Wrapping Up, and Up Next

I feel like I shorted The Family Meal a tad in this past week, with Charlie being sick and us going up to San Antonio for the long weekend, but I'm not too heartbroken about it, because most of the remaining recipes that really catch my eye all include cuts of meat, types of fish, and quality of cured meat and sausage that I don't have ready access to. In the intro to the book, Adria says that he made sure that all of the ingredients were available to a home cook in the US, but I'm guessing he didn't send anyone to scout out the offerings here in Corpus Christi. And, after a month, it still makes me laugh that he thinks a home cook has a foamer.

This is the only book I've cooked from so far that didn't score anything lower than a "Just okay," so I think that's pretty remarkable. Most of the dishes were easy to prepare, and all the ones that I was able to make used just a few ingredients, to maximum effect.

Stand-outs, and those I'll make time and again, are the Roasted Chicken, Cauliflower with Bechamel, Pasta Bolognese (I'm drooling just thinking about it), and the Mexican Chicken.

If you have access to a phenomenal butcher who carries less-popular cuts of meat and an international market that sells spices I've never heard of, this book is a must-have. There are lots of yet-unmade dishes that I would run out and make tomorrow if I could. Unfortunately, I feel like most of the recipes I was able to make weren't particularly unique. Baked apples are good, roast chicken is one of my favorite meals in the world, but if you already have solid recipes for those types of things, you won't miss this book.

For me, this book is a keeper, but it's not one that I would push people to run out and buy before giving it a solid look. Not being able to get my hands on ingredients makes me sad.  Maybe I'll have better luck when I move to Italy next year. God, I love saying that. HA!

There are a few more recipes that I planned on, which got derailed by Charlie being sick all last week, so here's my plan.

I'm going to start on my next book: Perfect Vegetables, once again from the Cook's Illustrated folks. I know I haven't had amazing luck with their recipes so far, but I have high hopes for this one. I say that every time, don't I? But still, I'm not very creative when it comes to veg. If it's not part of a complete meal, I tend to fall back on grilled asparagus or broccoli or spinach with oil and garlic. Charlie will nibble some broccoli, but other than that, I can't get him to eat any of the normal vegetables that kids will accept--carrots, sweet potatoes, any version of white potato (except for french fries, of course.) Long story short, this book will be good for all of us. My diet could use more vegetables. Plus, this one should be easy to keep up with through the holidays.

Since these are mostly side dishes, it gives me the opportunity to cook a few more from The Family Meal and to catch up on some Dorie recipes while I'm at it. Win-win!

The Family Meal: Tagliatelle Carbonara, and a Sweet Potato

Bonzo is sick again--this time with a stomach virus--which is throwing a major kink in my nanowrimo plan. Grrr.

Regardless, I've cooked two quickies from The Family Meal.

For lunch yesterday, I made Sweet Potato with Honey and Cream (pg 304). This is billed as a dessert in the book. This would never satisfy a dessert craving. I thought putting honey and a dab of whipped cream on a sweet potato sounded like a tasty idea, but in the end, it's still just a sweet potato. Nothing special here. My expensive, flavor-packed local honey disappeared into the potato, and the whipped cream melted quickly and didn't contribute much flavor.

Conclusion: Just okay.

If I had payed closer attention to what was actually going on in Tagliatelle Carbonara (pg 290), I may have chickened out. I don't even want to know the calorie count in this thing. Four ounces is a lot of bacon. Brown that, and without draining it, add a whole cup of heavy cream, and simmer for 20 minutes. Mix it with pasta, and at the last second before serving, toss in some egg yolks that have been whisked with a splash of more heavy cream. Top with parmesan. Oh nelly. I added spinach to the pasta, because that makes it healthy. HA!

Don't look so sweet and innocent. I know what you're really made of.

That said, this pasta was fricken delicious. Heavy, but delicious.

