Deep-Fried Bacon

I'm very sorry to have to do this

2009-09-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's the deal. We started this blog because it was fun, and we really wanted to bring back one of our favorite dishes we ever had in a restaurant, anywhere.

Now, it looks like we're a couple of foodiots, but more important than that, mission: accomplished.

So that's it for now, but perhaps we'll start this up again later.

Day 2: Eating on the Dock of the Bay

2009-08-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

In the shadow of the Bay Bridge, steps from downtown SF, sits the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. Ferries to Sausalito and Larkspur come and go, and people gather -- including a lot of people who really like and care about food.

Inside, all the time, is some great stuff: the Cowgirl Creamery, selling their own award winning cheeses, and lots of other great cheeses and accoutrements, for instance. Some bigger names like Scharffen-Berger Chocolates. A citified version of Taylor's Automatic Refresher, which you'll meet later on in this trip. The Slanted Door, Charles Phan's well-known and highly-regarded South East Asian-ish restaurant.

Lucky for us, we made it to the Ferry Terminal on a Thursday. You see, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, all the tasty stuff inside is complemented by lots of vendors outside. Fresh produce, sure, but also meats and prepared food and other great local artisanal treats.

So as interested as we were in keeping our lunch reservation at the Slanted Door, you hopefully understand that once we got there, the though of one meal in one place quickly was replaced by lots of bites from all over the inside and outside of the Ferry Terminal.

Since we hadn't eaten anything yet, how's about for breakfast: local tangy sourdough, topped with fresh cream cheese, smoked sockeye salmon, some red onion, and uber-fresh tomatoes, topped with a pinch of sea salt?

And then, well, we went to an incredible place. Boccalone. Although we didn't make it to Chris Cosentino's Italian ode to offal, Incanto, we did make it to his salumeria. There are all sorts of sausages, and other Tasty Salty Pig Parts (their motto, and a good one at that), and it's awfully hard to choose. We'll be looking for their nduja, a spreadable sausage filled with porcine oopmh, at Murray's. But, for a (small?) bite, we settled on La Cicciolina: testa, lonza, pickled veggies, chillies, and mint.

We washed it down with a couple agua frescas from the Mexican cart outside -- one yellow watermelon, and one plum.

Running low on room, we figured there was space for a "Korean taco" for each of us -- the "tortilla" is seaweed, filled with marinated short rib, some spicy mayo, and other stuff. Ok, but nothing revelatory here.

And to wash it all down: a scoop of pistachio sorbet and one of coconut milk lemongrass sorbet.

We didn't get to, among other things, the truck roasting and selling beautiful porchetta, the (non-Korean) tacos, or the brisket sandwich. We'll have to go back for those on our next visit.

Later in the day, taking a circuitous route to visit some friends in Russian Hill, we made a stop at the Swan Oyster Depot. No pictures, but just imagine: oysters. Crab. Anchor Steam. Sourdough. Clam chowder. Is there a better mid-afternoon snack?

Then some more walking, until we found Ina Coolbrith Park. Learn about Ms. Coolbrith here. Her namesake park is comprised primarily of a series of terraces on a hill, with lots of secluded nooks. A nice place to sit on a bench with the woman you love; maybe not the best place to hacky sack (due to the hills and all), which the other folks in the park learned the hard way.

Then, to finish off a great day, we saw some good friends who moved out west at the beginning of the year. Some Cowgirl Creamery Inverness and Sally Jackson Eclipse cheeses, wild fennel and orange salami from Boccalone, sourdough baguette from Acme, and wine to start. Then off to Range, for tasty cocktails, locally sourced duck and halibut, and good times for all.

Day One: A beautiful day for a ballgame

2009-08-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

We figure it's best to show you our vacation one day at a time. Some days there'll be more to see than others, some days we didn't take too many pictures, and some days are a little hazy in our memories perhaps. But this way, you won't get too sick of us too quickly, and we don't have to try to get it all out at once.

We landed in San Francisco, flowers in our hair and ready for vacation, at 9:30 in the morning on Wednesday the 12th. We'd been up since about 4:00 NY time, so even though it was 9:30 in the morning, it was really mid-day for our stomachs. After a short trip on the BART to our hotel, we ambled over into the seedy Tenderloin, not really where you want to hang out unless you want a banh mi.

For those of you who've been living under a rock since the French colonized Vietnam, a banh mi is what happens when the French colonizers try to make a baguette using Vietnamese rice flour, and then fill it up with meat, pate, pickled veggies, and various other items. In a perfect world, the bread is crusty yet with a nice tender crumb, and the fillings hit all the hot, sour, sweet and salty notes that southeast Asian cuisines cover so well. And since San Francisco is in some sense a perfect world, the banh mi you'll get there will knock your socks off. Inside: Vietnamese bbq pork, pickled carrots and daikon, jalapenos, cilantro, some mayo.

Also, since it was still breakfast time, a steamed bun with egg, onions, and to be honest, I don't know what else.

And on to some baseball! I know the Giants and Dodgers, and their fans, hate each other. Really. But wow. This is hatred that goes back deep, and far, and spans two coasts, and many generations of haters.

First, if you ever get a chance to go to AT&T Park (or whatever phone company it's named after at the moment), the beautiful park right on the Bay, do yourself a favor and do so. An ideal spot for a ballgame on a sunny afternoon for sure.

Second, if you ever get a chance to see reigning Cy Young Award winner (and perhaps this year's as well) Tim Lincecum, who looks like he's 12 years old but pitches like a beast, throw heat by the Dodgers' juicing slugger Manny Ramirez while the sold-out crowd gets drunker and rowdier each moment, you should do that too.

Third, if you get standing room tickets, stand as close as you can to home plate. But be aware that it means you won't leave that spot for most of the game, unless you want to lose it. So by the time you do leave the spot to get some of the park's famed garlic fries, the fries may be soggy and disappointing. Which we would remedy later on our trip, but you'll hear more about that when we get to Napa.

But, after a manager gets ejected, benches clear, the bench coach/acting manager gets ejected, Lincecum pitches a gem but gets victimized by a bad call and a hit with two outs and two strikes in the ninth, and the Giants win it on a walk-off home run in the tenth, I recommend high-tailing it a few blocks away to the 21st Amendment brewery, where you'll have their delicious beer and be surrounded by lots of drunk Giants fans, only getting drunker.

For the ladies: the Hell or High Watermelon Wheat beer, garnished of course with some watermelon and refreshing on a hot summer afternoon. For the fellas, I recommend the Back in Black, a dark, chocolately, but hoppy American IPA.

A few watermelon slices later, we went back to the hotel, checked in, relaxed for a bit, but then felt that familiar stomach rumble that can only mean one thing: get up, go to the Mission, most likely to Pancho Villa's Taqueria, and get a burrito.

Now, and I apologize, we did not get a good shot of the gargantuan carnitas burrito, but trust me, it was an excellent choice. We did get good shots of the torta ahogada (more or less, "drowned sandwich", filled with pork and spices and succulence, and the chile relleno that I thought I was ordering as a small side dish but as you can see offered a bit more. Don't worry, we didn't finish this all, and distributed leftovers to some folks who hopefully enjoyed them as much as we did.

