Ramps (spring onions), bacon, Yukon gold potatoes and Fontina (or other cheese) Pizza (idea straight up stolen from George Fromaro and Centro and I told him so too)
So I added spring garlic to...for some reason...and I clearly added to much because it had a strong garlicy flavor. It overruled everything else. It did mellow out after it it was left in the fridge over night, but still. Anyways, my process. I took the bacon, and fried it off, with the remaining bacon fat, I fried off the Yukon gold potato slices (I made to many, but they were good to eat). They were a little to think, the idea was to get a slight crisp outside, but mildly soft potato on the inside. Then after the potatoes had absorbed the majority of the bacon fat, I fried the spring onions and garlic off in the pan, until a bit soft. I put everything together on my simple tomato sauce and on the pizza dough. I think if I reduced the garlic by quite a bit, and pumped up the onion, it would've turned out fine. I used Piave Vecchio (from the cheese shop). But it didn't stand up well to the overwhelming garlic.
Ramp and Sausage Risotto
So I used Calasparra rice, as it was recommended as a possibility for replacement of the Arborio, which, to my surprise, I didn't have in the house. And after checking prices, the pricing per kilogram was similar to the other options pricing per pound. And it turned out great. Well...the risotto did. I didn't have enough ramps (should've bought 2 pounds of ramps and a quarter pound of spring garlic), so that flavor was buried under the Italian sausage, but that being said it still tasted good.
Spring (Green) Garlic and bacon spaghetti
Again, with to much garlic...but not an overwhelming amount more, just enough to call it to much. To make it up for a sauce I used some cream when combining all the ingredients. Other then having a bit to much garlic, it worked... I'd make it again.
Penne with Ricotta and Green Garlic Sauce
I admit, I didn't link to this recipe (google it). But it was a fairly basic combination. But when I saw that it wanted to use a half cup of spring garlic, I cut it down to a 1/4th cup and it was still to much for the amount of pasta being made. Again, it mellowed out with the leftovers, but still.
Frittata with Spring Garlic, Spring Onions and Chevre
This turned out very well, I used the 1/4th cup of left over half and half, A small amount of the spring onions and garlic, about 2 oz of Chevre in the eggs and the other 2 oz on top (after cooked). Then about 8 eggs. I followed the general path of many other Frittatas that I had made previously. And it turned out pretty good and tasted good too.
And just for a change of pace...Bratwurst, with neither garlic nor onions in it.
nom nom nom (easy).
Tuna Noodle Casserole (p18 Cook's Country February / March 2012) (Delivered to Chris and Holly)
Made similarly to what I made for ourselves, but didn't dice the mushrooms down to very tiny pieces (texture of mushrooms is a problem). I made it all up the night before, and then put it together to take over there with other meal pieces. I held their new son, Heath, and tried to keep him as calm as I could, until they had a chance to eat their dinner.
The Rare Affair - Iowa Meats Well Done
This was fun. I got to try many dishes, including several meats that I haven't had before. Everything was very good, but there were a few things that I thought were outstanding. I really enjoyed the Rabbit Stew (Alba and Iowa Rabbit LLC (or De Bruin Brothers)), Swabian Hall Pig with Pollen Spiced whole Porcetta Roasted in a Wood Fired Brick Oven (Centro and Rustik Rooster Farms) and the Toasties (The Cheese Shop of Des Moines and La Quercia). Since it was setup in a place that kind of made people mingle, there were several opinions of things that I found shocking (to much fat on the pig (uh, real pork has fat), eww rabbit (are we tasting the same thing?)). Anyways I really enjoyed it and would go again. Good job to Larry to get this thing going.
Luckily, we got done early enough to make back out to West Des Moines to pick up Shannon's car from the shop. Do you want to guess what the more expensive of the two things were? (the car, buy a factor of more then 10x)