The sun in shining. It's March Madness. My house is clean. Let the good times roll!
p.s. I'm making these for breakfast tomorrow.
p.p.s Vampire Weekend's new album comes out May 6. Super fun!
Happy eating and booty shaking, -s.
The sun in shining. It's March Madness. My house is clean. Let the good times roll!
p.s. I'm making these for breakfast tomorrow.
p.p.s Vampire Weekend's new album comes out May 6. Super fun!
Happy eating and booty shaking, -s.
If you know me, you know I am a wine girl ... except when I want a cocktail. Ha! This time of year I crave citrus in both solid and liquid form, so my cocktail of choice during these bleak winter months is the beautiful pink-grapefruit hued greyhound. Pink grapefruit juice out of the carton will do, but freshly squeezing those gorgeous orbs elevates this to perfection. Salt the rim if you'd like for a Salty Dog. I'm salty enough already, so I go without (wink).
The Perfect Greyhound*
Ingredients
2 oz. premium vodka
4-6 oz. freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
a wedge of lime for garnish
Directions
In a double old-fashioned glass, fill with ice cubes; pour vodka, then grapefruit juice. Stir. Garnish or leave plain, it's up to you.
Enjoy with crisp potato chips during cocktail hour or with a pile of pork carnitas tacos at dinner. Yum.
*especially when it's made by the handsome Mr. Klein
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| green enchiladas |
Saturday: Green enchiladas with an avocado-grapefruit salad
Sunday: Salmon chowder and homemade Irish soda bread; served with a pint of stout, of course!
Monday: Stir-fried beef and asparagus; served with brown rice
Tuesday: Mushroom pasta with fresh ricotta
Wednesday: Fish po'boys with shredded cabbage and spicy mayo
Thursday: Red pepper and onion ricotta frittata with toast
Friday: Spicy shrimp with yogurt; served with cucumbers and roti
Happy eating and drinking, -s.
It's raining. It's pouring. The weekend is here. Time to dance.
Cheers, -s.
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| the wild klein boys |
Dinners were a team effort this weekend, with both Mr. Klein and me tackling the prep. The boys have been playing so nicely together that it actually allows us to collaborate in the kitchen (like the good old days :).
Chris LOVES salads - the heartier the better, so Saturday night we made Parmesan-coated chicken breast paillards with homemade Caesar salad. I went all-out on the dressing (even coddling the eggs, which was a first for me!). I have to say, it was pretty good. Chris said he could have eaten the whole bowl of salad himself and even Rhys ate a good helping of the greens (shocked!). He, of course, had ketchup with the chicken :)
Caesar salad adapted heavily from marc bittman's how to cook everything
Ingredients
1/2 a clove of garlic, chopped roughly
2 anchovy fillets or 2 tbs. anchovy paste
dash of Worcester sauce
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (regular lemons work too)
6 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely grated parmigiano reggiano
One head of romaine lettuce, cleaned, dried and torn into pieces
Directions:
Bring a small sauce pan of water to boil; with a pin, poke of broad end of each egg. Drop the egg carefully into the water for 60-90 seconds. Remove and carefully crack the eggs into a blender or tall measuring cup. Add the garlic, lemon juice, anchovies and Worcester sauce. Using an immersion blender (or regular blender), blend the ingredients until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. With blender running, slowly add the olive oil until the dressing thickens and becomes viscous. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Dress the salad, coating evenly with the dressing; add the parmigiano and serve with crispy chicken breast paillards, grilled chicken breasts or croutons.
Here's what we're eating this week ...
Menu: week of 9 March 2013
Saturday: Chicken Parmesan paillards with Caesar salad
Sunday: Split-pea soup with smoked pork shank and Yukon-gold potatoes
Monday: Impossible ham and cheese quiche from Cook's Illustrated
Tuesday: Winter pizza margarita with apple-fennel salad
Wednesday: Eggs poached in tomato sauce with crusty bread
Thursday: Pasta with sauteed Italian sausage, green cabbage and fresh ricotta
Friday: Fish tacos with avocado crema and shaved cabbage
Happy eating, -s.
Here's a tune to get your weekend started. Have a good one!
Cheers, -s.
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Since I was too busy eating, here's a photo from Gourmet magazine
Photograph by Romulo Yanes |
The book was The Dinner. The dinner was black beans
and rice with a load of garnishes - roasted sweet potatoes, toasted pumpkin
seeds, tomatillo salsa, cilantro, scallions, radishes and avocado. The
dining-room table was used as a buffet for all the edible goodies, while my
grandma's old dresser was used as the bar. We started with homemade guacamole,
pico de gallo and tortilla chips and two big batches of margaritas. For
dessert, we had dulce de leche sundaes with roasted coconut flakes (from Trader
Joe's; my newest coconut obsession!).
