Mmmmm, Dinner

Last night, CJ and I had one of the most amazing meals ever. It wasn't at a restaurant, and I didn't make it. It was the best kind of meal, the kind made by someone else, for US.

Erica made an amazing beef tenderloin with gorgonzola sauce, creamy polenta with roasted tomatoes, and green beans. It was all served up with an excellent wine.

Thanks Erica, it was awesome.

It was a long weekend of treats and dinners. Did I take lots of pictures? Of course not. Friends were in town, guests had to be fed, and I was absent-minded.

Friday started out with some homemade Mexican. I made a nice meal of tacos, beans and rice. The filling for the tacos was chicken in a green pumpkin seed sauce. It was outstanding, in my opinion, and you can get the recipe here. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but it is close.

Have I mentioned my love of homemade beans? Beans are the easiest things in the world to make from scratch and one of the most satisfying. Bean juice is the greatest tasting substance in the world some days. Everyone should spend time next weekend making beans at home. Pinto beans are a very easy place to start and give you the most bang for your buck.

Saturday dinner was a bit complicated. It had to be a vegan gluten free dinner. Yikes. I ended up with a mushroom ragu (that was way too watery) on polenta. Tisha brought a spinach salad, that was perfect. Dessert was a bizarre concoction of prunes, oranges, and cardamom syrup on ice cream (and soy cream). It was an okay dinner, but not my favorite by any means.

Sunday, my feet hurt from two days of cooking, so dinner was takeout.

Today, was sort-of-meatless Monday. See, CJ gave me these great crocks for my birthday and Valentine's Day.
I also had a lot of chicken stock left over from making chicken Friday night and no room in the freezer for it.

What could I do? I made super nummy, super tasty, super awesome French Onion Soup.

I used the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. It took over four hours to make; 2 1/2 half were inactive. It was very good and well worth it. While very few ingredients are used in the recipe, it would be too much work to paraphrase, so I suggest you get to the library and get the recipe yourself for your collection.

You do have a collection, don't you?

Labels: beans, chicken, mexican, mushroom, onion, rice, soup, vegan

Today, for Meatless Monday, we have roasted veggies and rice. Lots of fresh veggies and herbs were used. Pretty boring, but an easy meal.

I'm beginning to realize that Meatless Monday is tougher than I ever imagined. Not because it is hard to eat veggies or come up with food ideas. It is hard because it follows Meatful Sunday. We always have leftover meat in our fridge on Mondays, and I think it is a waste not to eat it on Monday. Why cook a completely new meal when we have more than enough tasty leftovers? Seems wasteful.

Anyway, click here to hear how CJ feels about the whole thing.

Labels: Meatless Monday, rice, veggie

Macaroni and Cheese. So good. So gooey. So cheesey.

I love macaroni and cheese, but I can't seem to make it well.

In the past month, I've made mac and cheese twice. The first time I followed this recipe from Alton Brown. I substituted half of the cheddar cheese for fontina. It was good, but it wasn't the ooey gooey goodness I had hoped for. It did have a very nice and crunchy crust which I really liked.

Last night, I tried this recipe from Paula Deen. I only used three eggs, not six, because that would be weird. I also used slightly different cheeses (medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, a colby jack mix, and velveeta). And, I actually added some spices, since this called for none (mustard and chili). It was fine, but it wasn't good. The eggs did weird things and you would end up biting into an egg chunk. It wasn't creamy. The crust on the top was just hard and gross.

So, what should I do next time? First, I really liked the sour cream in Paula's. I think I want to keep that up. I also really like Alton's panko crust. But what else? Without using a whole brick of velveeta, how do you make it gooey?

Please help.

Labels: cheese, help, macaroni, pasta

I don't like Hillary. I really hope her pro-death penalty, pro-using force in Iran, pro-Patriot Act, anti-gay marriage, more of the same butt loses tomorrow.

But, she inspired a good chicken.

I started with a very large chicken because mom and dad were coming over and we like leftovers. 24 hours in advance I salt and peppered the chicken and put rosemary under the skin and in the cavity.

1 hour before cooking take it out and bring it to room temperature. I then stuffed garlic under the skin and put garlic all around it and in the cavity. I also squeezed lemons all around and put them in the pan too.


The preheated oven was at 400. Put the chicken in breast up for 20 minutes. Then flip the whole thing over, which takes some skill. Cook breast down for 20 minutes and cook breast up until done. USE A THERMOMETER. Take out when it reaches 175 or so.

My skin split open, so it wasn't beautiful, but it was tasty.

Labels: chicken, garlic, lemon

Yeah, I'll say it. Barak Obama is barely better than Hillary Clinton. But he inspires a really nice soup.

Start with 2 Tablespoons of butter. This was adapted from an Anthony Bourdain recipe, by the way.
Melt it and sautee half an onion in it until translucent.

Then add 4 more Tablespoons of butter and a bunch of mushrooms. Sweat it all for 10 minutes.

Add 4 cups of chicken stock. I use Swanson's Organic because it was tested best by America's Test Kitchen.

Also add some parsley.

Bring to a boil and let simmer for 1 hour.
Then, take out your hand blender and blend.

Bring it back to a simmer and add 2 ounces sherry.

It is really good. Much better than Barak Obama.

Labels: mushroom, sherry, soup

With possibly the exception of Huckabee, anyone would be a better president than Bush.
So, while at the grocery store, thinking about my political meal, I found these massive beans in the bulk foods section.
So big, so beautiful, so pure, everything Bush isn't.

I soaked them overnight. I covered them with water and added half an onion and three cloves of garlic. I brought them to a boil, and simmered them for an hour and a half.

Then I added a bunch of Mexican oregano, two slices of bacon, and a beer.
You know, a real American beer. The Champagne of Beers. This beer would never deny anyone their rights. It would never detain someone at Guantanamo. It isn't shifty or creepy.

After another 45 minutes or so, I seasoned with salt and served.

They were tasty, but be warned, take a Beano with the beans or suffer the consequences.

Labels: beans, beer