eggs & cheese & soufflé, oh my

Last night in class I made hollandaise sauce and a poached egg. Piled them together with sauteed spinach and an english muffin to make Eggs Florentine. It was a fantastic dinner! Then I made a cheese soufflé. I had never had such without chocolate, but it was a tasty little dinner too! These are the dishes I made myself- oui.

It was the 8 cheeses I tasted before all this, and the linguini carbonera I tasted afterward that pushed me over the edge. I need a nice long walk today, and a stick of celery for dinner tonight to counter all that yummy goodness.

Results

The Red Wine Reduction was fan-freakin-tastic! Delectable, even with such a small amount of butter.

On the other hand, the Beurre Rouge was chock-full of butter. It was tasty, but not terribly pretty. Trying to balance the temperature, I accidentally let it get too hot. Thus it broke -- looking all coagulated and homely. We ate it anyway of course. But damn- that RWR was the big winner! I consider the whole night a success just for the learning experience.

Luckily, I did not have all the ingredients on hand to make Tapenade Verde until the next night. Good thing, because there was a lot of time consuming chopping for this stuff and it seemed to take forever. OK, but not great. It didn't have the magic that the one in class had. This one turned out like Tabouleh, which wasn't the goal. Will try again one day..

Lastly, on Sunday night I roasted asparagus tips from Farmers Market with Olive Oil, salt and pepper. So easy and delicious, will definitely use this cooking method again.

Steak Friday Plans

It's been awhile since we've done Steak Friday. But I'm really excited about a couple sauces I recently learned how to make, so we're doing it! Just the two of us, plus the hound in tow. Great!

Steak Friday is a tradition that my friend's family in Minnesota has done for years, quite simply: they eat steak - on Friday. So straightforward. So uncomplicated.

Anyway- the sauces: I made Beurre Blanc in class on Monday that was so good, I wanted some alone time with it. Truly phenomenal, a game-changer. Tonight, I am going to break new ground by doing essentially the same thing, except I will use red wine (to go with steak), thus it will be called Beurre Rouge. I will also make Red Wine Reduction, so that we may taste each and vote on which red/brown sauce we like best. I may attempt Beurre Blanc again because I brought home green beans that might be extra delicious sitting in a little tiny baby pool of BB. Lastly, I will attempt a chunky green sauce curiously named Salsa Verde, though it is not made with tomatillos, nor is it Mexican/Latin/Spanish/spicy, etc. So, I shall rename it.. hmmmmm.. "Tapenade Verde" paints a more accurate picture. First, I will smear it on bread, then I may top a little slice of cheese with it. Who knows what other fine applications I will discover once it's on the palate. Not sure what the soundtrack will be. Hoping to eat before midnight..

First Blog

Gee I hope this works... I want to talk about food, garden, home, art, maybe even music and other stuff on my mind and plate.