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2006/12/31 End of the Year RamblingsWell, this year wasn't a very good one for blogging. Or for doing much of anything, really. I lazed around for most of it and didn't start doing anything in the kitchen till Novemberish, when some of our Friday Night Feasts started again with a slightly new cast. Now I get to decide whether to continue trying to blog here about food and on my personal blog about everything else, only updating each one every month or two (or four, as the case may be), or start posting food ramblings over there, too.
While I do some deciding (and thinking over 2006), here are a couple links to some food-related things that made me elated and thoughtful, respectively. I may post more about my specific thoughts in future posts.
2006/8/19 A New Post!Well, we haven't had any Friday Night Feasts in many months now, and my own dinner parties have not happened through the summer since the Pacific Northwest has a temparate enough climate that air conditioners are few and far between (i.e. I don't have one in my "house"). Therefore, cooking for two days and inviting people over to a stove- and oven-heated house on top of possible summer heat is not very hostlike. I plan on starting them up again in the fall, however. So I have an online friend who is a rep for a national meat company and assures me that EatWild is written by a crazed hippiefreak (my words, not his, but he didn't disagree (though he has not really read the content of the site yet)--I talked briefly about my issues with Peta, et al. here). I told him that I wouldn't take either his or EatWild's word for it, but would really like to have a tour of a local beef farm and slaughterhouse that is contracted by said national meat company so I could judge for myself. I hope he takes me up on the offer, since, as I've said in the past, I am still very interested in how my food gets to my plate. Other than that, there's not much new to report. I've been baking bread every couple-to-few weeks and in general just making up a few off-the-cuff recipes for weekly meals. I did create a personal cookbook a three-ring-binder with one-page recipes that sits in my kitchen. I may share some of them here if I get inspired enough in the coming weeks and months. I'm pretty happy with it, as it eminds me what to do when I need a reminder. Good stuff. Here's to hoping I update more often... 2006/4/20 Vegetarian?What do you do when you have $35 of produce delivered to your front door every week? You try your damndest to use as much of it as you can before the next week's delivery, that's what. And what do you do when you're tired from work and don't feel like cooking for a week or so? Throw a bunch of it in the compost pile.
Having so many veggies arrive every week has pretty much thrust me into a 90% vegetarian. Not vegan, mind you, because breakfast is generally eggs on toast and butter makes everything much happier. In fact, right now, I'm munching on dinner: sauteed sugar snap peas with lots of garlic and shitake mushrooms. On the stove are some onions browning for some french onion soup. Okay, so that'll have beef stock, but in general, wow. Lunch is usally some vegetable soup that I made a few days before and I take bananas and oranges to snack on during the day.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. Time to go check on the onions... Grilled Cheese SammichOkay, so I'm showing up a little late to the party, but better late than never, eh? My entry in the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Blog-o-thon was exceptionally tasty. First, I started with home-baked bread. Add some of the best butter I've ever had, some roma tomatoes, some locally-grown, fresh basil (they sell it live, rooted at the store year round!), some locally-made Beecher's Flagship cheese, a hint of kosher salt, and fry, fry fry! I took a picture and may post it when I get off my ass long enough to upload it. Suffice it to say, it was one damn fine sammich. 2006/4/11 Ice Creamy Chocolate SauceSo if a guest brings over some vanilla ice cream for a dessert (cardamom-cinnamon apple crisp) and leaves half a gallon of it behind in your freezer, chances are you want to find a way to get rid of it eventually. If you're lactose intolerant, like our hero, the Fledgling Foodie, the temporary joy of ice cream alone might not be enough to lure you into eating it alone. If you'd prefer to make a chocolate sauce to go along with it (having plenty of chocolate in the fridge for just such an occasion), but don't have the cream necessary to keep the chocolate from turning back into chunks when cold, well, guess what ice cream is made of? That's right! CREAM! Here's the Fledgling Foodie's Terribly Tasty Choco-Cinnamon Super Sauce recipe:
Put it all in a little dish--as much of each as looks good to you. Put in the nuker for a while (I did it for 35 seconds on power level 2, but I think my nuker is a bit extra nukerriffic). The chocolate shouldn't be melted, but the cream should be hot. Stir until the chocolate melts and the whole thing turns into a chocolate sauce. Mine is kind of grainy, but I think that's because of the 100% cocoa. Pour over ice cream. Enjoy the dickens out of it. Excuse me while I go get a refill... 2006/4/9 Boucheron and Indian FoodWhat do boucheron and Indian food have in common? They are both things I want to talk about but am too lazy to separate them into their own blog entries.
Boucheron:
I think I have found a new favorite cheese. It's like a chevre (goat cheese, for those not in the know) on its way toward becoming a blue cheese. Soft, flavorful, and damn tasty. I recommend you pick some up the next time you're in a store with a good cheese section.
Indian Food:
I've always wanted to know how to cook Indian, Thai, Chinese, Ethiopian, etc. But so many ethnic dishes call for such specialized ingredients that you need to buy a whole new set of pantry items just for one style of cuisine. I figured I'd do just that with each of these someday, but hadn't gotten around to it. Well, we had a Friday Night Feast recently (that someone else organized, so no entry on the blog here--I've been lazy about the organizing since I got my own kitchen. Bad me.) and the theme was Indian.
