This Year's Birthday Feast: Italian Farmhouse

Our annual feast to celebrate the Composer's father--this year it was all Italian farmhouse-style (inspired by a library book). 

Food centerpiece was a beef tenderloin roast. I patted it with chopped garlic and rosemary, laid on bay leaves, wrapped the whole thing in bacon, and (thanks to Daisy for the smart suggestion) pinned it all together with rosemary sticks.

Clara made an incredible arrangement of herbs for the center of the table.

Let's talk about this mad polenta. I used "Dixie Lily" cornmeal because the name is so charming. Made it up into mush, stirred in an unconscionable amount of butter in which I had sauteed garlic, then stirred in fontina cheese. After in cooled in a pan, we turned it out and Bella faithfully fried it up in some olive oil. I do not exaggerate when I say that Felix took a bite, then started crying.

Salad was farmer's market lettuce with tomato, hard-boiled egg, prosciutto, and Parmesan,

Here's the menu . . . 

And here's the family.

Sunday Dinner: Carnitas

Fed a crowd after church Sunday with:

Pork carnitas

Corn tortillas

Guacamole, cilantro, salsa, sour cream

Sliced peaches

Fried okra

Green salad

To prepare the carnitas before church, right after breakfast I diced a good-sized pork loin into stew-meat sized chunks. Put them in the pressure cooker in a single layer with plenty of salt, pepper, and cumin, and browned them. Added a little water and sealed it up. About ten minutes at 15 pounds, and they were deliciously tender, and still had their brown crust on them. These went into the fridge until after church, and were reheated at lunchtime.

Stewed Tomatoes

A big batch of stewed tomatoes made from a big garden haul. I had enough tomatoes for about 10 pints--it was two big colanders full. I used two bags of Cajun-style mirepoix, which got sauteed in olive oil. I peeled and quartered my tomatoes, then added them to my veggies to stew with two teaspoons each of salt and sugar.

Then I canned them, which made me very proud. They are the best soup base ever.

Not Everything Has Changed

Daisy's got some sophisticated taste in birthday cakes now--this is Nigella Lawson's Christmas-Spiced Flourless Chocolate Cake with a glazed almond and fresh orange juice topping. I sent pieces home with Elliot and Emma to the Stone House. "Eat it when you can concentrate."

But not everything has changed. She still loves fried okra,

just like when she was littler.

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Curry

Our Young Adult Lunch this week was for 17 people after church, and I fed them all chicken curry using this favorite recipe. I used one package of chicken breasts (about 5 large pieces), two bags of mirepoix mix, five zucchinis, a handful of asparagus from the garden,  two red bell peppers, and two heads of bok choy.

I also cooked up five cups of basmati rice (best to split a batch this large into two pots for better texture), cut up two canteloupes, and made a large green salad. Lime wedges, shredded coconut, and soy sauce on the table.

The curry and rice take less than an hour to prepare--done before church with the girls helping. The curry went in the crockpot to stay warm, and the rice stayed out on the stove in a heavy pot.

Doable. And one young lady looked up at me almost in tears during lunch and said she had been dreaming of chicken curry. It's almost finals week.

Sunday Dinner: Pork Shoulder

We continue our Young Adult Dinners, which happen once a month after church (and more often, on a less-formal basis). Here's a recent favorite menu:

Slow-roasted pork shoulder

Baked sweet potatoes, whole or in pieces

Cole slaw

The pork shoulder is awesome--it feeds everyone for less than a dollar a piece, and it's effortless to make. Buy a nice big one, and put it in *the night before*. Believe me here. You want to put it in the oven fat side up, in a covered roasting pan, with plenty of salt and pepper, and a couple of cups of water. Turn your oven on as low as it will go--mine goes to 200. Cook it for 8-10 hours.

So I put mine in at bedtime, and in the morning I check on it. At this point it can be cooled to serve later, left at room temperature for a bit (not forever though--there's the whole food safety issue), or served immediately. It will be falling apart tender, and should be shredded with a fork and knife.

