Friday, September 21, 2012

The feast to end all feasts . . . .

And I was so busy that I didn't even get any pictures of it.  I know, I know - you call my bluff right?  Well, there were witnesses so I can refer you to them if you still doubt me.

Lunch yesterday was a warm and spicy chicken soup.  I roasted the cracked up chicken carcass (mmmm marrow) from Monday night's dinner under high heat in the oven, with some herbs.  It made the whole house smell like fried chicken and released all the juices from the bones.  I then simmered it in just enough water to cover it, drained it, and chilled so I could skim the fat off the top.

Then I sauteed 1/2 red onion, 3 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 cup diced celery, 1 small hot pepper, and 1 baby eggplant.  Once tender, I added the broth and 2 chopped turnips, 1 chopped carrot, and 2 chopped potatoes and simmered until the everything was cooked through.  I also made corn muffins with some modifications to this recipe.   I replaced the vegetable oil with bacon grease (kind of negates the "vegan" recipe title, huh?), eliminated baking soda, and used all cornmeal instead of half flour.  Replaced the agave nectar with maple syrup and the soymilk with regular milk.  They were super moist and a little puffier than my last batch.  Yum.

We went on a family grocery sojourn yesterday afternoon.  Remember, we can't just hop in the car and do the one-stop shopping trip at Market Basket, but this was ok with us yesterday since baby grommet is still struggling to sleep (he has a cold now) and a long nap in the car was just what he needed.  So first we headed to the dairy at Appleton Farms to pick up milk, cream, and beef, but they were out of beef which totally threw my birthday dinner plans through a loop (more on that later).  Next we picked up our CSA share (yay for Thursdays!) which consisted of potatoes (phew, I had been running low), swiss chard, broccoli, spinach, onions, beets, and tomatoes.  As I racked my brain about dinner plans, I asked dear hubby if he thought we should head back to Marini's to find some meat.  We had just come from that direction, though, so instead he suggested we try Apple Street Farm.  I had never been to that one and ended up staying in the car with sleeping grommet, but dear hubby said their pork looked amazing, though it was only available to CSA members.  Sigh.  We were able to score some local whole wheat flour there, though, which is a huge find for us, and we picked up some eggs since the roadside cooler still wasn't out.  Looking at our haul, I conceptualized the dinner plan with dear hubby's favorite meal in mind:  QUICHE.

At home, first I prepped the pie crusts by slicing butter into the flour we'd just scored.  I lightly salted it and pressed it into two pie pans, then baked at 350 for about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, I peeled, cored, and diced 4 apples and 2 pears, then tossed them with maple syrup and put them in a 9x13 pan.  I made a crumble topping by whirring oats, flour, butter, and maple sugar candy together in the food processor, then crumbled over the fruit.  This went into the oven when the quiche crusts came out, and cooked for about 45 minutes.  I wanted to make maple ice cream so I combined 2 cups milk with 2 cups heavy cream and heated until steaming in a saucepan.  While that heated, I creamed together 4 egg yolks with 1/3 cup maple syrup and a pinch of salt.  Once the milk was steaming, I took it off the heat and slowly added the egg mixture, whisking constantly to make sure the eggs didn't cook.  The whole thing got returned to the heat and stirred until it thicken enough to coat the spoon, then aside to cool completely.

Next was frying the bacon for quiche, then sauteing leaks and shallots.  I put crumbled bacon on the bottom of one pie crust, topped with crumbled goat's cheese, fried leaks, and sauteed spinach.  The other quiche had diced ham, brie, and fried shallots.  I poured 4 whole eggs and 2 egg whites whisked with some milk into each pie crust and laid sliced tomatoes on top.  Both baked at 350 for about 35 minutes.

Finally, I steamed some green beans and made a quick salad with romaine, cucumbers, green onions, and beets, dressed with a mixture of yogurt, cider, and chopped basil (better than it sounds, I promise).

Of course, after dinner I discovered that the freezer had partially defrosted so the ice cream machine was not operable.  This nixed the maple ice cream, but instead I heated it back up and ladled it over bowls of apple crisp as a warm custard.

Delicious!  I'll update with some pictures of yesterday's lunch and we still have leftover crumble so I can get some pictures of that too.

Breakfast this morning was leftover apple crumble and corn muffins.

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