Carmel Pear Terrine

I bought my first Martha Stewart Living Magazine last week. We went to the Barnes & Noble to hang out and drink coffee in the rain and I got stuck. There was this wonderful looking recipe for pear terrine which just sounded fantastic. (BTW here's the recipe) I borrowed Chris' mandoline (yes, yes, we'll get one soon) and got started.

I love when you have to coat the bottom of a pan with caramel. You swirl in this beautiful deep amber syrup and the hard candy shell is like making glass.

She says to use a charlotte mold. I used a souffle pan instead and thought it worked great. She also calls for it to be served with blue cheese. Since we were bringing this to Jake and Mandy's for dessert we decided to give people a choice and I brought along some stilton and my sweetie made homemade ginger, fireweed honey and toasted pecan ice cream. The girls chose the cheese, the guys the ice cream (well, the girls actually chose both). While this recipe took quite a while to make, it was definitely worth it. Make sure the pears are still slightly green as mine were too soft and we had to reduce the cooking time by about 20 minutes. We also boiled the syrup for 20-25 minutes instead of the five she called for as we wanted the syrup to be very viscous. The carmel pear taste was intense.

Nath's Tomates Farcis

I had a ton of tomatoes that we picked before the hurricane so I decided to make stuffed tomatoes like Nathalie used to make when I lived with her in France.

Not remembering the recipe I pulled out my French cookbooks and proceeded to peruse. I found multiple recipes but I wanted NATH's! Luckily she was on IM so I made her send me the recipe. They were deeee-lish. Here is exactly what she said if you feel like translating (or comment and I'll send it to you my translation in English with metric converted too). There was lots of leftover farce, I mixed it with a bunch of rice and put it in the oven.

Recipe starts:

Actually I don't have a recipe for Tomates Farcies because to do the "farce" you can put almost anything and most of the time, I do it with leftovers. But here is how you should do it:

8 tomates moyennes ou grosses

150 g d'échine de porc (ou roti de porc ou jambon ou bacon)

300 g de boeuf cuit (restes de pot au feu par exemple)

2 oignons

persil (note- I put in herbes de provence)

2 oeufs

1 c à soupe d'huile

sel - poivre

un tout petit peu de cumin en poudre : facultatif

Si tu veux que ta farce soit moins riche, tu peux ajouter un morceau de pain rassi et un peu de lait ou quelques courgettes cuites et bien essorées. (did not do this)

Lavez, essuyez les tomates, découpez un chapeau. A l'aide d'une petite cuillère, videz l'intérieur et le gardez pour le mettre dans la farce. Hachez tous les ingrédients (suffisamment pour que les morceaux de viande ne soient pas trop gros mais pas trop pour que ça ne fasse pas de la soupe).Répartissez le contenu du bol dans les tomates, couvrez avec les chapeaux. Posez les côte à côte dans un plat à four huilé. Mettez à four moyen (thermostat 5/6, 180°) pendant 30 minutes.

(Avant de mettre la farce dans les tomates, tu peux aussi ajouter une cuillère à café et demi de riz cru au fond de la tomate. C'est ce que je fais moi mais il faut savoir qu'ensuite, ça fait moins de jus, mais ça grille mieux).

Voilà, j'espère que ça te conviendra. Have fun doing your tomates farcies and bon appétit.

Dove bites and salt

I had bought Dove minature ice cream bars to share when we had company the other day. They were on a diet so poor us we were stuck with the whole box of ice cream bars. We had just finished eating dinner last night so I had my minibar and put it on my plate that I had just eaten roast beef from. (just on the corner mind you). There was an Australian pink salt crystal sitting on my ice cream when I picked it up. I shrugged, bit, and WOW!!! I highly suggest eating your Dove bars with Pink Salt. MMMMMMM

Okay Renee I'll bite -Omnivores 100

Renee Explains:

