yummy steaks

With the warmer weather we had in Rhode Island on Saturday, I brought out the grill, set it up in the back yard and grilled some tasty pork chops. I used a pork rub that I sprinkled moderately on both sides before slapping on the grill, then I basted (both sides for my chops, one side for my husband's) with a sweet chipotle sauce I found at the grocery store earlier that day. It was actually in the aisle with the croutons (and salad dressing) and that's how I found it.

Sunday I grilled some of the dry aged eye round roast that I had frozen a while ago. I sprinkled with a "barbecue" seasoning mix I picked up a while ago. It's a big container so I'll have it for the entire summer. Definitely tasty - it gave the meat a little bit of a smoky flavor as if I had actually used the smoking chips. I'm thinking that maybe I'll break out the smoking chips this coming weekend after my trip to the zoo.

Prime Rib

So I made the prime rib last night and it came out really good, in my opinion. The outside was nice and crusty and flavorful :) And it had enough seasoning to not be bland, like when you order it at a restaurant.

Tonight for supper, I heated it by cutting it into slices, cutting it off the bone and placing it in hot, seasoned beef stock made from water, 'better than bouillon' super beef concentrate yummies and some steak grill seasonings. (Just make sure the stock doesn't boil - meat will become tough if it does.)

Served it with some white rice and broccoli... and the au jus that resulted from the reheating was AWESOME on the rice. Definitely a way to think about making beef in the future!

Off for now, thinking of what to make for tomorrow. Some kind of chicken is my guess. I should tak it out of the freezer now, huh?

Graduation Party

We had my mom's surprise graduation party on Saturday and I got all the food done in the nick of time!

Made the madeleines in advance - lime-almond-honey flavored! And I made the pina colada cake fresh on Saturday. It would have been better had the waitress at the restaurant known how to carry a cake and if they had refrigerated it LIKE I TOLD THEM and the whipped cream underneath the fruit was still there and hadn't dissolved or melted into the cake.

Oh - and I guess it doesn't matter if the Portuguese pork and little neck dish (pork alentajara or something like that) tastes like there's any wine or not, it does - and I can't eat it. So the three small cubes of pork I ate are still attacking my head with unrelenting diligence. But the Aleeve and sinus tabs are working fairly well.

Truffle fever

I think it might be a truffle night tonight. I need to make some for the weekend anyway, so what's wrong with a head start???

The question is, what flavor or flavors should I make? I love making (and eating) the smores, but those are really more a confection than a true truffle. And when you want chocolate, you could be terribly disappointed to find marshmallow in the center.

Cooking Class!!!

So I have cake class tonight - I'm hoping one of the topics covered includes brushing a cake with a flavored syrup to impart additional flavor and help seal in crumbs before it comes to the crumb coating stage of cake decorating. It would also be fantastic if they covered fondant and gumpaste, but I think my luck ends on this one. Chef Joe isn't much of a decorator so unless the girl with a degree in pastry arts is there, (I apologize that I don't remember her name at the moment) these two topics will definitely not be covered.

Definitely looking forward to the class, especially since the timing is perfect with all the baking I will be doing this weekend.

I'll post later on the results of my last dry-aging, my rearranged kitchen, and other food-worthy topics.