Dinner! 2005

[Daniel]

Welcome Meez.. What a great idea with the butternut squash.. My sister loves CC and I will definately have to make that for her.. Looking forward to your future meals..

[Priscilla]

Ha! Candy corn! Mind-bending and sensible, all at the same time!

Last evening, nice small chicken, butter-salt-pepper, roasted not too fast, basted frequently. Landed on top of crispy bracingly-dressed autumn spring mix. Perfect ciabatta from the Japanese French baker. Inexpensive Cabernet Sauvignon with a chatty label explaining how the winemakers were just regular guys.

[vkn]

Green-gram dal curried sauce with plain boiled rice. There was pomegranate juice, gongura pickle, pappads, and bulls-eye too :-)

[M. Lucia]

Cod-potato fritters served with tahini (I didn't have mayo) and beet salad.

Brown sugar rum sauteed pineapple with mascarpone.

[daniellewiley]

We had Emeril's Pot Roast Bolognese, made with leftover Yankee Pot Roast Redux from Molly Steven's All About Braising book.

It was awesome!!

[I_call_the_duck]

Danielle, that looks great!

Tonight was part ??? of clean out the freezer night (aka Freezer Fun). I marinated a steak and grilled it on top of the stove. Served it with a red-wine reduction, carmelized onions, sauteed spinach with garlic, and a yellow sweet potato.

Still can't see the bottom of my freezer though. I think maybe my husband restocks it when I'm not looking.

[Grub]

Kung Pau Chicken from hzrt8w's excellent pictorial thread. I deviated from the recipe a bit, so it doesn't look as nice as the original, but tasted great.

[Alinka]

Folks ---

What a great thread, very inspiring. After several months of lurking, my first post

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Great choice of thread for the first post! Welcome . What a fun idea to decorate the soup with candy corn. And you made meatloaf and mashed potatoes look fancy!

Speaking of which...

[Daniel]

Last night we had a friend over.. We made chesnut soup with a brandy finish, truffle cornbread madolines, a bitter green salad with a sweet mustard vinegraette,roasted parsnips, stuffed duck with red rice with oysters and andouille sausage..A mac and cheese course, Shortbread cookies and pecan pie for dessert...

Bought the bird from Dartanga.. This thing was just too perfect.. It was like a model duck.. IMO way too lean, but still good..

This was not on the official menu, but these parts didnt go to waste..

After the duck went in,before company arrived, we had some time.. So I made the liver, heart and gizzards...

Here is the liver, lightly coated with flour.. Fried in butter with a port reduction..

Chestnut soup before a cup of cream is added three tablespoons of brandy was added..

Salad:

Arugala, Watercress, added with thin sliced radishes and cucumbers that were soaked in ice... Then composed the salad like a moussakka.. Using the cucumbers as the supporting base.. The dressing was a mustard vinagreatte..

Madolines:

[Daniel]

Roasted Parsnips:

The duck was outrageous.. I made a red rice with oyster liquor, oysters, onion, peppers hot and green, thyme, sausage, tomatoes, chicken stock, and tomato paste.. Used a long grain rice.. Stuffed it into the duck really tightly and baked at 325 for 2 hours..When the internal temp was nearing 180 I blasted the oven to crisp the skin..

Cheese Course:

My southern cheese course.. Was a super sharp cheddar mac.. Served with Taylor Flagate Port..

Cookies..

Short bread with pear and rasberry jelly..

Pecan Pie:

No photos, but left over from this weekend..

Edited December 14, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Chufi]

Those madeleines are perfect..

and thanks for making me laugh out loud.. Only you would think of "macaroni and cheese" as "the cheese course"

[FoodMan]

Sunday I made some homey chilli made with diced not ground beef and based on a Robb Walsh recipe. I served it with cast iron bacon-corn bread and topped it with sour cream, cilantro, onions and cheddar. I ate this for next day's lunch and dinner as well. the corn bread alone is worthy of a meal.

Last night we had

- Butterflied chicken cooked al mattone (under a brick..actually two of them) in my cast iron skillet. It was finished in the oven after it was flipped over.

- Tuscan herb fries. these were delicious and a diffrent take on regular French fries. The recipe is from Steingarten's "The man who ate everything".

- Salsa verde (parsley, anchovies, capers, garlic, olive oil) to serve with everything. Instead of vinegar I used my backyard-grown Meyer lemon juice and segments. It was a nice "twist" on the original recipe. You can see some of it topping the chicken in the picture.

-Dessert: Ruby red TX grapefruit segments sprinkled with vanilla sugar.

