onion mixture and all remaining ingredients, adding enough broth to thoroughly moisten the cornbread (the mixture should be very soupy, about the consistency of uncooked cornbread.) Mix well, and pour into a large foil baking pan.

Bake at 375 degrees until browned on top, about 45 minutes.

Amaretto Pecan Pie with Dark Chocolate Sauce

(This is my variation of a Southern classic.)

Amaretto Pecan Pie

1 deep-dish pie shell, thawed
1-1/2 C. pecans
1 lb. brown sugar
1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
1/2 C. milk
1 oz. Amaretto
1 t. vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 C. melted butter
Hershey's dark chocolate syrup

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Put the pecans into the raw pie crust, and set aside.

In a large bowl, blend the sugar, flour, and salt together. Add the milk, Amaretto, and vanilla, and mix well. Wisk in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the butter slowly while mixing constantly. Pour immediately over the pecans.

Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, then increase oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for one hour, or until the pie looks puffy and set around the edges. Allow to cool completely.

When serving, drizzle each slice of pie with chocolate syrup.

Stuffed Cucumber Slices

2 medium cucumbers
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese, small curd
1 T. blue cheese, crumbled
1 T. dry minced onion
1/2 t. dill weed
8 saltine crackers, finely crushed
Black pepper to taste

Peel the cucumbers lengthwise with a vegetable peeler, fork, or zester to create a striped effect. Cut the cucumbers into 1/2-inch thick slices. Using a melon baller, scoop the seeds out of each slice, leaving a small amount to form the bottom of the "cup." Set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Stuff the cucumber slices with the spiced cottage cheese, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes about a dozen.

Butternut Squash Soup with Cheese Tortellini

Ingredients:

4 C peeled and chopped butternut squash
1 cup diced onion
1 T. minced garlic
2 T. butter
1 t. thyme
1 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
2 C. Vegetable broth
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ lb. frozen cheese tortellini
Sour cream

Melt the butter in a heavy stock pot. Add the onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme, and stir-fry together until the onions are tender. Add the squash and the broth. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

When squash is tender, remove from heat. Add the cream cheese, and set aside to cool.

Puree the soup in a food processor until smooth, adding as much vegetable broth as necessary to achieve the desired thickness (I like mine fairly thick, so I only use a few ounces). Pour into an airtight container, and refrigerate or freeze until needed.

To serve the soup, first boil the tortellini according to package directions until tender. Pour the squash soup into a saucepan, and heat gently until boiling. Pour the hot soup over the pasta, and garnish with a dollop of sour cream. Serve immediately, with fresh bread and maybe some Chardonnay. Makes 2 servings.

Fresh Brie with Autumn Fruits

Not so much a recipe, but a list of ingredients. Arrange any of the following on a serving tray. Wash, peel, slice, etc. as needed:

1 softened wedge of brie cheese
Water crackers (for the cheese)
Tea biscuits (for the persimmons and preserves)
Apples, Jonathan and Granny Smith
Pears, red and green Anjou
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Kiwis
Kumquats
Grapes (Thompson seedless)
Assorted fruit preserves

The GBC

The easiest recipe in the entire world.

Green Bean Casserole (The Famous GBC)

2 cans (10 oz.) Campbell's Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup
1 bag (16 oz.) frozen green beans
1 can (12 oz.) French's Fried Onions
Soy sauce to taste
Black pepper to taste

Thaw and rinse the green beans, and place them in a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish. Mix in the soup, half of the onions, soy sauce, and black pepper. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Top with remaining onions, and serve immediately.

Spicy Curry Ramen

Everyone has a story about that one time when they were so broke that they could only afford to eat ramen, and every ramen noodle recipe I know of usually starts with a retelling of that story. Well, I'll spare you the story, and get right to the goods: while I did indeed eat this a lot back in my young-and-broke days, I still eat it from time to time. It's a great spicy side-dish, and it's fast and easy.

Spicy Curry Ramen
2 packages of Top Ramen, chicken flavor
1 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, slivered
1 carrot, sliced or chopped (about 1/4 C.)
1 stalk of celery, sliced (about 1/4 C.)
1/2 C. frozen peas
1 C. water
1 T. curry powder (more or less to taste)
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. smoked paprika
1 t. ground red pepper (more or less to taste)
1 t. chunky peanut butter
2 t. corn starch
1 T. fish sauce (optional)
Crushed roasted peanuts

In a small bowl, combine the water, curry powder, sugar, red pepper, peanut butter, corn starch, fish sauce (if desired) and one of the chicken seasoning packets from the ramen. Stir until well-blended, and set aside.

Boil the ramen noodles in 4 cups of water for 3 minutes or until tender. Drain, and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and peas, and cook on medium heat until the onions are carmelized and the carrots are tender. Add the curry spice mixture and heat to boiling, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.

Add the cooked ramen noodles, and toss to coat. Garnish with crushed peanuts and fresh cilantro, if desired.

Fire-Roasted Winter Vegetables

Ant'ny and I came up with this dish, for a special occasion back in 2005. Imagine that...Ant'ny eating a dish made entirely of vegetables...

Fire Roasted Winter Vegetables

1 large acorn squash
1 lb. red potatoes
1 lb. onions
1 lb. whole carrots
1 lb. parsnips
2 bulbs of garlic
1/2 C. olive oil
1 T. rubbed sage
2 T. salt
1 T. dry rosemary
juice of one lemon

First, light the grill. I prefer to use charcoal, and I like to add a couple of baseball-sized chunks of soaked hickory wood right before cooking. This recipe takes quite a while to cook, so you will want to make sure you use good charcoal that can keep a hot fire for a couple of hours, and you will want to use a quality grill or smoker that can hold heat well. And lastly, you might want to place a vegetable screen over your grill, so that some of the smaller items don't fall through while cooking.

