Can You Be Too Corny?-8/18/10

This month's Bon Appetit has 3 menus created to make use of 3 essentials of the summer garden season.  I raved in an earlier post about the outstanding zucchini menu that I shared with our friends, the Knapp's.  Tonight was corn's turn to shine.  Last night, I made the first recipe from this menu to beef up another menu and lighten the amount 3 people had to eat from this one.  I really enjoyed the Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto and would add it to this menu if a few more people were eating with us.  Tonight, I made the other 3 recipes that began with a main dish of Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta.  I choose to bake the chicken instead of grill it and I was happy with this change.  I find it really hard to monitor the grill temperature for bone-in chicken and often get the outside too crispy before the inside is done.  This dish has enough flavor without the added smoke of grilling as well.  The seasoning under the chicken skin added wonderful flavor and as you can see from the picture, the skin was perfect.  The polenta was a good match for the chicken.  It was creamy and rich from the addition of corn kernels. 

The side dish of Summer Corn Saute with Tons of Herbs was impressively creative for basically cooked corn.  The herbs were an excellent addition while still allowing the fresh corn flavor to shine through.  The amount of butter seemed a bit excessive at first but it worked with the herbs and shallots.                                                                       Dessert was the biggest stretch of the group.  I know the goal of the menu was to use corn in every recipe.  The Corn Panna Cotta with Dulce De Leche was corn in name only.  The panna cotta was steeped in corn cobs but I could tell no discernible corn flavor in the rather bland custard.  The dulce de leche was absolutely neccesary to give the dessert flavor.  The sprinkling of corn kernels was attractive but really mean nothing flavorwise.  This menu is creative but seemed to be trying a bit too hard with the dessert.

Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta-A                                                                                         Summer Corn Saute with Tons of Herbs-B                   Corn Panna Cotta with Dulce De Leche-C

Food Disasters-8/17/10

I really have been lucky.  For as much as I cook, I really should have some better stories about the stuff I've messed up on than I do.  Really, other than a Polish meal my friend Heather and I made that the salt got away from and a white chocolate cranberry cheesecake that Richard swears was the worst thing he's ever eaten, I've got very little.   (A few early blog posts may beg to differ but let's not go into that now.)   The only reason I even thought of food failures tonight is that once again I made something with white chocolate and once again, it did me wrong.   You can't really tell in the picture (I guess that was the point.) but tonight's White Chocolate Cherry Mousse Pie was full of tiny little white lumps.  They weren't lumps of chocolate as far as I could tell.  The mousse didn't congeal smoothly and it was off putting.  The cherry compote was wonderful but the pie itself, either because of or in spite of the lumps, didn't have a uniform taste.  Sometimes it tasted more like white chocolate (which incidentally, I'm not a big fan of) and sometimes it seemed more beaten egg.  I felt I mixed the components well but something went wrong in the chemistry on the dessert.  

The main dishes went a bit better.  My first dish was Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto, a recipe I'd stolen off the corn menu mentioned in an earlier post.  I plan to make the rest of the menu tomorrow but that menu looked too big for just the three of us so I split it up.  This pasta dish was a creative twist on the green basil pesto we are more familiar with.  I really enjoyed the dish and found both the use of bacon and flavorful corn would make this a very filling almost meatless main by itself.  The pesto was easy to make and adhered well to the pasta, the sign of a good pasta dish.  

I also made the Quick-Brined Grilled Pork Chops with Balsamic Glaze on page 53.  If you saw the recipe in the magazine you would notice that "with Treviso" is missing and rightly so.  I shopped at Publix today and they had neither radicchio nor endive so I just left these out of the dish.  This was a simple dish with a reduced Balsamic vinegar dressing.  I wouldn't say the chops were spectacular but as often true in this project, I learned how simple it is to make a very glamorous sounding sauce that could spice up chicken, beef, or pork.