Matt, after finishing his own bowl: (Moan). So...full.
Me, still eating: I don't think I'm gonna make it.
Matt: You can't finish it?
Me: (Groan.)
Matt: Don't worry. I'll give it a good home.
Me: You just said you were full.
Matt: So?
Me: You don't have to eat it.
Matt: Having to and wanting to are two different things.

In the end, he decided against finishing mine, but not for any reason relating to his comfort. He's running the San Antonio Marathon this weekend (boggles my mind), and is terrified of catching Charlie's stomach virus. I feel fine, but he figured he wouldn't take any chances, just in case the little bugger's germs are lurking in me, waiting to strike.

Conclusion: Loved it, but I doubt I'll ever make it again. It's a heart attack in a bowl.

Wish me luck that Charlie feels better soon and I can get back on track with my writing. It's hard to do when you're brain dead.

A Few from The Family Meal

I've made a few dishes from The Family Meal over the past few days. I wish I'd made more, but grouper and swiss chard from the farmers market looked too good to pass up over the weekend. They derailed the things I'd planned to cook from this book. Tell me, is there a more beautiful vegetable than swiss chard? I can't resist their rainbow stems. I don't even care what it tastes like. I must buy them. The farmer said that the stems can be sliced up and used like celery. Anybody ever try that? I've always ripped the leaves off and thrown the pretty stems away, because I didn't know how to use them. I digress...

First up: Roasted Chicken (pg 282). Technically, this was supposed to be "Roasted Chicken with Potato Straws," which sounded mighty impressive, until I read through the recipe and saw that it calls for a bag of store-bought, chip-aisle potato straws to be dumped alongside the chicken. Puh-lease. Potato straws: omitted.

Despite that irritation, this was a wonderful roast chicken recipe. The skin is rubbed with salt, oil, lemon zest, and a powder you're supposed to process of rosemary, bay, thyme, and peppercorns. It wasn't a big enough amount for my food processor to do the job, so I just chopped up those herbs and rubbed them on. For additional flavor (or maybe just for the aroma. I'm not sure. Either way, it's good), shove sliced lemon and whole cloves of garlic into the bird's cavity. One thing that made this recipe different than how I normally roast a chicken was that you roast it face down for 25 minutes, then flip it and finish it off breast-up. The meat was tender and moist, and I thank the flip for that. The pan sauce turned out a lot greasier than I think it was meant to, but it tasted good. I need one of those gravy separator gizmos.

Conclusion: Loved it. Nothing better than a good roast chicken. 

Instead of the lame potato sticks, I made Cauliflower with Bechamel (pg 260). I burned my roux on the first try, but it was easy enough to start over. I may have overcooked my sauce. It was thick, like a paste. In the book's picture, it pours. This didn't pour. Tasted good, though. I dolloped it onto the cauliflower, sprinkled it with parmesan, and broiled it until the top browned a bit. The hint of nutmeg in the sauce was nice with the salty parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. I was sure Charlie would like this, but he refused to try it. Maybe next time.

Conclusion: Liked it. I never make cauliflower, because it doesn't taste like anything (and anyone who says it's a good replacement for mashed potatoes is delusional). With this sauce, it's earned a spot in my regimen.

Lastly, I made Baked Apples (pg 106) one night, for an easy, hands-off dessert. Butter, sherry, honey, and cinnamon go into/on the cored apple, then it bakes for an hour.

 Dessert doesn't get much easier than that. With a barely-sweet whipped cream, drizzled with the pan juices, this was a perfect dessert. It was like insta-pie, in which you never miss the crust. This is one apple I could eat every day, and if I did, I wouldn't feel too terrible about it. Omit the cream, and I wouldn't feel bad about it at all. Why would you do that, though?

Conclusion: Loved it.

