Happy Thanksgiving- belated

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and enjoyed some family time.

Ahhh I have had no time to post- well some but I have been busy first we went to Antigua for a week. That was amazing. It was sad to come back. We got back the Saturday before Thanksgiving and then I went into crazy prep mode from there.

Chris's parents and sister Ashley joined us as well as his Aunt Mary, Uncle Tony and cousin Holly. My Nannie was supposed to come but she was feeling under the weather that morning. I should have went and got her kicking and screaming but some how I was behind when that time came. Overall it was an excellent Thanksgiving. We had turkey, ham, three cheese macaroni and cheese, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, field peas, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and and awesome chocolate cake. This year the award went to the mashed potatoes and gravy- everyone said the gravy was to die for.

Here's a picture of the turkey. Notice the sleeping terror in the back ground. He wore himself out watching all of the cooking. As usual he sat at the breakfast table the entire time we were cooking... then he went around begging to everyone once we sat down. Bad kitty.

Shepherd's Pie

While looking for recipes using sweet potatoes (they are still coming in from the CSA) and wanting to do something a little different than our normal uses, I stumbled across a recipe for sausage shepherd's pie on Epicurious. Chris loves shepherd's pie and although this is a completely different take since sausage replaces the beef and the potatoes become a perfect trifecta of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and a russet I thought I would give this a try. The nice thing about this is you can do everything in advance, put it in the fridge, and then pull it out to bake when you are ready. If you are willing to do the prep work on the weekend that makes this an amazing weeknight meal. This was excellent and Chris devoured his portion before I was even half way done with mine. The leftovers were also delicious. Needless to say this will be making a repeat performance at some point in time.

Pork and Broccoli

We had some broccoli that still needed to be used from the CSA. I was in the mood for some beef and broccoli, but decided I would make pork and broccoli since we had half a pork roast in the freezer from the noodle bowl we had a couple weeks ago. I did some research and found a good recipe at chinesefood.about.com. It turned out delicious. The only change I made besides substituting pork for beef was it called for cooking the "beef" in 1 cup of oil which seemed excessive so I just eyeballed what looked decent in the bottom of the pan. Then it also said to use new oil for the broccoli and then new oil when you put the pork and broccoli together- which seemed wasteful. I dumped the oil from the first time into a ramekin and then reused it in less quantities for the next two steps. Chris also made up a quick and easy fried rice.

Pumpkin Tarts

These cuties are inspired by Bakerella's blog. We had a bake sale at work to raise money for a local group called Classroom Central. I thought these were perfect for that. The only variation I made was I used pumpkin mix as opposed to plain pumpkin and adding spices. It made it a little easier but really I only did that because apparently there was a shortage of plain pumpkin around Charlotte this week.

Farfalle Surprise

This meal is one that Chris and I have been cooking together for a few years. It's quick and simple and we usually have the majority of the ingredients in the pantry/ freezer. The recipe is from one of Giada's cookbooks- the first one I believe. The original recipe name is pretty much a list of the ingredients: Farfalle, sausage, peas, and mushrooms- or something close to that. It did not seem like much of a recipe name to us so I just started calling it farfalle surprise to shorten it up. It's delicious and best of all quick and easy. Occassionally I leave out the mushrooms if I do not have them on hand and I am looking for something quick to make. Other than that all the ingredients are pretty much staples for us.

Chicken and Herbed Dumplings

I have been craving chicken and dumplings for quite sometime. While flipping through the 2009 Cookinglight book I came across a recipe for chicken and herbed dumplings. Obviously I knew since this was in Cookinglight it was in no way going to resemble my Nannie's (grandma) chicken and dumplings which is what I wanted but I figured hey why not I will give it a try. Overall I would have to say, it was decent. It actually was a pretty solid chicken soup recipe. The dumplings contained parsley which I was not huge on but the texture seemed close to right. But the whole thing together was just not my Nannie's chicken and dumplings. I have decided since I am fortunate and she is still around in one of the next few weekends coming up I am going to see her and learn how to do this correctly and not half way.

After having these Chris and I had a big discussion about Dumplings versus Pastry. His grandma makes chicken and pastry; which I believe is just the same dough rolled out and cut into noodles instead of dropped and more like biscuits in the broth. Since he is used to pastry that is his preference and he thinks I should do that instead- I responded with a good luck with that. If I am making it, I am making dumplings.

