Project Food Blog: Challenge #3

Hot diggity!  I never thought I would even make it past Challenge #1, and here I am, at Challenge #3!  All thanks go out to you guys!  Without your votes, I wouldn't be here, and I GREATLY GREATLY appreciate the love!

Challenge #3 is as follows:

"You'll be asked to channel new and exotic flavors for a luxurious dinner party menu. Voters will pick which feast they'd like to RSVP to." 

One thing I love about cooking, is the end result of feeding people.  So naturally, I love to have people come over and eat!  And of course, my co-workers, jumped right on the bandwagon to come on over!

I blogged earlier this week that my favorite season was now upon us - the fall!  And so it's truly the fall season that inspired this menu.  I wanted to bring out something that my guests would enjoy, and would be new to them.  Turns out, 3 of my guests had NEVER had duck before, so that just made this main course all the more perfect!

 

The first course was just a group appetizer:  Carmelized Onion Dip w/ House Made Pita Chips.  I love the simplicity of this and it allowed for the guests to "share" and converse with eachother before the other courses rolled out.

Second course was a simple salad of Arugula, Baby Greens, and Watercress.  Topped with freshly sliced strawberries, goat cheese, and a raspberry vinaigrette.  It was a nice refreshing salad that brightened up the palette and had a great depth of flavor. 

Main course was the entree of Roasted Duck Breasts with a Pomegranate-Chile sauce.  Served with a brown rice pilaf that included golden raisins, dried apricots, and walnuts.  There was also a side of sauteed swiss chard.  The "Duck Virgins" said that they really enjoyed their first experience with duck and one of them even said that duck may be their new favorite!  Score!

 

The fourth and final course was the dessert:  Pumpkin Cheesecake w/ Caramel Bourbon Sauce & freshly made Whipped Cream.  This was a perfect night cap to end the dinner.  The cheesecake was thin and light, with an Oreo crust that matched perfectly with the pumpkin cheesecake layer.

At the end of the dinner, I asked everyone what their favorite course of the meal was, and it was a unanimous vote that the Duck definitely reigned supreme.  I'm glad, because personally, it was my favorite as well!

I want to thank my awesome sister, Frances, for decorating our back deck, also!  She did such a great job and really made it look elegant and classy!  My guests were awesome and at the end of the day, all you need are great friends and great food to have an amazing time!

 If you guys dug the menu and found yourself drooling the whole time, please please please, don't hesitate to vote for my entry in Challenge #3 of Project Food Blog (you can either click the link or check out the right sidebar to vote!)!  And thank you thank you SOOOO much for getting me this far!  You guys are awesome!

Eggplant Dip

Well... I think Karma has finally come and bitten me in the ass.  Two of my very favorite things are now broken. #1... Andy.  We were playing a slightly competitive game of tennis on Monday afternoon, and he went to charge the ball and ended up smack dab on the pavement instead.  He had reconstructive surgery on his ACL a few years ago and he thinks he may have just jarred something loose or whathaveyou.  But he's looked like a poor puppy dog ever since.  He's on crutches and everything.  However, today he did say that it was starting to feel better, although he's still going to gingerly nurse it.  Crossing my fingers he gets better soon, because honestly, I hate walking the dogs and doing more chores than I have to.  (I'll do them if I have to, but seriously, Andy babies me too much so I'm used to living a cushier life, hehe).

And #2... probably more heartbreaking than #1, although it's a pretty close call... my camera lense.  Yup, I went a whole year without dropping my camera, losing it, having a dog eat it, etc... But yesterday, of all days... Andy came home and set his crutches down on the computer desk, they slid, and knocked into my camera, that was on it's tripod, and the lense went face first into the wooden floor.  While nothing shattered, something is essentially jarred loose and my lense will not function.  (insert VERY sad face here).  And no, I'm not mad at Andy.  Like I said, he's a cripple, and it wasn't intentional, and I partly blame myself.  Mainly because the camera was set up on the LEFT side of the computer, where it NEVER is.  And it's usually sitting on the RIGHT side of the computer, and if it had been there, we wouldn't be having this sad conversation.  So no one truly is to blame, and my heart breaks mainly because Andy felt like a pile of crap after he did it, but I can't be mad... because honestly... it gave me an excuse to order a macro lense.  Which I should receive on Friday... so all is well.

