Christmas Dinner

I'm better at food than I am at computers. This is saved on my desktop right-side-up, but blogspot likes it this way. Sideways or no, this was a great Christmas dinner! I marinated the pork rib roast overnight in citrus juice and zest, garlic cloves speared with clove cloves, fennel seeds, a lot of bay leaves, and some gin (the recipe called for juniper berries but we couldn't find those at the store), and Mom seared it and roasted it. The salad is Mom's favorite, greens with avocado, grapefruit, and balsamic vinaigrette. Valerie made a delicious brussels sprouts gratin, and Bob and Nancy brought wonderful cheesy scalloped potatoes and a caprese salad. It was all so delicious.
Aside from marinating the meat, my contribution was to bake a whiskey chocolate bundt cake (not pictured), from the NYTimes. I did my best to screw it up but it was still moist and flavorful.
Also not pictured is the pre-dinner cheese course. Craig and I paid to check a bag for the express purpose of bringing 4 cheeses (well, OK, we also brought Dad a six-pack of Southern Tier's Old Man Winter), a goat gouda, Great Hill blue, morbier, and a wonderfully stinky aged fontina from the Valle d'Aosta. We washed those down with a Wisconsin beer, Central Waters' Bourbon Barrel Stout, not a bargain but well worth the price if you can get it!

The Brunch!

Bob turned 80 this month, and his kids decided to celebrate by throwing a surprise brunch. He was truly surprised and really seemed to have a good time. I helped out with the food. Above are the cinnamon rolls right out of the oven. The recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and I've been looking for an excuse to try them out for some time. They were really good, although the decision not to frost them, while practical, did mean they weren't quite as sweet and delicious as cinnamon rolls are supposed to be.

This is the brunch table, ready to go. Clockwise from left: frittatas, both salami and provolone and arugula and fontina; two pans of cheesy scalloped potatoes (Epicurious); grapes; dinner rolls from Seven Stars Bakery; Chris' wonderful delicious Belgian waffles, cinnamon rolls, mixed greens with roasted pears, blue cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette; the delicious balsamic cherry sauce for the duck; the duck itself (legs were braised, breasts seared and sliced); and more frittata, three cheese. The frittatas were overdone, but I may have been the only one to notice, and everything else turned out well. I skipped cake so I could have more waffle.

Smoked Pork Chop!

Dad sent us bacon and smoked pork chops from Nueske's, and on Wednesday night we got out two of the chops.  Those things are soooo good!  We had pan-seared brussels sprouts and mustard seed rice pilaf alongside, and topped the chops with the cherry balsamic duck sauce.  Thanks Dad!

Vegetable Ragout, Pork Chops, and Turkey Thighs

Last Friday Craig made this delicious vegetable ragout over cheesy polenta with a roasted red pepper cream sauce. It was really good--I particularly liked the nicoise olives in the ragout. I'm responsible for the sloppy basil chiffonade. Everything else was ready and I was hungry and could not be bothered.

On Saturday we had Erika, Jen, and Tom over for our annual Nouveau release dinner. Last year I hurt my back, so I lay on the floor and directed Craig--he's right, risotto really is better when someone else cooks it--so this year I was looking forward to being in top form for cooking. Then we planned a big birthday brunch for Craig's dad for Sunday, and I had to scale back. I made my favorite easy company meal, pork chops stuffed with spinach, pine nuts, and fontina, with oven potatoes (last of the CSA), acorn squash (CSA but still not the last--we got sooo much this year), and pan roasted brussels sprouts. Quick and easy but very delicious.





I'm still waiting for the food pictures from Sunday to be emailed to me, but one of the things I made was a crazy good balsamic cherry sauce (Emeril), and I wanted to use some of the leftover on Wednesday. I was seduced by boneless turkey thighs at WF, even though I had no idea how to cook them. I ended up searing them, then braising them in the cherry sauce while I sauteed broccoli rabe and cooked Italian (via Wegman's) egg noodles. The thighs were OK, way too much for one person to eat. Maybe they'd be better stewed for a really long time. The noodles were awesome though, just the right amount of bite, and I topped them with the last of the truffle butter we got in Italy and some truffle salt.
Stay tuned for news of the brunch!

