We Do Fondue (Ladies' Night at The Melting Pot, Darien, CT)

Amy writes:

Do you fondue? We do! Even less often used than the waffle iron, the fondue set Chris and I (registered for and) received as a wedding gift sits on a shelf in the basement. But that is all about to change! For after a night with girlfriends J, G and L, I am tempted to cut up every food I come across into cubes and dip it all in cheese, broth or chocolate.

Yes, these girls have initiated me into the "Dip Club" by taking me on my first (but definitely not my last) visit to The Melting Pot. Not just a dinner outing, but an Event. An Experience. Both with a capital E. When we were seated at our booth-with-only-one-burner, a visibly disappointed J thought we'd need to move. We need two burners! It's her first time! We need to try things! Thankfully, our server was friendly and accomodating, and while she couldn't move us (all tables were booked), it was early and she made one of our fondues at a nearby table. Crisis averted.

We started our itinerary of immersion with two cheese concoctions - J's fave "Fiesta," a Cheddar cheese blend with lager beer, jalapeño peppers and salsa; and my new obsession "Traditional Swiss," a blend of Gruyère and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses, with white wine, garlic, nutmeg, lemon and Kirschwasser. Yeah, I didn't know what Kirschwasser was either, so I looked it up. It's basically cherry brandy. And I'm definitely buying some because I'm definitely planning to spend my days and nights recreating this stuff until I perfect it. It's that delicious!!! These cheeses were made in front of us by our server, much to our delight and amusement, who brought green apples, tortilla chips, vegetables and bread chunks to dip into each golden gloriousness. 

And that was just the first course. 

We figured we could split two entrees between the four of us, and we were right, since our bellies were mostly full of cheese already. We decided on the "Coq au Vin" cooking style - a Burgundy wine broth infused with herbs, spices and mushroom slices. This cooking broth was delivered in what looked like a medieval torture device, but we were not to be deterred. 

Although it seems a bit odd, said entrees (Angus sirloin and chicken breast) were delivered raw, with instructions on proper dippage and warnings about heat and cross-contamination. We threw the vegetables (mushrooms, potatoes, and broccoli) in first by suggestion of the server, as these would take longer to cook. With our color-coded fondue forks, we timed our meats as they cooked away in the flavorful broth. We ate off funky plates that had plenty of spots for the eight (yes, 8!) different sauces and worked our way through the second course, leaving no bite unbitten.

Last but most definitely not least, there was the chocolate course. Don't dare call it a mere dessert. As with the cheese, we decided we had to have two, since we're worth it and all that. Don't judge us. First, a rich dark chocolate fondue infused with a little Chambord. Then, the fabulous "Flaming Turtle" - milk chocolate, caramel and candied pecans flambeed at the table, also known as Dinner and a Show! We let out small gasps as our table glowed orange, but as soon as the flames were out, we were back to our dipping. Strawberries. Pound cake. Marshmallows. Bananas. Brownie Bites. Rice Krispie treats. Pure decadence to finish off a fabulous meal and a great night out with some amazing friends.

Maybe just one more bite....

White Bean and Leftover-Easter-Ham Soup

Amy's mom had us over for Easter and served one of the best hams the family's ever had. With a gorgeous fat cap, it was moist, tender and full of flavor. But that side of the family is pretty small, and with one picky first grader and her super-picky mom, we had plenty of leftovers. While the first thing that comes to mind for most New Englanders is the traditional split-pea soup, Amy was inspired by this recipe to make a white bean soup. With a few modifications, it was a light and easy post-holiday meal.

White Bean and Leftover-Easter-Ham Soup

adapted from this recipe by Grace Parisi

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed

5 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

4 cups low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth

3 14-ounce cans cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

fat cap from ham

3/4-1 pound ham leftovers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

In a large soup pot, melt the butter. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, thyme sprigs and coriander and cook the vegetables over moderately high heat, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the stock, beans and fat cap and bring to a boil. Cover partially and cook over moderate heat for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and remove the fat cap and thyme sprigs from the soup and discard. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup to desired consistency. Return soup to heat and add ham pieces. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook over low heat until ham is heated through. Serve with crusty bread!

