Pies!

It all started with Emma making the crust for the butterscotch pie. I did the filling and Rebe made the meringue. *HINT* Double the recipe and make that meringue stand out. Thanks, Michal, for the tips on cooling pies. Also pictured are hickory nut and apple pies, both using key ingredients grown here on the farm. Crusts handmade by Rebe.












Recipe for the butterscotch pie

Heat then remove:
6T butter
1C brown sugar
1C boiling water

Mix and add:
3T cornstarch
2T flour
1/2 t salt

Add and then heat:
3 egg yolks
1 2/3 C milk

Location:Gerald, MO

Dinner on the Farm

Arrived at Grandma's farm this afternoon with a carload of kids: mine and Aunt Rebe's. My parents stopped by J&L M
arket for sausages. They make them there at the store and use natural casings. Also served were mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, pickled beets and canned green beans from grandma's garden and cornbread -- smooth and creamy. For dessert, Hermit cookies made with coffee, raisins and black walnuts.

Location:Down on the Farm, Gerald, MO

Christmas Eve South of the Border

Forgot to post this. . . Beef enchiladas with salsa verde and a corn, black bean salad

Prime Rib

Rebecca, mom and dad in passing through town so I treated them to prime rib. Slow smoked the ribs at 200 in the Green Egg for 5 hours. Rub was pasilla, cumin, coriander, s&p. Brought temp up to 130. Took off grill to rest and temp rose to 140. Perfect medium rare. Side was beer cheese rissotto: beer and chicken broth with Cabot cheddar thrown in at the end. Salad of romaine, walnuts, dried cranberries, cheddar with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

Pumpkin Flan

Auntie Michal made her tasty pumpkin flan. Gluten free and Henry friendly. He loves it. Carmelized sugar for the sauce. Yum.

Steak and potatoes

Nothing fancy. Steak seared medium rare. Baked potato with sour cream. Broccoli with a lemon, garlic, mayo sauce (too thin to be aioli) and bleu cheese slaw. The steak sauce was ketchup, Worcester, apple cider vinegar, and garlic powder. Emma so loves steak.

This was from last night. More artery killers. . . scallops cooked in bacon grease over angel hair pasta with parsley. Sauteed spinach with more pomegranate infused balsamic vinegar. Oh, and a Kroger crabcake

Location:Scallops

Smoked Ribs

Ooh, this came out well. The rub was cilantro and Italian parsley with brown sugar and S&P. Slowed smoked for 5 hours with applewood. Brought up to 165 degrees and then rested. Both sides came out well, too. Brussel sprouts started with applewood smoked bacon. Sauteed the onions in the bacon grease. Added quartered sprouts and softened. Then a 1/2 cup or so of chicken stock and steamed. The potatoes were boiled then added sour cream, parsley, butter, crushed garlic.

Blueberry Brie

Thanks, Tony and Jane, for the homemade blueberry jam from Canada. Here it is atop some warm Brie cheese on a Triscuit.

A Berry Whiskey Sour take 2

Blueberry infused Buffalo Trace. 1/4 oz Chambord. 1/2 lemon. 1/2 oz syrup. Yum.



Here's a clip of filtering the infusion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjE-MeWHKY&feature=youtube_gdata

Ravioli #2

Got out the pasta rollers yesterday and made a return to my Ravioli experiment. What's with my iPhone that the colors are so washed out? So here's the recipe: 1/2 c. cake flour, 1/2 c. all purpose flour, one egg, T of olive oil. (Mark, thanks for the tips. Yes, I will only use semolina in pizza.) Water as needed. Was way too dry so added another egg and probably another 1/2 c. of flour. Use extra large eggs next time? Made three different fillings: (1) Parmesan and Ricotta, (2) Feta, ricotta, and sauteed spinach with oregano powder added to the pasta and (3) chopped braised beef, salsa, hot sauce with tomato paste added to the pasta. Ate #1 last night. This time use a full tablespoon (probably more like 2 T) of filling. Helped. Still having trouble with raviolis opening in the boil. Is it the sealing technique or the tools (fork) I'm using? Vodka sauce: sauteed onion and garlic, tomato puree, 1 T vodka, 2T or so heavy cream. Salad: Baby spinach, apples, Brie, tomatoes, finely diced onion with a pomegranate-infused balsamic vinaigrette (using Dijon mustard and olive oil). Emma no likey the vodka sauce. . .

