Eat Drink Laugh Love

We had a big weekend last weekend. Not only was this Kat’s first plane ride, but we escaped the frigid New England temps and escaped to sunny and warm Florida to see Mark & Steven.  The weather was a balmy 75ish degrees and it was wonderful to sit outside in short sleeves and flip flops!

Now on to the important stuff, the food.  We have always had a blast cooking and eating with these two, and this time was no different.  They used to live close enough that we would invite them over for dinner on a whim when we had a fun recipe we wanted to try.  Since it was hard to go out to dinner with baby in tow, we decided to make fantabulous meals.

For Friday night’s dinner we made something that Andreas and I used to make all of the time when entertaining.  In fact, it’s one of the first fancy dishes we made together - Prosciutto-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce.  This is actually a really easy recipe to make, but it tastes super fancy.   We really made a day of it.  We went to the grocery store to get the ingredients, then all hung in the kitchen while I pulled it together.  We were lucky enough to have some garden fresh tomatoes, so I made a little bruschetta, while dinner was cooking.   We served it with home made spatzle using the spatzle maker Steven got for Christmas, and sauteed baby spinach tossed with the fresh tomatoes and ricotta salata.  It came out so good!  Definitely needs to be put back into regular rotation.

While we were licking our plates during dinner, we decided to talk about Saturday night’s dinner.  Don’t you do that?  :)  At first we were all gung ho to make cassoulet, but we had no idea where to find duck confit.  Steven has Juli* Chi!lds fantastic cookbook, and we started to talk about the movie and decided to make her Beef Bourguignon.  Back to the supermarket we went on Saturday and started cooking at around 4:00pm.  At 9:00pm we sat down to one of the most decadent, delicious meals I’ve had in a long time.  We served it with steamed baby yukon golds and green beans and crusty French bread.

We followed up that wonderful meal with some awesome rock band 2.

It was a great visit, as always.

Lest you all think that I didn’t eat and make wonderful meals during my blogging drought, I started to think about some great dishes we had over the past few months.   I saw this recipe in the May issue of Bon Appetit and decided we must make this as soon as possible.  We invited Jen and Jack over for a Friday night because this was going to be too much to make for the two of us.

While the pork came out really well, the leeks sort of disintegrated into the sauce, so that it was more of a thick leek paste.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still delicious, but it didn’t look like the picture from the magazine.  I think it was just a problem with overcooking the leeks.  We had to try again.

Fast forward to Mark & Steven’s visit in July.  As anyone who lives in New England knows, we had an unusually cool summer, so it made sense to use the stove top instead of the grill.  This time we knew what to avoid, and the sauce came out perfect!  We were sopping up the sauce with whatever we could find and fighting for the last bit of it.

We used organic pork chops the first time, but not the second.  Honestly?  Couldn’t tell the difference.  This is definitely one to try at home.

Kat’s christening went very well.  It was a beautiful day, and the ceremony was mercifully short.  She only lost it once, but like my aunt says, she was just “shouting the devil out”.  She looked so pretty in her dress and was a very good guest of honor.

Although everyone thought that I had too much food, there really wasn’t too much left at the end of the day.  Here’s what we had, and who was nice enough to make it.

Appetizers

Taco Dip – Christine made this.  This dip is really good when made with the soy crumbles, and a great vegetarian dish.  She couldn’t find the crumbles and was nice enough to make it with ground turkey, even though she doesn’t eat meat. This dip is always a big hit.

White Bean Dip – Bonus dip from Christine!  I love, love, love white bean dip.  This one was delicious.  We served it with pita chips.

Shrimp Dip – I made this.  It’s a borrowed recipe, but I love it.  My mother-in-law also loves it, so I really made it for her. She actually took the leftovers back to NY.

Cheese spread – My Aunt Ellen’s famous cheese spread!  It’s made of nothing but processed ingredients, but it is so delicious that you don’t care.

Chicken Wings – My mom’s cousin Ellen makes such delicious wings, that this was a no brainer.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it to the christening, but since she is one of the nicest people in the world, she still made them.  She only uses drumsticks, which is how it should be.

