OK, I just want to give the last update on Thanksgiving before I take off for my Caribbean adventure tomorrow! We had nine people for dinner, most travelling from afar. Sheila E. brought an amazing cheddar-potato soup and ome vegetarian stuffing. My stuffing, by the way, was a hit. Very simple but sometimes nothing is better than sesame-seeded bread soaked with butter, chicken stock, celery and onions. Another unusual addition to the traditional menu was the appetizer Jamie made; banana peppers stuffed with walnuts, breadcrumbs, mascrpone and blue cheese. The peppers were spicy and the walnuts added some crunch. My dad made mashed potatoes with chives that were simply, classicly wonderful. I thought I was being consrvative with my portion size but a third of the way through my plate, I was stuffed. I, however, am not a quitter. So I ate the rest.
We rested for about 30 minutes, washed some dishes and brewed the coffee. For dessert offerings we had the aforementioned sweet potato-kahlua cheesecake, chocolate-pecan pie, pumpkin pie, as well as an apple pie (thanks pops), a lemon meringue pie (thanks mamma) and even a vegan cranberry-apple crisp (thank you N.)
Excuse this rather uninspired post, I'm kind of distracted by thoughts of the pernil, mojitos, for real cuchifrito, arroz con gandules, pastellios de camarones and all the other wonderful goodies I will be sampling for the next ten days. I don't imagine I will have internet access, nor do I want it but rest assured I will have planty to tell you about when I return!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Cheese of the Week
Before Thanksgiving dinner, I sent the kids on their merry way to get some last minute items. You know how it is on Thanksgiving Day; you're starving but you don't really want to eat and take away precious stomach room. Anyway, Dominick came back to the house with what is one of my favorite cheeses for a pre-dinner snack, Humboldt Fog. It's goat milk cheese with a line of vegetable ash running through it.
My understanding of vegetable ash is that it was used back in the day as a sort of short-term preservative. So the cheesemaker would put a layer of wood ash over the top of the cheese to prevent it from drying out. Then the next day, more milk would be poured on top.
Another interesting thing about Humboldt Fog is that the cheese ripens from the outside, so let it sit out and come to room temperature. Then you can see the outside becoming runny and utterly delicious, while the inside retains the fresh goat cheese flavor. I also really enjoy the rind; it's got a springy texture that is fantastic.
Speaking of cheese, I went to my mother's house over the weekend and she served Wensleydale with dried cranberries. You may have heard of Wensleydale from the movie Wallace and Gromit, in which they refer to it as their favorite cheese. Now I know why they ate it all the time because it is delicious. It was almost white in color and crumbly, sort of like feta's texture. Except that it had none of feta's tang and was more mild, almost sweet and the dried cranberries really heightened the sweet-tart contrast. Interestingly, this cheese was originally made by Fench monks from Roquefort who came to the Wensleydale region of England. Their process changed over time because they used cow's milk instead of ewe's milk. It's also very seasonal and pretty.
My understanding of vegetable ash is that it was used back in the day as a sort of short-term preservative. So the cheesemaker would put a layer of wood ash over the top of the cheese to prevent it from drying out. Then the next day, more milk would be poured on top.
Another interesting thing about Humboldt Fog is that the cheese ripens from the outside, so let it sit out and come to room temperature. Then you can see the outside becoming runny and utterly delicious, while the inside retains the fresh goat cheese flavor. I also really enjoy the rind; it's got a springy texture that is fantastic.
Speaking of cheese, I went to my mother's house over the weekend and she served Wensleydale with dried cranberries. You may have heard of Wensleydale from the movie Wallace and Gromit, in which they refer to it as their favorite cheese. Now I know why they ate it all the time because it is delicious. It was almost white in color and crumbly, sort of like feta's texture. Except that it had none of feta's tang and was more mild, almost sweet and the dried cranberries really heightened the sweet-tart contrast. Interestingly, this cheese was originally made by Fench monks from Roquefort who came to the Wensleydale region of England. Their process changed over time because they used cow's milk instead of ewe's milk. It's also very seasonal and pretty.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Original Pancake House
Let me take a break from my Thanksgiving story to talk about Sunday morning breakfast. We had spent all weekend waxing poetic about the glories of the Original Pancake House in Williamsville. No, not IHOP, this is not a chain. So we set off bright and early on Sunday morning with high hopes.
