A pretty simple recipe. Cook up some orzo and toss with butter, fresh chopped herbs (we used basil, parsley, rosemary, and thyme.) Mix in a handful of rough broken toasted pecans.
Looking for something lighter for the warm weather, we picked up some swordfish from Harmons, my new favorite grocery store. A quick mixture of basil, cilantro, coriander seeds, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper were ground together in a mortar with a little olive oil and lemon. This was smeared on thick, and quickly cooked using a cast iron ridged griddle. Served with a warm red potato salad and the ever-present spring asparagus.
Very tasty, and very filling. Even the small amount we typically eat was enough to fill our stomachs to the brim, but what do you expect from eggs and hash? It is pretty simple, all you need is some leftover corned beef and leftover mashed potatoes.
Place the fish in the middle of the potato mat, and carefully wrap the potatoes up around the fish. Press firmly to adhere. This took some effort, but if the potatoes are thin enough, it should work after one or two attempts. If there is lots of overlap in the potatoes, it will help.
Turn the yams into mashed yams by piercing, microwaving for 10 minutes or so, peeling, and mashing. Stir in the ricotta and parmesan cheese, sugar, salt, and nutmeg. This will be a fairly wet mess. Stir in flour until a light dough forms. Working in batches, roll the dough into snakes of about 1/2 inch in diameter, and cut into sections about 1 inch long. Roll each piece around a fork to dent.
You can either freeze the gnocchi, or boil them in salted water for 5 minutes or so. They make good leftovers for a snowy afternoon as well.
Pretty tasty. As other who cooked this turkey have noted, the end result is very similar to a brined turkey, but without the brine effort and unusable carcass. The turkey is salted inside and out with an herb salt, left to sit in the fridge overnight, then rinsed clean and cooked with lemons and onions inside.
The 2008 Thanksgiving turkey, an adaptation of the Bon Appetit cover recipe. Prepared with the standard butter rubbed method. Butter mixture included fresh sage, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and 1-2 pieces raw diced applewood smoked bacon. The stuffing was a fennel apple bacon mixture, sauteed onions, celery, fresh fennel bulb, and about 6 pieces cooked and drained applewood smoked bacon, as well as fresh Italian parsley. The bacon gave the stuffing a pleasant smoked flavor, which carried over to the turkey. The end result (after cooking for about six and a half hours, was a very brown, tasty turkey that could be cut with a butter knife.
What It Is: A very good soup, probably unlike most things you have ever had. Broth bursting with flavor to compete with the best Thai and Vietnamese soups, although this hails from Spain. There is one ingredient that makes this dish work, so it should not be done without it. Make something else if you don't have:
A pretty simple recipe. First, stick a skillet on the stove until it is super hot. Rub a small amount of salt and a large amount of cracked pepper all over a good chunk of fresh ahi tuna. Add several tablespoons of sesame oil to the hot skillet, and drop the fish steak. Cook until you can't stand the smoke and you get hungry, about 3-4 minutes per side depending on how thick the cut is, and how tasty (i.e. raw) you want your fish.
A pretty simple soup, for a simple fall evening. Combine equal parts (about 3/4 cup each) of chopped onions, carrots, and celery in a pot with some butter, garlic, and olive oil. Saute until things start to smell good, and add 3 cups of chopped butternut squash (skin and seeds removed) and mix well. After the squash has sufficiently moistened, add about 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth (we used some leftover turkey carcass broth) and cook for 15 minutes, until everything is soft.
The color of beets is due to betalain, a naturally occurring pigment most often found in flower petals. Prickly pear fruit (another ingredient in our refrigerator) also exhibits this pigment, and swiss chard (still hanging on in the garden outside) owes its color and taste to being a subspecies with beets. They make a good meal tossed with carrots, garlic, and montreal steak seasoning, and roasted in olive oil in the skillet.
For the past several years I have been doing some homebrewing as a hobby, and to supplement the Boca Noir wine and grappa we make at Casa di Lamberti. The beer making has taken off once I moved to Salt Lake City, UT. The Puritanical Mormons and their alcohol laws and post hoc revelations (Post hoc ergo propter hoc - trans "after this, therefore because of this") do not for tasty beer make. The last several batches have turned out nicely, especially the Christmas Ale, a slightly spiced light-brown ale with hints of chai, banana esters, and cloves.
Thanks to Google Docs I have put a spreadsheet in an iframe (very simple, just publish the Google doc to share it with everyone, and wrap it in an iframe). I'll try and keep this updated as the brewing process continues. Homebrew is much more ephemeral than commercial beer, and undergoes a dramatic transformation in taste over a period of a few months; therefore the beer you make is not the same as you finish your last drop, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Enjoy.
