What's the best thing you've made lately?

What I will call Portugese soup : onions/garlic/red pepper- sweet and hot/Andouille sausage/black kale/ potatoes in a vegetable broth seasoned with smoked paprika. Perfect for these cold and rainy days

[Jenise]

This was excellent. I bought good quality cheeses and baguette. After hearing Ruth Reichl tell NPR it was one of her faves, I had to try it.


Roast Pumpkin with Cheese “Fondue”

Oh my does that sound heavenly.

Okay, you guys, don't laugh, but it was a Rachel Ray recipe (from her magazine--last year's Autumn issue) for turkey burgers. We've been eating very badly lately so I wanted to lighten dinner up a bit. The meat was laced with chopped scallions, then once it was cooked, topped with crisp sliced apple, a teeny bit of sharp cheddar, then piled onto a whole wheat english muffin with whole berry cranberry sauce. Definitely a "make again."

Blueberry-Walnut Bread!!! It's a misty, cool day here in Maryland so I decided to make an old wonderful recipe of Blueberry-Walnut Bread using large, handpicked frozen blueberries from Western Maryland.

[Jenise]

Okay, you guys, don't laugh, but it was a Rachel Ray recipe (from her magazine--last year's Autumn issue) for turkey burgers. We've been eating very badly lately so I wanted to lighten dinner up a bit. The meat was laced with chopped scallions, then once it was cooked, topped with crisp sliced apple, a teeny bit of sharp cheddar, then piled onto a whole wheat english muffin with whole berry cranberry sauce. Definitely a "make again."

It pains me to give her credit for anything, but that does sound like something I'd eat.

[Jenise]

Drew, that's gorgeous--and cruel! I would kill for a slice of that with my tea (no breakfast yet).

Chocolate Orange Fudge (from NZ cooking 'bible' Edmonds Cookbook). Never made fudge before and didn't have a thermometer above 100C, so tried in vain with the 'drop the liquid in ice-cold water test', so made an educated guess about when it was ready. It turned out great and by putting a bit more cocoa in, plus the orange zest (not in the recipe) it came out really good - the zest giving it great lift and making it quite 'adult' - yet some of the children were very taken by it.

I made it for the 'trick or treaters', but like last year, we seemed to be peripheral to the visiting groups' main routes (we're slightly out of the way), so we now have a decent plateful of the stuff (plus some white chocolate truffles) to find a home for

Also made another batch of Arancini - 11 this time. At least brunch is sorted for the rest of the week

regards

Ian

[Jenise]

Ian, are you able to pass out homemade candy there? Here it's become verboten, though when I was a child I remember several homemade things quite fondly. One always wanted to get to the Docksteaders early before they ran out of Mrs. D's popcorn balls.

Considering the trick or treaters are 'begging with menace' I don't fear repercussions of making tasty sweets for them.

Seriously, the world has got it's priorities completely out of line, if it's ok to give them bought confectionary, with all the healthy E number additives, yet not something tastier and bereft of the health giving properties of E223 etc. One of the parents (who typically come round with the children) was really impressed that we'd made some stuff for them (I also did some coconut surprise biscuits that are very soft & with a small square of milk chocolate in the centre as the 'surprise', plus some less successful, but still ok white chocolate truffles - I always forget that white chocolate already has more butter in it than milk or dark chocolate).

As it was the fudge is slightly harder than normal (I'm pretty sure it got slightly too hot / too long). That said it's perhaps better for it, having a crumbly (almost butter / scottish tablet) side to it, which works great with the flavours.

regards

Ian

[Jenise]

Considering the trick or treaters are 'begging with menace' I don't fear repercussions of making tasty sweets for them.

Seriously, the world has got it's priorities completely out of line, if it's ok to give them bought confectionary, with all the healthy E number additives, yet not something tastier and bereft of the health giving properties of E223 etc. One of the parents (who typically come round with the children) was really impressed that we'd made some stuff for them (I also did some coconut surprise biscuits that are very soft & with a small square of milk chocolate in the centre as the 'surprise', plus some less successful, but still ok white chocolate truffles - I always forget that white chocolate already has more butter in it than milk or dark chocolate).

As it was the fudge is slightly harder than normal (I'm pretty sure it got slightly too hot / too long). That said it's perhaps better for it, having a crumbly (almost butter / scottish tablet) side to it, which works great with the flavours.

regards

Ian

I don't disagree with you one bit, Ian. And I'm sure your confections were much appreciated!

[Jenise]

Last night I made a small pot roast in the crock pot. I went Asian with the flavorings, using a miso broth for my braising liquid seasoned with coins of ginger and sweetened/thickened with a whole apple peeled and sliced into segments. That was served on plain steamed rice. But that's not the "best thing". What is was today's lunch--the leftover meat was shredded, moistened with a bit of the broth, a little rice was added to absorb that, and I broke three dried cayenne chilis into the mixture. That 'cooked' in the microwave while I grilled off some yellow corn tortillas downstairs on the Viking. With a bit of grated cheddar cheese, chopped roma tomato and cilantro, these were the most heavenly of tacos.

