Duck Fat Risotto

For one of our holiday celebrations I made Cassoulet. While that bit of heaven was baking all day long, I skimmed off the extra stock and duck fat and tucked it away into the freezer for something special.

Not that cleaning out the kitchen is special but I just knew that special stock would make a wonderful risotto and it did! I kept it very simple, shallots, garlic, a little Thyme, white wine and the hidden gem. Now, L. claims he hates duck, well, he gobbled this up and was quit surprised to learn it was "duck". Served it with some simple sauteed spinach - lots of olive oil, garlic and Meyer lemon zest and the left over bottle of white Burgundy. For dessert we had some of that left over Bittersweet Chocolate Tart. Amazing what you can come up with, with all the things just laying around the kitchen. Too good of a meal for being a Monday.

If life gives you Lemons ...............

make pie! Jen, from The Canadian Baker, was our hostess this month and she challenged us with making a Lemon Meringue Pie. This was my first time making a Lemon Meringue Pie and I even got L. to help out - we actually had a lot of fun doing it together! We made it for a dinner party we had a couple weekends back and our guests loved it. We loved it so much we made, it again, the next day and then again the following weekend!

We did use our lemon of choice which is the beautiful Meyer. As well I do not own a pie pan so we used a tart pan. The pastry dough was light and flaky and the filling was a beautiful shade of yellow and had just enough pucker! Meringue well you just can not go wrong with any sort of meringue. The first two pies came from the same recipe and unfortunately, once you cut into the pie it was more like floating islands on lemon soup - great flavor though. The second time around, we cut the water down but it was still rather runny. The flavor was so fantastic that it really did not matter to us nor our guests!

Want a taste of the drool fest click the blue link!

Bittersweet ...

bit·ter·sweet (btr-swt) n. 1. A woody vine of the genus Celastrus, especially the North American species C. scandens and the eastern Asian species C. orbiculata, having small, round, yellow-orange fruits that open at maturity to expose red seeds. Also called staff tree. 2. See bittersweet nightshade. 3. A dark to deep reddish orange. adj. 1. Bitter and sweet at the same time: bittersweet chocolate. 2. Producing or expressing a mixture of pain and pleasure: a movie with a bittersweet ending. 3. Dark to deep reddish-orange.

There have been a few episodes the past couple of months that have been "bittersweet" for me. This event came at a perfect time.

As well, I am a chocolate addict. I would eat it everyday of the week if I could. The darker and the deeper the chocolate the better. No semi-sweet, milk chocolate for me!! It is like a bad drug. For this event which was hosted by Apartment Therapy The Kitchen, I choose a bittersweet chocolate tart - I love it because it is incredibly bitter (70% chocolate) and just a little sweet (hardly any sugar). I love to have it drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, or a drizzle of cream, or maybe a ripe red raspberry; but, this time around, the slight bite of the chocolate and the slight sweetness of the crust went incredibly well with a deep dark espresso! Pure sin ..... all things bad turned into one good thing!

Unfortunately, for you the viewers, the photos are terrible. As it was a very last minute decision, I forgot until half way thru the process that I was suppose to take a few photos of the baking process as well a few of the finished process. Because of chilling times, etc.. I missed all the wonderful natural light and had to work with what I had. I can assure you all ... this is a fantastic tart and you should definitely make it when you are feeling the need to be a little bad!

Pasta e Ceci

During the day on Saturday we had a nice break from the rain and cold; but, it came back just in time for dinner. It was a good night for some comfort and a good night to join Meeta over at What's for Lunch Honey and her monthly mingle - comfort food!

As I mentioned earlier in the week we are using up everything in the house - sort of a pre-spring cleaning. So, we are limited as to what we have on hand. I have been dying to make this lovely soup, recipe from one of Jamie Oliver's books, and lucky for us we have everything in the house. As well, it is pure comfort on a cold and rainy night!

Pasta e Ceci is like a peasant dish - simple, hardy, very easy and full of flavor - onions, garlic, a small amount of celery, chickpeas and a little pasta. If you like chickpeas this soup is for you. We added a loaf of our favorite crusty french bread and opened up a bottle of Italian wine to compliment it (ever since we had a FANTASTIC bottle of Italian wine at Delfina, we have been lushing after them). Was a very nice and cozy evening.

Cast Your Vote

Over at The Garden of Eating for COMFORT FOOD! We submitted Lil's Beef Stew - pure comfort for a cold, windy, and rainy night - just pop open a bottle of vino, add some crusty bread or biscuits and you have pure comfort!!!

