My Dad the Chef

As you know, I celebrate my birthday for an entire week. The weekend before my birthday, I host a bacchannalia of sorts for my close friends. The weekend after is reserved for dinner with family at my parents' house. While the drinkfest with buddies may be over-the-top festive, it's the dinner that I most look forward to. My Dad cooks for the entire day, conjuring up a meal that is unmatched in its taste and execution. The side dishes may vary from year to year, but there is always one constant: The Standing Rib Roast.

Dad's got connections with the butcher, and together they select the choicest cut of beef. He takes it home and does something to it, much a fabled mystery that I may unlock as I get older, that transcends anything else. I don't know exactly what he does to it, but what I do know is that it is loved and tended after as if it were his own personal entry into the Meat Hall of Fame.* (Original photo of Dad has been redacted, as he thought he looked evil. I thought it was more Evil Genius, but whatever. He makes me awesome food, who am I to argue?)

When he places it onto my plate, it's like my own personal slice of gourmet love.
No, I don't have a recipe for you in this post. I just wanted to share the greatness of Dad.

The Easiest App

Jeannie celebrated her new housewarming and new beginnings in her life, and I am so thankful for her friendship and love in my life. So of course I made a fun new dish for the housewarming party event. I researched online and ended up combining a few different ideas together to make something that I thought our group would enjoy. We all watch carbs and fats. One of us is vegetarian. We all loooooove heavy and rich and succulent dishes. So I made a hot mushroom and cheese dip...

You, too can make this and appear to be a rock star. This dish is ridiculously easy and reminds me of how a few simple ingredients can really be all you need. In a saucepan:

• One container of sliced mushrooms (crimini for more flavor but I'm not sure it would matter either way)
• one small onion chopped
• 1/4 cube butter

Bring this in a saucepan to a mushy mess (five minutes??) and add two tablespoons of flour (stir it in!!!), a cup of low-fat sour cream, a few squirts of lemon, a tablespoon or so of parsley and a shake or two of salt and pepper. Here we would say "salt and pepper to taste" but to be really clear, you will need to first taste your dish, then add a shake of salt, then taste again. And don't go crazy. Stir and taste and add and repeat. Like a tango in your kitchen. And definitely note that we'll be adding a lot of parmesean cheese over the top of this and stick it in the oven. This means a lot more salt will be added, as parmesean cheese is a very salty one! So be super careful with seasoning.

I can tell you that its going to be smelling quite good. So don't eat yet though. This entire process took hopefully ten minutes right? Now that you have reduced the mixture on the stove and added the key ingredients, you will transfer this from the saucepan into something that may look like a serving dish and be appropriate to be put into the oven. A Corian bowl or something. Sprinkle a generous amount of parmesean cheese over your mixture. Cook for 15 minutes. And serve with thinly sliced bread or crackers. The key versatility perk here is that you could take this from the saucepan to a "holding pattern" (fridge, car, whatever) for a few HOURS and then stick it in the oven for 15 to serve as a hot dip. I recommend for holiday parties and for fun. Plus with low-fat ingredients and all, this is not that bad for you. Not that you'd ever know........

The "A-B-C's" of Soup

I am a huuuuuuuuge fan of vegetable soup. Homemade only. Or probably any homemade soup, but I haven't had much experience in others. Stew, yes. And yum also.

My mom (and hopefully she's not reading...) is a fan of diets. When she went on one, we all were able to 'benefit' from it. Hmmmm.... Well luckily some of the new recipies ended up on the family recipie list. Vegetable Soup. It is so good. Sorry Jamie but suprisingly it has NO garlic in it. Some Italian dishes ask that you not include it and this is one. Isn't that interesting?

This veggie soup has complex carbs, protein and definitely your share of vitamins and minerals for the day. And it is so good. Fresh romano cheese grated on top. Buttery french bread on the side. (I'm so bad!). The weather just changed here in Napa and I think I'm craving winter!!!!

In a LARGE pot:

• 1 shallot
• 1 onion
• 4 carrots chopped or (easier) almost a whole bag of baby carrots
• 3 stalks of celery chopped
• Splash of olive oil (small)

Brown these ingredients until the smells meld together and things don't get soft but you've let them go for a good 5 minutes.

