What's Cooking (Take Two!)

...I'll serve with steamed asparagus and an orange-shallot-tarragon sauce to fit a Tuscan theme on Saturday night....

My wife laughed like hell when she saw this Onion headline: http://www.theonion.com/article/area-woman-will-eat-anything-with-tuscan-in-name-6604 because it's true of pretty much every one of her friends. But she laughed even harder when the "Tuscany Brewhouse" opened down the road from us. "Ooooh look!" she said, pulling up their menu. "Tuscan chowder! Tuscan Vinaigrette! And those Tuscan classics: NACHO GRANDE!! And seared ahi tuna with wasabi! And if course: Pork Chop Murphy!"

To its credit though, it's packed every night. Sheesh. People really need to educate themselves.

[Jenise]

...I'll serve with steamed asparagus and an orange-shallot-tarragon sauce to fit a Tuscan theme on Saturday night....

My wife laughed like hell when she saw this Onion headline: http://www.theonion.com/article/area-woman-will-eat-anything-with-tuscan-in-name-6604 because it's true of pretty much every one of her friends. But she laughed even harder when the "Tuscany Brewhouse" opened down the road from us. "Ooooh look!" she said, pulling up their menu. "Tuscan chowder! Tuscan Vinaigrette! And those Tuscan classics: NACHO GRANDE!! And seared ahi tuna with wasabi! And if course: Pork Chop Murphy!"

To its credit though, it's packed every night. Sheesh. People really need to educate themselves.

Oh dear god, Tuscan Brewhouse? What do they play on the muzac, I wonder, Andrea Bocelli and Carrie Underwood? Even if the food was decent (and the menu suggests to me it wouldn't be, but still) I don't think I'd respect myself for eating there. It would mean they got away with it.

We hosted the neighborhood Friday night get-together last night, so I picked up five pounds of ground beef and made Tuscan Sloppy Joes. Used the beef, catsup, a rib rub that has a bunch of spices in it, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and balsamic vinegar (Tuscan!!!). I put it in a crock pot to keep it warm and we had a bunch of little rolls so that people could make sliders out of them. My wife defaulted to her traditional Tuscan Whoopie pies, with malt and mint fillings. There was nothing left of either of them by the end of the evening.

(OK, there was nothing Tuscan about any of this, but what the hell.)

We hosted the neighborhood Friday night get-together last night, so I picked up five pounds of ground beef and made Tuscan Sloppy Joes. Used the beef, catsup, a rib rub that has a bunch of spices in it, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and balsamic vinegar (Tuscan!!!). I put it in a crock pot to keep it warm and we had a bunch of little rolls so that people could make sliders out of them. My wife defaulted to her traditional Tuscan Whoopie pies, with malt and mint fillings. There was nothing left of either of them by the end of the evening.

(OK, there was nothing Tuscan about any of this, but what the hell.)

If you call it Tuscan, they will come....

We hosted the neighborhood Friday night get-together last night, so I picked up five pounds of ground beef and made Tuscan Sloppy Joes. Used the beef, catsup, a rib rub that has a bunch of spices in it, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and balsamic vinegar (Tuscan!!!). I put it in a crock pot to keep it warm and we had a bunch of little rolls so that people could make sliders out of them. My wife defaulted to her traditional Tuscan Whoopie pies, with malt and mint fillings. There was nothing left of either of them by the end of the evening.

(OK, there was nothing Tuscan about any of this, but what the hell.)

If you call it Tuscan, they will come....

I thought that Onion article was hilarious - I'll make more use of the Tuscan moniker in the future.

Yay asparagus season has begun.
Last night beef teriyaki with steamed ,asparagus with a sesame miso dressing.
Lunch today an egg, asparagus and grilled cheese sanDwich.
Hope to get some of the export quality next week, rain last week left the farm with a mixed lot, but still fresh and delicious

Dinner over the weekend was andouille and tasso jambalaya on Saturday and Carribean-style black beans and rice on Sunday.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Last night we had pan seared fresh black cod served over butter rice and topped with a Tuscan miso-lemon sauce.

Tonight we're having a huge Tuscan steak. It's a 2" thick rib steak, with bone, cut away from a what-was-I-thinking 8 lb three-bone prime rib I bought a few weeks ago at a country meat market where you don't really see what you're buying--you order it from a simple counter and some guy goes and cuts it to order. Three bones didn't sound that big! Outstanding meats, and tonight's steak will go in the Sheryl Crow file (a 'Favorite Mistake').

On the stove right now is a Tuscan white carrot soup I'll serve to some lady friends at lunch tomorrow. I was excited to see bags of white carrots at our Trader Joe's yesterday, and I do mean white, not yellow. About the color of pale parsnips, but they really do taste of just carrots. Augmented with leeks, white onion and cauliflower for silkiness, I'll finish it with cream and top each serving with a ball of butter and crushed, roasted hazelnuts. That will melt on top of the soup at service. Some kind of salad will go with that.

Speaking of carrots, Jenise, we had a bunch that I had bought at the farmers' market a week ago. There were purple, white, and orange ones. We were invited over to a friend's place for supper last night, so I cut them into chunks, cooked then with ginger, honey, and butter, and added lime juice to finish. They went with our host's lamb-on-"polenta" dish from one of the Ottolenghi books. The "polenta" was made from fresh corn and was like a cross between polenta and creamed corn. Rich and delicious.