Crabbies – OK,  I referred to these in my previous post.  My cousin Karen makes these delicious appetizers.  We only see her at Christmas and so we only get them then.  These treats are bite size, buttery, crispy with just the right amount of cheese and crab taste.  Several other family members have tried to make these with little success.  I am the last to be added to that list.  I don’t know if she is holding back a key ingredient to throw us off the trail, but mine really didn’t taste anything like hers.  There are a couple of things that I think I got wrong. Although the recipe calls for canned crab meat, I think she actually uses the fake “crab meat” found in the seafood section.  The recipe also says to use margarine.  I only had butter.  I actually think you need to use margarine to get the butter flavor. Does that make any sense?  Anyhoo, mine tasted more cheesy and crabby than Karen’s and they weren’t as crunchy.  The guests who have never had the crabbies thought the were good, but my family knew better.

Wow, this is going to be a long post.  Bear with me!

Main Dishes

Meatballs and sausage – My Aunt Mary made these.  Everything this woman makes turns out wonderful and her meatballs are no exception.

Stuffed cabbage – Aunt Ellen made these.  Everyone loves them.  I’m not a big fan, but it’s not all about me now is it?

Eggplant Parmesan – I made this, but I totally cheated.  I bought these at C*stco, threw on some sauce (I did make the sauce) and cheese, and Voila!  Eggplant parm.  It was really good.

Baked Ziti – I have a great recipe for this that I found on Food Network.com.  I used the recipe for the basic marinara sauce all of the time.  I like this version because it doesn’t have ricotta cheese in it.

Desserts

Still with me?  I’m almost done.  Listing out everything does make it seem like there was a lot of food, no?  Well, that doesn’t stop everyone from eating most of the desserts.

Cake – My mom made the cake – white with white frosting and a pretty pink cross.  Delicious and simple.

Cookies – Beth made her famous cake cookies.  These deserve a post of their own.  Suffice it to say that there are never left over cake cookies and they are usually half gone by the time we put the desserts out.  Aunt Ellen made her equally famous Reese’s PBC stuffed chocolate chip cookies.  Erika added a new cookie to the mix that were a big hit.  They were a sugar cookie filled cool whip with caramel.  My mother-in-law loved these cookies, and she’s not normally a dessert person.  My friend Jack made ginger snaps and these were a huge hit.  I don’t know how he manages to make them both crispy and chewy, but he pulls it off.  My mom and aunt were in heaven with these.

Ricotta Pie – I did it! I made the pie.  I did not end up using the recipe I posted previously because my mom had a great recipe.  My crust came out really good and the filling was sweet, but not overly done.  I think people liked it.  There was a bit leftover, so I just had to have it for breakfast the next day.  Nice and healthy.

All in all, it was a lovely day with friends and family. Andreas and I love to host gatherings and to feed people and we do it well.

Thanks for coming to my Christening!

Katerina’s christening is on Sunday.  At first, we were going to rent out the private room at a local restaurant, to have them take care of the food and the drink and ensure we had plenty of space.  Unfortunately, when we tried to book the room, it was already booked up for a baby shower.  It also looked like it was going to be way more expensive than I originally thought.  So, after much consideration, we decided to have it at our house.  I asked my family to each bring a dish, and we’re clearing out the house to accommodate around 30 people.  Andreas thinks I’m insane, but I’m confident it will work out fine.   It looks like the weather is going to be pretty nice, so we’ll have an “extra room”.  

As I mentioned, I’m getting a lot of help with the food, but I am making a couple of things:  baked ziti, shrimp dip, and crabbies (this deserves it’s own post to explain what a crabbie is and why anyone would want to eat them).  I’m also going to try to make a dessert.  I may have said something before about how I’m not a strong dessert maker, so this is kind of a risk.  I’m going to try to make this.  The commenters say it’s pretty easy, and I’m actually pretty adept at making crusts, so I’m pretty confident.

I will post my results on Monday.  Wish me luck!

I love fish, but I don’t know a lot of ways to prepare it.  Andreas has a good way to prepare it, but sometimes I’m in the mood for something different.  In my quest for new recipes, I ran a search on fish marinades in Epicurious, and found this fantastic marinade.  It is so flavorful and a different taste than what we usually have on fish.  This was another one of those cases where I had all of the ingredients on hand – including the parsley and cilantro.  In fact, this is a great way to use the ridiculous amounts of each that you get in each bunch at the grocery store.  I used mahi mahi, but any firm white fish will work.  This was a cinch to make and will be a permanent part of our recipe repertoire.   If you are making this for two, I recommend halving the recipe.

