Category: Food and Recipes

Over the weekend, we had some gorgeous sunshine and warm temperatures! It felt fantastic to be sweating while scrubbing our back deck’s railings.

I took out a flat iron steak from the freezer with visions of making grilled flank steak with fresh veggies and a starch. It didn’t happen. Martin invited us over for a pork roast dinner and a game of cards called 5 Crowns which is super fun and addictive. My winning streak came to an end last night. 

We always have dinner with Martin when he invites us because he is a chef and cooks excellent food. He is also fun to watch cook; I learn a lot from watching him being a visual learner. 

Martin’s wife and my friends Eileen passed away suddenly two years ago. Whenever he invites us, he has a craving for something and would never make it for himself. It’s always last minute, and we rarely have to decline. 

Most widows may agree they don’t want to cook a big meal just for themselves. So he cooks for us and others, which is a great deal for us! We always have such a good time while we are at it. 

Usually, I cook whatever I had planned to make before his invite the next night. Today is a rainy and nasty day, not suitable for grilling a summer steak and veggies.

I decided to make a trifecta of old-school classics, perfect for a shitty weather day like today. 

Last year, I wrote about each of the meal components I made tonight. There is a separate blog post with recipes included.

Older or foodie people always laugh when I mention the names of these dishes, and they always add an “I haven’t thought about that dish for years!” Lol 😂 

Steak Diane is one of my major league hitters that is a home run every time. It is Sam’s favorite. His eyes get glossed over when I tell him I am making it. Here is my blog link for Steak Diane if you aren’t sure what it is and want to make it.

I used my grandmother’s cast iron frying to sear and cook the flat iron steak. I have found that cooking steak intimates many people, and it doesn’t have to be.

Before I got good at making steaks both indoors and outdoors, I watched many YouTube chef videos. The biggest fear I had was killing the meat in other words overcooking it and ruining it. We like our steak medium-rare and not well done. Steak is too damn expensive to screw up.

What took the fear away for me was a thermometer. Clever huh? I have no shame using a temp probe to watch the temperature of my steak. All that touching the back of your hand to check for doneness is a bunch of bullshit for home cooks. Seriously, get a thermometer and decide how you like your steaks done. 

This is how easy it is. I pull my medium-rare steaks off the grill when it reaches 130-degrees. The steak goes up 5-degrees in temperature after it comes off the grill or out of the pan. A perfect medium-rare steak is 135-degrees. Nailed it! 

Rare 120-degrees 

Medium-rare 130-degrees

Medium 140-degrees 

Medium-well 150-degrees

Well done 160+ degrees

I used to keep my steak on the grill until the thermometer read 135-degrees, and it was always overdone. Once I started pulling it off 5-degrees before I had perfect steak.

I don’t use this method for poultry or pork. I don’t take it off the grill or out of the oven until it reaches temperature or a bit over. You can’t fuck around with chicken, or everyone will get sick. Chicken must always be cooked to at least 165-degree and for pork 145-degrees.

To go with the Steak Diane, I pulled three twice-baked potatoes out of the freezer I made a couple of months ago. Whenever I make them, I double the recipe for another night, like tonight. The oven does all the work.

People forget about twice-baked potatoes even though everyone goes nuts for them. They are a perfect side dish for steak. Here is the link to Twice Baked Potatoes.

I decided on Green Beans almandine since I had green beans that needed to be used. I was going to quick char them on the grill when I was cooking them outside, but these would do.

Green beans almandine is an old-school veggie side dish that you never see on a plate anymore. It’s a shame because they are easy to make and delicious. 

Here’s the Green Bean Almandine post to learn more about them. It’s funny that the post reads a lot like this one; you’ll see if you read it.

I love these dishes, and they are my go-to’s whenever I have the ingredients on hand, and I am not sure what to make. 

These old-school classics are just that because everyone loved them, and they were on every restaurant menu back in the day. I like to bring these dishes back and share them with people or, in some cases, introduce them to people.

It’s interesting to think about what current food trends will be considered old-school classics in 40 years. What do you guys think? 🤔 

I am going with avocado toast! Definitely!

I triumphantly achieved the success of some damn good bbq chicken. It may have been the best bbq chicken I have ever eaten, that’s why I called it dope-ass chicken. Dope=good.

