Italian Feast

We had my parents and an old friend over for dinner the other night and I went all out on the menu.  I have been intrigued by a recent Bon Appetit article about meatballs from different parts of the world.  So I tried one of the recipes.  The name is really long and I can't remember it, but it was the Italian version of Spaghetti and Meatballs.

The process, though somewhat time consuming, was very straightforward and the results were tasty.  I don't think I let the sauce thicken enough before serving, so the texture was off (my cooking fault, not the recipe).  The meatballs were very flavorful and tender.  I enjoyed them very much. 
Obviously, I made pasta to go with the meatballs and tossed a simple salad with green onion and roasted asparagus.  I also made the French bread mentioned in a previous post. 
And for dessert, by request from Dad...a pumpkin cheesecake.  This is his favorite dessert that I make...this time it could have been a little better, but it did taste right. 
I think I must have been off in the texture department the other day...hmmm.  Oh, well.
We had a great time at dinner and played a new game called Things.  Lots of fun, lots of laughs.  Thanks for the fun evening!

Bread Making for the Month

As stated in a previous post, one of my resolutions for this year is to learn how to make bread.  I have had a 66% success rate thus far and thought I would share with you my results. 
The first attempt at bread was the easy way out...I made pita bread.  With the help of the bread machine (purchased by my husband a scant 3 and a half years ago), the dough was prepared.  This was not without some trouble because I did not realize how difficult it was to seat the bread pan in the machine...you really have to push down hard to get it in the right spot.  So after Drew's help and encouragement, I got the pan seated properly and in a short time had dough!  I threw it in the oven for the specified time and... SUCCESS!  It tasted really good too!
The second attempt was for Jalapeno Bread.  Drew was very excited about this prospect.  This was the first time I tried to prepare the bread from start to finish in the breadmaker.  I don't know what went wrong, but the bread did not bake properly.  It was not finished when the machine said it was finished and so I put it on a timer for another 20 minutes.  It still was not cooked because the machine shut itself off after about 5 minutes.  FAIL!
The third attempt, I got a little ambitious.  I decided to make French bread for our guests on Saturday night.  As per the first attempt, I made the dough in the breadmaker and then finished it in the oven.  This was the first time I had to deal with timing on rising and baking.  It came out just great!  SUCCESS! 

I am not sure what to make this week, but I have discovered finishing the bread in the oven has been my only successful mode of breadmaking.  I want to give the machine a chance to redeem itself this week.  Any suggestions?

Stir Fry Light

I have been cooking lately on an infrequent basis.  I am trying to remedy this, but the motivation center in my brain is still on vacation.  Yes, I know it has been three and a half weeks since we got home...oh well. 
But lest you think we have not been eating, I have been cooking and then waiting to post about it and then thinking it is way too late, and then, and then...this is a track procrastination has taken most of my life.  Oh for an actual workable routine again! 

So here is what we had for dinner one night this week...Shrimp Stir Fry from Cooking Light.  One of my favorite dishes to make is stir-fry because of good young kid food memories and because of its ease of preparation.  The thing that takes the longest when making Stir Fry is the rice (and I have a rice cooker for the microwave from PC that is wonderful to this task).  So this one had a sauce, broccoli, onions, and shrimp.  It was good and it was pleasing to the eye.  I did think it had a little too much rice wine vinegar in the mix and would modify future incarnations to remedy this.  Oh, and my Stir Fry pan from PC is my favorite pan (don't tell the others).

Ode to Ohh La La

There is a burger joint out here in the desert serving what might possibly be the best burger I have ever had.  Tonight when I started thinking about dinner and the burgers we were going to have, I decided I was going to do my "version" of them in hopes that it would fight the craving for a little while until we go there again.  I will spoil the ending and say it didn't.

The Ohh la la burger is an all beef burger with bacon, boursin, and wine infused sauteed onions with a chipotle mayo.  It is perfection!  I love it but the man who takes my order hates me because I change their burger every time.  If you read the above list of ingredients you would think that would be enough, but all their burgers include pickles, lettuce, mustard, and tomato.   Why, I ask, would you ruin the first list of ingredients with the second list?  One of life's mysteries. 

So tonight...Drew got a burger seasoning kit from Target that he really wanted to try (he is all about seasonings) and so he made the patties for the burgers.  I fried some bacon and put the burgers on the George Foreman.  I did not do a chipotle mayo because honestly, I would not use it in any other circumstances and struggle with the amount of condiments already in my refrigerator.  I also did not do the onions (which I did not remember until after we started eating).  The burgers looked great...so excited to get my mouth around one. 

They were not that great...bummer.  Drew did not like the seasoning blend and only ate half of his burger.  I did not really enjoy it either and only ate about half of my burger.  I guess that's what amounts to a diet in this house. 

Guest Post: Steaclectic

Here is my first guest post by my favorite blogger:
I guess it takes sickness to get me to write on my blog. I wouldn't say that it's because I haven't been wanting to write.... well, I've just found other normal stuff to do with my time. Most of it not important, but that's what happens. But today I am doing a guest cooking blog appearance! My wife has not been feeling well this week, and today wasn't any better. This afternoon I went to Target and picked up some filets and decided that I would do dinner rather than picking something up.

I wouldn't say that it's pretty, but I decided to do a steak trio. Each steak was rubbed with a different spice. Starting on the left: Williams Sonoma Coffee Rub(I know), Cracker Barrel "Mud" rub(w/ Brown Sugar), and a pepper blend w/ smoked sea salt(my creation - the rub, not the salt which is from Williams Sonoma). Two new and one tried and true.

I rubbed down the steaks and let them sit for about 10-15 minutes prior to putting them into a cast-iron skillet. Make sure to put a little olive oil in the skillet while heating up just to give it a nice surface so you don't really burn off the rub. I like a medium-rare steak - I'll have you know that my wife didn't know the greatness of the medium-rare until she met me. She has tasted the light. - which is about 4 minutes per side. You don't want to turn more than once. Take the steaks off the skillet, and cover with tin foil for 10 minutes to allow the meat to rest. It'll still cook a small bit while resting.

Now for the fun part, EATING! Leah and I were in agreement on steak order. In third place was the Mud Rub from Cracker Barrel. The crust created by the brown sugar in the rub was the best crust that I've seen on a homemade steak in a long while. It caramelizes down to a nice brown color. While that was nice the taste was not the best. Leah didn't like one of the spices in the rub. I believe that there was a fennel taste in the background. For me, if I had added salt I believe the taste would have been ten times as good.

In second place was the Coffee Rub. We've done this one before so we knew what we were getting into. The rub creates a good crust, but doesn't have the same texture as the Mud Rub. You don't taste the coffee that's in the rub, but it does add a flavor to the meat. If you know me, I absolutely HATE coffee! I've been through the account of Genesis more times than I can count and there is not a mention of coffee anywhere to be found. BUT, if you read closely in Revelation you'll find that coffee was thrown into the lake of fire along with the demons. It's in the original Greek, trust me.

In first place....... uh..... well by deduction, the pepper blend and smoked sea salt won out. Those simple ingredients create one of the best tastes. It also allows the meat to shine through. The pepper blend includes white, black, red, and red pepper flakes. Williams Sonoma has hit a home run with their sea salt selection. The smoked just melts into the meat and adds a hint of sophistication. I can't explain it, but it gives it almost a sweet flavor when you taste the salt. They also have a few other salts that look excellent!!! I would recommend this one to anyone wanting to try something new.

So there it is! It's not as good as my wife's food blog, but you'll have to make due until she starts cooking again.

Enjoy! -D