New Years Eve

Mike challenged me to pick what I would like to eat for dinner for the long weekend around New Years.  I actually had to decide what I wanted and he had to follow the recipe (more or less) to make it.  The only thing that made this kind of easy was I got to pick options out of one of our many cook books.

The first dish was for New Years Eve.  I sadly…and not so sadly filled up on the appetizer so we ate the main course the following day.  The appetizer was more of a “small dish” and was taken out of the cook book The Whole Beast, Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson.

To begin with, this guy is a fantastic cook book writer.  Not your standard way of writing about food, he adds little nuggets of comedy throughout.  Worth the read even if you’re not sure you can make all the recipes.

Mike made the Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad from the starters section, noted that these recipes are Smaller but often Sustaining Dishes, which, we now understand better.

Some months ago our friend and neighbor had passed along a little gift of the saltiest of salts to us, it is divine, but a pinch is more than enough.  Mike used a little more than a pinch and I must say it was SALTY! Good but my suggestion was to use less next time, the mix of this with the capers was a bit more than my palate can typically handle.

These were the bones right out of the oven.  Mike scraped these with an iced tea spoon and some other thin implement to get all the yummy marrow out.   Below is the marrow on long slices of bread before he added the fresh parsley and dressing.

The finial product!

dinner is served

I think we may have been able to use more bread, but it was really good on these long loaf slices.  Mike had additional bread, but being the girly girl that I am I thought I should keep the amount of carbs down.  Don’t be like me, eat the bread.  It is good and filling and it is all you need for dinner!

Polenta, Short Ribs and Brown Sauce

Mike has recently added polenta to his cooking repertoire.  A good, and a rather simple part of any meal, Mike and I were a little late to get into this side dish but we are happy we have.  Polenta is boil ground cornmeal and is a great way to add color to any plate.  With this Mike paired short ribs that were pan fried with green onions and green peppers.

Mike cooks the polenta in water for a long time (yes, this is how he explained it to me).  He adds a drop of olive oil and stirs with a wooden spoon.  He thinks he uses a touch of salt, as he agrees with chefs all over, there is no cooking with out salt.  Just no one likes to admit it, myself included…

Chocolate Ice Cream

My favorite ice cream is the one I make at home.  I know exactly what goes in it and I know that everything is cooked and how it is prepared.

I use the following:

• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 pint light cream
• flavoring as desired (this time I used about 1/3 a lb. of dark chocolate)

I whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until “fluffy”, or buttery looking.

Whisked Eggs and Sugar

While I am doing this I take the pints of cream, pour them into a pot and bring them to a low boil.  I then temper the eggs with the boiled cream, and end up pouring everything back into the pot to cook some more.  If this were vanilla ice cream, I would have cooked the vanilla bean in the cream, but for chocolate, I add the chunks of chocolate to the tempered eggs and cream mix and boil until blended and there is a covering on the back of a wooden spoon.  (The first few times I was not sure what recipes meant by this, but in time you will figure out what you need it to look like.)

Cooling mixture

From there I poured  the mix into a bowl and let it cool so I could put it in the fridge over night.  Then add to ice cream maker and follow instructions.

Best darn ice cream I have ever had.  Never too hard and not soft serve either.

The, “I will never live it down” lasagna

So, it was my turn to make dinner, and this will be the one dinner that I will never be able to live down.  I will hear about this for the REST of my life.  Yes, in a joking manner, but the family guy quote about Lois not getting rusty has been thrown around a lot recently.

Mike went to the market and picked up the famous two pounds, 2 pounds, 2 lbs. of spinach noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, Italian sausage and misc veggies (they were not specifically for my recipe, but I used them anyway.)  I used one yellow and one red pepper, a large onion, a bunch of mushrooms and my homemade tomato sauce as well as a jar of tomato sauce.

So, I open the fridge and pull out all the infredients I need to make the lasagna, except…I pulled out the andouille sausage instead of the Italian sausage and proceed to cut, chop and cook.

I pour some olive oil into the pan, and added minced garlic (about 3 or 4 large cloves) and added the copped white onion.  After the onion was clear, I added the slices of andouille sausage and “browned” it.  This was then scrapped into the stock pot with the homemade tomato sauce I was reheating.  I then added the copped peppers and mushrooms to the frying pan and added a little more olive oil and cooked the veggies down.  This to was added to the stock pot.  In the mean time, I looked over our cook books because I could not remember if I needed to cook fresh noodles or not (I was rusty at cooking!) and everything said to boil the noodles for 2 minuets, so…I did.

Note:

THERE IS NO NEED TO COOK FRESH PASTA NOODLES.  Please learn from my mistake.

Well, long story short…this took a long time to make.  2 year olds don’t like it, and people who dumpster dive do not want to take a piece home.  So I guess that says a lot about this experiment.  Mike took the next 4 days to tell me that I really messed up his week by using his sausage, and we looked at it as an experiment in, to be frank, bad cooking.  It was edible, not bad, just not lasagna as we all love and know.