That’s a big, bold statement, but it may be true. I know chicken, and I love chicken. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite dishes; it’s the first thing I would eat after setting foot in Paris.

Bbq chicken and smoked chicken are two different things. We can use the same ceramic smoker grill for both. The difference is using wood or charcoal. Another difference is if you are smoking low and slow or grilling your proteins quickly.

I made smoked chicken thighs at the end of the summer last year, and they came out delicious. I made a sticky & sweet glaze for them, which made them even tastier.

This time I grilled the chicken thighs using lump wood charcoal. We set the grill up with a hot side and a cooler side. This is also referred to as direct and indirect heat.

Since this is all new for me, I researched tons of bbq chicken blog posts and recipes. Everyone has their way when it comes to using a rub or brine. Both are used to add deep flavor to the chicken, not just coasting the skin. 

When using a rub, it is applied for several hours or overnight to the chicken. This is called a dry brine; a new cooking terminology for me. I don’t associate the words dry and brine together since they are opposite things.

The other method of getting flavor into the chicken is brining. Brining poultry is submerging the poultry in a solution of water, salt, sugar, spices, and herbs for 24-48 hours.

I think back to the old days when people’s mothers and grandmothers soaked their poultry in saltwater before baking it. They were brining back then and didn’t even know it. Here comes the but; they baked the living shit out of it, leaving it dry as fuck out of fear of food poisoning.  

Brining poultry didn’t become popular until the early 2000s when the magazine Cooks Illustrated introduced and endorsed the brining method. It caught on and became all the rage. After two decades of brining being the golden child, some chefs like Alex Garnaschelli are “over it” even though the internet is flooded with her famous turkey brining recipe. 

I decided to use a rub for the dry brining method for the chicken. I looked up various recipes for chicken rubs and picked one. The one I chose was a home run, so I am glad I went with my instincts.

Here is the link to the rub recipe I used for my chicken even though the title of the recipe is Barbecue Pork Rub Recipe.

I dry brined my chicken for 9 hours which was plenty of time for the flavor to penetrate the chicken thighs. 

While the chicken was dry brining, I looked up different bbq sauces recipes. They are millions of them, just to let you know. I filtered through many and decided to make an “old-fashioned” bbq sauce. I didn’t realize there was a difference, but there is. 

One blog explained how old-fashioned bbq sauces aren’t cooked like most but have melted butter in them. Butter in bbq sauce may seem a bit odd, but what do I know I am new to this.

I picked the sauce recipe called Old Fashioned Bbq Chicken and Sauce from the blog that explained old-fashioned bbq sauce. After I made the sauce I tasted it, I was surprised by how bright it was. Old fashioned bbq sauces also have lemon juice in them; that’s where the brightness comes from. 

For the hell of it, I added the lemon juice last because I wanted to see if it made a difference in the sauce. It made a huge difference! It made the sauce.

Grilling chicken goes fast and can overcook quickly something I didn’t want to happen. I got out the temperature probe so I could keep an eye on things.

The chicken is placed skin side down over the hot direct heat for 3-5 minutes I did 4. I was shocked at how dark the skin got so quickly. One was a little too black, so I took the skin off that piece. It didn’t matter in the end.

The chicken is flipped over the direct heat side for another 3-5 minutes. I did 3 this time.

The chicken is then moved to the other side of the grill to the cooler indirect heat. I had the meat probe set for 175 degrees to make sure the chicken was done all the way through. 

The probe goes through the thickness part of the chicken part but away from the bone. I inserted the probe until I hit the bone, then backed it up. I saw that trick on YouTube.

Bbq sauce shouldn’t be applied to the chicken too early, or it will burn from the sugar in the sauce. All my dad’s friends applied theirs too soon ruining the chicken. I hated eating the bitter burned chicken; I ate it though because I had to.😖

I waited until the chicken reached 155 degrees before adding the sauce to one side of the chicken. I let it cook for 10 minutes and flipped it over and brushed the sauce on the other side. 

I repeated this a couple of times ending with the skin side up and a final brushing of sauce. I pulled the chicken off when my 175-degree temperature alert went off on the remote.

I let the chicken sit at room temp for 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute themselves. Wow, did this work! The chicken thighs were so moist and juicy. The insides were glistening like Marty’s brisket did. Yum!

