Thought

Just because it's a weeknight and we're making cheezy (literally and figuratively) ground beef burritos, it doesn't mean it can't looks as good as it tastes.

Cauliflower Bisque

While in Charleston, C and I had an amazing Cauliflower Bisque which was drizzled with truffle oil. You know a dish is good when you are still talking about it months later. So, when I brought home a head of cauliflower over the weekend, guess what was immediately on the menu for Sunday night?! Since I didn’t have any truffle oil on hand (and after looking in two stores with no luck for it), I decided to just make my own infused oil with mushrooms and crispy bacon and use that as a topping to try and give it the same earthy flavor.

Click Here for Printable Recipe

Ingredients
Olive Oil
1 head cauliflower, cut into flowerets
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
2 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
48 oz chicken stock
salt/pepper to taste

I decided to throw a potato in the mix to help thicken it, but that seemed to mute the cauliflower flavor a bit. It was tasty, but I think if I made it again I would leave out the potato and just use another thickener if necessary.

Topping (optional)
Olive Ol
4 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 slice bacon, cut into small pieces
salt/pepper to taste

Instructions
Heat olive oil in a medium stock pot. Add bacon pieces and render for a few minutes. Add the onion, celery, and potato and cook until vegetables begin to soften, but not brown. Add the cauliflower and stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Once cauliflower softens, blend in food processor or blender - strain if desired.

Topping:
Heat olive oil in small sauce pan. Once the oil is hot, add the bacon and sizzle away. Once it begins to crisp, add mushrooms and cook until they soften.

C paired the soup with a beautiful white wine - 2004 Tandem Chardonnay, Richard Vineyard

Cake Batter Ice Cream (aka French Vanilla)

With temperatures in the 80's last week, we decided to dust off the ice cream maker and whip up some frozen goodness this weekend. While I'm partial to natural vanilla, there's something about the custard-like flavor of French vanilla that reminds me of cake batter (and who doesn't like to eat cake batter).

For this batch we went with a recipe from The Chocolate Gourmand. I've included the recipe below, but you can find step-by-step photos on the original website.

Ingredients:
3 cups half and half
1 vanilla bean
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks

Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place the seeds and bean pod in the half and half and heat over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and proceed to making the custard.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until well blended. The color will change to a beautiful bright yellow when this happens. With the mixer still running, slowly pour in the simmering half and half. Continue blending and then return to the stove. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. When a finger drawn across the back of a wooden spoon leaves a path, it is thick enough.

Strain the mixture to remove any large vanilla fibers or bits of egg that may have gotten cooked. Don't worry, the vanilla bean seeds will pass through.

Cinnamon Hazelnut Biscotti

A hot cup of coffee and a bag of leftover hazelnuts from Easter were the inspiration for making these cookies. I went searching for a cinnamon-hazelnut biscotti recipe online and found one on allrecipes.com ... click here for original

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup hazelnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; mix into the egg mixture. Stir in the hazelnuts. Shape dough into two equal logs approximately 12 inches long. Place logs on baking sheet, and flatten out to about 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake for about 30 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are golden and the center is firm. Remove from oven to cool on the pans. When loaves are cool enough to handle, use a serrated knife to slice the loaves diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet.

Bake for an additional 10 minutes, turning over once. Cool completely, and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Happy Easter!

Easter just isn't Easter without peeps, cadbury cream eggs, and of course...Lambie Cake! This was my first solo attempt. After three surgical procedures, here he is.


and when life gives you excess cake batter...

Charleston Food & Wine Festival

After finishing up a long term project at work, C and I took a weekend getaway to Charleston for the Food & Wine Festival. It was sort of a last minute trip, so we were limited on our choice of events, but it was a fantastic break.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on Meeting Street. The building is the original Citadel Military College, with many of the original features restored. Here is the atrium...



C checks out the little port hole window in the bedroom. These appear all over the building. I'm sure they served a purpose at some point (anyone know?)