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred: (I've only got 19 to go and out of them I refuse to smoke a cigar and can't see putting clotted cream in my tea so 17!)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea (no but I've had nettle soup)
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile-
6. Black pudding (boudin noir was my Tuesday meal when I was an au pair)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (smoked in Door County)
9. Borscht That was an interminable meal, I hate beets.
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (personally I prefer it stuffed with pork ;)
12. Pho the best is at this divey place in Seattle
13. PB&J sandwich yuk
14. Aloo gobi had it but didn't know it was called this
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses stanky but mmmmm!!!
17. Black truffle only in stuff
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes thanks mom!
19. Steamed pork buns dim sum!!!
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (homegrown and all)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (not home grown)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (worked in a deli in WI, what do you want)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper a small piece and I choked
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I've had the sweet)
34. Sauerkraut- Homemade!!!
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar Here's where I cross out cigars, yuk.
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (kinda like head cheese ;-)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat superfresh sometimes sells goat!
42. Whole insects (What!!! I bike don't I?)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut- fresh and hot is best
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear Not impressed
52. Umeboshi we got these as a gag gift for someone
53. Abalone
54. Paneer a staple in my closet
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal- but I don't like the special sauce
56. Spaetzle homemade
57. Dirty gin martini have tried, but not a big hard liquor fan.
58. Beer above 8% ABV daily, although today I only had a 1/2 glass MAUDITE!!!
59. Poutine Heading back in 2 weeks for another
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores-
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst (sadly no)
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs believe it or not, I grew up on these!!!
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake all of the above
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette not my favorite
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost had a norwegian girlfriend who ate it every morning
75. Roadkill don't ask!!!
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie best one was at 11,000 feet
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong winter tea
80. Bellini (could definitely do this one!)
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict crab eggs benedict mmmm
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (biased!!!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers Today, from my garden
89. Horse homemade
90. Criollo chocolate (Guttiard)
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab (ok Renee it was good!)
93. Rose harissa (I've had the regular stuff!)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Mad for an herb cookbook

We've been eating almost exclusively this last week from an herb cookbook that actually came out years ago. I've mentioned the Herbfarm Restaurant before (my dream), but never really explored the cookbooks 'til now. Here is the first.

We've made sooo many good things from this book in the last week. Traunfeld features my favorite herb (sorrel) in sooo many ways. I made a green risotto that was filled with herbs (yes sorrel too). My S/O is getting into it too. He made the herbed foccacia (he is the bread man) and baked herb buttermilk chicken. He has another book out called The Herbal Kitchen, that's next on my list. Can one get sick of herbs? With the garden really taking off, it's fun to cut large handfuls of herbs to make dinner. So now that Traunfeld has left the restaurant, it's up to me to make the recipes. I can't wait for the tomatoes to start. Oh and Coralie, I want you to make the Lemon Verbena Ice Cream....

Tomatoes growing, life is good

The garden got planted last weekend. What an effort. I enlarged it by a third so I could put more tomatoes in. Last year I put the tomatoes in behind the azeleas but that didn't work so well so expanding the herb garden out made more room. I think my chamomile likes it's new home better than buried under the rosemary.

I'd show you but I'm having issues with my stupid camera. But as you can see, the fennel is growing like crazy (and coming up all over the place too) and the herbs are taking off. I've planted a second lavendar to the right so there will be a lavendar frame for the garden. The other lavendar has taken over the left of the garden, but the sage is fighting it. My thyme is beautiful, it has purple flowers and is 2 feet around. I've been putting thyme in everything as you can imagine. I have 6 tomato plants in. I thought I had a 7th, a volunteer, but it seems to have gone missing. The tomato plants are up to over 2 feet now and I think there's a little tomato on one. Sooooo slow.

So I've been invited to join a cookbook club. It should be interesting. Renee has her blog called Wine Bread Cheese and she says she's going to blog our cookbook club. The first book is Friday. It's called Fish w/out a Doubt. I am in charge of appetizers. Now I just have to go check out the book (yes, from the library, if they had it) Hopefully I'll get to use my herbs.

Mostly in!

So I have all but a couple of my herbs in and have been profiting from the herb garden. The thyme has gone wild this year but the rosemary is definitely being consumed by the mint in the pot so if I ever finish digging the addition to the garden (poor tomato plants, they reallllly want to be in the ground) I will transplant the rosemary to a happier spot.

I got my nasturtiums finally, had to drive all the way out to Valley View again as they just didn't have the right ones at Greenfields, but I put some of the greens in a salad today along with some of the sorrel. Burgers and salad after a bike ride, mmmmm. Made a lovely vinagrette using the Lemon Thyme that Renee reminded me I had growing. Hadn't used it in a year I think. YUM.

I think I counted 5 tomato flowers and one pepper. Should have veggies soon!!! Last night we went to a friend's for dinner. She found the peas at the Waverly market, I missed them :-( Next week I'm getting peas!!!! Her risotto with peas and asparagus was divine, not to mention the excellent lamb chops. It is cool and lovely and life is good.