The skin was done just right. Even the one piece that lost its skin at the beginning of the cook tasted perfect because the sauce still coated the skinless chicken thigh like the other ones. 

This morning, I ate a piece of cold chicken for breakfast. It was still moist and had a better flavor than two nights before. 

So I made dope-ass bbq chicken. The real question is can I do it again? We will see. 

Here is the blog post “Meet me at the Reo“

Last summer, we tried teaching ourselves how to use a smoker. We had many failures and a success or two by the end of the summer.

Smoking meats is not grilling. Grilling is predictable and manageable like cooking. Smoking meats is getting the wood fire to a perfect low temperature and keeping it that way for hours. 

Keeping that low temp wood fire is much more complicated than you think. Airflow is a significant factor in temperature control. I find this part tricky because my fire always gets too hot.

Last summer, I incinerated a gorgeous brisket, a pork shoulder, and chicken parts beyond recognition. So damn annoying and wasteful, but we learned what not to do, so there’s that.

We found out that professional temperature probes are essential for smoking meats. Sam gave me a set of probes with digital remotes for Christmas. 

I used the temp probes for different meats I roasted over the winter, and guess what? Everything came out perfectly done. Go figure! 

Marty wanted to try smoking the brisket this time; I was okay with it and glad he wanted to take charge. I made the sides—no pressure for me.

He used the temp probes, putting one in the smoker and one in the brisket. The brisket was seasoned with only salt and pepper, as the pros do—no other rubs.

He kept an eye on the brisket during the 5-hour smoke. It was a small brisket, only around 4 lbs, so he was careful to go slow and low as they tell you to do.

After 2 hours into the smoke time, he wrapped the brisket tightly with foil and put it back in the smoker for 3 more hours. He kept checking the temperature on the remote he kept with him, which was better than constantly running back and forth to the smoker.

After taking the brisket out of the smoker, he kept it wrapped up for a couple more hours, sealing in all those juices.

Unwrapping smoked meats is like when you take a soufflé, popovers, or cream puffs out of the oven. You can’t open the oven to check on soufflés or pâte à choux (cream puffs) because they will deflate. This is a hold your breath moment. A moment that can go from cries of joy to what-the-fucks in a blink of an eye. 

When we unwrapped the brisket, it was gorgeous! It was soft and moist. It had the right amount of smoke taste and a beautiful red smoke ring. Marty was like a proud peacock! He should be because he nailed it! Woot woot!

It sliced easily and glistened. It had the right amount of fat and wasn’t dry at all. BBQ we’ve gotten out the last few times had been a disappointment. 

The disappointing briskets from a couple of bbq joints were extremely dry, flavorless meats that required copious amounts of sauces and a big beverage to choke them down. We almost gave up hope for good brisket again.

Every year I can remember my “best bite of the year” for years to come. These “best bites” become incredible food memories for me. This brisket was my “best bite of the year” so far.

I wished I could have had my stomach stretched so I could have eaten more. The sides I made complimented the brisket like a symphony. Salty, sweet, creamy, tangy, crunchy, smokey, and delicious.

The brisket was perfectly smoked and had an incredible unctuous mouthfeel. What the fuckity is unctuous, you may be asking yourself?

Unctuous is a word that describes how moist, slippery, or fatty something is. It’s often used to describe foods rich in fat. It’s sexy food.

Using the word unctuous is describing something with total gluttony and not caring. We don’t eat unctuous foods every day, so when I do I enjoy the texture and richness; guilt-free.

Back to the brisket, I didn’t want this meal to end; it was that amazing. I reheated some brisket by steaming it this morning for Sam when he got home from his overnight shift at the hospital.

He got a huge smile on his face and couldn’t believe how moist and delicious the brisket was. “The smoke is perfect,” he said. I am smiling because the two of us are so much alike regarding food.

Marty’s delicious brisket was the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep last night; I kid you not! It was that good. Marty is now the head bbq smoker in the family. 🙌🏼

I was thinking last week that for someone who has a cooking and living blog, I haven’t written about food for a few weeks.

For three weeks or so, our business, The Vermont Spätzle Company, was rocking. We had spätzle orders from our wholesale accounts out the ass. We worked hard, pulling double production days to fill all of those orders.

It was almost like the universe dumped all the orders on us at once in that short time period because right after we were done, we got covid. The universe has a funny way of doing those types of things. I always acknowledge those situations and am grateful.

