A very Merry BarufFeast

Hey readers,

I'm sorry that I've been so delinquent in posting this (long overdue) summary of the December BarufFeast!

It was really a meat 'n potatoes kinda night. But not just ANY meat 'n potatoes kinda night... one with ZING!

[Guest list: Danielle Grodanz, Steven Redel, Jordan Katz, Jennifer Zayas and Amy Quan]

Appetizer: Lemon Hummous and pita
Main course: Mamma's Meatloaf, Smashed potatoes and
Sides: Roasted whole vegetables and smashed potatoes
Dessert: New york style individual cheesecakes with cranberry topping; Cranberry and white chocolate chip cookies







Main course disclosure: Mamma B/Grandmom's meatloaf. The recipe, in its entirety, should I disclose it here, would be grounds for my own execution at the hand of my mother. However, if I were to disclose it, I would do so Italian-style, strategically leaving out at least one critical ingredient to ensure that you would have to return to BarufFeast to get the exact same meal again, frustratingly unable to make it yourself with the recipe provided.

Meatloaf: Veal/Pork/Beef trio, quantity depends entirely upon how much you want to make. For each pound of meat, 1 egg and 4 slices of white bread and 1/2c of grated cheese (I use Romano cheese). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Microwave a really small piece to make sure it tastes how you want it.

Form into a loaf shape and then...

...off to the oven: Put a meat thermometer so it lands in the center of the loaf. Cook at 400 degrees until the center reaches 145 degrees (Fahrenheit). Ensure that the top is crispy before removing from the oven. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes.


Slice and serve

Smashed potatoes: Bake 12 potatoes in an oven completely until they are soft enough to squish with a fork. Simmer thyme, rosemary and salt in approx 1/8 pound of butter. Add the mixture to the smashed/squished potatoes. Add 2% milk until it reaches desired texture.












Roasted veggie plate: pick your favorite root veggies. Mine are parsnips, pearl onions, brussel sprouts, garlic, shallots and beets. Chop them until all veggies are approximately the same size (no need to cut pearl onions, they're so small!). Cover the root veggies with your choice of spice. I used rosemary and salt and olive oil. Broil until tops are browned, then flip the veggies once, and broil until the tops are brown again. Then, they're done!

Remember that the broiler and the oven can be "run" at the same time, but the oven gets to about 500 degrees when the broiler is on. So consider cooking more than one thing at the same time, or overlapping a little bit to improve your timing.


Dessert: You'll have to ask Amy and Danielle, the dessert masters this month!









Thanks for reading! Until February, my friends.

Update to: Big Steve and Singin' D

Hey everyone, just a quick announcement. Since my last posting, Big Steve and Singin' D have gotten engaged! Congratulations to 2 wonderful friends and a great couple.

I'm not saying that my BarufFeast was the CAUSE of their engagement, but it didn't hurt! (See quote above...)

Big Steve and Singin' D

When your house is stocked with food like mine is, and friends are willing to contribute to the meal, ANY day can turn into a dinner party. Thanks Steve for bringing home the bacon (chicken thighs, actually) for the main course on this one...

Danielle... thanks for bringing the music!

Hearty Butternut Squash/Yam soup (Not for my carnivorous readers)
You'll need a food processor for this one. Any kind will do, but I have this one: BAM!
Total prep/cooking time: 1 hour.

What the websites and cookbooks DON'T tell you about butternut squash soup is the following... (shh... get closer it's so freakin easy, it will make your head spin).
1. Buy a butternut squash that has no breaks in its skin - this is crucial, as the inside of a broken-skinned squash is likely rotten.Wash/scrub the outside of 1 large yam or sweet potato
2. Cut both lengthwise and put into a glass pan with 1 inch of water. Cook at 375 for like an hour.
(Dude, just poke some holes in it first and then put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, then you only have to cook it for 30 minutes)
3. Sautee 1 full, diced onion in garlic and olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan (crisp up some bacon in here if you don't care about this remaining a vegetarian dish). Pour in 32 ounces of veggie broth (or, again chicken broth if you're a vehement carnivore) and bring to a boil.
4. Scoop out the insides of the squash (the skin you can't eat) and the sweet potato (or keep the sweet potato skin on... i did) and then cut them into 1.5-2.5 inch cubes and add these cubes to the boiling broth/onion mixture
5. Let boil, covered for approx 20-25 minutes
6. Transfer 1/4 of the mixture to the food processor at a time until all of the mixture is blended.
7. Add, to taste: cumin, cinnamon and/or finely ground cardamom. Serve with uber-crusty ciabatta bread and BAM! (too much Emeril?)

Toast the bread first.



Props to Mom for this recipe and for talking me through my mild freakout from having stupidly blended the RAW yams and squash (which, by the way, still works fine)







Chicken thighs stuffed with Spinach and Asiago
Braised chicken thighs stuffed with a basic mixture of sauteed spinach and any hard (I chose Asiago) cheese mixture. If you want the mixture to be more viscous, add some bread crumbs (retrospective recommendation).
Throw em (already stuffed) in the oven at 425-450 and cook for about 20 minutes, covered. Remove foil and put one piece of asiago atop each thigh and then broil for an additional 5 minutes to make them slightly crispy.


Side of Kale chips
Those who have read previous postings may be starting to notice a trend here. This is THE best way to make Kale, my favorite green veggie. Just add lime/lemon.