Chicken Soup

I make a lot of soup in the winter. I like how you don't have to be too exact and it makes the house smell so good. On Sunday I made a really good chicken soup, and we had the leftovers last night. I used celeriac when I made the broth, which I think is one reason this one turned out so well. I also pulled the meat when it was done but threw the bones back in for a while, which gave it a fuller flavor, while the chicken didn't get overcooked. In there are carrots, more celeriac, turnip, parsnip, parsley, brussels sprouts, and onion. The hippie bread, on the other hand, was nothing to brag about, and I'm blaming Hollie. Burned on the outside and raw on the inside. But the part in between the burn and the dough was pretty good, and we ate that.

So Many Side Dishes

On Sunday I went a little out of control with the side dishes. The main event was a mustard-garlic pork roast, from Epicurious, which turned out very very delicious. Clockwise from there is celery-mushroom salad from the NY Times, pain a l'ancienne from the Bread Baker's Apprentice, port-glazed pearl onions (Epicurious), and spiced wine cranberry sauce and baked acorn squash (both me). The celery mushroom thing was dressed in lemon juice and olive oil, and I thought it was surprisingly good, although Craig thought it was too lemony. The bread was amazing. This was the first time I'd made that recipe, and it was really quite easy (no kneading, no shaping), except for making Hollie into a wood-burning brick oven. Probably one of the best breads I've ever made. Craig really liked the onions, I just thought they were so-so, and also thought they shouldn't have been plated next to the cranberries, which were very tasty. The squash was dumb, underseasoned and undercooked, but that was OK because when I skipped that and my salad, I had room for another piece of pork!

Pan-Seared Steak

Last week I heard someone on the radio mention steaks and martinis, and I got a little obsessed.  We had the martinis with a cheese called Rosemary's Waltz, from MA.  It's a goat cheese with rosemary and juniper berries, and it was all right, but they could have seasoned it better--the herbs were just stuck on the top, and there wasn't much flavor in the cheese itself.

For dinner I made Cook's pan-seared strip steaks, and boy were they good!  They're so thick, you put them in a slow oven first to warm them through, then pan-sear and make the red wine mushroom sauce.  The potatoes were from the NYTimes, roasted with figs and garlic, and the brussels sprouts were pan-cooked with pecans.  This dinner was great!  The only thing I would change is to put the figs in with the potatoes a little later in the roasting--they got sort of hard.  We drank a wine Craig's dad gave him for his birthday, Robert Mondavi 2005 Cabernet, which was great.

Sockeye on Leeks and Shiitakes

Last night Craig got some wild-caught sockeye and served it over sauteed leeks and shiitakes.  I was really impressed at how tasty it was, as it was basically seasoned with salt and pepper only.  The leek and mushroom combination was so attractive, it probably should have been plated atop the salmon.  We enjoyed braised bok choi and white rice alongside, and celebrated the third Thursday in November with a Beaujolais Nouveau.  Granted, I have a strong affection for raw-tasting wine, but I think this year is particularly good.

Lentil Soup

I love the Cook's recipe for lentil soup, and I make it a lot because it's so easy and tasty. On Sunday I made the chicken broth, and I think I used too much bay leaf, but it was good nonetheless. I skipped the blender step--I don't have an immersion blender, and it's just too annoying/dangerous to put the hot soup in the blender. Lisa gave us the last of her beautiful garden chard (we use the same seeds--why is hers so much better???), and I sauteed it with currants and pine nuts. My hippie bread came out a little too crusty, but the inside was delicious.

Experimental Duck and Crazy Mushrooms

While at Wegman's in Rochester for Veterans' Day weekend, I picked up some crazy mushrooms I've never seen in a grocery store before. I got pom pom mushrooms and lobster mushrooms (I recommend an image search for those--the pom pom looks just like a bichon frise), and also a bunch of oyster mushrooms. I could finally make Jamie Oliver's grilled wild mushroom risotto, wherein he uses mushrooms I simply can't get at Stop and Shop, or even WF. The risotto is made with chopped rehydrated porcinis and the broth they were rehydrated in, and topped with the fancy mushrooms after they're grilled in a dry pan. I regret to say I was so distracted I failed to take a picture, but that was some goooood risotto! Lisa and Chris were over for dinner, and all four of us cleaned our plates. We enjoyed the last bottle of my great wine deal, the Alix Bordeaux Blanc, with this course.

