Dinner on Wednesday night was:
The husband got a beautiful Dutch Oven for Christmas. Before he could decide what to break it in with, I told him he should make Coq Au Vin. So he did! It was delicious. We (really, he) used a Beaujolis Nouveau that we also got for the holidays. Onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, and of course chicken thighs and legs. C’est magnifique.
I don’t know any French. Just what you see here in this post.
I have a thing for cooked celery. In stir fry. Still crunchy, not mushy, and attracting the flavors of the rest of the dish. The husband has taken my penchant for celery in account in this simply stir fry chicken dish. Halfway through dinner the husband looked at my plate and asked if I had gotten enough celery, as there was none on the plate. Of course, I had picked the celery out and ate them first. That’s how I roll.
Life isn’t always about rich foods, expensive ingredients and perfection simmering. Sometimes all I’m looking for is a really good sandwich. These are two sandwiches that you can’t go wrong with.
#1 The Vietnamese Sandwich. Back in my Capitol Hill days I would frequent a University District spot for these. Nowadays I treat myself if I’ve stopped by an Asian grocery store (like Uwajimaya). I’m not entirely sure what the meat is, other than it is some type of pork product. Surrounded by picked carrots, cucumber, chile peppers (which I promptly remove), cilantro and other seasonings. All on a softy/crusty French baguette.
#2 The other exciting news in the house is the new discovery that there is a Jimmy John’s sub shop in the aforementioned University District. There is another one in Redmond. Back in grad school my friend Rachel introduced me to the flavors of Jimmy John’s, a franchise sub shop that was all over Chicago. Turkey Tom was my usual, with the occasional Tuna sandwich for some variety. Unlike some franchise spots I frequented in other cities that did not translate when they finally came to Seattle (read: Chipotle), Jimmy John’s tastes just as good when I was a poor grad student as it does today, when I’m at least making enough to pay off my student loans (still, now and forever).
(below is what JJ’s now calls Totally Tuna):
Busy week. I’m just now updating the site with photos. I’m missing my chicken and dumpling soup (a new offering in the lunch cafeteria) and the husband’s pasta dish (see previous pasta dishes and you’ll get the gist).
Christmas Pear from Metropolitan Market. Juicy and sweet. The sign at the MM said “The ones Harry & David didn’t get” or something like that.
2 eggs (overeasy, or as I used to call them, sunny-side down); sitting on top of a slice of sourdough toast (Fremont, from Essential Bakery), with a couple of tablespoons of Newman’s Own pineapple salsa (medium). Breakfast of champions. Especially tasty after a workout.
Funny story about this. During training at the firm we each got a $10 coupon to spend in the cafeteria. Our goal from that point on was to buy as much stuff in the cafeteria as possible, without going over 10 bucks. The top customer spent $9.19. A chef’s salad (a HUGE salad), Odwalla bar and Vitamin water came to a total of $8.24.
A plate of appetizers from Canyons in Redmond. Hidden in the upper-left corner, strawberry lemonade.
Recently it seems I’ve been going to more and more potlucks (is this something that comes with age?). Bringing the right dish to a potluck dinner is not always an easy task. I’m still learning the ins and outs. I struggle because I want people to like what I make. I don’t need rave reviews, but I do like bringing home an empty plate.
A year ago, the group I work with at the firm held a holiday potluck. I suspected they would hand out some superlative award for the best dishes, and my competitiveness got the best of me. I went all out and made one of my favorite Chinese dishes (one of the few I can make from scratch without referring to a recipe): Won tons. I generally make won tons and mix them in soup. In this case I fried them. They were tasty, but because I was at work I was forced to reheat them in the kitchen microwave which most definitely affected my hopes in coming away with a prize. My dish was mentioned, but no award (alas, Moira’s Cuban Black Bean Lasagna, which arrived in a Crock Pot, received all the accolades).
The lesson I learned there was to know the environment. If all you have is an office fridge, then bring a cold dish. Makes sense, eh. I am not even close to mastering the potluck dinner; I have yet to discover the perfect dish to bring. I do learn something each time, and try to hone the next dish based on this learning process. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned:
Lesson 1: If you bring something that requires cutting, present it already cut. At the very least, start the cutting and leave a knife available so people can cut for themselves. My attempts at bringing anything from banana bread, to fresh-baked bread (courtesy of my fancy bread machine), to a bundt cake ended up futile because of my failure to make that first cut.
Lesson 2: If you bring a salad, dress it first. Perhaps I’m the only person in the world who uses dressing sparingly (I’m one of those who likes it on the side). Don’t bring a bottle of dressing. Just take that decision out of the process. There will likely be plenty of other salads to choose from, and then the dinner guest doesn’t have to fuss with putting dressing on themselves, or wondering if the salad is dressed.
