So for game night last night I bought quite a number of cheese, including Huntsman. Now we had Huntsman at our wedding and I remember it being very good. This was truly fantastic of a cheese. Such a nice combination of flavors between the two cheeses in it and the Roasted Garlic crackers...fantastic.
Also we went through the vast majority of a round of Elk Sausage called "Ring of Fire". While it was spicy, it wasn't smoking hot. I bought it from the "elk guy" (Deo Gloria Elk Products, I think) at the downtown farmers market. I bought some other ones, we didn't end up opening them though.
I made some Chocolate Chunk and Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies that I was finally satisfied with the way they look. I think have have to adjust the chocolate level down a bit, or take a bit more time and cut them into smaller chunks. But I think I have the right ratios, finally, I'll make 'em again for thanksgiving.
Shannon and I went to see Anthony Bourdain at the Civic Center. He started off by telling several stories and then went into a Q&A section. I think we both really enjoyed it. He seemed to have good things to say about Bistro Montage and about Reichert's Dairy's Robiola. When I emailed Lois, she stated back "I brought some special, aged a bit longer, robiola in specifically for him". So that's pretty cool to have a sort of connection, even if it's a few times removed.
Last night, We had a light attendance at game night (me, Shannon, Will, Jen and Jen's friend from Kentucky, who's name escapes me), but it was still fun. We played Sorry (I won), Simpson's Clue (Shannon won), Killer Bunnies (that was a strange and confusing game, Jen won), and then Scene It (original, Will and I won, even though by the end, I was falling in and out of sleep).
Panko-Crusted Chicken with Mustard-Maple Pan Sauce (p54 Bon Appétit October 2009)
So because the chicken in here was bought in a 3 pack, and I only needed two, I used one of the others, pounded it out, breaded it with whole wheat flour mixed with the Emeril's Spice mixture from the Black Bean cakes. I ended up putting them and making sandwiches. This was pretty good.
The dish itself actually turned out fantastic, even though I had to improvise a bit with the pan sauce (I ran out of Dijon mustard). Quite easy too. Though, because the recipie told me so, I did buy Panko bread crumbs, which broke my new rule about...well not buying bread crumbs because it's such a waste of money.
Cannellini Beans with Garlic and Sage (p101 Bon Appétit October 2009)
Wow...just wow. The combination of the all this stuff, cooked...the beans, the water, and etc just made for a fantastic flavor profile. It was really a shame that we couldn't wait for this to get done (it took a really long time).
Sausages with White Beans in Tomato Sauce(p101 Bon Appétit October 2009)
So the combination of the beans before, made this meal easy (by easy, I guess that excludes the 3 or so hours it took to make the beans from before), but I really liked this, such a built of flavor profile.
Ultra-Juicy, Skillet Grassfed Goat-burgers
The spice mixture used for this, onion, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, cumin, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, I think over powered the goat flavor, but was still quite good. I think it would be good with something mild like ground turkey.