Got some Sun

We've been considering another quick trip to Mohegan Sun Casino for a while now.  We needed to get out of the house, so today was the day...

We left the house about 11:30 and headed down Route 290.  By the time we arrived, we were hungry for lunch so we immediately tried to find Bobby's Burger Palace.  This is the latest restaurant by Bobby Flay of Food Network fame.  We had heard about the place from a feature on Channel 5's Chronicle program.



After finding a seat at the bar, we each ordered a beer and a burger.  Jeanne went with the "L.A. Burger" and I did the "Napa Valley Burger".  I guess we were in a California mood today. We ordered one side of sweet potato fries to share.

The burgers arrived with a side of regular potato fries (not sweet potato), but this worked out OK.  They were well salted and crispy.  The chipolte dipping sauce they were served with was great.  The burgers were good, we were very impressed with the bun, creative toppings and the high quality pickle on the side.  Unfortunately, the burger itself was mediocre at best.  It seemed that not the best quality beef was used, or maybe it was just over handled.  It's hard to describe, but the burger meat had some little hard bits in it.  It was the type of thing that you avoid when you form your own burgers at home.

After lunch, we did some wondering around the casino.  After a bit we ended up at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for a drink.  The margaritas were quality and the atmosphere reminded us of Key West (or at least the last Jimmy Buffet concert at Gillette Stadium).  Here's some video of the restaurant's hourly "blender" show....

Friday Night, Tilapia

As you all may know I am new to the seafood thing. Salmon is so far my favorite. I have tried Black Sea Bass (Momofuko restaurant) and that was a strong fish flavor so not one of my favorites. I had salmon a few ways and...It's good. A few people have said to try Tilapia so that's what I did. I think it was meant to be that I try this recipe because I was trying to get more familiar with sauces and in my "Food Lover's Companion" book, I saw a sauce called, Bagna Cauda [BAHN-yah KOW-dah] so I was reading about it and it's a specialty sauce made in Piedmont, Italy, made up of olive oil, butter, garlic and anchovies, usually served warm with raw vegetables. So I went on The Food Network about five minutes after reading about that sauce to look up a tilapia recipe. I came across "Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Couda". The only reason I was drawn right to it is because it was rated with 5 stars and about 250 people rated it. You know it's good when that many people rated it with 5 stars and I couldn't believe that the recipe included the very sauce I was curious about. So when I went to Whole Foods Market I went to the fish counter and the guy was just putting out some fresh tilapia, of all things. So It was meant to be...

Smoked Salmon Beggars Purses with Spicy Lemon-Dill Oil

I don't remember what gave me the idea to make these but I have seen different chefs do Beggars Purses in the past and if I made some, it was a while ago. It's crepes that are filled with something and then tied with a long piece of scallion or leek. I thought I would just put a dollop of creme fraiche (basically a sour cream and whipped cream combined) and smoked salmon and maybe some capers or chives, I wasn't exactly sure. I looked on foodnetwork.com and Michael Chiarello has a recipe that's pretty much what I was thinking except he was using marscarpone cheese and cream cheese, both of which I had in the refrigerator, so I decided to make it that way. His recipe doesn't have a sauce but I wanted to make something so I mixed together in a blender 1/2 of a bunch of fresh dill (blanched and shocked in cold water to help retain the green color), 1 tsp mustard, 1/2 of a lemons juice and zest, 1 Tbsp capers, 6-7 peri-peri picante peppers (tiny little spicy red peppers from a jar), salt and pepper to taste and olive oil to emulsify. It was perfect with the Beggars Purses. I garnished the plate with a few more spicy peppers and very finely cut scallions at a very sharp angle so you get long strands, then into ice water until they get crisp and curly.

Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda Sauce

This is Giada De Laurentis' recipe, you can find it on foodnetwork.com. We didn't get a very good picture of this but it was on the plate. The tilapia was simply cooked in a skillet with olive oil for a couple minutes on each side and the citrus bagna cauda sauce was spooned over. The mistake that we made was Tony offered to spoon the sauce on the fish while I finished cooking the rest of the fish fillets and I forgot to tell him that the sauce is 6 portions...the zest in the sauce was a little much, so if you make this don't use anymore than 1/6th of the sauce per portion. Otherwise it was good, very mild tasting fish.

Zucchini, Carrot and Baby Red Potatoes cooked en Papillote

En papillote means to cook in paper or parchment. In order to do this you really have to cut everything fairly thin, otherwise it can take forever to cook. I thought the potatoes might take longer than the vegetable so I made two packages. The potatoes I cut into 1/4 inch disks. I drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and I added some sprigs of fresh thyme. For the vegetables I cut them into a very thin Julienne and put them on a piece of oiled parchment. I topped them with more thyme, a couple pats of butter, salt and pepper and a couple thin slices of lemon. You top the oiled parchment paper with another piece of oiled parchment and fold all around the edges to seal it tightly. I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees and put the parchment packages on a sheet pan. I cooked the potatoes for 30 minutes and the vegetables for 20 minutes and they were perfectly done. I do like to cook this way because the flavor has no where to go. I really noticed this with the potatoes, they were very potatoey (if you will).

Caramelized Pineapple with Creme Caramel and Banana Ice Cream

This was from "Follow That Food" show on pineapples. I remember Julia Child saying her favorite dessert is a creme caramel and I had never made one up until now (that I can recall). I remembered she said that because Gordon Elliot (the host of the show) said the same thing. So I had to make it. I thought it was good but I'd like to do it again and add some Flor De Sal to the caramel, I love what salt can do to caramel. I almost did it but decided to follow the recipe exactly. I also would fill up the ramekin a bit higher to get a taller finished creme caramel. Otherwise it was very simple to do. The pineapple is cut into thin rounds and basically is macerated with a mixture of some of the caramel from the creme caramel, orange juice, rum, vanilla extract and raisins. As you know I would have made the ice cream myself but I couldn't find a good recipe using eggs. They all used corn syrup or sweetened condensed milk and I just gave up and decided to buy some. All I could find at the store was Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey which was perfect because the chocolate chunks in it worked with everything. It was all a great combination together.

