No-knead Bread
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Prime Rib Roast (meat from the Ray's Butchering class)
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans
Wheat Berries with Mushrooms and Dried Cranberries
Yorkshire Pudding
Carrot Cake
Tiramisu

2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Cuvée Eden
2003 Château Béhèré Bordeaux

assorted olives, cheese, crackers and homemade italian sausage
endive leaves with shrimp
pig's trotters with sauce gribiche
polenta
braised pork cheeks, sauteed savoy cabbage with bacon
beet slaw with orange dressing
tossed green salad
brussels sprouts with mushrooms
crusty bread

many cheeses, including Epoisses, Borough Market stilton, & vacherin. crackers and baguettes.

sour cherry pie
walnut and chocolate pie
Easter egg cake

I don't remember all the wines consumed, but they included a lovely muscadet, a Williams Selyem 2000 Pinot Noir, Beaujolais-Villages, a bunch of Avondale rose, Reisling, Pinot Blanc, and a very nice pear cider (I had a little of this for breakfast.)

We made the cheeks, polenta, and trotters. The rest was brought and shared by our friends.

cjsadler and I made dinner for his family on Saturday. The unintended theme of the meal was things you can do with white sandwich bread...

Appetizers were mini-BLTs (not pictured). The mini-BLTs were bread shells (rolled and cut-out white bread baked in mini muffin pans) with mayo, bacon, lettuce and tomato (a recipe from Jeffrey Steingarden).

The first course was a mixed green salad with candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and a goat cheese crouton.



Our main course was scallops, Corduroy-style (scallops with mashed potatoes and mushroom-wine-cream sauce).



Dessert was an apple charlotte - apples cooked in cream, sugar, and butter in a shell of white bread dipped in butter and sugar (this works out much better than it sounds) - with dulce de leche ice cream.

also...
02 Edmunds St. John "The Shadow"
A very nice 03 Corbieres - surprising how good this was from this vintage
A truly abhorrent Argentinian Shiraz

PS - Jake, the Riesling was the right match for the trotters. But having tasted them now, I'm thinking Vouvray or something else a little rounder than the Riesling. The acid in the gribiche competed with the acid in the Riesling a little too much.

If the gribiche was that acidic, you should've drunk cider or champagne .

Easter Egg – a custard baked in an egg shell with King Salmon belly tartar and topped with spoonbill caviar
Served with a blood orange champagne – blood orange juice, homemade blood orange vodka, and Gosset Brut Excellence

Cream of Asparagus Soup with Asparagus Tip Tempura
2002 Boillot Batard Montrachet

Poached Rockfish Fillet served with a Radish Salad and poached White Carrots

Chocolate Rabbit – A rabbit ragu with cocoa pasta topped with bacon panko crumble
1999 Leroy Volnay Santenots

Herb Marinated Colorado Lamb Loin and Pea Risotto with a Pomegranate Lamb Stock Molasses and Mint Paint
1998 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape la Crau

Cheese Plate – Grana with 25 year old Balsamic, Pecorino Toscana with fig jam, and Gorgonzola in Red Wine with lavender and rosemary honey
2001 Chapoutier Banyuls Terra Vinya

txaggie, your Easter dinner looks fantastic!

Dinner tonight was the rest of the salmon cakes, sauteed spinach with garlic and balsamic vinegar, and the last of the chocolate cake from Thursday at RTC. Which, by the way, is still pretty honking great, if a bit dry.

Yes, Txaggie, beautifully plated, too.

(Interesting that there so many DR members with "X" in their screen names. I feel like Xander should be striding into The Other Realm at any moment to join Buffy in roasting marshmallows on the embers of the destroyed palace of Xerxes.)

* * *
Tonight's dinner was
sunchoke soup
accompanied by a thawed, warmed wedge of
cornbread
and followed by
a salad of haricots verts dressed with shallot vinaigrette
and tossed with strips of roasted red pepper and
wrinkly, black oil-cured olives
chopped with
Italian parsley.

The soup was improvised and simply prepared with a leek, half an ounce of prosciutto, basic mirepoix and this weekend's new batch of stock. After paring a few dark bits, I left the skin on the sunchokes since Elizabeth Schneider recommends its flavor and even bothered to run the soup through a fine sieve after puréeing it. Squirt of lemon juice. Swirl of light sour cream in my bowl.



Next time I make it I will be quite blasé, but this was the first time I have bothered to use sunchokes as anything other than a pseudo-water chestnut. Absolutely delicious. Know what it tastes like? CARDOONS!

