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January 31, 2008
cassoulet, re-ducks
Oh, hey, remember when I could have been more effusive about the duck confit in our cassoulet? Well, it turns out that the duckie legs just longed for more heat. The whole cassoulet got cooked in the oven on Monday (leftovers part 1), and again last night (leftovers part ducks). The two extra hours in the oven got rid of every bit of connective tissue on the duck legs. They were phenomenal.
Thanks to Tony for the recipe. I would make this again and again. The groceries weren't dirt cheap, but we had this for dinner three times and we each had it twice for lunch. It wound up being quite economical.
The only thing I'd do differently would be to get different sausages. The Toulouse sausages didn't quite work. I think the grind of the meat wasn't fine enough for that kind of slow, prolonged cooking. We had two extra sausages, and two nights ago I browned them in a pan and then finished them off in a braise. They were *heavenly* - moist, tender, and incredibly fragrant. I think for the cassoulet next time I'll try something a little less delicate.
Oh, and hey, I totally baked. I made Marion Cunningham's Refrigerator Rolls. They were great. I still can't believe I actually made something with yeast that turned out. And last night, I made the most amazing apple cake I've ever had. Is there anything in the world with a more amazing aroma than a fresh jar of cardamom? I think not. Anyway, the cake was ridiculously good. It was, hands down, the best thing I've ever baked. (That's not saying much, as I'm a notoriously crappy baker, but still, it was terrific.)
Posted by Kate at 3:47 PM | Comments (2)January 29, 2008
pork, pork, duck
Oh, hey, remember those duck legs that we made into confit? Voila! Cassoulet!
It was crazy good. The confit was great, although messy to gnaw off of the bones, the Toulouse sausages were heavenly and fragrant, but the beans and pork products were just divine. The pork rind became fluffy and ethereal, and melted in the mouth. The pork belly was tender and moist and was just the essence of pork. Yum yum yum.
Nathan did a *great* job on this. All I did was watch and photograph and make the salad. I also opened the wine, which was some Rhone blend we'd gotten from the Ferry Plaza. It had some lovely flavor, but didn't have enough body to stand up to the cassoulet. Call me crazy, but the Two Buck Chuck shiraz we had last night with leftovers matched a lot better. I guess cheap peasant food goes with cheap peasant wine. Wacky!
January 27, 2008
in which I am unable to blame it on Dick Cheney
So I'm plugging happily away on the CPH. I've got three pattern repeats done, I'm pretty pleased with myself. This morning I decide to take a quick measurement to see how far along I am. I glance at the pattern to double-check whether I need fourteen or fourteen and a half inches, and this line in the pattern catches my eye.
"Change to larger needles."
Does anybody read eplodingdog? Remember that old cartoon of theirs entitled "Even too much wine is not enough"? I do.
On the other hand, I'm actually getting pretty close to gauge, despite my needles being two sizes two small (I'm using a 6 and I should be using an 8). A couple people on Ravelry have knitted this project with this yarn on 7's. And I AM making it a size bigger than I think I need. I am tempted to just keep knitting and give the thing to my mom if it's way too small.
Clearly I need another Bloody Mary to clear my head.
Posted by Kate at 12:52 PM | Comments (2)January 26, 2008
makin' bacon
Hey, we're in a creative flurry here at the Berghof.
Here's the TOTALLY LOW-CAL breakfast we had on Monday. It's an open-faced sandwich from Nancy Silverton's wonderful Sandwich Book. It's toasted bread rubbed with garlic, festooned with broiled asparagus, a poached egg, fontina cheese and some prosciutto. This is, of course, the duck prosciutto that Nathan's been curing for a week. It's AMAZING. When the fat on the prosciutto got warm under the broiler, it got all soft and translucent and was like buttah.
Here's the start of my Central Park Hoodie. I'm using Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes. It's not exactly a sensory delight to work with, in fact, I'd have guessed it was Cascade 220 in a blind test, but it does what you ask of it and I chose a very nice color (not captured very well in this photo.) I started it yesterday and I'm three pattern repeats in.
