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For some reason, I have been struck with a major case of blogger’s block – with cooking, writing, photographing, creating – you name it.
So here are a few pics of things I have made recently, but that for some reason or another never made it up. Hope you enjoy these little snippets, and that I get my mojo back soon!
xxo
C
One Saturday I was craving and egg salad sandwich, but we were out of bread. So I made Kim Boyce‘s Oatmeal Sandwich Bread. And I was fairly insufferable the rest of the day, feeling smug and proud that I made bread just like that. 
I don’t make pasta all that often for dinner, but when I do, this Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage is my go-to. My love of broccoli rabe {or rapini} knows no bounds and it is fast and easy for a weeknight dinner. You can of course use pork sausage, but I usually do turkey here – and of course hot italian!
My dad made an amazing crown pork roast, but unfortunately I only snapped a few pics.
I know that over the year I have had crown roast of beef and lamb (great holiday dinners), but to my recollection, this was my first with pork. He made herb garlic crust and we served it with a fennel orange salad with warm prosciutto dressing and {surprise, surprise} sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic and chile flakes. Will definitely be making this again…if only I knew what recipe he used!
And to change things up ever so slightly, I swapped by favorite roast chicken for one that added lemon and garlic. While it didn’t move into first place, it is fun to change it up – and I loved using the roasted garlic and lemons for a salad dressing that accompanied the chicken.
And of course, lots of messes have been made!!
In a few weeks one of my girlfriends is having a birthday cocktail party and I am helping her get it all together. It is not going to be too big, and we both love to cook and entertain, so it seemed natural that we would make all the goodies rather than cater.
A bonus when you do it yourself, you can splurge on better ingredients and better booze, rather than that extra going to someone bringing in the food.
And while the gathering will be intimate, it will be a bit decadent too. It is after all, a “big” birthday and smack in the middle of holiday season. And really, what’s wrong with a bit of simple, comforting decadence? Nothing, if you ask me!
One of the little nibbles we were thinking of is a truffled mushroom toast. My lady lives in Venice, and therefore Gjelina is obviously one of her faves. They have a fab-u-lous mushroom toast with hen of the woods, creme fraîche and truffles. Out of this world. So I wanted to channel that, but as a neat bite-size canape. (The real deal can be a huge, albeit good, mess).
Mushrooms and truffles go together beautifully – both woodsy and earthy, but while mushrooms (especially basic button and cremini) can be humble, a bit of truffle butter takes them over the top. Sliced truffles would add even more to that – but we aren’t going that far. Thankfully, truffle butter has actual bits of truffles, as opposed to the oil, which is just flavoring.
So this past weekend I did a trial run. Sliced the mushrooms super-thinly and sauteed them s-l-o-w-l-y with shallots, butter and oil. Once they were melt-in-your-mouth soft and golden, I took them off the heat and stirred in a touch of cream to make them more velvety and then a (good) bit of truffle butter (maybe a tablespoon).
Heavenly, I tell ya!
For the base, I cut triangles out of a rustic loaf, and baked them until slightly golden. I didn’t add butter or oil because I didn’t want it to compete with the goat cheese that was going to be added, and that may have been a mistake. Something was amiss.
As for the goat cheese, I folded in a bit of cream, to make it more spread-able and to tone down the tanginess of the cheese – to not fight with the silky mushrooms too much. Again – wasn’t quite right.
So – dear readers – please help. I know all the components are there and the truffled mushrooms are just right, but any ideas for the goat cheese crostini? How can it better compliment the mushrooms?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
xxo
Ugh. So I caught a cold. A nasty wiped me out kind of cold. And since I rarely get sick, I did not handle it well. I mean, I handled it like a dude – which is to say whined about every little part of it and made it worse that it was. But thankfully, that part lasted only a day. And so when I was feeling better, but still not great, I was pleasantly surprised to remember that I had just made a batch of stock and had a few pieces of homemade bread left.
Since we all know that good soup makes you feel better even when you aren’t sick, I figured I should make a batch.
Growing up, my mom made a mean french-onion, and so it has always been one of my favorites. (What – another favorite? Well, she made a lot of good things, and I obviously like a lot of things, so it works out).
But seeing as how I hold firm in my beliefs that homemade stock, even the wrong kind, trumps the store-bought stuff any day, my onion soup often uses chicken stock – and therefore, it isn’t too traditional, or “french.” Although I would gather that many French women would agree with me, but that is neither here nor there.
The real thing with onion soup, French or otherwise, is you have to let the onions cook for a really long time. And when you think they are done, let them keep cooking. At least an hour. Maybe and hour and twenty. You want them really carmelized – dark, sweet and reduced down to almost nothing. You can’t rush it. Some recipes include a touch of sugar part way through the cooking, but I like to just let it happen with time, and the butter of course.
From there, it doesn’t take much to turn it into something special. Stock, wine, thyme – and of course the bread and cheese!
I like to keep things on hand for an impromptu snack with a glass of wine after work or a quick gathering of friends. Something that doesn’t require going to the store (surprise!) and can be ready in about the same amount of time as it takes to open that bottle of wine.
So while cheese and crackers fit these two simple criteria (and are often on the case), sometimes it’s fun to have something with a bit more pizazz.
And since I am already ready for spring, let’s try to coax it out a bit early with some peas. While this nibble would of course be better with English peas, in the colder months, frozen baby peas work great.
A quick whirl in the food processor with some lemon juice and oil and you have a simple puree that is as bright in flavor as it is in color. You can spice it up with chili flakes, cool it off with some mint or my personal favorite – add the extra “umami” element with some truffle oil.
Stuffing is the best part of Thanksgiving. Coming in very close second is the leftover turkey, cranberry sandwiches. But I still put stuffing on those.
So why is something so great relegated to once a year? I think we should bring it back!
And yes, this would be a great stuffing for turkey-day, but we didn’t sample it for that reason here. It just sounded good. I am sure the rain and cold and November-ness of the weekned did aid in that though.
