May 21 NO RECIPE NIGHT!

May 21
NO RECIPE NIGHT!

So, insane week of work, no time, no chance to even think about what to prepare... I just pretty much winged it.

Wedge salad w/ buttermilk, citrus dressing, egg and bacon. Simple as it sounds, was delicious!


Main course was rolled, stuff chicken breast with glazed carrot side.
I attempted to make bread TWICE, but it was just not meant to be... both times the bread failed to rise, im certain the issue was my yeast and I WILL try again. (was really looking fwd to serving fresh bread with the meal - ended up settling for Albertsons Fresh)

The chicken was your standard grocery store breast filet's pounded flat and stuffed with a mixture of fresh broccoli, garlic, onions and fontina, I rolled these and seasoned them, baked them in the oven and served with a variation of Maggies famous cheese sauce (took two tries... i didnt listen)

As a veg side i served glazed carrots that i cooked in a reduction of maple syrup, orange juice, allspice and cinnamon (these were IMHO just AMAZINGLY GOOD)

The chicken came out a bit dry (again, no recipe's) as i think i overcooked it a bit trying to make sure the inside was hot, melty and delicious... ended up being just "MEAH". As a whole, if you were to get a good mix of the chicken and the stuffing and the sauce, it made for a great bite, but the chicken by its lonesome was well... overcooked chicken...

For desert, i served vanilla yogurt over fresh fruit, topped with granola.
It was again "meah"

The whole meal was sub-par for me and not one of my better efforts.

The cooking with no recipe's thing is harder than it seems, I mean - you get an idea and think "wow that will be awesome" then somewhere between the idea and putting it on the table, things change.

Anyway, we've decided to bump chef night back to bi-monthly instead of every week for the summer/near future as we all have lots of engagements and "other" things.

Heres to hoping i hit it out of the park next time!

Keeping it simple

Really not in the mood for spending the entire day in the kitchen this week. Decided to go with a simple steak and veg. Skipped the appetizer altogether and went with broccoli soup as a starter.

First off was the broccoli soup. Simple recipe (courtesy of Gordon Ramsay) using boiled broccoli. The broccoli was then puree'd in a blender, adding a little bit of salt and pepper and then topped with goat cheese, roasted almonds, and a bit more pepper. I forgot to drizzle it with olive oil.

Steak was ribeye stuffed with cremini mushrooms, garlic, shallots, and blue cheese. I had initially intended to do this on the grill, but with the wind I opted to prepare it on the stove. Veg was fennel. The fennel was first pan seared and then placed in the oven along with garlic, celery, tarragon, parsley, and white wine. The fennel was also a Ramsay recipe.

Lastly, served baked apple. I used Granny Smith apples. These were cored and then stuffed with a mixture of dried cranberries, gold raisins, Cointreau, sugar, and butter. After cooking, I drizzled the apples with heavy cream.

Slider...Slider...Slider

For dinner this week I made 3 different types of sliders with recipes I found at Foodnetwork.com. The first was a simple ground chuck seasoned with salt and pepper. Then I added cheddar cheese, red onions, pickles, and chipolte sauce.

Next, I made a pulled chicken slider topped with cabbage.


Finally, a seafood slider made from chopped sea scallops and seasoning and bread crumbs. I made homemade bread with a very simple recipe and served the sliders with a simple green salad with oil and vinegar.


The sliders turned out ok. The chipolte sauce made the ground chuck way too hot. The seafood slider was my least favorite. It just did not have the flavor I was hoping for. The chicken was my favorite. I liked it a lot with the cabbage. Both were seasoned just right.

For an appetizer I made potato bites with sour cream and bacon. What a pain. The were good just not worth the trouble.

And finally dessert was blueberry turnovers sprinkled with sugar. I deep fried them and that was tricky. They did turn out very good though.

Another ok meal. I still haven't created a masterpiece yet.

Pork Loin Roast

We decided to post our chef night blogs because we did not want to forget what was cooked and how good it was. This has been hard for me this week and I apologize. I believe Sandy helped me make the roast, fresh green beans, Au gratin potatoes, but the poppy seed muffins were all mine, damnit. I really believe I (we) havent dropped the ball yet, except for me not blogging.

