Ok, so I have to update soooooooooo much! I have done, let's see.... 3 meals since my last entry! oops.....
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009:
Dinner: Pan-Seared Scallops with Fennel Puree (p.260)
Ok, so that weekend was CRAZY!!! It was my cousin's birthday and I helped my Aunt with the meal for that night, so I still had to do a ton of homework on Sunday. One part of that homework comprised of running around my "town" taking pictures of structures for my art class. Thus, I got home late and had to start dinner. So, while the pan-seared scallops took no time at all to cook, the fennel puree was not possible for me to do as it had to strain for 1 1/2 hours... yea not happening at 6:30 at night. So, I simply roasted the fennel, and made some potato fries to go with it. The meal turned out quite good, but I would have liked to try the fennel puree....maybe I'll issue a redo on this one.....
Wednesday Nov. 11, 2009: NO SCHOOL
Dinner: Perfect Roast Chicken (p.127-129 with Sicilian- Style Sauteed Greens ( p.321)
So, I've seen my mom make roast chicken plenty of times, and was king of afraid mine wouldn't stand up to her perfection of it. I admit, I did not like handling that uncooked, whole chicken. Taking the bag of giblets out of the cavity was really gross for me! The heart and liver were falling out of the bag, so I was trying not to look at them while I threw the darn thing away. Yuck! And when I had to clean the chicken, I did not like the feeling of holding it. I don't know, it just felt weird to have all the joints moving and it felt like I was holding a live-chicken minus the feathers....weird.
Anyway, I stuffed the bird with lemon and thyme and rosemary and put butter under the skin... It turned out to be VERY good! moist and delish.
The Sicilian Greens were Swiss chard, which I have never had before. So, I was walking in Stop n' Shop and saw these beautiful multi-colored leaves. It was the Swiss Chard. They all had different color stems: pink, yellow, orange and white. I thought they were just soo pretty! Anyway, that made me reallly excited to make this dish, especially since it had nuts and raisins ( sounds weird, tastes amazing) which I love in savory dishes. This dish was pretty easy to make and was absolutely amazing! If you don't like greens, this dish will convert you... it was that good.The Swiss Chard tasted as good as it looked! It surprisingly had the flavor of beets and was not bitter at all. It worked really great with the pine nuts ( substituted for almonds)and raisins. I was really surprised with the complex flavors and how they all melded together to form a warm, delicate flavor. TRY THIS DISH!
Saturday Nov. 14, 2009:
Bolognese Sauce with Fettuccine (p.383-385)
So, as many of you know (ahem, Katie, Kelsey, Mari) I made dinner to share on this night! I invited a couple of friends over( as aforementioned) to gape in awe at my culinary skills..... Okay, so it was more like they came over to eat good food...same thing... : )
So before my guests arrived, I was supposed to be ingredient shopping, but wound up at the shoe store...don't ask....
Thus, when we finally were able to get the grocery store and get home, it was 2:30. I had told my friends to come over anytime after 3:00. Uh Oh. Rush time!
I did manage to somehow get everything cooking, but my friends did have to wait a while ( the bolognese takes 3 hours to stew). But no matter. We chatted it up pretty well, so time flew!My mom helped me out a lot by making the dessert: a luscious lemon mousse. Thanks Mom! : )
When dinner was finally served we sat down and said grace ( the prayer, not my name). All I could see were the puzzled faces of Kelsey and Katie. Apparently, they don't say grace before meals. Shame on them!! ( I'm just kidding guys). Then we all dug in. If I do say so myself, it was delicious. My friends seemed to think so too...... at least,I think they did...
-Oh, I have to interject here on behalf of Mari. Those saltine, sugar-butter, chocolate cookies things were amazing!--
Anyway, we chatted away after we finished (actually, while we waited for Mari to finish...slowpoke! : )) and then got to eat a yummy dessert. Then, to work off all those calories we had just inhaled, we decided to each try and row on my erg. I don't think that machine has ever or will ever get so much attention and excitement as it did. Katie even managed to do the full 2K! Go Katie! : ) BTW,Katie, you totally have to join crew in the fall!....and Mari, don't judge me! haha
So, after we worked out, we all formed a circle and proceeded to share the latest gossip to hit the school and try and get each other to tell what guy we have a crush on.... it was all very amusing. And very fun.
So, guys, if you're reading this, we have to do this again! The question is, whose house and who's cookin'? Let me know....
Anyway, great food and great laughs!
Until next weekend,
Grace
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Meal #3
Okay, so I broke my promise that I would update right after I made my next meal...Bad Grace! *slaps hand*
Meal #3:Dinner
"Pork Shoulder Braised in Hard Cider" (p. 183)
"Potato and Turnip Grain" (p. 320)
This was a HUGE Success! All I can say is it was supremely delicious. Anyway, the pork recipe calls for a 3 lb. shoulder of pork. I forgot to write down this information on my mom's grocery list, and thus we picked out a 5lb. ( no lie) shoulder of pork. This made searing the pork a little difficult.... To turn the darn thing over required the assistance of my mom, a pair of tongs, and a large sauce spoon... Let's just say we shed a lot of sweat to turn the hunk of meat over in the pot! And, though the recipe calls for "hard cider" we took the cheaper root of plain cider. I was just about to pour all 4 cups of cider that the recipe calls for into the pot with the pork, when my mom read a small note on the side of the recipe. It says that if using regular cider, to reduce the amount by half and replace the other half with chicken stock. It's a good thing she saw that because we might have ended up with uber sveet (super sweet) pork if she hadn't!
So, since we had a 5 lb pork shoulder, it had to cook for a looooooong time.... 6 hours!! All the while the kitchen filled with the tantalizing smell of roasting pork and aromatics. I felt like it was Christmas.. you know, the kitchen filled with beautiful smells... ahh...anyway...
