Eat Drink Laugh Love

We love roasted chicken. In the cooler months, we roast a chicken at least twice a month. Andreas does a great job and we usually get two to three meals out of it, and we also make stock from the carcass.  However, the summer does not really make it easy to do this.  No one wants their oven set to 400 degrees for an hour an a half.

A couple of weeks ago, I was heading out to the beach with Katerina, leaving Andreas to nurse a hangover.  He asked what I wanted for dinner and I jokingly said I wanted roast chicken.  Then when I thought of it, I decided I really did want roasted chicken!  We decided we’d try to use the grill to make it.  We knew it was possible, and I told him that I heard you could make is using a beer can.  I left him with a headache and a challenge.  Well, my industrious husband did not disappoint!  When I got home, he was armed with a recipe, a 3 lb chicken and a twelve pack of canned beer.  Good canned beer, even (Whales Tale Pale Ale).

This method is ridiculously easy and I implore you to try this one day.  This is what he did.

Rinsed and dried the chicken.
Seasoned it with salt, pepper and a barbeque rub.
Opened the can of beer and removed about 1 inch of beer (approximately 2 sips of beer).  Poked a couple of other holes in the top. Added salt, pepper and rub to the beer.
Started the grill and get it up to 400 degrees.  Shut off the middle burner.
Used a small smoker box with applewood chips.
Put the chicken on the beer can, placed it on the grill.
Let it cook for about 2 hours, making sure it stayed at around 4oo.

Results?

PERFECT!!!!

The meat was literally falling off the bone.  I couldn’t really detect a beer flavor, but it was moist and flavorful from the bbq rub.

How happy am I that I can now have roasted chicken all year round?

Andreas and I are totally taking advantage of the fact that our neighbor is home from college for the summer and available to babysit for us on short notice.  We’ve been able to get out to dinner a least once a week in the past month.   Last week we went really wild and went out on a Friday night!  I spent Thursday looking on Open Table to find something for 8:00pm – not an easy feat.  I came across a place called Noche that was in the South End and had availability.  Now, I know I’ve been out of the loop, but I do try to keep up with restaurant news, and I hadn’t ever heard of this place.  I checked out the Website and the menu and it sounded good.  The reviews on Open Table were good, so I decided to take the chance.

Turns out that this is in the old Icarus site.  They did a beautiful job on the decor.  All white and dark colors with cool art work depicting the phases of the moon and the like.  Our waiter was adorable and good with the suggestions.  We finally got around to asking him how long the restaurant had been here and found out it had only been two weeks!  Two weeks, and here we were.  Unheard of, really.   I guess it can’t really count when I had no idea that this restaurant even existed, but I’m counting it.

OK, now onto the important stuff – the food.  We were both impressed. For a restaurant in its infancy, the dishes were well thought out, well presented and delicious.  We started out the evening with the mussels steamed with sake, sweet miso sauce, and scallions.  The mussels were sweet and tender and the sauce was fantastic. We finished up all the bread on the table sopping it up.   We also tried the roasted tomato, which turned out to be fantastic. I was a bit leery, but it did not disappoint.  It was a roasted beefsteak tomato topped with creamed spinach and a chipotle cheddar gratin.

For our main course, Andreas got the lamb chops. They were served with an apple cutney and potato lyonnaise (basically fried potatoes and sauteed onions. Delish!)  I had the pan seared scallops served with steamed asparagus and a caper butter sauce.  The scallops were seared to perfection with a lovely crust on the top and bottom.  The asparagus was sliced the long way and crispy tender, and the caper butter accompanied both very well.  The portion sizes were very reasonable. Andreas had two chops and I had three good sized scallops. I was full when I finished.

For dessert we went with the old standby, creme brule. It did not disappoint.  All of this was accompanied by a nice Sterling Cabernet Sauvignon.

All in all, it was a great dinner out and a very cool place.  And to top it all off, I’ll be able to tell people that I’ve already eaten here when they ask me if I’ve heard about it.

One of my favorite things about summer are the cocktails.  Last summer I was pregnant and missed out on all of the refreshing options out there, so this year, I’m especially excited about it.  I decided I needed to find a signature cocktail – it’s nice to order one before dinner.  I usually am boring and just have a vodka tonic, but sometimes I want to venture out.

I’m not a big fan of traditional martinis and the fruity variations are too sweet for me.  Never mind the fact that one will knock me off my feet.

What I really love is a Mint Julep.  So simple, it’s silly.  It’s basically a mojito but it’s made with whiskey instead of rum.  Crushed ice, simple syrup, mint, and whiskey.  They are very popular in the South and I believe are the “official” drink of the Kentucky Derby.

