Pasta Dinner

Last night Spud was begging for pasta to go with the re-directed turkey, so I figured I would accomodate tonight.  I admit I am exhausted after not sleeping to well last night, so this blog will probably not do this dish justice, but it was delicious.  The Pasta with Bolognese Sauce, page 221 did not dissappoint.  Bolognese is one of my favorite dishes, and somehow I have never made this one, and it is the best I have had.   It contains every element that any other bologneses usually only use part of.  This one has the carrots, celery and onion, the milk and white wine to go with the tomatoes.   It uses ground meatloaf mix instead of whole pieces of meat.  It is a nice easy recipe and will definately be a regular in my food repetoire.

Re-directed Dinner

     Last night I set out to make Chicken Divan, I asked Coco to take the chicken out of the freezer.  When I got home, the recipe was more involved than I felt like making, so I decided to do a change over to an easier Rachel Ray Recipe from Everyday magazine.  I decided to use her Chicken Fried Steak recipe and changed it to Chicken Fried Chicken.  The only problem was that when I opened  the package Coco took out, I realized he took out the Turkey cutlets, so dinner became Chicken Fried Turkey.   This recipe makes a really nice pan gravy to go with it.  I further cheated this meal with frozen green beans and instant mashed potatoes, but it was like eating a homemade tv dinner.   The dish turned out pretty well with the turkey substitution.

Sunday Night Supper

After overeating yesterday and travelling today with a late lunch ( dare I admit fastfood at a rest area!) we decided to eat a little later this evening and a little lighter.  Spud requested brussel sprouts for dinner, probably one of the few 10 year olds in America who's favorite vegetable is brussel sprouts.  I ran to the store for a mini-shopping trip, and the local grocery just didn't have them.  I am not sure what the season of a brussel sprout is.  So as a second choice I bought Swiss Chard to make Swiss Chard Gratin, page 543.  Spud didn't like it, said it reminded him of Spinach Souffle, and he has declared that eggs should never be with spinach.  This dish has no eggs in it though, and was quite good.  It actually calls to make it with spinach too, but I just made it with all Swiss Chard.  It was really more like a more complex version of creamed spinach.  I liked the touch of chicken stock in with the cream, it adds a more intersted flavor.  I think I will try this with creamed spinach in the future as well. Of course the best part is the cheesy, breadcrumb topping that bakes and get crispy.  I made this side with Veal Scallops with Lemon and Capers, page 456.  I love this dish as it is so light and easy and full of flavor.  I admit that I hate capers though, and I leave them out when I make this dish.

Desserts to Tailgate with

    I had been planning a tailgate football party with friends for a while now and I had had dreams of cooking all this amazing tailgate food, but life just got in the way.  Thank goodness for friends who are fellow foodies, because my friend, Carmelita jumped in and did everything for an amazing tailgate.  We had Hebrew Nat's, Beef Burgers, Turkey Burgers, Italian Sausage, peppers and onions and all the fixins.  Everyone brought amazing sides and we were overkilled on the desserts.  One of my friends made amazing butterscotch bars and delicious cheesecake squares.  I never had a chance with her caramel brownies, they were gone instantly.   We had no shortage of brownies, but is there really such a thing as too many brownies?  I made Katharine Hepburn's Brownies, page 688 which I have made before as they are famous and have been published by a few cookbook authors.  These are the best classic brownies, a perfect blend of fudgy & cakey.   I also made the Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, page 674 and I am pretty sure these were perfect Peanut Butter Cookies.  I always slightly overbake my bottom oven rack, but the top rack came out perfectly.  This is an unbelieveably easy reciped also as it is only 4 ingredients.  There is no excuse with this receipe for anyone to say they don't have time or can't bake.  This is a recipe that busy mom's should keep on hand to use as lunchbox or afterschool snacks.  Both these desserts stay fresh for a few days and traveled well in Tupperware containers.
     Our tailgate party was a huge success, but sadly our game got rained on and only the die hard  fans went to the game.  I personally only go to the game for the party, so I stayed dry.

