TGIF

      After not cooking for 2 days, and the start of the weekend I am motivated to catch up my recipes this weekend.  I started with 4 for dinner tonight /(breakfast tomorrow)!
      In the effort to clean out the freezer with Labor Day approaching and the start of school coming, I needed to use up the ground beef.   I made Blue Cheese Hamburgers with Caramelized Onion, pg 447.  I did not take it to the extreme however and make the Hamburger bun recipe from scratch (pg 614).  Instead I added my own touch and used store bought Onion Rolls.  The touch of blue cheese in the center of the burger topped with onions was a really easy way to make a simple burger something special.
      This of course could have been done on a grill and been wonderful, but the one drawback I will have as I continue to cook and blog about certain recipes is that here in the city in a condo with no outdoor space, we can't grill.... I am sure it will pose a problem for the flavor of some recipes as I move through this book, but generally I find I can either skillet cook or broil as a substitute fairly sucessfully.  The burger recipe did call to be skillet cooked.  My vegetables however called to be grilled.   I made the Grilled Summer Vegetables with Pesto, Page 591.  Instead of grilling, I left them in a baking pan and roasted them at 500 and then upped them to broil to brown them.  It certainly doesn't give the charcoal flavor, but still equally tasty,  Its very simple cooked, coated in Olive oil,  oregano, Thyme Salt & Pepper.   It made me miss the days of my house with my garden and the summers of enough basil to keep the whole block stocked for the summer.  I used Tubed pesto instead of making my own (page 889) this evening, even though its so easy and I have made it many times.   I should make some and keep it in the freeezer for future use while Basil is still in season. 
      The good news about oven roasting is that it made the third recipe really easy to make.  I simply started by roasting the potatoes for Golden Potato Wedges, page 568.  As the potatoes got tender I just added the other vegetables right to the pan.  Easy and one pan clean up! I also have plenty of vegetables left to eat for my lunch tomorrow.
      And lastly I contemplated quite a few things for dessert, and came to the realization that I was slightly limited by the fact that I was out of eggs.   So my dessert this evening became a chocolate pudding from the other night, and instead I made Apple Crisp, Page 812.   Do you remember what old fashioned bakery crumb cake crumbs are like?  Buttery and dense and golden brown on top of the golden cake.  Crumbs like those are exactly why I refuse to use the food processor as the recipe calls for for the topping.   I use my pastry blender and do it by hand and then just use my hands.  I get big moist crumbs, and save myself the trouble of cleaning the cuisinart! The crisp looks beautiful and smells yummy. I am guessing that this will act as my breakfast tomorrow.
    So I have the whole day again tomorrow to conjure a few more recipes, we'll see what it will be.  Maybe something Irish to tribute Ted Kennedy as I watch the funeral?  We will see what tomorow brings.
      

Tired and Lazy

      Last night I was out networking and drank my dinner, so after a late night I forgot to take out my ground beef to defrost and was way too tired to cook by this evening.  While I was out, Coco enjoyed his leftovers and loved his Chocolate Pudding! 
      Since I didn't actually cook, today I'll do my restaurant review version of the Blog:
      I had lunch with a friend at Cyril Renaud’s Restaurant Bar Breton 254 Fifth Avenue, NYC.  I had a House Smoked Salmon Sandwich, Fennel, Cucumber, Cilantro Yogurt & Basil Sauce, Lemon Confit. I had them hold the Cilantro as I am not a fan.  It was a lovely sandwich, but they could have used better bread,  It wasn't a nice cripy baguette they way it should have been. The true treat though, was my friend forced me to share the Lemon Crepe. It was light and delicious with just a hit of a sugar filling with fresh lemon pieces on top. Might have been the best crepe I have eaten. 
    I was in the mood for Indian food for dinner, but Coco wasn't up for an adventure to Jersey City for vegetarian southern Indian, so we stayed in Hoboken. Instead Coco treated me to my favorite Thai restaurant, Sri Thai at 234 Bloomfield Street, Hoboken, NJ.  Tonight I had the Soft Shell Crab with Basil and Chili.  It was perfectly fried Soft Shell Crab, in a tasty chili basil sauce with sauteed peppers and onions. It was quite delicious.  Coco had a Sweet and Sour Pork dish with pineapple and peppers.  He enjoyed his too.  We both thought that there were a few too many peppers for our taste. I am still on a quest to get Coco out for Indian though.
    So I promise to plan better for tomorrow, and since the weekend is coming it could prove to yield quite a few recipes.