Then it was on to the experiment. A while ago, Jamie Oliver made a warm duck and pumpkin salad, that I wanted to try. The recipe wasn't available on the web, but it seemed simple enough. He roasted pumpkin wedges and a whole duck, then served them together with a lot of cilantro and some mint in an Asian dressing. It seemed so weird I just had to check it out. I used a pumpkin and an acorn squash, roasting them in wedges. I toasted the pumpkin seeds for garnish, but they were incredibly bitter, so I tried toasting the seeds from the acorn squash--delicious. When Craig came home I had him taste the pumpkin to see if it needed anything, and he nearly spit it out--also incredibly bitter. Who knows--I was really glad I had that acorn squash though! Jamie just seemed to throw the cilantro on, stems and all, but I thought that could make for some messy eating, so I coarsely chopped the cilantro and mint, and dressed it with a mixture of lime juice, olive oil, chili oil, sesame oil, sugar, and soy sauce. I had brined the duck in OJ and roasted it whole, pulling off the meat for the final presentation.

The whole thing was surprisingly delicious--I would absolutely make it again, with another backup squash, of course! We drank a Borgo Magredo Friuli 2007 Pinot Noir.

And dessert. I had poached pears, and planned to serve them with sauce from frozen CSA raspberries and vanilla caramel. Maybe there was something in the air that night, because not only did I have an amazingly bitter pumpkin, but I could not make caramel sauce to save myself! I've made caramel so many times with no trouble, but Saturday night it just wouldn't work. After wasting a whole lot of sugar, I finally got a runny approximation, then discovered that Craig, who was just wonderful about keeping up with the dishes (essential in a kitchen the size of ours), had been a little overzealous and washed away the vanilla bean guts that were reserved for the caramel. So not vanilla, and very runny, but still good. If it had been thicker, I don't think it would have looked like the pears were bleeding.
Craig chose a Quinta Infantado Ruby port for this course, and it made a delicious end to a meal that was more difficult than it should have been, but tastier than I would have expected.

Latin Chicken in a Pot

On Friday Craig made one of my favorite cold-weather meals.  It's Rachel Ray, Latin Chicken in a Pot.  Chicken thighs cooked with rice, topped with avocado cream and a salsa fresca.  Craig accidentally put the salsa in the food processor, so it was a little too smooth in texture, but the meal was really good.  He put lacinato kale alongside--I've had so-so experiences with the lacinato variety and tend to avoid it, but Craig did a great job--probably was more patient and cooked it longer than I have.

Puttanesca, Stir fry, and Veggie Soup

Craig made the best pasta sauce on Friday night! All I really needed was a bowl of the sauce and a big spoon, and I would have been happy. It was a quick puttanesca, and the recipe called for an entire tin of anchovies, which made both of us raise our eyebrows, but it was really tasty. He served it atop whole wheat spagetti and next to CSA greens, braised in chicken stock and some of the water from the canned crushed tomatoes. We enjoyed the 3 Mollusk house red and turned off the porch light so we wouldn't have to share with trick or treaters.

Our CSA ended last week, but we won't be seeing the last of our CSA squash for a while. Saturday night I tried subbing butternut squash for carrots in a stir-fry. It was actually pretty good. Also in the mix were pak choi, daikon, kohlrabi, shiitakes, and edamame. I made up the sauce, and actually did a pretty good job, and both of us thought the squash was pretty good.

My weekend project was vegetable soup from Epicurious. I made the broth on Saturday and we ate the soup for dinner on Sunday. I had never made a vegetable broth before. It came out really well, with a nice delicate flavor and a perfume I would attribute mostly to the celeriac. I was able to use both green and dried beans from our garden, which was fun. It also contained lacinato kale, red pepper, potatoes, carrots, and shallots, and I threw in a parmesan rind. On the bowl is a slice of my first hippie bread of the season (I bought a new oven thermometer), which came out really well--wheat berries are the secret!

Pizzish

On Wednesday night we had a couple of stops on the way home, so we needed a quick dinner.  I topped an Iggy's pizza crust with sauteed bacon and leeks, chevre, and parmesan.  After it came out of the oven, I topped that with arugula and sliced daikon radish tossed in lemon juice and olive oil.  Craig was a little surprised to find his salad atop his pizza, but he agreed that it was a very nice quick meal--and a sneaky way to get soft cheese into Craig's salad!

