Greg's Benedict

The hubby has had a hankering for Eggs Benedict, and last weekend tried a recipe off the Internet, but forgot a key ingredient and it had triple the amount of lemon most recipes call for. Ahem.

So this Sunday he went with the Fiddlehead recipe, used crab, and although we were out of English muffins, Everything bagels were just fine. A yummy, sunny, Sunday morning breakfast!

Easter 2010

Easter Dinner was at our house this year - a gathering of long-time friends and family, people we've enjoyed many a meal with and a couple of new faces, a few folks missing and missed, all dear to our hearts.
A special pleasure to pull out the crystal, polish the silver, and, since I forgot to get chocolate bunnies, to make little bunny napkin folds.....In anticipation (it was Sunday afternoon after all) I set the champagne flutes out.
We started out with lox that our neighbor makes, the requisite deviled eggs, and a lusciously runny cheese, the Mt. Townsend Creamery Cirrus. And, miracle of miracles, Scharffenberger bubbly.
We made a Jerry's Double-smoked ham, soaked overnight in water and then baked slowly for 4 hours and glazed with a Honey Mustard Bourbon glaze (thanks to our friend Elizabeth for sending some magnificent stout-hearted Bourbon from Bourbon country), accompanied by oven-roasted cauliflower and beets, vinaigrette potato salad, fabulously garlicky and lemony carrots rapé, and really flaky wonderful warm biscuits. The biscuit maker was embarrassed thinking they'd failed to rise and brought some store-bought challah - not even close. The biscuits were a hit. Followed by a delicious green salad dressed with mandarin oranges, nuts, and craisens in a light oil and vinegar dressing.
Wine flowed - Layer Cake Malbec, AN/2, Guigal Coates du Rhones, Dry Creek Heritage Zinfandel. La Posta Cucina Blend, Kung Fu Girl Riesling, Goats du Roam Rosé. We also enjoyed a slightly effervescent "100% Good" Elderflower Pressé.
Dessert was fabulous - a coconut and lime cheesecake with whipped cream, I'm hoping Joan will share the recipe. We have one non-cheesecake eater in the crowd, and happened to have some little oranges that needed to be used, so I made some Ambrosia out of them. A friend recently sent us the new Edna Lewis Southern Cooking cookbook, and I used her recipe. On the facing page was a recipe for Glazed Strawberries - you cook a sugar syrup to 300°F, then dip fresh (dry) strawberries in it creating a little crystal sugar glaze on them - really quite delightful.
The light-weights peeled off about this time, but the rest of us finished the evening with a jolly round of Apples to Apples.
It is spring, and we are truly lucky and well-blessed. So many reasons to be thankful.

Home alone

Fog in Juneau prevented John from making it home tonight - we had planned to actually go out to dinner! So I stopped at the grocery store late, picked up some frozen cocktail shrimp (fondly recalling the coffee can size we used to get from Petersburg...).
Boiled up some capellini, sauteed leeks and garlic in butter, added mushrooms, some snow peas, tossed it a bit, added a dollop of white wine (that would be the lovely and drinkable Yalumba Viognier), let that come to a boil, then reduced to a simmer, added the shrimp to heat through.
Plated it all up with a tossed green salad, and a side of a really good mango, strawberries, and navel oranges. And finished the lovely and drinkable Yalumba Viognier.
John sent a text to say he was watching a really good NBA game. How nice for him.

The Remains of the Day

Got to spend time at home this weekend, so went all out: Made a batch of granola, made bread. John marinated sliced beef for beef teriyaki then went of to a wine training seminar (tough work sometimes) so I sliced up veggies, cleaned the acre of real estate off the Romaine, and made roasted turnips.
It was a lovely dinner of beef teriyaki on brown rice (shades of the Fiddlehead), turnips roasted with rosemary and bay, green salad with grapefruit and onion vinaigrette, fresh honey butter oatmeal bread (double shades of the Fiddlehead) crispy apples and Veramonte SB.
Then we watched Helvetica, a fascinating movie about the font. Who knew? Really - if you can, watch it. Nancy

Just like old times

Up early to bake:
A quiche Lorraine for the birthday brunch today, and a rustic apple tart for dinner's dessert, all before 7 am.
Not sure that schedule agrees with me anymore, if it ever did.
The tart used the left over pie crust from the quiche, involved sautéing sliced apples in some butter with a bit of sugar until lightly browned and then putting them on the crust, folding over and baking for about 30 minutes, then sprinking with a bit of brown sugar as it comes out of the oven. Got the recipe from Bistro Cooking, a nice little book of French recipes by Patricia Wells.

Thanks, Julia Child

So, I'm probably the last foodie I know to see "Julie and Julia," and we watched it last night, after finally thawing out from the Polar Bear Dip at Auke Rec, my first. It really lit a fire under the hubby, who is, as we speak, carmelizing onions for French Onion Soup. (Fiddlehead recipe, not Julia's) Speaking of the Fiddlehead Cookbook, I sent a copy to our exchange student's family in Germany, and Evi L. of Gerlingen is making an entire meal from it for friends for dinner tonight. We'll keep you posted, or maybe get her on the blog. She loves Alaskan seafood and Italian cooking, so will have some great thoughts I bet. Happy New Year!

9 servings of fruits and vegetables PER DAY

Saw in the NY Times that we are all supposed to get nine servings of fruits and veggies per day.
Holy cats. (neither vegetable nor fruit) That's a lot. So I reviewed that situation.
1) Maybe some fruit at breakfast on the granola. Can we count the OJ?
2) Perhaps a lettuce leaf on the sandwich at lunch, maybe a tomato. Does that count?
3) Vegetable, salad, fruit at dinner. Hmm. Counting this way, we are at five. We need new math!
Further investigation reveals "they" mean 4 1/2 cups of veggies and fruits. OK. Now we are talking.
So for dinner:
One baked red potato, (lots of butter - dairy doesn't count) with sauteed mushrooms, garlic, and green onions, steamed broccoli, with some sauteed bacon bits, top it all with melted cheese, followed by a salad of red romaine, aruglua, avocado, tomato dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and a bit of basil, and then some grapes and 1/2 fresh apple. Can I count the wine? (CMS White by Hedges)
And Henry Mancini's Christmas album playing. Schmaltz, but the kind that is healthy in small doses.
I think we've hit the target. Now for a Hydrox cookie.