Strangely, I can’t always get these out at bars.  If a place serves mojito’s then I’m in business.  Imagine my excitement when I found out the Legal C Bar has a drink on their menu called the Whiskey Smash.  It is an exact replica of a mint julep served in a double rocks glass.  It is absolutely wonderful.

We mostly make these at home.  We planted mint a couple summers ago and now we have it coming out of our ears.  Note to self, at your next house, plant the mint in a container.  I had heard that mint spreads like a weed, now I know it to be true.  Anyhoo, when I’m in the mood for a julep (or I guess a smash), we can go out to the garden and get enough mint to make a pitcher.  Andreas slips right back into his old bartender mode and makes a great drink.  He makes the simple syrup ahead of time so it can chill, and has the ratio of syrup to whiskey down to a science.   Where we sometimes disagree about how the drink gets made is in the preparation of the ice.

The ice, in my opinion, must be crushed.  I don’t mean hit it with a meat tenderizer crushed (Andreas’s method).  I mean put it in the blender and hit “ice crusher”.  It’s a pain in the butt and a lot of ice cubes do not go a long way.  If you’re making the drink for more than two people you will spend a lot of time with the blender, but it’s totally worth it.   Without the crushed ice, the drink is really strong.  I guess you could cut it with water, but it’s fun to chew the ice.  I’m sure the bartenders at Legal C Bar hate when three of us at a table order the drink at the same time, but it’s his job, so I don’t feel that bad.

If you like the taste of whiskey, please try this wonderfully refreshing drink.  To me, it tastes like summer.

…if you like cauliflower at all, that is.  Add this veggie to my list of foods that I enjoy now that I’m an adult.  We never had it when we were kids.  I don’t think my mom liked it.  Then, when exposed to it, I couldn’t get past the smell.  In fact, I probably would never have eaten it at all if not for the S*uth Beach diet.   Mind you, I never made it past the two week initiation phase of the diet, but I did learn how to make mashed cauliflower.  It tasted like mashed potatoes with a bit of tang.  From there, I never ventured to eating it in floret form until I learned about roasting it.  If you’ve never roasted cauliflower, you are doing a great disservice to your palate.  The roasting brings out the sweetness in the vegetable, almost candying it.  I will often roast this in the winter with sweet potatoes.

That pretty much summed up my cauliflower repertoire until last week when I found this wonderful recipe for a new, fresh way to serve it up.  Epicurious came through again with  Cauliflower, White Bean, and Feta Salad. This just happened to be recipe kismet for me.  I wanted to make a white bean dish and happened to have some cauliflower that was on the verge of being composted.  Reading the recipe, I was not sure if this would be good. It just sounded so — white.  And I wasn’t too keen on raw cauliflower.  What does that do to one’s digestive system?  The ratings for it were really high, so I took a look at the reviews.  I got some great advice that convinced me to try it.  Best advice of all?  Blanch the cauliflower.  Second best?  Dump the endive.

Let me tell you, this was delicious!  So flavorful.  Surprising, huh?  It certainly was to me.  But the rosemary infused oil and the lemon dressing really add a kick to the dish.  The fresh herbs make a strong impression – I would not substitute dry in this recipe.  They’re necessary, not only for the flavor, but to add some much need color to the salad.

Andreas and I enjoyed this with grilled chicken breasts and asparagus.  I know the recipe says it’s a winter mix, but it tasted so light and springy to me.  There was a good portion left over, so I took it to work the next day.  The flavors really settled and it didn’t get mushy, like I thought it would.  I ended up sharing what was left with some friends at work and they loved it.  I had to immediately forward the recipe.  I already signed up to bring it to cookout next month.

If you like cauliflower, or are even on the fence about it, try this salad.  You will thank me!

I’m the kind of sushi eater who really enjoys the soy and wasabi almost as much as I do the actual piece of sushi.  I lovingly spread wasabi over each piece individually and then do this crazy chop stick maneuver where I flip the piece so that it goes into the soy sauce wasabi side first.  I give it a nice soak and then pop it in my mouth.  If done correctly, I will taste the soy first, followed by the wallop of a good coating of wasabi and then the cool rice and fish.  I love that heat that wasabi delivers.  It doesn’t get my mouth hot, like a jalapeno or buffalo wing sauce.  It gets my nose and head hot.  It can literally clear out a stuffed nose.  I think of it as a clean heat.

