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Tag Archives: Food Blog Event
Heather of Sherry Trifle is the Tuesday with Dorie (TWD) host this week and she picked a very refreshing dessert, the Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread. I have always thought about making gingerbread or gingerbread cookies with fresh ginger but never have. I am so glad Dorie created this recipe, it is really lovely.
The recipe calls for fresh ginger, dried ginger and stem ginger (I could not find so I used candied baking ginger) as well as cloves and cinnamon, lucky for us, I still had some of that lovely cinnamon bark so I used that. In addition to molasses (which I forgot how much I liked until I licked the spoon) there is melted bittersweet chocolate and pieces of chocolate mixed into the batter. I was suppose to frost the finished gingerbread with more chocolate but opted to keep it simple and on the light side. Overall, we like it as it is moist, spicy, light and really refreshing. Perfect after a nice meal or as a simple afternoon snack with a nice cup of espresso.
Thank you Heather for hosting!
This gingerbread is also the dessert for our Recession/Depression dinner series.
It is definitely winter here in the city, it is cold and makes you instantly think of comfort. The entire walk home from Bart, I thought about what sort of comfort food I could make with what little food is in our house. On nights like these I am happy making a warm, simple, and comforting meal for us to linger over.
I have had this butternut squash sitting on the counter for almost a month now, just waiting to be eaten. I was amazed when I sliced it open, how there were hardly any seeds and how vibrant the color was. The shade of orange was so intense that it was almost tempting not to cook it and definitely not to overcook it! While I sauteed some shallots and garlic with a bit of olive oil, I plainly seasoned a Pork Loin roast with salt and pepper and slipped it into the oven. After, the shallots and garlic were soft and slightly golden I added the chunks of butternut squash and cooked them until they began to caramelize.
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I was pretty excited, as I am sure rest of the Tuesday with Dorie bakers where as well, when I found out that Dorie would be our lovely hostess for this weeks challenge. I was equally as excited when I found out that Dorie picked the French Pear Tart. I have been dying to make a Pear Tart all winter and have not had a chance to do so. We had a dinner party to go on Sunday and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity.
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Most people either love or hate New Years. I always feel that it is one of those “over-rated” holidays with too many expectations and the end result is never what your fantasize it will be. Lenny still has hope, even though he can not remember one standing out over the others. This would be the first New Years Eve we have spent at our home as we are usually on the E. Coast. Therefore, we wanted to make it extra special with the hopes of it being one that stands out. In the early planning phase we talked to our friends Jeff and Andy to see what they were up too and before we knew it we were planning a sit down dinner for 12, one that would be similar to our ever so popular French Bistro dinner. But where would we go?
This time we would be going to Argentina! We started researching the food of Argentina almost immediately and the task at hand was looking for cookbooks, this proved to be very difficult. We finally decided on one to use, Argentina Cooks! As well, we were really surprised by the heavy influence of Europe, particularly Spanish and Italian in the cuisine. At one point I felt I was planning a meal in Italy. So we put out our feelers and contacted a few people, to get their advise on menu planning. Sylvia of La Vida en Buenos Aires was a huge help in giving us some direction with the menu planning.
Since our 20 sq. ft. kitchen would not handle a dinner for 12, Jeff and Andy were more than accommodating to host the evening at their home. As well Jeff would be my cooking companion as when we did the French dinner. Jeff’s brother John took charge of decorating for the evening and Andy set up the very adult bar. The table was decorated in shades of white and silver with lots of white light and candles. Each place setting had a coordinating menu printed out in hues of pale blue. We wanted the dinner to be cozy so he moved the living room furniture into the dining area and created a nice little lounge area which had views of the kitchen, and then he moved the table into the living room by the fireplace. The room was magical and intimate, exactly what we had in-visioned for New Years!
Unfortunately the guest list was the hardest part of the evening as we wanted to be with everyone but due to space and budget we had to have limit the guest list to 12. To be able to share our evening with everyone we love we did a live web cast – which was very fun as we had family and friends from far sign in. Sort of your virtual dinner party!
Now to the food! We decided to add our own style into the menu planning and to take the hearty country food of Argentina and add a California twist to it, as well we wanted to make it a bit more formal. It was very important that the food we used be organic, seasonal and as local as possible as we wanted to utilize the farmer’s market as much as possible. The menu we planned would be 7 courses and would be paired with wines to compliment.
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I have learned more the past month, about the beef industry and the beef we purchase and eat, then I ever thought I would – this is a very good thing! Being a regular reader you know how I was appalled but intrigued, when I found out that the beef we purchased, while in Montana, was not from Montana; but, instead imported from either the USA, Mexico or Canada. Shortly after that post I received an email from Le Cense saying they were shipping us some steaks out to us. Now this was funny being we were just in Dillon, MT and did not have the access nor the resources to try out the beef while there. As well, due to this post, I had the pleasure of meeting Carrie of The Oliver Ranch Company, they hand-select Artisan Ranchers who produce delicious (we have yet to try, but am pretty sure of it) cuts of meat. Carrie enlightened me to how the industry works, from how the cattle is raised at birth to slaughter – it truly was fascinating and I cannot wait to suck all this knowledge in even more so in 2009.
But at this time I am going to go back to the steak tasting we did using one of the the Le Cense steaks and 3 other brands. While I was in Reno last week I sucked in my sister and brother inlaw as well as two friends to be the guinea pigs for our 1st Chez Us steak tasting. I used the Le Cense steak as well as two steaks I purchased at Whole Foods – one being grass feed and the other being hormone free (I will list the ranches later), the other two steaks I purchased at Raleys and they were just your run of the mill, “could be from the USA, Canada or Mexico” beef.
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This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.
What is a French Yule Log you say and how is it different from the Buches de Noel that the Daring Bakers made last December? In France you can buy two kinds of Yule log, either the Genoise and Buttercream type such as the Buches de Noel or what is more common which is a frozen Yule Log, which is very reminiscent of an ice cream cake, only it is not made of ice cream but rather chocolate mousse. In French this is called an entremets, which is sometimes translated in English as simply a cream dessert. When I first read the recipe I was definitely intimidated by the 18 pages of instruction, in fact, I seriously reconsidered making it on and off for a couple weeks. Then as with all challenges, I just decided to do it, I knew I could this! So, I came up with a plan and decided to prepare this special dessert for our annual crab fest with our good friends, Evelyn, Will and MEM. WAIT! There’s more »
Vibi from La Casserole Carrée is the hostess for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie challenge. Even though Vibi is not American nor will she be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, she picked Dorie’s Twofer Thanksgiving Pie. Thank you!
We are in Montana celebrating with family this week and lucky for you all, the family loves to eat, so we (or I) decided to make the Twofer Pie for a little pre-Thanksgiving indulging.
The pie is two pies rolled into one: pumpkin and pecan. The recipe is pretty straightforward, make Dorie’s wonderful crust recipe, add a basic pumpkin pie filling and top it with a pecan filling. The pie smells wonderful cooking with the two different flavors blending. I did have to cook it more than the recipe called for, probably due to altitude and it did come out rather soft still; but, the flavors and texture were really nice. The end verdict – it was not my favorite Dorie recipe. I would probably make two separate pies, but it was fun to try.
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