Did we eat while we were busy with production? Of course, we ate but nothing to write home about. A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me on Facebook if we “ever ate the same shit like everyone else?” I am not sure if my friend Randy or his twin brother Ray asked, but it still makes me giggle when I think about it.

Tonight I went with Thai cuisine. I love Thai food and how flavorful everything is. When I say flavorful, I don’t mean spicy; that’s what my timid eating cooking students thought. They learned when you are making any cuisine; you have control over the amount of spice you put into a dish. Just because a recipe calls for a certain amount, you can add a little at a time or none at all.

I used a popular recipe on the internet, one that a million food bloggers call their own when they are copying and pasting. Come on, people, this is your business for Christs’ sake; at least change things up to make it look like your own. They all even use the same photo! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ve learned a trick or two when preparing Thai cuisine that makes such a difference. Things once again they don’t tell you in recipes. For instance, whenever I make a Thai curry dish, I slowly poach whatever protein in the curry sauce. This gentle cooking method doesn’t dry the protein out like if you stir fry it first as the recipes instruct doing.

I have most of the curry dishes down when it comes to Thai cooking, but I still haven’t made a Pad Thai dish I am happy with. It’s a work in progress that is taking years. I order it sometimes when I go out to remind my palate what I am shooting for.

The recipe I made tonight is easy, even if you’ve never made Thai food before. Here is the link to the recipe I used. If you don’t like spicy food, start with a tablespoon of curry paste instead of the 4 Tbsp the recipe calls for.

Speaking of curry paste, where can you find it? Thai curry pastes are available in the ethnic section of most supermarkets; you don’t have to make a special trip to an Asian market to find some. If I can find curry paste up here in Vermont, you can find it anywhere.

I served my pork peanut curry with jasmine rice which I always use a rice cooker for. This small appliance is invaluable to me because I hate babysitting rice while it’s cooking. It’s tough to make a perfect pot of rice, believe it or not. All Asian people own a rice cooker and use it every day.

I also roasted some brussel sprouts and tossed them last minute with a bit of Thai sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil and threw them back into the oven for a few minutes. They became caramelized and tasty.

Today we picked up a brisket that we found on sale when we went grocery shopping. The cupboards were pretty bare after being in isolation for ten days. We needed to do a big shop even though Sam picked up a few important essentials like milk and chocolate pudding cups for me. 😜

Since we will still be home from our farmers market tomorrow, we will fire up the smoker and make our first brisket of the year. We learned a lot about what not to do last year, so hopefully, it will turn out smokey, juicy, and delicious. I’ll report back. Smoking meats is no easy task, even though they make it look easy on tv.

Happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend, everyone. I will be doing some outdoor projects taking advantage of the nicer weather with sunshine in the forecast! 😎

Sundays. I love Sundays. They are my make a big breakfast and eat it slowly. They are making and enjoying big Sunday dinners, relaxing before another busy week. 

Yesterday, Sunday, I was crawling the walls. I told Marty I missed work and wanted to go into spätzle production the next day. We flip our weekend by using Mondays as Saturdays like the Monday through Friday folks have. Our TGIF is actually on Saturday nights after the farmer’s market.

Our Mondays include but are not limited to banking, paying bills, cleaning, projects, laundry, and catching up on clerical work. 

Some Mondays, we are in production when we have a lot of spätzle to make. All of our chores are then squeezed in during the week. 

Over the three days of our snowstorm hiatus, I counted the orders coming in and looked forward to making spätzle. Even after five years, I still love making our spätzle; it’s the 2+ hours of dishes and clean-up that isn’t my favorite.

What else did I do during the three days off? I cooked, a real shocker, right? These days I am in a total food rut, struggling to think of dishes we aren’t tired of. I want to cook springtime food this time of the year, even though it still feels like comfort food weather. 

I tried a new recipe, Chicken in a Madeira Wine Sauce, along with Spätzle in Garlic and Oil, and Glazed Carrots. It was delicious! Better than I thought it would.

Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe I found but used the same ingredients with different prep and cooking methods. I will make this again, and I’ll write it done to share with you.

I made Mongolian Beef with Jasmine Rice and Crispy Tofu Triangles with Peanut Sauce. I will share the tofu and peanut sauce recipes in another post. My cooking class was surprised how much they liked this dish when we made it since some were afraid of the tofu.

