My Valentine’s Day gift from Matt was a dinner cooked by him, and since we spent the actual holiday at a hockey game, I had to wait until Friday to cash it in. It was worth the wait. I made us drinks and took a seat, and he made us delicious crab cakes. It was pretty awesome. Also, I learned that I drink my drinks much more slowly when I’m the one cooking. Yikes.
I believe this is the recipe that he used: Mark Bittman’s Crabby Crab Cakes. They were mostly crab with just enough mayo, mustard, etc. to hold them together.
Crab cakes with lemon-dill sauce on a bed of greens, cheesy polenta, a gougère (from Rustica – my contribution) and sauvignon blanc. Well done, Matt!
As nice as it was to have someone else in charge of dinner, it was also really hard for me to sit back and not participate (although the whiskey made it easier). I was really excited to cook something on Saturday, so I picked up some nice pork chops and a couple of other things to take my turn in the kitchen. What we ate: balsamic quick-braised pork chops, salad and baked potatoes with sour cream and dill
In the salad: spring mix, fennel, apple, dill, avocado and goat cheese with a white balsamic vinaigrette
These pork chops were spectacular. We used the recipe linked to above but made a few changes and substitutions (back to my style of cooking…). We skipped the bacon, used a shallot instead of red onion, halved the sugar and used cane sugar instead of brown, used a thyme-infused balsamic instead of balsamic + fresh thyme, and skipped the demi-glace. The chops had a nicely seared crust, and the sauce was flavorful and just sweet enough. I poured the sauce from the pan into a bowl for dipping – a good move. I can definitely see us making these again.
English muffin, fried egg, mango and coffee
Post-run replenishment: green lentil soup and naan, both from the freezer. I made the soup for dinner a week or two ago, and despite its unsightly appearance, it’s delicious. A spoonful of greek yogurt or goat cheese is a welcome addition.
That girl at the co-op buying psyllium husk powder at 9AM on Sunday? It was me. As soon as I saw a photo of it, I knew that I had to make The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread. I’m not planning on giving up any of the flour-filled breads that I love so very much to make, but this was a nice change of pace for sure. Next time I’ll add more salt, although the extra water that I added to compensate for using ground flax instead of whole seeds might be to blame for it being under-salted.
I think my dad would enjoy this bread. And my mom. And my sister-in-law. And my brother. And maybe my other brother. It’s good with peanut butter, jam, and nutella, and I plan to try it with goat cheese next. Also, I think it would be great with a slice of ham and a piece of that mild, nondescript white cheese that’s always part of continental breakfasts abroad. Maybe I just want to be sitting at a hotel in Peru or Portugal eating this bread with ham and cheese instead of sitting at my kitchen table in cold Minnesota with no ham and no cheese.
Turkey mole enchiladas and greens in a cilantro-lime vinaigrette
We’ve had a turkey breast in the freezer since right after Thanksgiving, and I’ve owned the Williams-Sonoma slow cooker cookbook for about five years, and I finally got around to using both of them. The turkey and mole sauce spent the day in the crock pot, and then I shredded the meat, wrapped it in tortillas, covered it with more sauce and a little shredded cheese and baked it for about 30 minutes. Neither of us were expecting much from this dinner, but we were both pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. My new favorite green sauce was the perfect accompaniment.
I can attest to the drinking relativity theory: a drink always is drunk faster when someone else is cooking for you. Especially when it’s whiskey.
But it looks like you had yet another weekend of fabulous eating. That crazy bread would never replace any of my floured breads either, but it looks so freaking delicious too.