Add:

• 1 cup of white wine and let it burn off the alcohol for a minute before adding the rest (and stir)
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of chicken broth (or one carton of chicken broth will work too)

And for the remaining 45 minutes of cooking you will simply simmer any of the following, depending on how much you like each:

• Zucchini (probably 2 small ones)
• Mushrooms (add now or they'll not combine with other flavors, and only add a half-carton or so)
• Swiss Chard (TRY IT!!!! This is bigger in Iron than spinach and is a traditional Italian flavor that absolutely makes this recipie awesome. Please don't leave it out simply because you've never used it! Chop it like lettuce and leave out the white stems. It will rock. Serious.)
• A can of kidney beans (for protein and for consistency - it will make the broth a bit thicker and heartier. Rinse and strain first! Also consider using low-salt because of how much salt is in the broth)
• Following their package's cooking guidelines: Rice, noodles or barley. (okay. You are definitely scared of the barley reference. It is my favorite grain and I recommend it completely. You will have to keep checking for when it is done but it is a low GI whole grain and is really yummy. I like it way more than rice.)

Remember, I am not one of those health-nuts or vegans. I was raised on a beef farm (well, kind of. Close enough for this arguement). And I attest that this dish is hearty and filling and soooo comforting. Try it!!! Serve it with a side of ribs for all I care. I'm just telling you, you're gonna love it.

From the Dinner Party: Shallot-Sage Smashed Potatoes

I love this dish because

1) It's easy

2) It's delicious

3) It seems fancy with semi-exotic ingredients

If you can boil potatoes, scoot things around in a pan, then mash them all up together, you can do this. Here's how to make enough for four:

* Put 8 medium sized red potatoes in a large stockpot and add water, enough to cover by a few inches. Add a tablespoon of salt and boil for 45 minutes, or until a fork poked in them slides out easily.

* Meanwhile, sautee four to six thinly sliced and chopped shallots in about a teaspoon of butter. When they've wilted and the edges begin to turn golden, throw in a teaspoon of chopped sage, a teaspoon of sugar, and a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar. Stir for about five more minutes, and remove from heat.

* When the potatoes are done, drain them and put them back in the pot with a cube of butter, half a brick of light cream cheese and the shallot sage mixture. Smash everything up with a potato masher, and add liberal amounts of salt and pepper.

* Garnish with sprigs of sage and serve!

Happy Birthday to Me! (Or, "Cooking Lots of Food for Lots of People")

This past weekend, I was honored to celebrate my birthday with my favorite people, with a big dinner for sixteen people.

That's my dining room, to the right. So much more fun with friends!

All night, guests remarked that they couldn't believe how I was able to calmly orchestrate such an endeavor. Now, I'm an old hand at cooking for a crowd, so it's sort of easy for me. I do also understand how it can be intimidating. With the right planning, and the right dishes, it's really not that hard. And, with the holidays coming up, I know some of you are nervous about cooking for a crowd. Let me help!

First, pick three dishes that you like to cook, are good, and easy to multiply. I simply multiplied one of my favorite meals by four so I could serve sixteen:

* Barbecued Tri-Tip with Horseradish Sour Cream
* Shallot-Sage Smashed Potatoes
* Caesar's Goat Salad

Have your friends help by bringing the more annoying dishes to make: appetizers and dessert. My good friends Rachel and Andy brought a creation called "Beef Wellington Bites", which I'm hoping they'll share here soon. And, Jen saved the day with decadent "Heart Pounder" chocolate cupcakes. I'll ask her to post that recipe, as it's the perfect end to a big meal.

I'll post the steak and potato recipes soon (Caesar's Goat is way down below), but I just wanted to make a quick note on how you can make a big dinner party or holiday gathering special and fancy without tearing your hair out.

* Use candles or twinkle lights. It's easy, cheap, flattering, and doesn't highlight your lack of dusting/vacuuming.

