"Fall"-ing into Hibernation Mode

A weekend with nothing planned. It's practically unheard of in our house, and seems to have come at a great time. The leaves have been vacuumed by the city's leaf-sucking truck that reminds me of something from Dr. Seuss; the house is clean enough, although I should probably do a few loads of laundry; I've shut off my cellphone and the ringers on the landline, and nothing is really stopping my husband and me from hibernating for two full days. My personal goal is to stay in pajamas, cook a few decent meals, catch up on my magazines, and watch a couple of Lifetime movies. Chris has added "studying" to his list, since he's taking two graduate courses this semester, poor thing. I'll let you know how it turns out...

Saturday was a perfect day to sleep in. It was warm, yes, but also gloomy and rainy. When I woke up, I watched Anne Burrell's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and was inspired to make an autumnal pork dish. I found a pork loin in the freezer and set it out to defrost. Dinner would be several hours away, but I felt like cooking, so I made an apple pie. I recently bought Ania Catalano's book, Baking With Agave Nectar and found her recipe for "All-American Apple Pie." Although it called for Granny Smiths, I only had one, but I had plenty of Macintoshes, so I used those, and I cheated on the pie crust, using good old Pillsbury. When it was done baking, I put the pie aside and began working on dinner. I sliced a Vidalia onion and put the slices into a large baking pan. I poured apple cider over the onions so they were about 3/4 of the way covered and then seasoned the mix with salt, pepper and a bundle of dried thyme. I chopped some fresh rosemary and garlic and added some dried sage and olive oil to make a rub for the pork loin, which I placed over the onions in the baking dish. I put the whole thing in a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes, then broiled it for a few minutes to turn it brown. While the pork was cooking, Chris cut three white potatoes into a small dice and tossed them with 4 ounces of diced pancetta. We cooked these, seasoned with salt, pepper and hot Hungarian paprika, in a cast iron pan, stirring often, until the pork was done. While we let the pork rest, we put the onion/cider mix onto the stove top, added a tablespoon of butter, and let it reduce into a sauce that we drizzled onto the pork. The pork was medium, barely pink in the very center, and very tender and well-seasoned. The "apple-cider sauce" had a nice sheen from the butter and was thick, sweet and tasty, with hints of the thyme and onion adding depth of flavor. The potato-pancetta hash was nicely caramelized, and as Anne Burrell says, "Brown food is goooood." A little while after dinner, we enjoyed dessert. Even with my substitutions, the pie was delicious. The agave nectar, used in lieu of sugar, allowed the tartness of the apples to shine through instead of being overshadowed by sweetness.

On Sunday, we were much less prolific. I spent the afternoon reading over half of a novel, while Chris whiled away the hours on the computer. Around 3, we decided to make our Buffalo-Chicken Pizza for dinner. Overall, it was a very relaxing weekend spent in hibernation mode.

Pumpkin Seeds

While going through the digital photos for our last blog, I noticed the pictures I took of Halloween and realized I never blogged about my pumpkin seeds. Chris and I had bought two large pumpkins and two sugar pumpkins, so I spent the afternoon cleaning them out and getting them ready for Chris to carve, although I decided to carve a little one myself (see photo). I had lots of pumpkin seeds and here's what I do with them.

First, I boil them in a large pot of very salted water. This is so the salt doesn't only sit on the seeds, but gets into them as well. The boiling process makes them look gray, but I care much more about how they taste than how they look! After they've been boiling about 20 minutes, I lay them out in one layer on a cookie sheet and allow them to dry for several hours. When them seem pretty dry, I melt 1/2 stick of butter and mix it with 1/4 cup of olive oil. I toss the seeds in this mixture and then spread them back out in one layer on a cookie sheet. I sprinkle them with salt and bake them for 45 minutes at 375, and when they're done, I have a sort-of healthy, tasty, crunchy, salty snack!

Roasted Cornish Game Hens and Winter Vegetables

Chris and I had Tuesday off - one of the great joys of teaching being the regular and frequent holidays. We had no "outside" plans other than my quick hair appointment, and spent most of the day catching up on our DVR'd "must-see-TV." In our foresight, however, we planned a nice dinner, not necessarily labor intensive, but good for a cold November day when there's nowhere to go. We decided to roast Cornish game hens with a mix of winter vegetables.