Roast Lemon Chicken

I had thought the weekend would be chilly, so I planned to roast a chicken. The weekend turned out beautiful, but I'm a planner, and I stuck with my plans. I made Cook's Lemon Chicken, also known as the Chicken That Made Megan Cry. It's not really difficult, but it involves a number of steps and would be much easier in a full-size kitchen with a good venting system. Because it was so warm out, I decided to try pretending the grill was an oven and just throwing the roasting pan in there. Halfway through the roasting, the pan was black black black and it was getting chilly enough that I didn't think I could keep the heat high enough, so I moved it into a different roasting pan and finished it in Hollie. The oven thermometer, essential because Hollie puts out BTU's with complete disregard for the setting on the dial, chose that moment to quit working altogether, so I guessed the temperature based on how much heat blasted my face when I opened the door to check on things. I roasted oregano-lemon potatoes along with the chicken, and braised pak choi in some chicken broth and garlic.
It all came out really well, and I did not cry. That chicken is soooo good, it's almost worth the trouble and tear potential. And it sort of makes me wonder what I could do with a real kitchen, or at least a working oven thermometer.

Veggie Burgers and Moroccan Chicken

After eating so well all weekend, even I wasn't up for a fancy meal on Wednesday night. We had Amy's California Burgers with aged cheddar, and roasted brussels sprouts and carrots. The blob on the left is actually sauteed crimini mushrooms for the burgers. I cooked them until they lost most of their water, then deglazed with red wine, and they were delicious.

Craig's first Friday night for cooking in a while, but I guess he didn't forget how. He made an old favorite, Rachel Ray's Morccan chicken over couscous. He uses chicken thighs and it comes out really tasty, especially alongside Maine broccoli--we won't be able to get that for too much longer!

What Mom Ate

Mom visited last weekend, and not only did we have fun, but we ate very well!  On Friday night we went to a market on Federal Hill, Venda Ravioli, and brought home a dinner of lobster ravioli with puttanesca sauce, artichoke hearts stuffed with Ritz crackers and crabmeat, green beans with almonds, and rabe with sooo much garlic.  On Saturday we went to Scales and Shells in Newport, which I really enjoy because it's good food in a casual atmosphere and the menu is pretty simple.  I had linguine with white clam sauce, and Mom and Ellie and Craig all enjoyed various scallop preparations.

Sunday was cold, and we have all these root vegetables from the CSA, so we picked up a bottom round roast and made beef stew.  I cooked the beef in broth and a lot of red wine, and added carrots, onions, celeriac, sweet potatoes, and yellow potatoes.  We enjoyed a wine from Dave, Torbreck Barossa Valley 2006 Woodcutter's Shiraz.

On Monday we recreated Craig's wonderful salmon, since we could still get Coho at WF.  Mom really liked it with the tarragon butter.  I used more leek than Craig had, and I think it was better with more lentils than leeks, but it was still really tasty.  To drink we had Alix Chateau Plaisance Bordeau Blanc Sec 2004, a very nice full white wine.

Steamed Fluke on Greens

The NY Times had an interesting looking recipe for Asian steamed flounder, so I decided to use our last frozen fluke fillet last night. The recipe calls for sauteeing ginger, garlic, and mustard greens, then steaming the fish on top of the greens. I added daikon, because we're getting a lot of that from the CSA right now. Craig liked it, but I thought it needed more flavor, especially in the fish. Definitely healthy and easy though.

Mustard Crusted Tofu with Kale and Sweet Potatoes

I made this once last winter, and while Craig didn't love it the way I did, he agreed he could tolerate the tofu once in a while, so I made it for Date Night last week. This time I should have cooked the tofu longer over higher heat, because that crispy side is so delicious, but this is a good, quick, healthy fall meal. It's an Epicurious recipe and really comes together quickly.

On a non-tofu related note, Craig and I returned yesterday from an anniversary trip to Martha's Vineyard. The whole trip was good, not excepting the eats. I would say the most memorable thing I ate was duck leg confit with lentils du puy and figs, with a little bacon, enjoyed at Detente Wine Bar in Edgartown. The most memorable not at a fancy restaurant thing I ate was the duck and leek pizza at the Offshore Ale Company, accompanied by the amazing Wash-A-Shore ale. I guess Dad would probably characterize my weekend as "just ducky!"

Grilled Pizza!

