Topics include: Status on the grand-opening of In the Neighborhood Fresh, located within Gail Borden Library since mid-December, the details around the 3rd annual Have a Heart Community Dinner on February 9th at First United Methodist Church, just whom will be the ‘hottest’ Bachelor Prize for the Larkin Center Sweetheart Auction on the evening of February 9th, plus food, freshness, fairness, usless 1980′s TV Theme trivia and a few Lincoln and Sports references… Tune into this 25 minute episode and learn more!

Topics include: In the Neighborhood Fresh, the Larkin Center Sweetheart Auction, “Grub Crawl” Ribbon cuttings for Downtown Elgin in December, the winners of the Window Wonderland contest on Dec. 1st, PADS Dancing with the Stars, the Centre of Elgin’s 10th Anniversary Celebration, Mercutio the Downtown Elgin Doggie Mascot and much more!

Apologies on the bad audio the first 7-minutes, it gets a lot better for the rest of this 25-minute episode!  Stay tuned for the holiday special coming soon!  - LF

20121205_CJJ

 (please forgive the continued audio-level edit-play as we pod cast these better and better…) 

In this 22 minute episode…

• Jeff ‘tweaking’ on his bag phone
• Nightmare on Chicago Street – 10.27.2012
• Monster Mash-Up activities – 10.26.2012
• Monster Mash Bash Fundraiser – 10.20.2012
• Community Thanksgiving Dinner update – 11.27.2012
• 40-years of Senior Services in Elgin
• Skulloween II with SpaceTaste and Elgin Public Museum – 11.02.2012
• New sandwiches at the Deli for charity – try the Crusader today!
• Football talk (you are welcome Alice)
• Fire Barn Open-House – 10.27.2012
• Fair Trade Fair at Zion Lutheran – 10.27.2012
• Elgin Sports Hall of Fame Ceremony – 11.04.2012
• …and a very special “One This Day in Sports” Trivia with Jeff Myers and a succulent Stuffed Pork Tenderloin recipe from Chef Jeff!

Myth #1: Searing meat seals in juices.
Forget this one. It’s not true — never has been, and never will be.
Most likely the idea came from the crusted exterior that meat develops as it’s seared; surely that crust will seal in the juices, right?
But in the test kitchen we tested this old maxim by weighing steaks before and after they were cooked.
Some were seared first, others weren’t. There was no difference in the amount of juices that were lost between the various steaks.
None, nada, bupkis.
The main purpose of searing is to add flavor by converting natural sugars and amino acids into flavor compounds via browning.
If you want juicy meat, you can slow roast it (which prevents meat juices from being squeezed out.)
And always let meat rest after cooking so that it can reabsorb any of those precious juices.

Myth #2: Marinating meat makes it juicy or tender.
No, it doesn’t. Marinades are usually made with some kind of oil, citrus, and herb combo that can only penetrate
the very exterior of meat. In the test kitchen we found that after 18 hours, a red wine marinade made its way ONE MILLIMETER into beef.
Hey, that’s perfect for tenderizing those two-millimeter thick steaks!
Now if that marinade contains an acidic ingredient — like the above-mentioned citrus, or vinegar — you can actually do more damage to the meat.
Acids will begin to break down the exterior fibers of the meat. Left too long in an acidic soak, that exterior will go from meaty, to mushy, and eventually, chalky and dry.
So the takeaway here is that if you want to flavor thin cuts of meat — cut for a stir fry or paper-thin paillards for example —
go ahead and give them a quick 10-minute-or-so marination for flavor.

Myth #3: Eating pink pork will make you sick.
Once upon a time this may have been true as there was a fear of ingesting an ugly parasite named trichinosis.
Cooking pork to a safe, but gray interior temperature of 160 degrees would kill off trichinosis — but who would want to eat that dried up chop?
Today, government standards have all but eliminated the risk of trichinosis contamination from pork.
According to the Center for Disease Control, between the years of 1997 through 2001, the average reported cases of trichinosis was twelve.
So go ahead and go for a slightly rosy hue. The test kitchen highly recommends cooking that pork chop or loin roast until it registers an
internal temperature of 140 to 145. And be sure to let the pork rest for 10 minutes or so-the internal temperature will continue to rise 5 to 10 degrees,
but the meat will still be beautifully moist.

Myth #4: Always rinse off poultry that comes from the supermarket.
Back away from the sink my friend. I know that it’s been pounded into your brain that you should unwrap that poultry and give it a good rinse in the sink.
But beware that what you’re most likely doing is splashing all of those yummy surface pathogens over your sink, faucet, and surrounding area.
Now, if you’re willing to give the sink a super-thorough scrub down it will be fine, but you’re better off simply cooking the poultry to a safe internal
temperature (165 degrees for the breast meat and 175 for the thigh meat.)
So those are a few of the myths out there. I hope that busting through these gives you more confidence when preparing meat.

1- 16 oz loaf Vienna bread
Cut end to end almost all the way through. Then make slices perpendicular to that cut almost all the way through.
1 lb sliced Swiss cheese

Layer Swiss cheese in bread

Sauté in saucepan:

1 cup butter
1 small onion sliced
1 tbls poppy seeds
2 cups mushrooms sliced
1 tbls seasoned salt
Dash of lemon juice

Put bread in foil, pour mixture of last 6 ingredients over bread. Wrap up in foil and bake at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes.

Delicious!!!

CJ

2 8 oz packages Cream cheese
2 tbls grated parmesan cheese
2 8 oz packages spinach – frozen and chopped, drained
1 tbls garlic chopped
1/2 cup salsa
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Combine all ingredients except cheddar cheese in mixing bowl and blend with hand mixer.
Put mixture in baking dish, top with cheddar cheese and bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes.
Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips or whatever you want!

8 oz elbow macaroni
3 tbls butter
3 tbls flour
2.5 cups milk heated up
1/ medium white onion whole
1 tsp kosher salt
5 oz aged white cheddar grated
2 oz gruyere or swiss, grated
1 oz parmesan cheese grated
White truffle oil to taste(see below for other option)

2 tbls butter
1/2 cup brioche bread crumbs
1 tbls chopped parsley

Pre heat oven to 350.
In a large pot of boiling salted water, boil macaroni until al dente (firm to the bite). Strain and place on lightly oiled sheet pan.
While macaroni is cooking, melt 3 tbls butter in separate pot. whisk in flour and cook over low heat for 4 minutes, stirring constantly!!! Add the milk and onion. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the onion.
Turn off the heat and add 3/4 of the cheddar and all of the other cheeses.
Add truffle oil to your liking.
Season with salt and fold in macaroni.
Pour in casserole dish. Top with remaining cheddar.
Melt the remaining butter in pot and toss with bread crumbs and parsley to coat.
Top the macaroni in casserole dish with bread crumb mixture and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool.
Refrigerate for 4 hours or until the macaroni is cooled through.
Using a ring cutter or your favorite cookie cutter, cut out shapes and re heat in 350 oven to serve.
Garnish with minced chives.

The kids can help too with the shapes and this can be made ahead of time and just warmed for service.

Substitute for truffle oil:
I prefer roasted garlic oil. Peel a head of garlic and put in baking dish and cover with olive oil or canola oil. Bake at 350 until garlic is golden brown. The remaining oil is fantastic to cook with and your house now smells brilliant.

CJ