Spaghetti alla Carbonara

James Beard's Menus for Entertaining Over 600 incomparable recipes - for every occasion from a roadside picnic to a formal dinner by James Beard
Cookbook 44, Recipe 2 (total 92)

Life got a little over busy these past two weeks and will continue for the next two as well. Stephen offered to help get me caught up this week by making a recipe from the book for me. I didn't expect spaghetti for breakfast but I'm not complaining!

This is a very difficult cookbook to cook from, the choices are either very 60's or very heavy. I've hemmed and hawed over what to cook more than any another cookbook this year. I'm glad Stephen stepped in to help - I don't like to cook from this book.

Did I like it? It was very rich in taste and would make a good once in a while dinner.

Recipe: Cut 1/4 lb of thick cut bacon in to 1/2 inch squares and cook. Remove from pan and deglaze pan with 5T white wine. Cook 1/2 lb of thin spaghetti, drain and return to pot. Add the bacon, and wine deglaze to the noodles. Mix in 1 well beaten egg (should cook due to hot noodles and wine deglaze) and pepper. Serve with parmesean.

Apple Tart (& Rich Pastry Dough)

James Beard's Menus for Entertaining Over 600 incomparable recipes - for every occasion from a roadside picnic to a formal dinner by James Beard
Cookbook 44, Recipe 1 (total 91)

The pie crust drew my attention to this recipe. No water, milk etc... just an egg yolk.

Did I like it? Delicious and deceptively simple. The vanilla flavor actually steams into the apples.

Recipe:
Rich Pastry Dough: Mix 1 cup flour with 1.5T sugar. Cut in 1/4 cup plus 2 T butter. Mix in 1 egg yolk and just enough of the white to make it come together. Refrigerate for 1/2 hour. Roll out for a tart pan (9 in round or 7 in square). (It called for 1.5 hard boiled egg yolk or 1 fresh egg yolk or 1 egg white. My one fresh egg yolk wasn't enough to pull the dough together so I added a very small portion of the white as well.)

Apples: 6 apples - peel, core and slice into sixths. Add slices along with 1tsp vanilla to a pan with 4 T melted butter. Cover and cook for 8 minutes - until tender - not mushy.

Assemble: Sprinkle the bottom of the tart pan with sugar. Place the apples in a even arrangement on top. Sprinkle with sugar and cook at 400 for 10 minutes and 350 for 25 minutes until browned. Cool. Melt apricot jam (see July 19th!), strain through a sieve and glaze the tart.

Buttermilk Biscuits

hallelujah! the welcome table A lifetime of memories with recipes by Maya Angelou
Cookbook 43, Recipe 2 (total 90)

This recipe was created with the help of all three sisters - Wee Hoo. Eppie & Matt gave me the cookbook, Sarah gave me the french rolling pin and Rachel gave me the copper cookie cutter. THANKS SISTERS (and brother-in-law)! The pastry blender was a bridal shower gift from one of the Aunts - I can't remember which one gave it to me. I baked these biscuits to accompany chili on Thursday.

Did I like it? While the Cooks Illustrated buttermilk biscuits are a little fluffier out of the oven, these biscuits remain tender the next day. I will definitely add these to my biscuit options. The recipe called for lard, not butter.

Recipe: Blend 4 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 6 tsp baking powder and 1tsp baking soda together. With a pastry blender, cut in 1 cup of butter. Quickly stir in 2 cups of buttermilk and dump on to the counter. Quickly and lightly knead and roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into biscuits and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Serve with apple butter! Stephen, his brother Jon, and I ate an entire jar of apple butter with these - yum!

Banana Pudding

hallelujah! the welcome table A lifetime of memories with recipes by Maya Angelou
Cookbook 43, Recipe 1 (total 89)

I'm a full week late in posting this recipe. I made this last Sunday.

Did I like it? This recipe tasted like it should have been a memory. My mother didn't make this for me as a kid - I'm betting many mothers did make it and their children would love this. Both Stephen and I found ourselves eating too much. The sugar drew me and then made me feel ill. I appreciate that this recipe uses the complete 8 eggs - yolks for the pudding and whites for the meringue.

Recipe: Combine 1/3 sugar, 1/3 cornstarch, a pinch of salt and 3 cups of whole milk in a pan. Cook until thick and boiling. Whisk a small amount into 8 beaten egg yolks, return this mixture to the pan and boil for another minute. Add 3T butter and 1 T vanilla extract. Set aside. In a 2 quart pan place 1.5 cups of vanilla wafers and 2 sliced bananas, top with 1/2 the pudding mixture. Repeat. Whisk the 8 egg whites into a meringue with 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp cream of tarter. Top the pudding with the meringue and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cool for 4 hours.

