So my mom asked me today to think of some kind of fairly easy to make dessert for a spaghetti supper she's going to the Friday I'll be up on Cape Cod for a hockey tournament.
I'm thinking of something you can eat without cutlery; cookies, bars, etc... Keeping with the Italian influence, there's biscotti. Tiramisu and Spumoni are a little harder to accomplish if you're eating with your hands (though I've made Spumoni-inspired biscotti before!)
I'm trying to think of something a little between a cookie, bar or brownie, and trying not to think about my brownie-bottom cheesecakes. :) YUMMY! Maybe a cookie-bar hybrid.
Well, I'm off to pour over recipes - wish me luck!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Spring/Summer Preview
I'm already looking forward to the warmer weather and all the great food-related stuff that warm weather brings. Cookouts, barbecue, grilling, gardening and fresh, local produce!
And yes - there is a difference between grilling and barbecue. Grilling is a faster cooking method at higher tempteratures for smaller cuts of meat. Barbecue is a long cooking process at lower temperatures for larger cuts of meat. Last summer I barbecued a pork shoulder on a couple cedar planks. I would have liked more of a smoky flavor to it, but my husband loved it.
To remedy the lack of smokiness, I bought a couple bags of smoking chips in preparation for grilling season! I have one bag of hickory chips, one bag of mesquite chips, tons of ideas, and an appetite waiting for the delicious results!
A smoked barbecue turkey breast is probably highest on my list, though I'm not yet sure if I want to use the hickory or mesquite on the turkey. I think I'm leaning toward hickory.
I also have a hickory smoked ham in my freezer, and I don't always find that it's smoked ENOUGH. So that's another thought for my hickory chips.
Other great things about the warm weather - planting your own veggie garden. I've already started an indoor herb garden of basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary and thyme. I have chives and sage that grow WILD and CRAZY outside in my yard. I also plan to plant a couple varieties of tomatoes, some squash, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, and peppers, and hope to have a better harvest than last year when some sort of critters ran off with my biggest eggplant, and kept eating the zucchini and squash blossoms before they could turn into veggies! I already have my asparagus plant in the ground from last summer and need to remember not to dig it up when I plant this year's garden.
I also have a few baby raspberry bushes (more like miniature stalks) that a friend of ours gave us last summer along with one of those 'still alive but dormant' raspberry mini bushes that I happened to find one day when I was shopping recently. That one needs to be planted, though.
With the expanded 'crop' I think I will try to use the little area along my fence to plant a few of the things that spread as they grow rather than trying to confine them to the area that was my garden last year. I just need to fill in with a little dirt and I'll be ready for fresh produce in no time!
Once I get around to starting my seeds, I'll post an update with what I actually decided to plant! 'Happy Eating' until then!
And yes - there is a difference between grilling and barbecue. Grilling is a faster cooking method at higher tempteratures for smaller cuts of meat. Barbecue is a long cooking process at lower temperatures for larger cuts of meat. Last summer I barbecued a pork shoulder on a couple cedar planks. I would have liked more of a smoky flavor to it, but my husband loved it.
To remedy the lack of smokiness, I bought a couple bags of smoking chips in preparation for grilling season! I have one bag of hickory chips, one bag of mesquite chips, tons of ideas, and an appetite waiting for the delicious results!
A smoked barbecue turkey breast is probably highest on my list, though I'm not yet sure if I want to use the hickory or mesquite on the turkey. I think I'm leaning toward hickory.
I also have a hickory smoked ham in my freezer, and I don't always find that it's smoked ENOUGH. So that's another thought for my hickory chips.
Other great things about the warm weather - planting your own veggie garden. I've already started an indoor herb garden of basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary and thyme. I have chives and sage that grow WILD and CRAZY outside in my yard. I also plan to plant a couple varieties of tomatoes, some squash, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, and peppers, and hope to have a better harvest than last year when some sort of critters ran off with my biggest eggplant, and kept eating the zucchini and squash blossoms before they could turn into veggies! I already have my asparagus plant in the ground from last summer and need to remember not to dig it up when I plant this year's garden.
I also have a few baby raspberry bushes (more like miniature stalks) that a friend of ours gave us last summer along with one of those 'still alive but dormant' raspberry mini bushes that I happened to find one day when I was shopping recently. That one needs to be planted, though.
With the expanded 'crop' I think I will try to use the little area along my fence to plant a few of the things that spread as they grow rather than trying to confine them to the area that was my garden last year. I just need to fill in with a little dirt and I'll be ready for fresh produce in no time!
Once I get around to starting my seeds, I'll post an update with what I actually decided to plant! 'Happy Eating' until then!
More fun with Dry-Aging Beef!
So I went back to Armando & Sons market yesterday and bought a significant amount of beef.
3 of the last ribs of a standing rib roast for Prime Rib (there are 12 ribs, I believe, and the smaller the number of the rib, the smaller the rib's size) I think I got either ribs 10-12 or 9-11.
Half of either a rib eye roast or eye of round roast
1.6 lbs of flank steak
1 pound of sirloin tips
I marinated the flank steak in some of Goya's Mojo marinade - it's basically bitter orange juice, lemon juice, onion, garlic, and some other seasonings - for two hours. Then I seared it in a grill pan and sliced it for the best fajitas I've ever made at home.
The two large hunks of meat will be trimmed, washed, dried and left to age tonight, and the sirloin tips will be wrapped and frozen - when I defrost them, I'll marinate them in a terriyaki marinade overnight and grill those. I think we'll make those to kick off the grilling season once I think we're past all the snow and take the grill out.
3 of the last ribs of a standing rib roast for Prime Rib (there are 12 ribs, I believe, and the smaller the number of the rib, the smaller the rib's size) I think I got either ribs 10-12 or 9-11.
Half of either a rib eye roast or eye of round roast
1.6 lbs of flank steak
1 pound of sirloin tips
I marinated the flank steak in some of Goya's Mojo marinade - it's basically bitter orange juice, lemon juice, onion, garlic, and some other seasonings - for two hours. Then I seared it in a grill pan and sliced it for the best fajitas I've ever made at home.
The two large hunks of meat will be trimmed, washed, dried and left to age tonight, and the sirloin tips will be wrapped and frozen - when I defrost them, I'll marinate them in a terriyaki marinade overnight and grill those. I think we'll make those to kick off the grilling season once I think we're past all the snow and take the grill out.
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