On Sunday Craig and I finally had the pleasure of showing Ben what a great wedding present he gave us. I used the crust recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice, making it the day before and refrigerating it overnight. Ellie and Dave were visiting as well, and Dave helped me out with some key dough and wine advice. I made walnut basil pesto for the sauce, and topped the pizzas with parmigiano-reggiano, Danish fontina or Narragansett Creamery Atwells Gold (a mild cheddar-like cheese), and blue cheese or herbed ricotta. Above is a ricotta version on the grill--look at that pizza stone go!
This is a blue cheese iteration before it hit the heat. I had a roma tomato from the CSA that was just begging to be used. Check out the video below of the ricotta pizza sizzling away!

I almost posted pictures of last night's dinner, but they came out about as well as my passport photo (assuming I don't actually develop a dread skin disease, it's unlikely that will ever convince a border agent of my identity). Suffice it to say it was good and quick. I'm still trying to use up leftover ricotta from those pork chops, so I made a sauce with that, bacon, leeks, tomatoes, and herbs (deglazed the pan with vermouth) for whole wheat shells. Craig and I agreed it needed something, maybe roasted red peppers, maybe sausage crumbled small enough to fit into the shells. We had steamed Maine broccoli, and I took a page from Craig's book and made a tarragon mustard butter to top it. I drank a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, my first ever, but definitely not my last. That stuff is soooo good!

Coho Salmon

I just finished reading Bottomfeeder, by Taras Grescoe.  I highly recommend--it's scary, how overfished our world is, and how contaminated some of the seafood we get in the grocery store can be, but ultimately, it's a very useful book, in terms of helping you figure out what fish you should and should not eat.  As soon as it's out in paperback, I'm giving it to everyone I know.  One of the things I learned from Bottomfeeder is that whether or not you should eat salmon very much depends on what kind of salmon it is; wild-caught Coho is good, because it comes from sustainable stocks and is relatively short-lived for a salmon, thus lower in contaminants.  

Last night Craig made a wonderful Coho dinner.  He used an Epicurious recipe for salmon with tarragon mustard butter on leeks and French lentils.  It was soooo good--the butter was amazing and perfect with the fish, and I love those little French lentils, they have such a great texture.  It was a very flavorful meal, and we had the perfect wine to cut through all the sort of thick flavors and brighten up our mouths, a 2007 Vinedo de los Vientos Estival, an Uruguyan blend of Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, and Moscato Bianco.  What a great way to say goodbye to a crappy week.

Roast Chicken Provencal

On Sunday evening I roasted a chicken, basing it on an Epicurious recipe for one-pot chicken provencal. The recipe called for roasting tomatoes, onions, and olives in the bottom of the roasting pan next to the chicken, but I didn't think we needed ALL that chicken fat, so I elevated the chicken and cooked off the vegetables in the roasting pan after pouring off some of the fat, while the chicken rested. I added leeks and green beans, and I think the beans especially were a good idea, but I think next time they should be cooked in a different pan altogether, and maybe finished off in the same oven as the chicken, the flavors just weren't deep enough the way I did it. The chicken was pretty good, although it could have been brined longer--I only had 2 hours. But it is way cheaper to buy a whole free-ranger and eat the bits all week than individual pieces of the same free-ranger, so I'll be doing more roast chicken as winter approaches!

What MK eats

Mary Kate came down for a visit on Saturday and stayed over that night. She is one of my favorite dinner guests, and did not disappoint this time! We started with the latest iteration of the Thanksgiving GF Stuffies, accompanied by a nice white burgundy whose name and birthdate I cannot recall. Unfortunately, I got distracted by our conversation and left the stuffies on the grill a little too long, but they were pretty good and I might be just about there on the proportion of cranberries to clams.

For dinner we had pork chops stuffed with pine nuts, spinach, ricotta, and fontina (Cook's, except I grilled them). They were sooo good--you wouldn't think a person could eat that entire ginormous chop, but we all succeeded! The chops were from WF, so pretty high-quality to begin with, and brined, so even better. Hollie got to do what she does best, oven potatoes (CSA, so good) with herbs and balsamic, and I made Alton Brown braised cabbage and apples, which was great and really easy. MK brought us some Pinot Noir to accompany.