I should remind you that I hate travelling to the suburbs so you should take this as an indication of how we all looked forward to our visit. We thought we had beat the Sunday morning crowd but it was already hopping. Fortunately, it didn't take long to seat us. As we navigated through the main dining room, some of our party asked if we were indeed sure this was not a chain. I wavered, it sure did look like a Ponderosa dining room.
We were shown to a table in a small room that was freezing and overrun by small children whose parents seemed unaware of their presence. The table was already set with water glasses the size of a thimble. Have you ever been to a restaurant that serves a small juice in one of these tiny receptacles? I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when the waitress informed us that this was a medium. I don't need all my food and drink supersized but come on.
I ordered an omelette with mushrooms and sherry, mostly because it came with potato pancakes. One of my pet peeves is charging scandalous prices for obscene amounts of food. This omelette was probably made with at least 8 eggs and although the menu said $8.75, the bill said $10.15. For an omelette? And it wasn't even all that. The mushrooms and sherry were dropped on top on the omelette, floating in a grey and grainy-looking cream sauce. Eww. THe worst part though, had to be the potato pancakes. I am used to chunks of grated potato, unlike this, which seemded to be mashed potatoes poured into a pancake mix. Not only was the consistency less than desirable, they were bitter. I tried applesauce, no good. I opted for sour cream, no better. I finally said to myself nothing can make these more unpalatable and doused them with butter and syrup. Still pretty nasty.
It was an odd experience. The food was not pleasing, the decor (country-motif wallpaper with a border of harvest apples?) was pathetic and the service could have been a lot better. I was in the restaurant business for years so I'm pretty forgiving but I found my reserves of forgiveness all used up trying to digest that $10 omelette.
Not recommended unless you like overpriced, useless and not even attractive food.
I should remind you that I hate travelling to the suburbs so you should take this as an indication of how we all looked forward to our visit. We thought we had beat the Sunday morning crowd but it was already hopping. Fortunately, it didn't take long to seat us. As we navigated through the main dining room, some of our party asked if we were indeed sure this was not a chain. I wavered, it sure did look like a Ponderosa dining room.
We were shown to a table in a small room that was freezing and overrun by small children whose parents seemed unaware of their presence. The table was already set with water glasses the size of a thimble. Have you ever been to a restaurant that serves a small juice in one of these tiny receptacles? I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when the waitress informed us that this was a medium. I don't need all my food and drink supersized but come on.
I ordered an omelette with mushrooms and sherry, mostly because it came with potato pancakes. One of my pet peeves is charging scandalous prices for obscene amounts of food. This omelette was probably made with at least 8 eggs and although the menu said $8.75, the bill said $10.15. For an omelette? And it wasn't even all that. The mushrooms and sherry were dropped on top on the omelette, floating in a grey and grainy-looking cream sauce. Eww. THe worst part though, had to be the potato pancakes. I am used to chunks of grated potato, unlike this, which seemded to be mashed potatoes poured into a pancake mix. Not only was the consistency less than desirable, they were bitter. I tried applesauce, no good. I opted for sour cream, no better. I finally said to myself nothing can make these more unpalatable and doused them with butter and syrup. Still pretty nasty.
It was an odd experience. The food was not pleasing, the decor (country-motif wallpaper with a border of harvest apples?) was pathetic and the service could have been a lot better. I was in the restaurant business for years so I'm pretty forgiving but I found my reserves of forgiveness all used up trying to digest that $10 omelette.
