What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Last night, I took the chanterelles we picked up in Portland and cooked them up in risotto. It was pretty simple - just the mushrooms, some onion, garlic, and corn. It came out nicely and was a treat that we probably won't get again until we go back to Oregon.

I have a baking sheet fillet with sweet onions, red bell pepper, Asian eggplant, and tomatoes prepped for roasting until brown around the edges and very sweet. This will go over plump barley cooked in chicken broth, bay leaves and salt. I am using the last package of two chicken legs with thighs attached, of the wonderful grilled chicken our caterer did for our anniversary party in June. Easy dinner for a busy day. Not really sure what "plump barley" is. I get it at our local flour mill, he has it labeled "plump soup barley" It is much bigger than normal barley, and we love it. Very tasty!

Jam ! Just processed 8# seedless black grapes into a jam seasoned with rosemary and Sherry vinegar. The other 8# will be cold packed whole in grape juice for tarts. This method allows the fruit to remain firm and succulent, looking spectacular when glazed with their juice reduced to a syrup.
Needless to say up beyond midnight to get the job done but well worth it.

[Jenise]

I started my first ever batch of olives last night. Ten pounds! Will chronicle my efforts in a new thread.

Dinner last night, after a lot of rich food recently, was a badly needed meal of perfect, heavenly simplicity. Started with the last local tomatoes, quartered and salted--a shared finger-salad plate, and followed that with sautéed Big Zucchini with garlic and onions served atop an olive-oil flavored couscous. No meat.

We had houseguests for three days. Good friends from MA. She was born in Italy and is a total foodie. They brought us homemade (her mother made them) almond biscotti and some locally made Italian sausage (someone makes them in his impeccable garage). They were amazing. The first night I used them to make my sausage, red-pepper, white wine pasta (Rao's Fuscilli, of course. Then last night I braised four huge lamb shanks and served them and their sauce (onions, shallots, garlic, white wine and stock) over fennel, shitake bread pudding (to die for) and roasted brussels sprouts and carrots. My friend and I made an apple pie together using apples from a local orchard. It was the perfect Autumn meal.
Of course on the day of their lunchtime arrival I made Fred's Roasted Poblano/Corn Chowder and it was a hit (as I had posted on his thread).

Carrie, tonight I'm making Shepherds Pie, and it's your fault. The pix of yours reminded me that I haven't made one in about 5 or 6 years, and tonight's the night. However, since it's all "dinner & a movie night" here at Chez J, and the movie is Les Miz, my pie's going Frenchy with beef, herbs d' Provence, and the mashed potato topping will be topped with white truffle oil.

How was it?? I think it'd be great with a French spin on it. Did you used hericot vert as the veggie layer?
Also how was the movie? When Len was out of town, I watched the first ten minutes of it and decided it wasn't for me.

[Jenise]

How was it?? I think it'd be great with a French spin on it. Did you used hericot vert as the veggie layer?
Also how was the movie? When Len was out of town, I watched the first ten minutes of it and decided it wasn't for me.

I've done better. That is, the concept was perfect but the problem was an inattentive cook. It initially went off the rails when I discovered I didn't have any baking potatoes, so used some small waxier roasting potatoes which I thought I'd flesh out with some instant mashed potatoes. I don't use instant in mashed, but sometimes use it as a thickener. Well first of all I was upstairs when the potatoes finished cooking and had Bob take them off the fire--and then forgot all about them. They had cooled off when I finally got around to whipping them, and they turned to glue. Now I know this is what happens when you let potatoes cool, but that part of my head wasn't in charge that day. And then it turned out I didn't have any instant mashed anyway, so the corn I was going to use for the vegetable (meant to use peas, which I always have in the freezer but turned out to be out of them too, so defaulted to the two fresh ears I had) in the meat filling instead went into the potatoes as a textural distraction. That worked to the extent it could, but it really couldn't save the dish. I knew both what it was and what it should be, and couldn't be happy. The two extra servings I'd deliberately planned as leftovers went in the trash.

[Jenise]

Btw, Carrie, you asked about the movie. We loved it! But then, I've long loved the story. Read the book when I was 19. It shook my world by setting a new standard for Christian charity not bested by anything else to this day, and made me realize how small and unchristian what I'd been learning at church had been. I've seen the musical three times, so this movie was just yet another version of a story I never tire of. And some of the performances were absolutely amazing.

Tonight we share a Cornish Game Hen, and a large hasselback potato, with butter, fresh rosemary, garlic, cooked until very crispy on the outside and creamy inside. A red bell pepper half stuffed with home made basil pesto with, lemon, and pecan nut as a fist layer, then Sungold tomatoes, some sort of almost black tomato, with garlic slivers, a bit of evoo. Finished off with sea salt flakes, and a hint of balsamic. The stuffed pepper is cooked for one hour and turns out sweet and a bit caramelized.

Dinner was decadent crab cakes with jumbo lump crab and just a bit of herbs. Alongside was slow baked sweet potatoes, various sauteed greens, and sauteed corn. Delightful. It was all a wonderful match with 2011 Gilbert Picq Chablis Vaucoupin.

[Robin Garr]

I didn't take a picture, but I threw together a really comforting autumn dinner of diced potatoes and broccoli tossed with caramelized onions and garlic, loaded up with a creamy Mornay, topped with a little more Mornay and some grated Parmigiano, baked until bubbly then browned until golden. Must have looked good. We ate it and then I thought, "D'oh, I should have taken a picture of that!"

Last night we had wonderful King Crab legs (a gift) with "Tuscan" green beans (Bugialli) -- cooked rather long with red onion slices and then chives.

Tonight we had home made chicken soup, from a costco rotisserie bird, with potato, parsnip, and celeriac, plus the usual onion, carrot and celery.