Here are some photos:

Pork Loin before...










Pork loin after...









Au Gratin Potatoes









Green Beans









Muffins

Pan Seared Salmon

OK... Quick blog time.

We had Maggies dad and sister over this time so i ended up not taking a lot of photos and hurrying myself a bit.

Also, decided to cook a fish dish for the first time in my life.
Since i dont eat fish or seafood its just kind of a random, "im out of time" decision based on how good the dish sounded when reading reviews online.

So with that in mind...

Pan Seared Salmon Filets with Dill Cream Sauce

First time cooking,preparing fish so i just kind of went with what i found online for preparation/execution. Everyone said they loved it and most had seconds. I even liked the taste, the cream sauce was fantastic, and went with the salmon flavor really well.

I served this with Cauliflour, Parsnip Puree, Pan Flashed Asparugus, and fresh Strawberry Shortcake for desert.

The Cauliflour/Parsnip puree was awesome (if i do say so myself) tasted like seasoned mashed potatoes and everyone seemed to clean their plate. (I had 3 helpings).

I also served some pan flashed asparagus tips that were simply seasoned with salt/pepper and lemon juice. They came out looking a little sad, but surprisingly tasted pretty good!


Desert consisted of a fresh strawberry shortcake i kind of made up on the spot, the cake i bought (hangs head in shame) but i sliced fresh berries, made up a strawberry compote with grand marnier to serve warm over the cold sliced berries, and made fresh whipped cream to top the whole thing. came out great, tasted fresh and light and not overly sweet (which is easy to do with this desert)

All in all, I think it was pretty tasty, probably not the best presentation, but for a rookie meal who really doesn't know fish or the profiles to shoot for with it. it felt like a success, Maggie said she loved it and she is a fish eater, so that made me feel great.

til next time...

Brian

Simple French

At the beginning of the day, I didn't have the slightest clue what to make. So... I browsed on the internet and decided on Chicken Cordon Bleu and an "Americanized" French menu. The French food is coming, but Julia Child and I have some work to do before we dive into the real thing. Big menu tonight, with a large portion of things I've never made before. As usual, I made a big mess of the kitchen.

I started the day making bread. I used the bread machine to mix the dough, but then did the rest old school. Rise, pound down, shape, rise, cook. Looked pretty good. Tasted better.

For the starter, I made French Onion Soup. Can't say it turned out that well. It was just okay. I cooked the onions until tender and then added them to a beef broth with a little salt and pepper. ...and then added more salt... and some more... and some more... Still seemed too sweet. The best (and worst) that you can say about it was that it tasted like onion soup out a can. Thanks Gail for that. ;)

Next course was the salad. The recipe called for oranges with the arugula, fennel, and olives, but I went with tangerines instead. The dressing was lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The salad alone was okay. Can't say I cared for the arugula and the fennel is something that doesn't taste well alone. Black olives... are just black olives. The dressing I tasted as well and it was sort of hideous. Oily sticky sweet and peppery. Put together though, the salad and the dressing was surprisingly good. Best surprise of the night. Worth doing again.

Main course was Chicken Cordon Bleu. Never made this before, and it was less effort than I imagined. It was good. Not spectacular. I think it needed more salt. If/when I do this again, I think I might go with prosciutto instead of ham. Served with some steamed asparagus that I added at the last moment simply because I wanted to have a vegetable with the protein. Probably could have left that off. I've made better asparagus before. The veg was cooked just about five minutes too soon and I let it warm in the microwave. Mistake.

Lastly, I made crepes with warm berries, and bananas, and vanilla ice cream. It tasted like the after thought that it was.

Oh... have to say. Maggie and Brian stopped by BevMo for me yesterday. I asked for a couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. Gotta say... the 2010 Vigilance was TASTY! Also had a bottle of 2007 Starmont and it was good, but not memorably so.

Big menu. Big mess.

