Pasta and Haddock Gratin

Sorry I've been MIA, we've had out of town guests, and I had to make a quick trip to Philadelphia so the cookin's been a little few and far between as of late. However I made up for it last night with this quick and delicious dinner. Mmm Mmm.

This is from that great little book I keep telling you people about 101 Simple Suppers, I can't sing the praises of this book enough.

Recipe:
12 oz penne or rigatoni
6 oz frozen spinach
1 oz butter
1 oz flour
2 C milk
1lb skinless haddock or cod fillets cut into chuncks
16 oz sharp cheddar grated
2 tomatoes, sliced
salt and pepper

1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water fora bout 12 minutes. Add spinach for the last 3 minutes of cooking time.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the butter, flour, and milk in a large pan until the mizxture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the fish and simmer for 5 minutes or until the fish is just cooked. Remove from heat and stir in three-quarters of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Preheat the boiler. Drain the pasta and stir into the sauce. Pour into a 14 quart shallow ovenproof dish. Put the tomatoes on top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Broil for 5-7 minutes, until golden.

Per serving: calories 750 protien 48g carbs 80g fat 29g saturated fat 17g fiber 4g

Rating = So God Damn Good

Litter Bug

I have a wonderful food post, but I'm not going to post about until later because I want to write about a small incident that happened to me on the train this morning. Before I tell the tale I'd like to give a little bit of background on a few things.

First. Almost nothing irritates me more than littering. I find absolutely no excuse for someone who litters, especially in the City where trash receptacles are nearly every 50 feet or so. I also am a bit of a tree hugger, not crazy hippy run my car off of old McDonald's french fry oil kind of tree hugger, but still, I recycle everything, I unplug everything in my house (except the refrigerator, stove, microwave, and tv) after I am done using it, that means, the coffee pot, toaster, hair appliances, cell phone chargers, everything. (If you don't know how much power appliances can pull when they are plugged in, but not on, do a little research, it's startling.) We are also on the path of changing all of your light bulbs in the house to compact fluorescents so that we can cut down on the energy that we use at night with the lights on. Seriously, the list goes on with the little things that CB and I do everyday so that we can drastically reduce how much we negatively impact the environment.

Second. Do any of you watch Grey's Anatomy? If you do, a few episodes ago Callie learned that she could get people to do what she wanted by "staring" them down. I swear I've been doing this since I was 5 years old. I remember my mother saying to me when I was little "don't give me those eyes little girl;" so I thought it was funny when Callie started doing it to McSteamy to get him to do something she wanted.

Onto this morning's train ride. It wasn't that busy, I was seated in a double seat near the window, but no one was seated next to me. I saw a man get in the train and sit in the single seat across from me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that he waa going through the newspaper and throwing whatever sections of the newspaper he didn't want behind him under the seat. It was at this point that I became mesmerized with his actions and began my stare down technique (a little note here, the stare down technique only works if the person receiving the look has any friggin clue your giving it.) When the train got to park street, he neatly folded the pieces of the paper that he didn't throw on the floor and put them in his bag. It was at this point that I could not keep my mouth closed about the fact the he was LITTERING ALL OVER THE PLACE. So, I pointed to the newspaper he had put on the floor and said,

JB: are you going to leave those there?

Litter Man: Yup

JB: you know there are proper places to dispose of your trash?

Litter Man: I usually leave the pieces I don't want on the train in case someone else wants to read them.

JB: you usually leave them on the floor, so that if people want to read them they have to pick them up off the floor, why wouldn't you leave them on the seat?

Litter Man: fine, just because of you I'll take them with me you Self Righteous Bitch!

JB: Good, glad we got that taken care off.

So, that was my commute this morning. And you know what, it made my freakin day. Because of me, that man was embarrassed enough to do the right thing. And I whole heartedly think I am a bitch, I'M A BITCH FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!

Almond Scones...So Damn Good

Just like Britney Spears, this picture does not do this scone justice. Speaking of Britney, what the hell happened to that girl? I remember when I first moved to Boston back in 99' my roommate HL and I would rock out to Britney while clowning around the house, or working on our fitness at the gym. HL even made me a mix CD which included some Brit Brit songs on it, which we would play over and over again. This cd also contains the likes of the Backstreet Boys, Destiny's Child (back when Miss B could share some of the spotlight, but I guess that didn't work out so hot for her, because now Miss Jennifer Hudson and her American Idol third place ass is stealing all of Miss B's thunder around DreamGirls, you go Jennifer) it was also ripe with Eminem, who to this day I still think is a genius. I still listen to that cd and when I do, I always think how great that time of my life was. It's funny, because I'm at a point where I feel like every new year is the best year of my life, it just keeps getting better and better, every year. How amazing is that. How truly fucking amazing.

