I'm now on vacation
OK, so I haven't written here in months. But now I am on vacation, so I have some time, and I can write about my pathetic boring life. My hubby was supposed to be in florida this week for a conference, which got canceled thanks to Ivan. I was going to have a week here by myself, seeing friends and taking road trips and whatnot, but now he's here (although working every day), so instead I'm home doing housewifey things and cooking a whole lot, because it's something I don't get to do very often anymore, and I really enjoy it. Unfortunately, I also got two deep second degree burns and I sliced through my thumbnail. I guess that comes with being out of practice in the kitchen. My husband is not sure I'm going to survive the vacation. On the up side, I am going to see Sting (aka the love of my life) in San Antonio on Friday. A good time should be had.
Lets see. In other news, I had a miscarriage, found out I'm hypothyroid, and got started on replacement.
Oh, and two days ago Shawn watched Once upon a time in Mexico and I cooked Puerco Pibil, the Johnny Depp characters leitmotif in the movie. It was pretty good. However, I made the achiote paste with only one habanero and one jalapeno instead of two habaneros. I think it could have used the second habanero, and i'm kind wimpy about stuff like that. I have a banana tree in my yard, so I went out and cut off some leaves in which to roast the pork. I served it with black bean cakes, and rice, and fried plantains, and mango salsa. Oh, and I made corn, jalapeno and cheddar tamales for appetizers. A word of caution for the home cook. NEVER try to make tamales unless you have several hours and would like to be repeatedly frustrated. Making the masa harina and the filling wasn't bad, but getting it all into those damned corn husks was crazy. They turned out OK though. I served tres leches cake for dessert.
Last night I made chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and haricot verts, and smoked cheddar and mustard mashed potatoes, and pears poached in port with mascarpone cheese. I roasted the chicken in clay and it came out quite juicy. The roasted garlic was terrific on french bread. See, this is what I do when I'm not a work. I make a huge mess in the kitchen.
Oh, and on Saturday I made another pork roast, but this one I slow simmered with garlic and lemon in milk. It's a tuscan dish called arrista con leche. I liked it batter than the pibil. Both were tender, but this was juicier, and didn't even need sauce. I served it with pureed sweet dumpling squash served in their shells, and potatoes roasted in duck fat, which were also quite nice, and a green salad with pan seared pecan crusted buffalo mozzarella, and molten chocolate cake for dessert. We had a La crema pinot noir with the meal, which was quite nice.
That about does it for this blog. I think that's plenty.
Lets see. In other news, I had a miscarriage, found out I'm hypothyroid, and got started on replacement.
Oh, and two days ago Shawn watched Once upon a time in Mexico and I cooked Puerco Pibil, the Johnny Depp characters leitmotif in the movie. It was pretty good. However, I made the achiote paste with only one habanero and one jalapeno instead of two habaneros. I think it could have used the second habanero, and i'm kind wimpy about stuff like that. I have a banana tree in my yard, so I went out and cut off some leaves in which to roast the pork. I served it with black bean cakes, and rice, and fried plantains, and mango salsa. Oh, and I made corn, jalapeno and cheddar tamales for appetizers. A word of caution for the home cook. NEVER try to make tamales unless you have several hours and would like to be repeatedly frustrated. Making the masa harina and the filling wasn't bad, but getting it all into those damned corn husks was crazy. They turned out OK though. I served tres leches cake for dessert.
Last night I made chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and haricot verts, and smoked cheddar and mustard mashed potatoes, and pears poached in port with mascarpone cheese. I roasted the chicken in clay and it came out quite juicy. The roasted garlic was terrific on french bread. See, this is what I do when I'm not a work. I make a huge mess in the kitchen.
Oh, and on Saturday I made another pork roast, but this one I slow simmered with garlic and lemon in milk. It's a tuscan dish called arrista con leche. I liked it batter than the pibil. Both were tender, but this was juicier, and didn't even need sauce. I served it with pureed sweet dumpling squash served in their shells, and potatoes roasted in duck fat, which were also quite nice, and a green salad with pan seared pecan crusted buffalo mozzarella, and molten chocolate cake for dessert. We had a La crema pinot noir with the meal, which was quite nice.
That about does it for this blog. I think that's plenty.