March Foodie Penpals

We're not joking! We are revealing our March Foodie Penpals on April 1st, to give us the Easter holiday off and to post on a weekday, per request from our organizer Lindsay. Lindsay does an amazing job with Foodie Penpals and for that, we owe her our gratitude. Thanks, Lindsay!!! 

This month we received a box of goodies from Natalie F. that had Amy's name all over it! Nuts! Popcorn! Jam! It was like you looked up "Amy's favorites" on Dictionary.com! And the "vegi" soup mix looks so delicious and easy to make. Mmmm...mmm! That "Frog" jam is especially amazing. And not just because whenever she makes toast Amy sings the line from "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music: "Tea, I drink with jam and bread!!!" Yeah. There's a lot of singing in our household. But it's called "Frog" jam because it is made with     figs, raspberries, orange peel and ginger (F.R.O.G.). The ginger gives it so much zing! It's really good and if you ever find some you should totally buy it, spread in on some bread and have a singalong.

It was a great Foodie Penpal package and we are so thankful to Natalie! We are also hoping that Ashley loved what we sent her. 

Interested? Read more about about Foodie Penpals below and check out everyone else's goodie boxes here: 

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 

-Foodie Penplas is open to US, Canadian & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

A Peanut Rounder from Oklahoma!

Candy Popcorn for Easter (Taste and Create)

This month we were invited to join Taste and Create, a group of food bloggers who are partnered up to cook recipes from each other's blogs. We were partnered up with No Reason Needed. If you are looking for a great variety of interesting recipes, you should definitely check it out - you can see all of them listed on the bottom right of the homepage. At first we were going to bake - perhaps some "Big Soft Ginger Cookies," or a "Lemon Drizzle Cake," but with the stress of work lately, we've been indulgent, and didn't want to have more baked goods around the house waiting to be gobbled up. 

Then Amy spotted this recipe for Candy Popcorn and immediately remembered this storefront at the Fairfield Mall in Chicopee where she grew up. It was called Kandy Korn or something similar and was a bright yellow place with containers of popcorn of every color and flavor - cherry, lime, strawberry. Oh, it was amazing, especially to a kid in the late 70's with a sweet tooth. That place made the mall smell like heaven, and when she saw this recipe, it all flooded back. This was the one.

We decided on grape flavor, in honor of nostalgia. We also used one of Amy's favorite appliances, The Whirley Popper. It is simple to make, festive for the Easter holiday, and tastes just like Amy remembered. Thanks for the memories!!!

To read more about, or to join Taste and Create, go here.

Candy Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 3-ounce package flavored gelatin mix

9 cups popped popcorn

Combine honey and margarine in a microwave safe bowl and cook until melted, about 1 minute on high. Stir in sugar and gelatin powder. Microwave on high until it comes to a boil and turns foamy, doubling in size, about 2 minutes. Pour mixture over popcorn in a large bowl and stir to coat. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and turn coated popcorn onto the sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 1/2 hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

Is Spring Springing at Last?

Portuguese Wine Dinner at O'Porto, Hartford

Last week we planned a special-but-for-no-particular-reason date night by making a reservation for O'Porto's Portuguese wine dinner. For a very reasonable $70, inclusive of tax and gratuity, we enjoyed an espumante toast followed by a six-course dinner with wine pairings. The wine maker, a certain Joao Silva E Sousa, was there and he explained the various wines and visited each table. When he visited ours, he and Chris got into a very educational conversation about the geography/geology of Portugal and how that affects the wine production. The wines were delicious, the food was too, and we were entirely full when we left. Suffice it to say, we had a wonderful time. The following menu with descriptions is from the restaurant, while the photographs were taken by us.