FFwD: Paris Mushroom Soup

I'm flying loose with the schedule this month. Hope nobody minds too terribly. The scheduled meal from Around My French Table is Spiced Squash, Fennel, and Pear Soup. I made and wrote about this soup last spring. Originally, I was a bit disappointed with the flavor, but mostly liked it. As time passed, and I ate bowl after endless bowl of frozen leftovers, the orange and ginger flavors intensified until they were overbearing. This recipe made a whole lot of soup, and those last few bowls were pretty unpleasant. The thought of making it again churned my stomach.

Instead, I decided to catch up on one of the recipes I missed. In keeping with the soup theme, I made Paris Mushroom Soup (pg 72). This is one of those recipes that I would skip right over if not for French Fridays with Dorie. When I was younger, I hated mushrooms. I no longer hate them, but I don't go out of my way to eat them, either. Matt despises them, so I'm never tempted to cook anything that features them too predominantly.

What a fool I am. This is one delicious soup. It helps that it's pureed. I like vegetable soups so much better when they're smooth. The flavors meld better that way, I think. Mushroom is definitely the star flavor, but it's so nicely balanced by rosemary, garlic, wine, onions, and a bit of thyme (I didn't have parsley, so I subbed in thyme), that I loved it. It reminded me of Thanksgiving stuffing, but I'm not sure why. I used to yell at my mom whenever she attempted to add mushrooms to our stuffing (aren't I a gem?), so half the time she made two separate batches, one with, one without. I never ate the batch with the mushrooms, so I don't know why I connect the flavor of this soup so strongly to her stuffing. Unless she's been tricking me and adding teeny diced mushrooms all these years, just to mess with me. Not cool, Mom. Not cool.

I couldn't be happier with this soup. I love tasty surprises. Now, as long as my frozen servings don't intensify until the thought of eating one more bowl makes my stomach lurch, I'll happily make this recipe over and over again.

Conclusion: Love it. Hooray! Just one more example of how preconceived notions can be so very, very wrong.

The Family Meal: Clams with Paprika

I've met my writing goals for the past two days (go me!), so I felt free to write a quick post. Lunch today was Clams with Paprika (pg 330 of The Family Meal). Technically, this is a recipe for mussels, but I bought clams for dinner last night, not realizing that one of the component sauces of the dish would take over an hour to make. By the time I noticed that glitch, it was way too late to start cooking, so we ate leftover quiche. We have dinner plans tonight, so I threw this quick dish together for lunch.

This was super easy. Cook garlic in oil, add paprika, flour, water, and parsley, then throw the clams in for a few minutes, until they open. Unfortunately, I browned my garlic, which made the broth bitter. Even though I could taste the mistake, I still liked it, and could tell how good it would be if I hadn't messed it up.

I like pretty food.

Conclusion: Liked it.

Speaking of messes, I also baked a breakfast cake from Baking this morning, because Charlie is getting pretty sick of scrambled eggs, waffles, and french toast. Apple Nut Muffin Cake (pg 37) came together easily. It's a standard case of mixing dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, then mixing them together. There's lots of good stuff in this cake--an apple, raisins, oats, apple juice, milk, and normally, nuts. I omitted them, because hard things distract Charlie from eating. He spends too much time picking them out and studying them.

I need to rename this blog "Distracted in the Kitchen," or something, because I've been causing problem after problem these days. This time, I buttered my pan, but did not flour it, so the entire bottom of my cake ripped off. Oh well, still good.

Nurts. Maybe if I flip it over...

The clincher for me that sets this cake apart from other apple muffins I've tried, is that almond extract is used in addition to vanilla extract and cinnamon. I seem to like anything almond-flavored. It works really well with the earthy, oaty, apple flavors here. I've sliced the cake into individual servings and frozen them, to deprive my greedy mouth.

A-ha! No one will ever know!

Conclusion: Loved it. This a moist cake with a crunchy crust. I've never had such a crunchy crust on a breakfast cake before. Charlie-Approved.

FFwD, sort of. Quiche Maraichere.