Herb Roasted Chicken

We love roast chicken. I am often reminded of a Barefoot Contessa episode when we have roasted chicken. Ina mentioned that she makes roasted chicken every Friday night for her husband. At the time I remember thinking that is amazing but not practical for the average person. I still consider it a little impractical but it's not as bad as I once thought. I mean it's really not that difficult. The time can be a little bit of an issue because by the time you prep it, cook it and then let it rest you have taken up about an hour, but it really is worth that hour. This particular chicken was an herb roasted chicken out of the William Sonoma cookbook. It was pretty decent but no match for TK's salt crusted chicken. I do wish that I had trussed her- she kind of looks like she is flailing around.

There is a tapas restaurant here in Charlotte that we love; Las Ramblas. The quality of food is excellent and they have a nice wine selection. My favorite tapas there is patatas bravas. They are amazing; whenever we go there with other people we always get more than one plate. After some research I decided they are not the traditional patatas bravas so I have been trying to recreate the recipe. A little on the unsuccessful side. I know the key to the amazingly smokey taste is the pimenton, a Spanish smoked paprika. I know my first two attempts were incorrect because according to the menu the potatoes are fried. I have been trying to bake mine- it's easier and healthier but I suppose the taste is obviously suffering. Either way these were a decent attempt at the recreation. Next time I guess I am going to have to try frying them.

Chili

I love chili in the fall and warming. It's so easy to make and a good hardy meal. I make mine from scratch - it's very easy and should not be done any other way. It's a one pot meal - brown the ground beef, drain, add back along with tomatoes, kidney beans, onions, green peppers, and lots of chili powder.

Lamb Shank

These sweet potato oven fries are a great side dish or snack. They are from one of the Barefoot Contessa's books and are very simple. You just cut up the sweet potato and then drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and brown sugar. The salt, pepper, and brown sugar give a really interesting mix of sweet and savory. We had them once or twice last year but now that I am getting a lot of sweet potatoes in from the CSA all I want is these. In addition to a side dish with the lamb shank below we also had them the other day as a football game snack. It made me feel a lot better about myself than the usual potato skins that I like to eat.


I got two lamb shanks a while back at the Bloom. They were on sale and although it was still a bit warm for something so hardy at the time I decided to get them and stick them in the freezer. I found this recipe on Epicurious- braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions and shallots. It sounded exactly like what I had in mind for these two beauties. The end result was really delicious and good quality comfort food for a fall day.

Praying Mantis

I almost completely overlooked this bug. He was blending in very nicely on the burning bush. I had to go back inside to get a better lense before taking his picture. There was no way I was getting close to him because he looks so creepy. I know he won't hurt me but I still did not want to be up close and personal.

Catepillar

This picture was taken two weeks ago. I fear now that it is unexpectedly cold I am not sure where he and his friends have gone. Yes I said friends, on one little parsley plant there were three. Its funny because a while back I was on 66 Square Feet where she was having a similar problem with her parsley. I guess caterpillars really enjoy parsley. Chris said I should kill them but I decided just to leave them since in a few weeks the parsley would probably be gone due to the cold. This week the parsley is still doing fine and I have not seen anymore caterpillars. I did see another interesting bug today that I will have to post. I almost didn't see him but when I did I had to go in for the camera.

Spicy Noodles

This month Cooking Light has a couple of different noodle bowl options. I enjoy a good noodle bowl. I think this love probably dates back to pre- Sushi obsession. I used to hate sushi!! Could not stand it. Then suddenly one day I was in love with it. Simply cannot get enough of it. We were at Sushi 101 here in Charlotte for lunch. They have a good lunch special and this is what Chris gets whenever we go for lunch. Basically its whatever they want to give everyone for the day on the cheap. This particular day there was something involving shrimp and Chris was all like you really really need to try this. The shrimp is cooked after all. From that day on I was a sushi convert. Even sashimi. I am weird like that I suppose. It's strange how you can spend so long disliking something and then one good experience can change your whole opinion. I have a brussel sprout story along these lines but I am going to save it for a different ramble.

Anyways, Char Siu over Sesame Noodles is the noodle bowl we tried. I really enjoyed the sauce. This particular one did not come out as soupy as their picture but I followed the directions- who knows. I also cut down the chile paste because that stuff will light your fire. It's a little much for me. Chris of course slathered his in it as soon as he sat down, but what he does with his taste buds is his perogative.

Salt Crusted Chicken

We cooked Thomas Keller's Salt Crusted chicken for my dad and Gloria while they were in town. Steven my brother and his family also joined us. I really love this particular roasted chicken from Bouchon, the skin gets nice and crispy and is very salty. The breast is a piece of heaven. We also did some Dirty Risotto which is from Giada's Family Dinners. It's the Italian version of dirty rice.

