Happy Bastille Day: Dinner (And the 150th Post!)

Yesterday's night's multi-course affair was the conclusion of a day inspired by the foods and flavors of France. I spent about 2 1/2 hours in the kitchen, preparing and cooking and plating. Mike and I also shared the meal with Jacob and Kari, increasing our table from two to four. The extra mouths were welcome as I was positive that Mike wouldn't be entirely appreciative of the haughtiness and flavors of some of the foods, but he was a good sport throughout the meal.

The meal began with an entree of parmesan and parsley gougeres. Gougeres are made with a pate a choux dough. For those of you that didn't study French (including myself), "choux" means cabbage and is meant to describe the way that the dough puffs up into little balls that are airy and light and more pop-able than pringles.

The next course was a soup course. I made leek and artichoke soup for Jacob, Kari and myself, while Mike had a tomato soup, made with ample amounts of butter and campari tomatoes.

For the palate cleanser before the main course, I juiced some limes and removed the inside, blended it with ice and a bit of agave nectar, then refilled the lime and froze them. The result was somewhat like an icier lime limonata. Everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation.

Next came the plat principal. I was originally planning on doing the pasta course followed by the main course, but I decided to combine the two. This course consisted of a lemon capellini with lemon zest and parmesan cheese, poulet saute aux herbes de provence (herbes de provence traditionally consists of savory, fennel, thyme and basil, among other herbs) atop a dijon-y, hollandaise-y sauce made from homemade yogurt, egg yolk, lemon juice, butter and the pan sauces from roasting the chicken. The side dish was a braised endive

The course is sadly missing the lemon slices that had been roasting in the toaster oven as we were enjoying our palate cleansers. My first culinary fail of the night.

But we persisted on with the salad course. I made a salad of mesclun greens with dried cranberries, chopped walnuts and gorgonzola cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette of 3 parts oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon of dijon mustard and salt and pepper. I think the salad was Kari's favorite part of the meal. The cheese course was combined with this course. We had brie cheese and butter and slices of homemade wheat bread.

The dessert course I was planning on making was crepes with chocolate and whipped cream. Unfortunately, last night our tiny kitchen was the setting for 3 separate dinner parties. So we had a simple dessert of chocolate squares and Trader Joe's gummy tummies.

Coffee was also left out because of the kitchen and it was just too hot.

All in all it was a success, and I'm looking forward to more national holidays so I can plan a day of menus.

Shoutouts to Kari and Jacob for sitting through my experiments in flavor and texture, disguised as classically-influenced courses. And a big thanks to Mike for being the most disinterestedly interested sous chef

Happy Bastille Day: Lunch, and Presenting, the Dinner Menu

I'm happy to say that today my blog shot past 500 views, all since May 29th, shortly after a reevaluation of theme and direction. And on that note, I continue with my Bastille Day posts.

Lunch was simple, partly because I wanted to begin compensating for what will be a lavish dinner, but also because I was forced to cut my lunch short due to work responsibilities. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the asparagus-pea soup that I made earlier in the week, along with some toasted, homemade bread and butter. All savored at the table, rather than eaten mindlessly in front of the TV.

But for the finale, the dinner menu, as of 4:11 pm.

Entrée: Parmesan Cheese and Leek Gougeres
Soup Course: Leek and Artichoke Soup, Tomato Soup
Palate Cleanser: Limonata
Pasta Course: Lemon Capellini
Plat Principal: Poulet Sauté aux Herbs de Provence (or a modified Poulet Provençal) with Braised Endive
Salad Course: Mesclun Greens with Dried Cranberries, Walnuts and a Red Wine Vinaigrette
Cheese Course: Roasted Figs stuffed with Gorgonzola Cheese, Caramelized Onion and Brie Tart
Dessert Course: Chocolate Crepes with Whipped Cream and Roasted Coconut
Finale: Coffee

Menu Planning Progress Report

Let's see how I've done so far:

• Sunday Dinner: Rotisserie Chicken with Apple Sauce, Peas and Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad
• Done
• Monday Tuesday Dinner: Mini Flour Tortillas with Pork Shoulder
• Done
• Tuesday Wednesday Dinner: Chinese Stir Fry with Chicken and Shrimp Fried Rice
• Done
• Wednesday Thursday Dinner: Ravioli with Apples and Walnuts (Marinara Sauce for Mike)
• Prep Work Done
• Thursday Friday Dinner: Chickpea and Beef Burritos/Tacos
• Friday Saturday Dinner: Arroz con Pollo
• Saturday Sunday Dinner Lunch: Grilled Asparagus Pazanella and Calzones

Looks like I'm somewhat on track. We're planning on going out for lunch on Saturday, so I'll need to think of a place either in DC or in NOVA.