By the way, I love how things happen. A few weeks ago I told you about a brazilan mojito I had at Bar Boulud's in NYC and how I was trying to make it at home. Well we got the April addition to Food and Wine magazine and Daniel Boulud was featured in it. One of the recipes they put in the magazine was a drink that was very similar to the mojito. It was a Caipirinha which is 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice, plus 3 lime wedges, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 ounce simple syrup and 2 ounces of cachaca. I changed the lime to lemon, I put in natural sugar cane granules, a bit of fresh ginger and some fresh mint and muddled all that then added the cachaca and ice and shook it with ice. I think that is it exactly!!

Friday Night, Orecchiette Alforno

I thought we needed a good "comfort food" night. This is a recipe I had made many times before, except it usually is called Penne with Five Cheeses. Quick story... We had been to Alforno restaurant in Providence RI before, that's where we went the night Tony purposed to me. One day a few years later I was watching the Bearfoot Contessa on the food network. She was making this recipe and she said she ate it at Alforno restaurant and loved it, she asked for the recipe and this is it. So I printed up the recipe and soon after we went to the restaurant and it was still on the menu so I ordered it. I was soooo good, it was made with a really good imported pasta that was cooked al dente. It's mixed with a creamy cheesy mixture and baked so the top gets slightly charred and the bottom half is so creamy and yummy...

Antipasto Platter with Homemade Ciabatta Bread

I wanted to do an appetizer with an array of different flavors and textures because the main dish would be just the one pasta dish. So I did some different olives, cherry peppers stuffed with cheese, artichoke hearts, caprese salad (stacked mozzarella, fresh tomato and fresh basil) and what I thought was going to be something different and ended up being a fancy biscuit. I saw this recipe for "Pancetta and Peccorino Cakes", and read the recipe quickly and it seemed like something different, and it looked like something that was going to be baked and crispy (which I wanted something crispy for the texture). It was good but I had made the homemade ciabatta bread and it was like having two breads. It was all very good and the bread was great, I love that book I got called "My Bread" by Jim Lahey. If you want to impress your friends you must try his recipes.

Orecchiette Al forno with Five Cheeses and Pancetta

Al forno is Italian for "baked or roasted". This is an easy and great recipe, it's not low calorie though. In a bowl add 2 Cups heavy cream, 1 Cup crushed canned tomatoes, 1/2 cup grated peccorino romano, 1/2 cup shredded Italian fontina, 1/4 cup gorgonzola, 2 Tbsp ricotta, 1/4 fresh mozzarella and 6 basil leafs chopped. Par-cook Penne or Orecchiette pasta, about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way done. Combine with the cream mixture and pour into a gratin dish then dot with a bit of butter to help it brown. Place in a pre-heated 500 degree oven and bake for 7-10 minutes until bubbly and brown on top. I like to add some thick cut pancetta that I cook ahead of time and chop, just add it to the cream mixture when you add the par-boiled pasta.

Frozen Chocolate Malted, Malted Milk Balls and Gourmet Smores Stack

Well guess what? I bought some malted milk powder and it was inspired by our NYC trip. When we stopped at Momofuko's Milk Bar for cake that night Tony had a chocolate cake that had malted milk crumbs and charred marshmallow between the layers. I got some malted milk powder when we got home. So I saw a recipe for the Frozen Chocolate Malted and decided to do that. So what goes with something like that??? I remembered Tony's cake had the marshmallows and so I made homemade marshmallow, homemade Graham crackers and made a double stack of the smores with chocolate rounds that I melted and formed into the same size round as I made the other two components. Put it in a low oven for about 5 minutes so everything is ooowy and gooey. I needed one more thing to make the plate look finished so I made the malted milk balls, which is just melted white chocolate mixed with the malted powder until it's thick enough to form into balls and then chill. Once the are hard dip them in melted chocolate and chill again.

Saturday Night, Birthday Pork

Yes that's right, Saturday night this time. Well I don't know where I got it, but I got a cold that took away my taste buds, which was not very nice. I went to the store for all the ingredients on Thursday and did some prep. When I woke up on Friday, I just wasn't feeling up to cooking, or eating, because everything I ate had no taste. I got about 30% of my taste back on Saturday so at least I could taste a little. Saturday was Tony's 39th birthday and I asked him what he wanted for dinner. He suggested... "a whole pork roast maybe the one you made before with peaches"... I made this recipe from Jamie Oliver a few years back and it was very good and I have been meaning to make it again. It calls for a whole pork roast with the bones in. Bone-in makes a big difference in the finished roast, but I have trouble finding bone-in unless it is around the Holiday's. I thought well I will make the pork with peaches if the store has a bone-in pork roast but if they don't I will make this other pork roast in my Thomas Keller cookbook. Well they didn't have bone-in and so I made Fig Stuffed Pork Loin from Thomas Keller.

Devils on Horseback

If you read my last post it was about our trip to NYC last weekend and this was my recreation of one of the appetizers we had at The Spotted Pig. It is prunes stuffed with pear wedges and then it's wrapped in bacon and roasted. I first soaked the prunes in port wine for about an hour and I roasted wedges of pear for about 15 minutes. Assembled them with the bacon and put them in the oven until the bacon was crisped up. I thought they were very close to the restaurant but Tony thought they tasted sweeter than he remembered. Maybe my taste buds were off because of my cold, so he may be right. But we did eat them so fast that I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of them.

