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!

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…

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

Mike made the soup last night and chilled 24 hours before serving.

Ingredients:

He used a few cloves of garlic, a bundle of broccoli,  a full bunch of green onions, cumin, sea salt, olive oil, and a  splash of tomato sauce, or rather a sauce made of strained tomatoes (just right for our tastes we found one called Zia Rosa).

Zia Rosa, a tomato base

How to cook:

This was cooked together in a large stove pot over medium heat, set aside to cool then blended with a hand emulsifier.

The soup was delicious, a great meal for a hot day (and was it!!)  Filling but not to the point where I thought I was going to pop, and it wasn’t the kind of filling that made you feel sick in the heat either…it was just right.

From the Etsy Blog

I was looking around today as I was thinking about creative things that I could do and I saw this blog post on the Etsy.

You can enter your own creations and attend the awards in San Francisco this January.  I though this was an interesting post, and wanted to share the opportunity I found with you.  Good luck!

I think the best part of this is the version of Nutella this is.  It is the nutella that is made in Italy by a company called Ferro, which of course, seems to be quite a bit better than the stuff made in Canada, sorry, but it is.

So the birthday cake I need to make is in September, but there was a slight need to crack this baby open.  It was just sitting there on the table looking at us…saying eat me, this lead to some banana bread baking.  (If you haven’t noticed I am the baker, and Mike is the dinner maker.)

Egg-less Banana Bread

½ teaspoon of salt (sometimes I forget this, its not the worst with out it so if you forget don’t worry!)

Preheat oven to 350

Oil an 8×4 bread dish with a drop or two of canola oil (can use non-stick spay if you would like as well.)

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, mash bananas and mix wet ingredients in a second bowl, then combine and pour into bread dish.

Bake for 1 to 1½ hours or until bread is cooked in center (I use chop sticks to check if the bread is done).

After this is done, I typically wrap in foil and throw it in the fridge.  Before I eat it I slice off pieces and toast at medium in the toaster oven then smother with nutella, then enjoy!

Does anyone have a suggestion for a nutella cake recipe?  Please pass this along!  I am looking for something to serve after an Oktoberfest gathering and to sing happy birthday with.  I look forward to your suggestions.