Oh -- make sure you wash it all down with some horchata. To call it mexican rice milk flavored with cinnamon really doesn't do it justice. To say that the missus would drink it by the bucketful gives you some idea.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is day one of our trip. Up next: we walk all over SF, see some old friends, and oysters!!

10 days of lots of eating, some drinking as well, and a bit of sightseeing

2009-08-24T13:02:00.001-07:00

Many of you know that we recently spent 10 days eating our way through San Francisco, wine country, and Chicago. Coming up shortly: stories, pictures, and good times. Stay tuned for Tim Lincecum dazzling the Dodgers at AT&T Park, foie gras on sausages, and a meal at Alinea, not to mention our ridiculous rental car.

Pizza, other food, and again, more pizza

2009-08-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that we love pizza. So we had our recent houseguest get in on the pizza making fun. One with arugula and prosciutto,

and one with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil.

But, you say, what's with all the pizzas? You're right, things are getting a bit tired. How about we freshen it up this burger?

Would you like freshly ground chuck, a mix of maytag blue cheese and gruyere, caramelized onions mixed with bacon, some arugula, on an English muffin?

Yeah, that's what I thought. And yes, it was delicious.

But for something a bit more summery, and a bit lighter, corn salad with shrimp and watercress should hit the spot. Light, refreshing, clean flavors.

And then, of course, more pizzas. But this time with our own sourdough! The starter is a little stinky, and the dough was different to work with, but the flavor was great and we're looking forward to playing with the sourdough and seeing what comes out of it. This time: a pie with tomatoes, smoked mozzarella, a great raw milk swiss cheese called scharfe maxx, and speck. The fat from the speck renders, the meat gets nice and crispy, and the whole pie is lathered in its porky essence.

And then wash things down with that same sourdough crust covered in caramelized onions, ashy goat cheese, and fresh figs. And we put some lardo on top of the dough so that it baked into the crust, essentially infusing the dough with flavored pork fat. Straight from those nice folks at La Quercia in Iowa.

Due to popular demand

2009-07-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here are, as promised, the photos of the backlog. Enjoy!! And get ready for the start of some new, more current, posts.

On a side note, a big welcome to our nephew, who just joined us on Saturday! He's adorable and, if we have anything to say about it, will be enjoying strained bacon and mushed up pork chops in no time.

A sign of life

2009-07-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ok guys, I know a lot of you have been upset that we haven't updated the blog in over 3 months. I am too. See, life got in the way, and before I knew it, there was so much to catch up on, it was a bit overwhelming. I suspect that others of you who have tried blogging have had similar problems at times.

Anyway, please don't despair! And, it was very gratifying to hear from so many of you who missed the insight into our kitchen.

So: in the next day or two I'm going to just post pictures of what's gone on over the last few months. Then, we'll get back to normal. That's the plan anyway.

Thanks for your patience!

Let's hear from our readers

2009-04-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here at Deep-Fried Bacon, we value our readers. We thank you for your time, your interest, your input, and (when you come to visit) your appetite. As a way to show our appreciation, we're going to answer a few questions from our overflowing reader mailbag. If this works out, it could become a regular feature, so keep sending in your thoughts and inquiries. Let's get going.

Dear Deep-Fried Bacon,

I know you like swine, even the parts of it that are less like the other white meat and more like fatty, unctuous, artery-clogging excellence. But what about the fishes? Rich in Omega-3s, good for your heart and brain, and as long as you're not Jeremy Piven, a great part of a well-balanced diet. So? Fish? Huh?

Best,
Piscine Pete

Dear Patty,

Great question! We do love to eat things that swim, not just things that walk on all fours. And a quick stop at Stew Leonard's (or Whole Foods once in a while) helps make for some good fish eatin'.

So, for instance, we might make some tuna burgers with spicy Asian mayo.

Or, maybe some tilapia tacos with chipotle-tomatillo salsa.

And we should probably eat more fish. But now you know, it's not all pig, all the time.

Hey yo baconeaters!

I know you like to deep fry bacon. Why don't you deep fry the rest of the pig?

Sincerely,
The little piggy that had roast beef

Dear little piggy,

First, I'm deeply disturbed that you want us to fry up your brethren. Second, I understand that you think being delicious means you are loved, and you just want to be loved. Third, you forget that the lovely missus is from Iowa, and the fried pork tenderloin sandwich is in her blood, literally and figuratively. If you haven't spoken to your Iowan cousins, then you might not know how the good people of the midwest take their tenderloins, pound them out nice and thin, marinate them in buttermilk for a day or so, bread them, and cook 'em up. Fourth, thank you for your deliciousness.

Dear Mr. Bacon,

I know you like to celebrate holidays. Have you celebrated any lately?

Very truly yours,
Patty O'McShaughnessy

Good Mr. O'McShaughnessy,

I don't mean to stereotype or generalize, but I assume from your name that on March 17, you told people to kiss you due to your ethnic heritage, and perhaps consumed a Guinness or Jameson's or twelve.

You'll be happy to know that on St. Patty's Day, we made some tasty Irish soda bread with raisins and caraway seeds, ate it alongside Colcannon (cabbage, bacon and potato soup), and washed it all down with a Guinness or two ourselves.

Hey-a, you-a,

Whya you no makea da pizza no morea, ay? And whya I sucha a stereotype tooa, ay?

Lemme knowa,
Dis guy

Hey dis guy!

Sorry to make you an even worse ethnic caricature than the Irish guy.

Because I feel bad, I'll show you the pizzas we made. Because I don't feel too bad, our pizzas were not so traditional. By that, I mean one with sauce, gruyere, monte enebro, prosciutto and arugula, and one with sauce, gruyere, asparagus, lardo, and two fried eggs. And if you're not sure what lardo is, you should be satisfied that they call it white prosciutto, and leave it at that.

So that's our first mailbag folks! Keep the mail coming. Have a good one.

Sausage Bread - The Gift that Keeps on Giving

2009-03-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you ever find yourself presented with a gift of sausage bread, as we were recently, you are very lucky. Sausage bread is a savory, dense bread with sausage, cheese and some spices all rolled up into an eggy dough. The first couple of days we just enjoyed a slice of it for breakfast or lunch. It's the type of food that blurs the line between breakfast and lunch or maybe it is so good that I was just looking for an excuse to eat it any chance I got.

By the end of the week I was ready to be more adventurous with the bread. The ah ha moment came on Saturday morning when my husband and I were sitting around debating whether to have something savory or sweet for our regular Saturday morning breakfast. We will make french toast using the sausage bread.

Sausage bread french toast is prepared just like you would regular french toast only it is so much more. Pour some maple syrup on top and you have solved to the age old savory/sweet breakfast dilemma. You don't even need a side of bacon with it. During my euphoria upon tasting this concoction, I convinced myself that this was the next big thing to hit the New York brunch scene.

