Febgiving was created as a brilliant excuse to gather friends mid-winter (and to gorge ourselves mercilessly on Thanksgiving tradition favorites). Jim and Becca hosted this year’s Febgiving USA 2010 this past weekend, which Kyle and I were excited to attend. A great gathering and some fantastic food!
More photos and info about Febgiving here.
The flavors were fantastic – each dish complemented the others yet was robust on its own. My favorite was the squash and carrot stew, but the lamb tagine was so tender that it’s hard not to mention it as well. As I can’t decide which recipe I liked best to share, I decided to go ahead and share them all.
Dolomint Cocktail
Cocktails of the World
30 ml Gin
30 ml Galliano®
30 ml Lime Juice
Soda Water
Mint Leaf
Ice Cubes
Pour gin, Galliano and lime juice over ice into a highball glass. Complete with soda water and rub mint on the edge of the glass. Garnish with a mint spring and serve.
*Amazing cocktail that will definitely be made again in the summer!
Moroccan Winter Squash and Carrot Stew
Bon Appetit, January 2006
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pinch of saffron
1 cup water
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups 1-inch cubes peeled butternut squash (from 1 1/2-pound squash)
2 cups 3/4-inch cubes peeled carrots
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint, divided
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; stir 1 minute. Mix in paprika and next 8 ingredients. Add 1 cup water, tomatoes, and lemon juice. Bring to boil. Add squash and carrots. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.) Rewarm stew. Stir in half of cilantro and half of mint. Spoon into serving dish and sprinkle remaining herbs over.
Quinoa
Bon Appetit, January 2006
1 cup quinoa
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped peeled carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups water
Rinse quinoa; drain. Melt butter with oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and carrot. Cover; cook until vegetables begin to brown, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, salt, and turmeric; sauté 1 minute. Add quinoa; stir 1 minute. Add 2 cups water. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; simmer until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes.
Lamb Tagine with Figs and Walnuts
Gourmet, Adventures with Ruth (Morocco)
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 1/2 lb boneless lamb shoulder cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium red onions, sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
12 oz dried figs (about 1 1/2 cups, preferably Calimyrna), hard ends discarded
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup walnut halves
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 small tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
Lightly toast saffron in a dry small heavy skillet over moderately low heat, shaking skillet, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer saffron to a small dish, let cool, then crumble with fingers.
In a 12-inch tagine, or 3-qt shallow covered casserole, combine lamb, with oil, onions, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon sticks, 2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 tsp pepper, and reserved saffron, tossing to combine. Add 2 cups water to tagine and simmer, covered, 1 hour. Add figs and honey to tagine and simmer, covered, 30 minutes longer, checking occasionally toward end of cooking time to be sure tagine is not dry, adding more water if necessary to keep meat from burning and sticking to pot. Simmer tagine until lamb is very tender and most of liquid has evaporated.
While tagine is simmering, toast walnuts in butter in a small skillet, over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until a shade darker, then set aside.
To serve, arrange tomato slices over lamb and top each with a fig. Sprinkle with walnuts and chopped cilantro.
Moroccan Chicken Brochette
adapted from About.com: Moroccan Food
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into 3/4″ cubes
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Combine all ingredients except the chicken. Add the chicken, and mix well to fully coat the meat. Cover with plastic, and leave the chicken to marinate for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Transfer the chicken to skewers and grill or broil about 4 or 5 minutes on each side, or until the meat is done. Serve immediately.
Moroccan Stone Fruit Soup
adapted from cuisine.com.au
2 peaches or nectarines
4 apricots
4 red plums
100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp orange flower water or rosewater
1 tbsp Cointreau or Grand Marnier
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp sultanas (golden raisins will substitute for this)
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
1 tbsp flaked almonds
1 tbsp small mint leaves
Original Recipe: Slice the fruits in half, remove the stones and cut into segments. Place in a bowl. Combine the orange juice, orange flower water, Cointreau, honey, sultanas and cinnamon sticks in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to melt the honey.
Pour the syrup over the fruit and leave for 10 mins for the fruit to absorb the flavours. Pile the fruits in four shallow bowls and spoon on the syrup. Add half a cinnamon stick to each bowl. Toast the almond flakes in a dry frypan until golden and scatter on top, with a few mint leaves.
Adaptation: As stone fruit is not in season anywhere when we had our cooking club, we adapted with the following. We made the sauce as directed, then served with thawed, frozen peaches and a scoop of cinnamon ice cream (vanilla ice cream would be great too).
*The greens was just kale sauteed with garlic and olive oil. I don’t know how Moroccan it is, but I just felt like we needed something green on the plate.
After grabbing a drink at Prohibition, we headed to Sea Change for a late dinner reservation to ring in the New Year. To start, we ordered from the raw bar – amazing smoked salmon and oysters – and then moved on to the five course tasting menu which featured candied tuna, langostine ravioli, ocean trout, pork cheek and pine nut ice cream for dessert.
What would people think? Would they stare at me? What do I do? What do I look at?
But, now…I’m over it.
I’ve come to think of this recently, as Kyle and I were eating out a week or so ago, when a solo diner was seated just a couple tables away. This normally wouldn’t catch my attention, except that this particular diner was clearly uncomfortable eating alone.
How do I know?
He talked on his cell phone the entire time. Okay, I get it if you enter the restaurant and you happen to be finishing a call. Actually, no, that’s rude and I don’t understand that either. But let’s say I did. This is a nice restaurant (cloth napkins…you know what I mean) – you just don’t do that.
His talking on the phone was so awkward that the server actually avoided his table for awhile, until it reached to a ridiculous level of avoidance. At that point, she apprehensively approached him to take his order. And what did he do?
