THE Meatloaf

Today Brad and I made THE meatloaf. This is the best meatloaf I have ever had, and it's our third or fourth time making it.

The recipe is from Gourmet February 08 issue. You can find it here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Meatloaf-241512

Yes, that's prunes in the meatloaf. Trust me, it makes the dish, and yet you don't even taste it.

To accompany the meatloaf I made Gourmet's unstuffed sweet and sour cabbage, which you can find here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Unstuffed-Sweet-and-Sour-Cabbage-350572

I made it without the meat, and with raisins substituting for cranberries.

The finished dish!

Making Chicken Stock

Here's the chicken stock I made today (in the beginning stages). I cook it for 8 hours on the low setting. I throw in onion, carrots, parsley, garlic, a bay leaf, cloves, bones and a little vinegar.

After it's cooled, I put it in ziploc bags and store it in the fridge.

Coconut Macaroons with Stevia

I've been eating too much sugar lately, so I decided to find something that would satisfy my sweet cravings but still be sugar free. Enter Stevia. I took the recipe from this website:

http://www.candida-cure-recipes.com/coconut-macaroon-recipe.html

The macaroons had a wonderful texture, but they were too sweet. I didn't even add all the stevia recommended--I used about 3/4 of the amount recommended. Next time, I will cut the amount of stevia in half.

COCONUT MACAROONS WITH STEVIA

3 large egg whites
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups dried, unsweetened, fine shredded coconut (the finer the better)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried ground stevia leaf (note: original recipe says 1 tsp, but I thought it was too sweet)

optional – ½ teaspoon cinnamon


Whip the egg whites. I whipped them by hand instead of machine because according to Julia Child, you must be able to do it by hand in order to understand the "vagaries of eggs". Don't you love her? My arm got sore, so Brad and I switched off.



Fold in the dry ingredients.



Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, about a tablespoon for each macaroon. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 325 degrees. (Mine actually took 25 minutes!). Macaroons are done when the tops are golden brown.



Voila!

Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Julia Child's Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce)

Tonight's dinner party was a success! We had so much delicious food, and everyone left with happy bellies and faces despite the horrid heat wave.

Dinner Party Menu:

-Creamy Carrot and Sage Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

-Tossed Salad with Mushrooms, Cucumber, Tomato, Red Onion, and Parmesan Crisps

-Julia Child's Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce)

-Bananas Three Ways: Rosemary and Whiskey Bananas with Vanilla Ice Cream, Bananas and Sour Cream, Toasted Coconut Banana Muffins


Creamy Carrot and Sage Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

See "A Sneak Peak" post for the ingredients. I garnished this with some sour cream and bacon (not shown). This is such a delicious and satisfying soup, and the cinnamon croutons make it even more outstanding.



Parmesan Crisps with Herbes de Provence

Ron and Fran made these crisps, and they were sooooo good!



Tossed Salad with Mushrooms, Cucumber, Tomato, Red Onion

Ron and Fran brought this salad. It was the perfect refreshing accompaniment to the chicken.



Julia Child's Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce)

Wow. Sure, Julia Child's dishes take a long time to make, but the effort is so worth it. This chicken was so juicy and tender, and the hollandaise sauce that accompanied it was full of flavor. Brad insisted that we must make this dish again. And again. The sauce is a variation on the standard hollandaise sauce because it uses the pan butter drippings and white wine instead of just plain butter.



Rosemary and Whiskey Bananas with Vanilla Ice Cream

I got this recipe from Eric Ripert's blog, and it is so delicious (and unusual!). I omitted the pepper, but everything else was the same. You make the dish in the toaster--how easy is that? (Eric Ripert actually has a whole bunch of dishes on his blog that you make in the toaster oven. )

The man is a culinary genius, and this is just one of his interesting and delicious creations. I highly recommend trying it yourself.

http://aveceric.com/category/recipes



Desert was really 3 banana deserts in one (hence the name "Banana Three Ways"). I also served my sour cream and banana dish (see "$50 a week challenge" post) and toasted coconut banana muffins. I was surprised that the coconut banana muffins actually came out tasting great after a toasting and a dab of butter! We gave some to Ron and Fran to take home, but made them promise to toast them with butter before eating them.