While going through recipes a couple of weeks ago looking for something to do with salmon, I found a recipe for wasabi soy salmon.  The recipe called for wasabi powder.  Intrigued, I scanned the Asian section of my supermarket to see if I could find this.  Indeed I did and let me tell you, this has opened up a whole slew of things that are good with wasabi!  I guess I never really thought about where wasabi came from.  I certainly didn’t know that it was a powder that you added water to to form a paste.  Or that a really simple marinade for pretty much anything is soy sauce, minced garlic and a bit of wasabi powder.

Last week we grilled swordfish after using the special marinade above.  Then we made a wasabi cream using some plain yogurt mixed with the powder and water.   We were both saying that we could use this as a dip for vegetables or chips, or as a topping on grilled vegetables or chicken.

If you are a fan of wasabi, do yourself a favor and go to your grocery store and lay out $2.99 for a small can of this powder.  You won’t be sorry!

We went to Long Island to visit Andreas’s family over Easter weekend.   My family makes quite a deal out of Easter.  We get dressed in our Easter finest and go to church.  We even still get baskets from the “Easter Bunny”.  It’s not as big as Christmas, but it’s right up there with Thanksgiving. We all get together at my mom’s house and have the traditional dinner – ham and the usual accompaniments.   I am in charge of making deviled eggs, and we eat our weight in chocolate.

It’s a bit different for Andreas’s family.  His mom is a career waitress and works on Easter Sunday.  I’m not sure what they did as kids, but these days, Easter kind of goes quietly by.   This weekend just happened to work best for a visit to see his aunt visiting from Wales and to see the rest of the family.    Since we do every holiday with my family, I was good with going to visit.

We had a great visit with the whole family on Saturday. Gerty (Andreas’s mom) took the night off, so we able to all go out to dinner together.  The Eric Matern’s were all dressed in their Easter finest for a bit of a peek into their Sunday.  They were going to have an Easter egg hunt, but it would be really hard for us to fit it in and get to the ferry on time.

Easter Sunday, we got up, had bagels and put on our Easter Finest.  We took Aunt Erika and Aunt Helga to church with us, and dropped them off at the train.   Then there was just the three of us.  I really wanted to find someplace to have brunch.  I know that a lot of places were offering a special Easter brunch – we just had to find them.

We decided to head up to the North Fork to be closer to the ferry. If you are not familiar with the North Fork of Long Island, it is a winery mecca.  It’s a beautiful part of the state and it’s always a pleasure to drive up there.   There are several small idyllic towns that have cute town centers and quaint restaurants. However, most of them were closed.  Even a lot of the wineries were closed.  And then we hit pay dirt – Laurel Lake Winery was hosting an Easter Brunch.  I ran in to make sure they could accommodate us and to make sure it would be OK to bring a baby.  The tasting room had about 10 tables set with three occupied.  Two of the occupied tables had kids!  Babies even!  There was a musical duo playing and singing nice music.  It was perfect.  Even better, they could sit us right away!

The dining room and buffet

The brunch was catered by a company called La Bonne Quiche.  It was a set menu for $32 a person which included a glass of wine or a mimosa.  I am happy to say the food was delicious!

The food came out in courses and I thought it was going to be too much food, but it was portioned out perfectly.

First course:  Fluffy scrambled egg with sausage, ham, fresh fruit, and hot cross buns.

The eggs were very nice, but the true hero of this course was the sausage.  It was so good!  It had a slight curry flavor to it.   There were three of them, and we made sure the third was cut in two identically sized pieces!  I even ate some fruit.  The hot cross buns were good, but there were raisins, so I had to do some picking.

We chose to have the wine for our drink. I had the Sauvignon blanc and Andreas had the Cabernet Sauvignon.  The North Fork really excels at white wines, so mine was the better choice.

Course 1

There was a nice break between the first and second course.  Thank goodness because this was the heaviest course.  There was an individual quiche with swiss cheese and spinach and a heavenly vanilla maple French toast souffle with fresh berries.  The quiche was very good, but the French toast was superb.  I’m not normally a big fan of sweet breakfast foods, but this was awesome.   Actually, the two dishes complemented each other very well.

The last course was good, but it paled in comparison to the first two.  Gorgonzola chicken salad with red grapes and asparagus and string bean vinaigrette.  The chicken was served in a cup with a bread stick and was definitely good. I think if I had that without having the two previous courses, I would have really liked it.  The asparagus and string bean salad was really just OK.  My least favorite.

