Saturday, February 20, 2010

What's for Dinner? 2/20-27

A helpful hint for my local farm box friends; often there is some extra produce, if you get to the pick up early you can score bonus veggies. Today's extras oranges, kiwi, and lettuce.

So last week all the adults in the household were felled by an nasty cold. Strangely we had different symptoms while being equally miserable. As mine seems to be settling nicely into an ear infection, because apparently inside my head I am two, I am suspicious that mine was just a sinus infection all along. Two more days 'til I call for antibiotics...yay! The kid healthy as a very annoying horse. We stayed on dinner plan unusually well for everyone feeling lousy. The only casualty was the scallops experiment that will have to happen over the weekend. Sick and cooking is no time to be adventurous.

Saturday
Blue Cheese Burgers
Sweet Potato Fries

Sunday
Seared Scallops with Tarragon Butter Sauce (Take two)
Spinach
Rice

Monday
Burritos

Tuesday
Leak & Cabbage Soup with Smoked Sausage

Wednesday
Meatloaf
Mashed Potatoes

Thursday
White Bean & Chard

Friday
Pizza (maybe I'll cook, maybe I'll order in) the Nerd Herd will be in effect.

Monday, February 15, 2010

What's for Dinner 2/14-2/19

So it is supposed to be warm this week...like 78, but my brain is still in Winter mode. I was contemplating Shepherd's Pie. So I'm kind of threading the needle with winter dishes (roasted chicken, soups) in lighter proteins (chicken, scallops). The scallop dish is an epicurious experiment. I will posted the recipe and review, if it successful, everything else is old favorites.

Sunday
Swedish Meatballs
Salad

Monday
Thomas Keller's Roasted Chicken
Spinach Salad

Tuesday
Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Chowder

Wednesday
Seared Scallops with Tarragon-Butter Sauce
Wilted Spinach
Risotto if I'm feeling brave Brown Rice if I'm not
Butternut Squash with Pecans & Blue Cheese

Thursday
Navy Bean Soup

Friday
Breakfast for Dinner
Kind of Breakfast to be named later

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Meatballs In Tomato Garlic Sauce

Meatballs
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 large green bell pepper, chopped fine
1/4 c. + 2 T. olive oil
2 lb. ground beef (not lean)
1/2 lb. ground pork (not lean)
2/3 c. fine dry bread crumbs
2 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 c. minced fresh parsley leaves

Sauce
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 T. olive oil
1 (33 1/2 oz) can whole tomatoes, including juice
3/4 t. dried oregano, crumbled

In a 9" heavy well-seasoned skillet (perferably cast-iron) cook onion and bell pepper in 2 T. oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and cool mixture. In a large bowl combine well onion mixture, ground meat, bread crumbs, salt, nutmeg, and parsley. Form level tablespoons of mixture into balls (about 90). In skillet heat 1 T. oil over moderately high heat until hot, but not smokingand brown meatballs in batches (about 16 at a time), shaking skillet frequently so that meatballs maintain their shape and adding remaining 3 T. oil as necessary. Transfer meatballs with a slotted spoon as browned to a bowl.

In a heavy kettle (at least 6 qts.) cook garlic in oil over moderately low heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 15 sec. Add tomatoes with juice and oregano and simmer, breaking up tomatoes.

Add meatballs and simmer, cover gently stirring occasionally, 25 minutes, or until meatballs are tender and sauce is thickened slightly. Transfer meatballs with slotted spoon to heated serving dish. If sauce seem thin, boil gently, stirring frequently, until thickened to desired consistency. Season sauce with salt and pepper and spoon over meatballs. Meatballs and sauce may be maid 2 days ahead, cooled, uncovered and chilled covered. Reheat meatballs before serving.

We were on the crash course to the party. I short cut through this recipe by using some store bought meatballs and the combination was very good. In fact the kid enjoyed them for lunch the rest of the week.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Onion Tart with Mustard & Fennel

2 1/4 t. active dry yeast (a 1/4 oz package)
1/2 c. warm water (105-115 deg)
1 1/2-1 3/4c. all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1/3 c. + 1 T. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 1/2 t. salt, divided
2 t. fennel seeds
3 lb. yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
1 T. Dijon
1/2 c. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Stir together yeast and warm water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.)

