Ricotta Dip and Ratatouille

Football season.  Our Colts are now three and two.  Robert Mathis was back on the sidelines.  Andrew Luck ran in for a touchdown.  The opposing quarterback got sacked three times.  Yeah, it was a fun game.  Now, they're playing a Thursday night game and I'm beyond nervous...

Friday we met some friends at Taverna.  It's a restaurant close to  our home.  We keep meeting friends there hoping that they'll go back and take other friends.  We'd love to see the place packed.  Actually, Friday there was a MUCH better crowd than most evenings.  I had my favorite meal:  grilled wedge salad with parmesan feta dressing, kona crusted filet with red wine/chocolate sauce, mushroom rice, creamed spinach and bread pudding.  Actually, the last three are cooling their heels in the fridge.  Lunch was too late for me to be very hungry. 

Saturday I had appointments all day.  Then, we headed over to Uncle Lou's for dinner.  Lou used to office on the same floor so we got to know each other riding the elevator up and down.  He lives about five minutes away.  And, did I mention that he's a total hoot to be around?  He made fabulous poached salmon and a pasta/herb/veggie dish. 

Dessert was cannoli cake.  He had a heckuva time talking the folks at the grocery into selling him the pieces and parts of cannoli instead of the completed dish.  The cake was AHMAZING!  I took an appetizer.  Turns out one of the guests was allergic to garlic.  That limited my choices.  Fortunately, I was reading the latest edition of Food Network Magazine and found a ricotta dip.  It was perfect. 

Then, Sunday was the Colts game.   I got up really early and worked for a few hours before it was time to leave.  Then, during timeouts and halftime I thought about dinner and the next week's lunches.  What did we have?  Leftover ricotta dip.  That'd make great homemade ravioli.  With a lemon cream and asparagus sauce.  That'd also take a LOT of time.  We had about ten basil plants to pluck and make pesto with.  There were also about half a dozen little eggplants I'd picked before the threat of frost.  Those would make great ratatouille. 

And, there was white rice from last week's garlic chicken and pork fried rice carryout.  That'd make great fried rice with mushrooms, carrots, celery and zucchini.

We also had Uncle Lou's leftover pasta.  But, that was earmarked for Monday evening when Connie was playing bridge and we needed a super quick dinner. 

Around our house, leftovers are lunches and revised dinners.  We work seven days a week so being smart about cooking is important.

So, let's talk about recipes.  Ratatouille first.  It's one of those dishes I like to make a lot of and freeze in pint containers for lunches.  I love that it's so incredibly flexible...

Ratatouille

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 large eggplant, peeled and diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 zucchini or yellow squash, diced
1 green pepper, diced (optional)
6 oz button or cremini mushrooms, diced (optional)
2 ribs celery, diced (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T Italian seasoning
1 8 oz can V8
salt and pepper

Directions:

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil to shimmering.  Add vegetables and sauté until softened.  Add V8 and simmer for about 2 hours.  This is a dish that needs to simmer for a long time.  Add more V8 if you want to keep it moist enough.  I think it's better served the next day.


Ricotta Dip

Ingredients:

2 lb container of ricotta cheese (NOT lowfat)
zest of 2 lemons
thyme (2-4 teaspoons)
rosemary (2-4 teaspoons, chopped finely)
crushed red pepper (1/4 - 1/2teaspoon)
1 c finely grated parmesan cheese
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Mix the ricotta, lemon zest, thyme, rosemary and crushed red pepper.  Put the cheese in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with the shredded parmesan.  Bake at 350 until bubbling.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.  Serve with sliced, toasted baguette or really good crunchy crackers (we like Triscuit.)

adapted from FoodNetwork Magazine

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.

