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genericeric

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  1. Two dinner parties, two nights in a row. Friday was a Pea Salad with Spinach Mint Pesto Pistachio and creme fraiche from Apricot Lane farm (Sancerre), Red Wine Braised Short Ribs with carrots and asparagus (Stone Tower Hogback Mountain from NoVA), and a Citrus-sented Barsac Sabayon over fresh berries (Pineau des Cherantes). The first two I make quite often and are hits ever time. The Sabayon was new - next time I'd cut the sugar, but the sweetness was offset well by the berries. I inverted the ratio of berries to cream that is shown in the recipe picture linked. Saturday started with cocktails and Foie Gras Macarons from the Eleven Madison Park cookbook. Excellent flavors but the macarons became soggy within minutes of touching the foie mousse. Winter Citrus Salad with Pistachio and Castelvetrano Olives (Erbaluce) sounded like such an odd combination was but knock-out good. Braised Pork with Prunes and Citrus (git link) (Tenuta Terre Nere Etna Rosso - a fantastic pairing) was easily the best dish I've made in months. Finished with chilled port and melon, which I commonly serve after a heavy meal and when I run out of capacity to cook and entertain. A fair amount of trying new recipes went into the planning for this meal, but I was thrilled to get two new recipes to add to the permanent roster. On the menu for tonight - take out!
  2. Broccoli and Lettuce Salad with Huck's Accidental Ranch, from Tenderheart by Hetty Lui McKinnon, lightly adapted. Roast broccoli for 15 minutes, toss over baby romaine, add sliced green onion, pine nuts (I used sliced almonds), a squirt of lemon juice and some homemade ranch - 2 mayo, 1 buttermilk, garlic powder and green onion. Hopefully Ms. McKinnon will forgive me for topping with some sliced grilled chicken.
  3. Following the Super Bowl gluttony, I lightened things up with Sweet and Sour Eggplant with Garlic Chips (gift link). I did add some chopped red pepper to the mix about half way through the eggplant cook and served over basic jasmine rice. Delicious and on the table in ~20 minutes.
  4. Swordfish briefly marinated in lemon, evoo, s/p, seared with a pat of butter, a few capers and more lemon juice. Asparagus and mashed squash. I wish swordfish didn't have as much mercury, I could eat a swordfish BLT every week (I guess if I care about mercury I should check myself on the bacon...) Super Bowl included this Bacon-Cheddar dip which was fine, a little too indulgent but when eaten with fresh vegetables was good enough. My first attempt at making Buffalo Wings at home was somewhat successful. I'm not sure I would call these "ultra crispy" but for a wing that wasn't fried, it was worth the effort.
  5. Ludo Lefebvre's Carrot Salad (gift link) is one of those recipes that looks much more impressive on the plate than it is challenging to make, and it gets rave reviews every time. There are a number of components, but most can be pre-made to an extent with the final product assembled right before serving family style. Last night was a more-or-less standard chicken noodle soup with Jenn Segal's Ham Sliders. Nothing earth-shattering but fed 6 in under an hour for about $40 all in, meaning the food was significantly less expensive than the Georges Vernay Condrieu it was served with...
  6. I'd love to take them and would happily pay shipping, but no worries if there is other interest. Thanks!
  7. Delayed post with the holiday activity ramping up... Hosted a Friendsgiving for Foodies two weeks ago. Started by stuffing some small sweet peppers with a mix of stovetop stuffing, minced jalapeno, and cheese, then topped with more cheese and broiled. Surprisingly good. Then did mashed potato croquettes with a molten gravy center and cranberry dipping sauce. It's Friendsgiving, calories counts were abandoned... Main course was a turkey ballotine from Food and Wine. De-boning a turkey is no joke, and I don't believe it can be done by reading text instructions. This youtube video did a decent job of walking through the process, which took me over an hour, and left me with a bird that looked like it had been mauled by a pit bull, but WAS deboned and still intact. The stuffing itself was so-so, next time I would add some acid or perhaps dried fruit, but after drying the skin overnight and roasting, this had some serious crackle. It was impressive and unique, and I'll never do it again! Also sous vide a whole beef tenderloin - 138 deg for about 2 hours until my Meater said it was at temp, then seared off in a pan with a port wine reduction sauce. Served with hasselback creamed potatoes and a brussels sprout salad. Poured a 1993 savennieres, a delightful chenin that I forgot to write down before the bottle was tossed, and a Sta Rita Hills Pinot. Dessert was my first attempt to cook out of the Eleven Madison Park cookbooks, which I've owned for years and was too intimidated by to cook from. I made the Chocolate Palette with Peanut Butter and Popcorn Ice Cream. This dessert took me most of two solid days to cook. The palette was layered with peanut butter shortbread, a chocolate peanut butter mousse with sweet crispy french crepes (like the crispy kitkat filling but... better), a salted caramel layer, and some peanut butter chocolate situation, then draped with liquid chocolate that hardened when cooled. Served with a homemade peanut caramel corn, popcorn ice cream (which I will make again, daaaaamn), a cocoa nib syrub, caramel corn powder, topped with a chocolate curl, and gold leaf. There were about 10 times I was ready to walk away from this dessert, but it was fantastic. Served with a Schloss Johannisberg Trockenbeerenauslese. Then I ate salad for three days straight.
