Four for Dinner

It is officially fall. No, it isn’t the autumnal equinox, but school has started and we are in school/activities planning hyperdrive. There is just something about the end of August, labor day and the beginning of school that marks time for me. I wonder how I’ll feel when I’m not on the scholastic calendar anymore. Sad, probably.

This week, we are home. Fully, completely home and back to normal. The summer camp laundry is finished and put away until next year. We have already gotten all of the girls’ school supplies purchased. I feel a sense of accomplishment, even though this is really not such a big deal. Though, after last year’s ordeal, I guess it is just good to feel like myself again. Spring is supposed to be for new beginnings. Still, because of the start of school, autumn seems like a time for new beginnings, too. I really love this time of year.

Monday: Spicy Seafood Stew, salad, bread
Tuesday: Chicken with Brown Rice in a Pot, Red Cabbage Slaw
Wednesday: Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions and Smoked Mozzarella, salad
Thursday: Trout, lentils, arugula and herb salad
Friday: Roast Chicken, roasted carrots, artichoke hearts and onions, cauliflower gratin

And, to go with the apple tart on this cold, blustery summer evening: Paprika Roast Chicken with Sweet Onion.

I was re-organizing my very full recipe folder and found this recipe from the February 2009 issue of Gourmet (sniff, sniff). I looked it up on epicurious.com and found that it was highly rated. Excellent. Quick. Also, excellent.

I made a couple of adjustments because I wanted to roast some vegetables and thought a 500 degree oven might burn them. Also, my cayenne has proven stronger than others, so I dialed down the cayenne. And, I seasoned the chicken with salt a few hours before coating it with the spice mixture. Then, I let it marinate in the spice mixture for another couple of hours. All, in all, as advertised: delicious, easy, quick. What more could I ask for? I served this dish with roasted cauliflower and carrots, plus some roasted sweet potatoes, which were cooked in the oven with the chicken (on a lower rack).

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[This post was written weeks ago - time got away from me. Start of school and all.]

We had a fun, easy dinner last night. Melon with prosciutto to start, plus some white figs with a little blue cheese and a drizzle of balsamic reduction. For dinner, we had grilled boneless pork chops, french green beans from the garden (first and only bunch for the year), and a salad with arugula, beets, oranges and parmesan. Plus some fresh foccacia. S grilled the pork chops to perfection and he put some hickory wood chips (soaked in water for a little bit) on the fire. It was the best pork chop I’ve ever eaten.

Our friend RC brought over a scrumptious cherry pie last night for our dessert. All butter crust. Mmmm. She pitted 6 lbs. of sour cherries last week! The all butter crust inspired me to make a tart today, because we have a friend coming over for dinner. But, the weather is overcast and cool. Not summery feeling. And, I made some fresh applesauce on Monday because S picked a bunch of our (wormy) apples and I couldn’t let them go to waste – the apples, that is, not the worms. It took a while to cut up the apples so that no worms made it into the sauce. The sauce turned out very thick. I must not have added as much water as usual, or the apples were on the dry side. The consistency was perfect for a french apple tart. All butter crust, fresh thick applesauce, tart granny smith apples, a little sugar, a little jam to glaze it. That is it. O.k., I’m no Martha Stewart and it takes a while to prep all the different pieces of this. My kids are in camp. I have time on my hands. For short cuts, you could use a packaged pie crust (but it wouldn’t be all butter) and you could use a regular applesauce, as long as you reduce it down so that it is nice and thick.

Our dinner guest, RB, arrived bearing the gift of a lovely sparkling Moscato d’Asti that we sipped and savored while eating the apple tart. It was a great combination! Thank you RB!
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My friend RN gave me a rose shaped bundt cake pan that I’ve wanted to try for a while. The shape that it makes is so pretty and delicate looking. I don’t know why I haven’t used it, but probably because I’m usually making layer cakes or cakes in a tube pan (that you wouldn’t invert) or cupcakes or loaf cakes. Yeah, I make a lot of cake.

S and I are going to Grandma and WG’s for dinner tonight. WG is making a duck on the rotisserie. He made one last year and it was out of this world. Crisp, moist. It didn’t taste fatty, but I wouldn’t want to get my cholesterol checked right afterward. WG picks fantastic fruit and we have been told there will be some good melon on hand. I said that I would bring dessert.

Since Grandma and WG are chocoholics, I thought I’d bring something a little decadent, but not overly so. And, I wanted to bring something that would last for a while, maybe even improve with age. I started looking at bundt cake recipes and so many that were on-line were made by doctoring cake mixes, which I love, generally, but also don’t generally make (or have in the house). I happened upon a recipe for a vegan chocolate bundt cake that seemed pretty similar to the vegan chocolate cake that I have made many times. This one used olive oil and balsamic vinegar, instead of regular vegetable oil and cider vinegar. Hmmm. I like that idea, but I thought I’d need eggs for structure in the larger cake. I did a little more searching and a little bit more fiddling. I’m hoping that what I came up with tastes good!

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I have a new favorite hot fudge sauce. After years of using the same chocolate sauce (which is still fabulous and I haven’t given it up), I’ve found the thick, rich, chewy hot fudge sauce for which I have searched – for years.

It is smooth, in spite of the fact that it uses cocoa. It is rich, despite the fact that it doesn’t include an excessive amount of butter and has no cream. It has a thick, velvety quality that might normally come from the addition of corn syrup – but that isn’t in the recipe, either (yea!).

