Cooking

Array

Thanksgiving 2014

Collecting our t'giving meal recipe selections:

Thanksgiving to-do lists

Week Planning

Weekend

  • Ladies and gentlemen... sharpen your knives!
  • Bake cornbread and biscuits and begin drying process
  • Prep vegetables for brine
  • Prepare and cool brine solution
  • Pick up Turkey
  • (Make cranberry sauce)

Monday

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  • Rinse turkey, take out neck and giblets, and remove all the goop inside
  • Begin brining the turkey
  • trellosgiving Screenshot from 2013-11-30 085049.png

    Food hacking links

    One day, I'll find a drink interesting enough to get me to buy a bottle of Cynar: http://drinkstraightup.com/2013/10/22/bottecchia/

    Salt and cocktails: http://boozenerds.com/2013/10/20/salt/

    Smoke and cocktails: http://drinkstraightup.com/2013/09/26/the-smoked-cocktail/

    Useful ratios for cooking: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-free-yourself-from-recipes-with-a-f...

    Graham crackers, disguised as homemade cinnamon toast crunch: http://socialkitchenblog.com/2013/10/19/homemade-cinnamon-toast-...

    Foodie dice: http://www.wired.com/design/2013/10/foodie-dice/

    Food Hacking link roundup: Up in Smoke edition

    Cold smoking using a normal grill: http://lifehacker.com/5933210/transform-your-backyard-grill-into...

    Flavoring your wood chips: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2012/05/test-kitchen-t... (I kinda do this with my Brisket)

    A reminder and guide to calibrating stove and grill thermometers: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/dailydish/la-dd-test-kitche...

    Food Hacking: Wine tricks and Lobster Anesthesia Edition

    Save a bad wine by turning it into tasty jelly: http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/do-it-yourself/2012/04/ho...

    Tired of digging out the foil cutter? Twist and pull it off. How did I not know this before? (http://lifehacker.com/5922364/easily-remove-wine-bottle-foil-wra...)

    Easy packing for wine bottle protection - floaties: http://lifehacker.com/5922686/use-inflatable-arm-bands-to-safely...

    Cocoa crumbs - French trend and tasty treat: http://doriegreenspan.com/2012/06/often-in-life-and-so.html

    Tasty Ideas: Blog link roundup

    Social kitchen brings us an intriguing tea biscuit tweak: http://socialkitchenblog.com/2012/05/10/cumin-and-caraway-tea-bi...

    GoodBooze brings some spring cocktail ideas - this one, with strawberries and fizzy wine: http://goodbooze.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/the-friday-tipple-moth... and this one, with beer syrup (!) http://goodbooze.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/the-friday-tipple-goin...

    Recent Kitchen Experimentation

    On a whim, I bought a bunch of rhubarb at the farmer's market this weekend, figuring I could find a tasty recipe for it. I found a rustic rhubarb tart recipe at http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/05/rustic-rhubarb-tarts/ -- I made a few edits to their recipe, though. In the pastry, I used one whole egg instead of two yolks, and a flour mixture of 1 cup cornmeal and 1 1/2 cups flour. I didn't have any cream, so I just used 2% milk instead. In the compote, I added dash each of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and a 1/2 oz of dark rum.

    Closing out Winter, Welcoming Spring

    Last night, we had some friends over, serving our Pumpkin Raviolli using up the last of our pumpkin puree with an awesome beet-blood orange-fig chevre salad, fresh bread courtesy of the guests, and good wine and conversation courtesy of all involved. For dessert, I finally attempted my grandmother's strawberry shortcake, whipped-egg-risen cakes and all. It turned out well, but still a bit eggy (I used farm fresh eggs).

    We ended the night with some creative Manhattans, and all was good.

    Tonight, we continued on the celebrate-spring trajectory with a seared steelhead filet (with parsely, chives, lemon zest and a dusting of garlic and sage powder) served alongside some fiddle-head ferns which I blanched then sauteed with already-carmelizing onions and mushrooms in bacon fat. To both dishes, a dash of white wine was added.

    In other words, I'm very happy it's spring. We've begun haunting the various nearby farmer's markets for any sign of garlic tails.

    Brisket Success

    I spotted some Stubbs' Moppin' Sauce in the Austin airport on the way back from SXSW. It was handily past the screening point, and I snagged it; having been unable to source it in DC as yet.

    We finally got around to smoking up a brisket; and between increased patience, a smaller hunk of meat, and a better setup inside the grill itself, it all worked out. We got a great red crust around the outside and tender but juicy inside.

    Arganica Week 3

    This week we received our third Arganica delivery (apologies for forgetting to take a picture and post about our second delivery, which included locally milled flour).

    This week's delivery includes:

    Farm Eggs
    Pizza Dough
    Roasted Garlic Linguini
    Cremini Mushrooms
    York Apples
    Hydroponic Lettuce
    Avocado
    Parsley

    When this 1-month trial is done (next week), expect a longer post on our overall experience.

    Arganica Week 3

    Pumpkins!

    The local market has a ton of wonderful pumpkins that we're trying out recipes with. This week was the warty "Galeuse d'Eysines," which I think will get turned into something sweet (though the pumpkin fries weren't half bad).

    Fall Harvest

    This week fall arrived in full force in DC (actually, temperatures more like winter, but the first taste of cold anyhow...). We wanted to take advantage of the fall bounty suddenly available at Eastern Market, and so we spent most of our day preparing a tasty Italian-inspired fall harvest dinner (yes we began at 10 am by roasting said harvest vegetables...).

    fall harvest.

    Menu for the week of Feb 22: N'awlins

    In celebration of Mardi Gras, we're focusing on N'awlins style food

    Sunday: Shrimp, Chicken and Andouille sausage gumbo with dirty rice

    Monday: Steamed crab with old bay seasoned btter

    Menu for the week of Feb 16

    This week's menu followed our weekend away, so we didn't do very much planning or an extensive market shop. I'll call this week "Simple Comfort Foods."

    Monday - bread, cheese, and sausage leftovers from winestasting

    Tuesday - big salad

    Wednesday - taco night!!

    Thursday - lox and bagels and latkes (aka Jew food night)

    Friday - gourmet burgers

    Menu for the week of Feb 9

    Our plan for next week is all south of the border - Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto with pollo asado, enchiladas (half suizas style, half Lauriol Plaza-esque seafood enchiladas), gallo pinto leftovers (with fried cheese), and pupusas.

    Menu for the week of Feb 2

    The theme this week was "Mediterranean coast" - so we had southern French, Italian, and Middle-Eastern dishes.

    Monday - Gnocci in a cream truffle sauce. When I finalize the recipe for this, I'll post it. It's heart-stopping in at least two ways.

    Tuesday - Spiced, braised (in beer) lamb sausage with hummus

    Wednesday - mediterranean dip night with hummus, spicy hummus, tzatziki, and muhummara with pita.

    Thus and Friday - Manicotti topped with fresh pesto

    Inauguration Week Menu

    We celebrated Inauguration Week with Hawaiian and Chicago foods. Yes, we were too wimpy to try to make Kenyan.

    Sat - Hawaiian ceviche - Poke, Peruvian-style ceviche, and Poisson Cru

    Sun - Miso glazed cod with wasabi mashed potatoes and miso soup (Hawaiian-ish)

    Menu for the week of Jan 25, 2009

    In order to maximize what we can buy locally, we shop on Saturday morning for as much of our food for the week as is reasonable, at the neighborhood farmer's (-ish) market. To make that work, we try to set up our menu for the week before (sometimes, during) our market run. I'll try to post our menus (with recipes where we have them!)

    January 25-30, 2009: Island Week

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