I busted out my "1000 Indian Recipes" book (which I'd never used before--and wasn't really happy with, since "Aloo Mutter" wasn't in the index, which seems to be a pretty standard Indian recipe everywhere I've had Indian food) and went to town. Since then, I've cooked a single dish four times to get it down to where I like it. And I have. Yay! So now I have to pick another dish and work on it... Maybe someday one of my big dinner parties will have an Indian theme. We'll have to see. 2006/3/26 Random KitcheningThough I haven't been blogging very often, I have been cooking often. I should be taking more pictures and blogging more about it, but I just plain forget to.
As I mentioned before, I get a produce box every week delivered to my door. There's a minimum order to avoid a delivery cost (delivery is free if your order is $35 or more every week). So I get a $35 produce box every week. This is enough produce if I eat nothing but this produce in a week. And since I tend to eat a bit outside this, I end up with some extra fruits and veggies laying around after the next box shows up. I've been trying to find ways to use up the extras--often times fairly successfully.
A friend showed up with a present recently. He'd been sucked into the infomercials and bought a Magic Bullet for himself, but because it was an infomercial, got two for the price of one. Lucky me! So I got the extra. I had seen these on eBay (thankfully, I don't watch much TV until it's out on DVD, so I get to skip the infomercials), but had decided a full-sized bar blender was the way to go. Boy, was I wrong. This little sucker makes single-serving sizes of damn near everything quick and easy. I've probably used it a dozen times in the past week. Good stuff.
ApplesauceThis little story combines both of the above items. I had some apples left over from my produce boxes for the previous few weeks and they were threatening to go bad (and in some cases making good on that threat). So I looked up a recipe for applesauce. I edited it heavily, but the gist of it was still there. Here were the changes I made:
I'll be making more of this in the future. It turned out surprisingly well. SalsaI've been on a chips and salsa kick recently, to the tune of about two bags of chips and a one or two jars of salsa every week. As for the chips, I look at the labels and try to find ones with the most simple ingredients list and I have a rough calculation that I try to adhere to when I buy things: grams of protein plus grams of dietary fiber should be at least as much as the total grams of fat. I found that Kettle Chips makes a tasty organic yellow corn chip that fits this equation and the Garden of Eatin' black bean tortilla chips. There are plenty of tasty salsas out there, too. But when you look at salsa ingredients lists, they're pretty damn simple. Tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, lime juice, and vinegar. Uhm, I have most of that in my kitchen already. And now I have a Magic Bullet. So I've been dinking around with recipes and the Bullet. So far, I have some pretty edible results but find that the bullet is a bit too fast for the chopping needed for salsa--I still have to find the right technique so that it doesn't end up 1/2 liquefied, 1/2 huge chunks (I've done fairly well so far, but the end result usually is a bit runnier than I want). So far, I still prefer the jars from the store, but I'm gonna keep at it till I get it right.
SmoothiesContinuing the Magic Bullet trend, I've been making fruit smoothies after my recently-reacquired habit of going to the gym. Berries, banana, orange juice and pomegranate juice. Tasty stuff.
Chicken StockI've been saving the carcasses and bones and uneaten meat from the chickens I've been cooking and had plenty in the freezer to attempt my first stock. This is also a great way to get rid of the extra produce in the fridge. It turned out a bit fatty (I think because I left the skin on, which has all the fat in it as well as some olive oil left on it that I used when originally cooking it. I got about three dishes worth of stock out of it and have used two already (some rice and the soup below). I can't say that it was much better than store-bought stock, but it was marginally better and at least I know where all the ingredients came from. I'll be doing it again.
SoupWhen you have too many potatoes and carrots and onions, what do you do? You make soup. Add celery and you have a mirepoix. Add chicken stock and a few other veggies and you have a soup. This time, it was sunchokes (which I'd never seen before, but are similar to potatoes. They're some sort of rhizome, it seems), some golden beet. Anyway, I got a really chunky soup and thought about pullin' out the immersion blender and grinding it all up, but it tasted good as chunky, too. So I put it in the fridge and again pulled out the Magic Bullet to blend single-servings when I want it blended rather than chunky. Both are great.
That's about all the new stuff I can think of. Still doing breakfasts and breads, but I already posted about those. Off to start the day now.
March Madness Dinner PartyThe blogging has lagged recently, even though the cooking hasn't. Last weekend, I hosted another big dinner party. It was a bit annoying that about 3/4 of the people I tried to invite declined, but eventually I had a full house at the last minute. The EviteOkay, for those of you who don't know, I now have a kitchen in my house. Unlike many who remodel their kitchens in suburbia, I actually use mine and love it. Which is where y'all come in. See, every once in a while I feel like cookin' for more than just myself, trying new things out, and trying to impress myself and others. And I do so love it when others join in on the cooking fun.
So, you're invited to Dinner at [my place]. Dinner is an informal gathering with a pseudo-formal menu (I'll generally aim for around 7 courses and 10 dishes. A sample menu from a previous dinner is here. (Scroll down a bit--I tend to be a bit wordy.) You are encouraged to join in the cooking fun, but that is wholly unnecessary. If you do think cooking something would be fun, dream up a dish and let me know so I don't plan something in its place. If nobody wants to cook anything, I'll dream up my own menu and go to town.