Yesterday, I made my 20-minute gnocchi recipe. I added a small amount of pesto to the gnocchi for a taste of basil. I made a pomodoro sauce, which is slightly different from the usual marinara sauce. 

Both marinara and pomodoro sauces contain the same ingredients yet are different: tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, salt & sugar.

There are plenty of arguments regarding the preparation of the tomatoes and should onions be added. I hand crushed my tomatoes yesterday; I was too lazy to get out the blender. Truth be told.

Authentic pomodoro sauce uses tomatoes blended into a purée and no onions. The tomatoes are left chunky in marinara sauce, and onions are added. The other difference is the color of the sauces and their texture. 

Marinara sauce is cooked quickly in under 30 minutes, leaving the tomatoes an orange-red color. The texture of the sauce is loose or runny with tomato chunks. Marinara sauce is light and bright, like a taste of summer. 

Pomodoro sauce is cooked slowly, producing a deep red and thickly textured sauce. A heavy flavorful sauce like this screams cold weather to me. Here is a basic pomodoro recipe.

Now a pot of “sauce” or gravy is entirely different from both of these sauces. “Sauce” is made in large quantities using crushed tomatoes or tomato purée. Meats like sausage, meatballs, and pork are added along with garlic, onions, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a little sugar. 

“Sauce” starts thin and cooks for hours, getting thicker over time. When the sauce is done the texture is like smooth, red velvet. Yum! Just thinking about having some sexy-ass velvety sauce with tender pieces of meat makes me drool. 

I mentioned I made my 20-minute gnocchi to serve with the pomodoro sauce. Potato gnocchi is made with leftover mashed potatoes or grated baked potatoes. I use my quick cheat method when I don’t have either; I use potato flakes instead. Gnocchi can also be made with ricotta cheese; we can cover that another day.

This recipe is foolproof after making it many times with the same success. I always cook one trial gnocchi to ensure it holds together and floats. It always does, but I do it anyway, then eat it. 😉 Here is my recipe:

20 Minute Gnocchi

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed potato flakes
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup potato stach
• 1/2 cup flour plus more for flouring surface * I use Bobs 1:1 Gluten Free Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 cups water
• 1 tsp kosher salt for water
• Olive oil to coat cooked gnocchi

Directions:

Place potato flakes in a large bowl. Stir in boiling water; add the flour, kosher salt, and egg. On a lightly floured surface, knead until smooth, forming a soft dough.

Divide dough into four portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into 1/2-in.-thick ropes; cut into 3/4-inch pieces. Press and roll each piece with a lightly floured fork.

In a large saucepan, add kosher salt to the water and bring to a boil. Cook gnocchi in batches for 30-60 seconds or until they float. Remove with a slotted spoon. Drain and place on a sheet pan and lightly coat with olive oil to prevent sticking.

Serve as desired or heated in a tomato sauce, sautéed with butter and topped with parmesan or pan-fried with brown butter and sage. There are as many endless possibilities as there are with regular pasta.

***  If you enjoy my recipes, please consider making a small donation to my blog in the “support my blog” section. No matter how small, all donations are welcome and make me feel like my time and effort is appreciated. Thank you so much for your support! 🤗

I decided to make a loaf of Irish soda bread to take to the farmer’s markets tomorrow morning for breakfast. Breakfast is a challenge every week trying to figure out what to bring since there isn’t anything available for breakfast.

Sometimes we have a GF bagel or muffin that we get at Trader Joe’s. Over the summer, I was making us breakfast burritos along with breakfast sandwiches. I made banana bread a couple of weeks ago. Last week, we only had a banana with peanut butter at the complimentary breakfast at the hotel in Schenectady. We had to leave for the market before the hot breakfast items were ready.

Even though St. Patrick’s Day isn’t for another two weeks, I decided to make a loaf of soda bread anyway. Then I remembered I wrote about it last year. You may think it’s easy to remember what I wrote a year ago, but after writing over 300 blog posts, I can’t remember if it was something in my head or that I wrote and published.

I went to google and searched Irish soda bread Julzie Style. Ha! Last year’s blog post and recipe were right there. I could have just as easily gone to the blog site, but it’s more fun for me to see my stuff pop up on google.

The title of the post was “Any day Irish soda bread.” By clicking on the underlined link, you can read my post last year and check out the recipe.