And here's the start of Genevieve's wedding present. I can post this because I don't think she reads this, plus she knows exactly what I'm making because she picked it out. It's the Ombre Alpaca Blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I'm using Blue Sky Alpaca in the colors specified in the pattern. This yarn IS a sensory orgy to knit with. It makes the Baby Jeebus smile. The size 11 needles (remember how I said I was never knitting with anything larger than 8s?) are a pain in the booty (or fingers), but I don't care because the yarn is sooooo soft and buttery. I just want to roll around in it naked, but I won't, because it's for a present. Sigh.
January 24, 2008
the wages of sin is mystery yarn
Okay, I totally remember ordering enough pretty red yarn from
Less mysterious is Elizabeth's kitten chewing on some Blue Sky Alpaca. Kitty gots good taste.
Posted by Kate at 7:37 PM
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January 21, 2008
the good, the bad, the sprouty
Paula's chicken was very good. The recipe was a little bit fussy, but the chicken was lovely and tender. The one problem with it was that the skin never got properly browned. However, the stuffing was delicious. And the Brussels sprouts. My god, the sprouts. Once again, Alice hits it out of the park. I made her Brussels sprouts gratin, and I am here to say I've never had better sprouts ANYWHERE. They were enough to make you weep.
For dessert we each had one of Marion Cunningham's "Chocolate Enough Cupcakes" from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book. I was a little suspicious of the recipe, which called for combining the egg and the flour and the sugar all at once and beating it, then adding the butter and scant four ounces of semisweet chocolate. Anyway, they turned out great. They were nice and chocolatey, but in a semisweet kind of way. The crust on top was a lovely crystalline layer of chocolatey sugary goodness, and the cake itself was nice and dense without being a brownie. Yum yum yum.
January 20, 2008
this is your brain on drugs
So I'm casually whipping up Paula Wolfert's Poularde Farcie en Chaponnade Comme en Corrèze. I stuff the bird with bread that's been brushed in walnut oil, stick the thing in the oven, cooked it on its back, flip it over onto one side (not without difficulty), stick it back into the oven, pull it out, flip it onto its other side, and then FORGET TO PUT IT BACK INTO THE OVEN.
I am so dumb. At least, Nathan points out, I didn't stick it back into the oven without remembering to turn the heat down, like I did with some braised duck legs last week. Boy, were those some crispy critters.
Here's the raw, pancetta-draped beastie. Despite my stupidity, the damned thing smells fantastic.
January 19, 2008
Still Life With Socks and Brunch
We finished all the Champagne, and it's not Sunday, and I had a grapefruit, so I made us some Hemingway Daiquiris for brunch. The pink socks enjoyed them very much.
Posted by Kate at 2:33 PM
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January 18, 2008
suck on that, Paula Deen.
Everything is NOT better with butter. I just made these cupcakes as part of the Great Cupcake Trial of Ought Eight (Genevieve wants me to make cupcakes for her wedding. I tried to tell her that the nickname "Auntie Cupcake" has nothing to do with my baking skills, which are dubious at best), and they were TERRIBLE. I used a recipe out of 500 Cupcakes, which called for five eggs, self-rising flour, TWO AND A HALF STICKS of butter, and no salt. Does self-rising flour have salt in it?
Anyway, they were supposed to have a molten center. They did not. They were crumbly and a wee bit oily, but without any of the squidgy goodness in the center that I was hoping for. They tasted pretty good, but anything with chocolate does. (Just ask Margaret about the flat chocolate cake we made that one time.) Nathan tried one when he came home and remarked that he liked the coconut in the cupcakes. There was no coconut in them, but as soon as he said it I identified that the crumb of the cakes was, in fact, rather like a macaroon.
Does anyone have a really good chocolate cupcake recipe? There's one in the ever-reliable Fannie Farmer Baking Book that looks good. Also, Gen has apparently never had a black-bottomed cupcake (raised by wolves). I'd like to try my hand at that.