Finally, dessert! Because that peach shortcake I made a couple of weeks ago was only so-so, I really wanted to redeem myself. I made an Epicurious recipe for pecan shortcakes with bourbon whipped cream. I am SUCH a bad baker, and did my best to mess up the shortcakes, but they were pretty good anyway, and the whipped cream was awesome. I put some bourbon in the peaches as well, and also used cane sugar that Lisa and Chris got in Cambodia, which is really delicious--I have been known to nibble at it on its own.

The fun didn't stop there! Sunday morning MK and I went to yoga and Craig went for a bike ride. When we all got back, Craig made us a German apple breakfast cake thing from Cook's. We topped it with maple syrup. It was so good, the perfect amount of dough, perfectly cooked, with all those good apples.

Chicken Thighs with Feta Relish

On Friday evening Craig made a lovely dinner, grilled chicken thighs with an awesome relish he made out of fresh CSA tomatoes, feta, kalamata olives, and thyme (was supposed to be mint but we didn't have any). I would have been happy to just be served the relish on crackers, but it was even better this way, with couscous and sauteed CSA chard. We agreed that the couscous needed a sauce of some sort, but in all it was an excellent low-stress Friday night meal.

Strata

The NY Times had a recipe for tomato strata that looked interesting, so I more or less made that last night, using bread left over from Saturday and CSA tomatoes. I added grilled slices of eggplant and steamed spinach with the water squeezed out. The recipe called for gruyere and parmesan, which were delicious, and rosemary and thyme--I thought the rosemary flavor was too strong and would skip it next time. The baking dish I used was too small, so a lot of the egg-milk mixture overflowed and never got to soak into the bread, but it was really good nonetheless and seems like a great way to use veggies and old bread.

Steak is Best with Blue Cheese!!

This is the first weekend in living memory when Craig and I were home AND with no huge bike ride, so we celebrated with a nice dinner on Saturday.  I went to the farmers' market and got a couple of grass-fed local t-bones, some baby squash, and country bread from 7 Stars.  First, though, the appetizers.  We had Dogfish 90-minute and Food Should Taste Good jalapeno flavor chips with Megan-style guacamole.  I like my guac super simple, just avocado, cilantro, lime, garlic and salt, no fancy-addins.  Those chips are sooo good.

Craig did an excellent job manning the grill with his headlamp on.  While the steaks rested he grilled the squash and the bread.  I sauteed some of our home-grown golden chard with currants, and we topped the bread with garlic, salt and good Spanish olive oil.  The steaks were a perfect medium-rare, and that bit of Danish blue on top made every bite wonderful.  We drank another wine club selection, Green & Red Vineyards Zinfandel Chiles Canyon 2006, an excellent zin for a meal, really nice and full without getting in the way of the food.  

Fluke with Rosemary

Craig had intended to grill steak on Friday night, but it rained, so instead he thawed a fluke fillet and found an Emeril recipe.  I had my doubts about rosemary on fish, but it was really good, baked with chopped tomatoes and a little cayenne sprinkled on top.  We had sauteed Swiss chard from the CSA alongside.  The house smelled so good on such a chilly damp night.  We also drank our first bottle from Craig's birthday wine club, a Sicilian Insolia, 2007 Case Ibidini.  It was really really good, almost buttery, a white wine with the ability to fill your mouth up.  I'm definitely going to ask for it at Wakefield Liquors!

Portabello and Garlicky Pesto

One of the greatest things about owning a food processor is how easy it makes using up leftover herbs . On Wednesday night I made pesto with some basil, mint, and arugula we had, adding toasted pine nuts and almonds, and a head of fresh garlic I blanched for one minute. Really good AND it kept the mosquitos (and vampires) away! A little mint is so good in a pesto. I grilled portobello caps and topped them with Danish blue cheese and the pesto, and served steamed Maine broccoli (soooo good this time of year) alongside. I've been using the leftover pesto in our lunches, and that garlic flavor definitely gets stronger as the days go by!

