Brioche and Homemade Bacon

During the week of Christmas I decided I wanted to make brioche.  Now I've never made brioche and actually not sure I've ever had it.  But I wanted to do it and I found this recipe .  Well the results were great!  It tasted delicious by itself or with some jam.  KT made some french toast with it and it was divine.  It was of course best with some homemade bacon I had also made...

Bacon!

Yes!  Homemade bacon ready to fry up...I think I see a bacon cheeseburger in my future!

Corned Beef and Irish Brown Bread

A couple of weeks before St. Patrick's Day I decided to see if I could find a recipe to make my own corned beef. Well lo and behold of course I found one. And it turned out to be quite easy and ended up being very delicious. The main thing you need (beside a brisket) is time. I "corned" - essentially pickled - the beef for 8 days in the fridge. The pickling solution was a pretty basic brine of water, beer, salt, sugar, pickling spices and insta-cure #1. The insta-cure makes sure the beef stays a nice pink color. Here's a link to the full recipe...the corned beef and veggies turned out great.

I also made an Irish Brown Bread from my favorite bread book. It was a delicious meal...

Stuffed Peppers

One Saturday in February (way behind with some food blogging) I asked Lin what she would like for dinner and she said stuffed peppers! I had never made stuffed peppers and it has been ages since we've had them. So I went to a trust America's Test Kitchen cookbook for The Best American Classics and found a stuffed peppers recipe. I pretty much followed it exactly. Ground beef, rice, tomatoes, cheese and peppers - what could be better. I'll definitely make this again!

Happy New Year

May it be the best year ever....and yes we will have black-eyed peas!

Christmas Eve Dinner - Fish in a Bag

It must be said to all within earshot - Megan did not ruin Christmas Eve dinner. As you can see in this lovely photo we had a wonderful dish of tilapia, red potatos and snap peas cooked in coconut milk, ginger and a bit of lemon juice. This was all (and some other ingredients) placed in an oiled paper bag and baked in the oven. The contents were then taken out of the bag and beautifully served. It was delish and we hope Meg makes it again before next Chistmas Eve!

Smoked Salmon

This was way cool. A couple of months ago I bought an electric smoker. I tried it out on some chicken and it was great. But I always wanted to smoke some salmon. So I took my boat down to Costco and caught a beautiful fillet of Atlantic salmon. The steps to smoke it were simple.

1. Cut the salmon into pieces. I cut my fillet into 4 pieces.
2. Dry brine the salmon. Basically coat one side of the salmon with a mixture of 2 cups dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup salt, lots of garlic and a little black pepper. Put it in an non-reactive dish in the fridge for at least 6 hrs. It will be a wet mess.
3. Wash the brine off the salmon and let the salmon pieces air dry at room temperature for 2 hrs.
4. Now smoke the salmon (I used apple chips) for about 90 minutes.

It is delicious and way fun!

Bread

For Christmas Linda gave me the new book My Bread by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery fame in New York. the book is absolutely beautiful. The recipes use his no-knead bread making techniques that I tried earlier this year. But now I have pictures and lots more recipes.


I also got some Christmas money as a gift from Momma Faria. So with that I went out and bought a Lodge cast iron dutch oven. Now I thought about getting a beautiful porcelain enameled one but in the end I just went with good old cast iron. I may get a fancy one yet but this is a great place to start.


I plan to cook through the book from the first recipe to the last - but the Chocolate Coconut Bread caught my eye and its the first one I made. I think it turned out okay but I think I placed the pot too close to the bottom of the oven and the bottom burned some. I'll raise the pot up one level and see if that helps. The bread tasted great. Meg and Lin liked it too.

Ham and Gruyere

I have a new favorite lunch and snack. Its a melted ham and gruyere on a pugliese bread slice. Forgive the plug - but we like the Black Forest hams you can get at Costco. I buy one whenever I see it and then cook it for about 3 hrs at 350. We slice it up for sandwiches. The other day I bought some pugliese bread and gruyere cheese (also at Costco - yes I love Costco). I layered a piece of ham on top of the bread and then put the gruyere on top of that. I toasted it in our little toaster oven and it was delish!

Megan's Lemon Tart

Today while I was making the rice pudding, Megan was making a lemon tart. Actually its called a citrus tart since it uses both lemon and lime juice. Its a recipe from Martha Stewart Living magazine. We're letting it cool and will eat it tomorrow night for Christmas Eve. As you can see it is beautiful!

Rice Pudding

Today I made rice pudding - with raisins of course!

Thanksgiving Detritus

It was a good day...

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Yesterday I made the Dr. Weil's Stress Free Squash Soup from the NY Times. I modified it slightly; I simmered everything after roasting for about 20 minutes and then pureed. It was delicious. (I did not use the cilantro-walnut pesto...just the soup.)

4 Food Thoughts

I'm pondering these 4 food guidelines...

1) No desserts except on weekends
2) No eating after 8pm
3) Vegetarian before dinner
4) "Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants" - Michael Pollan

I guess in many ways 4 encompasses the 3 above. But I like to think of them all. I don't want a lot of rules; just some quick thoughts to guide...

Gin and Tonic

I have come to really enjoy gin and tonics. I seem to get them on long airplane flights when I'm in business class and they are free. I've made them at home also. I think I need to experiment with different gins to see which I like the best.

Whenever I drink a gin and tonic I think of the author John Cheever. When I was in college I bought a book of John Cheever short stories. The first line of the first story is..."I sit in the sun drinking gin..." I've never forgotten it - and I say it often when I have gin.

Japanese Curry

I had Japanese curry for lunch. I ordered hot chicken curry. It's Japanese - it can't be that spicy. Fortunately for me there was a pitcher of water right by where I was sitting at the lunch counter. I availed myself of it quite a few times before I was done. I think I enjoyed my lunch...

Dinner in Tokyo

Tonight in Tokyo I had dinner on my own - so I went for some fast delicious tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is deep fried panko breaded pork cutlets always served in a set with rice, shredded cabbage, miso soup and some pickles. I supplemented with a beer.

Delish...

(If you click on the picture you can see the whole set.)

Friday Lunch

Today for lunch I had a couple of sliced radishes, some slices of red pepper, slices of cucumber, baby carrots, grape tomatoes and three small falafel. I added ranch dressing and a drizzle of homemade balsamic vinaigrette...It was quite yummy!

Stir Fry Wednesday - Redux

I posted about Stir Fry Wednesdays a while ago - but I didn't add a picture. Tonight I took a picture of the stir fry I made for Sara and me. Pork, broccoli, red pepper, onions and some chili's for some heat...

Pasta Night (and Tuesday Vegetarian)

Tonight I made a sauce with some cherry tomatoes we had in the fridge. I first sauted some onion in olive oil and then threw in the tomatoes and a diced red pepper. I added salt, pepper and some garlic. I also added some chopped up asparagus (about 1 inch pieces). I let this cook for a bit while the pasta was cooking (whole wheat spaghetti). I reserved about a cup of the pasta water before draining the pasta...I added about half of this back to the sauce; added a handful of arugula and let that cook down a bit. Then I added a pat of butter and let the liquid thicken just a bit.

Put the pasta in a shallow bowl; topped it with sauce and then topped it all with some fresh grated parmesan...it was bright and colorful and delicious!