Thai Watermelon Salad

Yup, it's fall.  Connie didn't even ask me if I wanted to eat out on the screened porch.  It's our summertime favorite spot.  We finish our dinners and head to the rockers and finish our wine and talk.  Now, though, it's cold and rainy.  Good thing I made comfort food for dinner - potato, bacon and cabbage torte.  There's enough left for lunch day after tomorrow.  That's because I'm having lunch with a client tomorrow.  Connie will get the leftover sesame noodles while I eat something not as good... Today we had leftover duck risotto.  That was amazingly good stuff.  Dinner on Tuesday will be appetizers at a beer tasting.  And, Wednesday's dinner is almost done and in the fridge.  I won't have to dig into the freezer at the office this week at all.  Best of all, by the time the week's over we'll have tried at least six new recipes.  Thus far, the five we've tried have all been keepers.  I love it when that happens. 

So, let's talk about the recipes...

French Toast with Peaches.  I blogged about this for Secret Recipe Club.  REALLY good stuff!

Jeni's Pear Riesling Sorbet.  There's an ice cream shop in Columbus, OH (Dublin, OH if you want to be really specific) called Jeni's.  For the most part, Connie and I have very similar tastes.  We love cheese, anchovies, smoked oysters, salumi.  We dislike milk.  But, I love ice cream and he doesn't.  When we're in Ohio visiting our grandkids, we frequently head to Jeni's.  Yup, it's typically my suggestion.  I have a heckuva time deciding what to get.  There are so many incredible flavors to choose from.  Connie, not so much.  He gets the Pear Riesling Sorbet.  So, thinking that I might try to make some ice cream like Jeni's I bought her cookbook.  Lucky day!  It has the Pear Riesling Sorbet recipe!  Now, I wound up dumping the mix in the freezer and leaving it overnight.  So, what I really have is a frozen block at this point.  But, scraping with a spoon allows a spoonful at a time to be enjoyed.  And, I've got to say it's just the same flavor. 

Duck Risotto.  A lot of folks find risotto intimidating.  I'll confess that I felt the same way way back when.  Now, risotto is clean up the kitchen for two.  We've not made risotto in forever.  Then, one of my blogger friends mentioned the fact she was making duck risotto.  So, Heather Tallman, aka Basilmomma, this is ALL your fault.  I took my typical mushroom risotto recipe and changed it up just a bit.  The initial olive oil was replaced with duck fat.  A duck confit leg was shredded and added with the mushrooms.  And, of course, the duck skin was crisped and put on top.  YUM!!  At some point I've got to check Heather's blog and see how she made hers...

Then, we had two totally new recipes. 

The first was sesame noodles.  Pretty basic stuff.  A peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame noodle dressing over thin spaghetti, chicken, red bell pepper and snow peas.  I got the recipe in a Martha Stewart email.  We've had several similar dishes and loved all of them.  Best thing is that since the recipe is to be served at room temperature or cool, it makes fabulous leftovers!

 I'd been hungry for the watermelon salad with feta and red onions.  That was until I read Jamie Oliver's Thai Watermelon Salad recipe in Jamie's Dinners.  This was amazing.  I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch.  The peanuts were kinda yucky.  But, the rest of the salad was still killer.  This will absolutely be a regular in our home.

Thai Watermelon Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 of a small, seedless watermelon
1 bunch cilantro leaves
1 handful of mint leaves
1 small bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
1 large handful peanuts
1- 2 oz feta cheese, crumbled

for the dressing:
2 t grated fresh ginger
2 T soy sauce
6 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t sesame oil
juice of two limes
salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix the dressing ingredients.  Toss all the salad ingredients.  Mix with the dressing and serve immediately.

Duck Confit Club Sandwich

Please, please, please pick me!  Yes, I really do want to be on the advance team helping Guy Fieri choose which diners, drive-ins and dives to visit in person.  Can you imagine being able to walk into Scully's Tavern in Miami and say, "You know, I'd really like to try another of those escargot.  I'm just not positive yet that those are what we want to highlight on the show."  Really. Like a person would have to have even a second of those incredible escargot to know those are the best ever.  So, Guy any time you're looking for someone to go do some advance testing for you, just call.