Lesson 3: If you know people are going to bring home-baked pies, shy away from the store-bought. If you can’t bake, then bring something you can do. Even if it’s simple, like a salad (if you bring a salad, definitely refer to Lesson 2). If you have no choice but to bring something from the store, bring something that you know someone won’t be making from scratch. I don’t want a pie I bought from the store sitting next to a home-baked one. I’m just too insecure for that. Purchase fresh, good baguettes with a fun spread, like tapanade. Or a decent bottle of wine. Or a couple of boxes of satsumas.
The funniest thing about this … there are several amazing dishes I could bring that would win all sorts of praise. That bourbon pumpkin cheesecake, for example. For potlucks, though, I don’t want to spend 8 hours in the kitchen (the won tons actually took quite a bit of time). I want to spend no more than one hour working on it. Maybe that’s my problem. I’ll have to experiment for the next potluck (which I already know will be coming in January).
Anyway … all this talk about potlucks is because, of course, I went to one tonight. Marcie’s annual Hanukkah/Latke party. She provides the kugel and potato pancakes, and the guests provide everything else. Tonight I brought salad (refer to the lesson I learned tonight). I originally meant to ask Aunt Claire what she had in the salad served at Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get a chance, so instead I winged it (Lesson 4 should be don’t wing it). I loved the latkes. I had promised the husband I would bring one home for him but they were gone within minutes. Marcie sent me home with some tasty noodle kugel instead.
More pics from the potluck can be found on Flickr.
I do wish I had remembered to pull out my camera before the husband began carving. This is a pork loin, brined for several hours, then infused with garlic. It was some amazing flavor in there. We enjoyed it with a side salad.
And, for dessert …
Dreyer’s Limited Edition Pumpkin Ice Cream. Slow-Churned, of course. Woohoo!
Because, really. Can you ever get enough pumpkin in your life?
Make pumpkin bread!
And pumpkin biscuits.
Yes, I had leftover pumpkin after completing my Thanksgiving dessert, bourbon pumpkin cheesecake. So flipping through recipe books I decided upon these two oldies but goodies. Other runner ups for leftover pumpkin recipes includes pumpkin pancakes (I would have had to make that one up as I went along, since I don’t have a recipe) and cream of pumpkin soup (we actually had cream, but no chicken stock on hand and my goal was to use ingredients in the house).
The pumpkin bread recipe is your typical quick bread type, this particular one courtesy of our Better Homes Cookbook (the big red one). The pumpkin biscuits is a fantastic recipe (includes the directions for orange-honey butter, which I didn’t bother with), courtesy of Cooking Light magazine (November 2003).
BTW, I’m surprised to find Cooking Light’s recipes no longer behind a subscription wall. I stopped going to their Web site after I cancelled my magazine subscription (at some point I just stopped cooking as much and subscribing to a cooking magazine seemed a bit much). Anyway, it seems their business model has changed. Check for yourself.
Thanksgiving. Like the big leagues. If I intend to take photos of my dinner for you, well this was my big night. My moment to shine. My Super Bowl. It’s Thanksgiving, after all.
I unfortunately did not bring my A game.
I envisioned getting wonderful shots of dishes before we dug into them. Instead I got distracted with, you know, conversation, and failed to bring my camera out on time.
So, I did what I could. There isn’t a great shot of the stuffing, except for what you see on my plate. I also feel like I didn’t give the acorn squash justice, but I’d have to say they tasted much better than they looked. The secret of the great-tasting acorn squash (I bet butter is one of the secrets, actually), is present in the photo. Bacon.
I also missed out on a shooting a sublime salad that preceded the dinner. Spinach, mandarin orange, almond slivers, cranberries, with a rich, but not overpowering, dressing. A great potato dish: thin slices, layered, then baked. Nice and light and I didn’t eat enough of them so I’m glad we got to take some home for leftovers. Creamed spinach was new, as was the caramel cake for dessert.
You might have guessed from previous entries in this blog that maybe I don’t cook, or like to cook, or want to cook (and, if you had a husband that did all of that, would you). It’s quite the contrary. Actually, I like to bake mostly. So it’s with great pleasure that I can present to you these photos of something I’ve created. Me. All by my lonesome. I was assigned two tasks for dinner: the bourbon pumpkin cheesecake (a repeat from last year) and the cranberry sauce (something I’ve brought every year for a while now). The cheesecake is courtesy of Epicurious.com. The cranberry sauce is a standard Ocean Spray recipe, with some orange zest and nutmeg thrown in. Incredibly easy to make.
You can view all of my Thanksgiving dinner photos on Flickr.
Another variation of our homemade pizza. It’s a whole-wheat/white flour combo crust, a bit more doughy than I like but whole wheat is whole wheat. Olive-oil based; diced tomato; chicken sausage (apple chutney); marinated mushrooms and red onion. Fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
Got a good compliment the next day. I was nuking a slice in the microwave in the kitchen and a passer-by was impressed. Yee haw!
San Marzano pomodoro tomatoes with red pepper flakes. Simmered with chicken sausage, then fusilli pasta added. A great classic. The pepper flakes give this dish a nice kick.