French Toast with Peaches

Ah, yes, Secret Recipe Club...  Either watch The Roosevelts or write.  Since this is due at midnight, I shall write.  Yes, I waited until the last minute.  Time flew.  A trip to Seattle.  Lots of work at the office.  A whirlwind.  So, this month I was assigned Debbie Does Dinner Healthy.   After much deliberation, I'd settled on either the Kung Pao Chickpeas or the Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Sandwiches.  But, that wasn't to be.  I had nectarines that needed to be used up.  And, Debbie posted a great recipe for French toast with sautéed peaches.  I had to try it. 

What did we think?  Wonderful!!!  This recipe was not only a great way to use up some expiring fruit and get Connie to eat fruit (yes, he counts the servings of fruit he's given a week...) it was also a wonderful way to use fruit instead of syrup on French toast. 

French Toast with Peaches

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 T butter
3 to 4 fresh peaches, peeled & sliced
2T cup brown sugar
4 or 5 slices of bread 

Directions:

Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.  Melt the butter in a large skillet.  Dunk the bread in the milk mixture then put it in the skillet.  Flip it once to thoroughly brown both sides.  In a small skillet, sauté the peaches and brown sugar.  Serve the peaches over the French toast

Adapted from Debbie Does Dinner Healthy

An InLinkz Link-up

Truffled Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Home from vacation.  I'll share the trip with you another time.  Right now, I want to share with you the clean up the kitchen for two dish I made for dinner tonight.  We had some Yukon Gold potatoes that were getting a big long in the tooth.  And, there was bacon in the fridge to use up.  I could either add the bacon to the panzanella salad or I could add it to the potatoes...  You see, we also had half a loaf of kalamata olive bread we'd bought at Pike Place Market and stashed in my canvas tote to bring home.  That and the end of some of the veggies from the garden and an Eggland's Best contest determined the panzanella salad.  For about three minutes I felt guilty about serving bread and potatoes in the same meal.  Then, I got over it.  It was either that or go to the grocery.  Pragmatism won. 

My mom makes killer twice baked potatoes.  Never had any better.  I decided to make some in casserole form since the Yukon Gold's don't have skins that are amenable to stuffing.  The potatoes got trimmed, roughly chopped and tossed in the cooking water.  I turned my attention to the panzanella salad.  The zucchini and yellow squash and onion got grilled.  The bread was chopped.  The cherry tomatoes were halved and smooshed at bit.  The dressing got made.  About that time the diced bacon was nice and done.  Not crispy but just happy.  I drained the potatoes into a colander then tossed them in a bowl with butter.  Cream, thyme and shredded cheddar followed.  Cream because that's what we had.  I didn't feel like the tang of sour cream or yogurt.  And, the milk was old.  Cream it was.  Then, I walked into the dining room.  There on the table was the truffle oil.  The same truffle oil that we'd used on the potato chips last night.  You want to hear about those?  Ok, hang on.  I had to put a bit in the potatoes.  Everything got mashed together, put in a casserole and topped with bacon.  Then, I put it in a warm oven until the salads were ready...

What did we think?  Connie says I can pretty much put truffle oil in anything.  Ice cream maybe?  Fruit salad?  Those might be a bit out there!  At any rate, we loved these potatoes.  The cheese was present but didn't stand out.  The truffle oil was the same.  Ditto the bacon.  In other words, everything played really well together. 

Now, before I give you the rough draft of the recipe, let me tell you about the chips...  Our first two days in the Pacific Northwest we stayed with our friends Helene and Cath on Vashon Island.  Cath bought us a little bag of housemade chips from Thriftway.  I tucked them in my bag and forgot I had them until it was time to repack for the trip to come home five days later.  When we got home we were both tired and it was pretty late.  A tomato, cucumber and Swiss chard salad from the garden was in order.  Along with some salumi from Salumi (owned by Mario Batali's father...) and some gruyere cheese.  Then, I realized I had the chips too.  Those got tossed in a warm oven with a drizzle of truffle oil and a sprinkle of truffle salt.  OMG they were GOOD!!!!