This week, for French Fridays with Dorie, we're scheduled to make lovely-sounding honey-glazed duck breasts. After harassing three different meat-department employees as to where I might find the duck breasts, I was informed that they're seasonal, and the store won't have any until the week before Thanksgiving. Bummer. The man then showed me frozen whole ducks that were set up next to the turkeys, and said I could get one of those and just cut the breasts off.  I don't thinks so, buddy.

How can duck breasts be seasonal, but whole ducks are not? I'm confused. Maybe the whole ones are still frozen from last year. Ew.

Needless to say, that threw a great big wrench in tonight's dinner plan. As far as keeping up with the group goes, I'm moving things around so that I'll mostly be on schedule. Since Thanksgiving week was set to be a free choice, I'll use my freebie this week, and make the duck during Thanksgiving week. Boom. Problem solved. Even better, I inadvertently already cooked a different dish from AMFT this week.

A friend came by for lunch yesterday. I've made Quiche Maraichere (pg 158 of Around My French Table) before, and I made it again, because it's delicious. I must have made this for myself pre-blog, though, because I don't see a post about it. That worked out nicely.

I like this quiche because it's light and non-greasy. The vegetable (diced carrots, red pepper, leeks, and celery) to custard ratio weighs heavily on the vegetable side. With a light coating of melty gruyere on top, this quiche tastes like a treat, but really isn't so bad for you, as far as foods that involve a tart crust, heavy cream, cheese, and eggs go. Hmm...I wonder if I can eat all my vegetables this way?

Conclusion: Love it. It's a great dish to prepare ahead of time and serve to company.

On a side note, I'll be posting less often this month. When I think of what I want to be doing with my life, writing novels has always been part of the picture. I earned my masters in fiction writing, published one story, wrote an AWFUL first draft of a novel, had a baby, and got totally sidetracked by life. For two years, I've barely written any fiction. To kick myself in the ass, I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which is some psychotic enterprise that people set out on to write 50,000 words (a 175 pg novel) during November. The focus is more on quantity than quality, but I'm a big slowpoke of a writer, so pushing myself to just forge ahead and stop staring off into space will be good for me. I'll consider it a huge success if I even make it halfway to goal, since I'm starting from zero, and my time belongs to Charlie.

Point is, one obvious place to find time is right here. I'll still be cooking through my book, and will post about the recipes, but I'll probably do shorter posts, less often. Wish me luck! I did pretty well today.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Match-up

We were invited to a chili cook-off block party tonight. I've made chili in the past, but I haven't found a recipe yet that's knocked my socks off, so instead of chili, I baked cookies. Specifically, My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (pg 68) from Dorie Greenspan's Baking. I, for one, would rather have cookies than fourteen pots of chili, and I can't imagine anyone will mind.

In the intro, Dorie says that these cookies are "kin to Toll House" chocolate chip cookies, but that she's tweaked a few things that, in her opinion, improve them. I hate to argue over something that's pretty delicious any way you can get it, but I prefer Toll House. I compared the two recipes, and there are only a few changes. Dorie uses less flour, less baking soda, more vanilla, and a different ratio of white and brown sugars. Her cookies spread more than Toll House ever has for me, and they were thinner and less substantial. And they're fragile. I chose to bake chocolate chip cookies because they're reliable crowd-pleasers, travel well, produce a large yield, and generally don't disintegrate between your fingers. I'm afraid to stack these ones on top of each other, for fear that they'll break.

Plus, Dorie has fussier baking instructions. She says to only bake one tray at a time, and you have to spin it midway through baking. I know that's all in the interest of even baking, but it's an added step that I wouldn't appreciate if I was making these while Charlie was up and running around. Fortunately, he's napping. 

I should be happy that I'm not compulsively eating one cookie off each tray as it comes out of the oven (for quality-control purposes, of course), but I'm not. 

Conclusion: I love Toll House. I like these. Toll House reigns supreme.