Paella

Paella is super easy to make and so delicious especially if you are a seafood fan. I use the recipe out of the Williams and Sonoma Cookbook. I usually make a few changes and use seafood stock instead of clam juice and I like to use andouille sausage as opposed to chorizo. This time I used clams instead of mussels because they did not have any mussels at the grocery store. Pretty much you can just put whatever seafood you like in the pot. It all works.

Usually by the end we just kind of sit around the pan and dig out our favorite pieces.

Sea bass in parchment paper

I was watching a little Food Network last week and saw Rachel Ray do a sea bass recipe. I really enjoy sea bass. It's a tad pricey but it probably is my favorite fish. It just has such a sweet yummy flavor. This particular recipe peaked my interest because one of my favorite sea bass meals is prepared by a restaurant here in Charlotte, Upstream. They do sort of an Asian flare and so did this. Lots of shitakes ginger and garlic. The end result was ok. I could not decide exactly what I did not like. I thought it was a tad vinegar heavy but Chris said he thought I was tasting the ginger.

Either way the recipe called for rice wine vinegar. I had rice wine and rice vinegar not rice wine vinegar. Chris said I should use the rice vinegar- in the end I think I would have been happier with the rice wine since it is sweeter. If I do decide to make this again I will definitely go with the rice wine.

Eggplant Parmesan

The eggplant continues. This week Chris wanted to give eggplant parmesan a try. I am not alway a huge fan of eggplant parmesan, at most restaurants it is never that good. Since Chris wanted it and I was uncertain about it, I put him in charge of cooking. He looked up a few recipes and then basically winged it. He breaded and fried the eggplant. From there he stacked layers of eggplant, marinara, and mozzarella and then baked the stacks. We were both very happy with the outcome. I ate until I could not eat anymore. It was so amazing. It lacked the sogginess that you tend to see with eggplant parmesan and it was just so good I am officially sold on all things eggplant.

French Onion Soup

It took me a few days to get this posted, ok so pretty much a week. Last week was a busy week and then my dad and Gloria( my step mom) came down this weekend to see Victoria (my new niece who is two weeks old today). So there was lots of busy family time this weekend.

Along with the chicken pot pie last weekend I really wanted french onion soup. Part of this was due to while in Charleston we visited the Le Crueset store and I bought the beautiful red bowls pictured below.

Well the crazies that we are we decided on Thomas Keller's french onion soup from Bouchon. It definitely did not let us down in the flavor category. It was amazing. Probably the best french onion I have ever had. But in typical Thomas Keller style it took a really long time. The onions took about 5 hours to cook down. We made the beef stock at the same time so that helped in time savings.

I made Chris do all the chopping as you can see that's a lot of onions. We did half the recipe and this was about 4 pounds.

Here is one of the pictures as the onions start to cook down. It was amazing to me how much liquid is in onions. Every time I thought there could be no more liquid released, I would go to stir and there would be more.

This was the final onions before we added the broth. The smell was amazing. We added the broth and let that cook down and that was the stopping point for Sunday.

Then Monday night's dinner was a breeze because all we had to do was reheat the soup, pour the soup into bowls, make the croutons, top the soup with croutons and cheese and then stick it under the broil. The finished product was pure bliss.

Chicken Pot Pie

So I was feeling kind of under the weather this weekend and Saturday was a rainy awful day. We had a lot going on Saturday so we did not do any cooking, but it did make me crave some comfort food. Off the bat I knew the two things that I wanted. First and foremost chicken pot pie. More specifically we had been in Williams and Sonoma a while back and I had picked up a recipe for Thomas Keller's chicken pot pie. YUM. Also the recipe is on the AllClad website.

Based on what I have read about his new cookbook Ad Hoc, I believe this might be featured there. Ad Hoc is not going to be released until November 1 but based on this recipe and things that I have read here and there I have already requested this for Christmas. The trick will be waiting 55 days for it once it is released. Anyways back on subject.

This was a pretty easy recipe, which is what the Ad Hoc cookbook is supposed to be about, and we will definitely be doing it again. The main change we made was to cut the veggies about half the size of what was called for - that's just a preference.

The most difficult thing about the whole recipe was not hard just time consuming and that was the bechamel, but if you have made bechamel before than it's all good.

My favorite part was the crust without a doubt. Buttery and flaky and perfection. It's going to be hard to ever buy a premade crust for anything again.