Mayonnaise, Take 2

TARRAGON DEVILED EGGS AND BACON ON TOAST : TAKE TWO

I am not one to take defeat lightly, so after my mayonnaise failure yesterday, I was determined to master mayonnaise today. I made sure to add enough olive oil, and sure enough, it got thicker and thicker!



Once it was thick enough, I added chopped tarragon. This really makes the dish.



Next, add the chopped hard boiled eggs



Place on toast. Garnish with tarragon. I discovered that it is much better to chop the bacon into small pieces instead of leaving it as strips. It's just too clumsy to eat when the bacon isn't chopped up.

The finished dish!

A Sneak Peak: Creamy Carrot and Sage Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

We're having a couple of friends over for dinner, so I made some creamy carrot soup ahead of time. I got the idea of cinnamon croutons from Hubert Keller's dish (Hearty Carrot and Petite Pea Soup with Cinnamon Croutons) on Top Chef Masters.

http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/hearty-carrot-and-petite-pea-soup-with-cinnamon-croutons

I'm going to make his soup one day, but for now, this is my version.

Ingredients:

carrots roasted with sage and olive oil
sour cream
half and half
cinnamon
garlic
ginger
onions sauteed in butter
homemade beef stock

Ezekiel bread
cinnamon
olive oil

It is delicious! For dinner tonight I"ll garnish it with a dollop of sour cream, croutons and chopped bacon.

Coconut Banana Muffin Disappointment

Brad and I are going to a picnic tomorrow, so I made some coconut banana muffins to take. I followed this recipe from Gourmet magazine:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banana-Coconut-Muffins-109473

Brad did a taste test and said that they were too dense and a bit dry. It must have had to do with the addition of the dried coconut. My previous banana muffin recipe is much better--it's basically just like this recipe, but without the dried coconut. (See "A (Not Very) Lazy Sunday" post) The result is moist and not too sweet.

But they look so pretty...

Eggs Baked in Ramekin (Ouefs en Cocotte)

For breakfast today, while Brad was out surfing I made myself Julia Child's Ouefs en Cocotte, or Eggs Baked in Ramekins.



Here's the recipe in pictures:

Boil some asparagus until they are tender, then place them in iced water to stop the cooking process. Mince and add them to a buttered ramekin. Add a tablespoon of cream and some chopped parsley.



Put the ramekin in a pan of simmering water (3/4" water) until the cream is hot.


Add 2 eggs, then put one more tablespoon of cream, a bit of parsley, and a pat of butter on top. Transfer the whole thing (including the pan and water!) to a 375 degree oven for 7-10 minutes. (Mine actually took longer than 10 minutes--closer to 15 minutes!) Take the dish out of the oven when the whites are set but still tremble.



The finished dish! (I took a bite out of it.) Look at that runny yolk. :)



On another note, all of this cooking has its rewards! Last night Brad treated me to a delicious sushi dinner at Sakura for all my hard work :)

The $50 a Week Challenge

You know how Rachel Ray has her show "$40 a Day" in which she tries to eat all her meals in various cities for "just $40 a day"? Well, I always thought to myself, "Big deal--$40 a day is a lot of money for just one day. She should try $20 a day. Or even $10 a day.." (Can you imagine that show? Hello McDonalds!)

Inspired by Rachel Ray, I originally wanted to challenge myself to cook every meal for just $40 a week. Then I realized that no matter how I stretch my dollars, that just isn't going to happen. I'd rather not sacrifice quality to save a few extra bucks, so I settled on the more reasonable goal of $50 a week.