Last night:

A mezze-fest
Marinated salad of Scarlet Runner beans, feta, olives, roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic
Watercress
Spiced carrot puree with dukkah and baguette
Hummus
Warm ragout of fresh favas, leeks, asparagus, fennel, green garlic and Meyer lemon
Merguez beef patties
Medjool dates

2004 Naoussa (a light-bodied red from Greece)

Roast chicken "Palena style"
Steamed broccoli
Sauteed collards
2005 Domaine Georges Viornery Cote de Brouilly
Cinnamon brownie

Asparagus soup - leftover steamed asparagus whizzed in a blender with homemade unsalted chicken stock. Seasoned with kosher salt, pepper, and a few drops of basil oil. Good, but it really needed to be put through a tamis.
Chicken breasts, sliced and sauteed in some olive oil.
Salt-free roll.

I cannot wait for this low-iodine diet to be over.

Slow-roasted pork shoulder rubbed with paste of garlic, cumin, oil, and tangerine juice
Chipotle mashed sweet potatoes
Slaw with a rice vinegar-based dressing

Grilled pork satay
Spicy peanut noodles
Grilled asparagus
Sliced cucumber and shredded carrots in spicy rice vinegar

Meyer lemon-almond tart

2005 Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz

Thought I'd do a "Citronelle at Home" dinner. As always, my presentation was someone lacking, but everything was blow-your-mind delicious, thank you Chef Richard.

Tomato / Carmelized Onion Focaccia from Wegman's

Tomato tartare with shallot dressing and basil oil - This was incredibly easy to make. Using the convection oven made the whole tomato-drying process run much more quickly. Rather than chop everything, I just tossed the whole lot into the food processor. Just put the mix in the fridge, stick it in a ring mold, and voila. For the record, this is the first time I've EVER plated something using a ring mold (err, circle-shaped cookie cutter).

The shallot dressing was awesome, and I definitely have an ample supply left over for the week's salads. The basil oil was just about the most beautiful shade of green I've ever seen.



Romaine on romaine salad - Forgot to take a picture of this one before it was all gone. I'm lazy, so I skipped the whole rice paper presentation and just went with a straight up salad.

Filet in Syrah Sauce with Cubed Potatoes in Porcini Sauce - With a tightened budget, I used sirloin in place of filet mignon. No complaints. The syrah sauce with deathly good - I sauteed the veggies in the fat I'd saved from some braised short ribs, and used a few cubes of the frozen braising liquid in the stock for an extra beefy kick.

For the potatoes, I used dried porcinis, which I softened in a mixture of chicken broth and white wine, which I then reduced and used in the sauce itself as "Reduced Chicken Stock."

I love porcinis (Wegman's has them fresh, but I already had a stock of dried, so no need to splurge), which for some reason remind me of the smell of my old golden retriever, Daisy. The potatoes were much easier than I thought they'd be, and I had no trouble with them falling apart. Definitely ate all the garlic cloves I used to flavor the oil. The sauce itself was a bit more creamy and thick than I'd imagined it would be, and thickly coated the potatoes. Michel Richard says to "toss the potatoes in the sauce," but the ones in the picture sure don't look tossed to me.

By this time I was completely exhausted from my improv class, the hours of prep work, and the fact that I had a nastily incapacitating cold, so I said "screw presentation" and just dumped the entire affair on a plate and topped with sauteed enoki (no will to make the tempura).



For dessert we had Michel Richard's "Le Kit Cat," which I made using Rice Crispies instead of corn flakes (better, light crunch). I wish I could claim credit for the cereal substitution, but unfortunately it's another Citronelle-inspiration. I served them up with strawberries, Breyer's Vanilla Bean ice cream (is there any other kind?), and a dusting of cocoa powder. No picture of those, either. I don't know HOW Michel makes them into perfect rectangles, but who cares? They're delicious.

Drinks were provided by our guests: Châteauneuf-du-Pape something something, and some Syrah I can't remember. This sort of specificity is why I'm such an excellent wine connoisseur.

Roast pork and chipotle quesadillas. Mmmm.

broiled lamb chops with garlic and rosemary
couscous topped with stewed tomatoes

Broccoli slaw with dried cranberries
Braised chuck eye steak
Baked sweet potatoes

Pork tenderloin w/ teriyaki-style sauce
Citrus couscous with golden raisins, dried cherries, walnuts
Roasted asparagus
Lemon square for dessert

Pesto penne with asparagus and shrimp
Country wheat baguette

Sounds good. After a month of no seafood I am craving shrimp like crazy. There's a recipe in the new Bon Appetit for linguini with shrimp and asparagus that we'll be trying this weekend.

Leftover Hitching Post fried chicken baked in the oven.

I'm glad the dietary restrictions are coming to an end. I haven't checked out the last couple issues of Bon Appetit. They just went straight into the magazine stack in the living room. I'll have to look for that recipe.