Look how yummy that looks.

Crab Stuffed Eggplant Royal

The eggplants keep coming from the CSA quicker than I can use them. I went back to the drawing board today for another option. I had previously had a seafood stuffed eggplant in New Orleans and that is where the Google search inspiration started at. I seemed to remember the original having the whole eggplant breaded but I can't exactly remember. Anyways this one turned out quite delicious- crab and shrimp and you can't go wrong. I changed a few things from the actual recipe. I have decided I like to bake the eggplant first as opposed to boiling them and there was no cheese involved. No cheese really!! You are going to stuff something and not put cheese in the stuffing. That just seems wrong. I had some left over Italian blend of shredded cheese which went into the stuffing and then a little parmesan on top. Overall it was pretty good although Chris was still a bigger fan of the sausage stuffed eggplant.

Pasta Bolognese

A couple of weekends ago Chris made pasta bolognese. This recipe was out of a La Cucina. It was pretty decent. There is another recipe that he usually does out of a Williams and Sonoma cookbook that we like better. Chris is definitely the pasta maker out of the two of us. He is really good at it and enjoys doing it so I usually let him do all the hard work. Although I do enjoy playing with the KitchenAid attachment.

First step flour volcano.

Next step eggs go in the center and you mix that up. This pasta recipe differed from our usual in that it only uses flour and eggs. Either with a fork or your hands- Chris says its actually easier to do with your hands.

Then you just keep kneading and rolling until you get a nice smooth ball. That gets wrapped in plastic to rest for a little while.

Then you divide the ball into a couple of pieces and those pieces get put through the roller.

Next you can either cut the sheet with a knife, like we did here (a little more rustic) or out the next attachment on the mixer which will cut it for you.

No actual pictures of the bolognese in process, but here's the end result. Very meaty.

KitchenAid has a new pasta attachment out which does more than straight noodles- I can't wait to get that.

Leek Risotto

On Chris' request, I cooked leek risotto for dinner this week. It is one of his favorites. Leeks are very mild and add a delicious flavor to risotto. I replace the normal onions that go in regular risotto with about twice as much leeks and it turns out delicious.

The picture is a little bit funky. Chris took it on the counter underneath the cabinet lighting- I think he was ready to eat. :)

Watermelon

Ok so this has nothing to do with cooking. A while back with one of my watermelons from the CSA (or maybe it was the farmer's market now I can't remember where the seed came from) I thought it would be funny to plant a watermelon seed. It really was entirely to late too plant watermelon (note I don't really know when you are supposed to plant watermelon) but I thought it would be cool to see if it would grow. Sure enough just a few days after planting up came a nice little watermelon plant. Then came a watermelon. This picture was taken September 12 and it's at least double this now. I will have to try to remember to take a more current picture. I am not sure if it will grow to full size before the frost gets it or not. This is one of the smaller round ones so I think it might but we will have to see.

Chicken Parmesan

I really really love chicken parmesan. It's one of the first things that Chris and I ever tried our hands at. Long before we got crazy and I owned more cookbooks than any one person really needs.

It's just so cheesy, and saucy and yummy. A few years ago when this was one of the key staples on our cooking resume, I would want this once a week. Chris cooperated for a while but then there was a coop and he said no more!!! Now we only have it on rare occasions but it's still a special treat- well for me.

Slackness and Martinis

So I have been quite slack. Slack at cooking things of interest. Slack at taking pictures of what we do cook. And slack at posting the pictures that I do take. Sad. Really there is no excuse- just laziness.

Anyways I am going to try to do some post catching up and do better about the picture taking. And work on some inspiration hopefully. To start with a watermelon martini- I made over Labor Day. This was probably the best watermelon martini I have ever had- probably because I used real watermelon and not watermelon schnapps. It was easy enough blend up the watermelon, add simple syrup and vodka. Then strain since its very pulpy otherwise.

Sausage Stuffed Eggplant

In another successful attempt at using what we had around the house, we made sausage stuffed eggplant. I will confess I had to stop to get mozzarella cheese but I picked that up on Monday with the other few things. Originally the idea was Chris' but with no real execution plan. I did some Google researching and found a few ideas and made a few improvisations. In the end along with the sausage and the eggplant, I added marinara, bread crumbs, an egg, onions and mushrooms, and the mozzarella. It was even better than I thought it was going to be. We got another eggplant from the CSA on Wednesday and in the end this was so delicious I am tempted to make it again. Next time I will pay better attention and not let the cheese get so brown.

