I forgot to mention...My new garlic press, the Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press, I love love love it. Compared to the Oxo one that I used to have, this is a huge improvement.
Bison Dogs
These were pretty good. Not outstanding, but certainly better then joe-cheap hot dogs. We ended up having them twice, because one night, Shannon had her hair appointment, which led for either a early dinner or a very late one. I wouldn't be opposed to trying other varieties with differing spice mixtures.
Tuna Noodle Casserole with Leeks and Fresh Dill (p77 Bon Appétit March 2010)
This was very good. I really liked the taste of the dill in it. It made very a very fresh and cheesy combination.
Spice-Rubbed Steak with White Beans and Cherry Tomatoes (p48 Bon Appétit March 2010)
The steak here, with the spice rub, was absolutely fantastic. It cooked up well, though I altered the time a bit, since it was a bit thinner then the recipe asked for. The combination made for a hearty dinner. The next day I ended up having some of the the leftover steak on a sandwich with some Colman's Mustard...oh it was fantastic.
Chicken Parmesan Burgers (p48 Bon Appétit March 2010)
While these were not picture perfect and a bit messy, it was quite tasty. Certainly an nice change on a common formula. It was nice. I served them with some fries.
Pork and Poblano Tamale Pie (p76 Bon Appétit March 2010)
If I would have fully read this recipe, I would've realized that it was going to take 3 hours to make, but because I didn't, so we ended up eating on Friday at around 9 or 9:30...so a bit late. It made for a good dinner once it was done, but being as late as it was... Over all it was quite good and I used some of the roasted peppers that I had bought at the farmer's market and frozen.
Because I had pretty much not eaten all day (had some coffee and toffee samples), I wasn't ever hungry, when I sat down and had a beer while the pie was finishing cooking, it hit my like a brick. Being my first taste of Madhouse Brewery's wheat beer, which I described on my twitter as "Tiny bubbles, smooth, wheaty and fruity notes." Madhouse Brewery is a related company to Jasper Winery (producer of my favorite Iowa Wine, Chancellor) (both run by Mason Groben) and my favorite restaurant in the metro, Proof (run by Carly Groben).
There were a couple of problems with this recipe, at least that I had. The thermometer had at setting for caramel at 320°F and the recipe stated "When the temperature approaches 350 degrees F". Which is not very specific. I got to 342°F and decided that was quite enough, because I started to smell a little bit of that awful burnt sugar smell. The other problem I had, was that it called to pour out the hot mixture on to wax paper. The caramel, once cooled, clearly had developed a special bond with the wax paper. So when I was cutting up the caramel, I had to cut it out of the wax paper, so I ended up having to basically toss about 1/3rd of the caramel because of that. Just a bit frustrating.
The caramels went over very well at game night. They were rich, sweet, bitter and salty, so it made for a wonderful combination.
I also felt like making something else, so Saturday before the party, I ended up making Chewy Brownies (p23 March and April 2010 Cook's Illustrated). I think the addition of the instant instant espresso powder (just a tiny bit) actually added something quite special to the taste. While they use a similar method to Nuclear Brownies to make them, they use less chocolate and more flower, so it creates more of a crispy crumbly top with the chewy gooey inside, as opposed to my normal ones, which has a firm pan crust and is melty gooey on the inside. Very nice though. These were also very good and went over well, though there was a debate over which type was better. I suppose it would be nice to have a side by side comparison, but that would be a silly amount of chocolate.
So in the past week I dropped my workhorse chefs knife on the floor. Not normally a big deal, but with that I also dropped silverware with it, so a chip came out. So I went down to my favorite kitchen store. I replaced my knife, garlic press, which was falling apart, and got a candy thermometer. I saw a recent a Good Eats episode where they were talking about caramel, so here I enter the candy fray.
Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Fennel (p15 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010)
Any chance I can get to use Graziano sausage is a good thing. This was quick and easy to make. I love the smell of fennel.
Bison and Red Wine Shepherd's Pie (p71 Bon Appétit February 2010)
This took a long long long time to make. I spend around 4 hours on Sunday making the innards to the pie, and then spent the time before dinner and movie night on Monday making the potato topping. I did have a little problem with this, because the recipe called for short ribs, and because I couldn't find bison short ribs, I ended up using 3 pounds of ground bison. So I filled up the 9x13 pan, and then a pie tin, but the pie tin was a bit too full and had some liquid overflow on to the bottom of the oven.
Needless to say, after we cleared off the smoke it still turned out pretty well. Holy leftovers...
