February 2012
24 posts
Mise en Place: Classic Brownies
Mark and Jean came over for dinner last night. Seeing as we are rather house-bound these days, they were a welcome diversion. I grilled pork chops with bourbon smoked pepper, and served them with shitake ginger noodles, a salad and a Susanna Balbo Malbec. For dessert, we had these brownies with the Burnt Orange Ice Cream I made last weekend. I love chocolate and orange together!
The recipe...
Rep. Bob Morris: Girl Scouts have ‘radical... →
I am HORRIFIED that this man has a platform from which to spew his misogynous bullshit.
Mise en Place: Burnt Orange Ice Cream
Lou is usually the ice cream maker in our house, but this recipe I found at lottieanddoof.com intrigued me. I don’t think I let the orange caramel develop quite a dark enough color, because the caramel flavor was somewhat muted, but this has great orange flavor with interesting bitter notes.
Ingredients:
1½ cups Heavy Cream
1½ cups Whole Milk
2 Tbsp Finely Grated Orange Zest (From...
Mise en Place: Sausage Mushroom Onion Pizza
It’s been a while since I made one of my Friday night pizzas!
CRUST
2+ C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp (1/2 envelope) quick-rise dry active yeast
1 tsp salt
3/4 C very warm water (115-120°)
2 T olive oil
TOPPINGS
8 oz Italian sausage, casings removed, browned until no longer pink, fat drained
1 med onion, sliced thin, sautéed in 1 tsp olive oil
1/2 lb mushrooms,...
Not everything is a good idea....
Look What Arrived Today!!
We’re going to foam SOMETHING tonight!
Valentine's Dinner at Home
What is that? A little white truffle, gifted to us at Christmas, shaved over the mushroom risotto…
Valentine’s dinner, served with a wedge salad (with bleu cheese) and a 2008 Loxton Zinfandel.
It’s nice to have a glass of wine again.
Mise en Place: London Broil
We are not dining out (for a variety of reasons), so tonight I am making one of Lou’s favorites. He had offered to order take-out so I wouldn’t have to cook, but I’d rather have a really nice Valentine’s Day dinner. We will have this with a mushroom risotto and a wedge salad with bleu cheese.
1 1/2 lb Top round steak, cut about 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick
1/2 bottle...
The Cream Whipper is on the Way!
My typo was annoying me :-p
profashional:
How else are we going to make half of the desserts in The Family Meal?
mamaresa:
We’re going to foam SOMETHING next weekend!
The Cream Whipper is on the Way!
We’re going to foam SOMETHING next weekend!
Mise en Place: Noodles with Shiitake and Ginger
This was part of out first “Family Meal” a couple of weeks ago. The flavor was good, but it was way too salty. In reading the recipe tonight, I realized that the measurements for 6 that we had used were NOT 3 times the measurements for 2, but 6 times! Still, I am using low sodium soy sauce so that I can bend my fingers when I get up in the morning. I’m also improvising, using...
Thanks to our Darling Daughter...
We have season tickets to Next, and I didn’t have to blow off a scheduled lunch with my 87-year-old mother to do it. Probably the best part of having adult children is enjoying their company over a fabulous meal and a glass (or many) of wine.
…and, no, we’re not paying.
California's Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is... →
nprfreshair:
California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled.
From last year on Fresh Air: Courting Attention: Covering Calif.’s Marriage Trial
At last, some sanity.
Mise en Place: Pasta Cacio e Pepe
We first had this dish at Taverna Cestia in Rome. It is simple, and very quick when made with fresh pasta.
Salt
1 pound dried spaghetti
8 to 10 peppercorns, ground coarsely
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for sprinkling on top
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it aggressively until it tastes like sea water.
Drop in the pasta and...
Mise en Place: Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip...
Someone was whining for cookies, so I made a batch of these.
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C shortening
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 C molasses
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 C rolled oats
1 C raisins or dried cherries
1 C chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375°. Cream first three ingredients together, add eggs and beat until...
Is it Bad...
…that I’ve lost my tolerance for intolerance?
Dinner Last Night: Osso Bucco at Angelo's in...
The Osso Bucco was delicious; the conversation was dominated by someone I would never choose to have dinner with again.
Recommended Reading
You will understand your mother so much better if you read this.
Dinner Last Night: Pasta with Veal Ragù Bolognese
Lou made dinner last night. We had some leftover veal ragù bolognese, so we had a simple dinner of linguini with veal ragu and a caprese salad. The pasta was not homemade, but it was quick and within his repertoire.