Ever since I found this recipe on Gourmet magazine's website, it's been
a mainstay in our house. The boys eat it simply, while the grown-ups can layer
on the flavors and heat with the accompaniments. As the recipe's author,
Kemp Minifie, explains, it's her go-to entertaining dish, as it is a complex,
vegetarian crowd-pleaser.
Makes 8 to 9 cups
Ingredients
1 lb. dried black beans (about 2 1/3 cups), picked over and rinsed (but
not soaked) 1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup Sherry (cream or medium-dry)
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Directions
Bring black beans, onion, oil, water (8 cups), and 1/2 teaspoon salt to
a boil in a 6- to 8-quart heavy pot, then reduce heat and simmer, covered,
until beans are tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours (depending on age of beans). Thin to
desired consistency with additional water. Stir in Sherry and remaining
teaspoon salt, then soy sauce and vinegar to taste (start with 1 tablespoon
each), and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.The beans improve in flavor if cooked at least 8 hours ahead. Chill, uncovered until completely cooled, then covered up to 1 week, or freeze up to 3 months. Beans thicken considerably as they stand, so thin with water when reheating over moderately low heat.
Note: Beans can be cooked in about one third of the time in a 6- to 8-quart pressure cooker. Follow recipe, combining beans with onion, oil, water, and salt in pressure cooker. Seal pressure cooker with lid and cook at high pressure, according to manufacturer’s instructions, until beans are tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Put pressure cooker in sink (do not remove lid) and run cold water over lid until pressure goes down completely.
Accompaniments
I serve the beans with Rick Bayless's classic, baked white rice from
his Authentic Mexican cookbook. It's also great with simple, steamed white
rice. The garnishes are key to this dish's success: roasted diced sweet
potatoes, toasted pumpkin seeds, cubes of avocado tossed with lime juice,
tomatillo salsa, lime wedges, chopped white onion, fresh cilantro sprigs, and
radishes.
And, finally, here's what we're eating this week ...
Menu: week of 3 March 2013Sunday: Spaghetti Bolognese with sautéed broccoli rabe
Monday: Shredded, slow-cooked chuck roast sandwiches on torta rolls with avocado and a tomato salad
Tuesday: Turkish-style green beans with whole-grain naan
Wednesday: Shredded beef tacos with onion and cilantro; served with an avocado-grapefruit salad
Thursday: Chickpea and brown-rice casserole with lemon and herbs
Friday: Indian take-out
Happy eating, -s.
My sister, Holley, her husband, Jason, and their sweet, sweet baby, Marin, came for a visit this past weekend. It brought back lots of memories of when they lived in Madison. At that time, our brother, Matt, was attending UW and Chris and I had just moved to Madison the year prior. During those years of living in the same city, we would get together for wine-soaked, delicious Sunday dinners at our homes, head out to dinner at our favorite haunt, Lombardino's, and meet up for beachy cocktails at Jolly Bob's in the middle of winter. Those times were precious and long since past, but so easily relived with a good meal at our table.
With kids in the equation now, we're no longer making homemade pasta or tamales by the dozen while drinking copious amounts of wine. Dinner is now in stages - pre-dinner dinner for the kiddos and a post-bedtime meal with just the grown-ups (monitors on, of course).
The kiddos had a red-grape and Italian sausage pizza with rosemary and local blue cheese. The grown-ups had a piece (or two) to tide them over for the real meal, which consisted of goat-cheese gnocchi in a walnut-thyme brown-butter sauce, polpette neapolitano (from the Molto Mario cookbook) and a contorni of sautéed rapini with chile flakes and garlic. Dessert was a refreshing meyer lemon-buttermilk sorbetto. A New Zealand sauvignon blanc was served with the gnocchi and a dolcetto d'alba was poured with the meatballs.
The food was good, but the company was better.
Here's what we're eating the rest of the week:
Sunday: Turkey sloppy Joe's riffed from the Joy of Cooking with pickles, apple-berry sauce and tator tots
Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs with sautéed broccolini
Tuesday: Ricotta frittata with red peppers and onions
Wednesday: Roasted cod with sautéed spinach and mashed potatoes
Thursday: Meatball or grilled cheese sandwiches with carrot sticks
Friday: Lemony tuna and peas on cream biscuits
Happy eating, -s.