Sometimes Instead of Salad

Sometimes instead of salad I set out a plate of pears and some Brie.

Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges

Carol was telling me how to make her new favorite sweet potatoes. "Cut them up like Jojos at the convenience store."

Okay, what? Since when has Carol bought Jojos at the convenience store? Also, what was she even talking about?

She meant wedges. Leave the skins on. Toss with olive oil, then salt (plenty) and cumin (generously). Roast at 425 on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet for about 50 minutes.

Sunday Table with Tulips and a Menu

For Sunday's lunch crowd I used a very large pan, and laid two whole chickens on a bed of vegetables--several pounds of chopped potatoes, and three leeks (white parts sliced thin). All of it drizzled with olive oil, salted and peppered. A celery stalk in the chicken, and the uncovered pan in the oven on 350 for three hours.

Also a side dish of green beans (from frozen, in the Crock-Pot), and a big batch of biscuits made before church, and a green salad.

Winter Salads: Romaine with Chicken, Feta, Cranberries, Butternut Squash, and Crispy Fried Parsnips

School-Time Bella is different from Vacation Bella. School-Time Bella doesn't have time to cook, not with work and classes. But Vacation Bella makes us things like this salad for our Saturday lunch: grilled chicken, roasted butternut squash, feta cheese, dried cranberries, and crispy fried parsnip strips.

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

"I could not have predicted the residue and damage that a lack of cooking skills had on people's daily lives. Among the boxes and cans, I found a larger story of perceived failure that left them struggling with guilt, frustration, and a stinging lack of confidence. . . ."

--Kathleen Flinn, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

This fascinating book follows the author's work with nine ordinary people who don't know how to live with real food or how to function in their own kitchens. By the end of the book, Flinn's compassionate, enthusiastic coaching has transformed them.

Cook your own food, and teach your children how.

Eightieth Birthday

It was that time last weekend--my father in law's birthday. And this was a big one. Eighty.

We kept it on the quiet side, since my step-mother-in-law was still recovering from an ankle replacement. In fact, the most exciting moment of the evening was the stair climb.

I lifted the menu straight out of my 1936 cookbooks, which was fun. And I included some insights on the menus.

As is so often the case, the appetizer plates were the most interesting. I followed the cookbook to a tee, and served "radish roses, a mound of coleslaw, an olive stuffed with almond, an olive stuffed with celery, and three shrimps marinated in French dressing and served on a lettuce leaf."

Let's Roast Okra!

Never saw this one coming, but I am now roasting rather than frying okra. It's easy and cleaner and (of course) better for you (I guess?) than frying. And we all love it--it's still crunchy and chewy and all that. In any case, being grain-free, I had to ditch the cornmeal.

So, cut the cap off the okra, then slice it into two or three pieces using a long diagonal cut. You want long skinny pieces with a slanty side. Toss with a lot of olive oil (any kind) and kosher salt. Roast on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 400 for about 30 minutes, turning once before the end. Go for dark edges.

I'll Just Cook Everything This Way

Vegetable roasting season is fast approaching and I have two words for you, my friends: chicken grease. I save it from the pan of chicken thighs I roast at least once a week and use it to turn winter squash into candy.

Dinette Cookery

After the wedding Giles and Tia will take up residence in a tiny apartment Tia has charmingly dubbed "The Dollhouse". The kitchen is brand new and very nice--not very large, of course, and has a tiny table for dining.

What a mercy I ran across an entire chapter on "Dinettes" in a vintage cookbook this week. The author does her level 1934 best to cheer and exhort homemakers who suddenly find themselves downsized from a full kitchen and dining room. Here she is, looking on the bright side:

• Everyday diners have a way of tasting better when served in the dinette.

• Dinette cookery requires the intimate touch of individuality, even to the pots and pans used in the kitchenette.

• It is next to impossible to serve a formal type of dinner, with several courses, in dinette style.