Scrub the potatoes thoroughly, and cut into 2" chunks. Peel the parsnips and carrots, and cut into 2" long pieces. Peel the onions, and cut into quarters (tip: do not cut off the root end until after cooking...it will help hold the onions together). Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and pulp, and cut into 2" chunks. Peel and chop off the stem end of the garlic bulbs, but do not separate into cloves.

In a large salad bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, sage, salt, and rosemary. Stir until well-blended. Add the cut vegetables, and toss until well-coated.

Grill the vegetables on medium heat (about 4" above the coal bed), turning every 30 minutes or so. While cooking, try to keep the vegetables as close together as possible so that they do not dry out. Cook until tender, which could take 60 - 90 minutes.

Arrange the roasted vegetables on a serving dish, sorting the vegetables out and placing the garlic at either end. This way, your guests can easily pick out their favorite vegetables (not everyone likes onion or parsnips, you know.) The individual cloves of roasted garlic are to be picked off of the bulb and squeezed over the vegetables as desired.

Serve with hot melted butter and fresh black pepper. Goes great with just about anything.

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If you don't/can't use a grill, you can prepare this dish in the oven. Bake in a deep-dish roasting pan at 425 degrees until tender, stirring every 30 minutes or so. Cooking the vegetables this way is much easier, but you don't get that good smoky flavor.

Trav's Beer Biscuits

Every kitchen needs a good recipe for beer biscuits. These are pretty quick and easy, since you don't have to roll them out and cut them.

Trav's Beer Biscuts

1 stick of butter or margarine, softened
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
2 t. salt
all-purpose flour
12 oz. dark beer (I use Dos Equis)
2 eggs

Sift 2 cups of flour with the other dry ingredients, and cut in butter. Add beer and eggs, and mix well (batter will be lumpy). Add flour, a little at a time, until the mixture is the consistency of mashed potatoes. Drop mixture by heaping spoonfuls onto a well-greased cookie sheet, and bake at 400 degrees until browned.

VARIATIONS:

CHEDDAR BISCUTS: Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the batter, and brush with garlic butter when they are done. Serve with your favorite casserole or Italian dish.

ITALIAN SPICED BISCUTS: Add 1 t. basil and 1 t. thyme, and sprinkle with Parmesian cheese before baking. When done, serve with a hot bowl of tomato soup.

TOMATO BASIL BISCUTS: Add 1/4 cup of sun-dried tomatoes (finely chopped) and 1 t. basil, and bake as usual. When done, brush the tops with melted garlic butter and serve with a salad.

BREAKFAST BISCUTS: Use 3/4 C. buttermilk and half the beer to make a really nice buttermilk-flavored biscut.

Clamenza's Spagetti Sauce

Toni and I love the Godfather movies. And if you are a fan of the movies as well, you will recognize this recipe.

Clamenza's Spagetti Sauce

4 T. olive oil
8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled & chopped
48 oz. crushed tomatoes
24 oz. tomato paste
1 lb. Italian sausage, chopped
1 lb. Italian meatballs, thawed
1/2 C. chianti (red wine)
1/4 C. sugar

This recipe was adapted from the one given to young Michael Corleone, by Clamenza, in "The Godfather." I played with the ingredients and the quantities several times until I got it down. From the movie:

"Come over here kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for twenty guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. And then you fry some garlic. Then you t'row in some tomatoes, some tomato paste, you fry it, you make sure it doesn't stick. You got it to a boil you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs...eh?...add a little bit of wine...and some sugar...and that's my trick."

TIP: The meats add all the flavor to this sauce, so don't skimp on them. You can use the frozen, generic italian sausages and meatballs at the supermarket, but for a stellar sauce you should go to an Italian meat market and ask the butcher for his favorite.

Chicken Fettucini Alfredo

This is one of my best recipes...it took me a few months to get it right, and I promptly gained 20 pounds afterward. This is one of the dishes I like to prepare for family and friends when they visit. (Hint, hint.)

Sorry I didn't post this one sooner, Willis. I'm a dope.

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Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo

2 boneless chicken breasts
1/4 C Newman's Own Family Recipe Italian salad dressing
1 pint table cream
1 stick butter or margarine
2 T. cream cheese
1/3 C. grated Parmesian cheese
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 T. dried parsley
1 t. dried oregano
fettuccini noodles

Place the chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag, add salad dressing. Seal and marinate overnight, or for at least 4 hours.

In a double boiler, saucepan, or small crock pot, combine cream, butter, and cream cheese. Cook over LOW heat until all is melted, do not allow to boil. Stir in garlic powder, Parmesian cheese, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer over VERY LOW heat for 30 minutes.

While alfredo sauce is cooking, grill the chicken over charcoal until done, and boil fettuccini noodles until tender. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces, place over fettuccini noodles, and ladel alfredo sauce on top. Garnish with grated Romano and dried oregano, if desired. Serve immediately with hot bread and white wine...I recommend Pinot Gris.

VARIATIONS: For less-fattening alfredo sauce, use half-and-half instead of cream, use fat-free cream cheese, and use fat-free margarine instead of butter. It won't be as good, but it will have fewer calories.

Spinach Alfredo: when you add the Parmesan cheese, stir in a half cup of well-chopped spinach.