Day Twenty-Seven

She Said:

We skipped Day Twenty-Six due to overindulgence on Day Twenty-Five. Booze, not food. So, we picked back up on Day Twenty-Seven. Two recipes to count toward our own Julie/Julia Project. These are both from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.

Creamy Asparagus Fettucine

1 pound asparagus (about 20 medium-thick spears)
1 pound fettucine
1 large red bell pepper, roasted and cut into strips (we used jarred, since we had it on hand)
1 pound ricotta cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
⅓ cup chopped fresh chives, garlic chives, or scallions (we used scallions)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Begin heating a large pot of salted water.

2. Snap off and discard the woody ends of the asparagus. Cut off the tips of the asparagus spears and reserve. Cut the spears into 1½-inch lengths.

3. When the water comes to a boil, add the asparagus and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tips and cook until the asparagus is just tender, about 2 minutes longer. Using a large skimmer or slotted spoon, remove the asparagus and transfer to a bowl. Cover and keep warm.

4. Cook the fettucine in the water until al dente. Remove ½ cup of the cooking water. Briefly drain the fettucine in a colander and return it to the pot, along with the asparagus.

5. Add the roasted pepper, ricotta, Parmesan, and chives. Toss well, adding the reserved cooking water as needed to make a creamy sauce. Season generously with salt and pepper.

6. Serve hot, passing additional Parmesan at the table.

I think this recipe has potential, but the way we ended up making it, it was like noodles coated with kindergarten paste. I think we could tweak it to make it better - add some chicken or vegetable broth, maybe, and use low-fat ricotta instead of the full-fat variety that we used. It was quite tasty - just way too thick and gummy.

The other recipe He made was for lunches this week. I haven't had any yet (as I'm feeling quite under the weather) but I'm sure I will.

Classic Potato Salad

2½ pounds waxy or all-purpose potatoes
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
2 large celery stalks, finely chopped
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ large sweet onion or small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 cup boiled salad dressing, such as Miracle Whip, or more to taste
2 tablespoons chopped dill pickle or sweet pickle relish, or more to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Paprika, to garnish

1. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and fill with enough cold water to cover the potatoes by 1 inch. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size. Don't overcook. Drain well and let cool.

2. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and slice them into ½-inch cubes.

3. Combine the potatoes, eggs, celery, bell pepper, and onion in a large mixing bowl. Add the dressing and pickles. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Add more dressing if the salad seems dry. Adjust the flavor with additional pickles and salt and pepper, if desired. Chill well. The salad will develop flavor as it sits.

4. Just before serving, taste and adjust the seasoning. Sprinkle paprika on top to garnish.

The funny thing is that I grew up on Miracle Whip. My mother never had real mayonnaise in the house and the first time I tried mayonnaise, I hated it! But since I've been out of my parents' house, I've used mayonnaise almost exclusively and it was actually a nice reminiscence to go buy a jar of Miracle Whip. I plan to use it and relive those younger years. (I swear, when I was little, I could eat that stuff by the spoonful. My mom used to put out a platter of sliced tomatoes and iceberg lettuce with a bowl of Miracle Whip in the center. Since I couldn't stand tomatoes, I used to just slather Miracle Whip on the almost-tasteless iceberg lettuce and truly, truly enjoy myself. And that's about as close to eating it by the spoonful as you can get without actually doing the deed. Mmmm...Miracle Whip!)

Day 27/365:Recipes 19 and 20/175

Day Twenty

She Said:

We had a fabulous dinner tonight! Excellent all the way around. He wanted to continue his venture into cast iron cooking and so the main meal came from Cast Iron Cooking by Dwayne Ridgaway.