Friday evening is what brought Guy Fieri to the the forefront.  We actually left the office at 5:00.  About 4:45 we hit 2/3rd's of our paperwork transmitted.  That's after eight grueling weeks of working on almost nothing but paperwork.  Eight weeks of eating dinner at 9 or 9:30 then falling into bed just to get up early and start all over again.  We took off for Bier Brewery.  Jerry was having a pint night to benefit a children's heart hospital.  Jerry's a great guy.  And Bier has AWESOME bier.  Taco Lassi was there.  So, we got a flight of tacos and a couple of pints of biers and settled down to relax just a bit.  Taco choices were flank steak, chicken tandoori, fish and potato/lentil.  We almost passed on the fried potato/lentil balls.  That would've been our bad since those were fabulous.  Full tummies, relaxed and ready to put our feet up, we headed home.  At 6:30 pm.  Well before our typical time to leave the office recently.  I settled down to the mountain of old newspapers and Connie grabbed a National Geographic.  And, he turned on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Good Choice Sweetie!!!

A couple of shows we'd seen before played through.  My stack of papers shrank.  Then, on comes one we've not seen.  A place called the Tattooed Moose in Charleston, SC.  We both wanted to get in the car and drive south right then.  A duck confit club sandwich.  Holy Cow.  What an amazing idea.

Saturday, we spent our requisite eight hours at the office.  And, made an actual dent in the pile of folders of paperwork to process.  I'd made a list of dishes to try - mostly from my latest Fine Cooking Magazine.  On the way to the grocery, we matched up dishes.  The duck confit club sandwich was for Sunday night and was going to be served with a carrot and mint gremolata salad.  Except, the produce section at the grocery was decimated.  We couldn't find eggplant, the mini carrots, parsnips, grapefruit...  And, we couldn't find chicken thighs with skin and bone.  By the time we'd done Trader Joes, Sams and Marsh, we were done.  Neither of us wanted to go to another Marsh to get the rest of the things we needed.  Cider glazed chicken thighs had been on the menu for Saturday.  A quick glance at the menu told me that the sandwiches were the only entree that we had everything for and were quick enough to make at 9pm Saturday night.  No carrots meant we'd switch the side to a brussels sprout/lemon/hazelnut salad.

Thick-sliced bacon went into a skillet to cook.  A red onion made a visit to the mandoline.  Connie sliced Hawaiian rolls into thirds.  I thawed a duck confit leg, drained (and saved) the fat, shredded the meat and put it into a skillet to heat and last but not least put the skin into a skillet to crisp.  Mayonnaise and crushed garlic were mixed for the spread.  Tomatoes from the garden were thinly sliced as was some cheddar cheese. 

So, what did we think?  Best club sandwich I've ever had.  Crazy good.  I'll make this again SOON.  During winter months, this would work perfectly with some tomato jam instead of the sliced tomatoes. 

Duck Confit Club Sandwich

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise
Crushed garlic
Hawaiian bread or rolls
Duck confit
Duck skin
Bacon, thickly sliced, cooked and drained
Cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
Red onion, VERY thinly sliced (shaved on a mandoline if possible)
Tomato, thinly sliced
Lettuce or spring greens

Directions:

Mix the mayo and crushed garlic for the sandwich spread.

Cut the rolls into thirds, lengthwise.  We couldn't find Hawaiian bread so used the rolls.  Four were about equal to one slice of bread.

Cook and drain the bacon.

Crisp the duck skin.

Warm the shredded duck confit.



Assemble:

Toast the rolls/bread on the cut sides.  Spread two of the three layers (or three if you want) with the mayo/garlic mixture. 

Top with duck confit. 