Our second a-ha moment with the sausage bread came a day later while making a tomato soup with garlic croutons from the Red Cat cookbook. Instead of the regular day old bread the recipe called for for making the croutons, we used the sausage bread.

The result was delicious. Eating the last crouton the next day with the soup for lunch, I felt a pang of sadness realizing there would be no more sausage bread to come home to that evening.

I Dreamed I Ate a Marshmallow, and When I Woke Up, My Pillow Was Gone!

2009-03-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I've always been curious about marshmallows. I mean, they're sticky and sweet, but not too heavy, they're spongy, Marshmallow Fluff is super awesome, and Phish Food is delicious ice cream. But what the heck is one? How does sugar, and whatever else, plus some ground up hooves, turn into one?

Or, my strong feelings about marshmallows might just be because what's a better childhood memory that coming in from the snow to a piping mug of hot cocoa and marshmallows?

Last week we had a semi-snow day from work. Might as well recreate some childhood memories, no? But, unfortunately, I was out of packets of Swiss Miss hot chocolate with mini marshmallows, so I'd have to make do.

But really, it's crazy: somehow you mix together gelatin and water,

Heat sugar, corn syrup, and water to 240 degrees,

Beat it all together for a while, adding in some vanilla at the end, and turn it into a pan,

Let it sit for several hours, then cut them up,

And before you know, you've got a very tasty marshmallow in your hot cocoa.

We haven't made pizza in a while

2009-03-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

We haven't made pizza in a while, and yesterday seemed as good a day as any.

To start, my wonderful wife made one wonderful pie. Inspired by the Dirty Brutto at Baba Louie's Pizza in Great Barrington, MA, there's pesto and roasted red potatoes and roasted garlic and parmiggiano. We added some fresh mozzarella as well. Check out the upskirt and the hole structure.

Then, good old tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and some hot genoa salami. Ok, but I should have left it in the oven a minute or two more. The potato pie was by far the star tonight.

Happy Belated Oscar Night

2009-03-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

Since there's a lot of snow outside, I figured I might as well update the blog. Don't worry, if you work with me, I did this between the hours of 9 and 12 when our opening was delayed and the office was closed, not afterwards when I was working from home for the rest of the day.

To cut to the point - I wasn't so into Hugh Jackman hosting the Oscars. I enjoyed the beginning, but otherwise, like everyone else, i was confused by the musical medleys and disappointed that Mickey Rourke didn't get to give an acceptance speech that would have been more memorable than most.

Some of you know we like to have some fun around Oscar time. We all have fond memories of Reese's With-a-Spoon and Cake Gyllenhall, but each new year brings new nominees and new bad food/Oscar puns.

This year we decided to start with a light and fresh Kate Winslettuce salad (with thanks to Karen and Paige on this one).

Then, we couldn't decide what to call the lamb burgers - The Curious Case of Benjamin Mutton? Meryl Sheep? Waltz with Baa-Sheared?

And the ham and cheese sandwiches -- The Rye-stler with Mickey Pork and Marisa Tomeito? The Pork Knight? Ham Hathaway? Or Ham on Rye-r?

Some Pineapple Cruz for a palate cleanser.

And then, wash it all down with a Guinness Milkshake (Stoubt? MILKshakes? Malts with Bashir?)

Of course, our thanks to the fine folks behind Sean Penne with Marisa Tomeito Sauce, Yumdog Millionaires,
and Dark Chocolate Knight Cookies and Peanut Gabriel Cheesecake.

Have you met Leo?

2009-02-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Leo. Lox, eggs, onions. I mean, our kitchen is no Barney Greengrass, but we do what we can.

Take a couple of onions. Cook until soft in a little bit of oil, then cover, stirring occasionally, until they begin to turn golden. Maybe 30 or 40 minutes.

Beat however many eggs you want, mix them in with the onions, and let them cook on medium-low until they're just about set, maybe 10 minutes or so.

Then, take smoked fish -- the food that, more than any other, bridges my people and my wife's -- and mix it in. Cook just until the eggs are set. You don't want the fish to cook, just warm through. Eat with some rye toast.

Happy National Pancake Day!!

2009-02-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

February 23rd: Six month wedding anniversary.
February 24th: Fat Tuesday a/k/a Mardi Gras a/k/a National Pancake Day.
February 24th: the missus goes down to DC for a conference.
February 23rd: celebrate Pancake Day a day early, with some bubbly.

We had some latkes in the freezer. So, to start, a little canape of latke, sour cream, and smoked salmon.

Then onto the good stuff. Cornmeal pancakes (you’ve seen them here before). Topped with macerated strawberries and blueberries, plus some real maple syrup. Cracked pepper bacon on the side.

What an anniversary! Do we know romance or what?

Deep-Fried Bacon Goes to Florida

2009-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

Florida is a strange place. You’ve got a lot of sizeable contingents of different demographic groups - old Jews, African Americans, latinos, very southern Southerners, and cartoon mice. You’ve got tropical weather with flora and fauna to match, not to mention tasty seafood (mostly eaten at early bird specials). (If you’re from Florida, please, don’t take too much issue with my gross over-generalizations.) And, for one long weekend in February, Florida has Deep-Fried Bacon. Or, to be more precise, four good law school friends catching up plus one uncle, generously sharing his Palm Beach condo and his knowledge of the romantic lives of Florida retirees. Whatever you do, stay away from the Boca babes.

You know how these weekends go – a bit too much sun, a few drinks, a trip to the grocery store, and before you know it, you’ve decided to make the bacon explosion. A few weeks ago, when many of you fine readers sent the NY Times bacon explosion along, you probably thought it was funny. Let me tell you this: there is nothing funny about the bacon explosion. This is serious business. Allow me to explain.

First off, when was the last time any of you wove anything? Especially without a loom? And when was the last time any of you wove a 5x5 lattice of thick cut bacon strips? Maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that question.

Understanding the bacon explosion means understanding that it is all about layers. Layers of flavor, layers of fat, and layers of mmm mmm goodness. The reason I loved Legos and K’Nex and Erector and Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys growing up was that it’s fun to build things, layer-by-layer, from the ground up. This is not so different. So, on top of the bacon weave, goes some bbq spice rub.

Then the next layer. Sausage. We chose hot Italian, although whatever sausage you’d like will do just fine. Either buy it uncased, or take it out of the casings, and make a nice even layer on top of the bacon weave. If I were at home, I would have ground my own, certainly, so (if there is a) next time, that what I’ll do.

Next: barbecue sauce, cooked and crumbled bacon, and more of the spice rub. We went with a hot barbecue sauce that was from somewhere down in Florida; I don’t remember the name. It was a little sweet, a little tangy, a little spicy, and complemented the rest of the explosion well.

And now’s when the madness begins to take form. layers are all well and good, but you’ve got to bring them together to truly make the bacon explosion greater than the sum of its parts. So, first, roll up the sausage layer on up, leaving the bacon weave flat and untouched for now. Do this carefully - you don’t want to break it, and you want to get it nice and tight. No air pockets. Smush in the sides and the seam to get a nice, smooth, enclosed cylinder of meat.