I got out the ingredients I needed for the soda bread and was surprised just how quick and easy the recipe was. Sometimes, I have to go to our VT Spätzle Company website to find a recipe I wrote and published there. Usually, it’s just to remind me what in the hell I did the last time I baked or cooked a dish.

I went with traditional Irish soda bread today. When I read the “with options” part, I wish I had made lemon poppyseed or cranberry orange. Like the blog post is titled, it is ANY day Irish soda bread. That means I can make a different one next week!

The beautiful thing about a loaf of soda bread is that it freezes nicely. I cut mine in half wrap it in saran wrap, then aluminum foil. This is a beautiful thing; when I am in a hurry trying to figure out breakfast, all I have to do is pull it out of the freezer to defrost.

I mentioned earlier this week I am trying to use up my winter stash of pantry items, so I decided on boneless chicken breast stuffed with stuffing. I breaded them in breadcrumbs and will bake them the way I bake my chicken cordon bleu. Take a look at the recipe; the only thing I did differently for today’s recipe is roll-up stuffing instead of ham and cheese. I will be making a chicken velouté sauce, aka chicken gravy, instead of the dijon sauce.

What’s the difference between a velouté sauce and gravy, you may ask? Well, guess what? I wrote about it last year in a blog post titled “Hello mother sauce.” Click on the link if you are interested. I love that I can share things you may have missed without writing about them again. Yahoo!

It’s hard to believe it’s been a week since we went and saw Waitress at Proctors Theater. On Monday, I got a huge birthday surprise that included 2 Broadway tickets to my favorite show, round trip train tickets, and a night in a boutique hotel right around the corner from Richard Rodgers Theatre! I will be writing about it later this month, right before we head down to the city. I am so excited!

Happy Friday, guys! Have a great weekend! ☺️

Last year I took a stab at making manicotti with homemade pasta sheets. That isn’t a big deal if you use regular flour, but since I had to make gluten-free pasta, my sheets fell apart. 

When life hands you lemons or, in my case, ripped pasta sheets, you make lasagna. Manicotti is like rolled-up lasagna anyway! 

As I’ve mentioned before, my parents grew up in the Peterstown section of Elizabeth, NJ, and I lived in Elizabeth until I was 9. Then we moved Iselin or to the “country,” as my father’s family referred to it. By the way, it is one of the most densely populated areas in NJ, along with the most traffic. 

It is where the Garden State Parkway, NJ Thruway, Routes 1, 9, and 27, and 287 meet. Traffic out the ass is one of the reasons we moved to VT and to get away from my family. A true story there.

Where I grew up, people spoke Jersey or New York Italian, which differs from how others pronounce Italian words. To me, it was normal. I grew up speaking this way; when I moved to VT, no one had a damn clue what I was “tawking” about. 

I found a great read on nj.com about speaking Jersey Restaurant Italian which you can read about here. It’s 💯 so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

For the rest of this blog post, I will write the Italian words the way I say them, so you get the idea. 

I made mani-gott this morning for dinner after belly dance classes. I had a big ass tub of ri-gott to use up and have been craving either ravioli or mani-gott. 

I am craving ravioli because I found a YouTube video that included the one and only Tony Spirito making Spiritos famous ravioli. If you want an authentic experience of Peterstown and the people who still live there, watch this YouTube link. You will believe me now. I felt a little homesick when I watched it. And hungry. 

I decided to use those no-boil lasagna sheets; I had a box of Barilla gluten-free ones in the pantry. This is the time of the year I try to use up the pantry shit I stored for the winter. 

I first made a quick pot of marinara sauce, not a Sunday sauce with meat that cooks all day. 

Next, I softened the lasagna sheets by soaking them in boiling water until they were pliable. 

Then, I made the mani-gott filling. I used ri-gott, parmesan, and moozarell cheeses. I added a couple of eggs, some parsley, kosher salt, and peppers; it had a beautiful creamy consistency. 

After an hour, I put some on the bottom of a roasting pan when the sauce was done. Then, I started making the mani-gott.

Mani-gott are usually longer than mine since I had to turn them in the other direction to roll them up. No big deal.

I used a scoop of the ri-gott filing for each pasta sheet and rolled them up. I placed them in the roasting pan like soldiers.

