Monday Sept 4. Made That Chicken and those potatoes and stuffed tomatoes. Few notes for next time.

• It was a large chicken and the 5 potatoes were large too. Made for too much potato and some steaming rather than roasting and browning. Try 4 large or 5 small potatoes.
• Didn't rest the chicken long enough at the end.
• Tried baking the tomatoes in the same oven as the chicken, but they came out over cooked and mushy. Maybe it was the higher temp (500F) or the that the tray was too low in the oven but don't try that again.

Sunday Aug 26, 2006 - Made Alton Brown's braised baby-back ribs for the first time. Basically worked well and was liked by all. A few notes for next time:

• Even tho the recipe suggests that the rub is enough for several batches of ribs, I used it all on one batch. It seemed like the right amount in the end result.
• During the dry rub marinating, the aluminum foil wrapper got punctured so that the braising liquid all ran out when poured in so I did a second layer of wrapper but it would probably be better to save the foil wrapping until just before adding the braising liquid.
• The braising liquid takes a while to get down to a glaze. Maybe > 15 minutes. So don't start broiling the ribs too soon after starting the boiling down.

Also made breadcrumb-stuff tomatoes from our home grown tomatoes. Used a combination of recipe ideas from Cook's Illustrated Perfect Vegetables and from Julia Child's The Way to Cook:

Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze and shake out the seeds and juice. Salt cut surface liberally and set face down on paper towels for at least 20 minutes.

Made stuffing from

2 C fresh bread crumbs (from Acme batard)
about 20 leaves fresh basil - julienned
2 cloves garlic finely minced
1/2 C freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
4 oz fresh goat cheese, crumbled
salt, pepper, olive oil
12 kalamata olives, pitted and minced
-- mix them all together (leave the olives out for Phil)

Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the tomatoes on the sheet and mound the filling on them. Bake 15-20 minutes. Brown under the broiler at the end if not brown enough rather than over cooking the tomatoes.

On Saturday Aug 18, made

• Chicken Saltimboca
• Potato Gnocchi baked in cream
• Fresh tomato and mozzarella salad with croutons

Used 0.5lb very thinly sliced proscuitto di parma as the filling for 6 large chicken breasts. I thought the filling was a little weak in this case probably should use more proscuitto and get it cut thicker.

For the gnocchi used 4 potatoes, 2 yolks and 1.5 whites, went very light on the flour so the raw gnocchi were at the very soft end of the spectrum. Instead of cooking them all in one batch, however, I cooked them in three batches letting the water come back up to a boil in between. They firmed up nicely instead of melting and came out wonderfully light.

Salad was our home-grown tomatoes, tiny perlini mozzarella balls, croutons maded with an Acme baguette with olive oil and almost no dressing (basamic/olive oil dressing). The tomatoes are really great at the moment.

Made Swik and Swik Chili yesterday Aug 13. Went the smoothest so far in timing by starting shopping at 1 pm and taking a break about 5 pm.

1. Chili - used two 2.5 lbs of tri-tip which came out just a little low in the amount of left-overs. Stayed restrained on the salt which was good. Added a little lime juice at the end and could have added a little more.
2. Beans. Made a double batch (2 lbs) which looks like a little too much leftovers. Also a little low on bacon flavor. Try 1.5 lbs next time.
3. Red Rice. Used JJ&F "aromatic" brown rice. Was a little under done. Needs to go about an hour in the oven.

Dinner Wednesday July 19, 2006

Thai Green Curry Chicken with bok choi, shitake mushrooms and red bell peppers. For next time could use more sauce (more coconut milk), could be a little hotter and a little more fish sauce. (First time dish).

Also made Chinese Asparagus, Corn and Crab soup for the first time. Might try this again with a combination of shrimp and country ham.