apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Stocked the freezer with marinara sauce and vegetable soup and made cranberry scones for Sunday morning munching!

Chocolate Chip cookies with a big glass of Milk while watching the oscars

oops, i posted this at the end of the last open thread

i took a little inspiration from julie powell's article on Nigel Slater in the times yesterday and did a rosemary, garlic and verjus braised pork loin (i'm in the process of writing it up, with pictures! but it'll have to wait til i get out of work...)
i served it with the potato/pea mash from this month's gourmet which was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. but the recipe was WAY off on the times/amounts, etc
i adapted the recipe to include only goat dairy products which was, imho, an inspired move
the mash was just PHENOMENAL (if a little bizzarly colored!)

ann, I was just at that last thread too
so I'll go ahead and repeat here
that I've left you a link for Zuni porchetta on my name
for next time

I did a test batch of spinach with raisins and pignoli
fantastic
good dinner party variation to get the greens in

I made a realllllly yummy seafood pasta last night, with fresh manilla clams, and (ok, I cheated) the forzen seafood mix from TJ's. But everyhitn else was fresh fresh fresh.
And Whole Foods was selling thornless long-stem artichokes so I steamed one for apps. It was so meaty and tasty! Way better than your standard 'choke.

guido -- i'm so intrigued by the zuni porchetta recipe. do you think it would be drastically different if i roasted the vegetables in a separate pan in some olive oil and herbs or garlic? i love/hate the idea of roasting them in pork fat and as much as i'll love it while i'm eating it, i'll probably hate it afterwards...

Or...do you think that the pork itself is really fatty, so it doesn't even make a difference anyway?

I finally was successful in recreating a salad dressing I fell in love with at a vegetarian restaurant in Austin, Tx (Mothers or something like that).

Cashew Tamari Dressing

1/4 cup Ponzu Soy Sauace
2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar (to taste)
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 tsp sugar
Handful of cashew pieces - crumbled up

Dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce and vinegar. Chop up the cashews into a fine pieces and combine everything with the canola oil. Shake it up.

Mmmmmm.

Guido - glad you liked the spinach with pignoli and raisins.

Jose Andres - the chef at Jaleo - has a new cookbook with this recipe in it. He uses diced apples in the recipe, too.

abby,

the pork doesn't throw off much fat -- pork roasts (or rather, piggies) are just not so fatty these days. Plus you trim the thing (not too much!) before it goes into dry marinade mode.

I use a local farmer's organic shoulder roast, but I think the heirloom guys are actually working hard to put the right kind of (marbled) fat back ON the pig.

I toss the roasting veg in a tiny amount of olive oil, even though I put veg and meat in the same pan. Last time it was beets, brussel sprouts, fennel, sweet and regular potato, garlic and shallots.
Come to think of it, I had too much veg and did a second pan of veg only -- it really didn't have a huge difference in fat content.

And since I'm soooo into the wine pairing thing these days, I'll add that we had a Washington State 2002 Kiona Lemberger, which is a some obscure German red that someone's growing in the Pacific NW. If we had Chateauneuf-de-pape money, we'd go with that. We don't, and were delighted with this stuff from Astor Wines.

OK, question. On Saturday night a couple of friends and I are doing a full-on Spanish dinner for about twenty people. My two friends are handling a massive batch of paella: lengthy, complicated, and expensive - and delicious! - so I am taking care of pretty much everything else. So, tapas, side dishes, and dessert. We are shooting for authentic here, and being what I am I don't want to do anything too obvious. (Ergo, flan is not an option.)

I will do a big green salad with dinner - that's really all paella needs. Another friend is bringing homemade bread and sangria. (Must have lots of sangria! :-) For tapas, a tortilla (omelet with potatoes and onions), fried almonds, marinated olives, maybe chimichurri? Manchego and quince is rather predictable, but good. Any ideas?

And dessert is where I really want to have fun, and could use a little more help. I have been thinking about an eggy cake with oranges in wine, and a chocolate mousse with a burnt sugar topping. Or maybe rice pudding and flourless orange cake? Or maybe fresh-fried Spanish doughnuts? I want to do it up, and do it authentically, but I haven't been to Spain and don't know the cuisine well. Any tips would be great!

faith
i can't bake to save my life, in fact, i'm not really all that into dessert as a general rule, but, there is a tapas joint near my apt, that used to serve this dessert called "cheese flan"
dear god, it was nirvana
it was basically some sort of flan, made with a cheese much like ricotta, and then served with passion fruit sauce
so so so so so so good
i have no idea if its authentic, but, if you like cheese (and, really, who doesn't it?) this might be the dessert for you!

Spain . . . almond cakes?

hmm. ricotta flan sounds excellent. And it does seem that all Spanish desserts sneak almonds in somewhere. Well, we'll see! I'll post pictures after the weekend.