Curried Ground Turkey with Potatoes

  Looks good, but...

Where is the flavor??

I have to say I am pretty disappointed in this dish. It seriously needed some help. I got the recipe from Simply Recipes, which is one of those blogs that anyone interested in food blogs reads, so I had high hopes. It wasn't bad and it did taste better at lunch the next day, but just didn't have that Indian food WOW that I was expecting.

The first problem I ran into was that the turkey did not brown. I used my big Le Creuset pot which always cooks things perfectly, and I had the heat up high, so it should have browned nicely, but it didn't. It just stayed its sad almost-white color and ended up being bland and a little overcooked (which happened because I was waiting for it to brown). Then, the onions did not brown either. Again, in theory they should have. But this didn't bother me as much as the turkey because soft onions taste just fine. 

I thought things were looking up with the addition of the ginger and garlic - it smelled amazing! Then all the spices went in and it smelled even better! Perfumed the whole kitchen! (Although the turmeric has left its yellow stain on everything!) Halfway through the potatoes simmering, I took off the lid to stir and check on it and the water was all gone and the spices were sticking to the bottom of the pot! Easy fix though, I just added more water and gave the bottom a good scraping. What I should have added at this point was a handful of salt, as the finished dish desperately needed it.

I will certainly try this again, but may add chickpeas or cauliflower and will definitely make it a point to season every step of the way. I don't think salting a dish at the end has the same effect as salting at all the different levels along the way.

On the upside, the store-bought naan was great!

Dinner at Sawran's

The table

My friends, Nicole, Amy and Sawran, and I had dinner at Sawran's new apartment this past week. Nicole made a delicious artichoke, prosciutto, mozzarella, basil flatbread:

Amy brought some tasty prosecco and wine:

Sawran pouring the prosecco

Yum!

Amy may have had a little bit of trouble getting the rabbit back in the box:

Sawran tried to give instruction with her wooden spoon...

But luckily Nicole stepped in to set the rabbit straight.

Sawran made us a positively gourmet meal of chimichurri salmon, lemon butter asparagus and orzo with fresh vegetables. It was light, healthy and delicious!

And for dessert I made cinnamon semifreddo with fresh berries in individual ramekins. And forgot to take a picture. (Mine looked better than Michael Chiarello's ;) )

Thanks for a fun and fabulous evening, ladies!

Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli

Cat dish!

This is another Real Simple recipe (I like my magazines! Sometimes I think I am single-handedly keeping print magazines in business.), from September 2009. It is labeled "kid-friendly," which I think is kind of hilarious. MM and I have tried this before, but it was BB (before blog), so I have no clue how we felt about it. This time around we agreed that it needs more sausage (perhaps 9oz instead of 6oz) and I had already doubled the broccoli (two small heads instead of one), so I will certainly do that next time as well. The best part about this dish is that it comes together really quickly (it says 20 minutes in the recipe, but I can't get anything done in 20 minutes, so it probably took me 30 minutes).

Dill Chicken and Orzo with Feta, Tomatoes and Dill

Dill deliciousness!

Gourmet Magazine, how I miss thee! Last night's dinner consisted of two old Gourmet recipes: Dill Chicken Paillards from September 2009 and Orzo with Feta, Tomatoes and Dill from July 2008. The chicken recipe called for a tomato-dill relish, but I decided to pair it with the orzo recipe, so we could still have tomatoes and it would qualify as a side dish, too. 

The chicken was delicious! One of the best chicken renditions I have tasted. I wish the chicken I had was a little bit thicker (I bought it thin-sliced), so it wouldn't have cooked as quickly. I didn't even have time to get grill marks on it! The orzo was good - it definitely shined when you ate all the components together. The sweet, juicy tomatoes were the star of the dish.

Sicilian Spaghetti with Fennel and Onion

Beige, beige, beige, beige!

My dear readers,

I know I have been absent for awhile and for that I am sorry. I just haven't been cooking much. Blame it on travel, being uninspired and way too hot. DC is trying to kill its residents this summer. I am also sorry that my first dish is this boring, not very good, monochromatic disaster. 

I have never made a Rachael Ray recipe that I liked. (Maybe that should have been my first sign.) This one is from her cookbook, Express Lane Meals, which I received as a gift a couple years ago. I am trying one more recipe from it this week and if it is unsuccessful too, then I will be giving away a cookbook! Leave a comment if you want it!