Fig Stuffed Pork loin

You brine the whole pork loin for 10 hours and then remove it from the brine, rinse and dry it. Cut a hole through the middle of the pork to make way for the stuffing. His recipe for the stuffing is figs, balsamic vinegar, sugar, black peppercorns and lemon juice. After making it I realized he probably meant fresh figs. I used dried figs. It tasted fine in the end but mine didn't break down like his looked. I made the filling a couple days ahead so when I took it out to use it I reheated it and added a bit of water and let it cook down for probably an hour, I wanted it to soften up a lot. To finish the fig filling you saute some bread pieces and fennel in oil then add the fig jam with some chicken stock. Let it cool before stuffing it in the pork. I stuffed it and trussed it and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees and it was perfectly done.

Glazed sweet potatoes

These were really good too. They are another Thomas Keller recipe. They are cut into thick steak fry shaped wedges, placed in a single layer in a baking pan, pats of butter over the top of them, covered tightly with aluminum foil and then baked for 35 minutes (that can be done ahead of time). Just before serving dip one of the cut sides into brown sugar and back into the baking pan with the sugar side up and then placed under the broiler until it caramelizes. I thought it would have been fine with less butter and no sugar. The extra butter and sugar were good but not necessary.

Tempura Brussels Sprouts with Spicy Soy Vinaigrette

This was another NYC dish we had at Momofuko. It was so good and I think even with only 30% of my taste buds working, I did a good job on these. The first hint was that Tony couldn't stop snacking on them as I was making them (before sitting down to eat dinner), and all I heard was mmmmmmm, woww, yummmm. I have a book that gives the definition of everything food related and for Tempura it says...A Japanese specialty of batter dipped pieces of fish or vegetables. It is usually accompanied by soy sauce...So I looked in my Joy of Cooking book and found a tempura batter which to my surprise was only two ingredients...2 cups of ice water to 2 cups sifted self rising flour. You mix the flour and water together, not too much, it will be a bit lumpy. Then I thought OK well I need a soy vinaigrette and the one that was served at Momofuko was a fish sauce vinaigrette. I don't have any fish sauce so I combined a little worcheshire sauce, soy sauce, saracha hot sauce and bit of honey to even things out a bit and then I whisked in a little olive oil to make it a vinaigrette. It was perfect. After draining the fried tempura Brussels sprouts on paper towels I tossed them in the bowl with the vinaigrette.

Banana Cake with Hazelnut filling and Hazelnut Praline Crunch

I wasn't happy with this cake. It was OK but I was trying to reproduce the cake at The Milk Bar in NYC and I wasn't even close. I made a banana cake recipe from Martha Stewart and I found the Gianduja Chocolate at Whole Foods that I had never heard of before. It's a hazelnut flavored chocolate. I made the hazelnut praline crunchy bits. I thought the filling was almost caramel with the hazelnut chocolate mixed in so I made Dulce De Leche by slowly heating sweetened condensed milk and it slowly turns into a caramel color, texture and taste. So I mixed it into the chocolate that I melted and as I was mixing it, it started to seize up. I thought it would be OK but it ended up hardening too much and it wasn't the owy, gooey, deliciousness that the other cake was. The cake itself wasn't banana-ee enough and I made a cream cheese frosting that wasn't on the original (I am not sure what the frosting was). So we just have to go back to NYC so I can try it again and study it better.

NYC Trip

This week we had "Friday Night Dinner" in New York City. We took the train out of Providence on Friday about noon time and by the time we checked in to The Waldorf-Astoria (Tony had enough Hilton Honors points for a couple free nights) and got going it was about 4 or 4:30. We tried to cancel that morning because we watched the news and it looked like the snow was going to make it hard to walk around. The news showed pictures of the roads in NYC and they were pretty bad. Al Roker said NYC could see another 9 inches. When we called the Waldorf-Astoria they said if we wanted to cancel we would be charged for one night, so we said...no, we'll be there... It turns out Friday was the worst and it wasn't that bad. Saturday it was really just dealing with the puddles (every one's pants were wet on the bottoms, unless you were a smart New Yorker and you wore your snow boots with your pants tucked in). It was chilly but really, not as bad as we thought it would be, and all the fantastic food made up for it.

We visited quite a few restaurants from Friday 4:30 pm- Sunday 9:00 am. Friday was "The Spotted Pig" and "Momofuko" and "The Milk Bar". Saturday was "Jacques Torres Chocolates", "Bar Boulud", "Carmine's", "Blue Smoke" and "Les Halles". Sunday was only one, "The Bread Factory Cafe'".

Lets start at the beginning. The Spotted Pig was awesome. We heard about it, where else, but on the Food Network. On the show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", Danny Boome talked about this place and he said...the deviled eggs and the devils on horseback were great... so that's what we had. These were on the menu as "Bar Snacks". The Deviled Eggs were very tangy with rice wine vinegar (my guess) and Flur De Sel (sea salt). The salt gave the eggs a salty crunch, the vinegar was great and it was finished on the plate with a drizzle of olive oil. I just tried to recreate it and I have to say I was pretty damn close. The Devils on Horseback was different and really good too. It's prunes stuffed with a pear wedge and then the whole thing is covered with a piece of bacon and it's broiled. There may have been a touch of maple syrup on the bacon. The crunchy, salty and chewy bacon on the outside was nice with the crispy but somehow cooked pear on the inside. I will guess that the pear is roasted for a short time before being stuffed in the prune. The prune may have been soaked in wine to rehydrate a bit. That is something I have to try to make in the next day or two while it's fresh in my memory.

