A Weekend of Good Eats

Friday, February 1
Craig cooks dinner on Fridays--it's long story and has to do with how embarassingly unpleasant I can be when I'm hungry and tired and asked to make anything more complicated than cereal.

I don't remember what our dinner on Friday the 1st was called, just that it was warm deliciousness involving chicken thighs, dried fruit, olives and grated carrots. I think Rachel Ray, and I think one of her Middle Eastern-style recipes. It surprised me with all its flavor, being a 30-minute meal and all.

Saturday, February 2
First

Our friends Henry and Marion came to dinner for Groundhog's Day. They got a little turned around on the drive, which is always frustrating. We were glad to be able to be able to welcome them with a glass of wine and a first course of sweet potato, apple, and chipotle soup, garnished with these amazing fried corn tortilla strips, tossed in cinnamon and sugar.

I got the recipe from Food & Wine. The first time I have cooked from that magazine, and I thought the recipe could have been better-written, also I needed a REALLY BIG WARNING about leaving lots of space when pureeing hot soup (sorry about your backpack Craig); it was very delicious though, and those tortilla things were soooo good.

Entree

For our entree I made Tuscan roast pork with rosemary-shallot jus and potato roesti from Cook's Illustrated, and braised baby pak choi, from me. I did the pak choi in sherry and chicken stock with some honey and New Mexico chile powder; it turned out really well I thought. We got the pork from a wonderful place in New Jersey called Bobolink Farm (http://www.cowsoutside.com/). They sell amazing artisan cheese and breads, and at the right times of year, healthy and humane veal and pork. The pork is a guest-occasion favorite, delicious and most of the work is done before company arrives, but I had never made a potato roesti before--think a really really good hashbrown.

This picture isn't great but you can see how beautiful and crisp the potatoes are!

Dessert

Dessert was Mollie Katzen's upside-down gingerbread with almonds and cherries, and whipped cream, of course. The gingerbread is from Vegetable Heaven and is really really good. She uses fresh and candied ginger, but none of the dried powder. And it's sweetened with honey and molasses, so you can fake like it's all healthy (I know I know--sugar=sugar=honey=sugar--I enjoy the myth).

Sunday, February 3

Superbowl Leftovers

Of course, we had killer leftovers on Sunday. I didn't quite know what to do with those bones, but I was determined not to waste them. Basically I just braised some kale in the leftover jus, and threw all the pork bits on top to heat up that way. We also had soup and Craig bought some bread--he had a hard time finding any (who knew bread was a Superbowl staple??), but ended up at a bakery where they offered him a choice between "Italian" and "Sicilian." Geography lesson over, he came home with Sicilian, which turned out to be a perfect squishy white bread sponge for some olive oil with salt, pepper and fennel seed.

Craig's brother gave us some Jerusalem artichoke tubers (roots? rhizomes?) which we sliced on top of the salads. It being the Superbowl and all, we drank beer--Fuller's ESB and Geary's HSA. And of course, leftover gingerbread while we watched the Patriots become another victim to the Giants' recently energized defensive line--wonder if Brady can even move today...