This Meal is Keeper

This was a very simple easy meal, and it was so good.  Escarole, Sausage and White Bean Stew, Page 270.   I don't have much more to say about this other than yum.   Spud screamed he wouldn't eat it and then he loved it.  Coco complained that i didn't make dessert.  The only thing that was missing that I didn't drink a glass of white wine with it.  Now to decide what to make tomorrow.

Comfort Meal under Control

   After a stressful and scary week, I was thrilled to bring my immediate family back together at the dinner table tonight.  The three of us had a nice quiet dinner together.  I felt a good old fashioned comfort food meal was the way to go, and I made Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, page 448 and served it over spaghetti.  the meatballs were excellent, and I loved that that they did not contain eggs.  Coco has always made the family's best meatballs ( after my step-father of course, lest he read this).  As Coco says, why wouldn't he make good meatballs? Matzo Ball, Meatball - it's all the same! ( Too bad he didn't make the Matzo balls yeaterday!)  My family had to admit these meatballs were good.  The Spud commented he loved the kick that the red pepper flakes added, and implored Coco to add them to his in the future. 
   The routine to cook allows me to control something in a world of things I cannot control, and the family dinner brings those I love most close to me and makes us all feel safe.
    All I can say is make sure you hug those you love and keep them close.   Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go through these next few days.

Life in Crisis/ Rosh Hashanah

         Sorry for the time-delay on the blog!  As much as I would like to hide in my kitchen and only cook when life is in crisis, unfortunately that just isn't possible, time and emotions just didn't allow this week as our family went though some tough stuff.  I was supposed to cook a whole extended Rosh Hashanah dinner, and it didn't happen.   I managed to get out 3 Gourmet recipes for the holiday.  I had 2 of 3 successes.
        As I mentioned last Sunday made the Chicken and Rice Soup, page 122 ahead of time and just made it without rice  becasue I wanted the home made soup, to use with Chicken Soup with Almond Matzo Balls, page 123.  The home made soup turned out great.  I made it in my crock pot and it was so easy.  Fresh Carrots, and the white meat from the chicken chopped and put back in.   The chicken soup  with the matzo balls in the recipe calls for canned chicken broth, which is why I combined the two recipes!  I think Ruth let me down for the first time though.  The Almond Matzo Balls were awful!!!  It was a unique flavor to begin with, matzo, almonds, dill and cinnamon made for an intersting but not bad flavor.  These balls ended up more appropriate to be used on the PGA tour and have Titleist stamped on them ( to quote my father-in law).  The Spud hated them and Coco is too sweet to say anything.  Ruth Reichl thanked Muriel Resisman of Fair Lawn, NJ for this recipe and said this recipe made refined cousins, of the delicatessan matzo ball.  Well I am sorry they included it!  I did rush the recipe a little, and didn't let the batter sit for as long as it said, but still.... Thank goodness for cell phones and my mother-in-law keeps the good old box of Manischewitz Matzo Ball mix in the house and bailed me out of the Matzo ball disaster. 
     The upside of this quest to cook tradtional Jewish this week was that I finally found a new fish market, and not just any fish market - an amazing one.  I have been in the one in Chelsea Market in NYC, and they have nice fish, but it is pretty pricy and the selection is limited.  Gone are the days of the old fashioned Italian fish market, Apicella's in Hoboken as well. ( they wouldn't have had what I needed anyway.) I found the Sea Breeze Seafood Market at 541 9th Ave @ 40th Street, New York City.  I cannot say enough about this market, they had almost every fish or shellfish you could ever ask for, they are reasonably priced, and the service was excellent. I bought about 10 pounds of Carp, Pike and Whitefish for $27 and they filleted and ground all the fish for me and gave me all the bones, heads and tails.
      As you might guess from those ingredients, I made Gefilte Fish, page 73.  I must say it was a fairly easy recipe when you get the fish market to do the hard work.   It was an excellent recipe, that actually called for Whitefish only, but I made it with the traditional mix of fish.  If you don't know what gefilte fish is, the best decription I can provide, is if you took Fish Tartare, and then poached it. Like a fish dumpling.  I happen to like my Gefilte fish salty and not sweet, so I left out the carrots and added some salt.  It was very good, and different from it's jarred version, and well worth it.
      It was a lovely Rosh Hashanah dinner with our loved ones which was the important part. Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!