Chowder out of the Bowl

Craig and I had plans to ride a century on Sunday, and on Saturday Tropical Storm Hanna was supposed to roll through, so I thought I'd take advantage of the bad weather and make a hearty, carb-loaded meal of chicken corn chowder and bread.  CLEARLY I have a lot to learn about tropical storms.  Saturday was not particularly rainy, but it was so humid and sticky and disgusting, not weather in which to let Hollie heat up the whole house, that's for sure.  I decided to grill, and to get my grilling in before any rain came through.  I did chicken thighs, minimally seasoned, and tossed them with tiny boiled CSA potatoes, seeded tomatoes, and sauteed sweet corn.  I threw in some olive oil and lots of basil and a little ground cumin, and served it room temp with sauteed Swiss chard when we were ready to eat.  It was pretty good, just like chowder without the heat.  Or the good dairy fat--fresh mozzarella would have been the perfect addition.  I actually even made dessert, although I forgot to take a picture.  It was an only OK peach shortcake--the biscuits were heavy (I blame Hanna) and I should have taken more care with the peaches, too much cinnamon.  Not too bad though, and worth trying again--we also joined a fruit CSA and are getting a bag of apples and a bag of peaches every week right now.

Saturday's big culinary experiment was gluten-free Thanksgiving-themed stuffies.  I made 3 different kinds, cranberry, apricot, and candied ginger.  Craig took them to Lisa and Chris's last night for a taste test, and apparently they're worth perfecting.  When I see chestnuts in the store, I'll have to try throwing some of those in as well.

Two Dips

Or three or four, depending on who at the table you count. On Sunday when I was grilling I also did some eggplants and hot peppers we had from the CSA. I food processed those with tahini, and it was too hot, so I mixed in some seeded chopped tomatoes, and it still needed a little something. I added some lime juice and a little more salt, and suddenly had the most addictive, just the right amount of spicy, amazing thing! So on Wednesday night we had things with dips. I made a yogurt mint cucumber dip to cool off the eggplant, and blanched some CSA carrots and beans from our garden. Wednesday morning I started a simple bread, and then grilled that off along with some lamb chops I'd quickly marinated in olive oil, garlic, oregano, and lemon zest. YUM, were those chops ever good, especially in the yogurt. I thought the bread was too puffy, but Craig really liked it (it's the thing that looks sort of like a chicken breast--I'd torn the round in half).


To drink we had a really nice Pinot Noir that complemented the meal well I thought. It was a Dom. Brunel 2006 that we'd sampled at a tasting near Ellie and Dave's. This was a fun meal that would be good with company (if you could afford all those lamb chops), especially if you added a few more dipping items.

Treats on Pasta

We didn't eat at home much over Labor Day weekend, and as a consequence, I had a lot of produce, home-grown and CSA, to use last night. Earlier in the day, I grilled one of Craig's beautiful red peppers (peppers are too fussy for me to deal with, but he gets along well with them), and some winter squash--one we grew, and a couple our neighbors gave us from their garden. I julienned the pepper and scooped out bite-size chunks of the squash. For dinner, I sauteed carrots, leeks, garlic, and tomato (all CSA) in olive oil, and added a little bit of crushed red pepper, then turned off the heat and added torn up basil leaves and the squash and peppers. I threw all the veggies on top of whole wheat linguine, then topped all of that with a poached egg (also from the CSA now that my job has moved and the Eggman is no longer in my life). I had worried we would need to order a pizza, but this was pretty good, especially the squash, which had seemed like a strange thing to throw in and turned out to be the best part.
While I was grilling yesterday, I also came up with an inspiration for Date Night tomorrow night. Stay tuned.

The Big Four-Oh!

He doesn't look a day over 25, but Craig turned 40 on Monday. I threw him a party to celebrate, inviting way more people that would possibly fit in our house and keeping my fingers crossed for good weather. The day was beautiful, absolutely perfect, and I borrowed an extra grill and cooked my fool head off. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, Craig especially. My one regret is not asking anyone to photograph the food for this blog, so I'll try to describe.

This is the one quality picture I took, before the grills got going. Clockwise from the lower left: toasted pita triangles, homemade lemon hummus, foccacia made on the grill (word to the wise, less than half the time it would take in the oven!), rosemary white bean dip, the usual crackers, corn chips, and salsa, and cheese! Smoked Jarlsberg, dill Havarti (everyone likes dill Havarti!), Danish Blue, Great Hill Blue, extra-sharp Cabot cheddar, and Canadian provolone.

Then I lit the grills and things got going. I had marinated almost 7# of flank steak in a mixture of garlic, olive oil, oregano, and orange zest (sort of Cook's, sort of NYTimes) overnight, and also marinated chunks of chicken thigh in olive oil, garlic, and chives, which I skewered with bites of pear, apple, zucchini, onion, mushroom, and bell pepper (Cook's). I forgot how much I hate to skewer chicken--a LOT--but it turned out to be worth the effort, the fruit was particularly good and surprised many guests. We also had some hamburgers and hot dogs.

