What's cooking?

Grilled wild salmon with a glaze made with rice vinegar, brown sugar and soy sauce. Broccoli sauté finished off with lemon and a little truffle butter, and a sprinkle of almonds.

[Robin Garr]

Comfort food: Cauliflower florets in a rich Mornay hit with a whiff of smoked Spanish paprika over fluffy long grain rice.

[Jenise]

TURKEY!!!

We did not get enough turkey over the holidays and so I bought a 15 pounder the other day to roast as soon as I was feeling better. Today was the day, and it was the best turkey I've ever done BY FAR--it's probably the first turkey that I can say was perfect dark and light, probably because I was relaxed (no holiday) and unhurried with no side dishes or guests to worry about, nothing to do but concentrate on the best turkey possible, a luxury I can't recall having before. only wanted a great bird. We had just sliced turkey on a healthy bed of dressed and nutty winter greens.

To achieve this miracle gobbler, I stuffed the cavity with sage, fresh bay leaf, onion wedges and salt. Rubbed butter and sage under the breast skin. Tied it all down and roasted it breast side up at 375 F for about 30 minutes; reduced the heat to 350 and inverted the bird, roasting it dark meat up until the thigh meat read 160, about an hour and a half. Then I put it breast side up again, basted it, checked the temp (120 F), reduced the heat to 300 F and roasted it another 30 minutes until the thermometer reported 160 F in the thickest part of the breast. Removed it from the oven, tented it while it rested, and carved it 30 minutes later. As I said, every single morsel was perfectly cooked just to the inside edge of doneness; it was incredibly moist and tender. People would quit complaining about turkey if they all turned out like this.

Tied it all down and roasted it breast side up at 375 F for about 30 minutes; reduced the heat to 350 and inverted the bird, roasting it dark meat up until the thigh meat read 160, about an hour and a half. Then I put it breast side up again, basted it, checked the temp (120 F), reduced the heat to 300 F and roasted it another 30 minutes until the thermometer reported 160 F in the thickest part of the breast.

At this point, Jenise was also inverted for 30 minutes until reaching an internal temperature of 99 F. Then returned to upright, adjusted the bacon wrapping, and worked through 100 jumping jacks holding a bag of sage and basil chiffonade...

[Jenise]

So YOU'RE the peeping Tom! Almost got you with my meat pounder, I did.

I've been on a "Jerk" chicken kick and months ago purchased a 12lb container of Walkerswood jerk relish. I canned it into 8-1 pint Mason jars and have developed a recipe of 1 can of beer, a ladel of the jerk and about of cup of Veri Veri Teriaki that I purchased at BJ"s warehouse club, similar to Costco. I marinated boneless chicken thighs for 48 hours and grilled them on my BGE smoker....AWESOME!!! So, so tender, touch of heat and wonderful flavor...I'm doing a big batch tomorrow for the Ravens, Broncos game and will take and post a picture. The Veri Veri Teriaki is top notch on it's own.

Drew

Tonight is a mix of roasted eggplant, red and orange bell peppers, red onion, fresh garlic, evoo, s & p roasted until edges are caramelized . Served with a lemon vinaigrette, over toasted Israeli couscous. Then sprinkled with Israeli Feta chunks, scallions and basil chiffonade.

We found nice looking, thick cut lamb chops at Costco last week. These will be grilled and served with a little mint sauce from Crosse and Blackwell.

Had a little football party tonight in honor of the 49er-Packer game. A couple of friends came over with bratwurst and buns. We added cole slaw, baked beans, and various snack items. Dessert was a chocolate-caramel tart (that my daughter had made earlier for a neighborhood dinner). Drinking included Brandy Manhattans, Picon Fizz's, a Portuguese red, and a Miraflores Syrah. Fun meal. Crappy game.

Mike, What ???? No deep fried cheese curds ????.....what kind of Packer Backer are you.....your tailgate in the Lambeau parking lot would have been lacking

[Jenise]

Had a little football party tonight in honor of the 49er-Packer game. A couple of friends came over with bratwurst and buns. We added cole slaw, baked beans, and various snack items. Dessert was a chocolate-caramel tart (that my daughter had made earlier for a neighborhood dinner). Drinking included Brandy Manhattans, Picon Fizz's, a Portuguese red, and a Miraflores Syrah. Fun meal. Crappy game.

Crappy game? It was fantastic, if you weren't a Packers fan and wondering where your defense was.

Crappy game? It was fantastic, if you weren't a Packers fan and wondering where your defense was.

Exactly.

Last night, we had roasted swordfish with roasted lemons. These are lemon halves that are roasted until they just start to char. They're served alongside the fish for the juice. This worked well, with the roasting taking the acidity out of the lemon juice. Also had roasted banana potatoes and sauteed chard with garlic and balsamic vinegar.

[Jenise]

Swordfish with roasted lemons...sounds heavenly. We get so hungry for good fish up here, but sadly only eat it about once a month. Not much fresh fish available.

Last night I thawed out two tiny steaks of prime filet mignon--each was only about 2.5 ounces. The meat was so rich I figured, small as that was, it would be enough, but by the time dinner rolled around I had thought twice about that and got six shrimp out of the freezer to augment the steak. Normally not a fan of surf and turf, but this was one of those great times when desperation lead to inspiration that lead to revelation--we LOVED the dish. What I did was pan-sear the steaks in butter-olive oil until they were crispy out, rare in, then while they were resting the six shrimp (peeled, deveined, tail on), another scant pat of butter and a two chopped garlic cloves went into the same hot pan with the fat leftover from the steak. By the time the shrimp were done the garlic was crisp, and I spooned the beefy shrimp-garlic-butter over the steaks, which were set on a pile of just-sauteed zucchini. Dear god, was that good.

