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.

CSA Day 8/12/09

There was excellent bounty to be had from the CSA today. Today we got lettuce, eggplant, radishes, basil, tomatoes (lots of them), cucumbers, okra, and edamame.

The edamame is most exciting. I find them quite addictive when we go out to eat for sushi so they are a pleasant addition that will probably not make it too long around here. I was amazed at how fuzzy they are when they are fresh. Bring on the steam!!!

I went ahead and froze two 20 oz bags of tomatoes tonight- that's a lot of tomatoes and they are great to have in the freezer during the winter for soups, chili, and sauces.

Chicken Enchiladas

I really enjoy enchiladas; I am sure most of it is the covered in cheese part that I like, but I still like them. For a few years now I have been using an enchilada sauce recipe from "Cooking Light." Originally it was for vegetable enchiladas- squash, black beans and red onions. I found it quite delicious and we make the vegetable enchiladas fairly often. This was Chris' mom and sister's last night with us so I decided to go with chicken enchiladas. The main reasoning was I wanted to show Ashley (his sister) how to make guacamole again and so Mexican night it was.

The only disappointment in the enchiladas was I only made four, which was plenty for dinner but left none for my lunch the next day. Surprisingly enchiladas are pretty decent rewarmed in the microwave and they are one of my more favorite meals to be rewarmed at work for lunch. Oh well there's always next time.

Julia Child

We went to see the new Julie and Julia movie this afternoon. It was really cute. At the end I was sad because I guess Julie never got to meet Julia- I have not read the book but at least that is what the movie ended with. I know I should have put some kind of spoiler alert on this but tough. We went with Chris' mom and sister and then like the big dorks we are we came home and cooked a Julia Child meal.

In this month's "Bon Appetit," they have a section of 6 recipes from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." We only did one of the six but it was delicious. We did the Poulet Saute Aux Herbes De Provence. Any time you cook chicken in a whole stick of butter, well that obviously cannot be bad. We did not get a super awesome picture of the chicken but as you can see that stick of butter led to an awesome golden crust.

We also had scalloped potatoes- this recipe I believe originally came from"Bon Appetit" as well- it was a Gordon Ramsey deal. I think- I cut out the recipe a while back. I also cut up a patty pan squash and roasted it.

Grilling Time

So I swear I did not have shrimp two days in a row.... there was one day in between them... but only one. For lunch on Saturday I was starving and could not decide what I wanted for lunch. Chris in his typical brilliance concocted up something.

He put together some shrimp kabobs and diced up squash, mushrooms, onions, and purple potatoes covered everything in some grill rub and grilled it up. It was a little warm to be eating outside but we did it anyway. Chris took this shot and called it his William and Sonoma shot. Show off.

Also notice the grilled jalapeno on the plate. Obviously I was not eating that thing. Chris took a big bit and immediately required some lemonade.

Calzones

As the tomatoes start to come in from the CSA in large quantities and my romas keep right on producing, a good option is always sauce. At first I am always a little disappointed with making my own sauce but as with many things it takes patience. The longer you let it simmer the better it becomes. I don't really have a recipe so much as I throw in the tomatoes and garlic which are a necessity and then add what sounds good from there. I did a double batch to use up some tomatoes and decided calzones would be delicious and froze the other half.

I had some dough left in the freezer from the last batch of pizzas and made two of these beauties.
I know you are wondering... what is in this yummy looking pocket of dough. Well besides the obvious sauce and mozzarella, I put sauteed onions and mushroom and SHRIMP. I know I told you I love shrimp. I have been making these mini shrimp calzones for a while now. The original idea came from Giada De Laurentiis. The filling in the original is more shrimp and tomatoes and wine than shrimp and sauce but I enjoy a saucy calzone so it evolved. These are not really mini but that's what Giada calls them so I stick with it.
It's hard to see the shrimp but I promise they are in there. Yum

Oven Fried Chicken

Ok so I have been cooking, I just haven't made the time to sit down and post. I am going to start with one and see if I can get a few others done as well. I am in the process of making enchilada sauce so we will see how far I get with the actual posting. It's just simmering at the moment so it should be cool for one post.

These two recipes are both from a store here in Charlotte called Cooking Uptown. They are a little boutique cooking store that offers some fun classes. The oven fried chicken was delicious- Chris was stumped on the crust although I am not sure why. Maybe it was the soaking the chicken in buttermilk. The au gratin potatoes were ok. I probably would not do them again. Not the right amount of cheesy. I normally enjoy Gruyere which these called for but it just did not do it for me. Although as I was telling the girls at work the last time I think I had au gratin potatoes- they were out of a box. I know sacrilegious. In my defense that was quite a few years ago.

Corn Risotto

I adore cooking anything Italian. Italian food is just so delicious and for probably a little over a year I was obsessed with cooking anything and everything Italian. Finally the voice of reason, Chris, convinced me I should try to cook something besides Italian everyday. I did listen but I still love a good Italian meal.

One of my favorite Italian things to cook is risotto. It is so versatile and you can put so many things in it. But whether you keep it simple or add the kitchen sink it is always outstanding. I love to cook risotto and find it quite easy to cook. I think the main thing is you have to be willing to stand with what you are cooking for 30 minutes, but I find risotto worth the hovering required.

The August/ September 2009 "Fine Cooking" has a recipe for risotto with corn, spicy sausage and wilted arugula. This is not one of my favorite risottos (I mean its hard to beat mushroom risotto) but it was quite yummy. The corn was a new ingredient for me and risotto and I do love corn and corn in my risotto is even more delicious.

Fudge Brownies

A couple of weeks ago, I had to buy flour. I usually buy King Arthur, I switched to this brand after a bread class that I took a while back. I am not a die hard though and will buy something else if it is on sale. This particular day nothing was on sale so King Arthur it was. Once I emptied the flour into it's canister I noticed a recipe on the back for the best fudge brownies ever. Well with a claim like that I had to cut the recipe off the back and save it.

I bought the few ingredients that I needed at the store the next week and have been wanting to make those brownies ever since. The last week or so, maybe a little more, has been kind of blah on the cooking. Just blah I don't want to do anything and blah if I do something its just blah and I do not want to post about it- ie the lack of posting.

Finally on Sunday the chocolate craving became more than I could bare and I made the best fudge brownies ever. As in all things sweet, I contributed to the delinquency of the people at work and took a little over half to work with me. There the comment was made, "do these have fudge in them." I mean that says it all these were delicious, rich fudgey brownies.