Then, a couple of pieces of bacon

Then, thinly sliced cheddar cheese

Put the sandwiches under the broiler until the cheese melts

Top with the crispy duck skin.

Another layer of bread

The sliced onions

The sliced tomatoes

A handful of lettuce

Finish with the other piece of bread.



Thank you to the folks at the Tattooed Moose for a great idea and Guy Fieri for showing us how!

Potato Latkes with Duck Confit

Friday night at home.  With Connie.  Now, to most of you that doesn't sound like anything spectacular.  Just an evening at home.  Except for the fact that for the last six years he's played bridge almost every Friday night.  On occasion we've had a Friday evening together but there've not been too many that we could just goof off.  And, I'd not been home for several evenings.  Our original plan was to do the shopping for the party prep we're going to do this weekend.  We also needed to go to Nora Apothecary to get the thyroid meds I have to rub inside George cat's ear every evening.  Oops.  We got home at 6:08 and they close at 6:00 on Friday evenings.  Not only that but we were now home.  And, neither of us wanted to leave. 


All of the sudden, I realized my dinner had been planned around a rotisserie chicken from Sams.  And, we weren't going to Sams.  Thursday night I'd been reading Anne Burrell's new cookbook, Cook Like a Rock Star.  The last recipe I'd read before drifting off to sleep was for duck confit.  That meant I had duck confit on the brain.  I do love that stuff!  I started thinking about how to serve duck confit.  How about latkes fried in duck fat with asparagus and a poached egg?  Off to the bookshelves to find Molly O'Neill's New York cookbook.  I was pretty certain I'd seen a great potato latke recipe there.  Bingo.  I had.  And, we had two packages of homemade duck confit in the freezer.

I've always loved potato latkes but have never tried making them.  My favorites are from The Original Pancake House.  They've got a location in Indy and one in Chicago.  Strangely enough, we get to the Chicago one most often because it's right down the street from the hotel where we stay when I go to Advantage Financial Group board meetings.  We typically order the Eggs Michael and savor every bite.  Eggs Michael is an english muffin topped with a sausage patty then a poached egg then a fabulous sherry mushroom cream sauce.  Potato latkes are on the side.  Swoon!!!

What did I learn?  You need to drain the potatoes REALLY well.  Use a large enough colander so they'll really drain.  And, leave them in the colander long enough.  I kept having to squeeze the liquid out of the latkes as I was making them.  Not a good thing.  But, they did wind up tasting fabulous.  I'm sure part of that was due to the fact that they were fried in duck fat.  Actually, the whole meal was fabulous.  This is one that I'll make again!

Potato Latkes with Duck Confit

Ingredients:

for the latkes:
makes 6 latkes

1.25 lbs russet potatoes (about 2 large potatoes)
1/2 large white or yellow onion
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 T matzo meal
2 t chopped fresh parsley
salt
freshly ground pepper
duck fat

to assemble the dish (per serving:)

potato latke
6 thin spears asparagus, lightly steamed
duck confit
poached egg
crispy duck skin

Directions:

Put a large, wide colander over a bowl.  Peel the onion and cut the half in half.  Pulse it in the food processor until it's in bits.  You don't want mush here so don't pulse much.  Remove the onions to the colander.  Wash the potatoes and cut them in hunks to fit in the feed tube on the processor.  Use the larger shredding disk and shred the potatoes.  Put the potatoes in the colander and allow them to drain. 

small colander, piled high, not good

Smoosh them a bit to encourage the liquid to drain.  Once the potatoes have adequately drained, pour the liquid from the bowl out.  DON'T wipe the bowl.  The starch left there is a good thing.  Toss the potatoes and onions into the bowl.  Add the other latke ingredients:  matzo meal, salt and pepper, parsley and egg.

Mix well but lightly.  Heat the duck fat in a cast iron skillet.  It should be pretty screaming hot when you put the latkes in.  You're going to put them in using a 1/4 c up measure.  Squash them down so they're 4-5 inches across.  Now, reduce the heat and cook the latkes on medium until they're nice and crispy and golden brown. 

