Sunday, February 3, 2008

Food Report

So.... all the cooking that was done this weekend....

The Creamy Artichoke Dip was a success, as were the breadsticks. Artichoke dip itself isn't that exciting in a photograph, but I was awfully proud of the breadsticks...




Those are about half/half whole wheat and regular flour. Lots of pepper and romano cheese. The adults loved them, as did my cousin's odd two year old. Every time we turned around he was grabbing for a breadstick.


Pita chips. In a plastic thing with a blue top. I used whole wheat pitas, split the pita, cut in to 6 or 8 wedges depending on the size of the pita, brush with a little olive oil (I'm not a fan of cooking sprays... I wish I could say it was because I was against all the chemicals, but honestly I just hate the way the tend to goop up your cookware) and bake at 350 degrees for about 7-9 minutes.

But, the fun of the weekend (for me, at least) was my Key Lime Sabayon-Pine Nut Tart with Honeyed Mascarpone Cream (based off the lemon version).

Hello, little key limes!!



With the help of my handy juicer, it was quick work getting the 1/2 cup of juice.



For me, it took 12 key limes to get all the juice I need. Here is the proof, in various stages of being juiced.



And the finished beauty....



Overall, it was pretty easy to do. A nice, no-fuss crust, and the sabayon itself was actually pretty easy as long as you don't mind all the whisking. And I usually don't. Even with my crap-tacular hands and grip, whisking isn't that hard. They key is a nice, big ballon whisk and holding it... um... I guess kinda like you're grabbing a broom handle... and using your arm and not your wrist to do the hard work. If you've got a bowl that is the correct shape, it's much more of an up and down kinda movement than a round and round thing.

I thought my hubby would be ga-ga over it, but I think once he heard "pine nut" he was determined to not like it. He still doesn't believe me that one of his favorite key lime pies we have out has a nut crust. But what would I know? It only says it right there on the menu.


Ribs today were tasty, of course (using Alton brown's "No Backyard Babyback Ribs" method, my own spice rub and bottled BBQ sauce). Served with some slaw, pork and beans, and cork muffins. Not much talking was done as we watched the end of the 1st half of the game and piled up rib bones.

The plan was to head over to the brother in law's house, but when we walked outside it was near white-out snow conditions, and we're now old and lame and thought better of going over to the brother in laws when we have perfectly good beer at home.

So, we came home, I did a few hours work for old company (in the middle of a situation I've dealt with before where the solution is usually "throw money at the problem to get it fixed quickly", which this time means that they'll throw money at me to get the work done quickly) and flipped between the game and Masterpiece Theatre. Very happy that the Giants won. Overall thought the commercials I caught sucked, although the groin shot on Justin Timberlake was funny.

And my kitchen sink is clogged again. After it stopped up, the hubby says "Oh yeah, I noticed it was a little clogged yesterday." Think it might have helped to tell me then?? Using some 'net advice I saw with the last clogging incident, I tried some Oxy Clean to see if it could deal with the problem. It has foamed and bubbled and the sink is draining very very very very very slowly. But at least it smells clean and not like a salad like the last time. Whatever. We'll deal with it tomorrow. If I'm lucky maybe this means a little kitchen re-design and some new countertops and a new deep sink, and the tossing of the damned garbage disposal that seems to be the cause of these problems. We had a disposal in our apartment (my first time having one) and I loved it at first, but the problems we've had here have changed my mind pretty quickly.

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