Menu:

Chicken Cordon Bleu

French Onion Soup

Arugula Fennel and Tangerine Salad

Bread

Crepes

A Monk's Kettle Inspiration

Main Course

This dinner was inspired by "Unique Eats," a TV show on the Food Network. The menu comes from Monk's Kettle in San Francisco. This is the first time I cooked without recipes, and I wasn't very impressed with my abilities. The pork chops were brined in beer and apple cider then grilled. The sauce consisted of beer, mustard, and chicken stock, and simmered for the day. Potato cakes were just homemade mashed potatoes with chives and cheddar cheese, coated with panko, then fried in a little oil. The Brussels sprouts were steamed for a few minutes then sauteed with butter, bacon, and shallots.

Appetizer
I wanted to make fried green tomatoes, however local stores do not offer green tomatoes. I went with zucchini instead, and it turned out all right. The sauce was another story. I was unsuccessful in getting it to thicken and ended up just using ranch.







and Finally...
Dessert was a homemade peach ice cream with a praline sauce courtesy of the Neely's (Food Network). The peach ice cream wasn't very sweet. I did like the praline; of course, praline is just pecans and Karo.







My Thoughts
I was disappointed in the overall taste and presentation of the meal. Some items were good individually but when brought together it lack greatness. I was really looking forward to a delicious dinner. It felt like it was coming together wonderfully while I was cooking, but at the end it all started falling apart. To much was going on; I forgot to make the dipping sauce, I was trying to cook 3 different things in one pan, and the ice cream maker was malfunctioning. Anything higher than a 6 is overrating because it tasted like any other weeknight dinner.

I'm a wee bit Irish

I love themes so this being the month of St. Patricks day, I wanted to go with it. I love to decorate! I love being able to use things for other days, for other things, like I found this place setting at the Dollar tree and I can use for another another Chef night. I am so excited to say I bought everything for under $20.00. and everything is microwave safe and dishwasher safe! This the easy part of the day. I love my little leprecaun! And for $10.00 more I was able to get everyone a T-shirt, and they were so gracious to wear.

Okay, food! I made Stuffed Cabbage, corned Beef and Cabbage(vegetables), Nana Dot's Irish Soda Bread, and Irish Cheese Chocolate cake.

The hardest thing for me was, what do I start to do first? I had a lot going on and I like to have things ready to heat up. If I could have the cheese cake done early then that's one thing less I have to worry about. Well, so that is what I started with first the cheese cake. I had never made one that you had to cook. I made two, one cheese cake with premade pie crust and one pie crust I made. The first cheeese cake was with a premade pie crust and it would of been fine if I had made two pies. I had enough pie filling to make two pies. It was not pretty. I had pie filling over flowing. I was at least smart enough to use a cookie sheet. My pie looked like the Grand Canyon! And so what to do? I made another pie. I made my own crust too,with a springform pan. Not quite as ulgy but still had the canyon but not quite as grand. Tasted pretty good I thought! And the first pie I used some whip cream and grated cookie and it looked almost professionally done.

Okay! I lied, I did ask my husband to put the corned beef in the crock pot with one bottle of Guinnes, while I was out shopping. I am sorry, but it was such an easy thing to do, I forgot. But that was the only thing. I over cooked the veggies, I put them in too soon. Carrots, potatoes, onions and what I had left of the cabbage. I seperated the veggies and sliced the corn beef against the grain. I Put the corned beef on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for the last 20 mins under the stuffed cabbage. I liked the corned beef!

I really liked the Soda bread! I was surprised! With caraway seeds, apple cider vinegar! Oh, and I now know what currants are, they are like raisins.

Stuffing the cabbage, there is a trick to getting the leaves to seprate. I was a little freaked out! Steam for 3 mins. And I cooked the meat and rice before I stuffed, that way you can control the grease, and bind with cheese. Or you can stuff with a mixture of raw meats and cooked rice, it make it easier to roll and stuff. I think I could of rolled a little better and made it prettier.
I am pretty pleased, I thought all the flavors went well together and I used only one head of cabbage so it did'nt seem to over power, I needed the luck of the Irish!

Brazilian influenced.

So, I was back in the barrel as the chef du-jour for this week and decided to take inspiration from a Churascuria (brazilian steak house) that i had visited in Beverly Hills a couple weeks ago during the LA Poker Classic - Fogo de Chao.