By the way, I already shared this recipe with my friend Monique, and she made it a little more WW friendly by subbing most of the olive oil with chicken broth.   She used cod and said it was delicious.

Ready to go into the oven

So far, I have kept one of my goals for the new year – a new recipe a week.   Even better, I’m trying to use things I already have at home.  When looking for my first new dish, I wanted to use some Italian sausage we had, and I was in the mood for a one pot meal.  I went to my trusty epicurious and ran a search for casseroles including sausage and came up with this beauty:  Sausage and White Bean “Cassoulet”.    I actually had all of the ingredients in house, with one exception. I didn’t have canned white beans. I did have dry white beans though, and plenty of time.   For the first time in my life, I prepared dried beans!  I can honestly say that I couldn’t tell the difference between these and canned beans.   Unless someone can tell me why dried beans are better, I will continue to use canned beans. 

Never made dried beans?  Here’s what you have to do:  rinse the beans and look through them for rejects; bring about 6 cups of water with the beans to a boil and then take them off the heat and soak for about two hours; rinse the beans, add more water to the pan and bring them back to a boil and then simmer for 1.5 hours.  

Once I had my beans done, the rest of this casserole was a piece of cake to make.   If you were to use chicken sausage and cut down on the oil for the crouton topping, this actually isn’t that bad for you either.  The recipe says that is serves two, but we got four meals out of it.  

The result?  Fantastic!   Full of flavor, warming, and easy to make.   I used parsley not, scallions, so it had a nice fresh flavor to it. 

Ready for the casserole dish!

Yummy crunchy topping

Ready to eat!

One positive to being a terrible blogger is that I can write about places that we went to months ago and never got around to writing a post.  Back in August, Andreas and I went to a hospital tour at Beth Israel.  The tour ended at 7:00pm, so we thought we could take the opportunity to go out to dinner.  Since we were already out in a pretty central location, our options were pretty broad.  After wracking our brains to think of places that we knew we wanted to try, we decided to head to Cambridge to the Kendall Square area.  Oleanna is right there, as is Atasca, and a newer restaurant that we had heard great things about - The Hungry Mother. 

After checking to see if they had any open reservations (they didn’t) we decided to take our chances and see if they could fit us anyway.  We were in luck and they had a cancellation and would be able to seat us in about 30 minutes. We walked around the square and really built up our appetites.  By the time we got back, our table was ready!

The restaurant is in a cute space in Kendall Square that used to be the Kendall Cafe.  The first level holds a bar and a couple of tables.  The next level is the main dining room.  We were sat upstairs.  The cuisine can best be described as southern home cooking with a dash of french influence.  The food was amazing – if you ever go, please do yourself a favor and get an order of cornbread.   I will say no more. Just do it.

I am sorry to say that I lost my notes so I can’t remember the details of what we had, but I do remember having homemade gnocchi with chorizo and seasonal vegetables in a nice light broth. Andreas had a roast pork dish.  Both were wonderful.  Of course, the dessert stayed in my mind, and I remember everything about it – homemade blueberry tart with fresh ricotta.  This was so good.  The ricotta was homemade and so creamy.    I think I was supposed to share this with Andreas, but ended up eating most of it myself.

If you live in the area, do yourself a favor and check this place out. You will not be disappointed!

For the second year in a row, it has snowed on New Year’s Eve day, making it hard for people to get where they plan on going.  This year was a piece of cake compared to last year and Mike and Christine made it over to our house with no problem.  Their arrival was made even more exciting by the orange box they presented to us – Veuve Cliquot!  Totally trumped whatever “champagne” we had for the evening.

The food theme for this year was Italian, and I think we did it with panache.  Mind you, there was only four of us!

Appetizers
- Antipasto
- Soppressata and parmesean
- Tomato & mozzarella tart with a basil crust. Christine made this and it was delicious.  I will have to get the recipe from her and post it.   We managed to finish off the entire tart.