The first event we went to was Bubbles & Sweets late Saturday evening,



Amaretto Cocktails as you entered (yes, that woman's hat is attached to the table)


a DJ to keep the party going...






candy sushi




Cake with a BOURBON MILKSHAKE ...the inventer of that drink was a genious :)


Chocolates from NYC


My favorite sweet of the evening...


and it's creator...


and look who it is, Jim Cantore from the weather channel...


and Sam Talbot from Top Chef


We spent the next morning in the Culinary Village and had tickets for the tasting tents (our hotel's the castle looking building behind the tent)...






Hanging at the Childress Racing/Winery tent...






CHEERS!

C's Slaw

Since we woke to a beautifully sunny morning, I dropped C off at the gym and headed to the monthly farmers market downtown. While the produce options are still pretty slim, there were beautiful heads of cabbage to be found. I picked up one green and one purple. And since the weather channel promises me that tomorrow will be just as beautiful, we decided we will have a small bbq including some homemade slaw.



Ingredients



1 head green cabbage, shredded
½ head red cabbage, shredded
4 medium carrots, shredded



For the dressing, mix together...
1.5 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
4.5 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 dash black pepper
1.5 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour dressing over shredded cabbage and carrots, toss and refrigerate. For the best taste, make this a day ahead so the flavours have a chance to blend.

c's steak au poivre

With the threat of wintery weather all weekend, we decided to not even consider going out to eat. Instead, we ventured out on Saturday morning to the Fresh Market to pick up what we needed to eat out, but in. I love to browse at Fresh Market, but it didn't take us long to get drawn in by the beautiful Hereford filet mignon and C's idea to have steak au poivre (a French dish consisting of a steak coated in cracked peppercorns). Traditionally it's just coated on one side, but C likes them on the side too (and a little gorgonzola crumbled on top never hurts).

Our method:

Crack a pile of whole peppercorns with a rolling pin, and then warm them in a little olive oil over low heat for 15 minutes.



Dip steak into peppercorn mixture and coat one side completely.





Heat oven to 450°

Meanwhile, heat a pat of butter and a little olive oil in a cast iron pan until it starts to shimmer. Sear steaks until you have a nice crust on both sides (3-4 minutes per side)


(one au poivre and one salt/pepper steak shown)

Once the steaks are seared, move them to the hot oven (here we used a sheet pan, but if your searing pan is oven safe, just throw it in the oven)



These steaks were fairly thick, so it took about 7 minutes for medium rare. Yum.

No Knead Italian Bread

I know its been a while, but we're back, and what better to start than with bread! This recipe takes advanced prep, but it's worth it for a fresh crusty loaf out of the oven.



Adapted from NY Times/Sullivan Street Bakery.

Yield: one 1½ lb loaf
3 cups bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water

Equipment Needed: Covered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, pyrex, ceramic, enamel...something that can go into a 450F oven.)

1. Mix dough: The night before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on countertop.



2. Shape & preheat: The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape. You can use your hands if you like, just keep your hands wet so that the dough does not stick. Generously dust a cotton towel with flour. Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it nap for 2 hours. When you've got about a half hour left, slip your covered pot into the oven and preheat to 450F.



3. Bake: Your dough should have doubled in size. Remove pot from oven. Holding towel, dump wobbly dough into pot. Doesn't matter which way it lands. Shake to even dough out. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F. Remove and let cool on wired rack. If not eating right away, you can re-crisp crust in 350F oven for 10 minutes.

Brined Butterball

This weekend C and I attended a "turkey tasting" with our local chapter of Slow Foods... think wine tasting, but with turkey instead. We were to compare a standard, supermarket bird with a heritage White Holland turkey.

We volunteered to make the standard bird for the event.

Here is our bird almost submerged in the brine. This time around we used salt, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and an orange.


After brining, we roasted in the oven. Inside the cavity we used a kitchen sink of aromatics


Our 20 pound beauty...


For those who might be interested, here are the two birds side by side. The heritage bird (on the right) was a very slender looking bird, unlike the butterball that looked a bit like Dolly Parton.

Thanksgiving

I'm not sure how it happened, but my Thanksgiving photos only included breakfast and a quick peak at the roasting turkey... I guess I was too busy eating!







Hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day!!