Unfortunately, Chez [Fledgling Foodie] can currently only seat up to eight people (and even then it's pretty tight), so admission is capped, though there may have been more invited than will fit, so please keep this in mind (though do note that hot, single, gay guys who are impressed by frumpy, geeky, gay guys who can cook are always welcome... ;). Couples please figure out if you'll be responding separately or together (+1 guest). If you're a "maybe," either check to make sure there's space before coming or bring your own chair and dishes.
I will plan for people to show up around 6:00, though I'll be in the kitchen for a few hours before that if people want to stop by and chat or help in the kitchen (hint for the cooking-haters: cleaning up is a valid and appreciated way to help.).
I plan to make this event monthly or bi-monthly and invite a rotating cast, so if you don't make it this time, chances are fairly good you'll be invited again.
A note: there isn't much of an entertainment infrastructure set up at the house, so you'll be limited to conversation and swooning--or gagging--over the food. Plan for dinner to take most of the evening. The house is also still a construction zone, so while the kitchen may be pretty, the rest of the house will most likely not be.
Finally, I'll probably be sending out mails with such things as a preliminary menu, requests for food allegies/hatreds/loves/issues. I'll try to be as accomodating as possible, within reason.
The MenuAppetizersFocaccia
Scallops and Pesto on Parmesan Crisps
Candied Pecans
SaladSpinach Salad With Goat Cheese, Pears, Grape Tomatoes, and Balsamic Vinegarette
SoupMushroom Corn Chowder
FishSeared Halibut on Purple Potato Puree
SorbetLemon Drop Sorbet
EntreeRoasted Chicken
Roasted Root Vegetable Medley
Green Beans with Garlic Goodness
DessertsChocolate Creme Brulee (provided by a guest)
NotesIt was another fabulous night, prompting me to think that maybe this "monthly" dinner idea has some legs. It's a bit time-consuming, though. I probably spent 12-16 hours in the kitchen prepping and cooking everything, which leaves little time to tend to the yard and garden on a summer weekend. The menu was also remarkably similar to the previous dinner party's menu--I'll have to work on that, I think. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and I had a good group of seven guests--two who were at the previous dinner party, two couples, and an old work friend from years ago.
2006/3/12 Kitchen TipsHas it really been over a week since I last blogged? Wow... Well, here's a list of some stuff I've learned in the last week.
Well, that about covers the lessons learned since I last blogged. I've got to go check on the thawing bread now. Next up on the Fledgling Foodie: How to get rid of way too many potatoes, yams, onions, and squash (if anyone has any ideas, do let me know) and the March Madness Dinner Party--to rival the Big Three-Ohhhh. Wish me luck. 2006/3/2 Late Night CookingWhat'll a weekly organic produce box delivered to your door and ownership of a fine piece of Le Creuset get you? Soup at midnight, that's what. Or at least half cooked soup at midnight. It's only a quarter cooked now.
So I signed up for one of the local to-your-door organic grocery services (I'm not sure if I'll stay SPUD or go to Pioneer Organics, SPUD's interface is a little difficult to master but I don't know if Pioneer will be any better). Every week, they drop off produce, starting last week. The problem is, I'm only one person. When the box came today, I ended up with four more potatoes (on top of the four I got last week and the three I brought home from the camping trip two weekends ago), three beets, four more onions, and many other things. So I decided that I'd use some of the stuff that's been sitting around for a week or three... carrots, celery, onion, potatoes... sounding a lot like mirepoix to me with some potatoes. Soup it is. Do note that I made this decision at about 10:15 in the evening.
So I busted out my new favorite gadget, the food processor, and made short work of chopping up the mirepoix. Unfortunately, I like my mirepoix starting to carmelize before I add anything else, so it takes a while to cook. Also in the grocery box that showed up today was something that I also bought yesterday at Larry's: crimini mushrooms, so in went yesterday's purchase. I didn't think I'd use all three beets in the next few weeks, so I put one of those in, too. Luckily for me, I went to the Cash & Carry a few weeks ago and picked up a 12-pack of chicken stock (not yet ready to make my own--especially in the quantities I consume it in--I think I have 7 boxes left). From the front yard, I clipped some fresh chopped thyme, sage, and rosemary for a bouquet garni (though I kept forgetting to buy kitchen twine, so I tried my food loops and they worked beautifully), and bay leaf from the front yard, and I have a pot of soup that'll last me two or three days. Go me!
Now I just have to wait until it's done cooking to see if beet/mushroom/potato soup is any good... I'm thinking it will be.
Maybe I'll talk about the pasta I made earlier today in another post sometime. maybe not.
2006/2/27 Kitchen Odds and EndsThere really have been too many kitchen things going on that I've been too busy to write about 'em. From chili to penne and cheese; from ciabatta to risotto; from the wonders of a stand mixer to the wonders of a food processor (OMG!), the kitchen has been getting use and I've been loving it. I've just been too busy to remember the camera. Not that I have an eager audience begging for more, but I had hoped to do a bit more documenting of my first few weeks and months in the kitchen. Here's a few random items:
I'm loving this cooking stuff. I'm even planning another dinner party. 2006/2/12 Feasting the Big Three-Ooooh (Part 3)"No problem" was the refrain from the handyman every time I mentioned the Thursday night deadline--even up until Wednesday night. "No problem. It'll all be done in time."