Perfect Pork

     I don't impress myself easily when I cook, but tonight I think I made the best pork I have ever eaten, and Coco loved it too.   And I have eaten a lot of Pork!   It is my favorite.  I am not a huge beef eater except for slow cooked beef dishes.  I like chicken, but if its not cooked perfectly then I can be picky.  I don't like lamb at all, and all other meats are not the type of things you put into your regular repertoire of cooking. (as much as I would love to eat duck, venison and braised oxtail weekly)  So thus, pork is a huge staple in our household.  It comes in so many forms, is very versatile, and cooks quickly.  Gone is the pork of my father, who grew up eating pork from the pig farms in nearby Secaucus, NJ where the pigs lived and ate in the garbage dumps.  My father cooked dinner many nights when I was growing up and he would broil pork chops until they were like eating hockey pucks to make sure he didn't poison us, but somehow it managed to stay tasty. Pork is well fed now and fairly low in fat.  A 3 oz serving of boneless pork chop has 5 grams of fat. ( from the national pork board web site).  So tonight the Cuban Roast Pork, page 468 was delicious.  It was a pork loin roast, marinated all day in garlic, olive oil, orange and lime juices, pan seared and then roasted.   The dish took about 45 minutes, and was tender and served with the reduced marinade as a sauce.
      I accompanied this by Collard Greens Miniera, page 540, which is chopped collard greens cooked with bacon.  Incredibly simple and yummy.  Collard Greens are very high in vitamins. 1 cup of collard greens is 800% of daily vitamin K, 118% vitamin A, 57% vitamin C and many more. ( info from whfoods.com).
     Finally as tomorrow will be leftover night and a day off from blogging.  Since I won't be home for dinner, I made Coco some Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding, page 824 to have with his leftovers for dessert.  How did cook and serve pudding ever get invented might I ask ?  Fresh pudding from scratch takes about 2 minutes longer than box pudding to make.  I really don't get why anyone would bother with a box.  I do make it with skim milk though, because that is really all we keep in the house, and it keeps the fat way down of course.  This recipe is mostly cocoa powder, and you could even leave out the chocolate pieces to keep the fat down.  I licked the spoon and it was good.  Hopefully Coco will enjoy the treat tomorrow.
     Happy cooking everyone!   As I continue clean out my freezer for end of summer, I will probably be on to something with ground beef for Thursday.

The Derailed Dinner

     Today I ws supposed to make Brazilian Style Black Bean Stew and I was going to try my hand at Molasses Sponge Candy this evening, and my plans got derailed by convenience and a whim.
     Last night after completing my entry I decided to read through the stew recipe again, I planned to make it with a short cut of using canned beans instead of dry beans.  Afterall, I worked today and I had no plans to eat at 11PM tonight. Upon re-reading, I realized that boiling the beans with the meat was an intergral part of the recipe, making it be about a 4 hour recipe, with too many steps needed to use the crockpot and leave unattended for the day.  I had my stew meat defrosted already, so I had to come up with a quick change using what was in the house.  Upon further review of the Gourmet cookbook, there were no stew meat recipes suitable for a quick meal or a crockpot.  So I give you my stand by Crockpot stew, my own invention after many crockpot recipes that I didn't like on their own merits:
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Celery
Cut them all up to desired size ( not too small on the potatoes) - Any root vegetable will work well in this.
Stew Meat  cut into 1"-2" pieces (generously salt and peppered)
1 bottle of beer ( preferably dark - I had some leftover Brooklyn Lager left behind by a house guest  :) (RedWine works too for a different flavor about 2 cups of wine)
Enough Beef Broth to cover the rest
Throw it all in the crock pot and turn on low and let it cook 8 hours - but mine always goes 10.
It's fool proof -and instant dinner when you get home, unless you choose to raise the heat and thicken the gravy with corn starch or flour which only adds another 10 minues or so.
     My Molasses Sponge got derailed by about one of the best things that exist in NYC - the corner fruit cart! I walk by at least 3 between Port Authority and my office every day.  For anyone not familar with NYC, the fruit cart is a wonderful thing - all kinds of beautiful fresh seasonal fruit - cheap!   Summer is not only my favorite weather season - its my favorite fruit season - FRESH FIGS! They are beautiful and only $3.99 a pint. ( I have paid over a dollar per fig here at times)   I felt dessert calling when I saw them first thing this morning.  Unfortunately I waited until too late in the day and I missed out on the Black Mission Figs, but I got a lovely container of Golden Figs right in front of the New York Times Building.  I brought them home and turned them into Baked Figs with Grand Marnier and Whipped Cream, page 804. Absolutely amazing! The perfect summer dessert!
     So I only accomplished one recipe today, but convenience will just have to win sometimes.  Now I need to go take my pork out of the freezer for tomorrow.
    Oh, I almost forgot - as a follow up to yesterday, The Rosemary Focaccia looked wonderful, the flavor was perfect, but I think I baked just a little too long - the texture was just off.  Maybe I should have steamed the oven, ala Nancy Silverton....