Then, roll it all up in the bacon weave.

Add some more rub. And then pop it in the oven.

Low and slow is the name of the game here. Ideally we would have had a smoker, and we could have smoked the bacon explosion, giving it some extra flavor, but alas, we only had an oven. It’s ok though! The oven’s not such a bad choice. 275 degrees for about an hour per inch of thickness (in our case, about 2½ hours) ought to do the trick.

One beautiful thing that happens: as it all cooks together, and the bacon and sausage fat render and mix with the spices, and pools on the baking sheet, you are making the pure essence of bacon explosion awesomeness. This stuff is good – dip your bread in, whatever – but powerful. Proceed with caution. One member of our party thought he should pour this stuff all over his meal. It’s like looking right at the sun. Really, I mean it - big mistake. Big, tasty, mistake.

After it’s out of the oven, slather on a bit more bbq sauce, to get a nice, burnished look.

Because we had a lot of time to wait for the explosion to cook, I decided to caramelize some onions on the stove top. A nice accompaniment to the star of the meal. The time while it’s cooking is also a perfect opportunity to drink a few glasses of whisky. Just a suggestion.

The finished product.

Afterwards, you may have some leftovers. Now, as one particularly astute reader has noticed, I love breakfast sandwiches. You could say they are my muse. The many ways to combine some sort of carbohydrate/breadstuff, some sort of protein, an egg, perhaps some cheese, maybe a sauce of some sort. Open-faced, closed-face, the possibilities are endless. But, in the end, a bacon, egg, and cheese or sausage, egg and cheese sandwich doesn’t need much tinkering.

Oh, wait a minute. Just wait a minute here. What about a bacon explosion, egg, and cheese sandwich. Madness? Beauty? Is this truly the ideal breakfast sandwich?

Is it bad to have bacon explosion for two meals in one weekend? I’ll leave the answers to you.

Thai Me Up, Thai Me Down

2009-02-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

Just about every time I eat Thai food, I look for this soup. Places spell it differently, but it's called (something like) Tom Ka Gai, and it hits all those hot, sour, sweet, salty notes that make Thai food as good as it is, in perfect balance.

Also, I don't think I mentioned, it seems like the missus and I (well, mostly her) have been fighting off colds or the flu or at the very least stuffed-up-edness for most of the last couple months. Because it's winter, soup sounds good; because the cold and flu make it so we can't taste anything, something spicy is in order.

So: first, the aromatics, mostly shallots and lemongrass, just cooked til soft.

Slice up a bunch of mushrooms. White button mushrooms are fine; there's so much flavor in the soup, you don't need any sorts of fancy mushrooms at all.

The soup itself has all sorts of great stuff - coconut milk, chicken broth, fish sauce, lime juice. After it simmers for a bit, add in the mushrooms, just until softened.

At the end, add in some red curry paste (to taste - a few tablespoons is plenty), and some thinly sliced chicken, and some shrimp (any protein is fine, preferably if it'll cook in just 2 or 3 minutes).

Garnish with some fresh chiles, cilantro, scallions, lime, and enjoy! Clear up your sinuses.

No, kitty, that's my pot pie

2009-02-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

Look, I'm not complaining about the bacon-of-the-month club at all. I love it. Do you have any idea how amazing it is to get 2 pounds of artisan bacon in the mail every month? Black pepper, country bacon, maple-smoked, the fun never ends. Trust me. But sometimes it is hard to use up all that bacon.

Plus, we had some leftover biscuits from our recent brunch. So, after some thinking, we decided that chicken pot pie filling on top of those biscuits was something we could sneak some bacon into, a good use of the biscuits, and a way to sneak in some veggies (I was particularly happy for the green beans; they're among my favorites).

I'll admit that whenever I buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store I feel like a sad single guy who buys himself a chicken, takes it home, and eats it alone in the dark out of the carton. Not that I've ever done that, but ever since the time I bought a rotisserie chicken and nothing else, I get a bit self-conscious.

This chicken was way overdone, and the meat completely fell apart, but the filling was moist enough to keep the chicken from being too dry.

It's not the prettiest, but very tasty.

This blog is working! (In other words, if you come to Greenwich, we will feed you)

2009-02-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend the mood in our kitchen was upbeat as we prepared to host a Sunday brunch for friends. We take so much pleasure from preparing food and sharing it with friends and is something we don't do as often as we like living in Greenwich.

Setting the menu was the first order for the weekend. We made homemade chorizo earlier in the week to give to a couple co-workers and had enough left over to use it as a starting point for the brunch menu. We considered doing some type of tacos but ended up settling on open faced breakfast sandwiches.

We chose a Mexican Chorizo recipe by Michael Ruhlman. The sausage is pork based with hot paprika, chipotle, garlic, oregano, cumin and tequila. Here is the meat mixed up with all of the spices before it was ground.

Below: fresh ground sausage. We stuffed about half the sausage into casings and left the other half loose to be formed into breakfast patties.

Here are the little breakfast sausages sizzling away on the stove.

These buttermilk biscuits have made an appearance elsewhere on this blog. This time, they will be used to hold sausage and egg goodness.

We made oven roasted creole potatoes to accompany the biscuit sandwiches. Cut up and boil the potatoes for five minutes before spreading them in one layer onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle with chili powder, Cajun seasoning, paprika and olive oil and bake for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

16 eggs for scrambling.

Roasting tomatillos and garlic for the salsa.

Open-faced chorizo, scrambled egg, cheese and tomatillo salsa breakfast sandwich.

Of course no brunch at our place would be complete without something sweet. We made a coffee cake with crumb topping. A small piece of this goes a long way, but everyone managed to find space for one piece at the end of the meal.

Thanks to everyone who came up to see us last weekend!

Who wants to come up next?!

Salmonella-free cookies are the best!

2009-02-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick one.

As you should all know, when life gives you salmonella, make peanut butter cookies. Is that how it goes? Something like that anyway.

But: we haven't had enough cookies sitting around the house. And America has a love affair with peanut butter. And a little salmonella scare never stopped me from making cookies, dammit.

So peanut butter cookies it is. If you're my coworker who loves peanut butter but can't eat it around her super-peanut-allergic boyfriend, this makes you happy. If you're my wife who counts peanut butter cookies among your top 3 or 4 favorite cookies, this makes you very happy. If you're the good people at Jif afraid that some tainted PB is scaring off us peanut butter nuts (bad pun intended), you should be happy too.

Super Bowl Chili

2009-02-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

So for the past three years my brother's annual Super Bowl party has also been a chili cook-off. I've made a different chili each year, and not done too well the last couple of years. Which doesn't make me too happy. I wanted things to be different this year. I really did.

This year we picked a recipe that is maybe a bit too fancy-pants. Homemade chile powder with five different kind of chiles, ground and cubed beef, some corn masa to thicken things up, nicely balanced flavors. I added an extra habanero to spice things up, upped the chile powder, and really thought I was on to something.

So to start - brown a bunch of beef. Then cook a bunch of bacon.