Whole Wheat Pasta ...

The lovely Andrea is hosting "Grow Your Own" this month, was not sure we could partake as the weather is killing our garden but we found a few survivors out there, so here we go .....

I wanted to go for a sort of "Thai" or "Asian" taste, on the spicy side for tonights dinner. I browned some garlic and Portuguese chili peppers (the only thing still living in our garden) in olive oil until they were lightly crisp and very fragrant. I used whole wheat pasta because I like the nutty flavor, the texture and it is suppose to be better for us. After cooking the pasta (and draining it) I tossed some left over homemade butter into the pot of noodles, threw in some spinach for color and added the browned garlic mixture, sprinkled some Parmesan on top and we were ready! Very delicious for a dish that came from a near empty fridge and pantry!

Favaish

This week is clean up week at our house. Every couple months, I like to go through the pantry (all of one shelf), the fridge and the freezer (not that we really freeze anything but some bacon &/or pancetta, a bottle of gin, some ice trays, random glasses and the occasional food item that makes it there - the D. of Chez does not believe in frozen food) and we use up everything we have. Actually, I go through the entire house - closets, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, etc... and everything that has not been used or thought of in the past few months - GONE! Minimalist. But, we are not here to tell you about your house but rather about what we eat every night for dinner. So, we are back in our kitchen now .... like I said we use up everything we have left. I get very creative and sometimes I come up with some old favorite dish that I kind of forget about or maybe I come up with some new ones that we start using all the time. Tonight it was an old favorite of L.s ... Favaish.

L.'s mother makes favaish and she makes it very good, I will never be able to make it the way Mom does. Mine is probably more noveau but he likes it, too! Unfortunately, the vision I had for it quite did not happen because of the frozen bag of Fava's I used, they ended up being more like mush or split peas - that is why I prefer fresh, but what is a girl suppose to do in the dead of winter! Regardless, when you add a bottle of wine, some crusty french bread, you have a fantastic, flavorful meal!

Apetite Bom!

We both hate leftovers ...................

and we rarely ever have them. But, Lil's Beef Stew just keeps on giving! While it is very delicious and we highly recommend the recipe; we are glad to see it ago on the 3rd night!

Note to selves, cut recipe in half next time.

Dedicated to Tia Anne

I was feeling kind of nostalgic today. On the train, with L. reminising about trips to Paris, riding the Metro, heading back to the apartment with cheese, baguette and wine in hand - toss in a couple pastries, too!

When we finally got home, to our realistic home, it was rainy and drizzly, so we or maybe just I, needed some comfort food. I knew just what to make.

Mile high biscuits, from the Hollyhocks and Radishes cookbook, that my Great Aunt Anne, gave me - it was one of my first cookbooks, loaded with comfort food. The biscuit recipe is definitely the best one I have ever made. It has been awhile since I have opened the pages, but for some reason, thinking about Paris, food, being with the ones you love, she came to mind - maybe because of her sense of adventure and Paris is exactly that for both myself and L.

Regardless of the sentiment behind this meal, it was lovely. L. poured us a glass of Lillet, while I made the dough for the biscuits (keep in mind L. hates when I make biscuits, not because he dislikes them, because he can not just eat one or two - he eats ALL of them) and warmed the stew. We set the table, simply with tea lights in the little glass yogurt jars from Paris and opened a bottle of RN13 Vin de pique-nique and set down for a nice evening!

Hay Hay its Donna Hay # 17

We love Donna Hay, well, at least the photos in her cookbooks and the magazines we buy. They are truly a piece of art to look at, and to drool over. Have yet to try out the recipes.

So, I was pretty excited when I saw this event listed on one of my favorite blogs and fellow Daring Baker, 80 Breakfasts. We were going to some friend's house for a pizza/kid party last Saturday night so this was the perfect opportunity to try out Donna's pizza recipe.

Don't let homemade pizza dough intimidate you. It has to be one of the easiest things to make. I even made some extra for the freezer. In keeping with the theme of the event we made a couple of the Class Tomato pizza as well as a favorite for the kids - pepperoni. We also made a fennel and spicy Italian Sausage, before putting the cornmeal on the stone we mixed some garlic salt into it. This was our favorite!

You should definitely add this to your recipe box as a favorite. The crust was fantastic, crisp and flavorful and not chewy and you can get as creative as you want with toppings! You will be seeing this over at Chez, very often in 2008!