We also got the"Fried Buffalo Mozzarella Ball". It was an appetizer that we shared. It was a softball sized piece of cheese wrapped in Serrano Ham and then it was breaded with eggs and Panko bread crumbs and the whole thing is put into a deep fryer until it's golden brown. It was served with more Serrano Ham on the side and a nice Mescalin Salad. That was good too.

The next stop was Momofuko Ssam Bar. We got lucky and got a seat at the bar, they don't take reservations and it was packed. Tony got a drink called "Pickle brine Martini", it had something that was probably... lemon oil? The bartender only put a few shakes in the bottom of the glass then a little pickle brine, gin and vermouth. At the very end he peeled off a good sized section of a fresh lemon and just twisted it over the top of the glass and then threw it out. The amount of lemon smell was amazing, that's why I think there was lemon oil at the beginning too. I had a glass of Pinot Noir. The owner of Momofuko has other restaurants and they all have an appetizer of Steamed Buns with Braised Pork Belly, Hoison sauce, cucumbers and scallions, so we had to get that. Something else caught our eye and it was Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. The Brussels sprouts were in a tempera batter and deep fried and then tossed in the vinaigrette with fresh mint and fish sauce and it wasn't fishy at all, which was what I was worried about, to finish it off they added rice cake pieces for a nice crunch.

The main dish for me was Wild Striped Bass with Kabocha Squash, Sassafras and Honshimeji Mushrooms. Anybody that knows me, knows that's is not like me, but I wanted to step out of the box and order some different things. I am just starting to try more fish and salmon is really good, this Bass was more fishy but it was OK, I ate almost the whole thing. The mushrooms and squash flavored with sassafras were really good too. Tony had the Corned Beef Terrine. He really enjoyed it. It came with Fried Egg Sauce and Tea Brined Egg Salad.

We left Momofuko's Ssam Bar and went next door to Momofuko's Milk Bar for dessert. It was packed so we almost said forget it let's go somewhere else, but the line seemed to be moving quickly so we went in and boy am I glad we did! I normally would get one of the chocolate cakes or some ice cream but I thought, OK what's something different...the Banana Cake...it was really super duper good! The moist banana cake, the layer between each cake layer that I am guessing was Dulce De Leche, which is like a caramel. There is a layer of Gianduja Chocolate which is a hazelnut flavored chocolate. Then the layers are also sprinkled with hazelnut crunch (praline, I'm guessing). Tony got Chocolate Malt Cake which was layered with malt fudge, malted milk crumbs and charred marshmallow between each layer. Wow they know their stuff!

Saturday morning we decided to walk to the upper west side because there were some food stores we wanted to check out. We had breakfast at a cafe', nothing special. On our way we wanted to stop at Jacques Torres Chocolates, cafe'. It was featured on the Food Network, on The Best Thing I Ever Ate show. Giada DeLaurentiis said the Wicked Hot Chocolate was the best chocolate dessert she ever had, so we got two of those and sat by the window nice and toasty warm as we watched the people walk by who were obviously chilly. The ingredients in the hot chocolate is Cocoa powder, corn starch, vanilla, whole milk, spices and chili. The corn starch gives it a slight pudding consistency. The chili which I think is cayenne pepper gives a nice warmth and that's the "wicked" part in the title. They were served in small cups and at first I thought, that's it, it's so small. But it was so heavy duty, we wouldn't have wanted any more than that. It was really delicious and if you want chocolate, this hot chocolate really delivers!!

We went to Fairway Market and Zabar's on the upper west side. I found some wheat berries and some green french lentils. I had been looking for both and haven't come across them at home so I carried them around all day, which was fine.

After the food stores we headed south on our way to our next destination we came across, Bar Boulud. Daniel Boulud has cookbooks and restaurants and he has been on different shows. He's a French chef and as soon as you walk into Bar Boulud it's got French written all over it. We sat at our favorite spot, the bar, and the fancy wine bottles were everywhere. We hadn't planned on going to this restaurant but I think it was meant to be. The slices of fresh bread were placed in front of us with a really fresh round of butter, something was special about that butter. We ordered a drink. I never ordered a Mojito anywhere, I know I've had one before, but this was a Brazilian Mojito and let me tell you I am still thinking about it. It was made with Cachaca and fresh mint, ginger, and there were bit's of "sugar in the raw" every so often. I have to figure that drink out. Tony got a Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA beer. I got the Cauliflower Soup. Tony got the Smoked Salmon Club and the waiter asked if we'd like an order of French Fries and we said yes. The fries were good but not as special as we thought they might have been. My soup was buttery and absolutely perfect with some ground black pepper and a few pieces of cauliflower for garnish. It was cold outside so it warmed me up nicely. Tony enjoyed his smoked salmon club that came with house made potato chips.

We made our way to the next stop, but before that, we stopped for a beer at Carmine's restaurant. It's a great Italian restaurant that has family styled service, big bowls of pasta served in the middle of the table and you help yourself. We didn't eat anything there, we just wanted to take a break from walking and have a beer.

Next, we made our way to the Blue Smoke restaurant. It's a fancy BBQ restaurant, we were hoping to get some appetizer sized potions of barbecue, but we ended up getting BBQ Potato Chips served with a Blue Cheese Dip that had fresh chives and bacon sprinkled over top. I liked that idea. Everybody loves chips, these were house made and it was a good idea for something to do at home for a party.