Fondu

I've never felt particularly adequate making fondu. Somehow it just doesn't come off the way it ought. Well, this recipe used beer (inappropriately Dos Equis although really any lager will do, right?), Vermont cabbot cheddar, garlic powder, Dijon mustard, and Worcester sauce. Sadly, I added too much liquid and needed to thicken it. Tore the kitch apart looking for corn starch for gluten-free/Henry friendly fondu--no luck so used flour. I did learn that my little Croquette, if turned on like an hour before serving, will actually keep the fondu heated at the right temperature--about 200 degrees. Picture of the broccoli, apples and bread (from both Le Matin and Great Harvest) below. Well, Emma snarfed it down. I'm going to have to go back to working on this recipe. . .

Berry Sour

The perfect follow up to an hour and a half of Emma's holiday concert. Actually listening to a 4th grade orchestra and chorale requires several of these in advance: standard whiskey sour of Wild Turkey rye, juice of 1/2 lemon, simple syrup but with 1/2 oz Chambord in place of the Grand Marnier.

More Adventures with Mark

Helped Mark with a catering gig at a local (and quite classy) jewelry store, St. John and Myers. It was a mix of appetizers and desserts to compliment some fine whiskey cocktails served by Joy Perrine, author of The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book. Here's a sampling:

Potato Croquette of mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese served with a dab of aioli:


A flour-less chocolate tort:

Deviled quail's egg:

Aioli Platter

Aioli: lemon juice, mayo, garlic, cilantro. Blanched bell pepper and broccoli. Baked cod. Boiled potato. Crabcakes (conventional).

Location:Tremont Ave,Lexington,United States

Braised Hen

Nothing fancy here: Cut a Cornish gamehen in half. Seared each side. Then sauteed onion, carrot, and celery. On the crock pot with white wine and chicken stock. Risotto made from the broth. That was excellent. Mayo lemon juice on steamed Brussel sprouts.

Location:Tremont Ave,Lexington,United States

A P Roots Meatloaf

A P Roots meatloaf: good presentation but poor execution (burned on bottom) but a neat take on a meatloaf. Think giant meatball atop mashed potatoes with wilted spinach on top.

Thanksgiving

As demonstrated by Mark's plate. Thanks, everyone.





The menu
Thanksgiving 2009

BEN
smoked turkey (Elmwood / Green Egg)
green beans (traditional w/ country ham)
cheese grits
sweet potatoes

CHRISTIAN
pumpkin pie
pecan pie

MARK
cardoons

TONY
Brussel sprouts

LYNN
mashed potatoes
Benedictine

MICHAL
deep fried turkey
oyster dressing
turkey grav
bread pudding

Sunday dinner with mom and dad

Mom and dad passed through on their way to Missouri. Here's what we had. . .

Apps: bell pepper tapanade (bell peppers, garlic, kalamata olives, lemon juice). Salmon salad (mayo, Dijon, garlic)



Cocktails--pomegranate gin gimlet (Hendrick's)



Autmnal salad--roasted beets, dried cranberry,walnuts with a pomegranate vinagrette.



Shrimp and grits. Sauteed prawn in butter and garlic. Sauce from shrimp stock and fire roasted tomatoes. Reduced and added sour cream and garlic chili. Grits are 1 part grit and 4 parts liquid. Here 1 c cream and 3 c water. Brought liquid to a boil with roasted corn cut from the cob. Pureed with hand blender. Added grits. Let thicken and then added Parmesan.