I really felt like this recipe had potential. It has fennel (yum, fennel!), toasted bread crumbs with parsley and pine nuts (I love parsley!), and there is (usually) nothing wrong with onion. The resulting dish was just boring. Nothing special. Poor MM straight out said he did not like it, would never eat it again and did not want it leftover for lunch. (To be perfectly honest, it was slightly better leftover for lunch than as dinner.) I am not even going to bother typing out the recipe; believe me, you don't want to try it!

So, dear readers, let's hope for better food the rest of the week!

Penne with Heirloom Tomatoes, Bacon and Goat Cheese

 What? Pasta again?

I had purchased an impulse-buy container of mini heirloom tomatoes at Trader Joe's the other day (side note: I find that Trader Joe's is like Target - if you only pick up what you can carry in your own two hands, you will probably be ok. But the moment you pick up a basket, or god forbid a cart (!), you end up with way more items than you need and a receipt that prompts you to tally everything up yourself because there is no way it could come to that much money, so logically, the cash register must have counted incorrectly.) and needed to do something with them promptly lest they become expensive food for our garbage can.

I had wanted to try this recipe from Martha Rose Shulman for Penne with Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Green Beans and Feta for some time, but seeing as I didn't have Green Beans or Feta, I just used her guidelines for the tomato "marinade." Marshal Mike doesn't consider a meal a meal unless it has meat in it, so I sauteed up some bacon to throw in at the end. And I used goat cheese to make the dish creamy and cheesy. Overall, this pasta was satisfying and delicious!

Penne with Heirloom Tomatoes, Bacon and Goat Cheese
Serves 2, with leftovers

1 lb mini Heirloom tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 plump garlic clove, minced
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons slivered basil
6 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 lb penne or fusilli (you can see I used both)
1/2 cup herbed goat cheese

1. Combine the tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt and pepper in a medium-sized bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes-1 hour.

2. Sauté bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until crispy. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving some of the pasta water.

4. Return pasta to the pot and toss with the goat cheese. Once most of the goat cheese has melted from the heat of the pasta, add the tomato mixture and the bacon. (There should be enough liquid in the tomato mixture to make a sauce, but if not, add a little pasta water.) Taste for seasoning and serve.

Fusilli with Sweet Sausage and Fennel

"Absolutely delicious!" That is what I exclaimed as I tasted this dish. "Wow, that's really fabulous!" I exclaimed after the second bite. I looked over at MM shoveling pasta into his mouth with one hand and trying to keep Patton from crawling into his lap to get closer to the bowl with the other hand, and I knew we had a winner. The salty, slightly sweet sausage mixed with the sweet, tender fennel and leeks was perfect. The only down side to this dish is that it needs two large pots and a fry pan, so clean up is less than a breeze. The recipe is from The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook, which my thoughtful mother-in-law got me for Christmas a year ago. I halved the recipe, but have included the full-size original recipe below.

Fusilli with Sweet Sausage and Fennel
From The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook
Makes 4 main-course servings or 6 first-course servings (although a half-recipe made enough for 2 dinner servings and 2 lunch portions)

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 leeks, white part only, rinsed and thinly sliced (although I used some of the light green parts too, because I couldn't stand wasting it)
2 fennel bulbs, trimmed, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, ground in a mortar (alas, I do not have a mortal and pestle, so was forced to grind the seeds on a cutting board with the bottom of the jar - classy, I know)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 lb sweet Italian pork sausage, casings removed
Splash of sherry vinegar (I didn't have this, so omitted it)
1 lb dried fusilli
Leaves from 6 large fresh tarragon sprigs, coarsely chopped
Handful of fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
1 cup freshly grated pecorino toscano or pecorino romano cheese

In a Dutch oven or large, heavy flameproof casserole dish over medium heat, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil. Add the leeks, fennel and fennel seeds, season with salt and pepper, and sauté until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the stock, cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a heavy frying pan over high heat, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon. Cook until well browned, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour off most of the fat (keep a little to add flavor) and add a splash of sherry vinegar.