Then add in onions and garlic and spices and peppers and aromatics, etc. This is when a lot of the chili's flavor is going to develop.

Then the chili powder, and then pretty much everything else.

Here it is before going into the oven to braise for a couple hours:

And, in the end, well, our chili pulled up the rear. Booooo. I'm not happy, and I don't agree, but I'll do better next year, I'm sure. I hope. I would have preferred this were a bit spicier, and I think it just didn't really stand out in any particular way. But the flavor was very nice, I think.

Anyways, at least we got some tasty chili dogs out of it in the end.

Happy Year of the Ox!

2009-01-29T17:32:00.001-08:00

Happy Year of the Ox everybody!!

Very few holidays -- Chanukah, Christmas, National Pancake Day -- go uncelebrated in our home. So of course we celebrated Chinese New Year.

Night one was dumplings. We didn't get pictures of them. Sorry guys.

But night two is when the fun starts. I've been wanting to make Hainanese Chicken for a while now. It's not too involved and it's got all sorts of great flavors. And I was curious - I mean, take a chicken, put it in water to cover, bring it all to a boil along with some ginger and garlic, simmer it for 10 minutes, and then turn off the heat and let it sit for an hour. That's it?

More or less, yeah. Then use the stock, from simmering the chicken, to make some rice, and make some dipping sauce, and eat it all with cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, cilantro. Enjoy.

And trust me here: although it looks a little bland, with lots of pale white stuff, the chicken has some great ginger flavor, the rice is nice, and when it all comes together, the flavors really fuse - it's tender, and savory, and refreshing even.

And then night three: pizza night, because it's almost been a week. That BBQ sauce of the month club has us flush in BBQ sauce, so I doctored some up with ginger, sriracha, five spice powder, and a bit of soy sauce, and made an Asian BBQ Chicken Pizza. (If you're a pizza purist, obviously, that sounds awful to you.) So toss on leftover chicken, fresh mozzarella, fontina, and scallions and cilantro, and enjoy.

Angry Trout Salad

2009-01-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

With all the less than healthy food that we post on this site, I figured that it would be good to post one of our favorite salads to prove that we do sometimes just crave a really good, healthy salad to bring balance to our diet. We decided to make this salad after a weekend spent with two very close friends of ours who are moving to San Francisco soon. Among their other wonderful qualities, they are very good eating companions and we said our goodbyes to their New York years (part 1?) by eating at our favorite brunch spot - Clinton Street Bakery. I don't know what goes into the pancakes there, but they induce plate clearing every time I order them. The egg sandwich with homemade sausage, cheese and tomatillo sauce served open faced on a big, warm, buttery biscuit kept me full for the rest of the day. Salad would be the menu for Sunday night.

The inspiration for this salad comes from the Angry Trout in Grand Marais, MN. I grew up going to this restaurant each summer while on vacation on the north shore of Lake Superior. When we went here for our honeymoon this past August, I was so happy to be able to introduce my better half to this great place. The Angry Trout was the first restaurant that I was aware of that served locally grown, seasonal food, long before it was a trend for restaurants. Their location right next to a fish and smoke house on Lake Superior certainly makes it easy for them to serve fresh and smoked fish, and they also do a great job serving locally grown fruits and vegetables. I could go on and on about this place but I will leave it at this: If you ever find yourself in Minnesota, driving on Highway 61 on the north shore of Lake Superior, stop at this restaurant (and get a donut at the World's Best Donuts afterward).

So for our salad, we used the Angry Trout's smoked trout salad and tomato basil dressing. The focal point of the salad is the smoked trout, but there is a lot of room for improvisation for the rest of the ingredients. When walking through the fruit and veggie aisle we focused on getting ingredients with different textures and colors. This time around we picked sugar snap peas, carrots, raspberries and pear. We had some left over proscuitto and cheese from pizza night that we also included.The dressing consists of chopped tomato, olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh basil and a pinch of salt.

The salad was so refreshing and with so many elements in the salad, each bite was a little different. Even the color of the salad brightened my mood in the middle of this cold, grey winter.

Someday Soon, We Hope

2009-01-28T08:50:00.001-08:00

Many thanks to all of you who have e-mailed us about the bacon explosion. I'm not entirely sure what it means that so many of you have sent it to us. Well, I suppose it means you all think we're bacon loving gluttonous slobs with no regard for cardiovascular health. You might be onto something.

Anyways, perhaps soon. (We're happy to do the work if someone has a good reason for us to make it. If we weren't already bringing chili to the super bowl on Sunday, we'd be all about it.)

Pizza Night with Lewis

2009-01-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Meet Lewis. He's a CPA, loves watching Jeopardy!, mixing plaids and coming home after a long day's work to a bud light and some chex mix. He has been living with us for the past week and was a little anxious to have his picture up on the blog until we told him it might help him find a special lady friend.

Lewis experienced his first pizza night this week. We had two pies, one trying to copy the ham and cheese pizza at Co., Jim Lahey's new pizza place on 24th and 9th Ave. His inspiration for the pizza comes from a ham and cheese sandwich on rye. The dough is brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with caraway seeds and topped with fontina, guyere, fresh mozzarella and pecorino romano cheeses.

Once the pie was out of the oven, we topped it with thin slices of prosciutto, which melts and wilts from the heat of the pizza. The pie is salty and delicious. The caraway seeds add nice flavor contrast to the pie and an interesting texture as well. One of my favorite parts about pizza night is the excuse it gives me to stop off at Murray's Cheese and Murray's Real Salami at the Grand Central Terminal Market. I cannot say enough good things about both places. The staff is always friendly, helpful and very generous with the samples. Not to mention the wonderful selection of product at both places. I would love to spend 6 months working at both Murray's Cheese and Murray's Salami broadening my knowledge about cured meats and the world of cheese.

The second pie of the night was a mushroom pie. We made some red sauce and sauteed some hen of the woods and shiitake mushrooms and topped the pie off with fresh mozzarella, fontina and a dusting of parmiggiano cheese.

All and all I think Lewis's first pizza night was a success. He enjoyed watching us toss the pizza dough into the air and learning about the pizza upskirt. Lewis said the only thing that would make pizza night better was if he could bring a date next time.

The finished mushroom pizza.

Recent Meals We Have Made and Enjoyed (But Not Written About)

2009-01-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

We'd have trouble if we posted about everything we made and ate and enjoyed. And you'd get bored. I mean, how self-indulgent are these people? Who cares what they eat for dinner each night? I make dinner too and nobody gives me a medal or anything, right? I agree. So feel free to skip this post (although, if you're here already, it's probably because you're looking for a good time-waster, and don't let me dissuade you). But, for those of you with a morbid curiosity about it, here are some meals that didn't make the blog, in no particular order.

