we kicked off the day with breakfast, baked eggs with kale and bacon. i found this recipe on one of my absolute favorite food blogs, use real butter, and i've been wanting to try it for weeks. as usual, jennifer yu proved that she can be trusted to provide a nearly fool proof recipe. i used small ramekins for this and put only one egg in each one. i was trying hard to keep the portions small so we could pace ourselves. that said, every single person at breakfast asked for seconds. i will most definitely be making these again. further, i think you could get really adventurous here and put just about anything in those eggs. we'll see what i come up with as spring approaches and the farmers markets start to fill with new and interesting herbs and veggies. :)
for second breakfast, we had cinnamon muffins with homemade peach butter and a fruit salad. the muffin recipe is from muffins and quick breads from the williams sonoma kitchen library. this little book is filled with great recipes and has many ideas for flavored butters and spreads as well. loosely following their guidelines, i made some peach butter by mixing 1/2 a cup of butter with 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar and about 1/3 of a cup of peach jam that my friend meredith made--it was DELICIOUS! the butter was actually a little more like icing than butter, and really--how is that a bad thing?
for our third meal of the day, i decided to keep it simple. i threw together a place of meats and cheeses, and added some dried peaches, a fig and almond bar, and a loaf of really good rustic bread. thought simple, i think this is always a well-received combination of offerings--i try to include a soft double or triple cream of some kind, a simple and flavorful cows milk cheese, and something more interesting, like a sheeps milk cheese or a morbier or something. this works well, even if your eaters are picky. the meats here are an herb crusted salami and a lovely italian rosemary ham from fra'mani.
for lunch, i tried something completly new to me: meat pies. i did a lot of researching, and decided on this version i found on epicurious. they're made in muffin tins, so they are of uniform size, and they made perfect individual portions that were very easy to eat with your hands. the only real changes we made to the recipe were related to the crust. the recipe calls for frozen crust, but we made our own instead: a double batch of regular buttery pie crust, leaving out the sugar and adding a couple of teaspoons of paprika. the directions say to cut two circles of crust for the top and bottom, but i decided to go for a more rustic approach. i rolled out the crust, cut out 16 circles about 6 inches in diameter, and then just folded them over in a somewhat pleated fashion, leaving a hole in the middle for venting. i made 1.5 the amount of filling in the recipe and it was perfect for 16 pies. we served these with some spicy mustard and an apple and onion chutney made by my friend sonya. i HIGHLY recommend a fruit chutney with these, by the way. it truly elevated them to a different level, though they were good on their own already. in fact, i'd call these the surprise hit of the day.
tea is a no brainer for me. it's not tea without scones and cake! i made a chocolate pound cake from bundt classics from nordic ware. it's a simple recipe that just works. i will tell you that the quality of cocoa you use in this makes a big difference--get something dutch processed, and you will truly taste the difference. i also made some blueberry scones from a book i got as a gift a few years ago, breakfast lunch tea. it's an interesting book, in that the amounts of ingredients are a little rough--a handful of cornmeal, two handfuls of blueberries, two very heaping tablespoons of baking powder--but yet, the baked goods always come out smelling and tasting divine. the scone recipe in this book is my favorite. i served the scones with devon double cream and pear ginger jam, again from meredith. (she gave us a bunch of homemade jams and fruit butters for christmas, and we are getting some major mileage out of them!) and of course, we made tea--lots of good strong black tea with milk and sugar.
for dinner i got a little creative. my idea was to make some actual coney stew, but i couldn't find any rabbit. so. everyone (who's had rabbit) knows that rabbits taste like a richer version of dark meat chicken, so i used chicken thighs browned in bacon fat to approximate. i made this in the crock pot, and it made the house smell just awesome. in retrospect, i should have borrowed a second slow cooker and doubled this. here's the recipe:
INGREDIENTS
~3 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
3-4 tbsp bacon fat (enough to cover the bottom of your skillet completely)
3 good sized parsnips, peeled and sliced
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
8 oz sliced baby portabella mushrooms
8 shallots, peeled and halved or quartered, depending on size
1/2 a bottle of red wine
1 cup pacific vegetable broth
5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 quart chicken stock
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
4 strips bacon, fried
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
heat bacon fat over medium high heat. brown chicken thighs just until golden. (do NOT wash the pan!) add chicken thighs, parsnips, carrots, mushrooms, shallots, wine, vegetable broth, and herbs to slow cooker, and cook on high for about 5 hours, until chicken starts to come apart. remove herb sprig (they will just be sticks at this point.) shred chicken with two forks, stir in chicken stock, and season with salt and pepper. keep the slow cooker on while you make a roux: melt the butter in the same pan as you browned the chicken thighs. when the butter is melted, add the flour and cook over medium heat until roux is starting to brown. stir quickly into stew. serve immediately with good bread. we served a good simple salad with this as well. there was NOTHING left.
whew! are you hungry yet? for the last meal of the day, we went simple again. we had a selection of chicken sausages, which the hippie grilled, and i made some hot crash potatoes. the potatoes are from another blog i enjoy, pioneer woman, and they are wonderful, like a slightly healthier twice baked potato with lots of herbs and olive oil. i could eat 5 of them! this was the one thing we made all day that had any leftovers to speak of--i think everyone was just too full! i can't say i'm sorry though. it made for a fantastic breakfast the next morning with some fried eggs and toast with a little peach butter.
this whole day was just a blast, as was researching all the recipes and getting to try some very new things in the kitchen. i think we might make it a yearly event. i would recommend ANYTHING we ate, too--not one thing didn't turn out well all day long, which i consider something of a miracle.
hope y'all are drooling now, and ready to get in the kitchen! :)
3 comments:
As one of the lucky friends to partake of this all day geek feastathon I want to extend my thanks again. I need to get shopping and make some of these dishes for ourselves too.
Awesome day, awesome food... and now even the pictures came out beautifully! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Jackie, you're my hero!
Wow! What a day of feasting and fun!
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