Turn them and cook the 2nd side until it's nice and crispy.  Remove from the heat and drain on paper towels.

I've got to tell you the comment at the end of the recipe from Dave, The Latke King, Firestone:  Remove from the room anyone who prefers latkes with sour cream.  Serve the latkes immediately.  With applesauce. 

So, I'm one of those applesauce people and I understand.  But, I still got a good laugh out of it! 

While the latkes are cooking, you need to crisp up your duck skin.  For something with so daggone much fat, it sticks to the skillet.  But, it's worth it because it tastes fabulous!

Now, you need to assemble the meal.   Start with a potato latke.

Top it with some asparagus spears.  More if they're thin, less if they're fat.

Put some shredded duck confit on the asparagus. 

Then, you need a poached egg.  Now, I used to poach those perfect eggs in the egg cooker.  It meant cleaning the stupid little trays.  I finally got brave and poach my eggs in simmering water with a bit of vinegar. 

They look MUCH better and gosh darn it, they're fun to make. 

Finally, garnish the dish with a bit of crispy duck skin and you're ready to inhale.

Latke recipe adapted from The New York Cookbook by Molly O'Neill

Shitake Duck Risotto

Risotto is one of our favorite meals.  Absolutely comfort food.  And, it's so incredibly versatile.  We've made it with about as many meats and vegetables and cheeses as you an name.  And, they've almost all been great.  This one was no exception. 

My friends John and Jackie gave me a bag of shitakes that they'd grown. 

Aren't those gorgeous mushrooms?  And, that's only part of them.  Some were devoured after just being sauteed in a bit of butter.  The rest are being dried in the refrigerator.  We started brainstorming what to do with the mushrooms.  Chicken with a mushroom wine sauce?  Stroganoff?  Pork and mushroom mustard cream sauce?  We kept circling back to risotto.  And, I knew I had a duck confit leg in the freezer.  Duck and shitakes.  Perfect.

Risotto was a dish I'd never tackled until a few years ago.  It sounded complicated and easy to screw up.  Then, I tried making my own and fell in love with the process.  For me, it's a very calming dish to make.  Chopped onions are sauteed in butter and olive oil.  Raw arborio rice is added and allowed to turn just a little golden.  Then, in goes some white wine followed by warm chicken stock - 1/4 - 1/2 c at a time.  On the side, the additions are prepped.  Lots of stirring goes on.  Finally, the rice reaches that creamy but still with a teeny, tiny bit of bite stage and it's time to put in whatever you want:  vegetables, meat and always some cheese. 

What did we think?  Amazing.  Connie suggested that we implement a separate risotto rating system since most of it is a 4 or a 5 on our rating scale.  Now, that's coming from the man who has always declared anything other than a 1-5 scale to be superfluous!

Shitake and Duck Risotto

Ingredients:
2-3 cups chicken broth (homemade stock is best)
1 c duck stock (substitute chicken stock if desired)
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 c Arborio rice
3/4 c dry white wine
1 duck confit leg and thigh, reserve the skin and fat
8 oz shitake mushrooms
1 T olive oil
2 T duck fat
1/2 c finely grated romano cheese

Directions:

Prepare basic risotto.  Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large saucepan.  Pour in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Saute the onion in the butter/olive oil mixture.  When it's softened, add the garlic.  Cook for about a minute then add the arborio rice.  Stir to make sure it's thoroughly coated by the butter.  Allow the rice to brown just slightly, then pour in the white wine.  It'll be absorbed quickly.  Add the warm chicken broth very slowly, stirring after every 1/4 - 1/2 cup.  It's the stirring that causes the risotto to be nice and creamy so grab a glass of wine and stand by the stove and stir, stir, stir. 

While the risotto is cooking get the rest of your ingredients together.  Shred duck confit.  Crisp the duck skin in a small skillet. 

Set it aside.