Our final destination was Les Halles on Park Avenue, a French restaurant that Anthony Bourdain worked at for a long time, he now has a show called "No Reservations" on The Travel Chanel. We actually went to this restaurant before, but we went to another one that was in the financial district, we didn't realize there were two of these restaurants. Last time Tony got the Muscles and this time he got the Muscles again! This time he ordered 1/2 of an order. I got an appetizer that was a big wedge of brie cheese on top of lightly toasted French Baguette slices. The cheese on toast was placed under the broiler to melt the cheese a bit and then a honey and black pepper sauce was spooned over the cheese. It was served with a bit of mescalin salad with candied walnuts and shallot vinaigrette on the side. I already tried to recreate this dish and it was just as I described but I think they used another kind of honey than Clover Honey, basically I heated the honey in a saucepan and sprinkled in cracked black pepper corns. It was very close to the restaurant, maybe the honey should be more mild.

We stayed for dessert at Les Halles and got the Rum Raisin Crepes with Chantilly Cream and Caramel Sauce. It was very good! It tasted like something I would make for dessert. Chantilly Cream is just whipped cream sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla. The Rum Raisin part was just raisins soaked in rum until they plump up. You make some crepes and caramel sauce and there you go!

That's it! The next morning we had to catch the train at 10:00, so we left the hotel thinking we would stop at an interesting cafe', whatever looked good. Well they say "the city never sleeps", we know when they sleep, on Sunday morning! Everything was closed, we found a place called "The Bread Factory Cafe". Tony had an authentic NYC bagel with smoked salmon cream cheese that he enjoyed.

Here's the google map of our little trip:

View Feb 2010 NYC Trip in a larger map

Friday Night, Filet Mignon

I was thinking of Filet Mignon for dinner. I tend to buy the NY Strip because it really is our favorite cut, but I thought, it has been a while since I made Filet Mignon. I was flipping through one of my Italian cookbooks (Giuliano Bugialli's) and the page just opened up to a picture of a Filet on a vegetable sauce. So I figured it was meant to be that I make this dish. I flipped through some more and I found this polenta dish that is spooned over cold Mascarpone cheese, It is topped with shaved white truffles, but I didn't have the extra $100.00 to buy a white truffle so I did some Shiitaki Mushrooms instead.

Valdeon Spanish Blue Cheese Tart with Arugula and Walnuts

The Spanish blue cheeses are so good, especially Cabrelas, which is hard to find at the local markets, Valdeon is almost as good. I bought it and instead of just serving it as is, I decided to make a savory pie tart crust and bake it off ahead of time and just before serving it I put the cheese on the tart and place it back in the oven to melt. After it came out of the oven I sprinkled on some toasted walnuts and I decided to top it with an Arugula Salad tossed with a champagne vinaigrette that I made. It was a hit. You can't eat too much of it though because of the crust with all the butter is pretty caloric.

Filet Mignon with Vegetable Sauce

This sauce is made with celery, carrots, red onion, garlic, parsley, basil, bay leaf, clove, red wine, salt and pepper. He simmers all the vegetable for 45 minutes with a "piece of boneless beef or veal". I bought Boneless short ribs to cook over the weekend and I only needed 2 oz for the sauce so I used a small piece of that. It's just used to flavor the sauce and then it is discarded. After cooking the sauce it's put through a food mill and just before serving you cook the sauce in a Tbsp of butter just to heat through and the butter adds richness. He cooks the Filet Mignon under the broiler but instead Tony cooked them to perfection on the charcoal grill. They were a nice change and I think the portion size is perfect.

Polenta with Mascarpone and Shiitaki Mushrooms

I have made polenta a few different ways, usually with cream and butter and herbs and so on... This recipe I liked because it's just stock, salt and stone-ground cornmeal. He uses homemade beef stock, but I went ahead and used chicken stock from the store. He also says that it cooks for 45-50 minutes of constantly stirring. I tried that but after about 25 minutes it was thickening up and it tasted done to me so I turned off the heat and added a splash of water and covered it. I used this time to saute some Shiitaki mushrooms in some butter until they were perfectly done and I sprinkled on some salt. When the Filets were done and we were ready to plate I turned the heat back on the polenta and mixed in the splash of water in until it came together with a nice consistency, it worked out perfectly. The cold Mascarpone cheese is placed on the individual serving dishes (about a Tbsp on each plate) and the hot polenta is spooned over the cheese to completely cover it. When you sit down to eat it, even through I put it there, the cheese was a surprise, it just oozes out and it's great. The Filet, the sauce, the mushrooms and the polenta all worked perfectly together.

Ruffled Milk Pie

I saw this on Martha Stewart's show one day a couple months back and I have wanted to make it ever since. I finally made it and it's a great recipe. I looks impressive, it tastes fantastic and its pretty easy to make. It's a two step process which is another good thing because I did the first process earlier in the day and just before we sat down to dinner I did the second part so it was fresh out of the oven, which is what the recipe says, to serve it immediately (it's delicious cold too as I found out this afternoon). After buttering a 13 inch round cake pan with clarified butter you take store bought phyllo sheets and scrunch them up and layer in the pan to make a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle until you have what looks like a rose, you end up using about 8-9 sheets of phyllo. Brush the "phyllo rose" with more clarified butter and sprinkle on cinnamon. Bake for 25 minutes. This is where I stopped and did this second part about 6 hours later. Whisk together eggs, whole milk, sugar and vanilla and pour over the "phyllo rose" and bake for another 25 minutes. You end up with a custard that's scrumptious but it's got a bit of delicious crunch from the tops of all the phyllo that peeks out from the custard. Excellent ricipe!