First, what do we consider winter vegetables? I let Chris choose, and he did the shopping, some at his favorite Hartford produce shop, Apple Tree, and the rest at the grocery store close to us, Highland Park Market. Chris would have done all of it at Apple Tree, but Chris said they seemed pretty empty, and he's fearful that they are succumbing to the languishing economy and closing shop. Time will tell. In the meantime, he came home with butternut squash, fennel, pearl onions, carrots and celery.

While Chris chopped and prepped the vegetables, I dried and seasoned the hens with herbs de Provence (the blend we like has lavender, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, garlic and lemon peel) and a little bit of salt and black pepper. I stuffed the cavity of each bird with two lemon halves and two sprigs of rosemary. I then browned them on both sides in a large frying pan. I poured some white wine (I believe it was a Pinot Grigio) about 1/4 inch high in a baking dish and sprinkled it with a couple of pinches of herbs de Provence. When the hens were browned, I put them aside, deglazed the plan with some of the same wine and threw in the vegetables to brown and soften. As they cooked, I put in 2 tablespoons of water and placed a lid on the pan so they would steam and cook through a bit.

The oven was preheated to 400 degrees. We layered the vegetables in the baking dish and tossed them gently with the wine. We then placed the hens on top of the vegetables and baked them uncovered on the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes. The fragrance of herbs filled our house and our noses as dinner did its thing. The meat was juicy and infused with flavor from the wine and the herbs. The vegetables turned out to be a delicious mixture, with the fennel giving off its slight anise taste. It was an easy but elegant dinner, one that we're thinking of serving up at our next dinner party.

Marvelous Mussels

My friend J and I often share mussels when we visit a restaurant that has them. If we have a choice between red and white sauce, we choose the white, probably to avoid leaving any stains on our clothing. We had some mussels the other night and it reminded me of the dish Chris and I made for a late-summer neighborhood party we had in August.

Mussels were on sale - two 2-lb. bags for $5. We bought four bags, figuring we could spend $10 and make enough to bring to the get-together. We put half of the mussels in the bottom of a large stock-pot, topped them with one roughly chopped white onion, six whole garlic cloves, some chopped green onion and parsley from our garden, four chopped garden tomatoes, 3/4 stick of butter cut into quarters, some salt and pepper, and then put the other half of the mussels in. We added about 1/2 bottle of white wine (we used Pinot Grigio), the other 1/4 stick of butter and a few more sprinkles of herbs on top and put the lid on. We brought the whole pot to the neighbor's party. Once there, we put the mussels on the outdoor gas burner and let them steam for about 10 minutes, until we could see they were all open. We served them in a large dish with a crusty baguette and some lemon slices. Everyone was so impressed by our culinary prowess that I didn't have the heart to tell them how simple it was.

A Deal at the Delaney House

Chris and I haven't seen my parents in some time, so when my mom invited us to go with them to a restaurant in their area, we made the plans and went last night. Growing up, when I thought of "fine dining," this restaurant came to mind. I can remember my mom getting ready for a "dinner date" with my dad. My sister and I would already by in our jammies and we'd cram into our parents' bathroom to watch her put on a fancy outfit, jewelry from her special bedside table drawer, Lauren perfume (the one in the maroon bottle with gold writing), and of course, high heels. We'd be so excited to hang out with the babysitter (a high school girl who taught us cheers) and we knew we'd be getting some sort of memento from the restaurant when they returned - usually an after dinner mint or something along those lines. It's always the little things. In my mind, although probably not in reality, on these nights they were always going to The Delaney House.

Times have changed, and so has the restaurant. Although it is thankfully still open, and still has a fine dining menu, they have added a more casual bar area called The Mick and some of the weekly specials there have become quite popular. The one we went for last night is cleverly called "Popover for Prime Time," alluding to the large-screen television that takes up one wall of the bar and one part of the generous dinner deal. Held on Wednesdays, this deal offers a prime rib dinner for $17.95. This is a full dinner too - it starts with one of the Delaney's famous light and crispy popovers, leads next into your choice of soup du jour or house salad, then delivers the main meal of a large slice of slow-roasted prime rib, vegetable of the day and a baked potato. They even include a pint of beer to round it off.

