Pre Holiday Meal

When you find yourself dropping massive amounts of money on the food for the holiday, it's easy to forget about what's for dinner.

Tonight we had melted cheese and ham sandwiches.
Recipe for 2 sandwiches.

1. Start the broiler.
2. Under the broiler, lightly toast 4 slices of Sourdough Bread.
3. Flip bread over and pile two slices with thinly sliced black forest ham from westridge. And pile the others with cheese. Eric chose thinly sliced Point Reyes Blue Cheese, I chose thinly sliced Gruyere. Before putting the sandwich slice back in the broiler, I put some slices of red onion on Eric's Blue Cheese. Drizzle olive oil over meat and cheese. Grind fresh black pepper over everything.
4. Once cheese is melted to desired meltiness, remove from under broiler. Assemble sandwiches and slice in half.

Family Coming for Christmas

My parents and my brother and finance arrive on Sunday, the 23rd for dinner. It makes my mom nervous when I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so I am doing my best to think ahead, plan out the meals and prep as much as possible.

The 4 days Dinner look like this:

Sunday Night
Baby Back Ribs
Polenta
Spicy Peppery Citrus Salad

Monday
Gumbo, Cornbread and Rice
Salad
Gingerbread Cake for desert

Tuesday
Seviche
Emapandas
Salad with Poblano Rajas and Smoked Whitefish

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Guajillo Sauce
Smokey Greens
Cheese Grits Souffle
Spicy Pear Relish
Some sort of Roasted Veggie Squash Carrot Dish

Semolina Cake with 2 sauces

Tough Turkey

I was feeling ambivalent about hosting Thanksgiving dinner, but when I found out that Healthy Family Farms, the same stand from which I get my eggs from, was going to be making turkeys available, I got inspired.

Not remembering how big a turkey I usually get, and not sure who we were having over, I ordered a 20lb-er. When I picked it up, it was the biggest turkey I started inviting friends.

In honor of the local turkey, I felt out the rest of the menu from what I could get at the Farmer's Market, Farmer and the Cook and Rainbow Bridge. All organic and mostly local, I felt grateful again to live in Ojai, California.

On Wednesday, when I opened the turkey to get it ready to brine, I was overwhelmed by it's force. At risk of sounding too hippy, the spirit of my turkey was HUGE and I felt compelled to light a candle and say my prayers of gratitude. This was some turkey. I mean, like whoa whoa. It gave off this intense force that made my hair stand on end everytime I handled it.

But I learned a valuable lesson this holiday. While ethically I was very pleased with my free range organic turkey, I had not intended to cook an athlete. While the bird was perfectly cooked, nothing could mask the touch and chewy meat. Next year, I will be looking for the turkey that given the choice to run free, chose to relax and fatten up a little. A turkey more like me.

Thanksgiving 2007 Menu
10 peeps
Mixed Group.
2 Vegans

Appetizers
- Roasted Nuts with Rosemary, Brown Sugar, Cayenne and Salt
- Cheese Plate and Crackers
- Smoked Salmon Plate with Lemon Dill Sour Creme, Red Onions, Capers and Pumpernickel Toasts
- Herbed Olives


Dinner
Tough Turkey
(I carved according to the Video on the NYT. Great!)
Gravy
Basic Bread Stuffing (Bread from FnC)
Braised Fennel (Fennel from B.D.)
Slow Simmered Leeks in Olive Oil (Leeks from Rainbow, Carrots from Tutti Frutti, Onions from FnC)
Gingered Black Kale (Kale from Rainbow, Ginger from FnC)
Roasted Small Red Potatoes (Potatoes from Farmer's Market Stand)
Cranberry Sauce with Pomegranate Seeds (Cranberries from FnC, Local Pomegranates)


Desert
Katherine brought a Pear Tartan
Craig brought a Pumpkin Pie from Olivia

Steve and Olivia Came Over for Dinner

Steve and Olivia Came over for dinner tonight. I had a a huge chunk of swordfish from Ric and Alicia and they have lots of vegetables. They dropped of the veggies around 2:45 and we headed out to see a 2:50 showing of American Gangster.

Great movie.

We came back and together concocted the menu:


Tomato Arugula Bruchetta

Oven Roasted Swordfish with Mustard Tamari Glaze and Herb Roasted Potatoes
Wilted Spinach with Garlic and Flame Raisins
Steamed Bok Choy with Ginger and Pistachios
Marinated Shitake Mushroom Turnip Salad

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So fun to dine together and make up something totally new.

Tomoto Arugula Bruschetta

Olivia made a fantastic brushcetta of:

tomatoes
garlic
onion
arugula
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt

i found stale bread in the fridge and revived it by pan toasting it in olive oil in the pan.

delicious.

Roasted Swordfish with Mustard Glaze and Herb Red Potatoes wit

Ric of What A Deal Seafood convinced me to try cooking the swordfish like this. On Sunday, he had these big huge cuts of swordfish like a pot roast. And when I asked him how to cook them, he said, "Like a Pot Roast".

Oven to 400.
Baking Sheet prepped with piece of Tinfoil and oiled.

1. Bog 2+ pound piece of swordfish cut like a pot roast.
2. Mix up country Dijon mustard, green peppercorn mustard, tamari soy sauce and olive oil.
3. Stick 3 or 4 Fresh Rosemary Sticks into and through fish. (I did not get them "all the way through")
4. Rub outside of Fish with a 1/2 clove of garlic.

5. Wash and slice up small red potatoes into small wedges. Toss with olive oil, pepper, salt, thyme and Mexican oregano. Scatter around the fish.

6. Pour mustard marinade all over fish.

7. Put fish and potatoes in Oven and set timer for 20 minutes. At 20 minutes, turn pan around and set timer for 10 more minutes. Check Fish. You will most likely need to cook it for at least 10 minutes more, but it depends on your oven. We took it out at about 35 minutes. It was 2 minutes to being cooked. We covered it with tinfoil while rest of food got cooked (10 minutes), and it cooked the rest of itself and mellowed perfectly.

8. Transfer potatoes and fish to a serving platter.
(I would put the bok choy under it next time, but it looked pretty and old skool tonight).