But anyway, on a normal Wednesday, I would have a lovely photo of the array of goodies we received in our CSA, but no, blame Andy for a pictureless CSA today.  (Hehe... just kidding Andy... I love you!)

But what we did end up getting in our CSA is exciting, so just let your imagination make a picture for you:

- 2 lbs. potatoes
- 2 lbs. pears
- 2 lbs. black apples (more black apples, yay!)
- 3 sweet dumpling squashes
- 2 delicata squashes
- 1/2 lb. okra

So any ideas of what to do with this bounty?  Let me hear it!

Oh, and I suppose you guys want a recipe!  Eggplant is one of those things... you either love it or you hate it... or you just don't understand it.  I fall in to the latter category.  The only thing I know how to use eggplant in is eggplant parmesan.  But there's only so much eggplant parmesan one can have before getting bored.  So this dip, which can be eaten with tortilla, pita, whatever kinda chips you want!  It's tasty and refreshing, and definitely a different way of using up that eggplant!

Ingredients:

1 small eggplant
3 garlic cloves (still in skins, if possible)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
juice from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Wrap the eggplant in aluminum foil.  Set the eggplant and garlic cloves on a baking sheet and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until eggplant and garlic cloves have softened.  The garlic may be done before the eggplant, so just take it out when you see fit.

Let eggplant cool for just a moment, or until you can safely touch it.  Carefully peel off skin and add eggplant to a medium bowl.  Push out garlic from skins and add to bowl as well.

Mix in salt, pepper, olive oil, sesame seeds, and lemon juice.  Using a potato masher, mash ingredients together until well combined.  If you like your dip a bit smoother, you can even use an immersion blender instead of a potato masher.  But me, I like the texture of having a few chunks in the dip, so I stuck with the masher.

Serve with your choice of chips and enjoy!

Andy isn't one to like eggplant, but he said this dip was pretty solid!  Seriously, if I hadn't made this myself,  I don't think I would have known it was even eggplant dip!  So if you're looking for something different to munch on or make use of your eggplants, this might be a winner for you!

Pan Seared Salmon With French Green Lentils

How was everyone's weekend? Our weekend was pretty eventful, despite the heat. We went to one of our favorite Cuban restaurants, Havana Rumba. Sad to say, we didn't have a very pleasant experience. It's always busy, so we expected a wait. So we waited... and waited... and finally, after seeing couples and groups have their buzzer go off before us, when they came well after us... Andy decided to check on the status of when we would get seated. Come to find out, we were mistakenly skipped. (insert big sigh here)... So they seat us right away. Well, then we order and Andy always gets the "Vaca Fritas"... everyone knows what vaca fritas are right? Well, it's shredded beef that's flash fried with onions and peppers. What comes to the table? A marinated steak. NOT vaca fritas. Does Andy send it back? No, because we weren't about to cause a scene. We're not THOSE people. But sorry Havana Rumba... we probably won't be visiting again for quite some time.

Has anyone ever had any experiences like that? You've ALWAYS had consistent service at a place, and loved everything about them, until one night of service and/or food just ruins it all? It's just a bummer, that's all. We've been on a string of Friday nights where we've gone to some of our favorite places and they've just failed to deliver. Or maybe our palates have just grown too snobby to like what we once did? We're the ones that have changed, not the restaurants. Maybe? For right now, I'll leave that decision at a draw. It could be a little bit of both.