Bacon, egg and cheddar on a Portuguese roll, with Cajun-spiced home fries:

Spicy creole peel-and-eat shrimp:

Spaghetti and meatballs:

Chili, latkes and eggs:

Hawaiian pizza: leftover xmas ham, pineapple, smoked mozzarella:

Sausage, ricotta, and broccoli rabe (pre- and post-autopsy shots):

Shopsin's Senegalese chicken soup:

Curried lobster and eggplant soup:

Cornmeal pancakes and bacon:

Burgers and Onions and Cheese, Oh My

2009-01-14T05:04:00.000-08:00

We love these onion cheeseburgers. They're easy, quick, tasty, and the right amount of messy. So here's a step-by-step guide. Note: you can follow the same technique to make sliders, just use appropriately sized buns (we prefer Martin's potato rolls, hamburger-sized for the big burgers, dinner roll-sized for the sliders).

Here we go: (1) slice up about 2 onions, really thin. A mandoline, or a good sharp knife, or a cheapo v-slicer, is helpful.

(2) Put a few pretty much unshaped hunks of meat (no bigger than 4 oz or so) in a very hot pan, with a little bit of oil in it.

(3) Top with more onions than seems reasonable. Add some salt and pepper.

(4) Smash down on the patties, so the onions get smashed into the beef, and it sizzles, and things really start cookin'. Cook for a couple minutes, until the bottoms get nice and brown and crusty.

(5) Flip the burgers over. The onions, on the bottom now, cook in the rendered beef fat and get crispy and tender at the same time. Cook for a couple minutes more, til the burgers are just about your desired level of doneness.

(6) Put cheese on top of the patties. Look, I think processed American cheese is absolutely awful most of the time. But it's the only cheese to use here. I promise.

(7) Put the top bun on top of the cheese, and the bottom bun on top of the top bun.

(8) Add in a bit of liquid - water is fine, beef or chicken stock can work too. Then toss a lid on, so the whole thing (thanks to the liquid) steams - the cheese gets nice and gooey, the bun gets soft, the onions get even awesomer.

(9) Take the bottom buns, and put the burger/onion/cheese/top bun on top of it. Add whatever you like - ketchup, pickles, etc. If you feel like you owe your body something healthy once in a while, pile a salad next to the burgers.

(10) Dig in!

Hola, I am Al Pastor, the Christmas Ham

2008-12-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

Hola and feliz navidad! I know you have been waiting for the Christmas ham, and here I am! My name is Al Pastor, and as you can see, I am from Mexico. What do you mean I don't look like a Christmas ham? My jokes are excellent!

I was a little bit afraid when I heard about deep-fried bacon. But then, I thought, it's ok, that bacon is no skin off my back! Also, these people, I heard they like to cure meats. But I told them, I'm feeling ok, I don't need to be cured. Plus, I hear a lot about smoked hams, but the last ham I saw that was smoked just got the munchies and ate a bunch of corn.

Ok, ok, enough with the jokes for now, I'm here all night! Don't worry, the 10:00 show is completely different from the 8:00 show. Tip your waitresses!

So aside from me, there was another Christmas ham in the house this year. He was a 10-lb bone-in fresh ham. These guys, they sliced up his outside into that diamond shape you always see on hams, and then soaked him in 6 liters of coke, kosher salt, bay leaves, garlic, and pepper for a day. 6 liters of coke! I guess that's the little piggy that went wee, wee, wee all the way home, if you know what I mean.

At first I was afraid they were going to use me for the ham, but then I realized they were just pulling my leg. Actually, they were pulling another pig's leg! Ha, get it? I kill me.

On Christmas morning, the ham emerged from his salty soda bath, and they dried it off and rubbed him down with some sage, parsley, garlic, and other stuff. It maybe wasn't a smoked ham, but it sure liked the herbs! Come on, you like my jokes. Oh, you don't? You think I'm a boar?

Anyway, during roasting, the ham got glazed with a mixture of apple cider, cloves, and brown sugar. The ham was a magnificent sight to behold and the last time I heard someone enjoy pork so much was Kermit the Frog's wedding night! Sorry, that one wasn't safe for the kiddies. Seriously though, the skin was perfectly crispy, and the meat tender with a subtle hint of the coca cola coming through the other flavors.

Thin slices served atop creamy grits with cheddar cheese and jalapenos and a side of kale and swiss chard braised in apple cider. The tanginess of the apple cider off set the bitterness of the greens.

Freshly baked biscuits finished off the plate - just the thing to sop up any missed bites. These biscuits are fluffy, buttery and an ideal comfort food.

Since there was so much leftover ham, a lot of it made its way to the Jet game, and then there was a dinner of fried eggs and ham over cheddar grit cakes, with some homemade chipotle hot sauce. Man, those Jets, if you're tired of my jokes, you should talk to that Favre guy! I may not know when to quit, but I wouldn't let that guy play with my pigskin no matter what.

So, signing off for now, I am Al Pastor, the Christmas Ham, and it's been a pleasure. Thank you and good night!

Shopsin's

2008-12-29T07:52:00.001-08:00

I know, you're all waiting for pictures and accounts of our Christmas dinner. Don't worry, you'll get it soon, and it will be worth the wait. I think so, anyway. For now you'll have to settle for an account of breakfast this past Saturday, and an introduction to Shopsin's for those of you who are heretofore unfamiliar.

Shopsin's has been the subject of many fine articles and reviews. It's the home, and brainchild, and seeming embodiment of the worldview of, a madcap cook, host, philosopher, and truly one-of-a-kind human being named Kenny Shopsin (pictured at left). There's no way I can describe him better than the others who have already devoted considerable ink to the task, so let me just recommend: (1) the excellent documentary I Like Killing Flies, which started us on our recent fascination with Kenny and his restaurant, (2) Eat Me, his new cookbook which gives you a pretty good idea of who and what Shopsin's is, and (3) perusing the menu, which is amazingly just a small fraction of what the menu used to be in the restaurant's previous locations.

No write-up of Shopsin's is completely without the obligatory letting you know that there are lots of rules: no groups larger than 4, even if you pretend you're two different groups and don't know each other. No 2 people at the same table can order the same thing. Don't order too much food. Everyone has to order a meal. You may get yelled at or cursed at. You may get thrown out. You may get cursed at, thrown out, and told not to come back.

We were certainly anxious going in, and had studied the menu to make sure we didn't make any mistakes. It made us feel a little better when the friends we made at the table next to us, a mother and her son who had been going to Shopsin's every week for the past several years, didn't order a sandwich they wanted because they didn't know if it was served hot or cold, and were afraid to ask. Which is to say: you may go every day, you may never have gone before, but the rules are the rules, and there's a certain degree of unpredictable irrationality to keep you on your toes.

To the food, though: awfully good stuff. Sliders, just about the best I've ever had (maybe the best?) (pictured below, not taken by me). Excellent little burgers on potato rolls, with crispy onions, done absolutely perfectly. A Mexican breakfast skillet with egg enchiladas, brisket-green chile hash, and s'mores pancakes. No, I don't know why those go together, how that ended up as a combination but the egg nachoes come with banana french toast and chipotle grits, and the egg quesadilla comes with a pork tamale and ricotta cilantro guacamole.

