a rockin Wednesday night...

Now that a new semester is upon me, Wednesday is my new free day. Therefore, Wednesday is my new favorite day. It's early enough in the week that I can rationalize not doing any reading for class yet, or lesson planning. I can just come home, catch up on my tv shows, and cook some dinner in peace. So throughout today, I was looking for dinner ideas for tonight. For some reason, everything just sounded kind of... boring. I even looked up Madame Julia Child's boeuf bourgignon. Still, I was uninspired. I decided to just go to the grocery store and let something jump out at me.

I was perusing the meats at Star when it happened. Bone marrows. That's when I realized I knew exactly what I wanted to eat for dinner: party food! Sanne looked slightly apprehensive at first glance at the raw bones I excitedly shoved up in her facial, but she had an appetizer-type recipe she'd been wanting to try as well. And so the scene was set: Wednesday night tapas it is!

Just before Christmas, my friend Elizabeth and I were feeling brave one night at Russell House (a favorite Harvard Square haunt), and decided to try the roasted marrow together. It was amazing! Someone I know referred to it as "meat butter" (was that you, Whitney?), and I would have to agree. It's like buttuh, y'all. Fo real. So anyway, I saw it on the shelf, and it's super cheap! This package had four ~2" thick bones, for $2.60. AND it had a $1.50 coupon on it! E and I had spent something like $10 for one bone! I'm sold. No matter that I hadn't the slightest clue what to do with it...

After a quick google, I sprinkled the marrow with some sea salt, minced garlic and chopped parsley, and roasted it in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I made some white truffle mushroom bruschetta, and Sanne made bacon-wrapped jalapenos stuffed with blueberry goat cheese.

Yeah, I know. And we're both single. Go figure.

The mushroom bruschetta was pretty simple. I chopped a package of white button mushrooms and sauteed them in some olive oil, a splash of white wine and about a teaspoon of white truffle oil. I added lemon zest, minced garlic, parsley, and some shredded parmesan cheese. I covered it and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so.

While this was happening, Sanne was making her own magic on the opposite counter. She sliced and de-seeded some jalapeno peppers, smeared their insides with a blueberry-goat cheese from Trader's, and wrapped them with bacon.

She roasted/broiled some and grilled a few. Both ways were incredible, fyi.

Here's the marrow...
I guess if you've never had it before, or are easily sketched out by foods, these pictures might not be too appetizing. But to quote Love Actually: to me, they are [beautiful].

We also got some marinated olives (my fave) and a blue cheese, which turned out to be one of the best I've tasted. Blue cheeses tend to be a little too strong or pungent for my taste, but this one was perfect. It went especially well with the Chardonnay I bought from Eileen at Cardullo's awhile back.

they look like little volcanoes

cheese knife from KT, dish from an antique store outside Yonkers 

meat butter!

T.G.I.Wednesday.

We didn't eat all four bones, and we have no dogs, so I'm making beef stock from the rest. I'll let y'all know how that goes. How was your hump day? Have you ever tried bone marrow? What are your thoughts on the subject?

If you're still unconvinced about eating the marrow of bones, check out these sites:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/bone-marrow-recipe/#axzz1lqi2sGtd

http://blogs.ajc.com/food-and-more/2011/09/23/roasting-bone-marrow-at-home/

and this one is really good:  http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2010/02/17/roasted-marrow-bones/
I wish I had seen it earlier, I definitely would have made her parsley salad to go with. Next time...
 

m

part two: the following morning...

We did have a party Saturday night. It was tons of fun, with music and Indian food and lots of laughing and it was very fun and Indian. Before I tell you about that, I'm going to give you part two: breakfast. We almost always cook a big breakfast after we throw a big party. It's been awhile since we've done this, so it was nice to have a full table of friends to feed.

Sujoy, who will now and forevermore be known as Susie, bought some sausage. Actually, he bought hot dogs by mistake, but later went back and bought sausage. Anyway, he sauteed some red onion, green pepper and indian spices with soy sauce, maple syrup, and scrambled egg. An interesting combination, but very tasty. It was a nice, spicy compliment to my pancakes.

Meanwhile, I found a basic pancake recipe to play with. I made two batches and added my leftover sweet potatoes to one batch, and lemon juice & blueberries to the second. My sweet potatoes were salty enough already, so I simply omitted the extra salt from that batch.

aside: While watching him spaz around while cooking Saturday night, I realize that I may have met my match in the kitchen. Susie might be more high-strung and more improvisational when cooking than I am. But he's damn good at it.

I thought I ruined the second batch and was about to throw it out and start over, but Susie encouraged me to improvise. I am not very confident in my baking abilities, so this worried me a little. But I went with it, and they turned out great. Thanks, Susie! We just ended up with twice as many pancakes as I thought we needed... but then I remembered I was feeding 7 boys. 



the winner!



The boys wanted more pancakes, so I told them to go make it themselves. Q: How many grown-ass men does it take to pour batter into a pan??

A: 5

Stayed tuned for part 1: the party!
What are your favorite pancake add-ins?

m

back to Italia!

It's monsoon season here in Boston, and I am in the mood for something easy and comforting on this quiet rainy night. I surveyed the pantry, leafed through my cookbooks and even tried one of those online recipe generators... and finally decided on some pasta with my leftover tomatoes, lemon and greek-y cheese that Madaline picked up.

I decided to make a sauce from scratch, so I stewed three tomatoes, added a little tomato paste and some dried herbs. My go-to's are oregano, parsley, chili powder and crushed red pepper. And salt and pepper, of course.

I also squirted a little lemon juice in there, and then added about 1/4c of the cheese. I might've added a little more after that; I can't be sure.

Once the spaghetti was cooked to almost al dente, I remembered to finish cooking it in the sauce, plated it with tongs (giving it a fancy little chef-like twirl), and topping it off with a little more cheese.

The wine is a 2009 Gabbiano Chianti. I'm sorry to say that I'm not very discerning when it comes to wine, but I do enjoy this.

And no Italian dinner of any kind would be complete without my new favorite Italian dessert: Grown-Up Sundae.

3 seconds later...

I haven't heard from y'all in a few posts. I'm afraid the "Reactions" are making you lazy! What did you have for dinner? Comments!

m