40 Clove Garlic Chicken

Doesn't that look amazing. 40 clove garlic chicken tends to be one of our staple chicken dishes. We went to Charleston for the weekend and on Sunday when we got back, I was not really feeling the grocery store and Chris was feeling it even less. So he decided to put a meal list together for the week that would require no trips to the grocery store.

This one really is tasty, and as long as I have chicken, I always have all the ingredients. I use the William and Sonoma recipe but I know there are several others that are very similar out there. Garlic (lots), rosemary and thyme (always in the herb garden), white wine, chicken stock and butter; I mean every well stocked kitchen should have these. The sauce you make at the end to go over the chicken (and mashed potatoes if you are me) is sooooo good. I made a few minor changes this time and probably could have ate the sauce by the glass.

I started by browning the chicken in garlic infused olive oil. I picked this and a few other delicious olive oils up at the Olive Oil Shop in Charleston. The second change I made was accidental and I suspected it the night before when Chris laid out the two bags of chicken but one of the bags had two quarters in it- they were duck and not chicken. So I am sure all that lovely duck fat made for some complexity. The third change was I let the sauce simmer alot longer probably another ten minutes on low. This was more so that Chris would be home when it was hot than actually on purpose.

As an aside I did actually stop by the grocery store Monday after work. At a minimum we were in need of milk and cat litter. Needless to say I walked out spending $30 but overall that's not too bad.

Ricotta Gnocchi

We made this dish a while back and the gnocchi was light and delicious; so I wanted to do it again. It was just as creamy and wonderful as it was the first time. The original recipe came from Bon Appetit. It starts with making your own ricotta, which is surprisingly easy except for one part. This time we had no problems but make sure you are using a large enough pot when boiling the milk because the first time we made ricotta and added the acid (lemon juice) it immediately went crazy and we had curds everywhere. Needless to say since I was concerned about the mess factor I did not get any pictures of the process but here is the ricotta.

After the ricotta sits over night you can begin the gnocchi. Basically you add flour, egg, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil and mix it all up. Then you roll out the gnocchi and cut them into little bite sized pillows.

The actual recipe called for the gnocchi with lots of mushrooms.

Spatchcocked

Spatchcocked is such a funny word to say- it seems completely inappropriate but isn't. Basically it means you cut the spine out of a whole chicken. It makes the chicken cook quicker and all of the skin gets that yummy crunch. This is the second chicken recipe from Bon Appetit from this month. Also very delicious. Chris thought this was even better than the prosciutto wrapped, but then he really likes baked chicken. Well baked chicken done right anyways.

Here's the finished product- very golden and beautiful.

As an aside, Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) says on her show frequently that she always cooks her husband roast chicken on Friday nights. Can you imagine how amazing that would be knowing you have a yummy roasted chicken waiting for you?

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken

This month's "Bon Appetit" magazine has a section on the top 10 chicken recipes at various restaurants around the country. This is one of the two that I decided sounded delicious and needed to make it on the dinner menu for this week. This particular one was a winner because 1. I love prosciutto 2. the chicken is stuffed with cheese 3. the chicken is wrapped with prosciutto 4. the side dish was eggplant panzanella 5. did I mention the prosciutto?

Also an added bonus I got Japanese eggplant in the CSA last Wednesday and needed something to cook them in. As you will see in the chicken picture I kept some of the eggplant out of the panzanella- they were so delicious on their own I could not resist.

Overall this meal was really amazing. I mean there is cheese inside that chicken and that chicken is wrapped in prosciutto how can it not be one of the most wonderful things you have ever put in your mouth. Delicious. We will definitely be cooking this meal again sometime. Chris and I also felt the panzanella would make an awesome appetizer.

Lobster

This week we had a Bloom grocery store open up near us. We decided to do our shopping there this weekend especially because they were having a lot of awesome sales. I went with a grocery list as I always do. However there was an addition to that list of lobster- they had lobster on sale for $6.99 a lb. That is really cheap for around here so I could not resist.

Meet Larry and Curly - they look delicious don't they. So one of my favorite lobster dishes that Chris and I have cooked together is from the French Laundry cookbook. Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with Cream Lobster Broth and Mascarpone-Enriched Orzo.

Here are a couple pictures of the lobster broth in process as well as the de-shelled lobster. The lobsters are steeped so you can remove them from their shells but leaves the meat mostly uncooked so it pulls in more flavor when you actually cook it. I leave the meat removal to Chris because he does it so beautifully.

And the final result. Quite delicious and very pretty on the plate- topped with a parmesan crisp.