At some point we got another glass of wine.  We were really enjoying ourselves! We decided this was actually a wonderful way to celebrate our first Easter as a family.  The other little kids were up and dancing to the music, and it was just a nice relaxing time.  It was special, too.  How often do you get to sit in a winery on a beautiful 70 degree Easter Sunday and have a wonderful meal and lovely wine.

To finish the dinner, dessert was a carrot cake cupcake and old fashioned lemon pound cake. By this time I was pretty full so I had to focus on just one dessert and the pound cake won hands down for me.  It was so yummy!  I want to try to make it some day.  It was dense and moist with just enough of a lemon flavor. The carrot cupcake was good, but it had the raisins and it just wasn’t worth my picking time.

After we ate, we took a walk around the grounds and watched the older kids participate in a egg hunt.  We also watched folks come in for tastings and had a great time people watching.  By then it was time for us to head to Orient Point and pick up the ferry.

It was a wonderful special day.  I think we will have to do something like that more often for holidays.

Happy Easter!

In my opinion, chicken cacciatore is a grown up dish. My mom used to make it, when we were kids, and it wasn’t a big hit. I think it was the combination of the big chunks of vegetables and the chicken on the bone mixed with the tomato sauce.   Now that I’m a grown up I think that the way the flavors of the peppers, onions, and mushrooms combine with the tomato sauce is wonderful.  Last week, I was trying to come up with a good idea for our pasta dinner and had a sudden craving for this dish.  I decided that I would use boneless chicken breasts and thighs instead of the bone-in.  Most of the recipes I found online didn’t require a long cooking time, so I didn’t need to use the crock pot.  The recipe I found turned out fantastic – the use of capers and marsala really give it a extra kick.  I served it with rotini, which did a nice job of catching the sauce.

Andreas actually ate the leftovers for two meals – I think that may be a record!  I will definitely make it again.  I love being a grown up!

If you love to go out to eat, like Andreas and I do, there is a mourning period after you have a child.  You think you may never go out for a nice meal ever again.  We’ve been really good about taking Kat out to eat with us, and usually stick to lunch.  We’ve gone out a few times for dinner, but it’s much more of a crap shoot as to whether you’ll get serene baby or cranky baby.

Just recently, we’ve gone to a couple of places for brunch and this seems to be the perfect meal to take a kid.  Most people brunch on the weekends where there’s more of a family time atmosphere.  I wrote about our trip to Market a couple of posts ago, and since then have gone to a couple of other places that we will most certainly go back to.

The first is Hyde (no Website) in Hyde Park, MA.  We’ve been to dinner and breakfast there before, but just rediscovered it.   Here’s my original post that gives the history of the restaurant.  The decor hasn’t changed yet, but I did hear the co-owner say that they are planning a renovation. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do.  I do know one thing – they do brunch very well.  Lots of different options in addition to the traditional brunch items.  I discovered my new favorite side:  roast pork hash.  This is pieces of roast pork cooked with diced potatoes and spinach.  I love the idea of something other than bacon or sausage as the meat side.  I had this with two poached eggs and a grilled english muffin (the ONLY way an english muffin should be prepared).

Andreas had a very exciting dining experience as he was introduced to the Beermosa.  What is a beermosa you ask?  It’s a white Belgium Ale (think Blue Moon) with a splash of OJ.  It was actually really good.  The owner is a beer (snob) connoisseur much like Andreas and serves all of Andreas’s favorite brews.  He also works with a local brewery – Blue Hills Brewery and used their white ale for the drink.  Hyde hosts beer dinners, much like a wine dinner, that we are dining to go to.  Someday.

In addition to his wonderful drink he had his favorite breakfast – smoked salmon benedict.  We had  such a nice relaxing morning, that we’re aiming to make this a semi-monthly tradition.

Hanging with Daddy at Hyde

Then a couple of weeks ago we went to a newer restaurant in East Milton Square, Abby Park, with Christine & Mike.  Andreas and I are hoping to live in this area one day, so it was exciting to find that new restaurants are opening up there.   We went on the Sunday during the great rains of 2010, leaving our leaking basement for a couple hours of escape.  This is a lovely space with an open kitchen and a warm atmosphere.  They had a really good brunch menu as well.   Once we sat down they brought over a basket with little pastries.   Talk about knowing the way to someone’s heart.  We all chose something different and were all completely pleased with our meals.  They offer several different types of benedicts, which appealed to everyone but me.  I’m not a huge fan of hollandaise sauce.   Christine had the vegetarian benedict –  with artichokes, spinach, asparagus & roasted red peppers on brioche.  Andreas had the Scottish with you guessed it, smoked salmon, roasted red pepper-onion marmalade & hollandaise on brioche.  Mike went all sorts of crazy and ordered steak & eggs.  He had to travel that day and figured he might as well have his big meal in the morning.  I had a delicious dish – cast iron baked eggs  that was 2 eggs baked with home made linguica hash, tomato & farmers cheese.   It was served in the cast iron pan and it was delicious!  I will definitely go back and I’m looking forward to trying it for dinner, too!