He held the phone a couple inches from his ear while he ordered! He then continued talking once she left.
Um, Sir, you might rethink your next solo dining trip and just get take-out.
The State Fair is long gone, but I’m just now getting caught up on a few sets of photos.
Five days at the fair allowed me to capture many fair moments – below is a series of my favorites.
It was tough…but we managed through it – shot photos of all the new foods at the fair for Metromix. A big thanks to Sarah for taking on this whirlwind tour of the fair with me! Check out the rest of the photos here.
I have plans to be back at the fair a few more times over the next week, so I’ll share as I go along. So far, my favorites are the Sunnies in a Boat and the Krumkake. Of course, Summit on a Stick was also a welcome afternoon treat.
While I like to have a good time, I have to admit that bachelorette parties get a little much for me nowadays. So when I got the invite for a friend’s bachelorette party at Spill the Wine for a five-course dinner with wine pairings, I was ecstatic! Food, wine, friends…perfect!
The group of fifteen of us gathered there a few Saturdays ago, seated on the wine bar side as the restaurant was full with a wedding reception. *What a great idea for a wedding reception location!* Individual menus printed with both the courses and the wines sat waiting for us, which of course I loved!
The first course was a salad with radishes and a mango vinaigrette paired with a Radcliffe sauvignon blanc. The salad was good, perhaps a little too much vinaigrette on mine, but it paired well with the light sauvignon blanc. *You may notice the hefty wine pours from the previous picture…I wasn’t complaining!
The next course was a beautiful piece of salmon (a generous portion in my opinion) with warm peaches and balsamic vinegar. I loved the salmon, but wasn’t crazy about the Valley of the Moon chardonnay it was paired with – it had absolutely no flavor.
The third course was my favorite. Perhaps this was because it was comfort food and I had had two glasses of wine by this time, but I loved the wild mushroom croquette with cream sauce. The table was buzzing about how good this dish was, which I equated to a scoop of hot dish with a lightly crisp exterior. Yum! And the wine – Luzon monastrell/syrah was a very nice pairing.
Unfortunately the next course, grilled beef tenderloin kabobs with red onion and peppers, was a flop. Overcooked, dry and absolutely no seasoning sums up this course. The Root 1 cabernet sauvignon was good, but not good enough to save the dish.
Last, but definitely not least, we were served dessert. Vanilla bean ice cream with a triple berry coulis (the menu only listed raspberry so the additional berries were a yummy bonus)! Paired with a sweet dessert wine, I was in heaven. There is something so simple and tasty about ice cream and berries.
I’ve always really liked Spill the Wine. They have a nice wine menu and good wine specials – $15 bottles of wine during happy hour and 1/2 priced bottles on Mondays. The food is good – the salads are consistently great.
And our wine dinner?
Overall it was good. It had its highs and it had its lows. However, for the bargain price of $35 for five-courses plus wine, I thought it was a great deal and a fantastic idea for a bachelorette party.
I can’t believe so much time has passed since my last post. Work has been busy (yay!) and I also did a little traveling back home and to Chicago. I’m still getting caught up on some deadlines, so I won’t do a full post today. Instead, I’ll share a few of my favorite photos from a “recent” trip to Florida. (*Recent was in April – personal photos just don’t get turned around as quickly these days.)
This was a birthday getaway for me and my friend Kate – the Big 30 – so we headed to Key West and Miami with our husbands to celebrate. Photos are from both places – the food photos are from a yummy little lunch spot located in a strip mall in Miami – Jimmy’z Kitchen. More photos are in my Flickr photo stream (linked to the right).
My weekends have always been busy. With my new career change, however, I’ve found myself even busier…sometimes when I step back from it all, I can only say “Wow!” But I love the change and look forward to weekends more than ever. This weekend was no exception. It started off with a visit to the new North Minneapolis bar/restaurant – Victory 44 – open just since May 1st. For photos and more info, check out my write-up on Metromix.
Saturday morning, we headed down to the Mill City Farmers Market. Last weekend was opening weekend, but I was out of town so I missed it. Some of the same vendors from last year were there and some new ones as well – should be a good summer! I’m super excited that Bread Coffee and Cake is selling bread there – remember the chorizo bread? Yum! We picked up some jam from Lucille’s Kitchen Garden and some organic lilacs from Shining Hills Farms in Wisconsin. They really brighten up my kitchen!
After the market, I headed out for a day of shopping and cooking. Check out Heavy Table tomorrow (Tuesday the 19th) to see what kind of cooking Lori and I were up to. As soon as I returned home, it was time to prepare our dishes for our Cooking Club meal. More on the dishes and meal in another post. But, as always, Cooking Club was a blast!
Sunday morning we got up and decided to make crepes (the leftover batter was from our French cooking theme the night before…) I had a bunch of rhubarb as well, so made some rhubarb syrup to pair with them, topped with candied pecans and powdered sugar. The crepes were good – tart and sweet – but something was missing. I think they lacked a dollop of whipped cream on top. Next time…
That afternoon, after running errands, we headed to Ed and Carly’s to start planning for our vegetable garden. I don’t have a spot to garden (only potted herbs for me), so we decided we would give it a go at their house. Between the garden and the CSA that starts in June, I think we’ll have plenty of veggies this summer! We had planned to rent a tiller and get all the prep done, but unfortunately the rental shop was closed. We were forced to sit back, have a beer (or two or three) and enjoy the beautiful day. Ah, shucks!
Carly then humored us and made Mexican food for dinner – fajitas! She served them with a black bean salsa over spinach leaves. Fresh, fantastic and I didn’t have to cook – the weekend couldn’t have had a better ending!