• Much planning must be done ahead of time, if the dinette dinner is to be successful.

• Space is at a premium, and must be planned to create the idea of leisure, hospitality and intimacy.

• There is something chummy and friendly about dining in a dinette--something akin to dining out in a corner of a hotel dining room or tea room.

• An excellent cup of coffee compensates for many other deficiencies.

-- Jessie Marie Deboth, The Fashion Book of Recipes

Simple Yogurt

I've been making all of our yogurt for the last several months, with great success. I calculate that I'm saving at least  $700 a year, which is a little alarming. We were eating three single-serving cups of Fage yogurt a day. Lots of money, and lots of plastic trash (my grocery store only offers non-fat Fage in the bigger container. If I want fat, I have to buy the small).

So here's my super-simple method. I use an enameled cast-iron pot (it's an off-brand Le Creuset) and pour an entire gallon of organic whole milk in it. I put it over a medium heat and set the timer for 25 minutes. Meanwhile I get out my previous batch of yogurt and remove a heaping spoonful of it, and place it in a glass measuring cup with a spout, and leave it out on the counter.

When the milk has started to steam (be sure and jiggle the pot and get down at eye level to see if it makes a little steam), I turn off the flame and set the timer for another 25 minutes.  When the timer buzzes, I stick my clean finger in the milk. If it's too hot for comfort, I give it another ten minutes of cooling time. If, however, I can leave my finger in for three seconds, I move to the next step.

Which is to ladle out a cup of hot milk and put it in the glass measuring cup with my spoonful of yogurt. I stir this gently with a spoon, just breaking the yogurt up into small pieces, then pour all that back into the big pot and swirl it around a little.

Then the lid goes on the pot, the pot gets set in my Crock-Pot over an inch of water set to the "Keep Warm" setting, and an old bath towel goes over the whole thing. I leave it all day (or all night). Ten to twelve hours.

At the end of that time, I put my big colander in my stockpot, and line the colander with a large thin dishtowel. I dump all the yogurt in, and refrigerate it. In another ten to twelve hours, I have a large quantity of unbelievably delicious Greek yogurt. Very firm, tart, and thrifty. 

Egg Cups for Tea

Daisy wanted a little tea party this afternoon. It was close to dinner, so food was kept on the small side. Clara filled egg cups with alternating layers of lemon curd and whipped cream, and Daisy decorated each top with a yellow jelly bean. Like a soft-boiled egg, but not.

Out of Hades' Clutches: A Springtime Feast

You know we gave the Composer's parents a Christmas gift of a dinner party--they invite their friends, we provide the venue, the food, and often a little after-dinner entertainment. This weekend they cashed in their gift certificate, and we threw a springtime feast.

My mother-in-law used to teach quite a bit of Greek literature (hence the Hades--remember that he kept Persephone underground for six months each year and only let her out in spring). She also got it when I set out the silver teaspoons engraved "Helen".

I was going with a Greek thing.

This was a really, really good dinner to eat--and one of the easiest to prepare. Much can be done ahead. See below for the full menu and recipes. 

Not-So-Hard Springtime Feast:

Homemade pitas*

Baba ganoush drizzled with olive oil and served with olives and parsley*

Homemade hummus*

Green pea soup with mint and feta*

Boneless leg of lamb marinated in yogurt, coffee, and cumin*

Steamed asparagus with lemon zest

New potatoes roasted a long time in olive oil

Sliced cucumbers in homemade yogurt*

Individual Pavlovas set in cream, topped with homemade lemon curd, cream, and berries*

*Can be made ahead--or in the case of the lamb, marinated the day before and roasted for two hours. And in the case of the dessert, the components can all be made ahead and assembled last minute.

Winter Salads: Grilled Chicken and Smoked Cheese

Grilled chicken, smoked cheese, and avocado over Romaine hearts.

Winter Salad: Broccoli with Sesame

A super-quick salad made from cold steamed broccoli left over from dinner, drizzled with tamari sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and sprinkled with some sesame seeds.