Archive | December, 2009

Off Mendenhall – Cuban Fiesta in Chilly Chicago, IL

14 Dec

Recently, the only news I receive from Tommy and Michael is updates on how “f***ing cold” it is in Chicago (it looks like they are having a warmer day today – high of 36!). Last night I was happy to hear that their friend’s Nikki and Lindsay warmed everyone up this weekend with a Cuban Fiesta. They made Cuban Pork Roast and Black Beans from November 11th and 12th on Mod Meals. In addition to those recipes, they made a Paula Dean Coconut Flan. Looks like a success!

I also ran into my friend Barbara at a party on Saturday and she reported she made the Cuban meal recently too! So glad to hear everyone is enjoying and sharing these recipes!

Belated Birthday Posts

14 Dec

I’m one of the lucky few that always get to celebrate their birthday with their family. My birthday typically falls a couple days after Thanksgiving so I try to squeeze in a homemade birthday dinner prepared by my parents over the holiday. Every year I choose something different. This year I asked for fila (also known as dolmas), greek salad and a pineapple cake with 7 minute frosting. I’ll post the recipes for both the fila and birthday cake this week.

Like last week, I’ll probably cut the posts short considering all the Christmas festivities going on. Next week I’ll be back to post on holiday festivities on Mendenhall and soon after with Christmas Eve, Christmas and post Christmas celebrations in Florida.

Roasted Tomatoes

10 Dec

We wore matching outfits!

Roasted tomatoes were a great side item for Winston’s Winter Walk Brunch because they required no effort at all. We dumped two containers of grape tomatoes on a cookie sheet and drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper. While the egg casserole was cooking, we roasted them (also at 350 degrees) on the level below. It took about 30 minutes until they were just right.

Hash Browns with Crispy Chorizo

9 Dec

Uncle Andy, Patrick and Little W stay warm before the walk.

This recipe is inspired from Ina Garden’s recipe for Country Hashed Browns. She uses diced ham in her recipe and I happened to have left over Portuguese chorizo left over in my fridge. I thought it would be a great compliment to the green chili eggs. I used her recipe exactly, except I cooked the chorizo before hand in the same skillet to crisp it up and added it back in the end with the scallions and parsley. Every last bit of these potatoes were gone at the end of the brunch!

Green Chili Egg Casserole

8 Dec

Team Members Joe, Robert and Finnegan

I wanted to serve something that was super easy to throw together for our Winter Walk Brunch on Sunday. I didn’t want to fool with a crust for a quiche or worry about getting a frittata out of a pan – so I went the casserole route. This recipe could not be easier to put together and it was just different enough to have a surprise in what looked like a regular old egg dish. I highly recommend it! You can also split the recipe in half for a smaller crowd.

Green Chili Egg Casserole, serves 12

Ingredients:

  • 2 dozen eggs
  • 1 8 ounce bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 2 small cans diced green chilies
  • 2 pints sour cream

Assembly: Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a large casserole dish. Sprinkle cheese on the bottom of the dish and then layer the green chilies on top. Whisk together eggs and sour cream and add the mixture to the dish. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour or until set.

Winston’s Winter Walk for AIDS Brunch

7 Dec
Team Winston (minus Patrick the photographer)

This Sunday, Winston and I hosted a small brunch for friends who wanted to support Triad Health Project and walk in this year’s Winter Walk for AIDS. We put together a spread of green chili egg casserole, hash browns with crispy chorizo, roasted tomatoes, pastries and mimosas. Masha, Aaron and their dog Henry brought a fruit salad and Uncle Andy came with Bloody Marys. We were all in need of a walk after all of that food! I’ll post the recipes this week from the brunch.

Chocolate Pie with Cocoa Nib Praline

4 Dec

For many years my sister and I have been following the trends of cocoa nibs. Several Thanksgivings ago (I think 2006) my sister and I spent days flipping through cooking magazines in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I was interested in making chocolate truffles for my upcoming Christmas party and ran into an interesting recipe for chocolate truffles rolled in cocoa nibs. At this point, we had no idea what a cocoa nib actually was – to be honest I still don’t exactly know. According to gourmetslueth.com, “Cacao Nibs are perfectly roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small bits. They are the essence of chocolate. Nibs add crunchiness and subtle chocolate flavor to baked goods and savory dishes.”

On our way back west to Greensboro we decided we would stop by Southern Season in Chapel Hill and pick up some cocoa nibs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Southern Season but they can be a little snooty about things. When we asked the Chocolateir (I’m being very generous with this title) if he had cocoa nibs he told us they didn’t exist! We laughed claiming that we had read about cocoa nibs in a magazine and that they certainly had to exist! We left without cocoa nibs and a good story.