Blackened Beef Tenderloin with Gorgonzola-Chive Potatoes

6 6-8 ounce beef center-cut tenderloin steaks
½ cup teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
2 tablespoons blackening seasoning
¼ cup vegetable oil

For the Potatoes:
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, cut into large chunks
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
⅓ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (we went with Buttermilk Blue on the advice of the cheese expert at Wegmans)
¼ cup chopped fresh chives

In a large bowl combine the teriyaki sauce with the Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, soy sauce, and black pepper. Place the tenderloin steaks fully submerged in the marinade; cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Place the potatoes in a large pot filled with water. Bring to a boil, then cook potatoes until tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes, leaving them behind in the pot, and add the butter, heavy cream, salt, and pepper. Using a potato masher, mash to a thick puree. Add Gorgonzola cheese and chives, stirring to combine and melt the cheese, cover, and set aside, keeping warm.
Remove the steaks from the marinade and pat dry. Coat evenly and generously with blackened seasoning. Heat vegetable oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the steaks in one even layer, searing for 7 minutes per side (for medium rare), 10 minutes per side for medium and 12 minutes per side for well done. If you like your steaks medium or well done, reduce the heat to medium so as not to burn them. Transfer to serving plates with the mashed potatoes.

Please don't eat your steaks well-done!!

On the side, we had another recipe from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman, adding another notch in our lipstick case in our own Julie/Julia project!

Lemony Grilled Asparagus

1½ pounds asparagus (about 30 medium-thick spears), bottoms trimmed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ lemon

1. Prepare a medium fire in a gas or charcoal grill.

2. Place the asparagus in a shallow dish. Drizzle the oil over the spears and toss to coat.

3. Grill the asparagus, turning occasionally, until tender, about 8 minutes.

4. Arrange the asparagus on a serving platter. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper to taste, squeeze the lemon over the spears, and serve.

Simple and delicious! I even did some of the grilling - asparagus I can handle!

Day 20/365:Recipe 16/175

Starting something new...

She Said:

Taking a page from the "Julie/Julia Project" and its inspiring and delightful movie version, "Julie and Julia", we have launched into a project to cook our way through someone else's cookbook in one year. This was a tough decision for us. Seeing as we both have truly exhausting full-time jobs, neither one of us is inspired to do a lot of hard cooking at day's end, certainly nothing approaching Julia Child's cookbook!

So we settled on a fairly easy cookbook for our daily meals (and we'll probably go with something more complex for our weekend meals) and last night was the first try. So exciting!!

We chose Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman for our weeknight meals. There are 175 recipes in this cookbook and I think we can handle that in one year. The really great part of this book is that it is a book that takes you, season-by-season, through various recipes based on what's in season at that time. We're sort of still borderline between winter and spring, but we started with a spring recipe.

Away we go!

Day One

Roasted Asparagus Vinaigrette

1 1/2 pounds asparagus (about 30 medium-thick spears), bottoms trimmed
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450℉. Lightly grease a large shallow roasting pan or half sheet pan with oil.

2. Arrange the asparagus in a single uncrowded layer in the prepared pan. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of the oil over the asparagus and roll to coat evenly.

3. Roast the asparagus for about 15 minutes, until the asparagus is lightly browned, shaking the pan occasionally for even cooking.

4. Meanwhile, combine the garlic and vinegar in a small bowl. Whisk in the remaining 3 tablespoons oil until it is fully incorporated. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

5. When the asparagus is done, transfer to a serving platter. Drizzle with the vinaigrette. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Set aside for at least 30 minutes to blend the flavors.

6. Serve at room temperature.

Our goal is to follow these recipes exactly and not put our own spin on them, like we normally do. Thank goodness we did stick to the real recipe. This was really, really delicious and addictive. We used pencil-thin asparagus which really should have cooked for less time but it was still fab.

Trying to use up everything on hand that is not a recipe ingredient, we served this with two almond-crusted flounder filets that we had in the freezer and prepared a box of Whole Grain Roasted Garlic Italiano Rice-a-Roni. It's not a meal that tasted like something we normally make but that's OK. We're trying to get out of our rut!

I can't wait for tonight's dinner!

Day 1/365:Recipe 1/175