Tonight we had a dinner
party. Jim’s cousins come over. The menu came from everywhere. For
appetizers, I had three cheeses; white stilton with apricots, mozzarella with
prosciutto, goat cheese with onion jelly and eggplant spread, all served with crackers. We have a pool table in this house. We had the appetizers downstairs and Dave and
Jim played pool. Our first course was
soup from Penzeys recent catalogue. I
read about it while riding into PT with Jim.
He loves potato soup. Oh, and
after peeling 4# of potatoes, I read to the end and realized it serves
10-15. We have a lot left over, I plan
to freeze some for future lunches. This
is a creamy and delicious soup. Aside
from the peeling of the potatoes, it is an incredibly easy recipe to make.
Slow Cooker Potato Soup
Ingredients:
4# red potatoes, chopped into
chunks and peeled
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ t salt
½ t ground pepper
1 T chicken soup base
8 C water
16 oz. cream cheese
Served with:
Crumbled bacon
Shredded Colby Jack cheese (I
used blue cheese, because it is more in my taste realm.)
Chopped green onions or
chives
Directions:
1.
Placed the
chopped potatoes, garlic, salt, pepper and soup base into the slow cooker. (I
put the water in the slow cooker first so the potatoes would not turn while peeling
all 4#.)
2.
Place the lid on
the cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or on low, for 8.
3.
About ½ hour
before the soup is finished, slice the cream cheese into chunks. Mix into soup. Replace the lid and cook for 20 minutes.
4.
I then used my
immersion blender and combined the ingredients into a very fine puree.
5.
Serve with the
condiments.
This soup was divine. I am going to freeze the remaining for
lunches.
Pork Chops with Butternut Squash & Apple Stuffing,
Serves 4. I had huge chops and stuffing
with ½ C stuffing I have enough left over to stuff at least 3 more chops. The gravy is the same way over what is
needed, 1/4 the amount would do fine. I cut this recipe out of a Williams
Sonoma catalog. The last three recipes I
have used from WS have had the quantity really screwed up.
Ingredients:
1 ½ C diced butternut squash
(1/4”dice) (This was very time consuming)
1 C diced celery
1 C diced Granny smith apple
(1/4”dice)
6T EVOO
Salt and pepper
1 large shallot, finely diced
1 ½ t minced garlic
2 t chopped fresh thyme (I
used dried 1/3 less)
1 ¼ C toasted bread crumbs (I
used panko crumbs)
4 double-cut-bone-in pork
loin chops, each about 12 oz and 1 ½ “thick
For the gravy:
1 yellow onion, cut into ½”
dice
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled,
cored and cut into ½” dice (actually I had a lot of apple left over from the
dressing)
1T flour
2T chicken demi-glace
1 1/2 C water
3 t chicken stock concentrate
1 T apple cider vinegar
Direction:
1.
Preheat the oven
to 400 degrees if baking immediately. (I
made all earlier in the day and turned on the oven when the guests arrived.)
2.
In a large bowl,
stir together butternut squash, celery, apple and 2T oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3.
In a large
skillet over medium-high heat, warm 2 T EVOO.
Add shallot; cook, stirring until softened, about 1 minute. Add garlic and thyme; cook, stirring
frequently, about 10 seconds. Add squash
mixture; cook, until just softened, about 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4.
Let cool and stir
in bread crumbs.
5.
Season the pork
chops with salt and pepper. Insert sharp
knife into side of chop opposite from bone, making long slit along curve all
the way to the bone. Wiggle knife to
form large pocket. Pack ½ C stuffing
into each chop. (I did this earlier in
the day and refrigerated them. Remove
about ½ hour before cooking to return to room temperature.)
6.
Brown chops on a
grille pan about 4 minutes per side. Do
this in 2 batches to give the chops plenty of room. Return all chops to the pan and roast in the
oven until an instant-read thermometer inserted into stuffing registers 160
degrees, about 20 minutes.
7.
Tent with
foil. Strain pan juices into small bowl.
(I had no pan juice.)
8.
In a small
saucepan over medium-high heat, warm 1T oil.
Add onion and apple; cook, stirring until softened 7-8 minutes. Add demi-glace, water, stock concentrate and
reserved juices; bring to a simmer. Cook
until sauce thickens, 2-3 minutes. Stir
in vinegar. Using immersion blender,
puree sauce until smooth. (I did everything but the reserved pan juice earlier
in the day and kept warm until serving time.)