I covered the mani-gott with some sauce. Not too much or too little. You don’t want your mani-gott to be swimming in sauce or too dry. 

I sprinkled some moozarell on top, covered the pan with foil, and popped it into a 375-degree oven for 30 minutes. I took the foil off and let the cheese brown for 10 more minutes. 

It smells delicious in here. Now, all we have to do is reheat the mani-gott at 8:30 pm when I get home from dance. Mmmmmm! 

Here’s a recipe for mani-gott that is pretty damn close to my freeball method, which isn’t quite as fancy. You can use dried mani-gott tubes you can find at an Italian market or specialty store, or you can use pasta sheets as I did. GF people use the Barilla GF kind. I think the pasta sheets are easier to fill than the tubes. 

This is a perfect dish for Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent. This is not why I chose today to make the mani-gott; I just wanted it. My family is lucky when I wake up with specific food cravings since it’s always something everyone likes. 

I pulled the mani-gott out of the oven and let it cool for a bit. I took one for the team and carefully pried the first one out of the pan (the first one is the hardest to get out) for a photo; ok for a “little taste.” Was it good? Forgetaboutit! 

Have a great day; we are already halfway through the week. 😉

Today is my birthday! I went back yesterday to see what I wrote about last year…food. No surprise there. I’ve mentioned my favorite birthday dinners from when I was a kid; last year, I wrote about my favorite dinner when I was a teenager, Veal Oscar, that I had at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Shrewsbury, NJ.

Once I read last year’s blog post, I decided to make a version of veal oscar using pork instead of veal this year. Veal Oscar is one of those fabulous lost old school dishes that adorned menus back in the day, along with Steak Diane, Beef Wellington, and Lobster Thermador.

Veal Oscar is a culinary creation served for the first time on September 18, 1897, and said to have been named in honor of Sweden’s King Oscar II, who was especially partial to its ingredients. The dish consists of sautéed veal cutlets topped with crab (or occasionally lobster) meat, and an emulsified butter sauce such as Hollandaise or Béarnaise. Traditionally Veal Oscar is garnished with 2 white asparagus spears, In modern times, the dish is often made with steak. Wikipedia.

Marty took me out to breakfast this morning; then, I hit the supermarket to pick up the ingredients for dinner. I purchased a package of boneless pork chops, asparagus, and two frozen lobster tails.

When we got home, I did my mise en place for dinner. I pounded the pork chops thinly, making them now scaloppini. Scaloppine is a type of Italian dish that comes in many forms. It consists of thinly sliced or pounded meat such as beef, veal, chicken, or pork that is dredged in flour and sautéed in one of a variety of sauces. Wikipedia.

I cut the ends off the asparagus and blanched in salt water, then shocked in cold water. I made a quick poaching liquid or court-bouillon for the lobster tail. I pulled them out, let them cool, and then removed the lobster meat.

I made béarnaise sauce, one of the mother sauces, and set it aside in the double boiler bowl to be reheated later.

I made wild rice as a side dish and used my rice cooker for ease. I threw in the rice, water, and a bunch of seasonings, salt, and pepper. I turned it on and knew it would be perfect in an hour. This is one of the only small appliances I use weekly.

Finally, I made my cherry pie. I made a homemade gluten-free pie crust but didn’t have it in me to make the cherry filling from scratch as I usually do. It wasn’t my prettiest pie, but it looks ok. I picked up some vanilla ice cream to serve with the pie.

Dinner came together quickly. It took 5 minutes to sauté the pork scaloppine; I promptly sautéed the asparagus and lobster meat in butter while reheating the béarnaise sauce.

I plated chef style tonight, making everyone’s plate for them the way I wanted it to be presented on the plate. I plated it the traditional way with the scaloppine on the bottom topped with asparagus, then lobster, and finished with béarnaise sauce.

It was nice that Noah came over after work, and the four of us could celebrate my birthday by having dinner together. Everyone loved the meal; I was happy with how it came out; it was restaurant quality. Yay!

For dessert, the cherry pie came out better than I initially thought, satisfying the craving that I’ve had since Saturday night.

Thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday either on Facebook, Instagram, text, email, or on my blog. You all know how to make a girl feel special. 🥰

We had our friends from DC, David & Arthur, over for dinner last night. As soon as they accepted my invitation, I started planning the menu. I’ve cooked regular dinner for them before and wanted to try something different.