Not recommended unless you like overpriced, useless and not even attractive food.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Turkey Tales: Part Two
Thursday: I woke up just before 6am, not because I felt like it but I heard my Chicago family creep in the door after a long, grueling drive. After giggling and whatnot with them for an hour, I went outside to examine my bird. I figured since it was a 20 pound bird, I needed to get it in by 8 for dinner at 3. I mean, 20 minutes per/lb. times 20 pounds is 400 minutes, plus 30 minutes to rest is what, like 7 hours? Keep that formula in mind as you read.
Anyway, we started setting up the tables. At first we had two, separate tables but then we opted to push them together to make one big table and we liked that much better. At 11, after several bastings, the turkey looked......kinda done. What? I scrambled through the junk drawer trying to unearth a meat thermometer. 180 degrees? Oh my, I thought I ruined Thanksgiving! I don't really know how a 20 lb bird was done in 3 hours (at 350 degrees, thank you), perhaps my oven is off but better early than too late. Going with my whole Zen-like attitude, I decided not to get flustered and just put it back in the oven for 30 minutes before the meal. I don't know if it was the brine or what, but the turkey was tasty and moist and it even freed up all the room in the oven for my other dishes! Perfect! I'll just pretend I did that on purpose.
Usually with a big dinner like this, I will horribly mangle at least one thing. Besides the turkey confusion, everything went smoothly. Dinner even started right on time. The cranberries were tart.....
...the gravy was rosemary-infused...
...the yams were all candied...
...little, wee onions stuffed and roasted...
...and Jamie arrived just in time to bake up these goodies.
Whew, I'm getting tired again, I'll have to give the dessert rundown later!
Anyway, we started setting up the tables. At first we had two, separate tables but then we opted to push them together to make one big table and we liked that much better. At 11, after several bastings, the turkey looked......kinda done. What? I scrambled through the junk drawer trying to unearth a meat thermometer. 180 degrees? Oh my, I thought I ruined Thanksgiving! I don't really know how a 20 lb bird was done in 3 hours (at 350 degrees, thank you), perhaps my oven is off but better early than too late. Going with my whole Zen-like attitude, I decided not to get flustered and just put it back in the oven for 30 minutes before the meal. I don't know if it was the brine or what, but the turkey was tasty and moist and it even freed up all the room in the oven for my other dishes! Perfect! I'll just pretend I did that on purpose.
Usually with a big dinner like this, I will horribly mangle at least one thing. Besides the turkey confusion, everything went smoothly. Dinner even started right on time. The cranberries were tart.....
...the gravy was rosemary-infused...
...the yams were all candied...
...little, wee onions stuffed and roasted...
...and Jamie arrived just in time to bake up these goodies.
Whew, I'm getting tired again, I'll have to give the dessert rundown later!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Turkey Tales: Part One
So Thanksgiving has come and gone, the house is empty and all is quiet. To properly recount the holiday weekend, I will have to go day by day.
Wednesday: I got home from work feeling rather frantic and did some manic cleaning for a couple of hours. First order of food business was brining the turkey. I put it in a cooler, it was 20 pounds after all, with coarse salt, brown sugar, ice water, lemon and bay leaves. Then I got started on my sweet potato kahlua cheesecake. I kept seeing recipes for pumpkin-bourbon cheesecake but since I was making pumpkin pie, I thought I'd swap that for sweet potato. I'm not a huge bourbon fan, nor do I have any in the house. So this cheesecake was born. It was delicious and definitely my favorite dessert of the weekend. I got the inspiration from the smittenkitchen website and she got it from Gourmet magazine.
Crust:
Half a box of vanilla wafers
1/4 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Filling:
1 can of sweet potatoes, drained
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 T. Kahlua
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 T cornstarch
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
Topping:
2 c. sour cream
2 T. granulated sugar
1 T. Kahlua
1 T. vanilla
Dominick arrived and I quickly enlisted his assistance as my sous chef. He started making tembleque, which is a coconut pudding; light, not too sweet and an old favorite of ours. While I hollowed out onions, which served as containers for the stuffing, Dominick put together the filling for the pumpkin pie, nothing out of the ordinary except that we added cardamom.
