Looking forward to dinner Wednesday at a place I've not tried before but that is supposed to be good. Some samples from the menu:

sounds fantastic. What are you gonna serve them with?

I'm just gonna serve this soup with some of deena's french bread, buttered, maybe toasted.

At the last second I decided to throw some fresh squash, zuchinni, celery, onion and a cut up sweet potato into the pot...cut up two of the blood oranges, mixed it with a can of diced tomatoes, mashed it up and dumped it over the top.

Just put it in the oven, we'll see what happens. Hopefully there will be sufficient salvageable juices for a fine sauce.

It seems hearty enough that I'll skip the starch and just serve it with some fresh bread.

I have been making some serious shee this week, highlighted with the Truffle Salt Bloor gave me.

I made risotto with saffron and truffle salt and chicken thighs baked in a white wine marinade.

Today I made a dip that was cannelini beans, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and thyme.

And for lunch proper we had this Creamy mushrooms and chicken with red pepper flakes that turned out Just Right.

Tonight:
Ribeye - I seared in a Le Cresuet, and used red wine and butter to make sauce out of the drippings. Very simple.

Garlic Mash Potatoes -

Boiled 2 whole garlics for 2 minutes. Then peeled them. I cooked that in butter for 20 minutes on low. Threw in some flour and let that bubble for 2 minutes. Added a cup of boiling milk and simmered for 2 minutes. Threw that in a blender until I had a sauce.

Boiled 4 Yukon Gold Potatoes and then mashed that with 4 tbls of butter, salt & pepper. I added the garlic sauce back in + 4 tbls of heavy cream, and parsley.

Creamed Spinach -
Boiled 6 bunches of spinach and drained and chopped. Sauteed an onion in butter and added the spinach. Then added a bechamel sauce that I had made earlier + 1/4 cup of cream. Salt & peppered.

It was all kind of heavy but I was looking for some comfort food.

I can't handle that much butter.

I don't think my heart can either.

This is from a series of recipes that was in a recent Real Simple magazine, basically healthy takes on comfort food. I've tried several and they are all quite delicious, of course your results may vary...But anyway, the mashed potatoes:

Ok, here's the complete article

I can comment on a lot of the individual recipes if anyone is interested.

Spent yesterday afternoon cooking up some carnitas that turned out quite tasty. Easy to make, but takes some time.

Poke lots of holes in a 4-5 pound pork butt, then salt and pepper it before searing on all sides. Then, cover with a can of coke (or 2), a beer (or 2), 3-4 sliced lemons, 3-4 cloves garlic, a large chopped onion, and a drained can of those jalapenos with onion and carrots. Add a healthy amount of cumin. Add water until covered and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 2 hours then remove from pot and allow to cool. Strain the liquid.

After pork has cooled, tear it into bite sized chunks and spread on a baking tray. Thinly slice an onion and lay over top of pork. Put in oven at 375 and roast until the edges get crispy. Baste with the strained liquid.

You can just eat the little chucks as a snack or toss 'em on tortillas or whatever else you wanna do. Makes good tortas as well.

Interesting...Mexicans prepare carnitas in an entirely different method.

Yeah, I know they are not authentic at all...but I found a recipe and have messed with it over the years and everyone I give these to like this seems to really like them.

How do you make 'em?

Hell, I buy them. I can go to my local market, buy a pound of carnitas with tortillas, rice, beans, salsa, cilantro and onions for $9.99. I can make plenty of tacos / burritos with that!

Yeah, I do that sometimes too. But sometimes I just feel a need to do some cooking and kill an afternoon.

So how was this joint?

Also, i'm making french onion soup from this recipe in a cookbook our friends made us for our wedding. I never would have thought to caramelize the onions in the oven, so although it's making the house a little warm, the lack of fuss is awesome.

French Onion Soup

Serves 6

Notes:

For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance. Alternatively, the onions can be prepared through step 1, cooled in the pot, and refrigerated for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe.
Ingredients:

Soup

* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
* 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices (Make sure you get Yellow)
* Table salt
* 2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
* 1/2 cup dry sherry
* 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (They recommend Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth )
* 2 cups beef broth (They recommend Pacific Beef Broth)
* 6 sprigs fresh thyme , tied with kitchen twine
* 1 bay leaf
* Ground black pepper

Cheese Croutons

* 1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
* 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

Directions:

For the soup:

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
3. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)
4. Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.
6. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

For the croutons:

1. While the soup simmers, arrange the baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in a 400-degree oven until the bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

To serve:

1. Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Man I love homemade French Onion. Incredibly satisfying.

I made mushroom risotto tonight. First time ever, also very satisfying.

Yeah, i'm trying to get in my comfort cooking that makes the house too warm before summer heat hits.

well, now i'm sweating like a pig at a barbecue, but the house smells awesome.

I may not finish cooking this until after the gig, but at least the recipe says i can throw it in the fridge before i go for the gusto.

I took one of those mixed potato bags, with like the small golds, purples and fingerlings, chopped, boiled, and added some re-constituted dried porcinis, and then splashed in some buttermilk. That shee was GOOD.

Of course, it went great with the buttermilk brined quails.

That sounds great, Gar.

This dutch oven was loaded with onions. They looked like this after a couple of hours.



After repeated deglazings and then broth and simmering, it looked like this



With the toasted baguette croutons



topped with gruyere



and then broiler.

Jesus, Phil. That looks INSANE. If it weren't 80 here today, I'd probably jump on that bandwagon.

I feel insane for doing it yesterday. House was fucking warm with the oven to 400 for almost three hours. Even with the doors open.

I've been on a big soup kick lately, i did that ham and navy bean, split pea with smoked turkey leg (don't turn your nose up at that, it was a great twist to get away from ham), chicken noodle (this time with home made noodles even).

I think soup is major comfort food, and all the starbucks stress is finding it's way home, and i think that THAT is why i'm making a lot of fucking soup. I'm roasting a chicken tonight. It's brining now. I'm thinking about heading to the store for some buttermilk

You'll get no arguments from me that homemade soup is not only one of the great foods, it is also a good measure of just where you are as a cook. The smoked turkey leg is brilliant, I've used that myself as Publix oftentimes will have them. And Loogs is right about that French onion: Holy fucking insane.

I'm doing the crock pot pulled pork thing again but I did manage to get up early and get it about 45 minutes of good thick smoke on the grill. Now my house smells like BBQ pit. I'm also going with my more Carolina-esque sauce. Recipe to follow.