Lentils

The Whole Beast nose to tail eating by Fergus Henderson
Cookbook 42, Recipe 3 (total 88)

The salted duck leg recipe suggested serving it with lentils. I love du puy lentils and thought it would be an excellent plan.

Did I like it? As a stand alone lentil recipe - not so much. It was excellent with the duck legs though.

Recipe: Heat olive oil in a pan and add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped leek, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, and 2 chopped carrots. Sweat but do not brown. Add 1 lb of du puy lentils, an herb bundle (sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley) and water to cover. Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally for 45 minutes. Add salt, pepper and chopped parsley at the end.

Poached Salted Duck Legs

The Whole Beast nose to tail eating by Fergus Henderson
Cookbook 42, Recipe 2 (total 87)

I certainly cook more this year than I ever have before. A year ago after a overtime day of work like today I would have cooked a pizza or ate ramen. I'm definitely getting used to eating dinner at a later time.

Did I like it? Alone they would be too salty, with lentils they were great. I think it would be interesting to try these cold with crusty bread and brie.

Recipe:Phase I: Brine duck legs (using the same brine as the brisket in the post just before this one) for one week.

Phase II: In a pot combine: 1 small head of garlic, 1 whole carrot, 1 leek split down the middle, 1 stalk of celery, 1 onion peeled and halved, 1 bay leave, a small herb bundle (sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley), 6 peppercorns and the duck legs rinsed from their week of brining. Cover with water, bring to a boil, simmer 1 hour. Serve with lentils.

Earl thought he should have been invited to dinner.

Pot Roast Brisket

The Whole Beast nose to tail eating by Fergus Henderson
Cookbook 42, Recipe 1 (total 86)

Earlier in the year I cooked from Beyond Nose to Tail, the sequel to this one. The first is focused a little more on meat in general, the second is more obsessed with eating pigs feet.

I feel like I'm back in first grade this week. For a while in first grade my teacher would make me sit at a desk in the hallway to take my tests. The point was to make me pay attention to exactly what was on test without the external stresses of other people handing it in before I was done or paying attention to the clock on the wall to see exactly how fast (or slow) I was moving through the test. On Wednesday I received a low score on my homework - Why? I answered the wrong question. Today the meal was just barely on the acceptable side of too salty - Why? I didn't read unsalted chicken stock. Back to first grade - Slow down, concentrate and pay attention to the details!

Did I like it? For a cow it was excellent. This is basically a do it yourself corned beef. The braising liquid is delicious and would make some excellent gravy. Neither Stephen nor I have cooked brisket before. I thought the cut was a little fatty - Stephen said "I know - that's what makes it so great!".

Recipe:
Part one: Brine your 4lb piece of beef brisket for 5 days. Brine: Place the following in a pot: 2 cups sugar, 2 1/4 cups coarse sea salt, 12 juniper berries, 12 cloves, 12 black peppercorns, 3 bay leaves (fresh from my garden) and 4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil to dissolve salt and sugar. Let set until completely cold.

Part two: In a 4 quart roasting pot place: 2 peeled chopped carrots, 3 chopped onions, 2 chopped leeks, 2 whole heads of garlic with their skins on, 1 bundle of fresh herbs (sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme). Place the beef on top and add 1 quart UNSALTED chicken stock and 2 cups of red wine (Carmenere is great with beef). Cook at 350 covered with foil for three hours.


Note: Please take a close look at the picture below. Note the different muscles in this cut of meat. Below the line of fatty sinew is a relatively lean piece. Look at the top portion and note the fat surrounding the little rounds of meat - Fascinating.

Gateau Aux Pommes (Warm Butter Apple Ring)

Paris in a Basket Markets - The Food and the People by Nicolle Aimee Meyer & Amanda Pilar Smith
Cookbook 41, Recipe 2 (total 85)

The good apples are starting to come back into season. Prairie and Northern Spy's are still a month away but Cortland have arrived!

Did i like it? Well... I have another failure on my hands. I was a little skeptical about this recipe but thought it had the possibility of tasting fabulous.

I believe the problem isn't in the recipe itself but in the translation from metric to imperial. It's too bad they didn't include both - it would be interesting to see if that's where the problem stems from. If it had a little more flour and much less butter (note the pooling of butter in the picture) it might have held together.

Recipe: Complete flop - don't bother.