Menu Planning Progress

Qdoba is half price for students on Monday (between 4 and 10 I think). It's hard to deny that craving, so Monday dinner was a fail. That means that pulled pork tortillas will be pushed back to tonight. Since tonight Stephen Strasburg is having his major league debut for the Nationals, I wanted to do something special. Currently, I have an idea about cutting them in half and frying/baking them (like taquitos, but with flour tortillas instead of corn/masa), so I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Getting My Menu Planning on Point

A goal of mine was to be able to perfect menu planning in order to minimize my grocery spending and maximize the time that I have to do prep work and cook food. This first draft is a little rough, and I haven't accounted for the possibility of Mike and I eating out once this week. But, hopefully it will help those of you not under mom and dad's wing this summer to use the power of menu planning in the name of saving money.

Sunday Dinner: Rotisserie Chicken with Apple Sauce, Peas and Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad
Monday Dinner: Mini Flour Tortillas with Pork Shoulder
Tuesday Dinner: Chinese Stir Fry with Chicken and Shrimp
Wednesday Dinner: Ravioli with Apples and Walnuts
Thursday Dinner: Chickpea and Beef Burritos/Tacos
Friday Dinner: Arroz con Pollo
Saturday Dinner: Grilled Asparagus Pazanella and Calzones

Sunday's dinner is done and now I have lots of bones left to make my first chicken stock with. I'm psyched and I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Cooking on the Weekend is my 9 to 5

I generally advocate quick, cheap cooking. However, the weekends seems to bring out a different side of me. I woke up at 8 am to go to Trader Joe's to pick up snacks for the week and some cheese (yes this means, my Use-Up-Your-Stash Challenge is somewhat of a bust, but I'll try again later). When I got back at 9 this morning, it was all ago.

So here is another lesson in cooking for those with time constraints: weekends are your best friends, use them to your advantage. You can cook a week's worth of side dishes, soups or other quick meals that can be frozen and then thawed quickly for lunch to bring to work or for dinner when you're home late and the last thing you want to do is turn the oven on in your hot apartment. At the very least, you can start doing some prep work during your off time. For example, sit in front your your tv and dice vegetables to be used in dishes throughout the week. This is where planning weekly menus in advance could be helpful as you would know exactly what needs to be prepped, and it is also something that I hope to improve on over this summer.

Here is a list of all of the things I ended up cooking today, and can be used in the next day to the next 3-5 months, thanks to the freezer:

- Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar (1/2 lb strawberries, 1 1/2 T balsamic vinegar, 1 T white sugar, 1 T brown sugar; let sit for 1-4 hours or microwave for 1-2 minutes if in a rush; great on top of pancakes, waffles or french toast)
- Buttermilk Pancakes (ok, so it was a mix, but I added cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and a bit of vegetable oil for a tastier mix)
- Bacon
- Beef Tenderloin (left over from dinner the other night, sliced thin, will be used for burritos in the near future)
- Tomato Sauce (plum tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic and onion, simmered down for 2 hours then blended)
-  Black Beans (1/2 lb black beans, 3 C water, 1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper; bring to a boil and then let it simmer for 2-3 hours)
- Pizza Dough (500 ml flour, 300 ml water, pinch of yeast, pinch of salt, olive oil; based on the 5:3 bread ratio that I read in Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio, as mentioned in previous posts)
- Grilled Cheese (pane bello bread, cheddar cheese, swiss-gruyere cheese)
- Basil-Spinach-Walnut Pesto (2 handfuls of fresh spinach, 1/2 handful of basil, 4 garlic cloves, handful of walnuts, olive oil, water; blend until smooth; feel free to use any vegetable or any type of nut on hand)
- Guacamole (3 avocados, 4 garlic cloves, 2 poblano peppers, 1/2 red onion, 2 limes, cilantro, cumin; blend until it becomes pure bliss)
- Peanut Sauce (4 T peanut butter, 2 T soy sauce, 1 t chili paste, 2 garlic cloves, 1 t ginger, 2 T warm water; mix until smooth)
- Plum-Strawberry Compote (4 plums, 1/2 lb strawberries, white sugar; bring to a boil in a saucepan, then let simmer for 45 minutes)
- Tart Frozen Yogurt (2 C Green Yogurt, 1/2 C white sugar, 1 t vanilla extract; place in the freezer, take out and stir vigorously every 30 minutes for 3 hours, or don't be cheap and just buy an ice cream maker)
- Kool-Ade (that's right, it's in one of my measuring glasses right now, and it's one of my favorite flavors, red)

Let's just say my freezer is well stocked for the next week or two, full of frozen basil, cilantro, and spinach (didn't want it to go bad sitting in my fridge), as well as the tomato sauce, black peans, guacamole and frozen yogurt, among other things (pizza, chicken drumsticks, shrimp, half a french roll). Hope this simplifies cooking for the rest of this week. I'm expecting another rousing day of cooking tomorrow so we'll see what else gets made tomorrow.