My sister called me a couple months ago with good news – cocoa nibs do in fact exist and they live in Denver, CO! She found them at Savory Spice Shop in Denver and brought them all the way across the US for our Thanksgiving dessert – Dark Chocolate Pie with Cocoa Nib Praline from Bon Appetite Magazine. I highly recommend trying this pie for a holiday meal. If the butter overload pie crust is overwhelming you could certainly use another recipe for pie crust. But what are the holidays without 10 tablespoons of butter for only the crust?

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Mushrooms and Crispy Shallots

3 Dec

For the green side dish for our Turkey Day Sans Turkey Celebration we prepared Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Mushrooms and Crispy Shallots from the late (sad) Gourmet Magazine. This was my Mom’s favorite dish of the evening. We made a couple adjustments to the recipe to make it more simple. The addition of the crispy shallots resembled the fried onions so many traditional Thanksgiving eaters top on their green bean casserole (my Dad calls them funyuns). The changes we made in the recipe are in the preparation of the mushrooms:

  • We did not use thyme or the water. My mom isnt a big fan of thyme and I thought the water wasnt necessary!
  • To save a couple dollars and time, we used sliced cremini mushrooms instead of the wild mushroom variety that Gourmet advises.

Pommes Anna

2 Dec
My sister Maggie (pictured left) and I have been making Potatoes Anna since we were little kids. It actually may be my first memory of cooking as a child. We were charge of layering the potatoes and often times we would make a special design for birthdays and other celebrations. The recipe could not be more simple – it’s just potatoes, butter, salt and pepper. The trick is making it in a small enough pan so that is easy to flip once it is done. We made this mistake on Thanksgiving, too many potatoes in too large of a pan made it impossible to deliver (see “oh shit” moment below). My dad complained afterward that my frying pan was no good and said he would buy me a better one the next day. He failed to deliver too (I guess it takes one to know one!). All kidding aside, I think this is a great side dish to serve at a holiday dinner party.
Pommes Anna
Ingredients:
  • 3 to 4 pounds baking potatoes
  • 1/2 stick of melted butter
  • salt and pepper

"Oh Shit" Moment

In a non stick frying pan, melt about a tablespoon of butter to cover the bottom of the pan. Meanwhile, peel and slice potatoes into thin and even slices (1/8 inch). Try to make the first layer as pretty as possible (this is when you can allow your kids – or adult kids – to cut the potatoes into letters or shapes). After each layer, brush the potatoes with butter and season with salt and pepper. Once the pan is full, cover the top with foil and put something heavy and heat proof on top of it (heavy cast iron pots work well). On the stovetop, brown the bottom layer of the potatoes for about 5 to 10 minutes on medium high or until the bottom is brown. My mom claims she can smell when they are done, but you can take a spatula and look under to check. . Then, transfer the entire thing to the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Once the potatoes have cooked through, let the dish cool down a bit and then flip onto a large platter.

Grilled Rack of Lamb

1 Dec

Every year my family chooses something to eat on Turkey Day in lieu of roast turkey. It varies from year to year depending on where my family celebrates Thanksgiving. We’ve had everything from whole fish baked in salt (fresh from my Dad’s morning trip) in the Outer Banks of North Carolina to big pan seared steaks in Aspen. This year we all agreed that we wanted to have some type of lamb. We threw around the idea of leg of lamb but decided it would be good enough weather in Greensboro to grill racks of lamb. Typical of my Dad’s cooking behavior, he grilled two times as much as we could eat and we spent the rest of the weekend eating leftover lamb chops (I guess I can’t complain about that). In addition, we also prepared one of my favorite meals the next day which included ground lamb (I’ll post next week). By the end of the weekend my sister Maggie and I were singing Lambert the Sheepish Lion throughout the house (if you haven’t seen the cartoon in a while its worth a visit…so catchy).

There isnt much of a recipe to this so I’ll post some pointers.

  • Make sure the meat is at room temperature before you grill it. We set our meat our midday for a 6pm mealtime.
  • While the meat sat out, we covered it in paper towels to make sure the meat was completely dry before we grilled it.
  • We seasoned the meat liberally with salt and pepper – that was it. You could make any sort of rub or sauce but nothing that would cover up the flavor of the lamb.
  • We grilled the lamb meat side down first – for about 10 minutes and then turned for another 10 or so minutes. Take into hand we like our meat medium rare.
  • Finally, like all meat, make sure to let it rest before you slice it.
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