The cooktop got installed and working at 10:30 on Friday night, giving me enough time to make the simple syrup for the sorbet and to toast the pine nuts. The vent and dishwasher weren't in until Saturday afternoon. I was not a happy camper on Thursday night when there was still the vent, fridge, dishwasher, and cooktop to install when the handyman left. That he tracked mud all over my bedroom carpet didn't improve my mood much, either.
As the menu in the previous post shows, there were seven courses and eleven dishes prepared. That, along with washing all of the dishes and silverware by hand so they'd be ready (the dishwasher wasn't installed until Saturday afternoon), and putting all the kitchen crap stored in my bedroom into the kitchen cabinets took the better part of two full days to do. By the end of last night, my feet hurt beyond telling and I was ready to collapse. It was brilliant.
Everything is installed now--and was by the time the party started. I had hoped to have a party of eight, including me, but the friend from St. Louis and his boyfriend had their tickets canceled due to some crossed wires somewhere and my brother never showed up (which I pretty much planned on happening, as that's how he is). That left me two days to invite people and oddly, they all seemed to have plans on Saturday night by then.
So a five-person party it was (Pip, Timmy, and the Fledgling Foodie from the usual cast and two guest stars: The Amazonian and The Constant Gardener). And it went swimmingly. Either they were too scared to piss off the birthday boy or they really liked the food. I'm gonna pretend it was the latter, since I thought it was damn tasty.
Highlights in no particular order:
All in all, the dinner party went exceptionally well and I look forward to doing it again sometime very soon. Feasting the Big Three-Ooooh (Part 2)...the emails. I'll comment more on the evening in a post to follow (the menu below happened with only two differences: the rose geranium in the sorbet was rosemary instead... lots of rosemary; and the cheeses didn't happen for an appetizer). I sent out three planning mails before the event; that's what follows:
Email #1I'm usually not a big proponent of hyping my own birthday; I just don't think it's healthy or proper to go shouting anything from rooftops, especially "look at me!" However, it is my 30th and my present (*crosses fingers, knocks on wood, prays to heathen gods, promises firstborn (and secondborn for good measure), sacrifices virgins*) should be my very own working kitchen. Usually, I would simply offer to host and let the birthday part go unmentioned, but I feel like there's some sort of planetary alignment or something with the kitchen and the big round numbers, so I figure a solid celebration is in order.
Gifts are not expected, as having a kitchen will greatly overshadow any other material possession for some months to come. (*Wonders if there's a tactful way to say that "not expected" doesn't mean "not accepted," but decides there really isn't, so puts it in a parenthetical comment*)
Okay, enough about me, let's talk about my kitchen and the horrible things we'll all be doing to, with, and near it on Saturday, Feb. 11. Requests are being taken. I declare by fiat backed up by the authority of the "my kitchen" and "birthday boy" trump cards the following rules:
I'm trying to think of the things I've liked most in the past feasts. The divine butternut squash soup comes immediately to mind, as does [Stu]'s fish. Something ungodly chocolatey (with a secondary non-chocolate option for [Timmy]--who am I kidding?--for all of us. I made a durn tasty apple crisp last night that I wouldn't mind making again) will be necessary. I must rescue my ice cream maker from the friend's house it's been trapped in for nearly a year now and a sorbet would be good.
I'll let you know if something happens and the kitchen looks like it won't be ready, but I'm fairly confident that it will be. Now I get to go figure out where all the dishes are...
Email #21) It has come to my attention that the location of this soiree was unclear to some. It will be at my house unless otherwise corrected (the handyman says the kitchen will be ready, but not much has been done this week and he's a big football fan, so he'll most likely not be at my house on Sunday, and there's still ventilation, electricity, gas piping, dishwasher, and fridge installation to go). [Note about the football comment: this was sent the week before Superbowl Sunday]
2) Since I have not heard from anybody about suggested or offered foodstuffs, I've made up a menu and actually have started to plan out the times of courses so they come out in order (this does not preclude anyone from bringing their own foodstuffs, I was just a bit excited, so started working on a menu on my own). The plan is for dinner to start near 7:00 (if everyone votes for earlier or later, the timeline can be adjusted, but I'll need to know). Everyone is welcome to show up early (or late, I guess), but food will be served starting shortly after 7:00. I'll be there prepping pretty much all day, so if anyone wants to stop over early, feel free. It is an amazingly social kitchen.
3) I have not heard back from anyone about a Friday evening thing with [Stu] & [Alley Cat]. I think it'd be fun, but I'm not gonna sign up to organize that one; I have my hands full with Saturday. Unless otherwise requested, I'll probably be prepping Friday night, so people are welcome to stop for an informal thing or plan something else either at my place or elsewhere.
4) I may have a list of things I'll need people to bring to finish the cooking or serving. I'm not sure what my plate/bowl/utensil situation is in reference to the amount of people and courses. I'm working on that part of the plan, still. I may buy some of the things I'll need before then (the immersion blender comes to mind); other things are a bit too pricey to spring for at this point (a very large braising/saute pan). I'll have a list sometime next week.
5) For those of you with poor memories:
[Address] Email #3Another update. This one includes kitchen status, what I'll need people to bring, and the planned menu. I have invited and am planning on eight people attending, though I doubt if my brother will show up, and I still don't have a confirmation from [Timmy], so it could be as few as six total [It was actually 5. And my brother didn't show up.]. But 6-8 is the planning goal if you are thinking of bringing any dishes with you or cooking any here (unnecessary, as you'll see from the menu below, but not discouraged at all).