When it hits your ice cream, it sets up, but doesn’t completely harden (like a ganache would). This sauce works well inside of and on the side with our secret family ice cream cake – no thin sauce will do for that!

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I love summer!!

On Thursday night, when Grandma and WG joined us for dinner, I combined grilled steak with fresh, home made pesto. I’d never done that before. Why?! It was delicious. Forget sweet barbeque and steak sauces, which I rarely use. This is a combination that I will definitely make again. S also put some hickory wood chips on the fire and that also enhanced the flavor without making it smokey tasting. Mmmm.

And, what goes with steak and a mediterranean sauce? Polenta.

I made way too much – the reference recipe from Marcella Hazan’s “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” said that it would make 4 cups. I actually used slightly less polenta and came out with much more. Definitely enough to serve 8, which meant that Grandma and WG got to take home some leftovers to eat grilled or fried on another day.

We all liked the addition of corn to the polenta. It added a texture and burst of flavor that were delicious and unexpected. I made the polenta a little creamier by combining milk and water for the cooking liquid, plus some parmesan and a little butter at the end. Another keeper. The girls are not big soft polenta eaters, but they do like it grilled. I will make this for them when they get home!!
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The girls are still at camp. S & I are finally home after a lot of traveling. I don’t know how people who travel constantly for business do it. I’m exhausted and I’ve done no work. The travel just takes it out of you. That, and not exercising enough. And, eating too much.

We are home for a while and I’m going to cook very healthfully – which, for me, means a focus on cooking dinner and not on making dessert. Luckily, the farmer’s market was open today with its summer bounty there for the feasting. I am going to use it as an inspiration.

I’m only looking forward 3 days. Keeping my options open. Here goes:

Wednesday: Grilled wild salmon, roasted beets and fennel, sauteed rainbow chard
Thursday: (Grandma & WG for dinner) Grilled steak with home-made pesto, polenta with fresh corn, roasted tomatoes and carrots
Friday: Brown rice with chicken, spinach, mushrooms and ginger, red cabbage slaw with asian seasonings

Last night I made an assortment of grilled vegetables. All of the ones that are in a typical Ratatouille, except the tomatoes. Actually, I bought tomatoes, but decided not to include them because they seemed too special to grill.

My idea was to layer the grilled vegetables, and have a deconstructed ratatouille. I took lots of pictures, but none of them turned out as well as the dish.

It wasn’t bad at all! Here is what I did:

Ratatouille Deconstructed

Zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant sliced lengthwise into 1/4-1/2 inch slices
Red onions, sliced widthwise into 1/2 inch slices
Red pepper, charred, steamed and peeled (or jarred roasted red peppers)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Feta cheese (a nice soft flavorful one)
Herbes de Provence (or some fresh thyme)

Brush one side of the slices of vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Put them on a grill (medium heat) and, while they are cooking, brush the other side with olive oil. Turn the vegetables when they are browning on the first side. Cook until brown on the flip side.

Layer on a platter or in a casserole, as follows (or however you want!): Eggplant, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Red Pepper, Onions. Crumble feta on top of the vegetables. Rub/sprinkle the herbes on top, then drizzle with a fruity, flavorful olive oil.

Serve at room temperature.

Monday night, without my kids, but with two of my nieces, my sister-in-law, and Grandma and WG, we sat down to a meal of: pappardelle with bolognese sauce, salad, garlic bread, ice cream with raspberries and chocolate sauce. It was the last night of a visit, after all. The dinner was fairly uncomplicated, when you think about it. Then again, when I consider what it takes to put food on our table I become overwhelmed by the enormity of the process.

Over educated though I am, I wouldn’t consider myself a deep thinker. I have a lousy memory, especially for history and important facts (but an exacting one for minutia). And, even though I try to “get the big picture” – a phrase I fondly remember from driver’s education when I was seventeen – I become stuck in the narrow tunnel of everyday life. Suddenly, though, I’ll find myself in, say, a restaurant and I’ll begin to imagine all of the people involved in getting my dinner on the plate. I don’t mean just the servers and cooks. I mean EVERYTHING, down to the carpeting, the napkins, each element of the food (who made the big cans that held the tomatoes for the sauce?), the cooks’ uniforms, the wood for the tables, the plate itself (china made in China?). The web of people, industries, transportation, raw materials, machinery, etc., becomes so intricate that it is overwhelming to me. The sheer number of people who touch my life each day, who I don’t know, but are probably within six degrees of separation, is unfathomable. The global economy that supports the system is even more baffling. How can and does it all work?
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The first time I had an alfajor cookie was at our local tacqueria. Two thin shortbread cookies with that mellow caramel, dulce de leche, in between, rolled in powdered sugar (as if it weren’t already sweet enough). It was soooo decadent and delicious. As is my usual, I thought, “I can make these”. But, finding a recipe was difficult. And, seemingly, there are several different varieties of alfajores depending on the country of origin.

There are cookies that are more crumbly, others that are more crisp. There are those that are flat, others that are domed. Alfajores can also be rolled in shredded coconut on the edges, instead of powdered sugar. I’ve seen recipes for the cookies to be dipped in dark chocolate. One can use dulce de leche made from cow’s milk, or the kind made from goat’s milk (cajeta). Many recipes use a lot of cornstarch, and little flour – perhaps because corn is such a staple of South America. Then there is also a Spanish variety that is not a cookie at all, but a candy made of almonds, sugar and spices. I received some Spanish alfajores as a gift last year when I was in recuperation mode.

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