Quick-Brined Grilled Pork Chop with Treviso and Balsamic Glaze-B
White-Chocolate Cherry Mousse Pie-C

Do Blueberry Stains Come Out?-8/16/10

I sure hope blueberry stains come out because after tonight's meal, I had a few of them and so did Eyrleigh.  I've mentioned before one of the things I look about Bon Appetit is the magazine is enthusiastically thematic, sometimes to the edge of being cheesy.  Tonight was one of those borderline nights.  Grilled Salmon with Quick Blueberry Pan Sauce sounded strange from the get-go.  Blueberries are a quintessential fruit, little pockets of sweetness that seem only fitting at the conclusion of a meal.  Pairing them with a rich fatty fish like salmon seemed a gamble at best.  To be fair, the dish wasn't bad, though I wouldn't say it was really good either.  I just didn't think the flavors worked.  You could taste blueberry, you could taste salmon but the compliment just didn't work for me.  The herbs, garlic, and shallots helped cut the sweetness along with the vinegar but the taste of blueberry was still there.  I almost felt bear-like, rumbling along from the mountaintop blueberry patch to the cold stream full of fish.  Maybe that's what they were going for...

The dessert was a much more traditional use of blueberries.  The Blueberry Cobbler with Easiest-Ever Biscuits did have some really easy biscuits.  The only problem was that the use of sour cream made them chewy instead of the more expected flaky.  I won't say they were bad, just different.  The cobbler was excellent but there wasn't quite enough of it.  I got a lot more biscuit than berry with each bite and I would have preferred it the other way around.

Grilled Salmon with Quick Blueberry Pan Sauce-C

Blueberry Cobbler with Easiest-Ever Biscuits-B

For the Love of Zucchini-8/10/10

This month's Bon Appetit has 3 menus based completely on 3 staples of summer gardens, zucchini, corn, and tomatoes.  Tonight I played caterer again and was bringing dinner to my friends, Devi and Dan Knapp and their two girls, Sophie and Lily, ages 5 and 3.  I really enjoy this almost monthly tradition and it gives us a chance to see our good friends on a weeknight.  I try to precook as much of the meal as possible and bring everything I need, down to the salt, so I can put it together quickly with a minimum of disruption to Devi's kitchen.  Tonight I made the zucchini menu and I'll try to explain not only how the food tasted but how I packed it "to go".  The menu began with Tender Zucchini Fitters with Green Goddess Dressing.  Since the zucchini needed to be grated and drained before frying up the fritters, I actually transported the grated zucchini rolled in a dish towel.  The extra drying time was great.  I often find that anything I try to frying while still containing liquid turns into mush.  These fritters were crispy on the outside while still retaining enough liquid to make them soft on the inside.   I brought all the ingredients to mix in with me and mixed them quickly before frying.  I also made the Green Goddess Dressing ahead of time and what a simple wonderful dressing.  The fresh herb taste was outstanding.
Next came the Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts.  This almost totally raw salad is amazing.  The thin sliced raw zucchini tastes fresh but because of the slice, feels softer than biting into a raw zucchini.  The simple oil and lemon dressing compliments the flavor without overwhelming the zucchini and basil and the pine nuts add variety and crunchy.  The Parmesan is a perfect addition with its note of salt.  

The main dish was Halibut with Zucchini Salsa Verde and by now, you'd think you'd be tired of zucchini.   The zucchini in this dish is very understated with cilantro, onion and lime taking on the main flavors.  The fish was cooked simply but perfectly as the recipe stated and worked well with the salsa verde.  Neither component was too strong and they tasted good together.  The kids, who had been reluctant to try all the green on their plates, eventually took little bites and then proceeded to eat their meals with enthusiasm.  Sophie, the oldest and most skeptical, admitted she really liked the fritters and even asked for a second one. 

      Dessert was the Zucchini-Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Much like a carrot cake, the zucchini gave the cake a moist full flavor without using a lot of fat or butter.  The only "fat" was a quarter cup of olive oil.   Despite this healthy rap, the kids loved the cake.  The cream cheese and butter in the yummy frosting probably didn't hurt either.  Devi told me this was her favorite of my meals at her house and I had to agree.  Every component of this meal was excellent and zucchini was used in such unique and innovative ways, we didn't feel tired of it even at the end of the meal.   If you love zucchini, look no further.