Not much cooking for me tonight. We just picked up some fresh Dungeness crab cooked this morning. Nice big ones! We'll have a green salad with a Maytag blue cheese vinaigrette, and some warmed sourdough. It does not get much easier or better than this.

Swordfish with roasted lemons...sounds heavenly. We get so hungry for good fish up here, but sadly only eat it about once a month. Not much fresh fish available.

How can that be, you live on the water? Do the markets up there not carry fresh fish? We live three hours inland and have an abundance of fresh fish brought in several times a week, in various locations.
I

[Jenise]

Swordfish with roasted lemons...sounds heavenly. We get so hungry for good fish up here, but sadly only eat it about once a month. Not much fresh fish available.

How can that be, you live on the water? Do the markets up there not carry fresh fish? We live three hours inland and have an abundance of fresh fish brought in several times a week, in various locations.

Moving here, I couldn't have been more surprised. Right now you can walk into every market in this town and have these choices, all the same: previously frozen salmon, farmed tilapia, and true cod. That's it. In Seattle there are a lot more options, but up here, the population isn't large or diverse enough to create enough demand for fresh seafood. Apparently.

That just boggles my mind. It seems to me that folks who live on the coast would be seafood lovers, as well as loving the environment. I did a little search and found about ten seafood restaurants/markets in that area. In our travels, we have been up the OR and WA coast many times and have always enjoyed the seafood, much of it coming right off the boat. We have been into Canada three times, but not sure about your area. Too many trips, I need to refer to my travel diary. Well, at least you are close enough to make a run to the fish when you want it.

We ran into that same phenomenon several years ago in NJ. We would spend a long day birding the salt marshes, and then go to a fish restaurant within 100 yards of the Atlantic Ocean.

Frozen, frozen, frozen, often species that are not caught in the area. What the heck?!?

Furthermore -- often the dish you order was pretty clearly made a week (or more) before, precooked a bit, and stuck in the deepfreeze. Sometimes still cool inside after the microwave or oven or whatever they used.

Restaurant economics can trump common sense and good taste, more often than you'd think.

Obviously there are a few exceptions but you need to do research to find them.

PS this reminds me of the (great) latest episode of "This American Life" -- "Doppelgangers". You wouldn't believe what a lot of "calamari" really is (or more accurately, might be). Hint, it's an important muscle from the wrong end of a hog...

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

PS this reminds me of the (great) latest episode of "This American Life" -- "Doppelgangers". You wouldn't believe what a lot of "calamari" really is (or more accurately, might be). Hint, it's an important muscle from the wrong end of a hog...

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

Hey - no spoilers! I just downloaded the podcast of that episode to listen to on my way to work tomorrow.

(Actually, it's too late for me. Some friends who were over on Saturday night talked about that episode. I guess I can see how it would work although it is pretty gross.)

[Jenise]

That just boggles my mind. It seems to me that folks who live on the coast would be seafood lovers, as well as loving the environment. I did a little search and found about ten seafood restaurants/markets in that area. In our travels, we have been up the OR and WA coast many times and have always enjoyed the seafood, much of it coming right off the boat. We have been into Canada three times, but not sure about your area. Too many trips, I need to refer to my travel diary. Well, at least you are close enough to make a run to the fish when you want it.

You'll see a lot of Anthony's Seafood restaurants, a Washington chain. But go there in winter and you have the same options we get at the grocery store: tilapia and frozen salmon. There IS one fish market in town, but it's usually best to call ahead to see what they've got because more often than not, they don't have anything worth making the trip for. If they had something I'd want, they'd probably have to charge $20+ a pound for it and people in this town won't pay that for food. Which is why whenever we go to Seattle, we always bring home groceries for dinner and it's nearly always fish.

So looking in the fridge and pantry, some salad veg no meat no spuds no onions but eggs and blue cheese.
Okay get down and souffle. Blue cheese souffle with a vaguely caesar salad. Worked out pretty well. Particularly as dearly beloved is not mad about blue cheese but scoffed the lot.

Tonight it is a pasta sauce made with ground turkey, onion, garlic, zucchini and yellow crookneck, tomato paste, fire roasted tomatoes, oregano, basil, Italian red wine, mushrooms, and fresh sweet basil at the end. Served over a winter wheat spaghetti. Roasted asparagus, with romaine lettuce salad drizzled with home made blue cheese dressing. There will be leftovers for tomorrow.

[Robin Garr]

Egyptian-style Ful Medames made with braised limas in place of the usual fava beans. The substitution works. Great with quartered Greek pitas.

Thanks to Robin, I bought a package of chick'n strips anticipating my son's visit this week. Fried them up and then put them aside and made a stir fry with onion, celery, sweet red pepper, carrot, garlic, minced fresh ginger, Lan Chi sauce, etc. When the vegetables got soft, put the chicken back in and stirred in some cooked rice. It was good.

The other veg dish I made was a Portuguese Kale Soup -- more or less following a recipe I found online from Martha Stewart (I'm no fan of Martha but her recipes work). I put in a leek because that's what I do, they are delicious, and I liked thinking of the soup as Leek and Potato soup plus greens. You add the sausages as the last step, so I got it up to there, and added maybe half a tsp of smoked paprika and a dash of liquid smoke to give it that Chorizo flavor. And used the immersion blender and the container that came with it to puree half the soup. Then recombine, and take out half of the soup for Tom (my vegetarian son) and put sausages in the other half, for us. One small peeled chorizo and a few inches of Kielbasa cut into half moons. Also, the greens were half kale and half swiss chard, I really liked the way it tasted. And Tom enjoyed the vegetarian version.