Course 1

Scalopes, Chouriço e Camarão

Scallops, Shrimp and Roasted Portuguese Smoked Chouriço Flambéed in Aged Brandy.

paired with

Azul Portugal – (Ribatejo Branco)

This a well-balanced white wine with perfumed aromatic fruit suggesting peach, citrus

fruit and honey blossom aromas with full bodied flavor. A complex and balanced wine.

Course 2

Frango com Ananaz

Grilled Boneless Chicken with a Slice of Grilled Pineapple Served with Sautéed Vegetables

paired with

Azul Portugal Rosé - (Terras Do Sado)

Harvested in early September, crushed light maceration. Fermented in stainless steel. 

This Rosé is made using 100% Castelão grapes giving this rosé a clean finish with notes of watermelon and oranges.

Course 3

Peito de Pato

Magret Duck Breast in Orange Sauce 

with Toasted Almonds Served with Sautéed Vegetables

paired with

Catapereiro, Tinto – 2010

Bright deep purple color with complex aroma of ripe berry fruits and toasted aromas; the palate is rich and well-structured with sweet tannins.

Course 4

Medalhões de Bife

Medallions of Grilled Filet Mignon in a Port Wine Reduction

paired with

Azul Portugal Douro - 08

Ripe and smooth wine, with a rich Port-like aroma, the sweet fruit structured with some fresh stalky tannins.

Course 5

Costuleta de Borrego

Lamb Chop in a Cabernet Sauvignon Reduction with Sautéed Spinach and Roast Potato

Casa Das Mouras Reserva - 04 (Douro) Northeastern Portugal

A rich and full-bodied wine loaded with notes of blueberry, roses, black tea, chocolate, coffee and balsamic. Very long finish and pronounced fruit flavors. 

Course 6

Queijo, Marmelada, Nozes

Imported Portuguese Cheese with Quince Marmalade and Nuts

paired with

Claustru's Porto Tawny

Claustru’s Tawny has a long and smooth finish and is characterized by the flavors of raisins, almonds, cherry and chocolate.

Weekday Wordless: Joanne's French Onion Soup

Meyer Lemon Bars (Secret Recipe Club)

It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day once again and we were assigned Life's Simple Pleasures, a beautiful blog that is completely overflowing with recipes for bars, breads, cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, and snacks, as well as a few savory dishes. We scrolled our way down the recipe list trying hard to decide what to make. It wasn't easy! Should we try to make challah bread? How about a fallen souffle chocolate torte - doesn't that sound amazing?!?!? Or candied bacon chocolate chip cookies? Um, yum!!! All of these are most assuredly on our to-do list. 

What forced our final decision for this month, though, was that we have made two batches of Meyer lemon curd in the last couple of weeks and we have been looking for something way with which to use it when we spotted LSP's lemon bars. They looked so lovely and reminded us so much of sunshine and springtime that we just had to go with them. 

We made them to take to our neighbors' St. Patrick's Day dinner so we gave them a little Irish twist by tinting some powdered sugar green with green food coloring and making shamrock decorations on them. Chris finnagled a cookie cutter/aluminum foil thingie to make that work. He's a good problem solver!

Although we didn't use the lemon topping part of the recipe (since we used our lemon curd instead), the crust was to die for. Flaky, tender and buttery indeed. They were sunny bites of citrus heaven. Now if spring would just get here already, we'd be all set!

Meyer Lemon Bars

recipe from Life's Simple Pleasures

Ingredients:

2 cups unsalted butter, softened

4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1/2 cup Meyer lemon curd

additional powdered sugar for garnish
green food coloring (if desired)

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Add salt, lemon zest and flour; mix only until combined and crumbly. Spread dough evenly in a 12x18-inch sheet pan. Using a piece of wax paper, press down down as flat as possible. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 and bake crust for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool. Spread lemon curd evenly over crust and return to oven. Bake additional 15 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and refrigerate 1 hour to set. Cut and serve.