Let me talk a bit about these onions. I was expecting 10 people or so for dinner and scooping all those layers of onions while trying to preserve the outside and simultaneously weeping, was no piece of cake. But I stuffed the onions and they were so dainty and cute that I forgot all about it.
Another guest arrived, the wine was opened yet still I had pie crusts to roll out. Of course, halfway through the process, I realized I was short on flour. I'm not going to elaborate but needless to say, the crust really didn't go the way I was hoping. I cobbled together bits of dough and pressed them into the pie plates, making Dominick and Jessica promise not to tell anyone about the debacle.
At this point, my cheescake was out of the oven, the turkey was brining, the stuffing was ready to go in the oven and two pies were underway. I had some more wine and went to bed. I'll have to tell you all about Thursday in the next post, this is exhausting!
Wednesday: I got home from work feeling rather frantic and did some manic cleaning for a couple of hours. First order of food business was brining the turkey. I put it in a cooler, it was 20 pounds after all, with coarse salt, brown sugar, ice water, lemon and bay leaves. Then I got started on my sweet potato kahlua cheesecake. I kept seeing recipes for pumpkin-bourbon cheesecake but since I was making pumpkin pie, I thought I'd swap that for sweet potato. I'm not a huge bourbon fan, nor do I have any in the house. So this cheesecake was born. It was delicious and definitely my favorite dessert of the weekend. I got the inspiration from the smittenkitchen website and she got it from Gourmet magazine.
Crust:
Half a box of vanilla wafers
1/4 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Filling:
1 can of sweet potatoes, drained
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 T. Kahlua
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 T cornstarch
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
Topping:
2 c. sour cream
2 T. granulated sugar
1 T. Kahlua
1 T. vanilla
Dominick arrived and I quickly enlisted his assistance as my sous chef. He started making tembleque, which is a coconut pudding; light, not too sweet and an old favorite of ours. While I hollowed out onions, which served as containers for the stuffing, Dominick put together the filling for the pumpkin pie, nothing out of the ordinary except that we added cardamom.
Let me talk a bit about these onions. I was expecting 10 people or so for dinner and scooping all those layers of onions while trying to preserve the outside and simultaneously weeping, was no piece of cake. But I stuffed the onions and they were so dainty and cute that I forgot all about it.
Another guest arrived, the wine was opened yet still I had pie crusts to roll out. Of course, halfway through the process, I realized I was short on flour. I'm not going to elaborate but needless to say, the crust really didn't go the way I was hoping. I cobbled together bits of dough and pressed them into the pie plates, making Dominick and Jessica promise not to tell anyone about the debacle.
At this point, my cheescake was out of the oven, the turkey was brining, the stuffing was ready to go in the oven and two pies were underway. I had some more wine and went to bed. I'll have to tell you all about Thursday in the next post, this is exhausting!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Caeser Salad: A Photo Essay
Ahhhh, Tasty Tuesday. Another one come and gone. Usually I eat beforehand and forego the takeout because quite frankly, I cannot wait until 7 or 8 to eat, particularly when I am drinking wine. I had the last of Greg's bouilliabaisse (post to come) and headed over with a bottle of French red and the rest of the olive tapenade. The tapenade, by the way, was better than it was the first day because the flavors were able to meld and mellow.
Then Jenn showed up with bags full of groceries and (oh, how I love this) a Tupperware container with her wine. What did the bags contain? Ingredients for a caesar salad, including the wooden salad bowl set! We all found this marvellously entertaining but Jenn insisited there was a method to this madness. I usually whip up caesar dressing in the blender so I was curious to see how she created her masterpiece.