Affogato

I actually decided to made this as the dessert but thought it needed a cookie or something to go with it and that's when I remembered the Ruffle Milk Pie. This is an Italian dessert which is simply a scoop of vanilla gelato or ice cream and you pour over espresso or strong coffee. I never made it before but you can bet I will do it again. I got some great tasting coffee from Whole Foods, decaf Buzz Free (It's called). I made the coffee strong and I got some Haagen Daz Vanilla Bean ice cream. One big scoop of Vanilla Bean and fill up the mug with the coffee and it quickly turns from a smoken hot coffee to a cold delicious melty shake. Affogato is pronounced (ahf-foh-GAH-toh) which is great because if I forget the name of it I just have to say... I forgot Oh, and it's sounds the same!

Friday Night, French Night

I didn't have a clue what I would make for this Friday Night. We have had a lot of pork lately, I just made duck and chicken so poultry was out. We had a steak last week. Tony had a veal chop at a restaurant mid-week. I was lost. The only thing that made sense was seafood. I started looking through an old Gourmet magazine March 2008 to be exact. It was a magazine all about French cooking. I flipped through the pages and the whole menu was born.

Cheese Platter

The platter included; 2 French cheeses, Country Pate, Chardonnay Gelee that I made, and slices of crunchy French bread. The chardonnay gelee was great, it really paired nicely with the aged blue and aged brie cheeses I bought. The gelee is made by simmering down 1 cup of chardonnay with 1/2 cup of sugar and a small section of star anise, then you add a tsp of unflavored gelatin that has been softened in a little water, and you let it set up in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. For the country pate, I bought it at Whole Foods already made, it was a French meal so why not?

Saumon Aux Lentilles

This was fantastic. The lentils are cooked with leeks and there is a butter that's made and added right into the lentils. The butter is combined with whole grain mustard, lemon, fresh tarragon and chives, salt and pepper. Half of the compound butter is added to the lentils and the other half is saved for a topping when it's served. The recipe called for French Green Lentil's but Whole Foods didn't seem to have them. I did find some lentils from Spain that claimed to hold their shape and pair well with fish, which was what they said about the French ones. Anyway the ones I got were perfect! The salmon was simply seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in butter. About 8 minutes or so later they were done. This was my favorite method so far for salmon, and Tony said it was the absolute best salmon dinner he's ever had.

Butter-Sugar Crepes with Cinnamon Whipped Cream and Calvados Sorbet

I saw these crepes on the last page of the Gourmet Magazine and they spoke to me. I made a crepe dessert before with whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate ganache, and they were really good so I said "Yeah, a different crepe dessert, it's definitely French". This one was great because you make all the components ahead of time and last minute it's easily transformed from a simple crepe to something so melt in your mouth fantastic you can't believe it.

I made the crepes about 6 hours ahead of time and put them in the refrigerator. When I was ready to serve them the crepes are simply brushed with melted butter then sprinkled with sugar, folded in quarters and heated through in a pan that has more butter and sugar and a pinch of salt. After about 4-5 minutes in the pan they are done.

In the same magazine I came across a recipe for Calvados Sorbet and I thought that might go very nicely with the crepes. Calvados is an apple flavored liquor. It was simple to make. Just cook a little simple syrup for 5 minutes and chill in an ice bath. Add in the same ice bath the Calvados and some non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider. Chill then put into the ice cream machine.

I presented them first by dusting a strip of powdered cinnamon across the plate (for decoration but also to add a kick of cinnamon because apples love cinnamon). Second I placed on two of the crepes per person, a scoop of the Calvados Sorbet and a scoop of whipped cream flavored with sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Well let me tell you, it was something else!

Friday Night, NY Stip with Shallot Butter

Spicy Popcorn with Marcona Almonds

In a recent magazine there were some super bowl party snack ideas and this popcorn was one. It's popped in peanut oil and some butter is melted down and mixed with spicy paprika and salt. In another small bowl you mix an equal amount of salt and spicy paprika. As soon as the popcorn is done popping you add the flavored butter and Marcona Almonds to the pop corn and shake to distribute the butter evenly and then transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle over the salt and spicy paprika mixture. Really good as an appetizer with drinks because it's the spicy, salty and crunchy that everyone loves.

Charcoal Grilled NY Strip Steak with Shallot Butter

I always use the gas grill because it's easy to get started and it's conveniently right outside my back door, but we all know charcoal has a better flavor. Tony has been into the smoking and charcoaling side of grilling so I decided to grill these steaks with charcoal. It's really not that much harder it's just not what I am used to. First of all I had planned on getting something different then NY Strip because I tend to buy the Strip Steak most of the time I thought maybe a Rib Eye this time. Well as you should always do, you should see what looks good at the market. When I got to the meat case the marbling on the NY Strip was exactly what you want to see. An even thin marbling throughout and they seemed to be cut thicker than usual, about 1 1/2 -2 inches. That size is better than something 1/2- 1 inch any day. That way you get a nice charred crust on the outside with out over cooking the inside. I let them sit out of the frig for about 2 hours before grilling. When you grill a steak that fat, when it's cold, it will be hard to cook the center perfectly. When the steak is brought closer to room temperature the inside will cook more evenly and you will get a better steak.

Pommes Chef Jeanne

This is a recipe that Anne Burell (Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Food network) made and she called it Pommes Chef Anne. So I changed the name to Pommes Chef Jeanne because I added fresh Thyme between a few of the layers of thinly sliced potato and she didn't do that. It's basically thin slices of russert potatoes placed into a non-stick pan that has a bit of oil in it and layered with Parmesana Reggiano and salt in some of the layers, and my twist of fresh thyme in some layers. It's cooked for a bit on top of the stove to get it going and then you put the pan in the oven and let it cook 25 minutes or so. Remove the oil from the pan by placing a cover on the potatoes and pouring off the fat and then using the cover you flip it to cook the other side of the potatoes. Back into the oven until tender and all potatoes are cooked through and the outsides are crispy. I garnished with fresh chives.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

This is from my new Thomas Keller cookbook. He cuts the Swiss chard steams into 1 inch pieces and blanches them for 3-4 minutes and sets aside. He marinates golden raisins in wine ahead. Toast pine nuts ahead. Saute the Swiss chard leaves for 20 minutes until tender. He also does Serrano Ham but I didn't do that part. When ready to serve you heat a pan and saute garlic in oil then add the leaves of the chard, the stems, the pine nuts and the raisins. Season with salt and pepper and serve. Basically just to heat everything through.