Went to the Penn Quarter farmers' market today and bought some (very expensive) morels and some trumpet mushrooms (which the proprietor described as The Poor Man's Porcini). Bought some chard at another stand and would have bought another dozen eggs, but I was out of cash by then.

Dinner tonight was pasta with the mushrooms (cooked with some chicken stock, wine, and cream with garlic and scallions--enhanced at the table with white truffle oil and parmesan cheese) and the sauteed chard. I informed Dame Edna that this was one of the most expensive pastas we have had. Decided that the morels just weren't worth it: the preparation was kinda icky and time consuming. However, the other mushrooms might well be worth another visit.

4:1 Tanqueray Rangpur martini
Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange chicken and steamed rice

Last night I made french onion soup for the first time. very good, but need to find a way for the cheese to not get covered by soup when broiling. I suspect this happened because I submerged the croutons first.

p.s. I am new. Hi!

Hi! Welcome.

I think I usually put the bread in first before the cheese. I'm not sure that would cause the soup to bubble over the cheese. More likely, my guess would be that the cheese may not have covered the entire top of the crock/bowl. I usually do my broiling on a baking sheet so I can put lots of cheese on top and not worry about it dripping over into the oven.

Last night was pan-grilled flatiron steaks (one of them was very gristly ), baked mashed sweet potato casserole, and braised sesame baby bok choy.

Pan-crisped polenta cakes
Shrimp in creamy "creole" sauce* with fresh corn and tarragon
Haricots verts

2005 La Pepiere Muscadet Cuvee Eden

Chocolate-covered Dove ice cream bars


*I sauteed sweet onion, roasted garlic, roasted red pepper, roasted poblano chile then added canned tomato, dry vermouth and homemade chicken stock and simmered all for 20 minutes with celery leaf, bay leaf, fresh thyme and tarragon. Then the herbs were removed and the mixture was pureed and creme fraiche added, and a dash of Sriracha hot sauce to turn up the heat a little. The corn was cut off the cob, cooked separately and sprinkled over the sauce and shrimp, along with the chopped tarragon.

If I'm thinking of the same thing, the trumpets are also referred to as King Oyster among other names. I was given a box of glorious ones last spring and cubed the stems to sauté with a little pancetta and slices of the bulbs of ramps for risotto. One of my neighbors complained to the receptionist at the front desk of my building that the aroma was driving her crazy--in a good way, I mean. I ate some of the lightly browned mushrooms alone with S & P and a squirt of lemon. So, so good! Really worth buying and eating right away if they were just picked.

Coupla WF dry-aged rib steaks, medium-rare on my too-lazy-for-charcoal gas grill. Realized today that I could use the flare-up behavior of the unconventional grill bars to even out the done-ness near the bone side, for the win.

Wedges of iceberg lettuce and crappy blue cheese dressing.

2005 Eric Texier "Ô Pâle". Before, during, and after the steak...is there a more versatile wine? Imported by Louis/Dressner. As Parrott described it, "viognier vinified like it was a riesling". It's sweet yet plenty minerally; there's all kinds of fruit in the bouquet but it's not especially fruity...the balance is simply amazing. Crazy brilliant (if you like 'em off-dry) and frankly more delicious than most of the honest rieslings I drank last year. At $16 (in NYC) it was a freakin' steal. I don't know if anybody even carries it in the DC market, but if you see it and don't buy it, at least let me know where you saw it so I can reinforce my meager stash.

I'm too lazy to find the right thread in the wine forum. The O Pale is a tour de force of cheek. About 7% abv, made by partially fermenting viognier juice (some young vine Condrieu, I believe), then slamming the think with sulfur to stop fermentation and set color. It yields a wine of amazing precision and focus for its variety and residual sugar level. Alas, I believe it is sold out in the US until next vintage.

Eric Texier is also experimenting with hyperoxidation of Rhone white varieties. Oxidizing the must of Clairette, Bourbolenc, or Viognier at pressing leads to the buildup of an enzyme called polyphenoloxidase, which prevents the wine from going brown despite the oxidation. The resulting wine shows no tiredness and plenty of focus and minerality. I have a friend in SA attempting to make a bit of Viognier using this method. I'll report back after I go there this summer.

Asparagus
Brown rice
Salmon cooked on its skin a la Jaques Pepin, with "mixed vegetable pickle." I am addicted to this stuff.

Tomorrow, ratatouille Fracoise Rigord (our vegetable box included eggplant and zucchini): very fiddly, each veg is cooked seperately. Wonderful seasoning (bouquet garni of parsley stems, fennel seed, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns) and no garlic.
Roast chicken
bread
green salad

Gnocchi - my first attempt and rather good but the shaping could use some work.
I have some in brown butter and sage and some in a basic tomato sauce.