To accompany the meats I prepared several side dishes earlier in the day. I made German potato salad, corn and bean salad, pasta with pesto, coleslaw, and quinoa with grilled zucchini. The German potato salad, from Cook's, was a big hit and involved special touches like lots of whole grain mustard and bits of crispy bacon. Corn and bean is my favorite for a potluck, easy, healthy, and a crowd-pleaser. The pasta with pesto was also from Cook's and was perfect. The secret ingredient is mayonnaise, which helps the pesto stick to the pasta when served cold or room temp. The coleslaw, Bobby Flay's with lime and cumin vinaigrette, was only OK, because I was super rushing when I made it and didn't even taste it before I put it out, but the quinoa, Epicurious, was great. You marinate chick peas in lemon juice and olive oil, and cook the quinoa in cumin, smoked paprika, and turmeric, adding the chick peas and chopped grilled zucchini and parsley at the end. I used red and white quinoa to make it pretty and will absolutely make it again. To drink there was a whole lot of beer, wine, and I also mixed up sangria (Cook's), which was delicious and dangerous.

For dessert, I made a peach crisp and also one of my best decisions EVER, and asked Mary Kate and Cora to bake Craig's traditional birthday cake, a buche de Noel. Don't ask me. They made the most out of control buche I have ever met! I believe it was called something like a Tahitian Beach Buche, and these pictures do not do it justice, but you get the idea:

You can see that Pete is in no mood to wait for his cake!

Everyone did their best, but we did end up with a few leftovers--Good thing I decided at the last minute not to also make fruit salad and Asian avocado slaw, although I still want to try that one sometime.

Last night we took on some of the leftover potato salad, alongside Amy's California Burgers with leftover cheddar and sauteed leftover zucchini with leeks and carrots and a pepper our CSA farmer swore wasn't hot. Mark Bittman in the NYTimes had made a zucchini pasta with lavender, so I threw some in, but honestly didn't really taste it, must be a fine line between not tasting it and tasting like a soothing bath oil. We also had arugula salad with cucumber and a honey/lavender vinaigrette. The party was fun, but this was so relaxing.

Fluke Meuniere

Dad was out for a visit last weekend and Ellie and Dave drove down as well. We had a really good time, and the men caught lots of fish. The picture is bad (my fault, I was rushing the photographer), but you can see the fluke meuniere with lemon caper brown butter (Cook's), accompanied by a tomato/cucumber salad with Great Hill Blue and toasted pine nuts. We also enjoyed wonderful grill-roasted fingerling potatoes.

Below is a better picture, of all the plates ready to go. Not pictured are our cocktail hour treats, chips with guacamole and salsa and grilled figs with prosciutto and blue cheese, and watermelon margaritas. Also left to your imagination is dessert--grilled peaches with honey and mascarpone, accompanied by a wonderful ice wine from Dave and Ellie.

Slow Cooked Beans

The NY Times had a recipe for slow-cooked beans, just in time for all the beans we haven't managed to pick.  The recipe suggested grilled sausage to accompany, so I picked up mango chorizo at WF.  The sausage was good, but I'm a little insecure with the non pre-cooked kind, so I over-grilled a little.  I also sauteed some summer squash with onions and hot peppers, all from the CSA, and grilled some olive oil-garlic bread.  The beans were only OK, and I followed the recipe and everything.  All in all though, it was a good pretty quick meal, and I used up some of our million beans and summer squash.

Tequila-Lime Chicken

Last night I made up for my lack of inspiration on Saturday and cooked a really tasty meal. I marinated bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in lime juice and tequila for several hours, then grilled them. So good--you could really taste the marinade. I also grilled new red potatoes from the farmers' market (olive oil, s&p, rosemary, garlic), which came out just perfect, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. The veg is CSA zucchini and cippolini onion, garlic, fresh corn (farmers' market), and more of our crazy beans. I crisped up some chopped bacon in the pan before cooking the veggies, then removed it so it would stay crisp and threw it back in at the end. After pouring out a good deal of the bacon fat, there was still enough to add a little special flavor to those veggies. Yum.