Kitchen Status:
Well, it's not looking much more done than it was two weeks ago, but the wiring has been traced, the walls have been painted, the tile has been finished, and most of the infrastructure work has been done to allow for the rest to go in quickly. The big unknown is how easily the downdraft vent for the cooktop will go in. If it goes in smoothly and all the electrical works properly, I have no problem agreeing that Saturday is still on. If something goes wonky and a part is needed or some other such weirdness, then I might be cooking without a ventilator or worst case, the party might be cancelled or at least vastly scaled down to what can be cooked without a cooktop (the ovens definitely work)--a decision I'd probably make on Friday afternoon and send a mail, so please check mail on Saturday before heading over, just in case.
Things I need to borrow:
If anyone wants to volunteer to bring the following foodstuffs, do let me know (I'll get it myself on Friday if I don't have any volunteers); it's the pricier stuff that I won't actually need till later on Saturday:
The Planned Menu:AppetizersBread
Mushroomy Cheese Spread in Parmesan Shells
Assorted Cheeses
SaladMediterranean Spinach Salad
SoupDivine Butternut Squash Soup
SorbetRaspberry Rose Geranium Sorbet
FishSeared Halibut with Lemon Sage Butter Sauce
EntreeBraised Chicken Parts
SidesOrangette's Dreamy White Beans
Green Beans with Garlicky Goodness
DessertsChocolate Mousse and/or
Peach Crisp 2006/2/8 Feasting the Big Three-Ooooh (Part 1)This is a special version of the Friday Night Feast, and will probably take a few posts to cover. There were three planning emails, which I may excerpt or print whole form; I haven't decided how annoying I want to be just yet.
So the quick version is that the Fledgling Foodie is turning 30 on Saturday. He is also going to have a beautiful and usable kitchen (or so his handyman tells him) before then (doing the math, there are 48.5 hours till Saturday). So his birthday present is to cook for his friends in his own house. And to speak about himself in the third person for precisely one paragraph. I generally don't announce my birthday, but did this year because of the kitchen thing and the milestone of 30 years. Since everyone else that I know is ungodly busy with work and since I'm the primary instigator of Friday Night Feasts, I decided to take the planning into my own hands (and it's a good thing that I did, judging by the anemic responses I've gotten from my mails so far). I came up with 11 items that I plan to cook in seven courses. The main purpose of this post is to talk about the planning. As someone with a brand-spanking new kitchen and who has never had a kitchen of his own before, there are very many things that I need to procure for the kitchen before it will be able to prepare 11 items for eight people, not least of which are the utensils and dishes necessary to serve eight people seven courses of food. Knowing that there would be a lot of things I'd need to go out and buy to be able to even think about doing something as foolish as I'd already committed to, I started lists. I have a menu, a prep list, a list of recipes, a shopping list, and a timeline. The timeline is the coolest thing. I modeled it after a timeline I found on a food blog recently, here. I'll get to see how well it works for me on Saturday (assuming that the whole thing even happens, since it does require a kitchen and my kitchen is definitely not done yet--but Mr. Handyman assures me it wil be). If it goes well, I may post the whole thing... I know what you're thinking: "lucky us!" I know, I know. Anyway, listing out everything needed to prepare and serve the meal allowed me to create a shopping list of stuff to buy for the kitchen. And since it's an 8-person dinner party, I'll be buying enough matching stuff to be able to do it again... like at Thanksgiving! I'll be happy to have sets of matching glasses, plates, silverware, and kitchen prep stuff. My bedroom is the staging area for all the kitchen stuff I have toted out of storage or purchased in the past few weeks. I need to get it all into cabinets, as soon as the cabinets are done. It's kinda scary, really.
Will the kitchen be done in time? Will our hero's cooking be met with glee or derision? Will he get presents? Will he answer his reader's prayers and post his food timeline? It's a cliffhanger, folks. Ya gotta wait for it. 2006/1/30 Friday Night Feasts: 2006 EditionThe planning mail to attendeesWell, [Pip]'s back from Britland and everyone else seems to be sticking around for the most part these days, so it's about time to mess up some kitchens. Niftily enough, my kitchen should be able to be added into the mix (with extreme caveats such as "I have inadequate quantity and quality of cooking gear" and "I have inadequate quantity and quality of furniture"--I just took an inventory of my kitchen stuff that I had in storage and let's just say it's a little under-qualified for a Friday Night Feast).
Both [Stu] and [Pip] have agreed that it's time to start back up, but [Pip] is in no condition to be spending any large amounts of time and [Stu] has concert tickets this Friday, so this week's Friday Night Feast will be on Thursday (assuming everybody is still in).
This week's theme: Quick and Easy. While I'm sure I'll be the one to have the hardest time keeping with the theme, anything that can be prepared and cooked in a relatively short time (or prepared beforehand and brought along with--hell, I might not even go all snobby on a pre-prepared salad or appetizer from Larry's or Whole Foods (but Tostitos® are still out, methinks, regardless of how tasty they are ;)) is fair game. Please note, however, that [Pip] is on week two of his diet that allows limited veggies, but protein and cheese are in.
Some suggestions:
Anyone else have other ideas?