Put 1 1/2 c. flour in a medium bowl, then make a well in center of flour and add yeast mixture to well. Stir together egg, 1 T. oil and 1 1/2 t. salt with a fork. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or your fingertips, gradually incorporating flour, until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead, working in additional flour (up to 1/4 c.) as necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

While dough rises, heat remaining 1/3 c. oil in a 12" heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then saute fennel seeds until a shade darker, about 30 sec. Stir in onions, remaining 1 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover onions directly with a round of parchment paper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are very tender and golden brown, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F with rack in the middle.

Knead dough gently on a floured surface with floured hands to deflate. Pat out dough on a large heavy baking sheet (preferably blue steel) into a 15 x 12" rectangle, turning up or crimping edge, then brush mustard evenly over dough,, leaving a 1/2" border around edge. Spread onions evenly over mustard, then sprinkle evenly with cheese.

Bake tart until crust is golden brown, 30-35 minutes. Cut into 2" squares or diamonds & warm or at room temperature.

Note: Onions can be made up to 2 days ahead and chilled, covered.

O.K. This one was well received. There were a few alterations and short cuts involved. I used Trader Joe's Pizza Dough in place of making my own crust. There were just too many other thing to do and yeast is just too unreliable for me in a trial run. If it is the only thing I am making, I'll give the dough a try with a pack of pizza dough in the fridge on stand by. The many comments online recommended more mustard and 15 x 12" seems like a lot of territory for a little ole tablespoon of mustard. So I spread it as thin as I could by back of spoon but enough that it made a definitely layer. I used easily 3-4 soup spoons of mustard. There were more than enough onions and I probably used extra cheese as well.

Friday, February 12, 2010

White Bean, Sun-dried Tomato & Feta Bites

6 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 (8.5 oz) jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped (reserve 2 T. of the oil)
1/3 c. pine nuts
2 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 t. fresh thyme, chopped (from about 10 sprigs)
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1 1/2 (15 oz) cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
1/2 c. fresh basil, coarsely chopped and loosely packed
1 oz Parmesan cheese, finely grated (approx 1/4 c.)
3 1/2 oz Feta cheese, crumbled (approx 1/2 c.)
10 slices white sandwich bread each slice quartered
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat oven 350 deg.

In small saucepan over moderately low heat, heat 2 T. olive oil & tomato oil until hot, but not smoking. Add pine nuts and toast, stirring occasionally, until light golden brown, 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Continue stirring until mixture cools slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in beans, tomatoes, lemon juice, basil, Parmesan and Feta. (Topping can be prepared ahead and refrigerated, covered, up to 6 hours, Before serving, bring to room temperature.

Arrange bread squares on parchment-lined baking sheet and brush on both sides with remaining 4 T. olive oil. toast, turning once, until light golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.

Top squares with white bean topping and serve immediately. (Alternately, serve white bean, sun-dried tomato, and Feta mixture in a bowl, arrange toast along side.)

Yield: 40 hors d'oeurves

From epicurious.com by Katie Brown

So I bypassed the sandwich bread and went straight to thinly sliced baguette, brushed with oil and toasted in the oven. Trader Joe's had a nice jar of sun-dried tomato that was already julienned.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Trying Something New

So it has been quiet here at Food Whimsy, because I have been a little fixated on another food project. About a month ago, a harebrained scheme was hatched, a cocktail party, a proper adults only swanky party. It was the right time. We'd been in our house for a year, hadn't yet had a housewarming party. I was having a birthday of a round number that will remain nameless and it fell on a Saturday.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then I start looking at appetizer and hors d'oeuvre recipes and just start twitching. Little bite size food, sooo fussy, and labor intensive, not my thing at all. This meant I spent all my time googling for party inspiration and not blogging our weekly menu plan and, oh yeah, procrastinating.

Enter Epicurious.com...I have found a few things there, but it was a godsend. There was an excellent cocktail party planning guide, for foods and drinks quantities, helpful suggestions like renting glassware, all sorts of good stuff to cover for complete inexperience. For a food menu, the timing wasn't perfect. There were old New Year Eve Party menus and new Super Bowl Party menus, a few Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year menus were starting to appear, but when push came to shove (better known as Friday night) there was a Katie Brown New Years Eve Party menu that we used most of, back filling with some uninspired but handy basics like a shrimp ring and a veggie tray. Gimlet Fest 2010 was on, folks seem to have a good time, and the food was good too.

So I will post the best of the party food this week and hopefully we will return to our regular scheduled recipe journal-ing this weekend.