Everything was delicious - the soup was tasty and warming; the salads were cold, crisp and fresh; the prime rib was thickly cut, tender, and roasted to a nice medium rare; the vegetables were a mixed sauteed medley and the baked potato, well, it was a baked potato. Sour cream for that and a zippy horseradish sauce for the steak came on the side.

That alone was plenty of food, but we were starving when we got there and had started off with a few appetizers, the standout of which was the "Baked Brie Crostini," toasted slices of Italian bread topped with a raspberry jam, brie cheese and spiced nuts. The plate was drizzled with a balsamic glaze that did wonders for the brie. All I can say is yum. Gorged on food, we still managed to split a unique dessert between three of us - a cream puff covered in chocolate sauce with bananas foster and vanilla ice cream. Again...yum. Dad enjoyed his favorite standby of vanilla ice cream.

I guess my point here is this: Don't be put off by the Delaney's reputation. If you want fine dining, you can have it there, but there's also the trendy, casual fare and specials of The Mick. Obviously, the apps and desserts put us out of "fantastically cheap" range. But $17.95 for the prime rib dinner, with its generous size and high quality, is worth the drive, especially in these econoMICK times.

Awesome Meal - To The Max!

Today is Election Day, and an historic one at that. Amidst the many politically-charged emails I received today was one the foodie in me found most intriguing: an Election Day special - Buy One Entree, Get One Free at any of the Max Group restaurants, which are some of my local favorites. Thinking of their consistently fabulous food made with high-quality, seasonal ingredients, served with professionalism and flair, the pork chops I had planned to grill with who-knows-what on the side disappeared from my mind as I left Chris a voice-mail that we were going to Max's. Having already voted, the current dilemma was - which Max's??

We wanted to be relatively close to home, so that we could get home early enough to watch history in the making, so we chose Max Fish in nearby Glastonbury. Max Fish is set up a bit differently than other Max restaurants, with a dining room, a very large bar area, and a raw bar. In addition to the dinner menu, the bars serve what they call "Shark Bites," which are smaller, lighter and/or less expensive dishes. Rather than wait in the ever-increasing line we sat at the raw bar where we could order off either menu.

Jason was our server and he was very busy. Apparently another server is usually there to assist him, but tonight he was alone, serving 10 bar guests and shucking oysters and clams for the entire restaurant. Although he never stopped moving, Jason was attentive, funny and friendly. He made conversation and suggestions with ease, and we would definitely go back to sit at his bar again.

Chris loves oysters, and asked Jason which of the five available kinds he preferred. Without hesitation, he praised Wellfleets as the "sweetest" and told us how he had recently had gone there to participate in a shucking contest - doing well but being humbled by the more-practiced home team. Chris enjoyed the nice balance of sweetness and brininess these Massachusetts oysters offered.

For his entree, Chris ordered the Char-grilled Mahi Mahi. This seemingly small, but in reality, perfectly sized dish consisted of a 4-ounce piece of fish lightly seasoned, perfectly grilled, and served over green beans and rice in a butter sauce that had a nice toasty flavor with hints of lemon and mustard. The fish was flaky and tender, and the accompaniments were enhancing rather than overpowering. Chris ate every bite and pronounced it "delicious."

I'm not a huge fan of raw oysters, but I did partake in one of Chris' half-dozen. I added plenty of cocktail sauce and lemon, and did find it to be quite tasty, although I still wasn't crazy about the texture. When I was ready to order dinner, I asked super-shucker Jason what he thought of my getting the shrimp and scallop pot pie and he enthusiastically approved. The four or so large shrimp and several small bay scallops were served in a savory cream sauce with chopped herbs, caramelized shallots, diced carrots, and green peas. A perfectly browned, flaky puff pastry crust topped off this masterpiece of a pot pie. I can see myself going back for this entree often, especially as the days grow colder. It was comfort food at its finest.