Dramatis PersonaeThe Regular Cast
The Guest Stars:The MenuAppetizersGarlic Citrus Shrimp Manchego With Quince Paste EntreeLemon Butter Chicken DessertStrawberries and Blueberries WinesHogue Genesis Chardonnay Big Fire Pinot Gris NotesIt was a low-key event with only three people, but was a good unwinder from the week. Nothing out of the ordinary to report; everything was tasty. A FirstWell, all I can say about tonight is "damn." I haven't had such an amazing, tasty, fulfilling evening in years. The wine, the company, the food... all perfection incarnate.
I had an ulterior motive in inviting this guy over. Well, two ulterior motives: one was proving to him that I was an interesting human. The other was to be able to cook in my own house. Luckily, he had his own ulterior motive, which made everything okay, or so I tell myself. See, he is a photographer on the side, who is currently photographing "Fireside Chats" with his Hasselblad. I will be the fourth in his series.
Over the past couple weeks, he kept asking when I'd be getting my gas inserts for the fireplace. Since that's a couple years off yet and that really isn't the feeling of my house currently, I kept demurring. We finally ended up with a fireplace full of tea lights (which, as I type this, are still burning). It was the right choice; I think it captured my house perfectly. I hope he agrees. And, as he says, he owes me a pack of tea lights from IKEA. Luckily, they're cheap ;).
He brought over some DVD copies of some recent episodes of TV series that he enjoys. Unfortunately, he missed an episode of Battlestar Galactica (he had episodes 11 and 13, but not 12! But I do get to watch an episode or two of Surface, which sort of makes up for it, since I haven't really seen any of that series at all).
So dinner, as mentioned in my last post, was Roasted Chicken, Roasted Root Vegetable Medley, and Apple Crisp. We had three white wines to go along with the evening: a sweet non-dessert Muscat (it was a surprise to me, since it wasn't a late harvest), a semi-sweet and very fruity Pinot Gris (Big Fire, it's called, and very good--with a screwtop even!), and a dessert Muscat (Campbellls Rutherglen Muscat), which was enough for me to feel quite toasty, but he made it home fine, as evidenced by his appearance on MSN Messenger later that evening.
I can honestly say that this was one of the most enjoyable evenings I've had in years. And that's not just because of the three bottles of wine that were consumed; it may have had as much to do with the fact that it was the first meal I've ever cooked in my own kitchen as it did with anything else, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the company had as much to do with it as that.
All three of the dishes we had were suitable for the Thanksgiving Challenge 2006. A little tweaking may be necessary, but I'm happier with all of them than I would have thought possible. If I remember, I'll add all of these as separate recipe entries, but for now, here it is...
Roasted ChickenI used a 3.5 lb fryer chicken. It hadn't been frozen previously, and had sat in my fridge (I have a fridge!) for a day prior. I cleaned it out, as most recipes say to do, with cold water, and patted it dry with paper towels. Then, I separated the skin from the breast, starting from the body cavity. When it was adequately separated, I olive oiled, salted, and peppered the cavity and sub-epidermis, then I added my herbs. It is winter, but some herbs are actually still growing in the garden. Here is what I added in four small "packages" in the breast area, under the skin: 1 small Sage leaf; 1/2 large fresh Bay leaf; 1 small (1/2" or 1/4") Rosemary sprig; 1 Lemon Balm leaf, and 1/4 clove of garlic, sliced. four of these packets were shoved down under the skin. Inside the small chicken's cavity went 1/2 a lemon (used to juice the apple crisp), 1/4 of a large yellow onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic, halved, and a bunch of herbs still on the stem (rosemary, thyme, sage, and lemon balm).
The whole bird was olive oiled, salted liberally, peppered, and herbed (with finely chopped rosemary, thyme, sage, and lemon balm--I might use more pepper or herbs in the future, as Mr. Guest suggested). It went into the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Other recipes say a full hour, but I trusted my instant-read thermometer when it read 180... I was planning on taking it out of the oven when it reached 170-175. 180 was scary so early, but turned out just fine. Seriously. Wow. I HATE Pip for telling me that the skin gets all crispy and wonderful when it's olive oiled and salted. He will pay for that.
I feel a bit unhumble in saying that this was an absolutely amazing way to prepare chicken, but since the guest agreed in his grunts and mastications, I feel confident in saying that this recpie is a winner.
Roasted Root Vegetable MedleyAs reported in the last post, I had a couple of inspirations for this recipe. They were acknowledged back then, so let's move on. I attempted to make as close to 1/2" cubes as possible the following: 1 Yukon Gold potato, 2 Parsnips, 2 golden beets, 4 carrots, 1 sweet potato, 1 large onion, 1 fennel bulb (fresh from the garden), 1/2 head of garlic (each clove halved). All but the onion and fennel were put in a container and olive oiled liberally, whereas the fennel and onion were 1/8thed and olive oiled on a sheet pan. Everything was spread out on the sheet pan, then salted, peppered, and herbed (finely chopped rosemary, thyme, sage, and lemon balm).
Both the chicken and the roasted root vegetables were put in a 400 degree preheated oven for approximately 40-50 minutes (recipes say longer, but the chicken was done and the veggies were caramelized at 45 minutes for me (also note: the vegetables were mixed up with a spatula about 3/4 the way through cooking)). Veggies will finish slightly before the bird, so you may want to put the bird in first for 10-15 minutes.