Baked Alaska with Caramel and Blackberry Sauces

We used to work at Quidnessett Country Club in RI (that's how we met) and this was something we used to serve. It was a show we would put on. The Baked Alaskas would be put on platters and I think the chefs used big croutons soaked in alcohol as the fuel. The croutons would be placed in the centers of each baked alaska and we (the waitresses) would all line up and one chef would torch each of the croutons on fire. The lights in the room were turned off. One would be the leader and the rest would follow. At least 10 of us would walk quickly throughout the banquet room and the crowd would love the show we put on. We would end at a table set up for the chefs to quickly remove the crouton and start slicing and plating the baked alaskas and the baked alaska performers would turn into waitresses again and pass out all the plates of dessert. So...anyway....... I got lost for a minute. I got some chocolate ice cream (whole foods brand, it's good) and raspberry sorbet. I let them soften in the frig a bit while I got my mold ready and my store bought pound cake. I decided on a spring form pan and I sprayed it with pam, just in case. I lined the pan with pound cake that I cut into 1/2 inch pieces the long way. After lining the bottom and sides with cake I spread about an inch of chocolate ice cream then about 3/4 inch of raspberry sorbet then one inch of chocolate ice cream again. I topped the ice cream with another layer of the pound cake and placed it in the freezer until it was dessert time. After dinner I made the meringue, which is made with egg whites and simple syrup. You remove the spring form from the pan and spread the meringue over the top and sides and create some peeks. Torch the meringue or put it under a broiler to brown. Ahead of time I made Caramel sauce and Blackberry sauce both from my Thomas Keller cookbook. I garnished the plate with a chocolate ganache that I made and the two other sauces I made. I garnished while Tony took a part in the dessert while very nicely torching the meringue to perfection.

Iced Lemoncello

I tried to make a glass made out of ice that has lemon slices in it. It worked pretty good. I poured Lemoncello into the ice glass and we sipped on it along with our dessert.

Friday Night, Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken

Homemade Black Pepper and Thyme Goats Cheese with Chiabatta toasts and Prosuitto de Parma

I have a recipe for homemade ricotta cheese in an old magazine and I thought I would try to make goat cheese using the same recipe. Of course in place of whole milk just use goat milk, which they sell everywhere. It' works. Basically you heat the milk with a little salt until it starts to simmer and then add lemon juice (1/2 gallon milk, 1 tsp salt and 3 Tbsp lemon juice). The curds with start to form after a few minutes and you skim the curds into a cheese cloth. The ricotta cheese is only strained for a couple minutes but I wanted a consistency for the goat cheese to be thicker than ricotta should be so I tied a string around the cheese cloth and hung it in the frig with a bowl under it for 3-4 hours. I flavored it with fresh thyme and black pepper. I made it twice, the first time I lined the cheesecloth with dried thyme so it was on the exterior when I plated it. This second time I wanted to put the flavors in the center so when you cut into it you get a surprise. I liked it better the first time with the dried thyme on the outside. Both were very good. I made thin slices of Chiabatta bread and cooked them in the oven to get crispy and served that and some nice carefully sliced Prosciutto de Parma from a lady a Whole Foods along side the homemade goat cheese.

Thomas Keller's Roasted Chicken on a Bed of Root Vegetables

Who doesn't love a good roasted chicken? I had just gotten my Thomas Keller cookbook I asked for for Christmas. I was on back order because he was on Martha Stewart's show and so everybody wanted one after seeing the show. "Ad Hoc at Home" is the name of the book. It's pretty basic but an excellent recipe, it came out really nice and the surprise was the roasted veg. I can't believe I haven't been cooking rutabagas and turnips, they were so delicious roasted in those chicken juices. We both loved the vegetables.

Pop Over Casserole

I've made pop overs a couple times lately and they were so good and something different. I thought I would make them again but instead of individual ones I would do a big one and call it a casserole. It was good but we like the individual ones better because you get more of the edges and crunchy top that makes them so good.

Almond Cream and Apple Tart with Vanilla Custard Ice Cream

Years ago we went to Al Forno's, a famous restaurant in Providence RI, and we have been a few more times too but one of the first times we went we ordered the apple tart. It was so good, it's free form shaped and it's just the perfect sweetness, served with creme anglase. We had it the next time and then the last time we got the pear tart (the apple wasn't on the menu that time) made the same way and just about as good. So on that show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on food network, it was on The Best Sweet Thing, and someone said ...the apple tart at Al Forno's...So on that show they go into the kitchen and show how it's made. Well I have been making it ever since. It's a sprinkling of sugar on the tart crust that you've rolled out, just the center leaving an inch or two around the edges free from sugar. One layer, overlapping, of thinly sliced Golden Delicious Apples layed out in a decorative fashion leaving the 1-2 inch around the edges and then you fold up the crust to hold all the apples in. A sprinkle of sugar again over the apples and dot with butter, a few tablespoons or so. I don't know if they do it but I have been brushing egg wash on the edge of the crust and sprinkling sugar in the raw on the edge. Baked in the oven about 375 until the crust looks golden and the apples are nicely cooked. It takes about 40 minutes I think. This time I put an almond cream that I made as the base for the apples just to try something different. The Vanilla Custard Ice Cream was a new recipe from my Thomas Keller cookbook. It was good, it's ice cream!!! BUT, I probably won't make it again it has 10 egg yolks in the recipe and I think it's almost too rich. I have another vanilla ice cream recipe that's better with less eggs.