And I am doing the Julia Child "marinade seche" for a pork loin roast for tomorrow night. We have symphony tickets at NJPAC -- the concert is at 3 PM and we will be taking our friend and then feeding him supper. I think we will probably roast the pork loin tomorrow morning so we can simply reheat. Louise bought figs, prosciutto and gorgonzola, so there is the appetizer course. And we have leftover Tuscan green beans -- plus red peppers and newly bought green beans if we want a variation.

The marinade seche involves a lot of salt and pepper plus ground bay leaves, ground fresh thyme, powdered allspice, and minced garlic. You rub the loin roast and leave it overnight. I really like the salty savory taste of the roasted pork, it has always been one of my favorite Julia Child recipes. Louise lobbied for the Arista roast (lots of garlic slivered and stuck into slits in the surface of the roast -- and then rosemary sprigs tied to the outside -- we have the Mother of All Rosemary plants) but I really like the salty marinade seche even better.

Had some friends over last night for a basic meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, and quinoa (or "kween-oh", as the guy says on the beer commercial) with roasted butternut squash. (Our friends contributed the quinoa.) I did the meatloaf differently from my standby method. Instead of using 2/3 ground beef and 1/3 Italian sausage, I used 2/3 beef and 1/3 ground pork. I added a couple of pretty good handfuls of chopped, rehydrated dried porcinis, worcestershire, garlic, onion, and topped it with bacon slices. I was hoping for a good dose of porcini flavor, but it didn't really work. The meatloaf was fine, but a bit on the bland side. Everything else was delicious, though, and we finished with my wife's chocolate cake and some ice cream.

We are doing a Burgundy marinated pot roast, with fresh tarragon and spices, surrounded by leeks, sweet onions, and garden carrots, and a little beef broth. On the side is fresh green beans with mushrooms, crispy shallots, baked in a creamy sauce. Since I am loaded up with tomatoes and cukes, I am putting out a plate of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with coarse salt. Any leftovers from this cuke/tomato plate will be my breakfast in the morning!

[Jenise]

We didn't eat at home last night, but tonight we're hoping for fresh Dungeness. We put our traps out, but the commercial guys are all over the water right now and they can each haul 1000 a day (compared to our 5 each), so last week we only got two and will be pretty happy if we do that well today. Have to have something standing by just in case we don't!

We didn't eat at home last night, but tonight we're hoping for fresh Dungeness. We put our traps out, but the commercials are all over right now and they can each haul 1000 a day (to our 5 each), so last week we only got two and will be pretty happy if we do that well today. Have to have something standing by just in case we don't!

The Dungeness are here too...they come in overnight from the coast, and are dumped in the huge cooker by 5:30 am. Can't wait for our first crab feed.

Some months ago I'd made an apple pie and had leftover apples, filling, and dough. I cored the leftover apples, stuffed them with leftover filling, and baked them with leftover dough on top. Kinda "Apple Pie Baked Apples". They're cute as individual desserts. I often make them now rather than pie. These were from the other night:







(This was the first time I tried colored sugar instead of white. I'm sticking with white in the future.)

BTW, the corgi figurine is mandatory.

[Robin Garr]

Some months ago I'd made an apple pie and had leftover apples, filling, and dough. I cored the leftover apples, stuffed them with leftover filling, and baked them with leftover dough on top. Kinda "Apple Pie Baked Apples". They're cute as individual desserts. I often make them now rather than pie. These were from the other night:

Nice! Including the corgi.

"Apple Pie Baked Apples"

I like that! How long do you bake them?

Nice! Including the corgi.

Which is lifesize, btw.

"Apple Pie Baked Apples"

I like that! How long do you bake them?

Thanks!

Cooking times vary a bit by apple variety...but not so much that I don't generally follow this rule of thumb: when the crust is done, the apple is done. So I generally cook this as long as I would a standard apple pie with a crust this thick. In this case, I had them in a 375 oven for about 40/45 minutes. Then I popped the oven up to 425 for another 10 minutes or so because I was either hungry, impatient, or drunk. I forget which. Anyway, it worked.

BTW, I go into a bit more detail - and give a few more pics - in my blog entry here, if you're interested: http://dangerspouse.diaryland.com/131012_18.html

BTW, I go into a bit more detail - and give a few more pics - in my blog entry here, if you're interested: http://dangerspouse.diaryland.com/131012_18.html

Thank you.

[Jenise]

Gorgeous, Tom, if a bit prematurely festive. It's not even Halloween yet. I mean, first K-mart, and now you.

Did they have bottom crusts?

[Jenise]

No idea what I'm doing for dinner tonight.

Last night was totally futzed up. I had a meeting at 7:00, in which I was to turn over my duties and record of the last two years to the incoming office holder, so made corned beef and cabbage which Bob and I ate around 5:00. Bob wanted wine but owing to my meeting I dared not, so we just had iced tea and Bob put a 99 Delamotte bubble in the fridge to have later to celebrate, apres-meeting, my liberation. About 5:30, a friend brought over a hot loaf of fresh bread. At 6:50 I left for my meeting. At 7:02 I was back: wrong night, it's NEXT Wednesday. And a week early for the Delamotte, so we had bread and butter and a bottle of Sangiovese. Meanwhile, all afternoon a 16 qt pot of Garden Bisque had simmered along, and after the wine/bread&butter it was pureed in a zillion batches (I bought that Vitamix just in time), and that's for tomorrow night.


Today's breakfast was better: a British breakfast. British style back bacon from an organic producer in Oregon, scrambled eggs with green onions, broiled tomato halves, and a slice of that great homemade bread toasted and topped with a big dollop of huckleberry preserves.

Tonight? No idea yet.