Generously salt the boiling water, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, add the sausage to the pot with the vegetables and simmer for 1-2 minutes to blend the flavors. You should have some liquid left in the pot to form a sauce. If not, add a little warm water or more chicken stock. (I would recommend reserving some of the pasta water for this purpose. I found that at this point my sauce looked ok, but once it all came together, I wished I had had some pasta water to moisten it.) Taste and adjust the seasoning and add a drizzle of olive oil (I did not do this; I felt that it looked oily enough from the sausage).

Drain the pasta and put it in a warmed large, shallow bowl (I threw it in with the veggies and sausage). Add the tarragon, parsley and about 3 tablespoons of the cheese. Toss. Add more cheese on each individual bowl.

Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

I really love turkey burgers, so I decided it was time I tried to make them myself. We don't have a grill, so I just used a grill pan on the stove top. I used Martha Stewart's Favorite Turkey Burger recipe as a guide. I didn't have any Gruyere, so I used Parmesan and I didn't have any scallions, so they were omitted. The buns I bought at Trader Joe's were a little smaller than normal sized buns, so I made three burgers out of a half pound of ground turkey. MM almost finished two. Overall, I was pleased with the burgers; they didn't dry out, but they were still kind of missing something. They were fast to make, so I will definitely try again. (Perhaps with the remaining half pound of meat in the freezer!)

My brother had left behind a sweet potato from his stay at our house, so I made oven fries to go with the burgers. I was hoping they would be crispy, but they weren't at all. Good flavor, but no crunch. I guess it can be hard to get sweet potatoes crispy if you don't fry them.

Napa Valley

Obligatory picture of grapes

After four nights in San Francisco, Marshal Mike and I were ready for a slower pace and warmer weather. Enter Napa Valley! We instantly felt relaxed as we passed over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline slowly disappeared behind us. We stayed at a great little hotel called the River Terrace Inn (and yes, they did have a terrace right on the Napa River).

Photo from Deandeluca.com

My friend Molly had recommended a restaurant called Press for dinner, with the promise of "the best steak you have ever eaten." We were not disappointed. Unfortunately I filled up on our starter, a delicious and fresh green bean salad (with fennel!), so didn't get to enjoy much of my halibut. MM said his filet mignon was one of the best he has ever had. Success!

The town of Yountville is located just north of Napa and is home to one of the most famous, well-known, and well-respected restaurants in the country: Thomas Keller's French Laundry. If MM and I had nearly a grand to drop on dinner and if MM considered the perfect meal to be more than steak, potatoes and broccoli, then we would have tried to get a reservation (which is close to impossible anyway). But, we don't, so we didn't.

Instead, we tried one of Keller's other Yountville restaurants, called Bouchon. (The other is Ad Hoc, which only has one 4 course menu per day and I was worried we would get there and the menu du jour would be calf's livers, sweetbreads and uni, or some other ridiculousness we would not want to eat.)

Bouchon!

Bouchon is modeled after a French bistro, so the menu has all items you would expect from a French bistro. MM had Gnocchi a la Parisienne, which he enjoyed. And I had the mussels, which were cooked with white wine, chorizo and peppers. They were delicious! I wanted to stop in Bouchon Bakery on the way out (it is next door) to pick up some bread to take home, but by the time we were finished with lunch the line was out the door, down the block. No thanks!

Bowl for the mussel shells.

At the end of it, we wished we had another day in Napa to keep exploring and I definitely want to go back to check out Sonoma and the other wine areas. Unfortunately someone (ahem, me) didn't read in the guidebook that the wineries all close at 4:30 or 6pm, so we only made it to two on Sunday and three on Monday before we went to the airport. Here is a list of the wineries we tried, in the order in which we tried them:

Trinitas Tasting Room at the Meritage Resort: I only tried their Sauvignon Blanc, which was ok. The tasting room is in a cave, which is what drew me to it in the first place.

 

Peju: MM's sister asked us to pick up two bottles of one of their wines, so that is why we tried this winery. We did a full tasting here (4 or 5 wines, I can't remember) and I didn't love any of them.

Grgich Hills: I did a full tasting here, which was also either 4 or 5 wines. I loved their Chardonnay and Fume Blanc! I usually find Chardonnay to be too thick and oaky, but this one was nothing like the Chardonnays I have tried in the past. Delicious!