1. Wash romaine leaves very carefully and leave to dry while preparing the rest of the salad.
2. Crush the garlic very finely through a garlic press. Yes, Jenn brought her own press. Then rub the garlic all over the inside of a large, wooden salad bowl. This truly was genius, the aroma was palpable in the air three feet away.
3. Add olive oil, lemon, salt and generous amounts of freshly ground black pepper.
4. Jenn has a thing about raw eggs, I don't blame her. So she "cooked" the eggs in the microwave. This means that some of the egg became scrambled and was discarded but the rest of the liquid no longer had that gelatinous, nasty clear bit. Add to the bowl and stir, don't forget ground mustard. This is key!
5. Finally, dry the lettuce well, rip into small pieces and add to the bowl in one layer. Top with croutons and cheese. Repeat. Toss.
It was wonderfully garlicky and peppery, the croutons soaked up all the flavors and I'm slightly embarrassed to say we all ate our salads, standing up in the kitchen and didn't even make it back to the other room and eat sitting down like civilized adults. And then we ordered that damn Mister Potato Pizza again. Apparently it's our latest vice.
We also ordered a NY-style cheese with garlic-sesame crust. Normally, I find cheese pizza the height of boring but this was shockingly delicious. It was the thin crust, I'm sure of it. Perhaps it is disgusting that I ate three pieces of pieces, in addition to my salad, generous amount of tapenade, not to mention the bouilliabaise. I also ate a brownie. Whatever, this week is a wash!
Then Jenn showed up with bags full of groceries and (oh, how I love this) a Tupperware container with her wine. What did the bags contain? Ingredients for a caesar salad, including the wooden salad bowl set! We all found this marvellously entertaining but Jenn insisited there was a method to this madness. I usually whip up caesar dressing in the blender so I was curious to see how she created her masterpiece.
1. Wash romaine leaves very carefully and leave to dry while preparing the rest of the salad.
2. Crush the garlic very finely through a garlic press. Yes, Jenn brought her own press. Then rub the garlic all over the inside of a large, wooden salad bowl. This truly was genius, the aroma was palpable in the air three feet away.
3. Add olive oil, lemon, salt and generous amounts of freshly ground black pepper.
4. Jenn has a thing about raw eggs, I don't blame her. So she "cooked" the eggs in the microwave. This means that some of the egg became scrambled and was discarded but the rest of the liquid no longer had that gelatinous, nasty clear bit. Add to the bowl and stir, don't forget ground mustard. This is key!
5. Finally, dry the lettuce well, rip into small pieces and add to the bowl in one layer. Top with croutons and cheese. Repeat. Toss.
It was wonderfully garlicky and peppery, the croutons soaked up all the flavors and I'm slightly embarrassed to say we all ate our salads, standing up in the kitchen and didn't even make it back to the other room and eat sitting down like civilized adults. And then we ordered that damn Mister Potato Pizza again. Apparently it's our latest vice.
We also ordered a NY-style cheese with garlic-sesame crust. Normally, I find cheese pizza the height of boring but this was shockingly delicious. It was the thin crust, I'm sure of it. Perhaps it is disgusting that I ate three pieces of pieces, in addition to my salad, generous amount of tapenade, not to mention the bouilliabaise. I also ate a brownie. Whatever, this week is a wash!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Lexington Co-Op Thanksgiving Extravaganza
I read somewhere the other day that the Co-op would have a holiday meal with all the trimmings, open to all on Saturday from 11am-2pm. I don't know if they feature food every Saturday but I've been there before to sample their tasty tidbits. There was so much delicious food today that I think I must review all items in list format.
1. Organic Mashed Yams: If I ever have kids, this is all that I will feed them.
2. Sparkling Pear, Apple and Cranberry Juices: Pear was lively, cranberry was insipid and I skipped the apple because I didn't want to appear greedy.
