Photos

Categories

• About
• Travelogue
• Dining
• Books
• Wine & Spirits
• Freakish Ramblings
• Tools
• Recipes
• Des Autres Bon Mots

Monthly Archives

• August 2010
• June 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• December 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• July 2007
• June 2007
• May 2007
• April 2007
• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• Complete Archives
• Category Archives

Most recent entries

• Suddenly, we’re in Paris.
• The Baltic Cruise 2010: Friday and Saturday, St. Petersburg
• The Baltic Cruise 2010: Thursday, Tallinn
• The Baltic Cruise 2010: Wednesday, Stockholm
• The Baltic Cruise 2010: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at Sea
• Minor Calamities
• The Summer of Us
• Valentine’s Day
• If You’re Ever in Cedar Rapids, Iowa …
• The Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop
• Beginning the New Year With a New Kitchen
• Favorites from 2009
• On My Not Getting Lucky Last Night
• And I’ve Decided That Close Enough, Is Enough
• A Little Closer

Syndicate

• Atom
• RSS 2.0

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Last Day

The middle of what Honey P. and I call dead week, and we couldn’t be happier. It’s the little things that make us feel accomplished--sorting out all of the papers in the armoire, replacing the burned-out bulbs throughout the house, catching the L.L. Bean and Crate & Barrel sales, mulching the roses, and--this morning--getting the garage door repaired. It’s also the last day of the year (yay!), and we’re feeling good about wrapping this one up.

While Honey P. stayed home with the repairmen, I went “foraging” for two meals: one for the two of us to commemorate this year’s coming to a close, and another to ring in 2009 with some of our closest friends. I had four stops to make ...

J.B.’s Deli
I haven’t had a decent bagel since Dr. Atkins became a celebrity. So I was at a loss--where does one get two dozen real bagels and schmear in Chicago?  I remembered a sign about bagels outside of Gordono’s, little place in our neighborhood that turns out to be a deli, pharmacy, and ice cream parlor all in one. The place got decent reviews on yelp.com, so I checked it out. They get their bagels from New York Bagels & Bialys, a place on Touhy and McCormick that’s been around for ages. Good stuff. The woman behind the counter was very friendly, even gave me a big bag of bagel chips gratis. Then, to the city proper, and gourmet food mecca ...

Fox & Obel
The last time that Honey P. and I tripped the light fantastic on new year’s eve was with a bunch of friends in a restaurant that has since gone through at least two subsequent evolutions. For the last five years, however, we’ve rung in the new year at home, in robes, with lobster and champagne, and a stack of DVDs. We’ve never really made it to midnight, honestly, and that’s just fine. The tradition guarantees that at least once a year I’ll make it down to Fox & Obel, and each year I think to myself that I should spend more time shopping in this store, because they honestly have EVERYTHING I could want in my kitchen. And each year, I spend more time and money at Fox & Obel than I intend to. In addition to the live lobster, I pick up celery salt (for the bloody marys), duck fat (because I’ve run out, again), freshly baked French bread, a pound of whiskey-and-honey smoked salmon (carved lovingly from a large slab of the fish in wisp-thin slices over the course of 20 minutes by one of the staff), olives, cornichons, shrimp, and some lovely produce. Until next year…

Interlude, gym: it’s chest and cardio day. Resume, shopping.

In Fine Spirits
Michael, Shane, and Colleen are all in, and all smiling. Michael asked me how our halibut dinner turned out two night ago (he helped Honey P. pick out the wine). Colleen helps me choose prosecco for mimosas and is a little amazed that I’m stopping at three bottles (she doesn’t know that I’ve named 2009 the year of moderation). We wish each other a happy new year. A little more driving ...

Piatto Pronto
This Italian deli just opened up the street from me, and I’ve been wanting to check it out. There’s nothing really pronto about it (the aisles are small and the wait for help was long), but I consider that a character-building opportunity. The store is packed with specialty items from olive oil to pastas to artisan cheeses to deli meats and charcuterie to homemade salads. I pick up five cheeses (an aged manchego, Point Reyes Blue, St. Andre double creme, and a garlic cheddar), mild and spicy salami, tri-colored penne, two made-to-order sandwiches, and Dirty potato chips from the deli. The owner Mike likes to joke around--he shoos a friend out, saying that McDonald’s is just down the way and has a table waiting for him. A customer complains about the dance music, and Mike promises that he’ll change it in the morning but he wants to celebrate today. As I pull my bags together he tells me to relax, there’s no hurry, and to have a happy new year.

And then home, in time to walk the dogs (in addition to our puppy Annyong, we’re watching Maxey for Emma this week), have lunch with Honey P., check emails and make a call or two for work, and then to settle down for the balance of the day with Vanity Fair (seven days ‘til our book club meets again, and 500 pages to go). A little after sunset, I’ll start dinner. It’s a nice way to end a good year. 

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

It’s like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. A stringy, stringy rabbit.

I’m a cranky cook who’s craving takeout.

To be sure, this year’s holidays offered me the chance to do some fun stuff in the kitchen. I wanted to learn how to make pastry dough from scratch ... three apple and two pear galettes later, I think I’ve got it down. Ken and Emma came over for dinner just before Christmas, and I made my favorite lasagna recipe--the one with the four-hour bolognese sauce and handmade noodles. Christmas Day we feasted on poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, crispy potato cakes, and chives. Everything worked out really well ... except for the rabbit.