I purchased an entire Kale plant from Orchard View for $3!!

Dessert: Baked Enterprise Apples

Also, so easy. Shh...
Ok- so core 6 apples, put them into a crock pot, pour in 4 cups of water and add allspice, cinnamon, ground ginger and honey to the apples while they're in there. Put the lid on, put it on high and cook for 4 hours. Or (for us working folks) cook for 8 hours on low. Vanilla ice cream goes great with it and you can use the water for a hot apple cider now!



Happy meals,
D

Impromptu challenge (1 hour notice)

My friend Steve and I were heading into Philly, so I offered a pre-Philly dinner if he stopped by early enough. Here's what I came up with:

I'm on a tilapia kick. So a lot of the upcoming recipes will have it.

Main Course: Curry Tilapia with white wine reduction.
2/3 flour and 1/3 curry powder act as a quick coating before pan-searing the tilapia in a tiny bit of canola oil. Once complete, remove the filets and add 1/2 cup of dry white wine to the pan to extract the "good stuff" renderings (the sizzling is normal) and pour those over the fish

Side dish: Lemon/Parmesan Toasted Israeli Couscous with peas. Leave it in the oven for 20 minutes after adding the lemon and cheese and it gets even better.

Vegetable: Newfound holy grail of easy side-dishes: Frozen spinach! Thawed and cooked with olive oil and a little cayenne pepper.

Sorry, no photos today. Next time.

-D

BarufFeast 2: Middle East, mild

BarufFeast 2. Theme: Middle East meets America
Guests: 9 (Seth, Anna, Glen, Jess, Adam, Liz, Terry, Gina)

Thanks to all who attended! I apologize for the delay in posting. Here goes!

The appetizer: homemade lemon/garlic hommous with toasted pita. Got a blender, chick peas, tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon? Then you can make it too! The core of the hommous is the soaked chick pea. I find it easiest to use canned chick peas, but if you have the time, and desire a smaller carbon footprint, use dried chick peas, and soak them yourself. (These folks know all about this: Hummus blog).



App #2: Homemade Eggplant baba ghanoush (Thanks to Liz/Adam) over toasted (Wegman's) semolina loaf


The salad (Vegan): Mixed greens and arugula with goddess dressing (thanks to my brother Russ for this recipe). Equal parts Tahini, Bragg's amino (or lite soy sauce), apple cider (or other flavored) vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil; lemon juice, dried parsley and garlic (to taste), pinch of sugar. Mix well. If you want, you can purchase it at Trader Joes!






The main course: Grilled kebabs of cubed chicken breasts/thighs, cubed bell peppers, white mushrooms, yellow onion and lime (from my own lime tree), marinated for 24 hours in a cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon and olive oil (thanks again to Liz for this spontaneous off-the-cuff recipe).

2 Small tips on cooking kebabs: 
1.breast and thighs on the same kebab: cut the breast chunks larger than the thigh chunks so that the breast and thighs cook at the same pace.
2. do NOT use sliced mushrooms- they don't stay on the kebab. Use WHOLE white/button mushrooms instead.

My new lime tree:

The accompanying wines: (Thanks to Adam!)
Red: d'Anezon Cote du Rhone (French, 2008)
White: Gaia Notios (Greek, 2010)        [*My personal favorite pairing of the evening*]
Champagne: Piper Sonoma Brut-Cali (California)

Dessert: Cookies, cinnamon buns and ice cream, OH MY!
"T" (from our famous sister blog, The AfterDinnerSneeze) blessed us with his home-made ginger chocolate chip cookies. Some of us even made our own open-faced ice cream sandwiches with chocolate/vanilla ice cream.

Next BarufFeast to be announced shortly! I'm looking forward to seeing more of my blog-readers there!

-D

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Happy 34th Anniversary to Russell and Marie! To celebrate, we did the following:

Mixed green and arugula salad with lemon, olive oil, dijon mustard and pepper dressing

Rustic Boule-style loaf 

So, I was a bit torn on the dinner-portion. When I lived in Madrid, I was very accustomed to making (screwing up, at first) paella. But once I mastered it, I made it regularly. Since my return to the states, I made it only one time! My rice-making adventures have been almost exclusively with risotto.

So what's a fella to do for his parent's anniversary? Pae-sotto is the answer, folks!

Scallop, clam and asparagus Pae-sotto with saffron and chardonnay, a slight modification to the traditional scallop and mushroom risotto recipe in the linked book above.

Accompanying the Pae-sotto was pan seared (any white) fish. I used Tilapia. Patted in flour, then pan seared, topped with a diced tomato and pineapple, cilantro, lime and lime zest and thai chili salsa, the basics of which came from here, I improvised the rest.

Vegetable side dish was roasted yellow squash and zuchini topped with "Marrakesh" seasoning (Thyme, cinnamon, cumin and coriander) and olive oil.

Thai breakfast

So, it's not actually a breakfast that they eat in Thailand, but I noticed how much this tastes like a Thai meal:
Green tea with fresh grated ginger and peanut butter toast!

To get the most ginger taste, use 1 green tea bag and grate about 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger (skin and all) into a measuring cup. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then pour through a tea filter into a cup. Add some honey and lemon and enjoy the peanut/ginger flavors!