Friday Night, Duck

Deep Fried Camembert with Granny Smith Apple slices and Walnuts

After watching an episode of "Follow that Food" on Camembert Cheese I decided to make one of the recipes featured on the show. It ended up being a combination of two recipes. Both recipes were basically the same... breaded in egg, flour and breadcrumbs and cooked, one was baked in the oven and the other was deep fried. I planned of the deep fry but when the time came, I ended up baking the breaded cheese in the oven. I think it couldn't have been any better deep fried, just more of a mess to clean.

What's up Duck? Duck

The name of this duck dish is named by Alton Brown, it's his recipe. I gave Tony Alton's new cookbook for Christmas and I didn't realize how much he really likes Alton. He looked like me when I get a cookbook I really like, reading it from cover to cover and taking it all in. I thought I'd surprise him with an Alton recipe and it's something I never made before and actually I had never eaten before. I was good, similar but different than chicken. It's brined in an orange and pineapple juice among other things and I decided to take those two juices and reduce them down and I served it with the duck. I'm glad I did that, it gave it some nice sweetness, and who doesn't like a good sauce.

Rosemary Red Potatoes

Baby fingerling red potatoes some left whole and some cut so they all have a similar size. Toss with olive oil, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper. Onto a sheet pan and into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes or so, tossing a couple times for even cooking.

Brussels Sprout Chips

This idea came from "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" (food network show). It was a show on Best Fried Foods. Brussels Sprouts leaves are separated and when you can't separate the leaves anymore the centers are cut into small 1/4 inch slices. They showed them just cooking them in a deep fryer until crispy and seasoned with salt and pepper so I did that. I was very careful to clean them ahead and make sure they were dry because I didn't want the oil to splatter everywhere. Well the oil splattered everywhere! I guess because the Brussels sprouts have alot of moisture in them naturally it's bound to happen. After dropping in the first handful I decided to just cook the rest of them in a small amount of oil in a saute pan and it splattered much less and they tasted just as good as the deep fried ones.

Profiteroles with Homemade Fudge Ripple Ice Cream

Choux paste is pretty easy to make and I make it once in a while... I've made chocolate eclair's, cream puffs and these profiteroles. You can also do savory ones, I remember doing a blue cheese one with a bit of kick from cayenne as an appetizer we brought to friend's houses. Basically when they cook up in the oven they become hollow and that's a perfect place to put homemade fudge ripple ice cream for these profiteroles. I garnished the plate and the top of the profiteroles with chocolate sauce and a few raspberries are always welcome with chocolate.

Friday Night, 24 hour pork

I was thinking fancy and French when I thought of another pork chop dish. I visualized a dish with a Frenched pork chop, which just means the bone is cleaned off of all the fat and it just looks fancy propped up in the plate. I was also wanting to brine to get a super tender piece of pork. I happened to be watching Bobby Flay's "Grill it", the few days leading up to Friday Night and it was a show on pork chops. The guy he had on the show brined his in beer, cider and spices for 24 hours and Bobby Flay loved it when he tasted it he couldn't believe how flavorful it was and everything. So I made it just how he said and I have to say I was very disappointed. Unless you want to make Ham, because that is what it tasted like, and even the texture was just like Ham. As far as the Frenched bone goes... I asked for 2 pork chops at the meat counter and all of them in my view were center cut pork chops and they all looked good. I guess the ones hidden from my view were different. I should have showed him the ones I wanted but I didn't and I got something that looked like a porterhouse cut with the fillet and the strip (if you will), and no bone to French!!

White Bean Hummus with Homemade Pita

Actually I used Chick Peas. I didn't have white beans in the pantry. But I did something different. Usually there are no nuts in hummus, there is usually sesame paste which I never use, but I added a handful of Pine Nuts to the mix. The nuts added a nice texture, I will do that again. I have a couple bread cookbooks, I love making bread, and there is a recipe for Pita bread in my Paul Hollywood book. Super easy to make and it's 5 minutes of kneading and 60 minutes of resting then it bakes for 5-10 minutes and done. Super delicious with the hummus.

24 Hour Brined Porterhouse Pork Chops

I described this pork above but it also had a cider glaze. I love cooking with apple cider. It gives a nice sweetness to dishes with out using sugar. This is just apple cider that is cooked down until it has a syrupy consistency and then brushed on the finished chop. I will do that again, it even makes the presentation nicer because of the shine it adds to the chop.

Celeriac Puree

Just how it sounds. I boiled it up as I would to make mashed potatoes and added salt, pepper and butter.

Provincial Tomatoes

I have been making things from Jacques and Julia's cookbook lately and this was one that Julia did. We liked it for something different, its a good side dish.

French Style Chocolate Souffle with homemade Caramel Ice Cream

I was watching "Follow That Food", and they were doing follow that egg. A restaurant in France made this souffle and it looked fabulous. I couldn't make it in advance so after we finished dinner I whipped this up in minutes (because I prepped everything and it was ready to be assembled). It was very good but I undercooked it a little. In the show the chef said it's very good when you scoop a bit of the chocolate souffle out and eat it and then fill the hole with caramel ice cream. I found a recipe elsewhere for caramel ice cream and that is absolutely our new favorite ice cream, you gotta try making it. He was right the two are perfect together.