Pasta and Ground Lamb Casserole (Pastitsio) (p21 Entertaining Spring 2010)
We had this for dinner on St. Patrick's Day. It turned out pretty well, but because I didn't have the béchamel hot enough to come together for the longest time. So by the time I realized this, it was getting pretty late (was prepping something else).
Creamy Parmesan Polenta (p19 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010) with Sauteed Cheery Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Topping (p19 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010)
The polenta turned out pretty well and the tomato and mozzarella topping made for a good topping.
Bacon, potato, and cheddar frittata (p27 Entertaining Spring 2010)
Lot of prep, but it turned out great. I used some of the Vande Rose Farms Bacon (oh so good) and the rest went like normal. I turned out pretty well. Cut up nice and got out cleanly from the pan, even though I didn't have a 12 inch non-stick pan, like the recipe called for.
Spicy Mexican Shredded Pork Tostadas (p9 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010)
For this I ended up using 1/2 a Pork Shoulder from the freezer for this.
This was good, time consuming, but simple to make. and it gave me an idea. Since start by boiling the pork shoulder with onions, thyme, garlic and salt and then frying it in a pan, it seems to me that it could be something that you could use for chili. That method means you'll get a more flavorful portion of the pork (rather then just generic ground pork).
This turned out great, the simple method to fry tortillas to the meat it was just tasty and flavorful. Who would've thought boiled meat could taste so good?
Pan Seared Chicken Breasts with Lemon and Chive Pan Sauce (p7 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010)
I did make the sauce, which was good, but I didn't make the chicken how they told me too. Why? too time consuming. I can pound out the chicken just a little and then not have to worry about oven time, or cooking for 30 minutes or so in the oven. While that would leave me with nice un-flattened chicken breast, it's not really worth the time, generally. The pan sauce on the chicken was good though.
Ham, Artichoke, and Potato Gratin (p73 Bon Appétit February 2010)
Recipe calls for frozen artichoke hearts, several stores do not have frozen artichoke harts, so I try to use artichokes. I trimmed them down, after looking on the internet and came up with... Lets just put it this way, I cooked with whatever I used (heart or not, I'm still not certain) didn't turn out very well. So before I took the leftovers in the fridge, I picked out the layer of artichoke parts (they were just too tough). They still have the flavor of artichokes but no more artichokes in that. Besides that, I got to successfully use my mandolin to make nice even slices of potatoes for this. So I have this comment to say about it, even though this slicer works great, and I thank my in-laws for giving to me for Christmas (that was awesome), it seems to me that the package of trying to keep everything in the slicer, makes for a bad design over all. Since unless I take parts out, they'll end up getting dirty and I'll have to wash everything anyways...
Bison and Red Wine Shepherd's Pie (p71 Bon Appétit February 2010)
This got delayed. I was going to make this for a movie night, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we delayed it until Monday. So this will end up on next weeks menu.
On the other side, I ended up using 1 pound ground lamb from the freezer, to make lamb burgers instead. I used some raw cows milk blue cheese from Oregon (if I remember right).
Cheddar, Bacon, and Fresh Chive Biscuits Ham Sandwiches (p44 Bon Appétit February 2010)
Simple, relatively quick to make and so so tasty. But it has cheddar and bacon, so how can it be bad? We put ham, Dijon and arugula on them and they were very good. Shannon suggested that I should use some of the leftovers to make egg sandwiches (I'm assuming for brunch today), and I couldn't agree more.
Since I often forget what I have in my freezer, from time to time I do an audit, just to make sure what is back there.
On to the menu for the next week...
Chicken Sloppy Joe's
Started off a bit too running when everything was cooked up, but the beauty of having to much liquid? Just cook it longer. Ended up just about right. Splash of spices, some diced tomatoes some tomato paste and a pound of chicken. Why on earth would I want to buy sloppy joe in a can with all the extra ingredients they might give me?
Duck Risotto (made with my own duck stock)
The only complaint I got was that there was perhaps too much finishing salt. But this turned out great. It was onion, rice and some leftover diced duck and the duck stock. I do think that since the stock was a bit more salty then the normal low-sodium broth that I would use, I probably shouldn't have added as much salt. I thought it was a bit too salty (though I a much more salt sensitive now, then I used to be). So in going back to the stock, I'll probably not add as much salt when making my next batch of stock. But even with that, it was amazingly good.
I used most of the duck stock, though I still have 3-4 cups left to put into something. Which is still pretty amazing. considering that I had started out with two of my biggest containers full of stock and reduced it down to less then half... I had a lot of fun doing it, and look forward to making more in the future.