[Jenise]

Speaking of carrots, Jenise, we had a bunch that I had bought at the farmers' market a week ago. There were purple, white, and orange ones. We were invited over to a friend's place for supper last night, so I cut them into chunks, cooked then with ginger, honey, and butter, and added lime juice to finish. They went with our host's lamb-on-"polenta" dish from one of the Ottolenghi books. The "polenta" was made from fresh corn and was like a cross between polenta and creamed corn. Rich and delicious.

What a great meal, your touches on the carrots was very Ottolenghi. Love all the colors nowadays. The white carrot vichysoisse was a big hit today, and I saved the purple ones from the bag for roasting or sauteeing.

I just finished deboning two king salmon, one eight pounder and one ten pounder, that we'll smoke tomorrow for eating over the coming year. Was really happy--we love white king, and these aren't white but they're very pale, one more so than the other, compared to the usual which means they'll be milder in flavor. And you can't pick--you just take whole fish and they are what they are, but this is what's running right now apparently. In another week, the local kings will probably be gone so I'm on this just in time.

For dinner we're having swordfish saltimbocca. When I stopped at the local market this morning, which never has anything interesting in the fish department so I typically don't look, they actually had fresh swordfish and wonder of wonders, a piece from the belly side which I prefer. One rarely sees the belly--it all goes to restaurants.

[Jenise]

Tonight, roasted ittle poussins, maybe a pound each, which are marinating right now in a mixture of apple cider syrup, dry apple cider, olive oil and bay leaf. Will probably have a tomato salad starter, and might pair the chicken with carrots because that's probably the only fresh veggie I have on hand.

Grill City here: The weather has clearly turned into fall so I threw a lot of charcoal and did up a 4# leg of lamb (boned, butterflied, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, juniper, thyme, olive oil), two Cornish hens (marinated in orange juice), a few shrimp kabobs (added to linguini con vongole), and a round of veggies in the perforated pan.

[Jenise]

Must have smelled fantastic at your house, Jeff!

Our dinner turned into something really neat once I got some creativity flowing. We started with a sparkling semi-sweet hard cider from Port Townsend and a salad of baby red romaine, shaved Graventstein apple, red onion, and walnuts in a fresh oregano vinaigrette. That was followed by the roasted spatchcocked poussins that had marinated in a dry cider from Seattle and were basted with an apple cider syrup from Lopez Island. I served those with a garlic-green tea rice, baked celery, and our last 09 Beaujolais (a Foillard). A truly perfect fall meal for what was likely the last 70 degree day we'll see this year.

What is baked celery?

[Jenise]

Super simple, Jeff: celery branches tossed with olive oil and salt, then roasted until they color up a bit. Perfect to throw in the oven with the poussins (different pan, though) because they were perfect with the same temp and timing.


Tonight I'm making a sausage-bell-pepper-red onion concoction to toss with homemade fettucine. We made a batch of pasta last Friday night in order to make scarves to go with a Barbara Lynch recipe for shrimp meatballs (polpettone) with a white bean and sage sauce. Used half the pasta in that and cut and dried overnight the other half for another use. Tonight's the night.

[Jenise]

Jeff, baked celery:

DSCF1489.JPG

Thanks for the explanation and the picture, Jenise. Reminds me a bit of what is occasionally done to endive or romaine. Does it intensify or change the flavor? Does it cook-out the stringiness?

Or is this supposed to be a Jenise twist: instead of Buffalo wings with celery sticks we get poussin (and sriracha?) with baked celery?

[Jenise]

Jeff, it definitely intensifies the flavor as the celery's considerable moisture content roasts out, and it sweetens. The strings if anything become more prominent, so pulling some or most when prepping the celery is an important (but easy) step. it's actually more attractive than it looks from the butt-ends in this photograph (which I had never intended to show anyone, it's not much of a presentation). With this dish it didn't have the good contrast it has sitting atop a pot roast, but the monochromatic blend with the green tea rice was actually kind of nice.

Sounds interesting, Jenise. I like celery so I should give it a try.

Tonight, I felt like pasta. I sliced a couple of leeks and sauteed them in butter and then threw in some strips of smoked pork chops. Once they had had some time to fry, I threw in a cup of ricotta, mixed it up, and turned the heat off. Meanwhile, I boiled a pound of penne and when that was done, added some of the pasta water to the ricotta-leek-pork stuff to thin it out and then tossed it with the penne. Added salt and pepper. Worked pretty well.

Tonight was sandwiches: toasted crusty rolls, slices of smoky rare lamb, a schmear of fleur verte, and a dab of something tomatoey (one got sundried tomatoes, one got chutney). Also a bowl of sauteed onions and pepper, for that Philly moment.

Cheese, bread, and ham from the market down the street, tomatoes and basil from our balcony garden.

Edited Tomatoes.jpg

[Jenise]

Gorgeous, Jim; an absolutely perfect meal. Your tomatoes still doing well? Mine are pretty kaput, though I have a cherry tomato plant that looks like what one would love a cherry tomato plant to look like the first week of August. Only problem is, the fruit never really ripened. I have picked maybe a dozen half-red ones to snack on while in its vicinity, but it's never provided enough to get to the dinner table. It's all going to rot!

Dinner tonight will be doro wat.

-Paul W.

Last Thursday, I noticed some gorgeous boneless beef short ribs in the butcher case at the market around the corner. I picked some up on Saturday morning and they spent that afternoon getting braised with mirepoix and thyme. The liquid was strained and refrigerated overnight, defatted, and rewarmed for last night's dinner. Had them with mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.