Friday is my grocery shopping day, and since I've been cooking a lot (all 2 weeks worth :P), it's been sort of crazy. I go to at least 3 places to get all my groceries: Whole Foods for meats (organic when possible), Ralphs for veggies and fruits, and Trader Joes for the rest (butter, eggs, cream, etc--I prefer organic dairy, and TJ's has it cheaper than Whole Foods does). When I can, I also go to farmers markets and the Santa Monica Coop.

Today I bought $110 worth of groceries for both Brad and I. That's $55 each--not bad, but I didn't reach my goal of $50.. :( Maybe next week!

Today I came up with this simple but amazing desert:

BANANAS AND SOUR CREAM WITH CINNAMON



I remember seeing some recipes for sour cream banana cake and pancakes, and thought, "Why not just cut out the extra flour and sugar?" The resulting recipe is healthier, but still satisfies your sweet tooth.

Ingredients:
1 banana
A dollop of sour cream
a pinch of sea salt
cinnamon
stevia to taste

Slice the banana into coins, put a dollop of sour cream on top, a pinch of sea salt, cinnamon, and then finally sprinkle with a very light dusting of stevia. It is so good!

A close up of my second helping:



DEVILED EGGS AND BACON ON TOAST



I wanted so much to make mayonnaise by hand as Julia Child instructs in her cookbook, so I decided to make deviled eggs for lunch today. I'd made mayo before from scratch in the food processor; it was a piece of cake. However, Ms. Child said that one should really know how to do it by hand in order to gain a good understanding of the egg.

So to become "one with the egg", I whipped, and whipped, and drizzled oil, and more oil... I guess I stopped before adding enough oil, because the mixture never really gelled like it did in the processor. Oh well. I still made the deviled eggs with my runny mayo, and it was fine. File this mayo under "works in progress".

Ingredients:

2 hard boiled eggs
Handmade mayo made from 2 egg yolks, olive oil, mustard, pepper, salt, hot sauce
1 Niiman ranch bacon strip
1 slice toasted Ezekiel bread

The hard boiled eggs


The mayo "work in progress"...


LEAF'S SIDE SALAD

I did eat out once this week, at a raw restaurant called "Leaf". I got their side salad, which turned out to be quite large. It was surprisingly tasty--much better than their collard wraps. There are some crispy nuggets of raw nuttiness under all that yellow sauce.



LEFTOVERS FOR LUNCH

Yesterday's lunch: leftover boeuf bourguignon with added cauliflower and watercress. Oh, this dish just gets better and better the longer you wait!

A Flurry of Dishes

Days off tend to make me lethargic, but today was an exception. Chalk it up to the culinary wave I've been riding, perhaps. Instead of dilly dallying, I woke up, vacuumed the house (twice in one week??), furminated my bunny (i.e. brushed her to take out all the fur she's been shedding), went grocery shopping for stevia, and then made a whole flurry of dishes.

There were hits, there were misses, and there were what I like to call "works in progress".

Let's start with the hits...

CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER SOUP

I tweaked this recipe just a bit by using fresh ginger instead of powdered, a red onion instead of 2 leeks, no celery, both homemade beef and chicken stock (instead of just chicken stock), and a touch of sour cream and coconut milk to thin the soup out instead of half and half. I love this soup! It's creamy, but not heavy. It's also low on the glycemic index, unlike the carrot and sweet potato soups I've been making. Just one cauliflower yields a lot of soup. I also roasted some cauliflower florets in the oven to add to the soup as a garnish in the end.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cream-of-Cauliflower-Soup-350616



Before putting it in the blender..


PLUM RASPBERRY AND RED WINE COMPOTE

I had some leftover red wine from last night's beef stew, so I found this recipe on epicurious. I prepared it the night ahead, and it was just delicious the next day for dessert. Brad put it over vanilla ice cream while I was happy just eating it plain. For this dessert, it is important to give it time for the flavors to meld; I had a taste yesterday, and it was definitely not as good as it was today.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Raspberry-and-Red-Wine-Compote-5629

after 24 hours of marinating in the red wine syrup reduction


Brad's half eaten ice cream with fruit


The red wine syrup..