Pour the olive oil into a large skillet.  Remove the stems and coarsely chop the mushrooms.  Saute them in the olive oil.  Once they've started to brown, add a tablespoon of the duck fat.  Continue to saute them until they're dark brown and have started to crisp just a bit. 

Remove the mushrooms from the heat. 

Now, it's time to put your risotto together.  Finish the risotto with a tablespoon of duck fat instead of butter.  Add in the shredded duck confit,

mushrooms

and romano. 

Serve topped with a bit more shredded romano and the crispy duck skin. 

Duck Confit

How do you say I love you?  I'd imagine a lot of you say I love you with food.  Just like I do.  Used to be when a friend had a baby and now it's more likely when a friend has a hip replacement or other major surgery, I take over a bunch of meals.  Or, like this past week when Auntie Deb lost her fiance.  Instead of using my "spare" time blogging, it went to cooking.  Lots of cooking.  Thomas was the primary cook in their family.  Deb works two jobs and is still recouping from an incredibly nasty fall last February.  She shattered a good part of her left arm.  Now, I've got about 30 meals ready for her to pop in the oven or microwave when she gets home from work.  Like the rest of her family, she's a pretty picky eater so I kept it to basics:  chicken green bean casserole, sloppy joes, meatloaf, white chili, spaghetti sauce, chicken and noodles.  I've got my fingers crossed that she'll like all of that.  We went to the funeral this weekend knowing that we've done something to help out.  And, she knows we love her.

In between, we headed to Columbus, OH to see my stepson David and his family.  You'll hear more about that trip over the next couple of days.

That, my friends is why I've been a bit scarce recently. 

Now, I want to share with you duck confit.  The first time I used it I thought it was something very complicated.  I'd never make my own cassoulet because making duck confit sounded so incredibly intimidating.  Last weekend I unlocked the mystery.  It's super easy to make.  Connie's asked for duck ragu for a Sunday evening meal - the evening we typically do something complicated. 

During our regular Saturday shopping expedition we went to Goose the Market to pick up duck confit.  They didn't have any in the case or in storage.  Chris even checked in his personal stash upstairs.  Nada.  So, we bought duck legs and duck fat and made our own.  Chris said to cover the duck with kosher salt and put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours then to cook it on the stove top, in the oven or in a slow cooker at 180 for 12 hours. 

I knew I'd seen a recipe for duck confit in Heartland so I checked that when we got home.  That recipe called for rubbing the duck legs with salt then topping them with pepper, garlic, thyme and bay leaves and putting them in a covered dish in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.  Then, you're to wipe the salt off, brown the duck and cook it on high in the slow cooker for two hours.

Hmmm, the recipes sounded pretty different.  No surprise here, I decided to combine the best of both.

Duck Confit

Ingredients:

4 duck legs with thighs
1/3 c coarse kosher or sea salt
2 t freshly ground black pepper
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 large sprigs thyme
4 bay leaves
1 c duck fat

Directions:

Rub the duck legs with salt.  Put them in a glass baking dish.  Sprinkle them with the pepper.  Lay the garlic slices, thyme and bay leaves on the duck.  Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 days.  Now, you've got a choice.  You can brown the duck legs or not.  I chose not to.  In Heartland, the recipe calls for using two cups of canola oil for cooking the duck legs.  Chris typically uses duck fat.  So, because I've bought my duck confit from Chris, I chose to use duck fat. 

Lay the duck legs in the bottom of a slow cooker.  Dollop on the duck fat.  Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 12 hours.  Remove the duck confit and put each leg into a separate freezer bag.  Divide the duck fat between the bags.  Either use within a couple of weeks or freeze until ready to use.

Fettucine with Duck Ragu

Don't you love the happy dance your tastebuds do when you've eaten something absolutely fabulous?  That's what happened with this dish.  Major happy dance.  Perfect balance of textures and flavors.  MMMM!!