I’ve wanted to serve a tasting menu for a long time, thinking there is no time like the present. Plus, I got to do it in my updated kitchen. They were the first people to see it in person.

I wanted the menu to be progressive, building from course to course. The cuisine was going to be Italian since it was my favorite thing to cook. Different items started popping into my head, so I got out my cooking composition pad and started menu planning.

I can still see my dad sitting at our kitchen table, leafing through his cookbooks whenever he was planning a gourmet dinner for friends. He had a notebook to make his shopping list while picking out recipes, just like I do. My dad was way ahead of his time, culinarily speaking, and he didn’t even know it. His friends raved about his food.

My dad mise en platzed all of his ingredients and prepped them the night before or the morning of the dinner party. I loved watching his prep and cook. He always had on music and whistled along to the songs. I always have music on when I cook; I just don’t whistle.

The sad thing for me was watching him cook, serve and eat with his friends; I never got to eat or try any of it. Why would a 9-year-old want to try gourmet food was probably their thinking.

One thing for sure, he was thrilled and “on” whenever he was hosting a dinner party. He hosted it; my mother was happy to sit and watch, talk and smoke cigarettes all night. When my mother was happy, everyone was happy.

Cooking is in my blood; my biological siblings love to cook as well. One of my brothers is a chef. My other brother Dan does all the shopping and cooking for his family. My sister Jen loves to cook and menu plans weekly, just like I do. We are constantly sending each other recipes we make.

Learning to menu plan, mise en platz, and entertain came from my adopted father. His mother, Mema, loved to cook and entertain as well. My love of cooking and entertaining is a combination of nurture vs nature in every sense of the word.

When I start planning a menu, I write down several choices, knowing I will weed out an option or two. Below the menu, I create a shopping list of ingredients I need for the menu. In a new column, I write down tasks within a timeline of items I can make or prep ahead and what I have to finish that night.

Next, I visualize what type of serving vessels I want to use for each course. For this tasting menu, I used lots of small white dishes that I save for dinners such as this one.

Here is the menu from last night:

~ Marinated assorted olives and cubed provolone cheese
~ Cold shrimp scampi on Chinese spoons
~ Creamy parsnip soup garnished with fried parsnips served in espresso cups
~ Crostini with whipped ricotta, blistered tomatoes, & basil with a balsamic glaze.
~ Italian stuffed mushrooms
~ Mini eggplant stacks
~ Kaluha brownie and cheesecake trifles in a glass

I do the shopping a few days ahead. I also get out the serving pieces and dishes I will be using. Then I prep things that can be prepped ahead—doing all of these days before can make the evening of entertaining stress-free and enjoyable. I can cook and entertain on the fly and have pulled some good meals out of my ass.

We had such a fun evening with the guys next door; I am glad they were the first people I got to cook for in the new kitchen. Cooking in front of people makes me happy; watching them eat makes me happier!

This morning, I went online in search of dinner ideas. I am in a winter-time cooking rut. The slowly braised meats, stew, and soups are getting old. All I can think about now is cooking and grilling in my outdoor kitchen. I can’t wait to continue my lessons in smoking meats and bbq. I was starting to understand the principals last year. I can admit nothing that I made on the smoker was anything good—goals for this bbq season.

Everything seems easier to me when the weather gets warm. The food is fresh, the prep is less, and I don’t have to put on winter boots and dredge through the snow on the deck to get to our grill as I had to the other night. I love being barefoot and not being cold while I am grilling.

It’s been so cold some nights I’ve grilled this winter that the serving platter I was using for the finished meat was frozen, or I had nowhere to put it down because all the countertops were covered in ice and snow. I have to leave the platter in the house until I can pull the meat off the grill. I took my boots off to get it and put them back on to get the meat. Ugh!

Today the sun is shining, and it’s 52 degrees here in Vermont. I planned on making either Sweet & Sour or Mongolian Chicken Meatballs with Jasmine Rice and Garlic Sesame Snap Peas, but that can wait for tomorrow night. The grill is calling my name, so I pulled pork tenderloin out of the freezer and will make that instead.

It’s back into production tomorrow, and it’s going to be another big one since orders have been flying in all weekend. It’s supposed to be in the ’50s, but rainy with flood watches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today is definitely a grilling day! ☀️