Once the weather gets consistently nicer, I want to venture into the South End.  Stay tuned!

Andreas and I usually have pasta with red sauce at least once a week.   We try to mix it up and make it a little bit more exciting.  One week we may use homemade pasta, or filled pasta.  The next we’ll add something different to the sauce.  Last week we decided to make fra diavolo.  This type of sauce is usually served with lobster or different types of seafood.  We had shrimp, so that’s what we used.  There is a great recipe on the Food Network site.  It’s an Emeril recipe and it is so simple to make!  We almost always have the ingredients we need, which is always plus in my book.   We served it over fresh tagliatelle with salad and bread on the side.  Break open a nice bottle or red, and it’s quite the meal!

This week it was crumbled hot Italian sausage in sauce served over cheese filled tortellini.  Anyone have any other good ideas for pasta night?

A couple of Saturday nights ago, my lovely friends Jen and Jack offered to babysit for us so that we could go to the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) for the premiere of the new exhibition.  We are members, and we love to take advantage of these premieres.  Christine and Mike are also members, so we try to go together.  Usually, these take place during the week so this was a special treat that it happened on a Saturday.  We decided to make an evening out of it, and go out to dinner after the museum.

I’ve posted about 224 Boston here before.   I have to say that this time they more than redeemed themselves on the food and the service front!

We made reservations for 8:00pm.  We arrived a bit early, got a seat at the bar and ordered a pre-dinner cocktail.  Our table was ready right on time, though and we sat down shortly after we got our drinks.  We got a great little booth in the front room that was right next to a heater.  This pleased me to no end. I hate being cold in a restaurant.

Our adorable waiter was very attentive, and we ordered a couple of appetizers right away.  We started with the fried calamari tossed with baby arugula, kalamata olives, chipped roma tomatoes & lemon vinaigrette and a salad of bibb lettuce tossed with a creamy blue stilton cheese dressing and topped with diced holland and bell peppers, shredded carrot and grape tomato.

There were so many delicious sounding entrees on the menu that we really needed to divide and conquer. No ordering the same thing (sometimes Mike and I have to get the same thing. We have the same tastes for things).  Andreas ordered the Grilled Cherry, Honey and Hoisin marinated New York style boneless Pork Steak served with braised flowering Kale and roasted Red Creamer Potato.  It’s very unusual to see pork steak on a menu, but this was done beautifully.  I had a bite and it was flavorful and juicy.  Mike ordered a chicken special.  It was grilled Statler chicken served over rice with a mushroom sauce.   He loved it.  It was right up his alley since it was served over rice and not potatoes. Mike’s not a big potato fan (go figure!)  Christine ordered the Grilled Salmon served with winter Squash Risotto, and grilled Asparagus garnished with Zested Lemon.  Her salmon was lovely and cooked perfectly.  The risotto was very good with a strong citrus flavor. There was a lot of it, though. It could have been a full entree.  I had the Grilled Bone in Black Angus Filet Mignon served with Sauteed Broccoli Florets, Cheddar & Sour Cream Mashed Potato, topped with Caramelized Bermuda Onion and a Marjoram Demi Glace.  My goodness, was this good!  Bone in steak just has a better flavor. Especially in a filet.  I must confess that I completely cleaned my plate.  One of the nice things about out entrees was that the vegetables and starches were well thought out and complemented the main component.  So many times they are just an afterthought.

For dinner we ordered a lovely red wine.  I forgot to write it down. I need to start remembering to do that!

Believe it or not, we all managed to save room for dessert.  Well, Andreas saved room for espresso and Grand Marnier.  Christine had the mixed berry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream.  Mike had the creme brulee, and I had the dessert special which was red velvet cake with a cream cheese frosting.   Is this cake making a comeback?  This is the third time in about a month that it’s been on a menu.  I had never had it before – it is pretty good!

All in all, it was a great night.  I will gladly go back to 224 Boston anytime.  One day, I’d love to go in the summer time in sit in the little patio area.

We arrived home to a sleeping baby and two very calm babysitters.  Thanks, Jen and Jack!