Sunday evenings are typically reserved for the most time consuming dishes.  That's because I usually quit working about 4:00 and actually have the time to spend several hours cooking.  One of my favorite things to make is pasta.  The difference between homemade pasta and store-bought is just light years apart.  I got an attachment for my KitchenAid mixer several years ago and have used it on a regular basis.  Yes, it was a bit expensive but it's worth every penny to be able to create wonderful pasta.

I'd cut this recipe out of a magazine and put it in the try now envelope.  But, I knew if I was going to make it, it'd need to be on a Sunday,  No wasting duck confit on store-bought pasta!  This week, the recipe finally made it to the menu.  It'll make it to our table at least once a year - if not twice.  And, my friends, anything I'd make twice in a year is REALLY good.  There are just too many new recipes to try to be repeating things.  I know there are a lot of folks who have a list of regular dishes and just rotate them.  But, I'm not one of those folks.  That'd be way boring!!

Well, you already know what I think about this.  So, what did Connie think?  He loved it as much as I did.  In fact, he said this would be a great dish to make for the kids.  I think as long as I don't tell my daughter-in-law it's duck, she'll be fine with it.  And, she's a good sport anyway.  David, he'll absolutely love this.  I did a couple of things differently than the recipe directed.  The original recipe called for four duck confit legs.  For one, they're pretty expensive.  And, we've never even attempted to eat a whole duck confit leg per person.  I used just one and it was plenty of meat.  Two would be fine but more in my opinion would be overkill.  The duck fat is just too good to waste, so half of it was used to saute the vegetables.  The other half replaced part of the butter added at the end.  I took the skin and crisped it in the second half of the duck fat, then served that on top of the dish.  The recipe also called for pappardelle.  One, my pasta attachment doesn't have a pappardelle setting and two, I like fettucine better.  So, there you have it!

Fettucine with Duck Ragu

Ingredients:

1 duck confit leg
2 T duck fat
1/4 c minced carrot
1/2 c minced onion
1/4 c minced celery
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 T fresh rosemary leaves
12 kalamata or nicoise olives, pitted and chopped
1/2 dry red wine
2 c chicken stock or broth
2 T duck fat
4 T butter, melted
1/2 c parmesan or romano, finely grated (plus more for serving)
1/2 lb fettucine

Directions:

Start your pasta water.  Drain the duck fat from the confit.  Shred the confit and set it aside.  Put two tablespoons of the duck fat into a large skillet.  Heat it to sizzling.  Add the onions, celery and carrots. 

Saute on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and start to brown. 

Turn the heat up to high.  Add the olives, rosemary and garlic.  Cook for about one minute until very fragrant. 

Pour in the red wine to deglaze the pan.  Turn the heat back down to medium.  Add the shredded duck confit. 

Add the chicken stock and simmer until the liquid in the pan is reduced to about 3/4 cup.  Depending on whether you're using store bought or homemade pasta, you'll want to toss it in the pasta pot either early on while the chicken stock is simmering or close to the end of the time.  If you'd like to make homemade pasta, here's a link to my recipe:  homemade pasta.  Cook the pasta only to al dente.  Drain it and toss it with the sauce along with the shredded cheese and the butter. 

Season with freshly ground pepper.  Depending on how salty your duck confit is, you may or may not want to add additional salt.  We didn't need to add any - to the pasta, the sauce or as we served it. 
adapted from Food and Wine

Emeril's Duck Confit Pizza

I love being able to combine business and pleasure.  The rules say that I have to do an annual sign audit at a bank where one of my reps offices on occasion.  That means a looonnnggg trip west of Indy.  All for about five minutes of work.  Bleech. 

Now, Saturday's normally a workday for me.  Actually, truth be told, Sunday is too.  I just tend to work more hours on Saturday than Sunday.  Connie'd found a blurb on the Mansfield Mushroom Festival several months back.  It'd been on our calendar ever since.  I didn't think I had a prayer of taking the time to head out there.  But for the fact that I was totally exhausted - physically and mentally - I'd never have done it.  If I didn't have a break, I was going to crack.  And, since I had to do the sign audit and really didn't want to take half of a weekday workday, heading west was perfect.  Off to Mansfield we went. 