 

 

Truffled Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

5 large Yukon Gold potatoes or 10 mediums
2 T butter
1/4 c cream
4 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated (we use Cracker Barrel)
2 t fresh thyme
1 t white truffle oil
4 slices bacon, diced and browned

Directions:

Cook and drain the potatoes.  Mash them with the next five ingredients.  Top with the bacon and serve.

Rice Pudding

Life has been interesting, if not exciting.  Let's see...  Some guy cut in front of Connie, causing Connie to slam on his brakes and the airbag sensor to go cattywampus.  That was two days in the shop.  Then, on our trip to the airport, we took a side trip through Crown Hill cemetery to visit Dad's grave and show my sister-in-law the highest point in the city. 

Just as we were leaving, it started to rain. 

I was riding in the backseat and had the window down to take photos.  The window wouldn't go up.  My chivalrous husband put the car in park and ran around and pulled the window up as far as it'd go.  (Two more days in the shop...)  We then went home and traded cars for the trip to take Barb to the airport.  She was here visiting for five days.  We got in loads of fun things like a trip to the State Fair with the whole crew.  And, dinner with Mom at The Friendly.  I had some fabulous fried catfish there... 

During Barb's visit, Annie the dog conned her into loads of treats.  Wee Mac the cat got in the grove too, showing Auntie Barbara he knows how to high five!

And, Barbs overfed her by more than a bit.  So, starting the day Barbs left and lasting for four days, Annie had diarrhea.  Lots of diarrhea.  My living room carpet looks like someone had a mudball fight in there.  Fortunately, once she picked a room, she pretty much stuck with it.  Then, she figured out at least one human would actually wake up and take her out in the middle of the night.  A human who forgot to turn off the alarm system and woke up the immediate neighborhood with the wailing of the sirens.  Ok, then.  A trip to see Doc was in order.  A VERY undignified examination of the doggie woggie ensued.  Meds were prescribed.  Excessive passing of gas followed.  That's fine except she was laying between my office and Connie's.  Both of us were ready for gas masks!  Now, Annie is starting to feel a bit better.  And, I'm thinking a good carpet cleaning will be happening - soon!

Midst all the fun and excitement, I barely cooked.  A barbecue for the kids.  Pork chops with peach glaze for Barb.  Pork fried rice with the leftover pork chops.  Not much exciting.  Totally forgot that Secret Recipe Club was sneaking up on me.  I'd perused my assigned blog and printed a few recipes.  I'd even put harissa on the grocery list thinking I'd make a soup that sounded good.  But, I kept going back to the rice pudding with dates and pistachios.  One, I've never made rice pudding.  Two, we both adore dates and pistachios.  Now, I had no business making a dessert after all the goodies we had while Barb was here.  But, rice pudding it was.  My assigned blog, SimplySensationalFood.com is by Nayna who lives in the UK and is a recipe author for City Connect Cambridge.  Her blog is vegetarian and measurements are given in grams etc.  I've copied her measurements here since I used the by guess and by gosh method of measuring...  And, I left out the saffron that Nayna called for.  That is one spice I really can't stand.  Guess if I had to choose one, choosing the most expensive one was the best idea!!  I was really pleased with this dessert.  The dates and nuts added just the right amount of crunchy/chewy/interesting topping.  And, the cardamom in the recipe was perfect.  I'd have included a link to the recipe but nowhere on the blog could I find an index...



Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

60 g short grain rice
250 ml water
400 ml cream
60 g sugar
1 t cardamom powder
4 almonds
6 pistachios
6 medjool dates
60 ml boiling water

Directions:

In a small saucepan, start simmering the cream and cardamom.  You don't want it to boil but you do want it to reduce.  In another saucepan, start water for your rice.  Cook the rice according to the package directions but add 5-10 minutes so it is VERY soft.  Drain the rice.  Add the sugar to the cream and stir until it's dissolved.  Add the drained rice.  Refrigerate so you're serving it cool.  An hour or so before serving the pudding, chop the dates and add them to the boiling water.  Remove them from the heat and allow them to sit for half an hour.  Mash them into the water.  Serve the pudding garnished with the date compote and the nuts.  As you can see, I chose to use sliced almonds that I'd toasted instead of plain almonds...

