I’ve got the boy to myself this weekend, so I made him shepherd’s pie- one of his favorite dinners. It conveniently helped use up a bunch of leftovers and remnants to make some room in the fridge. I made a broth from the chicken and lamb bones plus some veggie scraps, then got a roux going while some blue potatoes baked. After I whisked the broth into the roux, I added leftover braised cabbage, carrots,…
Category: Standards
Well, not really, but Korean-inspired at least. To begin, I ground some local grass-fed beef stew meat with garlic, herbs, salt, and (after separating some for Milo) togarashi. I let it sit while I cut sweet potato fries and chopped pak choi, and while the fries were going cooked the meat and then sautéed the greens in the burger pan with a little lemon and soy sauce. Topped with homemade kimchi, these were damn fine…
I had the boy all day today, so I wisely thought ahead and pulled some beef shanks out of the freezer to thaw. By late afternoon I was beat, but at least had the beginnings of dinner under way. I peeled and sliced some burdock I dug up a couple of days ago- nice big fat roots- and threw them into the rice cooker with yesterday’s chicken broth and the local 10-grain blend augmented with…
So the chicken I wanted to make yesterday waited patiently until today, and received a totally traditional treatment. No fancy anything. Fingerling potatoes roasted with garlic cloves and rosemary, steamed broccoli, lemon-pesto gravy, and a salad of our amazing baby greens that are really shooting up now that the days are lengthening. I’m working on some ideas, so sometimes auto-pilot is a good way to fly. In keeping with tradition, a pinot noir to go…
I had a great meeting (which will lead to some bad-ass future posts, methinks) about 2 hours North of here this afternoon. At meeting’s end, the host gave me some eggs we grabbed from out the chicken coop on the way to my car. Upon return home, I took the last slices of roast beast from the fridge and gave ’em a sear in a buttery pan, followed by two of these freshest eggs; they…
Probably because of the anniversary of my Mom’s death, but also because of impending spring and the burgeoning joy and optimism which normally attend the change in weather (and bolstered by having ordered a ton of seeds) we had an excellent sequence of Sunday meals that culminated in our family favorite back when I was a kid. To begin, pancakes, but with yogurt mixed in for extra richness. To compensate for the all-carb beginning, for…
I like stuff in my burgers. Not a ton of things, or any big chunks, but minced onion and garlic, herbs, and occasional spices can all elevate the experience to something much nicer than the usual (as can using local, organic meat.) They can also be halfway healthy, too- especially if you bake rather than fry the sweet potatoes, and serve them with a brassica-heavy mesclun, braised fennel, and roasted beets on a spelt English…
Alright, it’s lame. I admit it. But I had a finite amount of paint mixed, and it wasn’t going to last until tomorrow; it needed to go on the piece today before it dried on the table. So this is what I was able to pull off. Lasagna (jerusalem artichoke pasta, with ricotta, tomatoes, herbs, and smoked mozzarella.) And a really nice mesclun salad. And a bottle of the ever-awesome and love-inducing Pleiades XV, the…
I think turkey is overrated. We can get good heirloom varieties up here, but lacking the means to deep-fry one or the patience to smoke one out in the cold and rain I’m opting out. Even smoked or fried it’s still pretty bland, and so big that you have to eat it for days after. To me, the holiday is about family, eating, and gratitude with a strong focus on seasonal ingredients, not about eating…
Fans of Patton Oswalt (he was the voice of Ratatouille, you know) might recognize the title for this post. Today, because I’m the daddy, and it was an impeccable crystalline warm fall day- with all those fleeting perfections of smell and light and feeling that fill one at once with both pure distilled joy of life and sad dread at its evanescence- a meal to celebrate the exact intersection of those two emotions. At Daniel‘s…