  8. With friends in town for the fantastic Steve Martin and Martin Short performance on Sunday evening, dining options were limited. Bookbinders has a bit of a reputation for being your grandparent's special occasion restaurant, so we hadn't been before. The crowd at 5:15 on a Sunday was... non-existent. The hostess could not have been more clear that she didn't love her job so we made our way to the bar to wait for our guests, and had two well-made cocktails (with tip, $44. It's the going rate these days it seems). The decor is dated, the menu's are worn and dirty, the servers wear branded shirts. The Jumbo Lump Crab Cake ($22) appetizer was comically small, and was definitely backfin crab meat. But then our entrees came. My Herb-grilled Swordfish with white beans, arugula and bacon jam ($35) was marvelous. My wife's grilled salmon with white wine and citrus was similarly well received. Our friends split Cider-Glazed Double Cut Pork Chop with Caramelized Apples ($38) and declared it the best pork chop they'd ever had. Wine list markups are in the 'hard to swallow' range and I'm fairly sure the desserts are out of a freezer box, but I'll be honest, next time I need a nice place on a Sunday night, I'd be tempted to stick to the entrees and revisit.
  9. After having a fantastic dish of grilled swordfish topped with bacon jam over a broth with white beans and greens (Bookbinders in RVA) over the weekend, I tried making myself last night with promising results, though it still needs tweaking. Onion, garlic, celery, thyme soften for a few minutes, wilted some greens, then boiled in chicken broth for 15 minutes. Squeezed in some lemon juice and parmesan, topped with crispy pancetta. After I dished up for my non-spice loving companion, added a few healthy glugs of tabasco. Served with parmesan toasts. Overall it was a solid B effort, but I made the classic mistake of tasting for seasoning before I topped with pancetta and without the toast, which boosted the salt level more than I would normally like. Next time I'll know... Note: Could easily be vegetarian without the pancetta and using veg broth.
  10. We saw Steve Martin and Martin Short's latest touring show last night, and it was two of the most entertaining hours I may have ever seen. Set up as sort of a variety show, it is part stand up, part conversation, part look back, and part music concert. I've known of Steve Martin's banjo hobby for some time but he's an amazingly talented musician, and the bluegrass interlude they had was top notch. Hard to remember these guys are in their mid-70's (except they frequently poke fun at their age during the show). If you have a chance and are into that sort of thing, I'd highly recommend finding a ticket (our show was completely sold out).
  11. Fresh flounder was on sale at Whole Foods - 2:1 ratio of parmesan to bread crumb, a little lemon zest and garlic. Salad with honey citrus vinaigrette. Not a bite left and took <15 minutes.
  12. Last night was a turkey burger recipe from NYT. Simple and straightforward, but was the first time I've had a turkey burger that didn't have that turkey tang to it - these were delicious. Since its behind a paywall, its just a pound of ground turkey, 2 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp grated onion, 1 tbsp worcestershire, salt and pepper.
  13. I cook from Jenn Segal all the time and for some reason had never made her Beef Stew with Carrots and Potatoes until last night, which is the top ranked recipe on her site. It was a really good beef stew. I think there are probably limits for how good a dish like beef stew can be, but if in the market for a recipe, this was a good one.
  14. Longoven, 2 time winner of Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurant Award, has closed in Scott's Addition. In the article, one of the partner's cites a lack of support from Richmond for the restaurant. Personally, I felt the restaurant lost a step after Covid and the partners started exploring other opportunities, including a yakitori restaurant at Veil Brewery and the Italian restaurant that started in, and eventually took over, the Longoven space. I hope a similar concept, albeit with better execution, takes root in Richmond. I do think the support exists if the experience can match the price point.
  15. Was cooking for a potato and wine situation on Sunday night for some friends. Some dishes were less successful, but Anthony Bourdain's vichyssoise from Les Halles was absolutely delicious and not terribly difficult to make. I did use the recommended additional broth to thin it a bit, but was a great indulgence on a warm day. Paired well with the 2020 Michael Shaps L'Accord (65% Chard, 35% Aligote) Speaking of indulgences... I decided to combine a fondant potato and a Croque Madame, which turned out surprisingly well. Made a Mornay Sauce with Gruyere and spooned some onto the plate, then topped with a small round of french ham. On top of the ham went the potato fondant, and an over-easy quail egg. I was a little hesitant about the Cote Du Rhone Villages pairing but it worked nicely.
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