I hope you all had some much deserved time off. I had two whole weeks to sit on my a*s and watch tv, eat, talk with friends and family, and sleep. 2010 has been such a crazy year that I feel it deserved a moment (or two weeks) to reflect on. I graduated from my masters program, moved to a new city, made new friends, learned a new job, turned 30, moved to another city, started another new job, learned another position, rekindled my love for an old city, rekindled lovely friendships. I'm happy for this new year since I finally feel rooted, grounded, leveled-headed for the first time in many many years. I feel good about 2011.
SO! I feel like since my last post (NOVEMBER!) so many activities have happened. I forgot to post the dinner I had for my big brother's birthday. Meal design: In honesty I've been cooking for people for a very long time, but I haven't made many traditional meals that include meat and sometimes I feel my meals lack a little in tradition, warmth and heartiness. I also wanted my little brother to help me make some part of the meal. So I thought I'd make something of a hearty family meal. Spaghetti with meat sauce! It wasn't that exciting of a meal, but I was proud because it was my very first meat sauce. I used spicy sausage meat which added a little "flare" and satisfied my demanding pallet. I browned the meat and set it aside. I diced up some onions, mushrooms, yellow pepper, and sauteed it in olive oil until soft and threw in some oregano. Then I added a bit of balsamic to caramelize it a bit. Then I stirred it into the garlic (canned...I know I know...) tomato sauce. You'll see my little brother (the giant) preparing some stuffed mushrooms, a Bourgeois family favorite.
Take the stems out of large button mushrooms. Finely chop up a few of the stems and mix them with crushed garlic. Spoon a small amount of the garlic mixture into the mushrooms and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Top with a bit of fresh ground pepper and bake for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms have shrunk and the cheese melted. If you'd like, broil the top for a couple of minutes before taking them out.
Then there was a special person's birthday. I couldn't get a good picture of the handsome one since my camera strobed him into blindness. Meal design: my guest likes beer, meat, seems to appreciate colorful plates, and coconut cream pie. To start I made a delectable baked fig with boccaccini. For this, simply cut each fresh fig in quarters but not all the way through and then place a small boccaccini in the middle. Drizzle balsamic vinegar (next time, I will reduce the vinegar so that it coats the boccaccini) and bake at 350 until the cheese has melted but the fig is still intact.
I also made a beer-glazed cornish hen, with sauteed brussel sprouts, and a twice baked potato on sweet potato disks (boiled a skinned potato, whipped it into oblivion, scooped it onto three disks of sweet potato, then bake to a golden crisp. We also enjoyed Beaujolais salami, pickled onions and olive and cheese with crackers. mmmmmmmmmmm!!!
Lastly, I made Seattle's famous triple coconut cream pie which was unbelievable!!! I got the recipe from this site. Which I followed closely since I'd never made it before.
And of course there was Christmas dinner. I won't go into details since most of you probably had the exact same meal. We found a lovely turkey, stuffing, veggies and family! My dad and Jean-Yves skypped in from Ottawa to have a little chat! Sylvain carved the turkey, we ate and I had some liquor chocolates...mmmmmm liquor chocolates..... AH the holidays.