Veal Ragù Bolognese
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1/4 cup pancetta or bacon, chopped
1 lb ground...
January 2012
4 posts
“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Sprinkles on the Sugar Cookies
I found this post in my drafts folder, apparently abandoned during the rush of the holidays. It’s amazing how much life has changed in the intervening 6 weeks.
Yesterday was a very good day. I picked Mom up around noon, we stopped to pick up soup and sandwiches for lunch, then came back to the house to bake even more cookies. Lou took the package containing a stollen and some springerle...
Dinner Last Night....
…was supposed to be leftover veal ragù with pasta, but I left the office so late that Him was starving (and covered in cobwebs, to hear him tell it), so it was Italian beef sandwiches and bad fries from Pappy’s. Maybe tonight…
2 tags
Mise en Place: Shrimp and Grits
INGREDIENTS
4 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper
1 cup grits
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 slices center-cut thick-sliced bacon, chopped
4 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 cup thinly sliced scallions
1 large clove garlic, minced
DIRECTIONS
1
Bring stock to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Add grits...
December 2011
9 posts
Vocab Rehab
mentalflossr:
Kummerspeck (German): Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.
Read More: 19 Outstanding Words You Should Be Working Into Conversation
Germans have the best compound words!
“All day the stars watch from long ago
my mother said I am going now
when you...”
– W.S. Merwin | “Rain Light” | The New Yorker | March 3, 2008 (via evoketheforms)
Dinner Last Night
Pan-roasted duck breast, truffled roasted potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes with Gruyere, served with a 2007 Luigi Bosca Malbec.
I resolve...
…to be the no-drama-mama.
Nice weekend
It was busy, starting with getting up early Saturday to roll out the second batch of springerle dough made Friday morning because the first batch looked a little wonky - they didn’t rise very much and they were a little over-baked. But first, I needed some coffee. As I was taking the coffee out of the cabinet, I noticed the fresh can of baking powder, unopened, that I bought because I...
It was a good weekend
Saturday night was dinner with old friends: London broil, gratin of yukon gold and sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus with truffle oil, baby romaine with pears and herbed goat cheese, served with 2008 Twisted Douro. For dessert, there was honey panna cotta with caramelized balsamic strawberries and a Taylor Fladgate 10-year Tawny Port. Over the course of dinner and dessert, we decided that next...
November 2011
9 posts
Happy Thanksgiving, the Food Version
There will be roast turkey with sausage stuffing, smoked jerk turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy. On the side there will be yams and apples, chayote squash stuffed with black rice, quinoa, black beans and butternut squash, corn pudding, roasted cauliflower with truffle, and asparagus, For dessert there will be pumpkin chiffon pie, cheesecake, nut twists, cranberry turtle bars, date pudding...
Dinner Last Night
Grilled Rosemary-brined Pork Chops, Super-skinny Asparagus with Truffle Oil and Sea Salt, Tomato Salad with Basalmic Glaze and Basil
CigarZin Zinfandel
On Parenthood
Giving birth was the easy part. The crying was simple: hungry, wet, tired. Soon that gave way to more meaningful tears: frustration, a bad dream, a lost toy. When speech came, and words could be assigned to the cause of the anguish, the tears were reserved for bigger hurts: injuries requiring stitches (or at least a trip to the emergency room), breaches of friendship, disappointments real...
Dinner Last Night
Braised short ribs with baby gnocchi and a bottle of 2007 Castello D’Albola.
“And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?”
– Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
It Smells Like Fall Today
I could smell the leaves decaying when I walked out of the house this morning. A few leaves still are stubbornly hanging on their trees, but they will soon join their little friends in littering the yard.
October 2011
6 posts
“Don’t worry about a thing
‘cause every little thing is gonna be all...”
– Bob Marley
Tumblr Ate My Post
So, I waxed poetic about my wonderful weekend in Iowa, created and publish, and it swirled off into the ether, including the picture of the wedding cake. I’m starting to feel like my better half :-P
Stupid NOT fixed.
One Stupid Fixed!
While I typically don’t condone violence, it was hard to feel bad about the loss of Moammar Gadhafi. The world is a safer place.
The House Rule has been Invoked
There is a rule that we had when the kids were younger and were facing a disappointment: you are allowed 24 hours to feel sorry for yourself, then it was time to move on. Emily invoked the rule on me last night as I was wallowing in self-pity. It made me laugh; first, because she was right, but also because she remembered it as a good thing. There were times when I thought I sounded...