Now on to today's recipe, which is so simple, yet so flavorful. And yes, this was my first time ever cooking with lentils. I can't believe I've never used them before!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Korean American Mommy's Blog

1 cup French green lentils
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for rubbing salmon
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts only, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 8 oz. salmon fillets, skin on

In a medium heat proof bowl, add the lentils and cover with boiling water. Let sit for about 15-20 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

In a large skillet, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add onions, leeks, thyme, salt, and pepper. Saute for about 10 minutes, or until onions start to soften.

Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute or two. Add celery, carrots, chicken stock, lentils, and tomato paste. Stir until tomato paste is well incorporated and cover. Stirring occasionally, simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Slowly stir in the vinegar until you reach the desired taste. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Heat a large oven-proof skillet over high heat. Rub both sides of salmon fillet with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If you want a crispier skin of the salmon, make about 2-3 diagonal scores on the skin before you add it to skillet. This will create less surface area to heat and allow for the skin to crisp up faster.

Place salmon fillets, skin side down, in the skillet and cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until skin is browned. Carefully flip each fillet over and transfer skillet to oven for about 5 minutes, or until pink throughout. (I'd never cooked salmon this way either, I usually just use that method for steaks, but was pleasantly surprised that the salmon came out PERFECT doing this)

Serve the salmon over a mound of the lentil mixture and dig in!

I definitely loved this recipe. It came together in no time, and was definitely light and filling. Enjoy!

Spinach Pesto Pasta

Talk about easy. This was incredibly tasty and the difficulty level was -3. My dogs could even probably make this. It whips up in a matter of minutes, basically just the amount of time it takes your pasta to cook! And I've been working with the white balance measurements on my camera, and I think my pictures are steadily improving, right? Right.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1-3 cloves garlic
1 & 1/2 cups fresh spinach
1/4 cup fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1/4 t0 1/2 cup olive oil
1 box spaghetti/fettuccine noodles

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add a tablespoon or so of salt. Then cook noodles until al dente, 6-8 minutes.

While noodles are cooking, combine remaining ingredients in food processor. You may have to do the spinach in batches because it's so bulky at first. I'd save the olive oil for last too because you don't want too much olive oil, just enough to get a good consistency out of the rest of the ingredients. Blend until you reach that desired texture.

Drain noodles and return to pot. Mix in pesto or serve pesto on top of noodles. I chose to mix it in because you get those beautifully colored noodles! I served it with some toasted french loaf that I rubbed some fresh garlic on. Yummy! Enjoy!

Homemade Hot Pockets

All I have to say is 2 sticks of butter. Paula Dean would love this recipe just based on that. This was pretty tasty, and definitely more rewarding than the $2 things you get wrapped in plastic in your grocery's freezer aisle. Pictures were kinda of blah, but taste was great. Dough and recipe was inspired by these little guys at Eat My Cake Now. While pufflets are cute, I've always gone by the slogan, go big or go home, so that's exactly what I did.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 & 2/3 cups flour

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

3/4 cup cottage cheese - yeah, i'm kind of grossed out by cottage cheese by itself, but in this, you couldn't really tell it was in there, so i survived.

This is basically for the dough. You can really stuff these babies with whatever you want, I opted for the ham, turkey, and cheddar cheese. Yum.

In a medium bowl, beat your butter and cottage cheese. Heart attack in a bowl, right? Right. Paula Dean is still alive, so this should be no worries.

In another medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and parmesan cheese.

Add the flour mixture, in batches, to butter and cottage cheese mixture. You'll form a sticky ball of goodness. Split the ball in two, flatten both halves into a square-like shape, and cover in plastic wrap. Throw those suckers in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

When the squares are nice and cold and somewhat hard, take them out of the fridge. Roll out the dough in between two pieces of plastic wrap. Cut dough in half again, and place fillings on one side of dough. Fold over and seal edges with a little bit of cold water.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake these babies for about 30 minutes, depending on how big you make them. They'll have a nice golden brown crust, and a pretty hot juicy center.

For being this easy, I don't know why I haven't tried making my own hot pockets before! Enjoy!