(f)easter dinner

Saturday was the much-anticipated (F)easter dinner with coworkers. We served salad, rosemary olive oil bread, two types of pasta (made by Trader Joe's, not me, sadly, after my failed experiment), bolognese sauce, pesto sauce, tiramisu, and toasted almond gelato with espresso (known as "affogato"). I'm not kidding when I say that every so often, I just need to make a ton of time and labor intensive food! It's an urge that strikes rarely, but when it hits, you're best served to just get out of the path of the oncoming apron-clad little blond girl and just let her go to town.

I'm happy to report that everything turned out well, despite the general haze of exhaustion through which it was all prepared. My pesto succumbed to the horrors of oxidation, so the thin top layer of it was a lovely brown color, but the rest was unscathed, and it all tasted just as pesto should. I highly recommend Ina Garten's pine nut and walnut recipe. As far as I know, I'd never made pesto from scratch before, so that and the gelato were the only two new things I added to my repertoire this weekend. As much as I like to try new recipes, sometimes the classics are just calling your name. 

But I digress. As much as we all enjoyed everything, I have to say my absolute favorite was the affogato. I had gotten in my head about a week ago that yes, yes we did need two desserts, and that gelato + warm espresso just had to be one of them. That was the end of that discussion. The toasted almond gelato recipe came to me entirely by accident, but I'm so, so happy it did. I'm not sure I could imagine a better flavor to meld with the espresso. I must say, Williams-Sonoma has yet to lead me astray, and this recipe was no exception. 

So because I'm sleepy, and have about a million billion jillion house-related things to tackle in the next 2 1/2 weeks, I'll stop rambling, and leave you with a slew of photos from the feast. Recipes appear at the bottom, and on the LKTC-tested recipes page!  

bolognese

pesto

tiramisu sampler (to make sure it tasted ok, and that none of the eggs were bad before I served it to a group of people!)

the pan of tiramisu for the crowd

the espresso for the affogato, percolating away in my stovetop machine, which was saved from the garbage by this trick

since I didn't manage to capture the affogato, I offer Williams-Sonoma's photo instead

We all had a great time stuffing ourselves silly, and given that (F)easter dinner was the night before, you guessed it, Easter, and we are a group of many religious views, we had some amusing discussions on the tenets of (and misconceptions of) different beliefs. Perhaps my favorite was my coworker who asked me to explain the Holy Trinity, and when I did so, said "oh, I thought the holy spirit was Gabriel!" 

Anyways, hope you had as enjoyable of a weekend as I did. And if you're also feeling a strange but prominent desire to spend a day in the kitchen, here are the recipes I used. I promise the day will quickly slip away between whisking and kneading and mincing and simmering. And also that you'll have a meal that is entirely worth it. Enjoy!  

Recipe Roundup:

• Ina Garten's Pine Nut and Walnut Pesto
• LKTC's Bolognese 
• Food Network's Almost Famous Rosemary Bread
• Williams-Sonoma's Tiramisu
• Williams-Sonoma's Toasted Almond Gelato

ps-many thanks to Neha, who remembered at the last minute to photograph everything!

"it's ok, i'm ready to be fat"

Recently, possibly after plentiful wine, Allie decided she wanted to try making gnocchi from scratch.  When we studied in Venice, I pretty much lived on gnocchi alla bolognese from one of the neighborhood restaurants, so my immediate reaction was "OOOH, I'LL MAKE BOLOGNESE" (yes, that obnoxiously.  see: wine reference).  


There are not many dishes with a high degree of preparation, attention, and involvement that I had even attempted prior to this Lent.  Bolognese is one major exception.  Shortly after returning from Venice the second time, our family friend Sonya made bolognese, and I promptly could not shut up about how authentic it was.  I demanded the recipe, and actually tried it a few times for my "I'll eat pretty much anything" family down at the lake.  


Despite their accommodating attitudes, I think they were all a little surprised by authentic Italian bolognese.  In a lot of American-Italian restaurants, it's served as tomato sauce with ground beef.  In Italy (or very authentic restaurants stateside), it is ground meat (usually pork, beef, and/or veal) with carrots, celery, onions, chicken stock, wine, tomato paste, and milk.  It is heaven.  It is something stratospherically beyond heaven when you put in on top of fresh made gnocchi.  


So what I'm trying to say, really, is that I was pretty stinking excited about this Italian feast we were plotting.  We got a few girlfriends in on the action, and they seemed happy to be our food critics.  


Everything I contributed to Sunday sauce night was time and labor intensive, but once and a while, I need that.  I started by making tiramisu, which, in case you don't read cooking magazines (like I now do, crazy, right?), involves whisking several different ingredients into "stiff peak form," and let me tell you, when you have teeny muscles, that's some slow going.  But tiramisu is to dessert what bolognese is to sauce for me--they are really in their own league of deliciousness.  

(the final tiramisu product)

Once the tiramisu was in the fridge to set, I moved on to rosemary olive oil bread.  If you're double checking to make sure you're reading the proper blog, yeah, I hear you.  Homemade bread?  So not my thing. I routinely live off of easy mac and cereal.  I do not knead dough for 10 minutes straight.  In more typical Jenny fashion though, I epically mis-read the recipe, and didn't realize the dough needed to rise for FOUR hours, not two.  Luckily I caught my error at 2pm.  Still felt like one heck of a dumb blond though.  


