Home made Mac & Cheese

Oh boy was this yummy: Barefoot Contessa's Mac & Cheese. I substituted Gorgonzola dressing for crumbled blue cheese, and used ready-made breadcrumbs. Part way through our dining experience we got the idea to sprinkle a little smoked sea salt on top. HOLY moly. This rich meal was consumed with a fine red wine from Argentina I received for my birthday - it has tones of berries and plums.I regret I made no vegetables to go with this but they would have been ignored anyway. We almost hurt ourselves trying to consume seconds. Good thing I made enough for lunch tomorrow!

Rainy Day Comfort Food

I LOVE risotto. It's a staple in our house and generally the first thing I look for on the dinner menu in a new restaurant. This is one of our favorites, "Risotto with Chicken and Caramelized Onions" from my Williams-Sonoma Risotto Book. It's not a stellar recipe, but simple (okay my idea of simple might not be yours; this is a four-burner to-do).  I substitute Marsala for the Madeira, and skip the leeks. I use one large hawaiian sweet onion, and I make only a half recipe which is enough for the two of us for two nights. Served with my favorite beer, Trois Pistoles (available at Trader Joe's) I'm in heaven. 

Fun fooding in Austin

After a fantastic home-made brunch of breakfast tacos at G & M's place, I left around noon-thirty and decided the capitol building was calling my camera out. I had taken my whole kit when I left this morning so I veered off at that exit, parked and walked around. I didn't know there was some sort of festival happening out on the lawns and I was lucky to get a parking spot for free, on a side street, in the shade, one block away. I walked directly to a tent where they had a pro kitchen set up complete with cameras, tv screens, mirrors to watch the cook, and lots of chairs. It was hot and that was shady and looked interesting so I sat down. I am so glad I did! Martha Hall Foose (someone I have never heard of) was giving a demonstration but I was more interested in hearing her stories. She was just captivating everyone with her humorous tales of the South. Really personal and very interesting stories, all connected to food. Fun! When she was finished I just had to buy the cookbook, "Screen Doors & Sweet Tea"; the recipes are right up my alley for after-work ease and they are things I *love*. I stayed and had her sign my copy too, just to complete my experience. When I got home I read the reviews on Amazon and people really love her book for all the reasons I do - she's a really fun storyteller. It's laid out well too, which is sadly not the case for my "Chocolate & Zucchini" book, hence is sits on my shelf. I'm already gobbling this one up and can't wait to get back home to my kitchen and try some of these things out!

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée

This is my first attempt at Crème Brûlée. I've never made it mostly because I'm not a huge custard eater - being non-compatible with milk and all. But I had leftover chocolate dough from the Lemon Tarts, and this was the other recipe in the book that used chocolate shells, so...

I baked the shells and I'm getting a little better with finessing the dough into the molds without overlap. I also need to use less flour when rolling them out so I don't get the little bubbles in the texture. I got to go to Surfas and buy a torch (whee! more kitchen toys!) to torch the sugary tops. 

The custard came out beautifully and didn't turn into scrambled eggs (I was warned about them doing that). I enjoyed smelling the Tahitian vanilla bean as it cooked too :) I totally forgot to take the shells out of the molds before I poured the filling. Oops. Good thing I buttered the molds well; after they were set I was able to invert them and pop them right out! So far so good. 

Now's when I blow it. I tried to carmelize the top and just totally screwed them up. They melted! And I didn't get a good surface. I think the heat was too low. I did it in two layers of sugars just like the directions said; one layer of sugar, melt. Then the second layer of sugar to bubble and caramelize. Nope. It took way too long and I got burn marks on my edges and unset custard underneath. We ate two anyway (they tasted fine!) and popped two back in the fridge to set overnight. Which wasn't ideal, but it worked. If anyone has any tips on caramelizing I'd be very happy to hear them.

(Recipe from "Book of Tarts" by Maury Rubin)