Ahira's Hangar

A little brisk for Gator Town this morning; we're currently at 51°F with the windows wide open.
Today I'll use all of the poultry bones I've been saving for several months, and make a 20 quart stock pot full of stock.
Dinner will then be matzah ball soup with egg noodles. yummy...

The highlight of tonight's Chr-stmas feast will be the standing rib roast which has been dry aging since Sunday. It is looking nicely aged. I'll probably lose close to a half a pound of fat and outer meat when I trim the excessively dry bits off before roasting, but we bought to compensate for that.

Yorkshire Pudding batter is combined and resting until being poured in to the heated cast iron skillet while the roast rests later this afternoon. Potatoes and garlic will be peeled later and made in to mash, and the frozen Birds Eye green peas will be heated through, served in a light butter and dill sauce. I'll also make Cabernet Au Jus and horsey sauce from grated white horseradish, sour cream and a shot of worcestershire sauce.

A tossed salad of frisee, grape tomatoes, craisins, cucumber, carrot, celery, green pepper and chevre, dressed with extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamico, fresh cracked mixed pepper and a sprinkling of kosher sea salt flakes.

Egg nog with 12 year old Appleton Estates to close the night.

We have about two pounds of rib roast left, and smaller servings of the peas, mashed potatoes, and Yorkshire Pudding. Beorn left to spend more time with his grandfather until Wednesday night, so Hyperception and I will finish off the sides on our own. I'm eating what is left of the salad for lunch.

This morning I went out and picked up a selection of mixed wild mushrooms: crimini, shitaki, and oyster, as well as a pound of white button mushrooms. I'll season up a pound of the planned over roast and brown the seasoning, then make it even more tender by simmering it for stroganoff. The recipe I have calls for 3/4 cup of beef stock, but I have some cabernet au jus left which I will begin with and then add beef stock to.

So dinner tonight for Hyperception and me will be rib roast stroganoff with wild mushrooms served over egg noodles, mashed potatoes or Yorkshire Pudding and green peas. The rest of the roast will be frozen until next week. Beorn was not happy that I was making stroganoff while he was away.

That's my boy...

I slept until 9:30 this morning, so I jumped up, peeled and sliced the potatoes and carrots, layered them in the crockpot with half a head of peeled garlic cloves. On top of that I placed half a frozen bone-in turkey breast, from one of the two 59¢/lb. turkeys I had cut in to parts on Boxing Day.

I combined a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup with 1/4 cup of dry sherry and an envelope of onion soup mix, then spread that on top of the turkey. Covered it at 10:00 am and let it cook on Low while I checked out the clearance at Dillard's, Target and Wal-mart.

At 6:00 pm I scraped the soup off of the top of the turkey breast into the juices the turkey generated, then placed the turkey on a broiler pan. Put it under the broiler for seven minutes, rotating a quarter turn once, to brown the skin.

In the meantime, I removed the potatoes and carrots to a warmed bowl and dotted with butter and dill weed while turning the crockpot to high to heat the juices. By this time, I took the turkey out of the oven to rest for a few minutes.

I added about seven sliced fresh mushrooms to the juices in the crockpot, then used a ziplock bag to combine another quarter cup of dry sherry and a couple of heaping teaspoons of flour. Whisked that in to the simmering juices, and seasoned with some granulated garlic and dill weed. Sliced the turkey breast, and put the platter of meat, the bowl of potatoes and carrots, and the boat of gravy on the table.

Dinner was well received.
Good thing we did standing rib roast for Chr-stmas

heh, we're having our annual New Year's traditional sub sandwich fest this weekend. Huge selection of meats and cheeses and veggies, and a choice of 2-3 sorts of buns.

Thin spaghetti with doctored up jarred Bertolli sauce
A head of fresh cauliflower, trimmed and steamed
and a 1 lb. bag of frozen broccoli florets, steamed along with the broccoli
I would add some peeled sliced carrots to the steamer, but I'm out at the moment

What with my half century mark approaching in a little over a week or so, I was chatting on MSN with some friends regarding the passing of my parents last night. My mom passed on her 50th birthday, hence the conversation.

That sparked a longing for some childhood meals, and I decided to make a one pot meal my Daddy invented. This recipe got me in to a regional cook-off for a Manischewitz competition a few years ago. I didn't win, but it sure was fun competing!

Chicken And Grains
This is one of those measured by eye recipes. I have never taken the time to figure out the proportions. The amounts listed here are guesses, as I haven't made this in a while. It makes a lot and freezes well for a future reheated meal.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray the bottom of a large broiler pan with a mister; I use extra light olive oil in mine.

Take 1 to 2 lbs of peeled carrots and slice them about 1/4" thick on the oblique (diagonal); layer them to cover the bottom of the pan.

I love garlic! I use a whole head that I crush over the layer of carrots, but you can do this to taste.

Pour uncooked long grain white rice over the carrots and garlic to cover, I think about 1 lb will do it. Do the same with uncooked pearled barley over the rice, again, I think about 1 lb will do it.

Take a 1 lb box of medium shell dry pasta (you can use any shape, but I like shells), and layer over the barley. Use your clean hand to even it out.

Pour one envelope of dry onion soup mix into a bowl and mix to disperse the seasonings evenly. Sprinkle over the layers in the pan.

Place divided leg quarters over the grains to fit in the pan. Do not press down, layer them lightly on top of the grains. In my large broiler pan, I can fit 8 leg quarters (16 pieces of chicken).