[avocado]

^ FoodMan, that bacon cornbread looks AMAZING. Details?

[Megan Blocker]

Love those fries, Elie!

And, Daniel - those jam thumbprints looks mighty yummy, as does that whole meal...great job, everyone!

The whirl of holiday parties and obligations has kept me out of the kitchen for a while now...can't wait to go back in and start posting about my OWN food soon.

[Daniel]

Yup thats a thumb print alright.. My first time making them was last week.. Going to somewhere on Christmas this year, might have to make these cookies one of the things I will bring.. Has anyone seen them in like a red and green jelly.. Like Xmas colors? Maybe add food coloring to an apple jelly for the green? And use a strawberry or Rasberry for the red..

[dockhl]

Yup thats a thumb print alright..    My first time making them was last week.. Going to somewhere on Christmas this year, might have to make these cookies one of the things I will bring..  Has anyone seen them in like a red and green jelly.. Like Xmas colors?  Maybe add food coloring to an apple jelly for the green? And use a strawberry or Rasberry for the red..

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Or maybe a green jalapeno jelly? Yum.

Here is also a link to an Eggnog Thumbprint Cookies recipe. Haven't tried it but it is another approach.........

[Mooshmouse]

Last night's quotable quote from around the dinner table was courtesy of our 4 1/2-year-old son: "Dinner always tastes better when 1-2-3-4-5-6 hands make it instead of just 2!"

It was, indeed, a joint effort in the kitchen with Mom at the stove and Daddy and son stickhandling the mise en place. Noah took care of cracking, whisking and scrambling the egg for the garlic fried rice. He then took it upon himself to take the ends off of all the snow peas and slice the orange bell pepper while Daddy took care of the chicken and the more unwieldy broccoli.

Dinner was a Jade Chicken stirfry with a few extra veggies thrown in for good measure; here it is still in the skillet. No photos of either the accompanying fried rice or the actual plated dinner... we were way too hungry to wait!

[FoodMan]

^ FoodMan, that bacon cornbread looks AMAZING. Details?

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The recipe is from Peter Reinhardt's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice". He soaks the cornmeal in the buttermilk overnight at room temperature and then the batter is made from that (eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder,...). the bacon cooks in the skillet and is then removed and crumbled. Leave some of the bacon fat in the hot skillet and pour in the batter. Top with the crumbled bacon and bake.

[BryanZ]

Daniel, food looks great yet again. How did you do the madolines?

Alinka, perhaps you've been asked this before, but how do your pictures always turn out so high-res. Your lighting seems consistently better than most and your focus sharper. What kind of the camera do you use and on what settings?

[Daniel]

1 1/2 stick of Butter

1 C Buttermilk

1 Egg

1/2 C Sugar

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tbls to a little more Roasted Garlic

1/8 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tbls very chopped Rosemary

1 C plus 2 Tbls of White or Yellow Cornmeal

Take the mixture and fill a madoline mold half way.. Bake for 10-20 minutes at 350..

Edited December 14, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Daniel]

Those madeleines are perfect..

and thanks for making me laugh out loud.. Only you would think of "macaroni and cheese" as "the cheese course" 

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I didnt know how it would work.. But I was really happy with it.. It wasnt like a huge bowl, just like 5 or 6 bites..

[handmc]

Daniel: The cookies look great and I sure would be appreciated, but If you brought that duck....they would probably invite you every year! I know I would! Man that looks great. Everything that is.

Its also nice to see upthread that Meatloaf is finally getting the respect it deserves. When it is done right it is a thing of beauty.

[Dana]

The cookies do look great. Last year I made an Ina Garten recipe for jam thumbprints. The instructions say to roll them in coconut befor baking. THe coconut got all toasy, and they were delicious. I have to say they were the prettiest cookies ever.

[M. Lucia]

Elie, that cornbread technique sounds interesting (the soaking), I will have to try it.

Mooshmouse, thank you for a peak into your dinner making process, sounds like you have a good little cook in the making!

Dinner here was creamy polenta topped with a ragout of spinach, kale, and puy lentils.

Dessert will be Cranberry Eggnog Tart, this is fabulous, I've already had some afternoon nibbles!

[Meez]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. The candy corns are kind of fun. Red hots work nicely too.

Racheld, they stay afloat because the soup is kind of thick and I took the picture fast. They do melt a little and then sink into the soup.

Alinka, great fancy meatloaf; what is in the potatoes?

Daniel, that fois gras looks way cool.

Actually, all the pictures are amazing.

Tonight was:

Chicken piccata with pepper penne and asparagus

I am now officially addicted to this forum.