RED WINE BARBECUE SAUCE

Brad requested burgers for dinner, so I made hamburger with a red wine BBQ sauce (yes, I was trying to find a way to get rid of the extra red wine from last night!). It turned out great, and was so easy to make.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Red-Wine-Barbecue-Sauce-109711



Now let's move on to the "works in progress"...

FRIED POLENTA

I had a bunch of leftover polenta from last night, so I wanted to make broiled polenta for lunch. I cut some of the leftovers into slices, coated them with some olive oil, and put it under the broiler and waited.... And waited.... There was no browning whatsover. I took it out, put it in the toaster oven and tried broiling it again. And again, nothing.

Finally, I decided to eat my failed broiling experiment and try frying instead. I heated the oil till it started smoking, dried off one piece of polenta with a paper towel, and then put it in the olive oil. After 4 minutes on each side, I was left with a golden piece of fried goodness. It was heaven. Too bad I only made one piece :P

I tried making this again for Brad for dinner, but it just didn't crisp up like it did earlier. This is definitely a work in progress.

My one perfect piece of fried polenta:


My lunch today: fried polenta with leftover boeuf bourguignon



HAMBURGER WITH AVOCADO, SOUR CREAM, FRIED POLENTA AND RED WINE BBQ SAUCE

This was a "leftovers" meal. The BBQ sauce was the best part!



Finally, we've come to the "disasters" section. There was only one disaster today...

DOUBLE FUDGE BROWNIE (with Stevia)

I have never cooked with Stevia, but I figured I should start because sugar is not good for me and I don't want to get diabetes. I searched online for stevia recipes and found this one. I made some substitutions (butter instead of margarine, half and half instead of skim milk, 1/2 gluten free baking mix and 1/2 regular flour, and pure stevia extract instead of the stevia blend. I guess all of these substitutions was my first mistake. My second mistake was that I didn't measure out the stevia, but added it in little scoops to taste. The problem was, I ended up making it way too sweet! I tried to remedy this by adding more chocolate/butter/half and half. The result was just a mess. It stuck to the cupcake mold, was too moist inside, and was not sweet enough in the end.

On the bright side, I whipped my first egg whites by hand into peaks! Brad helped---it sure takes a lot of beating to make those peaks :P

http://www.cookingwithstevia.com/web/desserts07.shtml

The brownie tops (the rest stuck to the pan)



Coming out of the oven



The mess...



(The disaster didn't stop us from polishing off the whole plate of brownie tops tonight, though.)

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

Today I attempted to cook a dish I can't pronounce. In fact, it's a dish with a name I can't even spell--I need to google it just to make sure I'm spelling it right each time!

I finally bought Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It's $40, and I was lucky to find it at a Border's in the Valley--it's been sold out everywhere else! Of course, the famous recipe from the movie Julie and Julia is Boeuf Bourguignon, so I couldn't wait to make this recipe. I bought all the ingredients except the bacon rind (they didn't have it where I went). I served it with creamy polenta, made from white organic cornmeal that Brad's mom gave us. The polenta was amazing--I cooked it slowly for an hour on the stove with this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Buttered-Polenta-233990

The Boeuf Bourguignon was tasty, but I think I seared the meat a little too long because it was not as soft as I expected it to be. The sauce was also very thin, so I had to thicken it with some arrowroot (trying to boil it down didn't do much). I had a lot of leftovers, so I'm looking forward to having this tomorrow because the flavors will only get better.

Boeuf Bourguignon recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Boeuf-Bourguignon-a-La-Julia-Child-148007


The meat after browning, before going into the oven with stock and wine.



The slow cooked grits



The sauce, thickened with arrowroot



The finished dish..