Pasta & Meatballs- February 24, 2010

Tonight was a freezer/pantry night. I had a good quality pasta sauce I've been wanting to try, so we had that with some meatballs that I made with pancetta, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper.

White Chile- February 23, 2010

This is one of my standard recipes, so to speak. Its easy and I make it often. I use the Betty Crocker recipe basically, and I usually buy a rotisserie chicken to make with it.

Cod with Hoisin and Ginger Sauces- February 22, 2010

Recently The Summer Shack Restaurant opened up nearby and they also opened a fish market. We've purchased fish there probably 8 times and haven't been disappointed. I used cod for this dish- something I don't usually buy. It was fantastic!
Cod with Hoisin & Ginger Sauces

Horne's Mixed Green Salad Du Jour- February 21, 2010

We often make "meal" salads. Basically, we use a meat (usually chicken or some cut of beef- tenderloin, flank) some mixed greens (spring, baby, mache), grilled veggies (peppers, squash, onion), cheese (goat, blue, Parmesan), nuts (walnuts, pepitas, almonds) and of course some grilled ciabatta bread brushed with goat butter. We always make our own dressing- some sort of vinaigrette.
Tonight we did grilled chicken with a light rub, grilled poblano pepper, grilled onions, a little blue cheese & walnuts. My husband made a blood orange vinaigrette, and we had a pinot noir. Yummy!

Sweet Tomatoes Pizza, February 20, 2010

We visited some friends last night and they treated us to one of our very favorites- Sweet Tomatoes Pizza. This is usually only a summer treat for us since the closest ST location is Sandwich, so it was extra-special. Their Neapolitan pizza is thin-crusted and simple. They have many yummy options, but I just love their cheese pizza!

Braised Chile-Spiced Short Ribs with Black Beans- February 19, 2010

Friday I decided to finally take a stab at short ribs. Since they have to slow-cook, I needed most of the afternoon for this. They were good, but way too heavy for me. I felt like I had lead sitting in my stomach all night. Probably the black beans were just too much.
We finished up the Stump Jump from the previous night, but this dish had some spice so something lighter would have worked too! The photo shows the ribs after browning.

Tilapia and Mashed Yams with Pancetta-Sage Breadcrumbs- February 18, 2010

Last night I made tilapia and mashed yams with pancetta-sage breadcrumbs. I actually used catfish. The yams were particularly yummy, but the collard greens that accompanied it took the cake. I boiled them for about 5 minutes, drained them and sauteed them in a little olive oil, unsalted butter, garlic & lemon juice for about 2 minutes.
We drank 2008 Stump Jump Shiraz, which is really for tonight's dinner but we didn't have any white.

Bopha's Green Curry- February 17, 2010

I mentioned that we dined at Stir Crazy the other night, and we also bought some of Bopha's green curry sauce. For $12.95 you get a generous container of curry sauce that easily makes 2 meals for us. I divided it up and froze the other half. I sauteed two cubed chicken breast in a little olive oil and added some fresh green beans & eggplant as well as canned bamboo shoots. I seasoned very lightly with salt & pepper and added the curry sauce, letting it simmer for about 20 minutes. Served over white rice it was delicious and certainly worth $12.95 as we could never duplicate it!
We finished up the bottle of 2007 Gloria Ferrer Carneros Chardonnay from the other night.
I took the lazy way out and shot this photo with my Iphone, but part of my goal for this blog is to improve my food photography, so I won't be so lazy all the time!

Homemade Bread

My 19-month-old son is a very picky eater. When he was an infant, I used to make all of his own food and serve him things like goat cheese, roasted red peppers & lamb. He'd eat it all! No longer. I find when I make him homemade meals he usually feeds them to the dog. He does, however, love bread. So I found a basic, fairly quick recipe in Joy of Cooking, but I've changed it a bit as I've made it multiple times. I've made it a few times now and its pretty fail-safe. Needless to say my son loves it and and so do we.
White (or Wheat) Bread
Combine in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer and let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 minutes:
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1/4 c. warm (105-1115 degrees F) water
Add:
3 c. bread flour
2 c. warm water
1 TBSP melted butter
2 TBSP honey
1 TBSP salt
Mix on low speed for 1 min. Gradually add 1/2 c. at a time until the dough is moist but now sticky:
2 3/4-3 c. bread flour
Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn it over once to coat. Cover loosely w/ plastic wrap and let rise in warm place for 1 1/2 hrs or until doubled in volume.
Grease two 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans. Fold the dough, divide it in half and form into two loaves. Place seam side down in the pans. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hrs or until doubled in volume.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake the loaves for 10 minutes then reduce oven to 325 degrees. Bake another 25-30 min and test loaves by removing from pan and tapping on bottom. It should sound hollow. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For wheat bread, substitute 1 1/2 c. of the bread flour with 1 1/2 c. wheat flour and increase the yeast by 1/4 tsp.

Lentil Soup- February 16, 2010

Its a rain/snow day, so to avoid the roads I went to the pantry. In the freezer I found some Bratwurst, rolls and fries, but I also made bread today and thought we should enjoy some with dinner. So I dug a little deeper and found some lentils. I didn't have any canned tomatoes (and btw if you haven't tried these San Marzano tomatoes you haven't tried canned tomatoes), so I found a recipe that is a bit different than the typical French Lentil Soup. I also wanted to use the Bratwurst, which I'd already defrosted. I followed the reviews and jazzed it up a bit with some oregano, basil, salt & pepper. I also pureed about 2 cups of it.
We drank 2007 Hey Mambo Red.

Pea & Bacon Risotto- February 15, 2010

This is a yummy, quick recipe I've made before:
Pea & Bacon Risotto
My husband made it this time and added some wine in there as well.
We drank a 2007 Gloria Ferrer Carneros Chardonnay
I use Epicurious frequently for recipes. I love the app on my IPhone!

Filet Mignon- Sunday, February 14, 2010

Another Valentine's dinner...
Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon
Heart Shaped Goat Cheese (from French Memories in Duxbury)
Assorted Pastries (from French Memories as well)
2005 Castello Vicchiomaggio Ripa Delle More Toscana
We typically buy a whole tenderloin and my husband trims it himself. I'm very spoiled this way as he cuts & trims the filet perfectly. He cooks this- not me. I don't like to cook meats when I have to worry about overcooking.

Stir Crazy, Pocasset- February 13, 2010

On Saturday night we were on the Cape and my dad offered to babysit so we headed to one of our favorite spots in Pocasset- Stir Crazy. Bopha is a Cambodian refugee and has incredible inspiration behind her recipes. We ordered a few of our favorites: Green Curry, Chicken Khemara & Bopha Fingers. We even tried the ginger ice cream- also delicious! If you're on the Upper Cape you can't go wrong at Stir Crazy.

Welcome!

Welcome to my food blog! My goal is to post what we've had for dinner each night for a year. We love finding, preparing and styling wonderful dinners nightly. I'll try to include recipes or links as much as possible, and of course photos too!