Day One

     Today my husband (we'll call him Coco for this blog  - It's a nick-name he's acquired for his errand and clean up services he provides to me, especially when I'm cooking, so it's appropriate.) when he heard my thoughts this morning about this blog asked me to make him Beef Stroganoff, Page 439. It became my first endeavor of this project.  (really my fourth since it ended up being the last thing I made today).  I have made Stroganoff before but not from this recipe.  This one is not very heavy and a a nice little tang of mustard to it.   I did leave out the dill in the recipe however. I am not a huge fan of dill.
     That actually brings me to a very good point about my cooking and this blog.  Where I am a copy cat to Julie Powell and her Julie/Julia Project, my purpose is somewhat different.  I am not doing this to honor Ruth Reichl and mimick every recipe verbatim as a tribute.  I think the book is an amazing guide, but I am using it as just that, a guide on my own journey.  I am not afraid to make my own changes to the recipes based on my taste or experiences from cooking other recipes.
     So today is Sunday and here in Hoboken it was hot an humid and seemed to threaten rain.  After I went to the store to stock up for the week, I was particularly ambitious to start this project.  I stayed in and cooked since I was home alone. I ended up with 4 recipes for today.
     I actually started with dessert first.  I decided to make the first dessert recipe in the book.  Tiny Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 662.  The goal is to make them tiny like petit fours. I changed up the recipe based on my favorite chocolate chip cookies from Tates Bake shop in the Hamptons.  I found a recipe online sometime ago for that cookie.  So I changed this one by using salted butter, using a combination of light and dark brown sugar and a tiny bit of water.  This makes them, thin, crisp and salty.   The recipe calls to make 12 -1/2 dozen though, and I only got about 4 dozen out if it.  I wish I had used mini chips, I might have been able to have gotten the cookies smaller.  They still are delicious, however.  As always, to make Coco happy, I leave the bottom rack in a couple of minutes longer, as he actually likes burnt bottom cookies. 
    I went on to try Rosemary Foccaccia, page 606, it's been a new favorite of mine avaiable by Ace Bread in the local A&P.  I also recently have been through a more advanced bread making phase from Amy Silverton's book, so this seems relatively easy compared to other endeavors.  It just finally came out of the oven and my house smells a lovely aroma of Rosemary and Olive Oil.  I'll have to let you know tomorrow how it turned out. It looks beautiful, hopefully it lives up.
     My Stroganoff needed and side and I felt it should be a vegetable.  As I paged through the vegetable recipes, one finally caught my eye.  Not only a favorite of my husband's, but something my Nana cooked all the time.  Braised Red Cabbage, Page 528.  I thought it was the perfect way to remember my Nana as I start this project.  As we were eating Coco even commented that it always made him think of her. It was a perfect combination of tangy and sweet and was braised to just short of caramelized.
    As I close for today, I finish this with a very strange piece of information I just found out. I referred to Julie Powell's original blog from 2002 to see if I am doing this right.  ( I have never read it, or her book), and realized the date she began was Sunday August 25.  Seems to make me fated to have started this 7 years to the day after.
  

Why did I decided to start a Blog?

      Let me be clear as I begin this blog. I have never blogged, I have never even really read a blog.  I am not a writer, I am not a professional chef. I am someone who loves to cook and believe I do it well.  I admit it - I am a huge copycat, having been inspired by seeing the film Julie and Julia last night.  I have a friend about to embark into cooking school and this weekend we were sharing our passion for food.  Another friend with professional kitchen background and I chat regularly about food. This is added inspiration as to why to embark on this experiment.
     My passion for food started as a child as do many people's, watching my mother and my grandmother cook.  When I was 12, my mother signed me up for a cooking for kids class to get me out of the house on Saturday's.  It was given by the head chef at the Hotel-Intercontinental in NYC.  Every Saturday we would take the PATH train into the city and change to the E Train to Lex and 53 and go to this class, where at 12 years old, I got to experience something that many people ever do.  I got to cook amazing food in a huge gourmet professional kitchen.  I was hooked. I still have most of my recipes from that class and now 27 years later, still make many of these recipes ( some which are in my memory by now) .  I learned to make puff pastry from scratch, which became croissants and Beef Wellingtons. We made quiches, chicken dishes, beef dishes, chocolate and cheese souffles and chocolate mousse. Whatever we asked Chef Daniel to teach us, he did.  At the end of the class we had an article written about us in American Airlines magazine where I am quoted and we appeared on Patricia McCann's radio show on WOR talk radio. Needless to say it was an amazing experience.  I was sure I wanted to cook for a living.
      I never did embark to culinary school.  I graduated from high school young, and cooking school would have meant being completed with school and out in the working world by 18, and I wasn't quite ready to speed my life along, so I opted for traditional 4 year college. Life proceeded, and I pursued a different career that I still love, and I became a wife and a working mother. I continue to cook and throw cocktail and dinner parties for my family and friends from all kinds of recipes from cookbooks, memoirs, internet and magazines.
      One of my friends years ago lent me Ruth Reichl's first Memoir, Tender to the Bone and I adored it.  Some time after the same friend attended a Great Cooks dinner in Washington, DC and gave me an autographed copy of The Gourmet Cookbook edited by Ruth Reichl.  Ruth is quoted on the back of the book "Our goal was to give you a book with every recipe you would ever want", and they came damn near close. It is rare that I venture to this book and can't find something I am looking for.  I have many other sources of recipes I use, and might like better than in this book, but I have yet to make anything from this book that hasn't been amazing.
    So here, I begin an experiment to see how much I can cook from this book, and along the way will comment about other things I cook and eat along the way. I would like to be as determined as Julie Powell to set a deadline for myself, but given that I am not a writer or a professional chef with a particular goal, I will set no deadline or promises to enter every day.  This is about my own self discovery and let's see where it takes me. Hopefully I won't make my husband and son crazy along the way.

Happy cooking and eating everyone!