 

Tender Zucchini Fritters with Green Goddess Dressing-A

Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts-A

Halibut with Zucchini Salsa Verde-A

Zucchini-Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting-A

America the Beautiful-8/9/10

I mentioned in a post not long ago that June got away from me.  I didn't post once the whole month.  In hindsight, July wasn't much better.  I posted only four times and made only fifteen recipes from the month's Bon Appetit.  June's excuse was the bi-annual trip to my parents house in New Hampshire, where we attended my brother's burial service and a special memorial service held at his work.  The trip is usually a vacation but this year carried a bit more weight.  Our more restful summer vacations took place in the month of July and the beginning of August this year.  Eyrleigh and I got the chance to join my friend, Lynette, on a trip to Sarasota, Florida where we enjoyed the ocean for a few days and spent a day at the surprisingly extensive Ringling Circus and Art Museum.  Then on the next to last day of July, we all flew to Denver to attend the wedding of  Richard's brother, James.  We decided that spending almost $800 on airfare for 3 days was ridiculous so we added a week long trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.   As I sat one morning looking out from the top of Mt. Washburn in the middle of Yellowstone, I thought about the ocean I looked out at only a few weeks before.  We have an amazing country.  The variety of vistas is incredible.  The flora and wildlife is spectacular and even the human imprint upon these places is at times, brilliant and endearing.  I love to travel around the world but I was once again reminded that we have some pretty extraordinary places to see right here at home.

That tangent didn't seem to have much to do with cooking but I know that in a way, cooking something special and sitting down to dinner as a family to enjoy it helps make each day unique, a bit like the days you spend on a vacation.   The place may be the same but each new meal is something different, something special, and a bit like a mini-vacation.  That first home-cooked meal after a vacation doesn't have to be super special to feel different.  Tonight, I made a recipe from this month's Bon Appetit magazine titled Ribeye Steaks with Garbanzo and Green Bean Salad.  I made a rather major change though.  I grilled chicken breasts instead of ribeye but the salad was the same.  The salad was the real crux of the recipe anyway.  The meat was flavored with chili powder and mesquite and I think chicken worked as well as steak here.  The salad was another success for chickpeas/ garbanzos.  I loved this salad with the fresh crunch of green beans and red onions.
There are nineteen desserts in this month's Bon Appetit and I'm in trouble if I make all of them since it's already the 9th of the month.  I thought I'd get started with a simple Toffee, Pecan, and Peach Crisp.  The recipe called for individual servings but I didn't have the right size ramekins so I made one large dish.  This dessert was really much better than it looked.  The toffee in the crust added a sweet note while the pecans added crunch.  Sadly, the dish looked a bit sloppy but it tasted great.

Ribeye Steaks with Garbanzo and Green Bean Salad-A
Toffee, Pecan, and Peach Crisp-A-

Hostess with the Mostess-7/27/10

My grandmother, Ruth Elder, was in many ways the inspiration for this blog.  She has always been my ideal of the perfect hostess.  Her home was beautiful.  She was an interior decorator and was still working into her 70's.  Her style was probably best described as Classic.  Each room was filled with antiques but never looked cluttered or dark.  She loved large windows, long drapes, and soft colors.  My grandparent's house was always immaculately clean and anyone who entered was offered a cold drink and something to eat as soon as they arrived.   Someday, I'd like my house to be the type of place where people feel comfortable as soon as they enter.  I don't want to worry that they see a spider web in the corner of the ceiling or that there are unwashed dishes in the sink.  I want to remember to offer everyone a drink and have something in the pantry for them if they are hungry. 