Slice up to 1/2 lb of fresh mushrooms and put the slices on top of the chicken pieces.

Pour a second envelope of dry onion soup mix into a bowl and disperse evenly. Sprinkle over the chicken pieces and mushroom slices.

Pour homemade or low sodium chicken stock around the chicken pieces until you can see the liquid about halfway up the pasta level. I think I use about a quart, but again it is by eye. Try not to pour any on to the chicken pieces, you don't want to rinse off the soup mix and mushroom pieces. I've debated adding about 1/2 cup of white wine or dry sherry to the liquid, but think it may disappear in all that broth.

Cover the broiler pan tightly with foil and bake for one hour. Remove and see if the chicken is cooked through and the pasta and grains are tender. Recover and cook an additional 15 minutes if needed.

Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before removing foil. Put the chicken pieces on a warm platter and use a spatula to serve up the grains, including the carrots on the very bottom.

I should note that the carrots normally carmelize (we love them) and may (and probably will) stick to the pan, even with using a good non-stick spray. A good spatula will remove them for service, but the clean-up may dissuade some from making it again.

Tam made spaghetti puttanesca last night off a Williams Sonoma recipe and I was scared to death to eat it. It smelled like boiling a funky leather shoe, but it tasted really good-must be the black olives and capers blending that set off the old nostrils...

Not feeling 100% today, so I'm glad I made my overnight oven pasta gravy (tomato meat sauce). I'm defrosting some Italian sausages to grill up and serve over spaghetti rigati. And I'm still enjoying making quick salads of mesclun, grape tomatoes, chevre and craisins, so that will be served on the side with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes in the other thread.

The guys took me out for a celebratory dinner. We wound up going to for teppenyaki and sushi bar. The chef in the video is who we were treated to. He calls himself "Mr. Yummy" on his chef’s coat.

Hyperception and I split a sushi and sashimi platter, chef's choice. It came with three nigiri each of tuna, salmon, snapper and eel. Now, I don't like eel, but Hyperception is a fan. He ate the first piece, his eyes widened, and he said, "I don't believe I've had eel this good since I left New York." So, I went ahead and had one of the three pieces. It was good, though I still do not care enough for it to order it separately. But should we get that platter there again, I'll have one piece while Hyperception has the other two.

The sashimi was supposed to consist of 12 pieces as well. Instead it consisted of three slices each of tuna, salmon and snapper, four slices of octopus and six pieces of conch; all served on a bed of julienne daikon. I know sashimi should be eaten purely alone, but I just had to try putting a slice of gari and a few slivers of daikon on each piece. Heavenly.

That alone was a wonderful start. And well worth the $25 price for both of us, especially as it came with a bowl of miso soup.

In addition to that, I splurged on one spicy tuna hand roll, my personal favorite. And boy, am I glad I did. Beautiful cubed toro tuna strips the length of the roll, and the nori was properly crunchy. Lately all of the hand rolls I've been getting has had, while not soggy nori, nori that seems to lose its crunch due to the hand roll sitting too long between being made and brought out to the table or something. This...was perfect.

Beorn wouldn't touch the sushi or sashimi, so we allowed him to get a combo appetizer. He had gyoza, steak terriyaki skewers and bite sized fried fish of some sort.

The teppanyaki (the large habachi grill/show part of dinner) was fun and good. Each dinner came with a choice between a light onion soup or miso soup, and a salad with ginger dressing, a shrimp flambé appetizer (only three tiny shrimp, but we truly didn't mind as there was so much food anyway) and a choice of steamed white or cooked on the grill in front of you fried rice. We all chose the onion soup, since we had the miso with the sushi/sashimi.

Beorn had the combo New York strip, chicken and grouper dinner and was very happy with it all. Hyperception had the New York strip, tuna and scallops. I had intended to get the combo New York Steak, calamari and shrimp, but the free entreé on ones birthday was restricted to the single ingredient meals. This was actually fine with me, as there was the small shrimp appetizer, and Hyperception was willing to give me a taste of each of his items, so I had a bite of steak, tuna, and scallops, along with my calamari. We were both very happy as well.

I had a pot of hot tea, which was kept hot by being set on the hot grill and the guys both stuck with water. A very fun, pleasant meal in a nice setting overall.

We had planned on going to the Ben and Jerry's scoop shop next door for a celebratory ice cream after, but we were all totally topped off. We put that off until after dinner tonight. Kind of nice actually, extending the celebration.

Well I was going to make turkey tettrazini with some planned over turkey parts...
...then Beorn decided to add some turkey to some canned soup he was making...

I would have pulled something else out for dinner.
Perhaps it is rotisserie or fried chicken from Publix time.
I sure do wish my local Sam's sold the rotisserie chicken. I've heard such good things about them...

Although now that I think about it...
...breakfast for dinner might not be such a bad idea tonight.

Our beautiful local Melting Pot here in Gator Town that was situated in a renovated church and which Hyperception and I frequented several times a year to have dessert fondue in the wine bar which was in the choir loft overlooking the main dining area has been closed for a while now. The nearest Melting Pot is nearly 50 miles away in Ocala. We haven't been able to justify the cost of gas to drive 100 miles round trip, on top of the cost of the meal.

However, I won a $25 Melting Pot gift card on Facebook a few weeks ago, which will more than make up the cost of gas, and today is our 22nd wedding anniversary, so tonight, The Melting Pot in Ocala it is.

I've been looking forward to this.

Sounds yummy! And happy anniversary!!!!