Steak & Egg Pasta

I love cooking with leftovers. This was pesto fettucine from the night before, along with some gently heated sliced steak from another meal and a fried egg from our chickens on top. The yolk mixed wonderfully with pasta, making a lovely creamy sauce.

Hanukkah 2009

We kind of celebrated Hanukkah with some friends this year. Since none of us are actually Jewish, this mostly consisted of food (my job) and the history behind the holiday (courtesy of Nicholas.)

The main course was the chicken soup with matzo balls. Now, I don't much like soup and I was pretty skeptical about the matzo, having only ever used it as a binder. The soup was good, everyone seemed to like it (again, I'm just not a big soup person). The matzo balls were delicious though! The key, I think, was saving the chicken fat from making the broth and using that instead of shortening. A lot of the matzo ball recipes called for instant soup mix, which I thought was a bit gross, but the chicken fat worked wonderfully.

Look! Successful latkes without any serious burns, which is pretty amazing given my history with deep frying. They were absolutely worth it though as nearly anything fried is delicious.





Kat made the applesauce from apples that her parents brought us. I thought I'd want ketchup with mine (since ketchup is the condiment of the gods) but they were honestly amazingly good with the applesauce and sour cream!

Ahhh.... sufganiyot. Jelly doughnuts. I filled these with my mom's raspberry jam. These are seriously addictive!

Yeah, that's what the whole evening was like.

Thanksgiving 2009

I'm still trying to catch up on all the old photos and I've been realizing what a HUGE difference having the SLR makes. These were all taken with the old point and shoot.

Anyway.... from left to right: Kale with bacon and apple cider vinegar, cranberry sauce from scratch, stuffing (there is never enough stuffing) and pan roasted sweet potatoes. They were all tasty, but NOT the stars of the meal.

Hasselback potatoes. This maximizes the amount of crispy ends and butter soaked middle with garlic hiding everywhere. YUM.

I am quickly becoming convinced that pork products will improve just about anything - a huge change from my pork-free diet 5 years ago. Bacon, fat back, sausage, pork chops.... It sure made this one delicious turkey! Look at that skin.. Trying to prop it up with custard cups didn't work out as well as I'd hoped though. I put as much stuffing in as would fit, then mixed it with the rest once the turkey was done and popped it all back in the oven for another 20 minutes or so until it hit temp.

Daring Cooks - Brunswick Stew

This month's challenge REALLY surprised me. I mean, I like a good stew, but the ingredients list was just so... normal, especially since I decided not to try tracking down a rabbit. Besides, rabbit is not a novelty in my dining repertoire, and definitely not worth the premium they fetch here in the city.


The hardest part of this was skinning the quartered chicken, which was more time consuming than anything. Instead of the rabbit, I used pork loin. It also gave me a great excuse to use some of the broth I've been stockpiling in the freezer, much to Kat's delight.

This is pork jowl bacon. I'm now convinced that ALL stews should start with frying this stuff. It's cheap, fatty and flavorful. Now that I have my gravy separator, I defatted the stew at the end so this really just added a ton of flavor. (I LOVE my gravy separator. How did it take me this long to get such a simple tool??) Anyway... pork jowl = heaven.

After searing all the meats, deglazing the pan and then getting everything onto a simmer for a couple of hours, things really came together. The red wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice rounded everything out perfectly. We each got a few bites - this recipe makes a full pot of stew and it's all tucked away into the freezer for a gathering next week.

Killer recipe.

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.