Now I'm off to the kitchen to get dinner ready. THAT I know how to do. I'm making a rice pilaf, some pan-fried cod and some green beans with almonds.
Posted by Kate at 7:30 PM | Comments (3)January 16, 2008
dilemma
Okay, say your new stepdaughter spends the weekend at your house, and for some reason, she appropriates the pair of plain old socks that you made for your husband out of Regia Silk Sock Yarn. Seriously, she doesn't take them off for two days. Then you foolishly admit that you have been hoarding two more skeins of that yarn, but in the most beautiful pink color imaginable, and that you could make her her *own* pair. Of course, she says yes and you have no option but to cast on.
Then you finish the first sock, and it fits you PERFECTLY. Perfect foot, perfect heel, perfect ankle. And don't get me started how perfect the color is and how scrumptious the silk is.
Don't make me spell it out, kids. What's a girl to do?
Posted by Kate at 9:39 PM | Comments (4)January 15, 2008
company manners
Whew. We've either had company or been company since Thursday. Gen and Nate were with us this weekend, we went to Orland on Sunday for the first half of Ethan's birthday, and Abbie's been here since then.
It was a heckofa good time, but I'm glad to be able to run around in my house naked again.
Here's my favorite picture of the weekend - Abbie worrying that she's going to get tossed out of the Peet's on Van Ness.
Posted by Kate at 2:32 PM
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January 10, 2008
document document document
Remember that one time that I made Daube Provençal? With the lamb and the green olives? And it kicked ass? Yeah, I remember that, too. Only I can't find the fucking recipe for it. I looked in Patricia Wells and in Tony, and in back issues of Fine Cooking and Cook's Illustrated, and I can't find it. Argh.
So I'm making Tony's recipe and I'm going to throw in some olives at the end. The house smells amazing. I'll keep you posted.
My new year's resolution is to write down where I got the recipe for stuff I like so I don't lose stuff. I'm still mad about that time about ten years ago when I made this awesome broiled eggplant dressed with cuminseed and lemon, and I've never been able to find the recipe. Sometimes I lay awake at night and stew about it. (Okay, that's a fib, but it's not far from the truth.)
Posted by Kate at 5:32 PM | Comments (3)January 8, 2008
What's up, Duck?
No, really, seriously. I may (or may not) have made things that were individually better, but as a cohesive dinner, Paula's Magret de Canard Moulard Poêlé Dans Sa Peau, Vinaigrette à l'Échalote (duck breasts with a shallot relish), Alice's green salad with garlicky vinaigrette and scalloped potatoes, with a Moshin 2005 Family Reserve Pinot Noir was honestly the best meal I've ever made. And it wasn't that difficult. Or expensive. Well, the wine was, but we've been cellaring it.
I made the executive decision not to season the duck or the potatoes with any garlic because I knew there was raw garlic in the salad dressing, and it all melded perfectly. This dinner was NOT approved by Weight Watchers (there was walnut oil in the shallot dressing and duck fat in the potatoes, not to mention all of the fat I rendered off of the Moulard breasts (ha, ha, I said breasts)), but holy crap, it was fabulous. I've got a bottle of emergency Champagne* chilling in the fridge right now for to toast Paula, Alice, my receptive foodie husband, and me for finally being able to pull together a dinner like this.
*From Costco. No, really, seriously, it's Kirkland brand Champagne. It's real Champagne, and Costco produces it. Wine Spectacle just rated it like a 91, I think, and it's like $20, and it's really pretty freakin' good. I am not making this up.
January 7, 2008
...for tomorrow, we dine
Maybe it's the suck-tastic weather drawing out my nesting intstinct, but, boy, have I been cooking up a storm lately. Today I roasted a leg of lamb that I'd been seasoning all weekend. I just did what Alice Waters said to do.* I salted and peppered it on Saturday afternoon, then took it out of the fridge on Sunday after we got back from getting hammered on Bloody Marys at Sandi and Skippy's. Then I had a nap, and by the time we got back from getting hammered on wine and hot tubs at Stef and Martin's, it was too late to cook the thing, but I didn't want to re-refrigerate it, so I put it out on the ice-cold service porch. This morning I cooked the sucker at 375 for a little over an hour, and it was FABULOUS. It was *so* lamby. I sort of snacked on it all day. We ate it at room temperature for dinner tonight with what I was hoping would be a sort of risotto pancake.