Each entree cost a decent $15.95, but the added value of the "election offer" made for an exceptional meal at an exceptional price. The service was great, the ambiance exciting, and the night, memorable for so many good reasons. Here's to Election Day 2008 and to being an American in these interesting and exciting times.

Summertime Redux

With Halloween just around the corner, summer is just a memory. Yet today's temperature reached 70 degrees, and our local Stew Leonard's grocery store had lobsters on sale for a mere 3.99 a pound. That meant Chris and I could't resist a little just-like-summer-feast, even though it's the end of October. We bought four lobsters and some end-of-the-season corn on the cob, along with some other Stew specials. We boiled the lobsters and the corn and ate everything up with loads of melted butter. I love fall, but there's nothing like a good lobster dinner. Thanks, Stew!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Our neighbor M, yet another foodie in our lives, moved to Maine earlier this year. On her last visit, she was raving about this pizza joint near her new place that serves Buffalo Chicken Pizza. As she described it, I made a mental note that Chris and I should attempt it sometime. That sometime was last night. We heated the oven to a nice hot 500 degrees and in it, placed our pizza stone. While the (store-bought) dough came to room temp, we grilled up two chicken breasts that we had seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little bit of cayenne. We only did these medium-rare, because we knew they'd be finishing off in the oven and we didn't want the chicken to become overcooked. When it was cool enough, we cut it into bite-sized pieces. In the meantime, in a small saucepan, we put 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, a dash each of black pepper and garlic powder, and 2 tablespoons each of Frank's hot sauce and Trappey's hot sauce. We swirled it around as it melted to ensure it didn't separate; this would serve as our buffalo sauce. Chris worked his magic with the dough and got it onto the hot stone without a hitch. We could see it start to cook immediately and knew this was going to be a rockin' crust. We brushed the top with olive oil, then a thin layer of bleu cheese dressing. We then added the chicken, some shredded mozzarella, and our buffalo sauce for toppings. We put it in the oven for exactly 10 minutes. Since Chris has done such a stellar job seasoning our stone, the dough didn't stick at all. The crust was crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, the chicken was perfectly cooked, the sauce was spicy and the bleu cheese and mozzarella mixed to provide a nice cooling smoothness to the heat of the sauce. We'd pay $15 for it at our local pizza joint too, but why bother, when we can just make it at home!

Restaurant Report Cards

My foodie friend Joanne had a great idea. She suggested that we share a blog the way we share many of our food experiences. We started it today and have uploaded a few posts, a couple of which we took off of A Couple in the Kitchen. To sum up, A Couple in the Kitchen will focus on the culinary adventures of me and my husband, and Restaurant Report Cards will focus on the restaurant experiences of me and Joanne. Bon appetit!

I Heart Duck

I love duck. I've had duck around the globe, from Canard al'Orange in France, to Peking Duck in the Chinatowns of New York and Boston, from Panang Curry Duck in South Windsor, Connecticut to a fabulous grilled Duck in Raspberry Sauce in Rome, Italy.

However, no duck dish has ever come close to the duck I once had at Pho Lemongrass, in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, Massachusetts. Described as "Crispy Boneless Duck" on the menu, it had a little icon of a chili pepper next to it to tell me it's spicy. It is, and it can't be beat. Perfectly cooked to a tender moistness with plenty of reddish brown crispy as in crunches-in-my-mouth skin, it was served over a bed of blanched onion, celery and bell pepper strips in a lemongrass-basil sauce. The jasmine rice, garnished with chopped cilantro, cooled my mouth after each hot bite. If I had been alone in the restaurant, I would have licked the plate.

Last weekend's duck (pictured above) came pretty close, however. Chris and I were enjoying our annual Columbus Day foodie-fest in Providence, Rhode Island, and I'll post more about that soon. Our first night there, we had an amazing dinner at CAV, a unique location that offers an eclectic menu in an artistic atmosphere. I had a duck confit leg that was so tender it was falling off the bone. It was served with a medium-rare sliced duck breast glazed in Grand Marnier, and although glazes tend to take away from the crispiness of duck skin, this one did not. Served with sweet-potatoes mashed with caramelized onions, it was both seasonal and satisfying.