A couple final notes about the place: it's open Monday through Saturday, until 3, in the Essex Street Market. It was in its original West Village location for decades, and then in the space now occupied by Market Table for a few years. Watching the documentary, filmed during the transition from the first to second Shopsin's location, makes you marvel that such a place could be transported.

And, most importantly, I was happy to see that Kenny appears to be a Mets fan, yet another reason I will surely return.

So, in short: see the movie, get the book, play by the rules, go eat some good food.

Pizza for Breakfast?? Pizza for Breakfast!!

2008-12-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

So maybe we've gone a bit overboard with the pizza lately. We just can't stop. I don't know what to say. And, yes, some have turned out better than others, but they've all been at least very good and a few have been even better than that. I'm not tooting our own horn, just saying that pizza making is pretty straightforward, and fun, and offers some opportunities for creativity. Plus, who doesn't love pizza?

We had a couple good friends stay over last weekend, and decided to make some breakfast pizzas. We had some leftover sauce from the huevos rancheros, so that would come into play. Should we fry or scramble our eggs? How about a pie of each? Hmm, there's chorizo, bacon, a couple kinds of cheese . . . I see where this all is going.

One lesson learned: make sure to construct the pizza in a way that the egg, when cracked onto the partially baked pie, does not run all over the place. Use strategically placed onions maybe, or leave spaces with no other toppings that can contain the egg, whatever. Because, of the three eggs I tried to crack onto the pie, you can see below that one worked, the other two, not so much. Still yummy, but a bit haphazard-looking.

Anyways, this worked out well. Really tasty stuff. And, since breakfast on the weekends is probably my favorite meal to eat, I was a very happy boy.

Huevos Rancheros Muy Buenos

2008-12-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

We made Huevos Rancheros for dinner last Wednesday using a tomatillo sauce from Rick Bayless's "Mexican Everyday" cookbook. Mexican food is one of my favorite things to make as a home cook. I often rely on Rick Bayless's recipes because they are easy to follow, he knows what he is talking about and just about everything that I've made with his recipes has been delicious. For the tomatillo sauce we blended garlic, serrano chiles, tomatillos and some chopped cilantro in a food processor. In case you were wondering where the bacon comes into this, we fried up some bacon and used the bacon drippings to cook the pureed sauce.

I am a huge proponent of making homemade corn tortillas using masa harina and reconstituting it with water. I divide the dough into balls and use a tortilla press to flatten the dough into a disk. Once the dough has been flattened, I throw the tortillas onto a skillet on the stove and cook until the surface is less shiny and light brown. Using the tortilla press is one of my favorite kitchen tools and the taste and texture of fresh tortillas can't be beat. Below is the final dish. A layer of tortillas with a layer of sauce, two fried eggs, bacon and mexican crema. Yum!

45 Peso Pizza

2008-12-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a story some of you might have heard, but I'll re-tell it anyway. A couple months ago, we went to this awesome place in Derby, CT called Roseland Apizza. Great red sauce Italian place. We ordered much too much food, including a shrimp casino pizza (the seafood pizzas are a specialty). Shrimp, bacon, peppers, onions, what could be bad? It was marked "market price," but how much could it be? I mean, yeah it's got shrimp, but it's a pizza!! When the lobster ravioli in lobster sauce is the most expensive thing on the menu at $33, the shrimp pizza can't be more than 20 bucks or so, right?

Well, the pizza was delicious. Which is a good thing, because when the check came, if we found out that we had ordered a 45 DOLLAR pizza that wasn't delicious, there would have been trouble. By trouble, I mean, us paying our bill respectably and complaining a lot to each other on the ride home. As it was, we were befuddled, but at least enjoyed the pizza, and knew never to make that mistake again.

So last night we made our own $45 pizza, but with a Mexican twist. So let's call it 45 peso pizza. We briefly marinated the shrimp in a tequila-lime mixture, tossed on some bacon, added house-pickled jalapenos for good measure, and some cilantro. Very good, and the peso-to-dollar exchange rate left our wallets a bit heavier than our trip to Roseland.

Also on last night's menu: a pie with tomatoes, monte enebro, chevre, and kick-ass chorizo. Monte Enebro is a pretty intense goat cheese; it was a great combination, but not for the faint-of-heart. Tasty stuff.

Sausage Stuffers

2008-12-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

Sausage stuffing is kind of like stocking stuffing, except instead of filling a big red sock with little presents, you are filling intestines with ground up meat and fat and spices.

Answers to some common questions: yes, they are pig's intestines, you can generally get them at a butcher or maybe even your friendly neighborhood supermarket, if you want thinner sausages you've gotta get sheep casings which are pricier, and they are surprisingly resilient when stuffing them full of meat.

For an excellent demonstration of sausage-making technique, we highly recommend finding the old Julia Child episode where she stuff sausages with any variety of devices. Quite a hoot, and also quite informative.

We had some help stuffing the sausages (thanks, Chuckanucka).

Some people stuff the whole thing and then twist off the links. In our experience, twisting off as you go works a little better. Just be careful - you want them full (air bubbles are not your friend), but not too full (casings popping in the middle is a big pain to deal with).

The finished product, all ready to be cooked and eaten and enjoyed.

Just a couple breakfast shots for you - 1) fry up patties of the fried rice we made earlier in the week (does that make it double-fried rice?); 2) heat up leftover meat from Dinosaur BBQ the night before, with some bbq sauce; 3) fry some eggs; 4) assemble and enjoy.

Making Legislation

2008-12-13T07:55:00.001-08:00

What's that you say? We just made duck proscuitto, why do we need to grind Donald up into sausage so soon after? It's a good question, and I'm not sure I have a better answer than that we don't hate ducks, we love them. They are delicious.

Also - for you law and politics nerds out there - how bad is is that we call making sausage "making legislation?" Very bad, I think.

Anyways - to the task at hand, and thanks again to Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie - take the duck, butcher it up so all that's left is meat, no bones or skin or sinew (that sinew is the biggest pain to deal with, maybe there's some easy way to do it I just haven't figured out yet?). Mix up the meat with some pork fat, mix in with spices and seasonings, freeze for a bit, grind, mix in some red wine and water, and there you go.

I've gotta say, I love making sausage. It is always sad when my partner in the kitchen has to get up super early on a weekend to head to work, and I'm left doing the butchering myself, but I suppose someone needs to bring home the bacon, since that bacon of the month club won't last forever.

For everyone who loved playing with Play-Doh as a kid, you should make sausage. For those of you who are freaked out by the idea, you shouldn't be. Controlling the process - what goes in, what comes out, and everything in between - should allay any misgivings about sausage generally. And, if you have a Kitchenaid mixer, the meat grinder attachment is a good add-on; who knows, you may end up grinding a lot of your own meat.

Of all the sausages we've made, the duck is probably my favorite. It's a bit decadent, and a lot delicious.

At the end, of course, make sure you taste what you made. Because you want to check for seasonings, and you want to eat it as soon as possible. This is some tasty stuff, to be sure.

Tomorrow we'll stuff the sausages; keep your eyes peeled for pics of the finished product.