Apple CrispWhat you need to know about crisps is this: Crisp Topping = 1 part softened butter; 1 part sugar (I used a mixture of brown and white); 1 part flour; 1 part oats (all of these parts are volume-wise, not weight-wise). Mix. If it's too dry, add butter. If it's too wet, add oats. Cut up some fruit, in this case, apples, but you can use berries or whatever you feel like. Put this fruit in a buttered baking dish (in this case 8"x8" and a "1 cup=1 part" crisp recipe was too much--I had extra). Add some sugar to the fruit and a hint of flour to sop up the water that they'll shed. (I also added cardamom and cinnamon to the sugar I added to the apples, and added cinnamon to the crisp portion--as I always say about recipes, they're flexible). Coat with a very generous sprinkle of the topping and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees (mine took a bit longer than this... wait till the toping turns darker before you take it out).
This entire meal goes very well with white wines, of which we had three battles: a Griffin Muscat, a "Big Fire" Pinot Gris, and a Campbell's Rutherglen Muscat.
Mix liberally with hot, attractive, male company, and serve as hot as possible. You can't go wrong. I didn't. 2006/1/29 Tonight's the Night!After owning this house for 28 months and living in it for 21, I finally get to cook in my kitchen for the first time. Since I was renting before this and the owner of that house had his own kitchen gear, I'm unpacking my own pots, pans, and other assorted gadgetry and gizmotry for the first time in four years. It's kind of sad, since I bought this stuff years before I learned about the joys of cooking. Everything is non-stick (Circulon) and my one cheap jelly roll sheet (unwashed, I might add, for the last two years and still greasy with chocolate chip cookie goo) will definitely not be sufficient. However, I do have the knives I will need. I had kind of hoped that I had more gear, but in a way, it's quite nice to be able to buy all of this stuff after using different gear in 4-5 kitchens over the past few years--I can get what I like to use.
So the past few weeks have been preparing for the day when I can finally cook (it's been a very expensive past few weeks). And tonight is that night. Leave aside that my refrigerator is in the library and that there's no dishwasher or cooktop and that the sink is provisionally working without a garbage disposal--er, strike that; it appears that the faucet, once installed, did not want to provide me with cold water--back to Home Depot for the handyman. Well, I will have a provisionally working sink soon.
However, since I've been buying new stuff and the stuff I do have has been packed in boxes for four years, I figure that washing everything once would be a good idea before cooking with it. Well, the provisionally working sink was not provisionally working last night, when I decided it would be a good time to wash. Of course, that required sanitizing the bathroom sink first... cut to two hours later... The Fledgling Foodie's substitution tip #7: do not substitute a bathroom sink for a kitchen sink. Just don't do it.
So no cooktop... no sauteing, no searing, no braising, no frying, no deglazing... what's left? Baking and Roasting. Recently, Orangette, The Amateur Gourmet, and Pip have all convinced me that the roasting of vegetables is a Good Thing™. So I was planning on a sheet of roasted root vegetables and a roasted chicken. When my dinner companion (no, it's sadly not a date, but I get to cook, so that kind of makes up for it) suggested a bottle of dessert wine, an apple crisp was added to the menu.
So every dish, bowl, spoon, spice, gadget, foodstuff and container that I'll need for tonight (other than the herbs, which are on the rosemary, sage, and thyme plants in the front yard) are washed, ready, and waiting for me in the fridge and pantry... just waiting for the handyman to plumb the sink and clean up a bit, then it's time to PREP! Wish me luck.
2006/1/23 Why Do I Cook?Well, I can't say that I cook very often currently, not having a kitchen and all, but the kitchen is progressing and should be in a usable state in a few days (or a few weeks, depending on how well my guilt trip of the handyman is going). In preparation for this event, I've pulled my (old and mostly cheap) kitchen stuff out of storage and taken inventory. I have a lot to do to stock a kitchen. Which is good, really, because I'd prefer to get the right stuff now that I know a little better than have a ton of old, barely-usable crap cluttering up the kitchen. I hope to take Alton's advice and simply throw out or give away the kitchen things I don't use at least every couple months.
Along with this kitchen inventory, I've been reading a lot of food blogs, planning what my first meals might be in the new kitchen, and thinking a lot about food and cooking in general, and the joy it brings me in particular. In that spirit, I thought I'd write my "Why I Cook" essay. Or manifesto. Yeah, manifesto sounds good.
I love to cook. The smells, the sounds, the feeling of the ingredients in my hands, and, of course, the taste. I guess I didn't realize until recently, when I was reading a blog post that there are people out there who really don't understand this. It just never occurred to me. I never figured that the love of cooking would need a defense; it is just obvious, isn't it? But in reading that blog post, I realized that not all of us love cooking for the same reasons. And there are actually people out there who don't love cooking (those people should read Orangette, who makes it so very very obvious). So what are my reasons?
First and foremost, I love to cook so that I can eat good food. "Good food" means both food that is good for me and food that tastes good (and, if I'm lucky, sometimes both). I am by no means a doomsayer about preservatives and additives to food, but I do wonder what all those chemicals are, where they come from, and why they're necessary. It is great to know every ingredient that goes into what I put in my mouth. I'll be the first to join in on a bag of Doritos® or Oreos®, but homemade potato chips and chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven give a satisfaction and a certain contentedness that packaged foods just can't. When I cook, I choose every tomato that goes into my bruschetta, I can know intimately which peas go into my split pea soup. You can't say that of a restaurant or a bag you buy at the store.
