Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. I love preparing lots of food and getting my family and friends around a table to enjoy a meal together. This year Jeromy and I put together a rather ambitious menu. To start, we had hummus and veggie dip with crudite and hot stuffed peppers (more to come on the stuffed peppers). My friend Leah also joins us for Thanksgiving rather than traveling home to Duxbury. She has always been a fabulous addition not only for her company but because her contribution to the meal is an amazing antipasto. This year, she was so great as to bring us a separate smaller antipasto that Jeromy and I are about to dig into!

For the meal we prepared: mushroom soup, sweet potatoe biscuits, roasted acorn squash, sauted spinach, brussel sprouts with bacon, stuffing (the only from the box item on the table), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and 2 turkeys (one on the grill and one in the oven). It was quite the feast. Unfortunately, I was so busy getting the food on the table that I didn't have a chance to take pictures of it all! I know, what kind of food blogger am I if I can't even show you what I did?? In the absence of food photos, I give you a video of Jeromy and my dad cutting down our Christmas tree:

We are officially entering one of my favorite times of the year--a time to eat, drink and be merry with the people that I love. I promise to be better about my picture taking and will post some Christmas recipes in the next few weeks. Until then, Happy Holidays!!

Lisa :-)

Fall Flavors

Every now and then Jeromy and I visit a butcher in Del Ray, Let's Meat on the Avenue (http://www.letsmeatontheavenue.com/). He has some amazing meat and introduced us to kangaroo filet this summer. Last time we visted we picked up a rack of pork ribs. In celebration of Columbus Day, we made them for dinner tonight!

The recipe was from Food and Wine magazine and can be found here:


http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/apple-glazed-barbecued-baby-back-ribs

I had to make a couple of modifications, 1) we did not get a full rack since it's just the two of us so I cut the recipe in half. The ribs were also not baby back, but still came out very tender, juicy and came right off the bone. 2) I searched two stores and could not find apple jelly! I settled on pear jelly and it worked as a fine substitute. 3) Since there was less meat, I also modified the cooking times keeping the ribs in the oven for 2 hours and 15 minutes.


To go with the ribs, I made mashed potatoes and roasted acorn squash.

For the mashed potatoes (serves 2):

Peel and cut up 3 small/medium potatoes and add to a pot of boiling, salted water. Boil until the potatoes are fork-tender. Drain. Mash up the potatoes. Add 3-4 tablespoons of fat free buttermilk, 1/2 tablespoon of butter, 1 minced garlic clove, 2-3 sprigs of finely chopped chives and a pinch of parmesan cheese to the pot and stir to combine. Add buttermilk or butter for smoother consistency.

For the acorn squash (serves 2):

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut an acorn squash in half, clean out and discard seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt and ground pepper. In a bowl, mix 1/2 tablespoon softened butter, 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon amaretto liquer. Spread the mixture over the acorn squash halves, it will pool in the middle of the squash. Place sage leaves over the mixture in the squash and roast for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with toasted almond slices.

If you have any questions about the recipes, just leave a comment here and I'll get back to you. I'm about to try apple donuts...if I'm succesful, I'll let post again!

Happy cooking (and eating)!

Lisa :-)

In the kitchen tonight...

Our basil plant is HUGE so I was planning to make some pesto and mixing it with whole wheat pasta. As I was coming home from work I started thinking about what else was in the refrigerator and decided to do something with shrimp, tomatoes and mushrooms too. So I came up with this....

Here's the recipe:

Shrimp with Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Pesto over Whole Wheat Pasta

Giada’s pesto
Whole wheat pasta
16 frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, thawed
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 mushrooms, sliced thin
2 plum tomatoes, cored and diced
Salt and pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook whole wheat pasta according to the package.
Prepare pesto according to Giada’s *modified* recipe (below)
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan, add minced garlic and sauté for 2 minutes
Add mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste and continue to sauté until mushrooms let out their juice
Add shrimp, tomatoes and pesto, combine until heated through.
Serve on top of pasta

Giada’s Pesto:

1 1/2 lightly packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Blend the mint, basil, pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped. With the machine running, gradually add 1/4 cup of olive oil, processing until well blended. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Serves 2

Summer Cooking

Aside from the traveling, work and other typical summer activities, I have spent a large amount of time in the kitchen--this should not come as a shock to anyone :-) Some times I stuck to the recipe, sometimes I made up my own and sometimes Jeromy and I made it a team effort. Below are our creations:



























Frittatas. Here's the thing I love about frittatas--you can put almost anything in them! On the left we have a broccoli, green pepper and cheddar frittata and on the right we have a tomato, tomatillo, green pepper, corn and cheddar frittata. The CSA we joined gave us a TON of produce over the summer so this was a great way to use up some of it.


This would be kangaroo filet. It was AMAZING. Jeromy and I have a butcher that we love in Del Ray and he imports kangaroo from Australia, so we had to give it a try. It's leaner than chicken and tastes as good as steak. On the side we have sauteed kohlrabi greens, mashed purple potatoes and corn on the cob, all from the CSA.


Risotto. I love risotto. I really REALLY love risotto. So even though it's not the time of year for risotto, I made it anyway. This recipe I made up on the fly with what we had on hand which was: shrimp, tomato paste, chicken broth, zucchini, white wine, parmesan cheese and arborio rice. I was really looking forward to the leftovers but someone else got to them before me!

More to follow....
Lisa :-)

Adventures in the Kitchen

Last night I decied to put our Food and Wine subscription to use and made the Poached Salmon with Corn and White Wine-Butter Sauce, from the most recent issue. It sounded kind of complicated after reading through the recipe a few times, but I discovered that if I had my ingredients ready to go ahead of time and followed the recipe step-by-step, it wouldn't be so bad. Here is my mise en place (those French chefs really know what they're doing!)

The only missing ingredient is the basil--I snipped that from the back deck right before adding it.

About 20 minutes later, we were ready to eat!

If you'd like to try this recipe, it can be found at: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/poached-salmon-with-corn-and-white-wine-butter-sauce

Happy Cooking (and Eating)!

Lisa :-)

The Lion of the Senate is Silent Today

I couldn't let today go by without comment. I was shocked and sad when I woke up this morning and discovered that Senator Ted Kennedy had died late last night. Growing up in Massachusetts, the Kennedys were akin to the Royal Family and even though I knew that Sen. Kennedy was not long for this world, I hoped he would make it long enough to be able to vote on the health care reform that was the cause of his life. He was not a perfect human being, but none of us are. He was an amazing orator and statesman and I'm not sure that I'll see a senator as skilled as he was in my lifetime. He was able to reach across the aisle to make this country a better place and I hope his legacy lives on. So, Senator Kennedy, thank you for your service to the Commonwealth and to this country that you loved so much. I hope the seas that you now sail on are smooth and that the wind always fills your sails. Even though we are sad here on earth, I hope you are rejoicing with your family that has preceded you in Heaven. Rest in Peace.

Lisa

Blog Facelift

My blog has received a bit of a facelift. Instead of writing just about me and my triathlon training, I thought I'd open it up so Jeromy and I can both write about the things that we do, see and most likely, make. Because really, we love to cook, Jeromy loves to do projects around the house and I really love to make anything that will make me seem more like Martha Stewart. We hope you enjoy seeing what we're up to!