Pulled-Pork Macaroni and Cheese with Caramelized Onions and Four Cheeses (p8 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)
So instead of following the recipe and and buying a smoked pork shoulder I headed down to Uncle Wendell's and picked up a couple of pounds of pulled pork. Other then that, it went pretty well, I probably wasn't as patient with the sauce as I should've been, but I liked it and Shannon did too.
leftovers
Since I often make recipes for many (example I had near 2 gallons of chili made) and we are just a few, I usually eat leftovers for lunch (and Shannon does this from time to time as well), but we were so far behind, that we had to take a chance to catch up again.
Red Bean and Sausage Cakes with Poached Eggs and Cilantro Salsa (p47 Bon Appétit February 2010)
Often times when I make things with vegetables and try to put them into patties or cakes, it just doesn't turn out well. However, this worked well. I didn't use breakfast sausage, but the Graziano spicy sausage. The fresh cilantro that I bought didn't look very good by Thursday, so I used some diced tomatoes, the green sauce and some (gasp) dried cilantro that I had leftover from something that actually asked for it, and made it that way. It turned out well.
This was also my first attempts at making poached eggs The first couple didn't turn out well, but the last two, started to get better. I've heard that adding vinegar to the almost boiling water works well too, but I did not do that. It does make me want to try more. One of my favorite things in the world are eggs benedict...so...it'd be nice to be able to make them.
Chicken Paillards with Avocado and Pomegranate Salsa (p51 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)
The avocados that I bought seemed ok in the store, but by the time that I got to use them...I wasn't thrilled, but it was ok. Also, the pomegranate, which according to my the app I have, goes out of season in early January...so it makes me wonder why a magazine, which says that it's for February/March, that I didn't get until late January at the earlier would tell me to try to find them? Anyways, I wasn't going to buy the pomegranate molasses anyways, because, well, I couldn't see myself using that again. So with that I called an audible, added some diced tomatoes to the sweet salsa and made it more of a guacamole then anything else and then sort of made it into a taco salad. It ended up working well.
Penne alla Puttanesca (p67 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)
This was part of their articles about cooking for your vegetarian and not vegetarian friends, but since it was just for us, and I didn't feel like buying shrimp, I stuck with the vegetarian recipe, but added anchovy paste to give it some of that savory characteristics that it imparts so well on items. It was simple and turned out pretty well.
Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette (p47 Fine Cooking February/March 2010)
So I opened up the avocados, and instead of that lovely green color, it was a mixture of green and brown on the inside, and I just couldn't bring myself to use this. So I used the last of the Quinoa that I had in the house, and made this as it was. I figured since I had basically a whole protein (quinoa), and then the fruit and other additions, would make for a decent meal, even if it wasn't meat based. So it was simplified a bit, problem was that Shannon was a big fan of the raisins, so not a complete success there, but it kept me full until breakfast, which is a good thing.
Roast Duck with root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, parsnips...perhaps others) (movie night)
Vaguely looked at a few recipes around the internets, but ended up kind of vaguely riffing on my on. I used a combination of olive oil, honey and rosemary and the duck and the root veggies, and I stuffed the insides of the duck with a couple of cuties. I think I used too much honey, because I wanted just a lightly sweet taste on both the duck and the vegetables. It still looked good though and I've enjoyed the root veggies for lunch. I was unsatisfied with myself because by the time I got the duck meat cut off the carcass, the duck had cooled quite a bit...so.. Maybe this is something I need more practice on...like on something inexpensive, like chicken, rather then duck.
On the other side of that, I made my first stock... I used the duck neck (it was inside the cavity with the liver and other gizzards) and the carcass along with carrots, celery and onions (Mirepoix) and let it go near a simmer for 3 hours or so (finished at 11:15 or so on Thursday). After putting in two of my bigger tupperware containers and letting it refrigerate for a couple of days, I broke it out again yesterday (Saturday) and, as I stated, it did need salt. After adding salt, pepper and reducing it by more then half, I'm left with this rich, delicious stock. So that, with the bit of leftover duck, I'll be making a duck risotto.
Are whole chickens and chicken stock in my future? I'm thinking so.
Pork Chili
I used pork this time and started with dried beans, which I soaked over night. I took extensive notes, though I may have messed up the order. I started with bacon, went to the onions and then went with the pork...so I ended up with not much of a pork flavor in the slightest. Because I was also making a bigger pot then I thought, I ended up not using enough spices to get the kick that I wanted. Which was contrary to what I was thinking, because I was worried that it would be too spicy for Shannon. So while the chili is good, it is not the flavor profile that I want. But I did take notes and will adjust next time around. I have lots of left overs, considering I made near 2 gallons of chili.