Saucy salmon

This was from last night. Pretty standard fast fare: fish cooks quickly at 400 degrees. Potatoes don't take long when cut in small cubes. Then just throw on sour cream and dill. Nothing special--crab cakes were from Kroger--but posting this for the sauce: Vietnamese chili garlic & mayo fir the crab; sour cream, Dijon mustard and crushed galic and dill fir the fish

Chicken Picquant

Name taken from a creole dish but this wasn't very Louisiana. Sauteed onion and garlic. Added bell peppers right at the end. Then a can of crushed tomatoes and VN garlic chili sauce for heat. Boiled, shredded chicken breast. Reduced. Added 1 C or so of sour cream. Served over saffron basmati rice with parsley.

Working with Mark

Drove down to London last night and helped my friend Mark, who put on a dinner party for 17. It was a truly amazing meal. Here's what Mark is cooking these days:

Shrimp sauteed in olive with garlic on a local corn polenta square:

Potato. Just-dug potato torta topped with a agro-dolce tomato jam:


Bi Bim Bop Bite. Caramelized long-grain sticky rice cake topped with a Korean inspired mixed braise:


Fritter. A small fritter of finely julienned fall vegetables topped with a dollop of aioli:


Lobster corn chowder. Cape Breton lobsters, Kentucky corn, potatoes, and milk:


Caprese Salad. A winter version; warm, roasted plum tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, pesto, warm vinaigrette of tomato jus and Devero olive oil, and a garlic crostino:


Poussin. Pastry-wrapped boneless young chicken layered with leeks, fennel, and crème fraiche. Served with a Port-jus sauce and cranberries:


Not pictured: a lemon olive oil cake and a pomegranate martini that I made: pomegranate syrup, Grey Goose Vodka, lemon juice, candied Meyer lemon peel.

School

School is such a great restaurant here in Lexington. It's a French-Japanese fusion. Below is the appetizer tasting. Snail, seared duck, pork and beef. Sweet meats. Some kind of brie. Oh, and beer pickled cucumbers.



And this is their sushi conveyor belt. Sorry that the photo is a bit blurry. . .

More city than country ham

Another odd treat. . . seared polenta topped with country ham and, I don't know why, garlic chili sauce mixed w/ mayo (think spicy aioli). But I think sweet would have complimented ham better.

Pork Chops a la Slav

Flavors of Budapest? Seared pork chops on high heat. Sauteed onion and garlic. Added a good T of paprika. Reduced. Added sour cream. Should have reduced more--the sauce was still too thin and I got impatient and used flour to thicken. Simple reduction would have been better. Served on saffron rice.

Left Overs

From dinner the night before. . . chicken salad from the Cornish gamehen. Served on tomato bread from Panera. Humus from the roasted banana peppers (w/ chickpeas, lemon, garlic, s&p) served on grilled tortillas

Pomegranate Whiskey Cooler

1 1/2 oz. Russell's Reserve rye. 1 oz. pomegranate syrup. 1/2 lemon, juiced. 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier. Shaken and poured over crushed ice. Finished with soda water and candied lemon peel

Dinner

The Cocktail: Pomegranate Martini: vodka, pomegranate syrup, Grand Marnier, candied lemon peel

This meal rocked: slow smoked Cornish gamehen (over cherry wood), polenta with roasted banana pepper sauce, green peas in a dill butter. Dessert: roasted pear with strawberry whiskey sauce.

Globular Cocktails

My new ice sphere maker has arrived from Hong Kong. Apparently this is the rage in Japanese bars. The idea being the ice melts more slowly and doesn't water down the drink.

Featured is a pomegranate whiskey sour: 2 1/2 oz. Wild Turkey 101 rye whiskey, 3/4 oz. pomegranate syrup, splash of Grand Marnier, juice of 1/2 lemon and floating 1/2 oz. of merlot on top.






Yeah, pic #2 is a drink or two into the process so the ice has melted a bit. . .

Dijon Salmon Steak

This very easy-to-make sauce rocked: sour cream, Dijon mustard, crushed garlic, lemon juice, dill, s&p. Seared the salmon on high heat. Trick: let the pan smoke, add peanut oil and blister to a nice, crunchy crust. Sides: potatoes with butter and parsley, salad with (sigh) conventional goat cheese.