Lil's Beef Stew

The Garden of Eating hosted a challenge this month - comfort food. The beginning of the month I wrote about a chicken cutlet meal we had at our friends L. & P.'s home - the cutlets were outstanding as well as the beef stew she made. We have been talking about it all month and after a very long week and weekend, we decided we needed some comfort. So we picked up the ingredients and slow cooked this fantastic beef stew all afternoon. The beef was incredibly tender, literally melted in your mouth. The stew is made with white wine so it gives it a beautiful color, not typical of your gray colored stews, when you use red wine. The vegetables are cooked just enough to hold their colors with a little crunch to them - perfect! The only addition I did was to throw some brown mushrooms in, that we had in the fridge. We served it with some crusty french baguettes and a bottle of Chateauneuf de Pape. Warm, cozy, bursting with flavor and very comfortable!

Brownie in a bottle ....

okay this is not a meal nor a challenge of any sort, just something we wanted to share because the packaging was so cute and the final product was delicious. Our friend E. gave us brownie mix for the holidays and we had a chance to whip them up for a pizza party we went to on Saturday night. This brownies were bursting with flavors - chocolate, butterscotch, and walnuts. YUMMY!

Thursday Night ...

We had sushi - found a hidden gem, Moshi Moshi.

Cheated tonight

.... too busy to cook. Picked up some Lemon Chicken with Spinach soup (was homemade) at Wholefoods, warmed it up along with a baguette and tossed together a salad .... hmmm, boring; but, good.

Quiet Kitchen

It has been somewhat slow around our place the past few days - lots of meals out at friend's homes to catch up. Had dinner at Farina last night - Boo - should had eaten at Chez Denise et Laudalino!

Saturday Night

we decided to have our friends J. & D. over for a French feast, sort of a delayed ringing in the New Year sort of thing. Was a great evening!

Unfortunately, we started drinking the bubbly and did not get many photos - you will just have to drool over the thought! Started the evening with a bottle of Champagne and pepper & Parmesan gourges. The two go really nicely together - bubbles and pepper that is. Then we moved to a grapefruit and avocado salad with a Dijon dressing. Nice combination, crisp coolness of the avocado and the tang of the grapefruit, followed by the mustard dressing. The main course was a roasted lemon chicken with onions and croutons - all were from the Paris cookbook by Barefoot Contessa, which I highly recommend (easy and good recipes) and some sauteed green beans. Was a fantastic evening of food! Dessert was ....... well, that is a secret! A Daring Baker Secret! You will have to come back in a couple weeks for that and you will NOT be disappointed!

Lazy

...... maybe it was the weather or something, but, we were lazy tonight. L. had left over soup from the other night. I had a hunk of baguette smothered in butter and Roquefort cheese - Divine! The only thing missing was a big glass of earthy red wine!

Ribollita

We got the Jamie Oliver, Jamie's Italy cookbook for Christmas - pretty excited as we watched the filming of the making of the book while it was airing.

Since, it is such a chilly night and since L. really loves Kale, I decided to make the Ribollita recipe from the book. Very easy recipe! Very delicious! The only thing, mine came out to "red", I think because I used crushed tomatoes instead of whole ones. Regardless, the flavor was fantastic!

Nothing too exciting ...

just some left over soup from the other night. Tossed together a salad of baby greens with celery root and baked a batch of biscuits, mainly to warm up the house - it is freezing out! Did I mention, we are trying to lower our cholesterol so we are adding flaxseed to everything!

Okay, time to sit back, drink some tea and listen to L. complain about doing dishes!

Gluttony .....

that is what the past weekend has been all about. Upon arriving back home with a very rainy weekend in store, we decided we should stay as close to home as possible! Every January, we give up alcohol for a month and start eating healthy, again, at least better than we had the past holiday season. This time we decided to take advantage of the terrible rainy weekend and stay in and indulge before the clean living starts up. We definitely fulfilled that sin - lots of good food being cooked, bottles of wine & champagne to be drank, lots of sleep and being lazy in front of a TV (which we never do), some shopping and one incredible dinner out at Delfina.

Tonight we decided to start the clean living with a simple soup - a Provencal vegetable soup with Pistou, served with a crusty loaf of bread and some very creamy blue Roquefort - incredible!!!! Now we are settling in to warm up the evening with a cognac, the last drip of alcohol for the month!