Heitz Cellar: This was the only tasting we went to that was free. (Trinitas didn't charge me for the one wine I tried and Peju and Grgich waived the tasting fee because we bought bottles. So kind of them.) I think this tasting was 4 wines, and the real stand out in my opinion was their Ink Grade Port. It was so rich and smooth and fruity!

Del Dotto: This was the last winery we tried. It was so over the top opulent (bordering on the ridiculous if you ask me): marble columns, trompe l'oeil paintings on the walls, huge chandeliers and the tasting was $30! But our pourer (is there a proper term for them??) was British and we were her first tasting she did alone. She was the best and the wine was delicious too!

San Francisco (Day 2)

On our second day in San Francisco, MM and I had breakfast at The Grove, a neat coffee shop. Holy expensive! Our breakfast bill came to over $30! But, it was delicious. I had granola with yogurt and fruit and MM had scrambled eggs with hash browns, bacon and toast. Pretty basic stuff, but not so basic pricing.

Photo from Flourandwater.com

For dinner, we tried Flour + Water in the Mission District. They are known for their Neopolitan style pizzas, but have other Italian fare as well. We shared the galactic and sylvetta salad with shaved fennel (yay!), roasted almonds and stone fruit prosecco vinaigrette to start. For those of you who don't know what galactic and sylvetta are (as we did not), galactic is a red leafy lettuce and sylvetta is like arugula. It was delicious! Then we shared a margherita pizza, which was also fabulous. I thought it was the same as, if not better than, 2 Amy's and MM conceeded that it was almost as good as 2 Amy's. All in all, it was a good food day!

San Francisco (Day 1)

Marshal Mike and I are in San Francisco for my dear friend Molly's wedding, and I thought I would share a couple of the great restaurants we have visited.

Photo from SPQRSF.com

On our first night in San Francisco, we ate at SPQR, which is an acronym for Senatus Populesque Romanus and translates to "The People and Senate of Rome" and was the emblem of the Roman Empire. The food was fantastic. We shared an heirloom tomato, summer melon and goat cheese salad. The red and yellow cherry tomatoes were the sweetest I have ever tasted and the watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe were cut into the smallest, most precise cubes. MM had cherry tomato risotto for his main course, which he devoured and said tasted like a 2 Amy's pizza melted into risotto. (He loves 2 Amy's pizza, so that is a pretty high compliment from him.) I had the corn agnolotti with chanterelles, percorino and summer truffle. It was superb: sweet corn paired with the earthy mushrooms and truffle. We were too full after all that to try dessert!

Photo from ottimistasf.com

We were not too full to have another drink, however, so we tried Ottimista Enoteca-Cafe, which is within walking distance to our hotel. MM wasn't too pleased that they didn't have his beloved Sierra Nevada (SPQR didn't either), but I was glad we tried it regardless. The atmosphere was great, the bartender was friendly, and I had a delicious glass of Dolcetto d'Alba, which I had never tried before. (SF is so cold compared with the DC Sauna, that I have been drinking red wine!)

Spiced Chicken with Couscous Salad

My brother is in town and commented that last night's dinner had no starch, so tonight's has a little bit of everything.

This recipe is from Real Simple's June 2010 issue. The couscous salad is really delicious. I used edamame because the snap peas at the grocery looked awful. Unfortunately I over-salted the couscous, but it was still yummy. I couldn't really taste the spices on the chicken, so I would probably add more next time.

Chicken Schnitzel with Roasted Broccoli

You are probably starting to think that we eat a lot of the same thing over and over again here in the BlB household. And you are probably right, but that's ok, it is all delicious. And really, that's all that matters.

This chicken schnitzel recipe is from Thomas Keller in Food & Wine's July 2009 issue. It was great. Crunchy, with a bright acidity from the lemon juice and capers. Marshal Mike and I are going to Keller's Bouchon Bistro in Yountville, CA next week - so exciting!

Marshal Mike's Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes

Mmmmm...

