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

hunk-o hunk-o meltin' cheese

I've been having blogger's guilt about not cooking, so I stopped by the store on my way home from class to pick up something for dinner. I made this Tuscan bean & escarole soup a couple years ago and it turned out to be a big hit. But that was before we started this food blogging project, so I thought I'd make it again tonight and share it with you all...

I love this soup because a) there are very few ingredients and b) it includes a big ol' hunk o' cheese which, lets face it, is the bomb-diggety.

First, sauté a couple cloves of chopped garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I chopped a little too much, but it's okay. I have plans for that later...

After about 15-30 seconds of that, add about a pound of escarole. Once I couldn't find escarole and substituted something else (kale, maybe?) and it wasn't very good. I would definitely use escarole.

 Then, add 4c chicken stock (I used half canned-- half homemade), a can of drained, rinsed cannelini beans, and some salt and pepper.

Finally, toss in a big ol' hunk o' parmesan cheese and let simmer, covered for some minutes. Giada says 5, I probably let in sit a little longer while I grilled the bread.

Oh yeah, I grilled the bread. This weekend, I had this amazing salad that had all kinds of grilled seafood on top-- scallops, calamari, shrimp. But the best part was the grilled bread! I was thinking about it tonight at the grocery store, and decided it would go perfectly with my tuscan soup. So, I used the rest of the chopped garlic and, after smashing it with the side of my knife, sautéed it in some oil on my grill pan. Then, I just doused both sides of the bread with more olive oil and grilled for a few minutes on each side.

yummmm!

I had this for lunch the following day, and it was even better. As all day-old-soup is. Day old bread, not so much. Anyway, the escarole had turned it this funny color, and it ends up looking like that slop that Charlie Bucket's family eats for every meal ("...cabbage water again?!"). It aint fancy, but trust me, it's delicious.

It isn't very cold this winter, but I still have been craving soups lately. I keep thinking about this one, and a Minorcan clam chowder we used to order at the Lighthouse Restaurant in St. Augustine when we were little. Have any of you ever made that? What soups do you like to cook when the weather outside is frightful?

m

oh, hello

Sorry, y'all. School started, tutoring picked back up, I'm still flying solo at work, and some other things and so I have not been cooking lately. It's been mostly grilled cheeses and take out. But I did manage to get in on a little Meat Week action! I met up with my fellow Meat Weekers on Sunday for our innagural meal at Redbones!

sauces

bones bowl

I am very sorry to say that I was a wee bit disappointed. Although the fried pickles and jalepenos were excellent, I wasn't crazy about my pulled pork sandwich. The green beans and mac & cheese were kind of boring, too. Also, I think they were trying to put thoeir own New England-y spin on things, but salsa with fried okra is strange. I don't go out for BBQ looking for healthier alternatives to ranch dressing. Oh well. At least the company was good:

Day 2 was held at Smoken Joe's in Brighton. And I love this place. I got there a little earlier than the rest of the group, and got to chat with a few regulars, including Smoken' Joe's wife Wendy. Everyone was super friendly, telling me all about the place, events, and menu recommendations. I split a rack of ribs with a new friend, Ariel and let me just say we took care of business. They had a wide selection of sauces, inspired by several different styles of barbecue, from Texas, to Louisiana to Memphis. Joe and Wendy did their homework, y'all. And they get an A+.

open mic night!

Success!! How did you celebrate Meat Week?



Some other things...

I'm back to having Saturday Big breakfasts. They're so much better now that I have my espresso maker and milk frothier, and now that we know how to make salted caramel to put into these lattes.

These are new at Anthropologie. But couldn't I just paint baby food jars and add a little chalkboard paint? You think? Also, how many of you see things at Anthropologie and think "I could make that..." and take a picture of it so that you can? I do it all the time. How many of those pictures have become actual projects that you've completed? Myself, the answer is a big fat zero...

but I'm totally making these jars.

Finally, my amazing friend Madaline gave birth to TWO beautiful boys this week, with the help and encouragement from her wonderful husband/coach Walter and without any epidural. Rock stars!

Welcome to the world, Dimitri and Abel!

It's been awfully quiet in the comments section lately... what say you, FeDish readers?

m

comfort and joy

Winter has finally decided to grace us with her presence, and we have snow of the ground! 

the view from my bedroom window

But busy girls like us can't just sit around all day waiting for a nice winter soup to cook, so Sanne decided there was no better time to test drive her brand new crock pot, a gift from friends Rita and Michael. We pulled together the winteriest ingredients we could think of and left the crock pot on low while we took a trip to Ikea.

Carrots and potatoes, of course...

Celery, which Sanne is finally warming up to...

...some garlic and onions...

swiss chard, a can of stewed tomatoes (+ juice), some homemade chicken stock, thyme, sage, s+p, drained and rinsed garbanzo beans cooked while we shopped.

When we got home, we added a package of Trader Joe's harvest grains and cooked for another 20 minutes.

THEN the real fun started. The other day on smitten kitchen, Deb made salted caramel sauce. I immediately sent the link to Sanne; she had made some of her brownies a few nights ago and we were talking about how great they would be with salted caramel in them. So tonight on the way home, we grabbed some chocolate ice cream on which to put this magical salted caramel sauce.

She followed SK's directions exactly...

SO EASY! I've copied and pasted SK's directions, but you should check out the link, too. Her pictures are gorgeous, and she makes crepes for her sauce.

You will need: 

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (or, salted but ease up on the sea salt)Two pinches flaked or fine sea salt1/3 cup heavy cream

Make syrup: Melt the sugar over medium to moderately high heat in a larger pot than you think you’ll need–at least two quarts, whisking or stirring the sugar as it melts to ensure it heats evenly. Cook the liquefied sugar to a nice copper color. Add the sea salt and butter and stir until the butter melts. Lower the heat and slowly drizzle in the heavy cream, whisking the whole time. The sauce will foam and hiss; just ignore it and whisk until the sauce is smooth. Set aside until needed. Store in the fridge for up to a week. Rewarm gently to thin it out. 

Oh, and I picked up this espresso maker for $20. And a milk frothier for $5. So along with our pure sugar dessert, we had lattes. Yep, we did.

And they were awesome.

So between tonight's meal + dessert, Friday's Chic-fil-a + movie, and yesterday's big breakfast and chicken quesadillas, it's been a pretty scrumptious weekend. 

How was yours?

m&a