Quack Quack Quack

2008-12-13T07:44:00.001-08:00

About a week after we hung it to dry, it was time to cut down the duck and see how we did.

The answer? Pretty good, but we might do a couple things differently next time.

The meat was very nicely cured and dried, but could have maybe used just a smidge more time in the salt, and maybe an extra day or so hanging. It's tough - the ends of the breast, which were much thinner, were a bit too dry; the middle could have used a little bit more. But not terribly so, it was still a success I think. Also, I might add some other flavorings to the mix, maybe some fresh herbs.

My biggest frustration was just that I couldn't get it sliced thinly enough. We have an awesome slicing knife, and I'm not sure if I just couldn't slice it so great or if the meat needed to be a bit firmer. Or, of course, it might just be that we need to get a tabletop electric meat slicer.

But very tasty. When we put up pictures of our cheese dinner from last night, you'll see a nice heaping pile of housemade duck prosciutto.

What should we hang next?

The John Dory

2008-12-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend we went to check out The John Dory. It's the new British fish place from April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman (the folks behind The Spotted Pig). Still haven't been to The Spotted Pig, what with the extra long waits and no reservations, but figured since the new place is taking reservations it's worth making one to see how they do things. The short answer is: remarkably well.

Since we're not really the sort of people to take lots of pictures in restaurants (except when we're on vacation, I guess, as anyone who's seen our vacation pics knows), there's none here. Which makes this just a plain, boring, restaurant review.

But: if you're looking for a great seafood meal, check out The John Dory. I'm usually wary of brand-spanking-new places, just getting things sorted out, lots of hiccups in terms of food and service, etc. No problems here at all.

We sat in the small room off to the side, with a giant fish tank to entertain us. Lots of fun watching the banana eel slither around, the blowfish, and all their aquatic friends. And the whole place is very over-the-top with fish themed stuff everywhere, a little bit gaudy and a little bit tasteful at the same time.

I know, you don't care. What did we eat and how was it? First they bring out some housemade potato chips with smoked arctic char, very tasty, and a slightly larger portion would have been welcome. Then, for starters, some oysters (east and west coast), and the fish soup (not to be confused with the fish stew entree). Oysters good and fresh, fish soup rich, flavorful, plentiful, awesome. It was almost a bisque - thick, just enough texture, lots of fish and shellfish flavor, tomatoey, spices, etc. Very much hit the spot on a cold night.

For entrees, we split the whole grilled sea bass with anchovy-rosemary pesto, and the black pepper crab. Hot damn. The sea bream was perfectly cooked, nice crispy skin, well-seasoned, and the pesto complemented the fish without overwhelming it at all. But the star of the show, which I would order over and over again, was the black pepper crab. Did I feel a bit self-conscious in this hip meatpacking location surrounded by beautiful people, up to my elbow in crabshell and peppercorns and meat and spice? Maybe just a bit. But seriously, there's no excuse for not ordering the crab. It's a 2 lb whole dungeness crab, cut into pieces but still in the shell, in a fire-but-not-too-fiery black pepper sauce, with whole roasted peppercorns, scallions, and who knows what else. Went nicely with the IPA I was drinking.

As for desserts, eh, a pretty good ice cream sundae and a decent eccles cake (look, Brits aren't known for their sweets) with the saving grace, some tasty stichelton (sort of a raw-milk stilton but tweaked a bit).

In a nutshell - well worth it, if it sounds like your sort of place, by all means go check it out.

Low-fat Sugar-free Cinnamon Rolls

2008-12-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

A few things occur to me as we start to put this blog together.

First, probably we won't use our names, or anyone else's, because who knows, I might want to run a kosher processing plant some day, and this might prevent that from happening. Or, my doctor could stumble upon the site, realize I haven't listen to a thing he's told me, and fire me as a patient. So we'll just keep this on the mildly anonymous side.

Second, you may notice gifts you've given us being put to good use - frying pans, pizza making classes, pizza stone and peel, bacon of the month club, bbq sauce of the month club, you get the idea. Thanks!! Not that getting hitched is all about the loot or anything, but we've got some great friends who know our food-related predilections all too well. So thank you.

Third, it may be that not everything we make or eat is interesting to you or even us. If it's dumb as all heck, and still makes it up here, well, sorry about that.

Fourth, this probably won't be the place to come for recipes, just pictures document our lives cooking and eating. But by all means, make suggestions if you think we should do this differently.

Fifth and lastly (for now), this is new to us. We're not very good with the formatting. Apologies if things are all out of sorts layout-wise.

Anyways - we had a brunch on Sunday and made some cinnamon rolls. A pretty quick, non-yeast dough recipe courtesy of the almost always right folks at Cook's Illustrated. We made a double batch, which means melting two sticks of butter to start. Something heartwarming about the sight of two sticks of butter sitting in the pan, no?

From melted butter, to buttered dough, to rolled up log of cinnamon rolls, to the finished product - well worth it.

If brunch hadn't been with a crowd that included a couple of vegetarians or non-pork eaters, bacon may have found its way either into the icing or the filling. Is that a horrible idea? Or a good one? We may never know.

Saturday morning with bacon

2008-12-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Making breakfast is one of our favorite ways to start a Saturday morning. We started with the essentials to a good breakfast - bacon and coffee. One the menu: bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches and muffins toasted in bacon grease.

Our Saturday morning breakfasts are some of my favorite meals of the week because we rarely plan for the meal. As long as we have eggs in the fridge, it is pretty easy to use ingredients that we already have to put together a tasty breakfast. After scrambling the eggs, we added some chopped oregano and crumbled some leftover Roquefort cheese from a salad we made earlier in the week. We had a blueberry muffin on hand that we decided to lightly toast in the bacon grease.

The final product.

Duck Proscuitto (Donald and Daffy at the Gallows)

2008-12-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

The beginnings of our duck proscuitto. Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie gets as much use as any book in our kitchen, and so far, no clunkers. We didn't get pictures of the duck breast pre-cure, or the day it spent covered in salt, or emerged from the salt, so let's start the experiment here at the hanging stage. Check back in about a week to see how it turned out.

Pizza is the Best

2008-12-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

We've started making pizza. We'll make some dough on the weekend, and then have pizza night once a week, more or less. MMM mmm good. Last night's pies - Clams and Bacon, and BBQ Chicken - were excellent, I must say. Broiling the pie for the last minute or so seems to help crisp up the crust a bit.

If you look, you'll see that we misguidedly started this blog a couple of years ago, and did nothing with it. A picture of bacon tempura sat there for a long time, unaccompanied by anything at all. That's about to change.

The plan is to document our food obsession: our sausage making, meat curing, pizza making, omnivorous existence. Professionals by day, ravenous eaters by night, with nothing better to do than spend much too much time thinking about food, and much too little time doing the work we're supposed to be doing.

Also, no one visits us way out in the fancy shmancy burbs where we live, so perhaps documenting what goes on in our kitchen and into our stomachs will prompt some more visitors.

Enjoy!!

2006-07-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

This is just a small sign of things to come.