Thank you Nayna from Simply Sensational Food!

An InLinkz Link-up

Green Bean Casserole

Well, if you read my last post, you know my sister-in-law, Barb, was here visiting.  Her first evening here, we took her to Chef Joseph's.  She finally got to meet our dear friend who is such an incredible chef.  She loved her chicken parmesan.  And, Connie and I loved our lamb confit tacos!!! 

The next evening we headed to Mom's and from there went out to Zionsville for dinner at the Friendly.  That evening there was a drag race on Main Street to raise money for Alzheimers.  I wish I'd gotten photos of the guys in drag coming in the bar to collect donations.  They were wonderful! 

Saturday, it was State Fair time!  David and Kara and Bradley and Rosie came over from Columbus to see Auntie Barbs.  The kids got to feed the sheep, eat enough sugar to last a month (or more) and just generally have a great time.  One of the highlights for me was getting to see the sculpture that won my friend, Kathy Cunningham, first place in the professional division.  Then, I turned around and said, "Oh, look at that cool piece!"  Turned out it was another by Kathy...  

The fair was followed by a run through the sprinkler at home.  Picking flowers for Momma.  Playing with Annie.  PIcking tomatoes.  Climbing the tree.  Then, it was time for dinner - and helping Grammie.  Barbecued chicken on the Big Green Egg, corn on the cob, homemade green bean casserole and two pies - one chocolate, bourbon pecan and the other mince walnut. 

Our friends Barb and Tom had been in the office and brought us three bags of goodies.  Corn on the cob, green peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans...  Connie took one look at the green beans and asked if I'd make green bean casserole.  He meant the stuff with the cream of mushroom soup topped by the store-bought fried onions.  I had other ideas.  Shocking, I know.  I set out to create REAL green bean casserole.  Now, I did not write down official measurements as I went...  so, these are estimates!

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

for the casserole:

2 lbs green beans, trimmed and halved
1 lb cremini mushrooms, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 T butter
4 T butter
4 T flour
1 1/2-2 c milk (I use 2%)
1/4 - 1/2 c dry sherry
salt and pepper

for the onion rings:

one small red onion, peeled and halved
flour
Cajun seasoning (we make our own Emeril's)
milk
vegetable oil

Directions:  

You're going to feel like a three ring circus while making this...  In a large, heavy pot, pour about an inch of vegetable oil.  That's for frying the onions...  It needs to heat slowly and you need to stay with it.

In a medium skillet, melt the two tablespoons of butter and sauté the mushrooms and shallots.  As they cook, they will give off moisture.  You want to sauté them until the pan is almost dry.  Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside. 

Start the roux for the sauce by melting the butter in a medium saucepan.  While it's melting, cook the green beans in a small amount of salted water.  Because I want the beans relatively soft, I cover the saucepan and leave the beans to steam a bit.  Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir for a few minutes.  You want the flour to cook but you don't want it to color much if at all.  Next, add the milk slowly, stirring constantly.  Once you've added the milk, add the sherry.  Now, you can stir the sauce occasionally while you fry the onions.    

Slice the onion VERY thinly.  Pour about an inch of milk into one shallow bowl.  Put flour and Cajun seasoning in another.  One the oil is hot enough to sizzle when you put an onion ring in it, you're ready to go.  Put a handful of the rings in the milk, then into the flour.  Toss them with the flour until they're well coated.  Put them in the hot oil and cook for about 5 minutes a side.  They need to be nicely browned.  Drain them on paper towels or a paper bag.  

Now, it's time to put the casserole together.  Drain the beans.  Mix them with the mushrooms, shallots and sauce and pour them into a baking dish.  Top with the fried onions and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  

Yes, it's considerably more trouble than canned soup and canned fried onions.  It's also about 1000% better :-)