Monthly Archives: February 2010

Last Week’s Recap (2/18/2010)

So, for my first official recap of a Thursday dinner I will present to you, humble reader, what I can remember of the night. Truthfully, the night went off as planned as we all got pretty drunk, given that it was going to be Sarah’s last hurrah.

Here is a selection of our planning e-mail chain:

Zack: We should also plan on getting hammered right?

Sarah: Hammered. With a capital H.

Erik: I am doing twice baked potatoes. Hammered?

So, with the plan to get sufficiently hammered, here is a rundown of the menu.

Zack: Polenta Gratin with Mushrooms & Tomato (From Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)

Vegan. Non-Vegan.

Ashley: Spanish Rice

Yum Yum.

Erik: Twice-Baked Potatoes

I don't want to overstep my bounds here, but this was a mediocre effort from Erik. Even he wil tell you that.

Sarah & Steve: Grilled Veggies & Portabellas with Pesto on Ciabatta

Perhaps the highlight of the meal.

Shayna: Pizza!

Tomato Sauce, Spinach, Potatoes, Pine Nuts, Basil, Cheese. Am I missing anything?


I should probably post some recipes, but I’d have to go into a book and copy them down. I’ll hold off for now. Until then, more photos!

The Spread.

Sandwiches.

Pizza, it's time for your close-up.

I'm on a plate.


Winter Citrus Salad with Agave Dressing

This is what the NYT claims it could look like. Good luck.

I have a tendency to get myself involved in blogs that quickly disintegrate from substantial and regular posting to little-to-no-posting for months at a time. This blog appears to be heading toward minimal posting from the get-go, and with our only established blogger leaving us for the time being, perhaps it will be up to me to pick up the slack. (In part of my effort to pick up the slack I tried to pick a new header image, after about 45 minutes of trying to fuck around with Photoshop in order to scale images and canvas sizes I finally just gave up and probably picked a worse picture. If anyone wants me to change it, let me know. I will do it.)

So, on Sarah’s suggestion, I am posting the Savory Citrus Salad recipe I used from a few weeks back. If you’re a regular diner at our Thursday dinners, which if you’re reading this blog, you probably are, then you may or may not know that I get a substantial portion of my recipes from Mark Bittman, either from one of the three books of his that I own (How to Cook Everything, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and Food Matters) or from his Bitten Blog, or Minimalist Column/Videos. The man pumps out recipes like nobody’s business and I tend to enjoy them and they tend to be slimmed down, or minimalistic (word?). Plus, I think he looks like Jeffrey Tambor and anything that reminds me of Arrested Development is a good thing:

Him?

In an effort to make the recipe vegan I replaced honey with Agave syrup, but other than that, this is basically the Bittman recipe (oh, and I just willy-nilly selected my citrus elements, you can dissect the image below and figure out what I ended up using).

Photographic proof that maybe this salad existed. Or that I at least bought some citrus.

2 blood oranges or tangerines

1 pink grapefruit

1 navel orange

Salt

1/2 small red onion or 1 shallot, chopped

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/2 teaspoon honey/Agave

Lime or lemon juice to taste

1/4 teaspoon freshly chopped tarragon or a pinch dried. (I also used some Basil here because some of my tarragon was getting mushy in the fridge).

1. Peel citrus, removing as much pith as possible, and slice into wheels. Remove any pits, layer fruit on a serving dish, sprinkle with salt and garnish with chopped onion.

2. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, honey, lime juice and tarragon until well combined; taste, adjust seasoning as needed and drizzle over salad.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Check back soon for more recipes and hopefully a new header image.