Thanksgiving

This year was supposed to be a double turkey fiesta with Mike deep frying one whole turkey and smoking the breast of a second turkey.  Unfortunately the weather had different ideas for our first time throwing Thanksgiving at our house.

Mike had spent weeks and weeks preparing mentally and physically for this years thanksgiving.  He ordered his deep fryer, and worked out a way to make sure he could use it in our tiny back yard.  He purchased sand and had a metal safe guard made (seriously our yard is tiny, it is smaller than 10×10).

I was asked to make 2 things, one was ice cream and the other was cornbread.  I found a cornbread recipe on allrecipes.com for a basic corn bread. (http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/basic-corn-muffins/Detail.aspx).  This dish was simple to make, only about 15 minutes or so, not including bake time.  I was able to interest a 2 year old while mixing it and pouring it into the baking pan.  After it was baked we left it covered on our table overnight.  This may have been why Mike was a little disappointed in the recipe as it may have gotten a little stale, but after he added it to the andouille sausage and re-baked it for the stuffing, it tasted fine to me.  (if any of our guests read this, what did you think?!?)

The ice cream was simple enough to make.  It was my standard recipee and I made chocolate and anise.  Most guests had a scoop of each, some just indulged in the birthday cake that was ordered from Terminies,  http://www.termini.com/ We ordered it from the main location in Philadelphia:
1523 South 8th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-334-1816

So back to the meal…

Mike was ever so disappointed since he was not able (thanks to the grand old sky) to make his deep fried turkey.  So he smoked both the breast and the full turkey.  The breast received a 2 day brine while the full turkey was dry rubbed with seasonings.  This was not what Mike would have preferred, but I had suggested it as I thought we would luck out and the brined bird would be juicy.

The table was full of savory goodies for the family to eat.  Turkey x’s 2, fresh green beans in butter, sauteed with almond slivers, garlic smashed potatoes, roasted squash, bread (of course) and the cornbread andouille sausage stuffing.  Mike also made 2 types of fresh cranberry sauce.  One was a sweet sauce with a hint of orange and the other was a spicy sauce made with hot peppers.  Most people tried both (I think) but the first to go was the sweet flavor.

All in all, I think that this was a rather successful first Thanksgiving.  There was not the standard WEEKS of left overs (I say thank goodness) and everyone left full but not gross and ready to burst.  Good company, good wine and good food was just what this holiday calls for.

Away Message

I am so sorry that I have let myself get so far behind on Dinner with Mike.

As per Mikes usual, he has been preparing wonderful dinners and lunches for us to enjoy, but I will need to take a short sabbatical until Thanksgiving.  I look forward to tantalizing your taste buds and Dinner with Mike will be back with new vigor then.

Thanks for stopping by!

Taking Stock, Oil and Vinegar

As I was getting ready to make myself a little lunch I decided that I would take stock in Mike’s oil and vinegar collection.  After all, it is part of every meal in one way or another…dressing, marinades, sauces and so on.  So below is a picture of what the back of our main counter looks like (when we move, one day, we will need a much bigger kitchen!!)

Oil and Vinegar collection, Dinner with Mike

Here is the list of oils and vinegars that we have been able to collect and enjoy so far:

• Estensis Nobilitas, Aceto Balsamico di Modena.  Product of Italy
• Jacuzzi Family Vinyard Cold Extracted Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  From Cline Cellars, CA.
• Jacuzzi Family Vinyard Red Wine Vinegar.  From Cline Cellars, CA.
• Olave Extra Virgin Olive Oil Premium Selection.  First Cold Pressed.  Product of Chile
• Weson Canola Oil (because every kitchen needs some basics).
• Acetaia La Villa White Condiment.  Product of Italy.
• Malt Vinegar (this label had little else to offer for information).
• Drumangin Vinaigre de Remis.  Product of France
• El Majuelo Vinagre De Jerez, Sherry Vinegar.  Product of Spain.
• Dulcagrum Biological Agriculture.  Certified organic Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.
• Trader Joes White Balsamic Vinegar.  From Modena.
• Trader Joes Grape Seed Oil.  Packed in Italy.
• Huilerie Beaujolaise Vinaigre De Framboise.  Product of France.
• Homemade Red Wine Vinegar from Di Bruno Brothers, Philadelphia.
• L’olio Extra Vergine Di Oliva Delle Cinque Generazioni.  Product of Italy.
• CHARM Grande Escoltta Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Product of Portugal.

Mike has a few repeats (I guess that means they are good!)  and I am sure that he has a few other stashed away in the pantry, and as I explore my kitchen I will add a few taking stock posts to let you know what he has on hand.

Many of the imported items had a sticker on them from http://www.forevercheese.com.  You can also find them at http://www.dibrunobros.com and http://www.traderjoes.com