The concept at this place is simple, you eat until you cant walk! What better idea to model a chef night on?

Well, ok so i DID decide to take it down a notch and just go with some dishes inspired by what i found there as opposed to their "stuff ya to the gills" method.

I started off with a rather simple salad, arugula and baby spinach tossed with a very good balsamic vinaigrette I garnished the salad with tomato and orange slices and served it over red kale and let the crew work on that while i finished dialing in my entree and main sides. (keep em busy so they dont see you sweat!)


I should interrupt here and throw in a little note about Sandy and his uncanny ability to finish a dish faster than any human ive ever met, by the time i got my own salad to the table Sandy's plate consisted of nothing more than an empty orange rind so im fairly certain he enjoyed it, although i have to assume anyone that can eat that fast cant be able to actually taste what he devours. ( i'll take his word that it was good! ;) )


Next up was the combined main course which consisted of a hearty soup/stew of potato's spicy sausage, green onions, sour cream, portabella mushrooms, fontina and cheddar cheeses garnished with fresh chives. I dont have a recipe for this as it was largely made up on the spot and based loosely on a creamy baked potato soup i found online. I thought i came out fantastic
and worked nicely for a chef night as i put it together around noon and let it slow cook in the crock pot most of the day adding the cream and cheeses about 20 mins prior to serving. Maggie seemed to really enjoy the soup and hopefully the remains will provide her with a tasty lunch for the rest of the week.

Along with soup i served bacon wrapped filet mignon and marinated chicken medallions on skewers, personally the chicken marinade i used, i didnt really like but the filet was literally to die for. literally - if it was me and you and the last filet... well... Gladiator comes to mind.












These were served with Pao de Queijo (brazlian cheese puffs) that are made using yucca starch / manioc root. (yah... lets just say the ingredients arent exactly easy to find in Ridgecrest)

These are just a very simple yet delicious parmesan cheese puff. mine came out fairly heavy and i think too dense, having never made them before im fairly certain i made them too big and they were unable to cook and rise thoroughly into the light airy concoctions i enjoyed previously, the flavor however was spot on, so i think my guests were able to get the idea i was shooting for.

For desert, we enjoyed a cupcake TV dinner that Maggie and Olivia made, this was really pretty creative (see the pic) they made some tasty banana cupcakes and decorated them to look like the components of an old fashioned TV Dinner, chicken leg, mashed potatoes w butter and gravy, and the good old diced carrots and peas everyone remembers... they used colored icing and a myriad of candy and caramel to pull off the illusion.

To grade this meal, i guess id give myself a 7 or a 7.5. everything came out pretty close to what i was shooting for, while there were a few shortcomings, its kind of expected when you make something you've never cooked before and your frame of reference for a flavor profile is in your head. But i will let my fellow diners and bloggers do the actual grading.

Thanks for reading!

Brian

Southern Style

For tonight's meal, I wanted to go somewhat Southern. Not that I know anything at all about Southern cooking. I don't. I'm from California. My choice was meat loaf, something I've never made... believe it or not. I searched AllRecipes.com and settled on this meat loaf recipe. To go with it, I chose Whipped Potatoes (modified the recipe and left the skins on thankyouverymuch) and Collard Greens. Again, the greens are something I've never made. For dessert, I made Carrot Cake.

Only real hiccup was with the greens. I misjudged the amount of time it took to prepare, so dinner was about fifteen minutes late.

I'm stuffed.

We begin anew...

For over a year, Brian & Maggie, and Gail & I have got together each week to share a meal. Unfortunately, as we look back, there's been so many good meals (and a few flops) that it's difficult to remember what we ate.

Last night, we decided that we needed a blog as a record. Here, we'll share comments, recipes, photos, etc.

Oh... and here are the ground rules that we agreed upon. Cooking duty rotates every week. Next week, I'm up. Following that, it'll be Brian, then Gail, and finally Maggie. We thought about spending limits, but when we started there was typically spices to buy and those will blow your budget in a hurry.

No real rules, other than we try to do this every week, typically on Saturday, promptly at 7PM. Oh... and the non-cooking spouse gets to choose the entertainment. Could be a board game, a movie, Wii, whatever.