Broiled chicken thighs rubbed with rosemary and lemon
Lentils cooked with a bit of pancetta and shallots
Sauteed spinach

I'm trying to imagine ratatouille without garlic. My mind's palate can't wrap itself around such a radical concept. Are you going to eat it hot or cold? Please report back.

We usually serve it room temperature. I might ditch the roast chicken idea and serve it with omelets filled with a little goat cheese and fresh herbs.

Let's be honest: who, other than me, thought she had actually made the ice cream bars? Raise your hands! I was ready to fall at her feet in adoration.

[Okay... that's what happens when your skimming posts at 6:41 on a Sunday morning; brain hasn't kicked in.]

Oh, puh-leeze!!!

I assumed you bought them, Zora, but wouldn't have been surprised if you'd made them yourself.

This gorgeous weather is just perfect for grilling so we ditched the omelet idea and we're having burgers with bacon and sharp cheddar, coleslaw, old-fashioned macaroni salad, a little chilled pink wine, and ice cream cones for dessert.

Baked chicken breasts
Trio of mushrooms with bok choy and sesame
Almond rice pilaf

If your consumption of chilled pink wine after grilling was anything like mine after a bit of yardwork, I will have to report this as less than truthful.

strawberry gazpacho with basil cream and black pepper
penne with mozarella and a tomato coulis

If I had made chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick--which I wouldn't, cause I don't have an ice cream maker--I wouldn't use Dove chocolate. I'd use Valrhona or Vosges...

Tonight we had a locavorian meal-- almost everything was local, from the Dupont Market, except the pasta (de Cecco), pine nuts, oil and vinegar. And the wine.

Orichiette with green garlic, leeks, dandelion greens, Eco-Friendly spicy Italian sausage and ricotta
Loudon Lettuce oakleaf salad with Reid Orchard bosc pear, cucumber from the place whose name I can't recall, and pine nuts.

2005 Oxford Landing Viognier

I don't know how familiar Zora is with the Tupperware "Frozen Bar" thingies, but I could imagine her filling them with her homemade ice cream and then dunking them is some melted chocolate. Not that my mother did that, but she just had them on hand . . .

Now you guys are shaming me into trying to do this. I have made granita, but don't think it's possible to make good ice cream without an ice cream maker. I've seen those inexpensive Cuisinart i.c. makers, but I'm going to have to discard something from my cabinet in order to make room for one. Hmm. Maybe the 35 cup drip coffee maker that I use about once every five years could go up to the attic. I have to get rid of something up there, though. It's our house rule--to bring something new in, something old has to go-- to cope with many years worth of accumulated crap in a tiny house. Trouble is--Jonathan's keepsakes are expendable as far as I'm concerned, and my kitchen equipment is unnecessary clutter to him. What to do, what to do? All that expense (Cuisinart, Tupperware) and potential family conflict in order to make some ice cream bars that cost five bucks at the Safeway... But my reputation is at stake, here.

Let me know if you need a taste tester


Last night's dinner: A meyer lemon experiment
Every dish had myer lemon juice or meyer oliver oil in it.

Broiled red snapper with salsa verde
Couscous with goat cheese
Sauteed peas and shallots finished with lavender vinegar

Each dish had it's own flavor but it was interesting to have an underlying base throughout the meal.

Asparagus tips
Some really lame cous-cous
Whole organic chicken, accidentally spatchcocked 180 degrees out-of-phase (I couldn't stop her!), then marinated with olive oil, garlic, herbs de provence (commercial) plus a fistful of whatever green was poking up in the garden (sage, thyme, rosemary), and finally grilled menacingly by yours truly, with the low-and-slow part under a cast-iron pan instead of a brick. My best grilled bird yet.

Pan seared veal liver with caramelized onions, Niman Ranch bacon, shiitake mushrooms, balsamico, dry Marsala, veal stock and fresh thyme*
Veggi-teen's main was a roasted portobello stuffed with mushroom-garlic tofu, sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic, ricotta and parmesan

Basmati pilaf
Brocolini with Meyer lemon and roasted garlic

Rhubarb compote

2005 Ch. des Bachelards Fleurie

*As the result of severe beef liver abuse in his childhood, J. is predisposed to dislike liver, even if it is mild, tender, perfectly cooked (medium rare) veal liver. He told me he'd just as soon have the onions, mushrooms, bacon and pan sauce on mashed potatoes, and forget the liver. I thought it was incredibly delicious.

Nachos

The reason the bird was so moist was precisely because it was cut through the breast! That was no accident, that was my foolproof plan. The marinade also included the fresh juice of 2 lemons and a head of garlic was pressed into service.

Chicken biryani
Sauteed okra with tomatoes and onions

Rudi Wiest "Fusion" Rielsing/Scheurebe blend (a fine Joe Riley pick)