On Friday I made some risotto. I can do this with my eyes closed, but this great new Alice Waters book encouraged me to not be so smug, and I followed her basic recipe to the letter, and I'll be damned if it wasn't the best fucking risotto I've ever made. Anyway, there was a bunch leftover (I served it with some pork chops), so I was thinking I might make some fried risotto balls. Of course, I couldn't find a recipe. The Enoteca book had this recipe for a sort of pancake thing, so I winged it based on that. I chopped up a handful of pistachios and tossed it together with a bit of gruyere and jack cheese, and put a little fresh thyme in (it rocks to have cool stuff laying around in the fridge.) I got some butter hot in a pan and made a disc out of half the risotto. Then the cheese and nuts went on top, then another disc of the risotto. Sadly, it didn't get stable enough to flip easily, but it did wind up browning very nicely. The gooey cheese and salty nuts were great with the now-sticky leftover risotto. I think what would have helped this would have been a dip in breadcrumbs. Do you know what I'm getting at? If anybody has a recipe for something like this, I'd be quite grateful.
It's nice finally having barstools in the kitchen. I can sit at the stove and read and drink and nurse my risotto without my feet getting all impatient.
Tomorrow is chicken salad for lunch, using the breasts of the crappy mass-market chicken I used for the broth for the risotto. (If anyone can tell me where in Vallejo I can get a non-Foster-Farms chicken, I'd be oh, so grateful. I am SO spoiled with my Rosie chickens that are ubiquitous in Berkeley.) Also, there will be cold lamb to snack on.
And the ducks are arriving tomorrow. I ordered some Moulard breasts and some legs from Hudson Valley. Yes, and a two-pound bucket of duck fat. One of the breasts is going to get cooked up for dinner tomorrow, the other one will probably get made into prosciutto, the legs are going to be turned into confit, and I may just roll around naked in the duck fat.
Or not.
*Alice Waters expresses no opinion as to whether or not getting hammered is essential to the roasting of a leg of lamb. I added that part to the recipe myself.
Posted by Kate at 11:27 PM | Comments (5)January 4, 2008
CPH Angst
So I want to make the fabled Central Park Hoodie. I had the pattern in the magazine, but I shelled out the five bucks to have a .pdf sent to me with the larger sizes. I think I'm going to make myself the 44, but if it's as cool as I think it might be, there may be occasion to make a larger one.
Anyway, I want to make this sweater. Trouble is, I don't know Tahki Donegal Tweed from a hole in the ground. Is it going to be too scratchy? Tweed yarns aren't generally what you would call "luscious" and "plush", but there's regular tweedy scratchy and brillo pad scratchy.
Also, I'm vacillating between a couple of the red colors. Red is such a tricky color on me. Too yellow and I look sallow, too blue and I look washed out. I need true bright reds or deep, saturated reds. Gray is also an option, but again, I need a nice warm gray, not a cold bluish gray. ACTUAL blue-gray (like my eyes) is okay, because that doesn't pretend to be gray. Or blue.
Presumably I could find a yarn store that stocks this stuff, but I need more than a bag of it, and I thought it would be easier (and maybe cheaper) to get it online. Clearly I'm going to have to go to a yarn store and do some fondling.
Hey, is that an excuse to leave the house I hear? Hmm. I already was needing duck legs, and I was thinking of mail ordering them, too. But if there's a duck store and a yarn store in reasonable proximity, then it might be time to put on a bra and leave the house.
Ewww, bra.
Posted by Kate at 1:23 AM | Comments (4)January 1, 2008
happy new year, homeys!
Boy, I hope that's a fireworks show over at Marine World and not just gang warfare.
p.s. I owe Nathan $20.
Posted by Kate at 12:02 AM | Comments (2)