Brava, Jenise! I like this kind of creativity.

Roast small pumpkin (400 degrees for 30-40 minutes), halve, scoop seeds, add arugula and goat cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds, good extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, use a fork to mash and mix with pumpkin flesh. Yum!

I hosted a football party yesterday and made, among other things, two big pots of cassoulet. What a great crowd pleaser that seemed to go very well with the various wines people brought.

From the reaction of guests -- I would say plain old gohan, Japanese rice. My son invited his Japanese ex-room-mate for the weekend. We all spent the day at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton NJ (which is magnificent, if you live anywhere between Long Island and the Main Line of Phila you have no excuse not to go, SOON). I didn't have time to cook much after we got back so I got take-out from the nearby (Chinese-run) sushi place (which we like just fine) and made a cooker-full of Koshihikari rice, with a chunk of Kombu tucked in as usual. Our guest found the take-out boring, and in fact was only minimally appreciative of the sushi and sashimi. But he was knocked out by the rice, he must have had 10 little bowls and he said it was better than what his mother makes. I do know that I went to some effort to get high quality fresh rice (Tamaki Gold), and I know exactly how to do the repeated washings before cooking without breaking up the grains. And I also know that what impressed Yohei the most was when I served him rice that had cooked right next to the Kombu so it had a whiff of the ocean. I agree that plain white Japanese rice has an elegance and power (honestly) that no other rice comes close to. Maybe it's partly my own sincere appreciation of it that came through on Yohei's palate.

Otherwise -- the night before that, we had had a magnificent Indian meal, one guest had brought Shah Jehan Leg of Lamb, in which an entire leg of lamb is marinated intact in yogurt and spices for several days, and then cooked covered with ground almonds etc etc. Unbelievable. I made a new kind of Dal, and Aloo Ghobi following this YouTube video to the letter. Best Aloo Ghobi I ever made -- and first time I tried adding powdered mango to the spice mixture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnK0CcEZ5VM

And this Saturday night another friend made the 2 Keller dishes from Ad Hoc that had been printed in the NY Times. Tarragon Chicken Breasts and Leek Bread Pudding. All I took was a bottle of Meursault, my wife's pear dessert, and the Ad Hoc cookbook which I had just gotten from Amazon. Looks like a great book.

F

I made homemade bread yesterday and a surprisingly good turkey/vege soup in which I really upped the umami factor--and it had green chile (and a touch of red chile), too.

Caribbean-style curry of chicken legs, black eyed beans and red peppers (with some scotch bonnet, brown sugar, allspice and thyme for seasonings) a few days back to go with a Selbach-Oster and Hexamer Spatlese.

Just made a good portion of channa masala (north Indian chick peas) in the pressure cooker a short while ago for lunch, with plenty leftover for dinner.

Tonight I placed boneless, skinless chicken breasts on a bed of sliced onion, a layer of red chili sauce on top and crusted them with crushed almonds. Roasted for about an hour in the oven, with green beans alongside. For next time, I need to briefly saute the onions first as they needed to be cooked a bit longer.

I hosted a football party yesterday and made, among other things, two big pots of cassoulet. What a great crowd pleaser that seemed to go very well with the various wines people brought.

Comfort food that was much needed. Sounds great.

[Jenise]

I hosted a football party yesterday and made, among other things, two big pots of cassoulet. What a great crowd pleaser that seemed to go very well with the various wines people brought.

Comfort food that was much needed. Sounds great.

Kudos! Your friends must be so impressed with your endeavors--it's a rare bachelor who ventures where you go with food.

This past weekend, PUMPKIN SOUP from scratch! It was the first time I had made this soup and it was very good.

[Jenise]

Barb, congrats on your first post and welcome! Pumpkin's such a great vegetable. Way too often passed up and just used in pies. A favorite prep of mine is large diced sweet pumpkin tossed with olive oil and garlic. Spread on a pie sheet and baked at fairly high temperature (about 450) the dice cook through and start to blacken around the edges. Toss with a bit of fresh parsley and serve. Really really tasty stuff. Butternut works well in the same preparation, but pumpkin is much easier to cut.

This past weekend, PUMPKIN SOUP from scratch! It was the first time I had made this soup and it was very good.

Welcome to the board, Barb! Would you be willing to give us some details (i.e. ingredients, preparation) on your pumpkin soup?

Barb, congrats on your first post and welcome! Pumpkin's such a great vegetable. Way too often passed up and just used in pies. A favorite prep of mine is large diced sweet pumpkin tossed with olive oil and garlic. Spread on a pie sheet and baked at fairly high temperature (about 450) the dice cook through and start to blacken around the edges. Toss with a bit of fresh parsley and serve. Really really tasty stuff. Butternut works well in the same preparation, but pumpkin is much easier to cut.

So am I the only person alive who just doesn't like the taste of pumpkin??