I'm not there yet.  I have dishes in my sink right now.  I'm sure there is a visible spiderweb somewhere and just the other day, I found a dead roach on the living room floor.  But I'm trying.  I invited a group of friends over for dinner tonight and the house looked pretty good and the food was yummy.  Everyone had fun and that's really what it's all about.  My goal is to do this more and when I do it, to stop stressing so much about it.
Tonight I made 4 recipes but I am going to write about 6 here.  I made two recipes last night and forgot to take pictures so I'll include those recipes at the end here.  Two families, the Connors and Taylors, joined us for dinner and we had Ribs with Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce.  The recipe in the magazine was actually called "Dinosaur Bones" but I didn't have time to special order extra-large beef ribs.  The ribs were tender as cooked and the sauce was a good mix of spice and sweet.  Joel and Rebecca Taylor had actually joined us earlier in the summer for the Pincho Ribs with Sherry Glaze and these ribs were not as lip-tingling spicy.  The kids even tried them although all our kids are under 5 and ribs are just not a popular choice for that age.

Rebecca is a vegetarian so I wanted a creative pasta option for her.  The Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Green Olivada had no meat in it and a good mix of salty cheese, meaty olives, and fresh tomatoes and even the non-vegs of the group like it.  Sherrana and Phil Connor's daughter, Lily, loves olives and she ate the olivada alone.  The Root Beer Baked Beans needed a short cook time so they were a good choice for a busy night.  The root beer was noticeable but not too sweet.  Unfortunately, the flavor was not as rich as slow roasted baked beans.  (As a side note:  Richard took the beans to work the next day and both he and I felt the beans were better after a day.)   I had most of the previous night's Malted Milk Cookie Tart but at the last minute, I decided to make the Mixed Berry Shortcakes with Vanilla Whipped Cream.  I was glad I did.  The Malted Milk Cookie Tart became rock hard after sitting in the fridge for a day.  The tart was good but incredibly rich.  If someone is a die-hard chocolate fan, this was a winner but I found it overwhelmingly sweet.  The Mixed Berry Shortcakes were pretty traditional biscuits with berries and cream but this dessert carries the taste of summer.  Kids and adults loved this dessert and it didn't need any fancy extras.

As I mentioned, last night I made a quick Rosemary-Lemon Grilled Turkey Cutlets and Red-Skinned Potato Wedges.  This super easy weeknight meal was good but nothing to rave about.  A simple dressing with garlic and rosemary over the grilled potatoes was a creative simple way to dress up the meat and potatoes staple.

Dinosaur Bones with Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue  Sauce-A
Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Green Olivada-B+
Root Beer Baked Beans-B
Mixed Berry Shortcakes with Vanilla Whipped Cream-B
Malted Milk Cookie Tart-B
Rosemary-Lemon Grilled Turkey Cutlets and Red-Skinned Potato Wedges-C+

Bird's Eye View-7/12/10

Richard was my photographer tonight.  He got impatient waiting for me to take a picture of our food before we could eat and he just grabbed the camera.  He just got home from work and was pretty hungry.   I didn't have the heart to retake them because he thought he was being helpful but I don't like the "bird's eye" view of this food.   Looking at the picture makes me a little dizzy, like the plate will start spinning in a circle any moment.   I'm going to make this a short blog post so I don't have to keep staring at the pictures.  Tonight I made two dishes from this month's Bon Appetit magazine.  Neither were a dish that intrigued me greatly but tonight crept up on me and I needed quick and easy.  I made the Piri-Piri Chicken on page 69 and to be even quicker and easier, I used boneless chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken.  I might have sacrificed a depth of flavor in the meat itself but with a flavorful sauce, I knew there would be plenty of flavor in the sauce.  The chicken was good  but not outstanding.  I'd love to try the Portugese classic dish made by a master.  I'm sure it is much better than the dish I made. 

My second dish for tonight was the Quinoa, Garbanzo, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing.  I used to hate garbanzo beans.   There have been some great recipes in the last few months of cooking magazines that are changing my mind about my mom's chick peas.  This dish was really good.  The spinach was actually an awkward add on.  The bean salad was great without it.  The feta, tomatoes, quinoa, and garbanzos dressed with a simple vinegar  and oil dressing with a dash of paprika is definitely something I will make again. 

Piri-Piri Chicken- B-

Quinoa, Garbanzo, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing-A-