After the pork was cooked, I use the au jux to make the sauce in the recipe. The only problem was that in the book, Martha says I should have 2 cups of pork juice, and to boil it down to one cup. Well, I had about 5 cups of au jux ( again, no lie) ! So, instead of standing near the stove for 2 hours and boiling down 5 cups of au jux, I took the short cut and took out 3 cups of the stuff. I figured I could boil down the remaining 2 cups, but even that took too long and I wound up taking out a cup of it secretly...shh!... But, even though I omitted the reducing part, the sauce still wound up delish.
....Whew! I don't think I've ever written so much about pork in my life....
Well,t he potato and turnip gratin deserves its fair share of words too.
Turnip Observations: Turnips were a relatively new vegetable to me. I had never had one before and thus was a little nervous. I mean, I didn't want to ruin a bunch of perfectly good potatoes with the unknown turnip! The only things I had heard about turnips were negative. For example, in the movie "Howl's Moving Castle" ( I admit it, this is the one anime movie I actually like) Sophie, the main character, meets a moving scarecrow with the head of a turnip. She is kind of freaked out ( as any sensible person would be if they saw a moving scarecrow) and mentions the she never did like turnips, and continues to call him "turnip-head" Thus, the negative appeal.
--- just a side note: I must sound like a total weirdo...anime, moving scarecrows, turnip-head...*sigh*... and how does this correlate to cooking a gratin?
Anyway, back to "Turnip Observations"... So when I peeled the turnip, It looked just like a peeled McIntosh apple! I was tempted to tell my brother I peeled him an apple and watch as he happily bit into the turnip...hah!... that would have been funny...but my integrity won out....not to mention the fact that I needed the turnip for the dish... Anyway, second observation: turnips smell like horseradish. At least, to me it did...
Well, as I am probably boring you to tears as I poetically describe the lovely turnip, I will move on and tell you how the dish turned out.... It was surprisingly very good! The turnips tasted just like potatoes, and even though I boiled the cream and forgot about it and it boiled over...long story.... the dish turned out to be delicioso!
Well, I'm guessing that is probably enough about pork and turnips, so I'll stop here and fill you in on the latest happenings in the Kelly kitchens next week!
Grace
Meal #3:Dinner
"Pork Shoulder Braised in Hard Cider" (p. 183)
"Potato and Turnip Grain" (p. 320)
This was a HUGE Success! All I can say is it was supremely delicious. Anyway, the pork recipe calls for a 3 lb. shoulder of pork. I forgot to write down this information on my mom's grocery list, and thus we picked out a 5lb. ( no lie) shoulder of pork. This made searing the pork a little difficult.... To turn the darn thing over required the assistance of my mom, a pair of tongs, and a large sauce spoon... Let's just say we shed a lot of sweat to turn the hunk of meat over in the pot! And, though the recipe calls for "hard cider" we took the cheaper root of plain cider. I was just about to pour all 4 cups of cider that the recipe calls for into the pot with the pork, when my mom read a small note on the side of the recipe. It says that if using regular cider, to reduce the amount by half and replace the other half with chicken stock. It's a good thing she saw that because we might have ended up with uber sveet (super sweet) pork if she hadn't!
So, since we had a 5 lb pork shoulder, it had to cook for a looooooong time.... 6 hours!! All the while the kitchen filled with the tantalizing smell of roasting pork and aromatics. I felt like it was Christmas.. you know, the kitchen filled with beautiful smells... ahh...anyway...
After the pork was cooked, I use the au jux to make the sauce in the recipe. The only problem was that in the book, Martha says I should have 2 cups of pork juice, and to boil it down to one cup. Well, I had about 5 cups of au jux ( again, no lie) ! So, instead of standing near the stove for 2 hours and boiling down 5 cups of au jux, I took the short cut and took out 3 cups of the stuff. I figured I could boil down the remaining 2 cups, but even that took too long and I wound up taking out a cup of it secretly...shh!... But, even though I omitted the reducing part, the sauce still wound up delish.
....Whew! I don't think I've ever written so much about pork in my life....
Well,t he potato and turnip gratin deserves its fair share of words too.
Turnip Observations: Turnips were a relatively new vegetable to me. I had never had one before and thus was a little nervous. I mean, I didn't want to ruin a bunch of perfectly good potatoes with the unknown turnip! The only things I had heard about turnips were negative. For example, in the movie "Howl's Moving Castle" ( I admit it, this is the one anime movie I actually like) Sophie, the main character, meets a moving scarecrow with the head of a turnip. She is kind of freaked out ( as any sensible person would be if they saw a moving scarecrow) and mentions the she never did like turnips, and continues to call him "turnip-head" Thus, the negative appeal.
--- just a side note: I must sound like a total weirdo...anime, moving scarecrows, turnip-head...*sigh*... and how does this correlate to cooking a gratin?
Anyway, back to "Turnip Observations"... So when I peeled the turnip, It looked just like a peeled McIntosh apple! I was tempted to tell my brother I peeled him an apple and watch as he happily bit into the turnip...hah!... that would have been funny...but my integrity won out....not to mention the fact that I needed the turnip for the dish... Anyway, second observation: turnips smell like horseradish. At least, to me it did...
Well, as I am probably boring you to tears as I poetically describe the lovely turnip, I will move on and tell you how the dish turned out.... It was surprisingly very good! The turnips tasted just like potatoes, and even though I boiled the cream and forgot about it and it boiled over...long story.... the dish turned out to be delicioso!
Well, I'm guessing that is probably enough about pork and turnips, so I'll stop here and fill you in on the latest happenings in the Kelly kitchens next week!
Grace
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