3. Cheese, glorious cheese: Three kinds of cheese to sample! There was a fine Lively Goat cheese, which I think is local. Also a triple cream cheese with champignon that was velvety and luscious. And would you believe that I mentioned Old Chatham Camembert last week and they must have read my blog because it was waiting there for me to try. I liked it, it had a texture like goat cheese except slightly less creamy and more dense. I especially liked the crackers, or, excuse me, flatbread, it was served with. Suzie's something or other with rosemary, delicious.
4. Organic, free-range, massaged and pampered turkey: It was good but I have to admit, I really don't taste a difference with the conventional turkey. Maybe my palette is dull.
5. Cranberry Sauce: I normally hate it when people mess with my cranberries. No Grand Marnier, no vanilla beans, no, no, no! This had apples or something in it and I did not hate it.
6. Two really good dips: Some buttery bleu cheese spread and asiago-artichoke dip. I paused to think about how much mayonnaise, sour cream and cheese lurked in the two but....I went to the gym right afterwards and purged it from my mind.
7. Pumpkin and Apple pies: Pumpkin was oh so boring, I couldn't discern the slightest hint of Ceylon cinnamom nor a whiff of Siamese cardamom. The apple was nice though, good crust too.
8. Green and Black Chocolate with Black Cherries: I don't love this brand of chocolate, mostly because it doesn't give easily. What do I mean by that? Hmmm, well, I like chocolate that immediately starts to warm and melt upon consuming. If all chocolate did that, I'd eat a lot more baking chocolate but, good thing for me, it's too hard, chalky, waxy or something. Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm making that point any clearer but the real story is that this chocolate was good. The dark chocolate was smooth and the tart, dried cherries made me feel like a Polish peasant, savoring their one piece of chocolate for the year.
Thank you Co-Op, I appreciate you. Next year though, please do not forget the mashed potatoes and stuffing. That's sacrilegious.
1. Organic Mashed Yams: If I ever have kids, this is all that I will feed them.
2. Sparkling Pear, Apple and Cranberry Juices: Pear was lively, cranberry was insipid and I skipped the apple because I didn't want to appear greedy.
3. Cheese, glorious cheese: Three kinds of cheese to sample! There was a fine Lively Goat cheese, which I think is local. Also a triple cream cheese with champignon that was velvety and luscious. And would you believe that I mentioned Old Chatham Camembert last week and they must have read my blog because it was waiting there for me to try. I liked it, it had a texture like goat cheese except slightly less creamy and more dense. I especially liked the crackers, or, excuse me, flatbread, it was served with. Suzie's something or other with rosemary, delicious.
4. Organic, free-range, massaged and pampered turkey: It was good but I have to admit, I really don't taste a difference with the conventional turkey. Maybe my palette is dull.
5. Cranberry Sauce: I normally hate it when people mess with my cranberries. No Grand Marnier, no vanilla beans, no, no, no! This had apples or something in it and I did not hate it.
6. Two really good dips: Some buttery bleu cheese spread and asiago-artichoke dip. I paused to think about how much mayonnaise, sour cream and cheese lurked in the two but....I went to the gym right afterwards and purged it from my mind.
7. Pumpkin and Apple pies: Pumpkin was oh so boring, I couldn't discern the slightest hint of Ceylon cinnamom nor a whiff of Siamese cardamom. The apple was nice though, good crust too.
8. Green and Black Chocolate with Black Cherries: I don't love this brand of chocolate, mostly because it doesn't give easily. What do I mean by that? Hmmm, well, I like chocolate that immediately starts to warm and melt upon consuming. If all chocolate did that, I'd eat a lot more baking chocolate but, good thing for me, it's too hard, chalky, waxy or something. Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm making that point any clearer but the real story is that this chocolate was good. The dark chocolate was smooth and the tart, dried cherries made me feel like a Polish peasant, savoring their one piece of chocolate for the year.
Thank you Co-Op, I appreciate you. Next year though, please do not forget the mashed potatoes and stuffing. That's sacrilegious.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)