Christmas Eve. The menu was simple, lots of wine, a shrimp salad, and a tart for dessert. The main event was supposed to be rabbit braised in red wine and vintage port, and finished with roasted wild mushrooms and creamy polenta. I turned to Sally Scheider’s A New Way to Cook, long a go-to cookbook in my kitchen, and I followed her directions to the letter. Stringy rabbit. Tough rabbit. Bad rabbit. Thank goodness we had wine.

Two days later I threw the rabbit into a baby LeCreuset and rebraised it for an hour. It was softer, but not quite there, so I went digging, and every recipe I found required at least one additional hour (some, two-and-a-half) for the rabbit to cook. Grrrr.

There are few things less frustrating than optimistic estimates of how long something will take to be finished. Like getting out of debt, rabbit takes longer than expected.

And speaking of, check out www.mint.com, www.wesaybe.com, and my new favorite software app, iBank. I know I declared 2008 the turnaround year, but it turned out to be (at least for me) more of a turnaround-in-a-little-circle sort of year. Yay, 2009, I’m feeling lucky! 

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

My Favorite Thanksgiving Day Gravy Recipe

I played around with Alton Brown’s T-Day Gravy recipe for this. I believe that the crux of his plan to make a schmaltz manie was to avoid the napalm-like danger of making a roux, but the resulting gravy ends up tasting a little doughy. So I say that the roux is worth the risk.

Stock:
- 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 pounds chicken wings
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 11 cups water, divided

- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 large celery stalk, coarsely chopped
- 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
- 1 large leek, coarsely chopped
- 2 fresh parsley sprigs
- 2 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 small bay leaf

- 5 tablespoons all purpose flour

Gravy:
- Roasting pan with pan juices reserved from turkey
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

For stock:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss wings and oil in large bowl to coat; transfer to large roasting pan. Roast 45 minutes. Turn wings over; roast until deep golden brown, about 40 minutes more. Add 1 cup water to pan and continue roasting wings 10 minutes longer.

Transfer wings with liquid to large pot, scraping in any browned bits from roasting pan. Add remaining 10 cups water, onion, celery, carrot, and herbs to pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until reduced to 5 cups stock, about 3 1/2 hours. Strain through sieve set over large glass bowl. Cool 30 minutes, then refrigerate overnight. (Stock can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.)

Transfer fat “cap” from surface of chilled stock to small bowl. When ready to make gravy, heat schmaltz with flour to make a gold roux.

For gravy:
Pour pan juices from turkey roasting pan into fat separator or large measuring cup; spoon off fat if using measuring cup. Place roasting pan over 2 burners. Add wine and boil 1 minute, scraping up browned bits. Pour wine with bits into heavy large saucepan. Pourin pan juices from fat separator, leaving fat behind, or add degreased pan juices from measuring cup. Add herbs and stock to same saucepan. Bring to boil. Whisk in roux 1 tablespoon at a time, cooking gravy briefly after each few additions to judge consistency and boiling gravy until reduced to 4 cups and thick enough to coat spoon, whisking often, about 6 minutes. Season gravy to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve gravy with turkey. 

Sausage, Fennel, and Wild Rice Dressing

I know it’s almost a week after Thanksgiving, but for posterity, my favorite dressing recipe.

- 3 cups water
- 3/4 cup jumbo-grade wild rice, rinsed
- 3 tsp. salt
- 8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 4-5 links of sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
- 2 cups finely chopped yellow onion
- 2 cups finely chopped fennel bulb
- 1 Tbs. poultry seasoning
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
- 1 French boule (roughly 20 oz), cut into 1/2-inch cubes and toasted at 350 degrees until lightly brown (as you would for croutons)
- 1 jar (15 oz.) steamed chestnuts (chopped)
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. In a heavy pot, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the wild rice and 1 tsp. of the salt. Cover, reduce the heat to a fast simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is tender, about 45-50 minutes. Drain the rice and let cool.

2. Preheat an oven to 325°F. Generously butter a large, shallow baking dish.

3. In a large fry pan over medium heat, cook sausage until brown. Remove sausage from pan with a slotted spoon. In the man, melt the butter. Add the onion, chopped fennel, poultry seasoning, thyme and fennel seeds. Scrape the brown bits from the pan as the vegetables give off enough moisture to do so. Cover and cook, stirring once or twice, until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Add sausage. Let cool.

4. In a large bowl, combine the bread, chestnuts, the onion mixture and the wild rice. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Whisk the stock into the eggs, then stir the egg mixture into the bowl with the bread mixture. Stir in the parsley, the remaining 2 tsp. salt and the pepper.

5. Spoon the dressing into the prepared baking dish, cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake until the dressing is lightly browned on top, 20 to 30 minutes more. Serves 10.

NOTE: you can prepare the wild rice, onion and sausage mixture, and croutons separately the day before. Be sure to bring the ingredients to room temperature by taking them out of the fridge one hour before assembling the dressing (step 5).

Brussels Sprouts Roasted with Shallot, Bacon, and Apple

Honey P. hated brussels sprouts for more than half a decade. This prep changed his mind:

This recipe was adapted from a recipe Michael sent me. See the original at: http://avenuefood.com/2007/02/21/brussels-sprouts-with-shallot-bacon-and-apple.aspx

- 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, cleaned, trimmed, and halved
- 1/4 pound thickly sliced bacon, cut into small pieces
- 3 small shallots, chopped
- 1 small apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
- A couple tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a roasting pan large enough to hold everything in a single layer, toss Brussels sprouts, bacon, shallots, and apple with just enough olive oil to barely coat. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes or so.