Today is Marshal Mike's 32nd birthday! In honor of this special day I made peanut butter cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting. I used this cupcake recipe from Elinor Klivans' cookbook, Cupcakes! and this milk chocolate frosting recipe from Joy the Baker. I haven't actually had a cupcake yet, so I can't tell you how they turned out. But the batter was delicious and the frosting was delicious, so I have high hopes.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Al Karl's Smoked Pork

Marshal Mike and I were in lovely Cape May, NJ this past weekend for my friend Amy's wedding. (You can see the cupcakes I made for her shower here.) We had a fabulous time and stopped at my friend Nicole's family home in Wildwood Crest, NJ on the way out of town on Sunday. Nicole's parents, Nancy and Al, sent us home with a piece of smoked pork that Al had recently cooked. It was delicious! You can see from the above picture that I cubed it and added it to a tortilla with melted cheese, caramelized onion and fennel, black beans and cherry tomatoes. The perfect dinner to use up the vegetables that were lingering in the kitchen. Thanks again, Scoot and Moose!

And because this is a pet-friendly blog, below are pictures of the Karl family pets:

Hutchie ("Marshal Mike, I don't want to sit on your lap!")

Hank the Tank

Nezzie (aka Edith)

Pork Chops Saltimbocca

Photo from Gourmet

So last night was kind of a hot mess. DC has been such a literal boiling hot mess lately that it is hard to get anything done and turning on the oven is frowned upon by all members of the household (2 and 4 legged alike). But I didn't think the pork chops would last another day in the fridge, so I made Pork Chops Saltimbocca with Sauteed Spinach from Gourmet's August 2009 issue. 

As you may or may not know, saltimbocca means "jump in the mouth" in Italian and typically refers to a thin piece of veal rolled up with prosciutto and sage. As the story goes, the food is so delicious that it jumps into your mouth. I don't eat veal, but enjoy the flavors of prosciutto and sage, so I was happy to make this with pork. You could certainly make this with chicken, too. This Gourmet recipe adds fontina cheese to the mix as well. (Oddly enough, i couldn't find Italian fontina, so had to use Dutch fontina. I wonder what the difference is.)

Anyway, once it was finally done, I had managed to burn my thumb on the hot pan that had just come out of the 450 degree oven and was holding an ice cube to it, so I couldn't be bothered taking a picture of the finished dish. You'll just have to trust me that my finished dish looked exactly like the Gourmet picture (except we used boneless pork chops).  :)

Walnut-Crusted Chicken with Roasted Broccoli

Another day, another dark photo

This is a great recipe from Martha Stewart (I halved it). The chicken stays super-moist and actually tastes like walnuts. I find that a lot of times chicken coating/breading just tastes like breadcrumbs, no matter what else you add to it. And of course we made it with roasted broccoli, because I wanted fennel again and MM said, "no way, I can't handle anymore fennel!" (Although, there happens to be another fennel bulb in the fridge, so get ready!)

Sausage and Summer Vegetable Sauté

 Don't you worry, there is fennel in there!

I pulled out last summer's issues of Gourmet magazine to find some recipes to make this week and this is the first one we tried. (This recipe can also be found on Epicurious.) It was really fantastic. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention when I was prepping the vegetables, so the corn went into the sauté at the same time as the other vegetables, but it ended up being fine. They were certainly not overcooked. (On a separate note, this is the first time I have ever cut corn off the cob - whoa, what a mess! Corn was flying around the kitchen! I remembered hearing on a cooking show to cut the corn into a bowl to prevent getting corn all over the place, so I did that with the second cob and it worked pretty well. On another separate note, at the Ft. Myer Commissary, corn was 16 cents per cob. 16 cents! What? I didn't think you could get anything for that cheap. Now, it wasn't the best quality - nothing like the corn we get right from the farm in RI - but it worked just fine in this dish.)

As you can see from the picture, I added carrots to the sauté. (If you are a loyal reader you will know I have had carrots living in my crisper drawer for probably a month now, if not longer. Well, not any more! I have finally used them up. And they were still crisp!) I also didn't realize the dill I had in the fridge had gone bad, so my finished dish did not get any dill. I think it would have made it even better. When MM and I were eating it, we noticed that something was missing. And I think a fresh herb was that something.

Gaby and Chloe

How cute are these two?!

Patton is depressed that he can't climb onto the window sill.

Pork Chops with Fennel and Caper Sauce

My love affair with fennel continues.

This is another recipe from Giada's Kitchen (and can be found on the Food Network website). It was delicious. I halved the recipe and omitted the lemon at the end (because I was lazy). I also managed to overcook the pork slightly, but there was enough sauce that I could mop it up with the pork to make it moist. I have never made a recipe of Giada's that did not turn out well. (Patton enjoyed the leftover pork fat, too!)