2011 - Week 7 Cooking Results
For Valentines Day, we went to La Mie for dinner. This is the first time since they started serving dinner again that we made it back there. The shared menu was: Clams and Braciole; Gnocchi with winter squash and vegetables; Adriatic Lemon Cod; Rack of Lamb; Orange and Fennel. Then we shared a Hazelnut and Chocolate Meringue Cake. The dinner as a whole was very good, but the cake? It was just amazing.
This past week instead of my normal trip to Hy-Vee I went to Dahls instead. There are some things at the Inergersol Dahls store that were nice. I liked the way that their fresh produce section was laid out, but there selection of some of the items I liked to buy (vinegar, for example), they were severely lacking. Though they did have Iowa raised bison, which, for this week, made a big difference. I'll probably be back to Hy-Vee tomorrow, but over all it wasn't a bad experience (except for not knowing where things were).
Leftover Tacos
That really was a good meal and good the 2nd time around too. (Sunday, 02/13/2011)
Blue Cheese and Bacon Meatloaf (p62 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)
Fine cooking often does these formula recipe where it gives you examples of rations, what you can put in it and how to do it. These are interesting. We had this for dinner on Friday. it was pretty good. The bison didn't dry out (I'm sure that being covered in bacon didn't hurt). So you'd get a mouthful of bison with flavors of bacon and blue cheese. The funniest thing I thought about was the fact that I couldn't wait to have meatloaf sandwiches. Making of the meat life, fine fine, ok when do these count as leftovers? (Friday, 02/18/2011)
Classic Tomato Soup (p21 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
There is something magical with the combination of grilled cheese and tomato soup. This was a good simple recipie for tomato soup. The issue I had the first time I tried to make it, was that I had thought that I had enough diced tomatoes, but I clearly did not. So I stopped by the Dahl's near my house to get them and was able to make it on Thursday, instead of Wednesday. It did take a while longer then one might think to make, but it made for a good dinner (the combination of the two, by itself, it'd make a decent appetizer). The hint here on blending a soup, is to first, use a dish towel on the top of the blender. If your blender happens to explode. Second, do not over fill the blender, I've found the best point is right around the halfway point. If you do, you have a greater likely hood of releasing steam and pushing the lid off the blender. Third, and I think most importantly, start with pulses before liquefying. I pulse the blender several times to release some of the steam, before blending full time. (Thursday, 02/17/2011)
Italian-Style Chicken Soup (RC February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
This was pretty simple and good. I really enjoyed how it worked. The pouring of the mixed egg into the simmering liquid to make the strings of egg through the liquid. Tasty and simple. (Wednesday, 02/16/2011)
Steak and Blue Cheese Panini (RC February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
While this didn't really end up being a panini, since I didn't actulaly squish it. I used some of the ciabatta buns that I like so much, and then cooked the steak and made the dressing on top of it. I toasted the buns and made a good sandwich. Very enjoyable, I halved the recipie and had enough to make 3 sandwiches (I had the other one as a snack). I served them with baked fries. (Tuesday, 02/15/2011)
Pastitsio (p23 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
Delayed until the next week.