9.
Plate pork chops
and drizzle with sauce. Serve
immediately.
To accompany the pork chops I
chose mustard greens. I bought them
chopped and cleaned in a bag. They are
considered quick cooking greens this way.
This recipe come from my new cookbook called The New Southern Garden
Cookbook by Sheri Castle. It is an
interesting cookbook as everything is according to the product. This was called Mediterranean Skillet Greens
and it serves 6. I made half a recipe
and I’d say that half, would serve 6. I
am not sure that my truly southern company appreciated greens cooked this way. They are used to greens cooked to death in a
lot of bacon grease. I found them
interesting but they would have been better if as they wilt to add water and
steam them for a while.
Ingredients:
½ C golden raisins
½ C EVOO
12 garlic cloves, peeled and
smashed
½ C pine nuts
2 ½ # quick-cooking greens,
though stems removed and leaves thinly sliced (I used mustard greens, but
spinach, chard, baby collards, kale or broccoli raab would work.)
2 T sherry vinegar or red
wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1.
Place raisins in
a small bowl and cover with hot tap water.
Set aside until the raisins plump, at least 15 minutes. Drain well.
(I did this earlier in the day and had these, the garlic and pine nuts waiting in small cups
next to the skillet.)
2.
Heat the oil in a
large skillet over medium heat. Add the
garlic and pine nuts and cook, stirring often, until the nuts are golden brown,
5 minutes. Add the greens in large handfuls,
stirring until they wilt before adding more.
Continue to cook, tossing the greens with tongs until they are tender,
but do not let them get slick. If the
greens get dry before they get tender, add a splash of water. (I would add water and stem a little with a
lid on.)
3.
Add raisins. Pour the vinegar over the greens and season
with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at
room temperature.
I am going to try this again
with other greens.
Finally dessert! This is an Alton Brown recipe
that I saw on his chocolate special on TV.
It has cost me a fortune in equipment and did not work. First I ordered from WS an ISI mini easy
whip. I did it online and accidently
ordered two. My sister-in-law is the recipient
of this mistake. It said not to use with
desserts and Alton’s recipe says it much be a 1 liter whipper. So I went back on line and found the 1-liter
an ISI gourmet whipper on Amazon for less than WS. I ordered it.
I received a .5 liter whipper. I
wrote Amazon and was told that a 1-liter does not exist. I looked in the directions and it clearly
states in ISI literature that it does.
But in the meantime, people who tried his recipe said that you only need
a .5 liter whipper. But these same
people state that his recipe is watery and tasteless. So following their lead, I change the cocoa
content to 75% from 54%, I add a touch of salt and ¼ t of vanilla. I also do not follow his melting
instructions, but melted all ingredients in the microwave and whisked. I tried to cool to 60 degrees per his
instructions, but at 75 degrees mine was a solid lump. So I microwaved it again and filled the wiper. I had Jim shake 16-20 times and with the wiper
in perfect position, proceeded to squirt out a serving of chocolate mousse. One serving is all I got. So we divided it among the 4 of us. It did taste excellent, but most of the
mousse was still in the whipper. I am
going to try it again. With all this
expensive whipping equipment in my possession, I am determined to make this
work.
Ingredients:
8 oz 54% bittersweet chocolate,
finely chopped (reader recommended 75%)
4 oz brewed coffee at room
temperature
4 oz water
1 ½ oz sugar (I used
Splenda. Do not weigh or you will end up
with too much. 1 ½ oz sugar is just shy
of ¼ C. So I measured that amount of
Splenda.
Special equipment: .5 liter ISI cream whipper and 1
N2O (nitrous-Oxide)charger
Directions:
1.
Create an ice
bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water.
2.
Add enough water
to a 10” straight-sided sauté pan to come up the side 1”. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
3.
Combine the
chocolate, coffee, water and sugar in a medium bowl and set in the simmering
water. Stir occasionally until the
chocolate is almost completely melted and sugar is dissolved, 4-5 minutes.
4.
Remove from heat
and set the bowl in the ice bath. Whisk
until the mixture reaches 60 degrees and is the consistency of heavy cream, 2-3
minutes.
5.
Pour into the
cream whipper. Do not fill above the maximum
fill line.
6.
Charge the cream
whipper with 1 charger. Shake vertically
16-20 times. Set aside for 1
minute. Invert and dispense into small
bowls or martini glasses. Serve
immediately.
So you know what I am doing
today.
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