Main Course
Christine is a vegetarian so I wanted to make something that everyone could enjoy, but wanted to avoid just pasta and sauce.  She had made these delicious eggplant “meatballs” for a party and they were fantastic. I found the recipe and thought I would make them and serve them with tagliatelle pasta and fresh bread. 

The recipe is courtesy of the Boston Globe Magazine and this article.   I have also posted the recipe in the recipes section of this blog.

I will say this – good thing these taste as good as they do because that are a pain in the a$$ to make.  We started the night before by roasting the eggplant.  The next morning I put together the mixture. This was the easiest part thanks to the food processor.  I let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours and then started the painful process of putting these suckers together.  While the mixture did thicken, it was sticky as can be.  It was really hard to mold the mixture around the cube of mozzeralla and by the time I was done, I had eggplant mixture all over me, the counter, and nearby appliances.

Andreas was nice enough to take on the next step – the frying.  We have an electric frying pan, so we were able to get the temperature to the correct setting. We did not use the recommended amount of oil, it just seemed like too much.  By the time he was done, the were more of a patty shape than a ball shape, but they were delicious.  He also made a nice marinara sauce to finish the cooking process.

I rediscovered this great Italian shop in Hyde Park called Tutto Italiano.   I picked up the antipasto, pasta and two delicious sandwiches for our lunch there.   On my way home I stopped by BC Baking Company for fresh bread, cannolli and Italian cookies.   

Everything came out delicious and it was so nice to ring in the New Year with good friends.  We spent the night playing cards and a couple rounds of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe on PS3.  When the clock struck midnight, we went outside and banged pots and pans to ward of the evil spirits (or something like that), and enjoyed that fantastic bottle of Veuve.

Hope you all had a great time celebrating!

I’m back!  I feel like we’ve turned the corner from having a mysterious newborn to having a somewhat understandable almost 3-month old.  I stayed away from my blog for awhile because I was dangerously close to going towards a mommy-blog direction. I love mommy-blogs, but let’s be honest – the last thing the Internets need is a new mommy blog.

That being said, we still don’t have a lot of opportunities to go out to eat.  I think we’re going to aim for once a month, and I will try to pick new restaurants. But for now, I’m going to resolve to try a new recipe once a week.

And look at that, I already started!  I was in the mood for a chili last week, and didn’t have a good recipe for a basic ground beef and bean chili.  I found this online and it is definitely a keeper!  It says it makes 6 servings, but these servings would be huge!  I think you could easily get ten servings out of it.  There was a lot of chopping involved, but once that was done, it was really easy to put together. We let it simmer for a little over an hour, which was plenty of time to let the flavors meld.  I was torn as to what to have as a side – corn bread or tortilla chips. Andreas was at the store and voted for chips – what I didn’t know is that he was thinking Fritos.  Dear me, what that a perfect choice. 

It goes without saying that this is not something you would make while watching your weight, but it was a perfect meal for a cold December night.

Chili in the simmer stage

Ready to eat - I definitely recommend using the toppings.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to enjoy a glass wine with my dinner, and even though I am nursing my daughter, I’ve been assured that one or two glasses of wine is OK.  It’s been a really nice way to “reward” myself for making it through the day.  Andreas is loving it, too, since he has a reason to go to the store and stock up on nice wines.  Of course, he is also enjoying most of the bottle after I have my one glass.

To top it off, on Wednesday we did something very exciting.  We went to lunch! At a restaurant!  With Katerina!  And I had a beer!  This was by far the most exciting thing I’ve done since giving birth.  There’s nothing like sitting in a restaurant and sipping a nice cold beer while enjoying a turkey rueben (also something I couldn’t have while pregnant).

Unfortunately, I don’t know how many tales I’ll be able to tell about dining out. We’ll most likely be sticking to local restaurants and probably going out mostly for lunch and breakfast.  There’s no way that we won’t be going out – we made it exactly two weeks before we ventured out, but those trips to Hamersley’s will be few and far between.

As we settle into winter, I’m hoping to expand out home cooking repertoire with new recipes.  The blog may change a bit, but I’ll never stop talking and thinking about food, so it won’t be too bad.

OK, crying baby trumps post. More later!