Still on my Mexican kick, I made Pollo en Salsa de Fresadilla Y Chipotle from Diana Kennedy's cookbook. Fan-fucking-tastic. Just with whatever leftover corn and flour tortillas I had in the house. Dinner for 2 total+lunch tomorrow for 2....7$ and I that's because I had to buy Mexican bay leafs and a bunch of extra garlic.

Tomatillos? 2lbs for 99cents and I needed only 1.5lbs.

Limes? 10cents at the Bravo Supermarket.

Chicken? 3.5lbs? 3.50.

I swear, next week, I'll attempt my own tortillas.

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Alright, I'm obsessed with Mexican food/cooking. I'm not good at it...yet, but damnit I'm trying. I think I like it because I like the Mexican grocers in town.

I wanted something simple/basic to make last night so whipped up Diana Kennedy's recipe for simple Mexican Rice. Arroz a la Mexicana. Threw some left over grilled chicken in there too. Came out awesome. Could have maybe used some more tomato flavor, but I followed the recipe, and used fresh tomato over a can, and maybe the tomatoes just weren't the best.

She sure does use a blender a lot in her recipes...I can't imagine this is really that traditional? maybe I'm wrong. Either way it worked out.

Sorry for the bad cell phone picture.



Tonight, some chicken in a salsa of Tomatillos and Chipotle.

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Risotto is usually pretty heavy...but I craved it last week and whipped up a modified recipe I found on the web (I'll find it again, and post a link, I promise) made with summer squash, some fava beans, and fresh ricotta topped with some basil from the garden (by garden, I mean the pot of basil I try to prevent the neighborhood cat from pissing on!) It wasn't much less "heavier" but....it was my justification from gorging on it in the summer!

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Dipping my toe into wanting to learn Mexican a little more, I went to the bookstore and stole a few recipes...made Salpicon De Res from The Art of Mexican Cooking tonight.

came out good.






I'm not making my own tortillas yet....




....but that's just because I haven't picked up a press. ;)

Been really interested in Mexican cooking lately...if you follow my blog you might remember my Caldo de Pollo post.

I have some great Mexican markets near me...should be fun.

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From THIS recipe....and they were great.

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house was too clean today, so rather than mess it up so soon, decided to cook outside.

Grilled up the chicken sausage, threw some rough chopped peppers in a pan (1 yellow, 1 orange, 1 jalapeno) with some evoo and 2 cloves of garlic just smushed for flavor. Cooked on high for a few minutes, then threw in some Sherry wine and cooked on medium low for about 7 minutes, salt pepper.... while the bread toasted on the grill. Comfort food perfect in under 20 minutes.







casings were PERFECT, perfect snap. I was a little nervous as I hear some horror stories about chewy, nasty casings. Thanks to someone on a message board I frequent for the suggestion of airing them dry after stuffing.

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Made sausages for the first time tonight, so just snacked on a bunch of "test patties"

made chicken and sun dried tomato and then hot italian

came out well for my first time.












was pretty proud of myself....no tears or nothing.

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Had one of those nights....went for a run, came home and dinner was spot on and super simple. Preheated the grill to incinerate, which on my propane grill isn't that high (about 700) unfortunately, I'm way too lazy to charcoal it for a Tuesday night. Aside from sourcing the morel mushrooms...(which I got at Whole Foods in Princeton for 39.99/lb....5 bucks worth was more than enough for a cup of risotto/4 servings)

Morel mushroom risotto




Marinated some lamb T-bones in red wine (shiraz)




served the rest with dinner

Grilled up some asparagus and topped with an egg.






perfect.

Such a simple quick dinner, and so damn good. Only prep in this dinner is dicing a shallot and rinsing some mushrooms for risotto really.

sneak preview for tomorrow...

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baked some babka coffee can style for the family for easter last night till about 1:30...yeah, my family requests the sprinkles...heh.



woke up, did all the "first nice day of spring" yard work and cleaning out of the garage....for about 7 hours.


backyard is grass looking good so far...




Then went grocery shopping, then...for 6.25 mile run.

tonight, experimented with the KA meat grinder and some chuck...came out good for a first time. Some margaritas. Ended up using some Patron silver I had leftover as I want it out of my cabinet already. Didn't wanna ruin the good stuff. Just didn't feel right...

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I think maybe a little too fatty?





and a not-as-good-as-daniels money shot.

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So, my birthday is never that big a deal. Never used to be...until I met Laurie, and she decided it was. last year she surprised me with a trip to Rhode Island, this year, a spectacular dinner/evening.

A rundown of my evening.
Came home, went for a run, showered...
...came out to this waiting next to the recliner with my favorite bumming around shorts.

Lemme see if I get this right....
Goat cheese herb spread with some white wine drizzled with olive oil. Bruschetta of shitake mushrooms, some scallions and some mint with some parmigiano-reggiano. And a Negroni cocktail. Just in time to watch my guilty pleasure....TMZ.




After TMZ and a glass of white wine, I walked into the kitchen to find this...

Farfalle with hot italian sausage, roasted red peppers, and Kalamata olives, bread, and a bottle of Montepulciano.





and....presents!


Got a food grinder for my mixer (be ready for the best burgers an sausages ever)


some much needed slippers


So I lounged around in my slippers for a while and then came dessert...

Vanilla bean panacotta with raspberry coulis. Was awesome.


The whole dinner was most excellent. Lauries a damn good cook when I'm not over her shoulders telling her she's doing it all wrong! Doh!

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