As the tiramisu set and the dough for the bread rose, I cranked up Allie's stove for the bolognese.  I practically burned out my mini-food processor mincing onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, because I decided to double the recipe.  Four or so hours, 3 cups of wine, 3 cups of chicken stock, 2 pounds of ground meat, and probably a pound of minced vegetables later, we were almost there. 

(early in the bolognese process)

While I was worried that the rosemary olive oil bread might be a flop, it emerged from the oven golden on the outside and just a touch doughy on the inside.  Either my friends are excellent actresses, or it was delicious, because all four loaves flew out of the basket.  (Which is fortunate, because there was enough red wine flowing to pickle your liver, we desperately needed some carbs at this point). 

(the second round of olive oil bread)

The gnocchi alla bolognese turned out beautifully as well, and I was pleased with the tiramisu.  By the time I brought out the dessert, there was little space to spare in our stomachs, so Allie and I will be eating leftovers for a few days. (the title of the post, by the way, came from my friend Alicia when we were dishing up hearty portions of gnocchi--now that's my kind of dinner guest)  

(the spread)

Aside from stepping on some unfortunate ingredients (mascarpone, pork) and an egg separation mishap, I really had a good time just hanging out with Allie cooking all day.  Obviously spending all day in the kitchen isn't something I plan on making a habit out of, but it actually served as surprisingly effective frustration relief.  


Best of all, the Sunday night dinner thing already seems to be evolving into a bit of a tradition for the four of us who got together last night, and I'm sure the circle will only expand.  

weekend update

Friday night - Moroccan spiced shrimp, brown rice, garlic naan

Saturday night - sauteed beef, fried rice, more garlic naan

Saturday morning - buttermilk biscuit experiment

Saturday morning - buttermilk biscuit fail 

Sunday morning - pre-opera brunch picnic

For someone who gave up eating out (and hates to cook), I'm eating pretty well.  Not healthy, but well.  There's a big difference.  And I did not give up eating junk (although I probably should have), so I'm totally ok with it.  

Friday night, I made shrimp, rice, and naan for Allie and I. In the spirit of full disclosure, Trader Joe's made the naan, and it was delicious.  The spice rub on the shrimp was also pretty amazing, but in this case, I also can't take credit for anything other than my blog-trolling skills, which led me to this cool site called Dinner: A Love Story (where I found the recipe).  Saturday I used the remainder of the naan as a vehicle for rice and sauteed beef.  It was just so/so, but that's what I get for using pre-packaged rice mixes (Sarah, if you're reading this, I clearly need some cooking lessons-your fried rice rocks).    

Saturday morning, I decided to experiment with two different biscuit recipes to prepare for today's pre-opera picnic brunch.  The first one was for plain biscuits from Paula Deen and the second one was for buttermilk biscuits from Epicurious.  I didn't want to be too wasteful, so I cut each recipe down by half or more, which turned out to be an excellent decision, because both were total flops.  I tried really hard to follow the directions verbatim and to not overwork the dough (a no-no for biscuits, shortbread, etc).  And yet I pulled two separate pans of flat, blah biscuits out of my oven.  I refuse to throw in the towel, though, because I think every self-respecting quasi Southern woman should be able to make biscuits from scratch in a pinch.  If anyone out there knows the secrets to the fluffy, flaky Bojangles style biscuits, we can negotiate recurring payments for access to this (dangerous) intel. 

Because I had strawberries and fresh whipped cream (as in, I poured heavy cream into a bowl and created deliciousness), I had to develop a vehicle for that sugary goodness.  Enter shortbread.  I found a shortbread recipe by accident when I was searching for biscuit recipes, and decided I also wanted to give that a go.  (Are we noticing a butter-related trend yet?).   So after spending yesterday with Allie (more on that in a minute), I came home and made shortbread.  I was disheartened by how crumbly the dough was (I could barely roll it out), and by the fact that the cookies weren't pretty (did I remember to warn you all that I'm a very typical first-born perfectionist/type A? and that part of my disdain for cooking is this trial and error process? ok, well now you've been warned).  In case you're also trying to consume your weight in butter, here's the shortbread recipe.  I got a little wild and added some grated lemon peel to balance the sweetness of the cream and strawberries.  

But the cookies were delicious, and were, in fact, the perfect vehicle for spoonfulls of fresh whipped cream and sliced strawberries.  We also had eggs, bacon, muffins/danish, pasta salad, and cheese and crackers along with our champagne.  Then we piled into a cab in our fancy dresses and saw Madama Butterfly at the Kennedy Center.  Oh, and it was about 65 degrees and sunny today.  PERFECT SUNDAY.  

And finally, yesterday was basically a perfect Saturday.  I bookended the day with baking experiments, and spent the middle of the day shopping and crafting with Allie.  We originally set out to just go to the craft store, but detoured to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, World Market, Marshalls, Old Navy, and Home Goods first.  I picked up all sorts of random accessories for the LKTC (microplane, biscuit cutters, carafe, mini bottles of champagne, etc).  Then we went to Michael's and JoAnn's, where we tried to find the perfect fabric and trim to make a headboard out of scratch for Allie's room.  See pictures of the entire process right here.  

Ok, that was the most disjointed account of my weekend that I could have possibly dreamed up.  I'd lie to you and say it was intentional...trying to keep you on your toes and all that...but mostly I'm just exhausted and not thinking (or writing) all that logically.  Sorry to confuse/bore you...I'll be back on top of things after I kick daylight savings time's little butt.