I actually wrote this post two weeks before Valentine’s Day and then got completely sidetracked with a Basil & Sage event that completely consumed my life for days before the holiday. Then, it took me literally days to recuperate from the multiple challenges I had…
I cannot get into the cauliflower “steaks” thing. I’ve tried and tried and I don’t know about you, but I end up with a crumbled mess. I would cook cauliflower more often if it was easier to work with, but as well as being a…
A million years ago, I worked at this restaurant that did a sort of texmex fusion. It was my first introduction to texmex and fusion. At the impressionable age of too young to care about such things, however old that was, I remember being blown away by a few dishes there and ate them constantly. The restaurant is long gone, but the dishes remain with me decades later.
One was blackened catfish enchiladas. I have yet to even begin to think of how to reinvent that dish, but it’s on my to do list. The stuffed pork tenderloin with with chilies, cheese, slathered in a smoky sauce could make a girl faint. Another was the ancho pie, which I’ve been experimenting with for days. Yes, it’s about twenty or thirty years old, but I’m bringing it back. With a vengeance. It’s actually one of the few ways I like to eat walnuts. And I’m about to get all my friends hooked on this pie.
Don’t be scared of the ancho. It’s just dried ancho/poblano peppers, which aren’t particularly hot to begin with, ground up. I used the extra coffee grinder we have laying around. Don’t skip the grinding step because you don’t want a bbq flavor in your pie by using already ground “chili powder”.
The other weekend, Elizabeth invited us over for dinner to celebrate her eldest’s birthday and the food theme was decidedly Middle Eastern. She requested that I bring the cherry meatballs. Of course it has cherries! You know my cherry fetish well by now. This particular…
Upon perusing the intrawebs, I see that there’s not a lot of recipes for crispy pork belly. After trying my hand at various methods of cooking this cut, I can see why. It seems to be very difficult to get the meat juicy AND crispy…
Yep. It’s Hubs’s birthday. It was actually a few days ago, but everyone came over last night. On the actual day, we had Molly and Kip over (Hub’s sister and brother in law), and they came again last night. They just moved back here and we were excited to introduce them to our friends. I made sous vide london broil the actual birthday night. All fancy.
Last night, though, I made a conglomeration of stuff. Salad dressing chicken, slow roasted pork for some tortillas, beans and rice, macaroni salad, escabeche, greens beans in oven dried tomatoes, and a carrot cake. Lots of goodies to pick at. All easy dishes, but fan favorites. Especially me! Ok, fine. They’re MY favorites. We ate an entire gallon of escabeche and someone snagged the smaller jar off the counter. I’m looking at you Dawn!
Hubs initially requested coq au vin. Pfffttt. I did not want to go to the grocery store. His favorite flavor of cake is chocolate. So I made a carrot cake. I’m starting to see a theme here. Well at least there’s chicken in there! Besides, we’ve been doing a lot of fancy fussy food. It was time for food that makes you lick your fingers.
And who doesn’t like carrot cake? I make my own, thank you very much. Every year that I’ve done a chocolate cake from scratch for his birthday, it’s come out dry. Remember me? Terrible baker? Yeah. He chokes it down every year, bless his heart. This year I wanted to not feel dread. I wanted to hear people enjoying my confection rather than reassuring me that the cake is dry but delicious…..so carrot cake it is!
Last night we had the wild crowd over. Jessie and Joe, Amanda and Matt, Dawn and Rudy, and Molly and Kip. Woohooo!!! I love these people! I can wear my pajamas, everyone is relaxed, no one cares if there’s curse words, and we all love beer and wine. They even let me do paper plates! Pam and Sandy weathered the wild bunch and joined the raucous gathering and we were all so glad they did!
Magic wands DO exist. And we call them Sous Vides. I’ve wielded mine without the glitter shower of a fairy, but I feel no less fairy godmother like with my sous vide wand. Last night I made london broil. Yes, from our cow. I didn’t…
Carne asada is pretty straight forward. And it’s beef, so it’s a quick cook. Because it cooks quickly you want to avoid cuts of beef that don’t lend to quick cooking….like any kind of stew beef. Flank or skirt steak is generally used, but I…
This has to be my favorite comfort food. When I’m feeling down, off center, or just needing to feel wrapped in a warm blanket of food love, I don’t think of chicken soup. I’m an onion soup girl. There’s just something solid about the dish that makes me feel like everything is going to be just fine.
The soup can be made with some variations and I’ve never stuck to one specific way with one specific set of ingredients at any given time. I had some leftover carmelized onions that I had cooked with Sauternes I knew I wanted to use. I had beef stock and bone broth ready to go. And I had Comte….a French swiss style cheese. All that was left was to add some more onions. Easy!
Rather than give a gift over the holidays to clients, I chose to do a dinner for them all instead. We all collectively decided that after the holidays would be best. We could all breathe before diving into the culinary madness of doing multiple plated…