* Forgo the china and bring out the nice paper plates. There's no reason you should have to cook and do dishes. And, you know how your friends/family members get up at the end of the meal and say they'll take care of the dishes because you cooked? It's nice of them to say that, but they don't want to scrub plates any more than you do, especially after gorging themselves on fine food.

* Add yummy touches to the table like a small plate of specialty bleu cheese to crumble onto the steak, or a bowl of sauteed onions, bacon and mushrooms as a topper.

* I cannot stress the importance of place cards enough: it keeps mouthy/argumentative/always think they're right/funny/cute people away from each other, and splits up any hen parties or dude fests. I also like to split up the couples, because it gets people to have more interesting conversations.

More recipes to follow! I still need to vacuum up the wayward confetti!

Weeknight Cocktail Hour

Hi all,
It's me again! I'm racing out the door this morning with a short shopping list in hand for tonight's festivities. I've got a few friends coming over to see my new house (yes this is why you haven't heard from me lately...). They're coming right after work so I'm going to be very strategic in what I provide for appetizers, so I don't have to scurry as I get home! Here are a few options that you could provide in a similar situation:

Easiest

Fruit and Cheese Tray:

• Blocks of fancy cheeses
• Multiple cheese knives and a fancy serving dish or butcher block
• Crackers and bread
• Fruit and nuts (grapes, almonds, etc.)

Pretty Easy

Dips and Dunkers

• There are so many dip recipies that take two seconds to make, or pick one up in the deli section. Put the dip in a fancy dish and make your guests feel special.
• Dunk carrots, celery and other creative veggies.
• Dunk sliced bread or crackers (or chips if you want to be naughty)
• Warm dips are even fancier and often you can prepare ahead and reheat when guests arrive

Not Easy

I don't recommend the following if you have to work during the day

• Homemade hot wings or any other meaty appetizers
• Stuffed mushrooms (fabulous but labor intensive and they don't hold up well if you do them the day before)
• Anything else from scratch. Hey the guests don't need to know. Just make it APPEAR that you spent tons of time on things, don't actually do it.... :)

Just remember that they are there to see you, visit with each other, and relax. The food is just a perk. Make the presentation special and the food simple--- they'll love it.

Autumn Onion Soup

You may know it as French Onion Soup, but I really don't see what's French about it. It's been recorded as a meal since Roman times, though France's King Louis was the one who made it famous. And, the grande dame of French cooking, Julia Child, ate it shortly before she passed away. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, let's get on with my version, which I'll call Autumn Onion Soup:

This is a dish you can get going in about 15 minutes, then leave on the stove for another hour and go do something else, so forget everything you've heard about it being time-consuming.

Chop one yellow onion, one red onion and two shallots. Throw them into a large pot with two tablespoons of unsalted butter and cook on high for ten minutes, stirring frequently.

When the onions are brownish, and the edges are even darker, turn the heat to medium and add another tablespoon of unsalted butter and stir to melt.

As soon as the butter melts, add two tablespoons of flour. Stir rapidly, making sure flour is completely absorbed and that the mixture doesn't rest on the bottom of the pot for too long.

Stir in 1/2 cup milk. The mixture should be kind of gummy now. Slowly stir in 1 cup of beef broth and mix until totally blended. Add another cup of beef broth. And, one more. Mix well and turn the heat back up to high. Once it's boiling, cover it and turn the heat to low. Let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. About midway through, I like to chop another two shallots and toss them in. A little parsley never hurts, either. Think about layers of flavor, and aromatics.

Now, a word about the garnish. The usual thing is to put a giant crouton (i.e. big piece of toasted bread) on top, cover it with gruyere, and melt it in the oven. This results in a decadent and gooey presentation, but is just a major impediment when you try to eat it. My solution? Regular (home-made of course) croutons, topped with shaved bits of whatever melty cheese you desire. Put the bowls on a cookie sheet, slide it under the broiler for a minute, and slurp.

We had this last night with some awesome bruschetta topped with tomatoes, garlic, basil, balsamic and gorgonzola.

FINAL Puff-Pastry-Related-Post of 2008!