Well, the wheels have officially fallen off this post. I apologize, where was I, oh, the scones, that's right, the scones. The other day CB bought an almond croissant at the little coffee shop down the street from our house. I had a bite and thought, why have I never made an almond flavored anything? So, here we are, now I have, and I must say, that these were the best scones I have ever made; flavorful, light, sweet, awesome. Try them.

Recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sweet butter
1 Tablespoon almond extract
1/2 cup half & half

Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in butter until coarse; do not over-mix. Add almond extract and mix in half & half. Form a round shape on floured surface with rolling pin with thickness of about 1-1/2 inches. Use cutter to make 8 to 10 scones. Place on a baking sheet, brush with milk, sprinkle sugar, and add sliced almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 to 30 minutes or until golden in color

Rating = So Damn Good

Have you tried...Montasio?

A few weeks ago I was in the Federal Hill area of Providence visiting one of my favorite Italian specialty stores, Venda Ravioli. While there tasting all of the wonderful sampling I decided it was time for another episode of have you tried this cheese featuring one I had never heard of before, MONTASIO. It's a fun cheese to pronounce don't you think, MonTASioooo. Hmmm. ok, I'm very easily amused. On with the program.

Montasio, Italy's oldest table cheese is named after a mountain in the northeast corner of the country, It is a cow's milk cheese that is sold in three distinct ways based on the time it is allowed to age. It can be aged anywhere from 60 days to 10 months, these three phases of aging are referred to as fresh, middle and aged. I purchsed the aged Montasio. If I had purchsed the fresh Montasio it would have been soft and smooth, but because I opted for the aged it was drier and more granular, similar to a very strong parmesan. The fresh cheese is said to be sweet, and as it ages it taked on more of a bite, which I heartly agree with. This cheese for me at least was not one that I would cut up and serve with crackers, it was far too strong. I think that the fresh cheese could be served as a table cheese, but with the more aged cheese, I would most likely only serve it grated over pasta or as an accompaniment to a dish.

Wine Pairing: Sauvingon Blanc

Wild Turkey Bread Pudding

I've been hankering for bread pudding lately. Ever since I visited New Orleans last year I've had a weakness for anything with pecans or bourbon in it; bourbon pecan sweet potato mash, bourbon bread pudding, pecan sandies... the list goes on. I've never cooked or baked with bourbon before, so I started perusing some of the blogs that I read on a regular basis and found this recipe for bread pudding from the Bon Ton Cafe in New Orleans from Elise's blog, Simply Recipes. I was so excited to find this recipe and more excited to make it. I absolutely loved the food when I was there, and I absolutely loved going to all of the fabulous restaurants that line the streets of the French Quarter.
I used her recipe almost to the exact, but I also added a half cup of chopped pecans and reduced the bourbon in the sauce by half. I was really glad that I did because it was super strong.

Bread pudding
1 loaf French bread, cut into 1-inch squares (about 6-7 cups)
1 qt milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup raisins (soaked overnight in 1/4 cup bourbon)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Soak the bread in milk in a large mixing bowl. Crush with hands until well mixed and all the milk is absorbed. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and spices together. Gently stir into the bread mixture. Gently stir the raisins into the mixture.

3. Pour butter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Coat the bottom and the sides of the pan well with the butter. Pour in the bread mix and bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes, until set. The pudding is done when the edges start getting a bit brown and pull away from the edge of the pan. Can also make in individual ramekins.

This is the bread pudding before it goes into the oven to cook.

Serve with bourbon whiskey sauce on the side; pour on to taste. Best fresh and eaten the day it is made. Makes 8-10 servings.

Bourbon Sauce:
1/2 C (2 stick) butter
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 C Kentucky bourbon whiskey

In a saucepan, melt butter; add sugar and egg, whisking to blend well. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Whisk in bourbon to taste. Remove from heat and let cool. Whisk before serving. The sauce should be soft, creamy, and smooth.

The whiskey sauce on the stove top. (above)

Finished (below

This recipe comes in at = So Damn Good

Rosemary, Sea Salt, Pepper Crusted Pork

So, even though we are in the middle of January, my herbs seems to be doing rather well in their little clay pots. One wall of the kitchen is a sliding glass door that leads to the deck. When the sun is shining the kitchen becomes extremely warm for a few hours as the suns rays pour in through and are magnified by the glass. This offers a wonderful area for my plants to thrive; the magnified heat seems to help them stave off the cold that takes over the house after the sun goes down. My rosemary plant seems to be doing the best out of all of the herbs, it just doesn't seem as fickle as the basil or even the oregano, and every time I cut it back it seems to grow in wild directions. It's great. So, for this rub I decided to cut back the rosemary and chop up the fresh leaves, I combined that with sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder and olive oil. I then rubbed it all over the pork loin and let it marinate for about 10 hours. After the ten hours had passed I just placed in a 400 degree oven for an hour. I only wish that his dish had made drippings for pan gravy, because even though the meat was fragrant and flavorful because of the marinating, it did seem a little dry when served alone with starch and veg.

This recipe rates in at = Damn Good