I got up really early and got a bunch of work done so I'd not feel quite so guilty about taking a Saturday out of the office.  We checked Google maps so we'd have an idea where we were going.  The whole idea was to stay off the main highways as much as possible - while still doing the sign check.  Over the river and through the woods we went.  Please don't ask what the folks at the bank really thought about the crazy lady in the sweats and tennies who came in to verify that the SIPC sign was there.  They were very nice in spite of the fact that I looked a bit seedy.  Way out in the boonies, we found Mansfield.  Talk about a speck on the map!  If there were a dozen buildings in the town, I'd be shocked.  The first thing we came up on was the auction.  There were coolers lining several tables. 

The coolers were all full of gallon ziplock bags of morels.  Freshly picked morels.  The most gorgeous morels I've ever seen.  Now, in the grocery if you can find them, the morels go for about $40 a pound.  These were MUCH better quality and much less expensive. 

Needless to say, we bought a bag. 

Next stop, the roller mill.  The way flour used to be milled. 

There's no way to show you how the mill actually worked because it's just too complicated.  One of those you've got to be there types of things. 

Suffice to say, the building is filled with spouts and shoots and all kinds of things to move the goods around.  The machinery was fascinating. 

And, we explored every inch of it!

From the mill we went to visit the covered bridge.  It was built to allow the farmers on the west side of Raccoon Creek to get their goods across the creek to the mill.  A few years ago we got to explore another covered bridge.  This was a different type of construction and was called a burr arch as I recall. 

There were dozens of State Fair types of vendors hawking all kinds of goodies.  Tenderloins were one of the most popular choices.  Oh, and there were the folks selling junque.  Ugh.  Otherwise known as crap.  Do not make eye contact with those vendors or you'll need to extricate yourself from their grip.  They want to SELL you something.  Preferably something way overpriced that I'd not even take to the church rummage sale...  Ok, so we ignored those folks.

Time to head home.  And, time to read more cooking magazines.  That's one of the best things about adventures.  Or, even riding to the office with Connie.  I actually get to read cooking magazines.  FoodNetwork Magazine.  I ordered it because I love watching FoodTV - on the rare occasion I actually get to watch TV.  Now, I love the magazine.  I found a recipe for a pizza made with duck confit.  Something I've become very fond of but don't eat very often.  The recipe looked easy used up a lot of the arugula. 

We got our CSA share Friday afternoon. Overall, it was pretty skimpy but still good. Last week we got about six salads out of the greens. This week, I think we'll get 4-5. But, I may be wrong and we could get six again. We also got some green onions and a big bag of arugula. That meant when I saw the recipe for Emeril's Duck Confit Pizza I was thrilled to find something really different that would allow me to use most of the arugula.

What did we think?  Oh, my.  It was incredible.  The recipe showed one fried egg in the middle.  All I could picture was cutting that egg into quarters and having all the yolk run all over.  Not a good idea.  Four quarters, four eggs.  And, a LOT more arugula than the photo in the magazine showed.  By the way, I totally cheated on the crust.  Boboli it was.  NO time to make a homemade crust.  So, here you go.  For a total treat...

Emeril's Duck Confit Pizza

Ingredients:

Boboli pizza crust - or homemade
3T extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 oz shredded duck confit
4 large eggs
2 c baby arugula
1/4 c grated romano cheese
truffle oil

Directions:

Heat the garlic gently in the olive oil until the flavor has infused the oil. 

Brush the olive oil on the pizza crust. 

Top with the duck confit. 

Bake on a hot pizza stone for 8-10 minutes at 500.  While the pizza is baking, cook the eggs sunny side up in a small drizzle of olive oil. 

When the pizza is removed from the oven, top it with the arugula, then the eggs (sunny side up,) then the grated cheese.  Drizzle with truffle oil and serve. 

adapted from Food Network Magazine, Emeril Lagasse