This post is all about laziness. My love of fancy garnishes on otherwise simple food comes from being too lazy to spend five hours on a single dish. Thusly, my love of puff pastry is directly derivative of my love of all things quick, pretty, impressive, savory and flaky. As of late, it's become my fancy-food crutch, and I promise this will be the last post about it this year.

But until then...

We're heading to a friend's party on Saturday, and she's asked me to bring an appetizer. Now, because it's going to be cold, and there will be an equal number of men and women, I need to make something semi-hearty yet pretty. That means it's time for my Carmelized Shallot/Proscuitto/Bleu Cheese Puff Pastry Squares. Name them whatever you wish, but do this:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Thaw out your puff pastry sheets (you get two per box). Roll them a bit with a dough roller, making them about 1/3 larger. Using a pizza cutter, slice bite-size squares.

Spray a couple cookie sheets with something greasy (i.e. olive oil), place the squares an inch apart and bake for ten minutes.

While the pastry bakes, thinly slice about five to ten shallots, depending on how big they are. You're going to need enough to sprinkle on all the squares. Dump them in a skillet and cook on high heat, until the edges brown.

Tear a package or two of proscuitto into very small pieces. Don't try cutting proscuitto unless you want to spend valuable cocktail time pulling the slices apart with tweezers.

Sprinkle the proscuitto and shallots on the squares and top with crumbled bleu cheese. Chop some flat-leaf parsley and put it in a zip-top bag. Cover cookie sheets with cling wrap and take them to the party! Throw them in the host's oven for 10-15 minutes, sprinkle with the parsley and serve! Accept compliments graciously.

Old-School Caesar Salad

We had a friend over for dinner last night, and at one point, he began rhapsodizing about my Caesar salad and asked if I still made it on occasion. I do, but not as much as my new favorite, Caesar's Goat (posted much earlier on this site). He asked for the recipe, and I thought I'd just make it easier on everyone by posting it here:

Using a Cuisinart, toss in 6 - 8 garlic cloves and 6 - 8 anchovy fillets.

Grind well.

Add an egg yolk (or a tablespoon of mayo if you're weird about egg yolks) and blend.

Add a tablespoon of dijon mustard and a tablespoon of red wine vinegar.

Shake in a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and blend again.

Dribble in a little olive oil and blend. Add another 1/2 cup of olive oil, a little at a time, blending well.

I like to let the dressing sit for at least a few hours in the fridge, giving the flavors a chance to marry. At the last minute, I add some freshly chopped parsley and give it a quick whirl in the cuisinart.

Toss it with crisp romaine lettuce and top with homemade croutons (buy the boxed stuff and feel my scorn!) with a little shaved pecorino or asiago.

A word of caution: This is NOT for wussie palates. There's a lot of garlic in this thing and you WILL feel it. I reccommend pairing it with wine, as beer or anything carbonated will make your tongue hurt. Trust me on this.

Curing the Blue Cheese Blues

On the topic of salad dressings yesterday I remembered that I have a great and really simple recipie for homemade blue cheese dressing that kicks the butt of any store bought brand. I think it rocks because of the amount of blue cheese that actually goes into the dressing - more of the good stuff. I am 100% certain that this simple and inexpensive freshly-made version of your favorite dressing will change your shopping habits from now on...

• 1 carton of crumbled blue cheese (no need to go with a high-end brand here, we are spicing it up with other stuff)
• 1 small container of buttermilk
• 1 cup of sour cream - I use fat-free to counteract all the blue cheese. :)
• 1/2 cup of mayo (again, low-fat is fine for this)
• 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
• 1 pinch of garlic powder
• Salt and lots of pepper to taste

Mix one cup of loosely packed blue cheese and one cup of buttermilk together with a fork. The mixture will start to loosen up and turn an ugly shade of moldy blue/green. It will look more appetizing soon, don't worry! Mix in the remaining ingredients and be sure to add a fair amount of pepper. This is my favorite part of the dressing. Before proclaiming it finished, stick it in the fridge for a while, at least an hour, and let the flavors meld together. Retaste- you may need to add more spice. This lasts for at least a few days and is soooooooo good.