I love to cook because I yearn to live more deliberately. So often, life just flies by while I watch from the sidelines. I can spend entire days watching DVDs or playing games online or reading a book. While I don't think those are horrible things to do, they seem such a passive way to spend a day. An hour or two in the kitchen preparing a meal breaks this passivity with active choices and makes me experience life, rather than the simulation of it I experience in books, movies, and games. I want to get away from fast food and prepared food all the time. Sure, they're nice for convenience at times, but it wasn't all that long ago that there were no convenience foods.
I love to cook because it is a perfect social activity. What better way to spend an evening with friends than chatting over simmering garlic and onions? Discussing politics with a glass of wine and a perfectly cooked steak? Winding down over a sinful sorbet, ice cream, or tart, made specifically to complement the rest of the meal? It pulls us away from the sinkhole that is cable television, lets us collaborate to design and prepare the perfect meal, and invites us to communicate deeper than "hey, what's up?" It lets us be both teachers and students, creators and consumers. There is no social gathering better, in my opinion, than one that combines food with friends. (This is one of the main reasons that my kitchen is designed to be open to all of the socializing areas of the house. I love my kitchen--or proto-kitchen, currently. Maybe I'll post some pictures of it when it's done.)
The Slow Food Movement is directly concerned with these first three points. They advocate stepping back from the fast food culture that has consumed us. As the Slow Food Manifesto states: "A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life." It suggests that a dinner around a table with home cooked food is the perfect way to slow down our corner of this speed-obsessed world. The rest of my reasons are more my own, though I'm sure I share them with many other foodies.
I love to cook because I love to impress. I am at some level (as everyone is, I believe) an attention whore. I want to be recognized for what skills I possess, and frankly, few of the things that I've brought out of a kitchen have been anything but tasty. Whether I am seeking to impress just myself, a special someone, or an entire dinner party, a great meal with great conversation is a good way to accomplish it.
I love to cook because I love to learn. The subject of cooking is a never ending supply of information. There is always more to learn. Braising, roasting, baking, searing, frying, poaching, chopping, filleting, mincing, dicing, crushing, ricing, deglazing, sorbeting, marinading... the list is perhaps infinite. Certainly, no single person could master everything there is to cooking, and I doubt any person could master any more than a few areas (if any, really) in such a way that there is not more to learn. It is an inexhaustible treasure chest of learning. And the best part is that every new thing learned is something tangible, edible, and sharable with others.
I love to cook because I love to create. I like art in most of its forms, and as I've said before, I consider cooking to be an art form. I love that by learning a few simple techniques along with a few properties of the ingredients I choose, I can endlessly customize a dish to my own whims. If I have a craving for cinnamon and chocolate together, I need not rely on the ridiculous food industry, which has not yet discovered this heavenly duo; I simply make something myself. When I have left over ingredients in the fridge or an herb plant that needs trimming, I can take those ingredients and build a meal around them. Rather than head to a restaurant with a fixed menu with all their ingredients shipped to them by a restaurant supply conglomerate, I can hand-pick the ingredients I cook with and transform them in whatever way strikes my fancy. Stricken fancy is tasty stuff, people.
So there it is: Why The Fledgling Foodie Loves to Cook: A Manifestorial Essay. Of course, all of this will change as soon as I actually have to clean up after myself instead of leaving a mess for well-fed friends to tend to the next day. I plan to keep you posted.
Thanksgiving Challenge 2006: Part IWhen I told my parents that my house would finally, after two years of owning it, have a kitchen by early 2006, my mother (half-jokingly, I think) decided that Thanksgiving dinner would be held at my place this year. For the past nine years, I have had a tradition of doing something different every year for Thanksgiving. Hosting in my own house will be a fabulous way to continue this tradition. So, joking or not, mom'll be eating here on November 23rd.
Of course, I'll need a kitchen before I can even begin to do any of this--and a dining room table and chairs wouldn't hurt anything, either. But those should come in time. I hope.
Since it's in my house using my kitchen, I figure it should be my menu as well. So I've started from a clean slate and have begun to compile a list of things that I think might make the perfect Fall Harvest Feast. My plan is to try a bunch of recipes and keep notes over the months leading up to Thanksgiving and build a menu of the best recipes. There will be no required dishes and instead whatever I feel works best is what I'll prepare. If that means game hens instead of a turkey, game on.
So I built a list of the things I'd like to see on the menu and plan on testing recipes for them all before the big day. Who knows if I'll remember to do so or not. If you have anything you'd recommend for or against, do send me mail and let me know!
Definites
Definite Ingredients
Maybes
NegligenceHas it really been over a month since I last posted? Wow. A shameful act. In my defense, all of the usual cast has been out of town or incommunicado since my last post. We did have our Fashionably Late Christmas Dinner at Pip's last weekend (which I meant to blog, but have since forgotten to), but that would still have put it at over a month with no posts. The good news (assuming you enjoy reading this, which is a pretty big assumption) is that the handyman is tiling my kitchen as I type this, so after 28 months of owning a house and not having a usable kitchen, I will finally have one--and a nice one at that. I hope to document some of my inevitable disasters and successes just as soon as they roll around. If all goes well, I'll be able to have my first home-cooked meal along with a house guest this coming Sunday. Until then, I may have some more to say on a few subjects. Let me know if you approve. |
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