Make Again

I've been wanting to make this polenta for a while. A cold day, after we've gone out for our run - couldn't be a more perfect day for a rich and creamy breakfast. Was this good. Polenta made with milk and cream, plus a little butter, mascarpone cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon and dried blueberries. Very rich - I could only eat half a serving. The recipe calls for currents, but blueberries seemed more right to me, especially since they pair so well with cinnamon.

Food 2.0

We loved this pasta. I used spicy chicken Italian sausage from Whole Foods, and fresh whole wheat fettuccine. It had a nice mix of flavors, and I think one of the reasons we liked it so much is that the chicken sausage was really good.

• Fresh Pasta with Sausage & Mushrooms (Fine Cooking #97, February 2009, p. 91)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

This is kind of a big meal for just the two of us, but the entire menu from this article sounded really good, so I figured why not. We liked everything, especially the potato salad. Definitely something to make again. This menu is great as a make-ahead meal for company, because the last-minute stuff is quick and very little effort. The only change I made was to roast the broccolini instead of boil it. Because I generally don't like vegetables boiled, especially broccoli or anything broccoli-like.

The cake is very much something Larry likes, with warm spices and ginger. The interesting ingredient ingredient is grated butternut squash. It's an excellent cake, light and flavorful. Larry says definitely make it again, and I agree.

• Creamy White Bean & Herb Dip (Fine Cooking #97, February 2009, p. 76)
• Pan-Seared Skirt Steak with Warm Radish and Red Onion Pickle (Fine Cooking #97, February 2009, p. 76)
• Broccolini with Kalamata Dressing (Fine Cooking #97, February 2009, p. 79)
• Roasted Potato and Mushroom Salad with Mascarpone (Fine Cooking #97, February 2009, p. 79)
• Buttermilk Cake with Vanilla Icing (Fine Cooking #97, February 2009, p. 80)

Edith and Jay came for dinner tonight. Everything was really good, but the star of the evening was the fabulous chocolate cake. Rich but really light cake, and the cinnamon-chocolate caramel filling really made it stand out.

This was my first time cooking with sorghum grain. I had to order it online because no one locally carried the grain, only the flour. After I had cooked up a batch of the grain, I tried it and didn't like it. Weird, gummy texture. But after it got cooked into this salad, it ended up being really good. And the flavor of the mushrooms was great, I tried a little but it was too much mushroom for me. Everyone else liked it, though.

• Double-Fennel Pork Chops (Fine Cooking #96, January 2009, p. 114a)
• Sorghum with Cherry Tomatoes & Corn (Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, p. 221)
• Mushroom Ambrosia with Miso (The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, p. 292)
• Cinnamon-Caramel-Ganache Layer Cake (Fine Cooking #96, January 2009, p. 86)

Wine: Kosta Browne 2005 Rosella's Vineyard Pinot (Santa Lucia Highlands, California). Amazng wine. I've been hoarding it because our stock of Kosta Browne is pretty limited.

Jay was over for Sunday dinner - I try to do fish on Sundays as much as possible, mainly because it's healthy but also because that's what Jay likes to eat! This salmon was excellent. I loved it, even though it was fully of mushrooms. Shiitakes aren't so bad because the texture isn't so chewy and they're sliced up in this recipe. We also loved the squash. I was looking for something different and was unsure about the grapes, but it actually turned out really nice. The pudding - good, but not thick enough.

Jay missed out on dinner tonight. Everything was really good, and very quick to make. Loved the sauce for the pork chops. The green beans were so simple, I hesitate to even call it a recipe. Perfect use of the last of the sun sugar cherry tomatoes from the garden.

The cake is the first recipe I've made from Pure Dessert, a cookbook I've been eyeing. Larry picked it up for me from the library and I have a bunch of recipes I want to try. I love olive oil in cakes, and this one doesn't have any butter. The flavor of the sherry really comes through.

• Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce (Fine Cooking #95, November 2008, p. 94a)
• Roasted Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes and Oregano (The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great, p. 268)
• Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (A New Way To Cook)
• Olive Oil and Sherry Pound Cake (Pure Dessert, p. 86)

Another good dish from How to Eat Supper. It wasn't exactly super quick to put together because I tend to spend a lot of time trimming boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

• Chicken Curry with Gentle Spices (The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, p. 205)
• Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Naan
• Roasted Cauliflower

Yet another really good meal tonight. It was just Larry and I since Jay's out of town. Everything was so easy to make. We loved the potatoes, and the carrots were very sweet but delicious. The halibut, newly in season, could have been cooked plain with just salt and pepper, but it was good like this too. The recipe called for cod, but it was perfect with halibut (the recipe is also in the cookbook Cooking New American.

• Halibut Fillets with Mustard-Tarragon Crumb Crust (Fine Cooking #12, December 1995 2007, p. 49)
• Baby Yukon Potato Salad with Shallots, Chives, Bacon & Lemon Vinaigrette (Fine Cooking #91, March 2008, p. 43)
• Maple Pan-Roasted Baby Carrots (Fine Cooking #85, May 2007, p. 53)

Whole Foods was fresh out of halibut, so I went with my other favorite fish - sustainable Chilean sea bass. We loved the flavors in this fish and I actually think the sea bass was a better choice. We really liked the cabbage, but I will never make it again because the process of cooking fish sauce at a high temperature about killed us (noxious odors and we couldn't stop coughing).

• Chinese Five-Spice Chilean Sea Bass with Pickled Red Pepper & Ginger (Fine Cooking #92, May 2008, p. 47)
• Stir-Fried Napa Cabbage with Garlic, Fresh Chile & Basil (Fine Cooking #84, March 2008, p. 56)

Larry made pork chops for dinner tonight. I pitched in and made the polenta. We really liked the pork chops, and they were pretty easy to make.

• Deviled Pork Chops (Fine Cooking #91, March 2008, p. 86a)
• Trader Joe's Spinach Salad
• Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta (Fine Cooking #57, May 2003, p. 86C)

This recipe called for Haddock or Cod, but halibut season just opened up so I picked halibut instead. We loved this dish. Lucky Amy got to try it early as a Fine Cooking tester, and even got her name in print in the magazine! The mashed potatoes were good, but I prefer the buttermilk mashed potatoes I usually make instead.

• Sear-Roasted Halibut with Horseradish Aïoli & Lemon-Zest Breadcrumbs (Fine Cooking #92, May 2008, p. 48)
• Butter Lettuce with Creamy Black Pepper Dressing (Fine Cooking #51, July 2002, p. 48)
• Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes (Fine Cooking #92, May 2008, p. 60)

Wine: Ramazzotti 2005 Zin-Giovese (Dry Creek Valley, California). The article suggested a rosé, which we don't buy a lot of - but this one was nice with the fish.

Larry made dinner again tonight (yay!), and he bravely chose something from a cookbook I just got for Christmas from his dad. He did a great job finding ingredients (Whole Foods had amaranth) and the chili was really delicious. I loved the sour cream and we were surprised that we really liked the amaranth crunch.

Neither one of us had tried amaranth before, but the description in the cookbook says it's earth and kind of grassy - and compares the texture of cooked amaranth to okra. Yuk! But this is toasted and it's delicious. It's about the size of mustard seeds. The amaranth crunch also calls for hulled pumpkin seeds, which we didn't think we'd ever seen in a store, but now we think they're labeled pepitas.

Larry also inadvertently discovered a shortcut in the recipe. As he added the two cups of uncooked pearl barley to the chili, he couldn't figure out how it was going to cook in only 5 minutes (described in the recipe). I had just gotten home from work, and when I looked at the recipe I noticed that it called for two cups of cooked barley. Whoops! No big deal, we added some homemade vegetable broth I had on hand so the extra barley had something to soak up. It only took 20 minutes for the barley to finish cooking. I loved whole grains.

• Barley & Turkey Chili with Jalapeño Sour Cream and Amaranth Crunch (Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, p. 186)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)