School is back in session.  Ahhh… The sound of quiet around the house is very welcome after a long summer.  We had a wonderfully fun summer, but it was a long.  Tiny pixie started yesterday, and I guess she missed school a bunch judging by her synopsis.  “It was just like a party, only better, and it wasn’t even anyone’s birthday.”  My playground group was back in action yesterday afternoon, and freakishly, it’s not even that hot right now.  Life is good.

Anyhow, I’m toying with the idea of starting a preschool lunchbox service.  Most of the parents I know hate packing lunches and like cooking for one, making from scratch, fresh, healthy lunches in the quantity for one or two preschoolers, is a whole lot of effort and not very cost effective.  Often my kids wind up with dinner from the night before, which they don’t seem to mind, but I like providing them with variety, since I certainly don’t like eating the same thing several meals in a row.  I know a gal in Austin who started a service like this which wound up phenomenally successful.  So if you’re in Dallas, and you’d be interested in a healthy lunch box delivery service – send me an email to lane@dinnerandconversation.com – I have a few questions for you.  I’m still in survey/info gathering mode, but I’d love to chat.  This article specifically addresses the concerns over nutritional quality of preschool sack lunches in Texas.  Don’t worry I’m not the food nazi – my kids get plenty of snacks.  And luckily, I’ve been blessed with naturally good eaters.  I love cooking for other people, and I love preschoolers so it seems like and idea worthy of consideration anyway.

I’m planning a raspberry shortbread for dessert later tonight – so if preschool lunchboxes are boring to you, scrumptious dessert is on it’s way next!

Preschool Lunchbox Menu

Fresh Roast Chicken Breast

Mixed Vegetables with Olive Oil and a teeny, tiny sprinkling of sea salt

Fresh Raspberries

Orowheat Oatnut Bread

A bar of bittersweet chocolate has been mocking me in the pantry for months.  Bake me!  Bake me!  It cries.  I’ve taken it out at least four times only to find myself too worn out to create yet another set of dishes.  Some how the idea of cleaning the Kitchen Aid and a double boiler just always seems like too much of an event.  Plus baking takes such concentration, such focus.  And recipe searches.  And more recipe searches.  So we ordered pizza and I cooked dessert.  Not a bad trade off.

Molten chocolate cake is like a less healthy version of a chocolate souffle.  Not that chocolate souffle would meet all your nutritional needs, but it might get you through an extra day in the Hunger Games.  Let’s hope it provides me with enough energy to finish the book tonight.

I used the Ghirardelli recipe since it was a Ghirardelli bar I had on hand.  And it turned out deliciously.  Perfectly melted in the center and light and crisp on the outside.  Mine didn’t turn out quite as pretty when inverted, but nothing a little powdered sugar sprinkling couldn’t overcome.  Make sure you evenly butter and sugar sprinkle your ramekins if you’re a dessert presentation perfectionist.  And in my experience, since I seem to only have a hodge podge assortment of ramekins these days, a smaller diameter with a deeper depth ensures the best inverted presentation.

Molten Chocolate Cake

2 tbsps butter for greasing

2 tbsps sugar for coating

4 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate, broken into small pieces

1 stick butter

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 c. sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp cake flour

Preheat oven to 450.  Use a paper towel with a tablespoon of butter to grease four small ramekins.  Use additional butter if necessary to ensure a uniform coating on all surfaces.  Sprinkle 1 tbsp sugar in first ramekin, turn slowly to coat, pouring remaining sugar into the next ramekin.  Add sugar as needed to evenly coat each of  the four ramekins.

In a double boiler on medium low heat, melt chocolate pieces and butter over barely simmering water.  Check water occasionally to ensure you are not reaching a boil.  Stir after mixture begins to melt, then heat until thoroughly melted.  Remove top portion of double boiler, let cool slightly.

In a stand mixer, mix whole eggs, yolks, sugar and vanilla on high speed for 10 minutes until you have soft peeks.  Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture with a spatula using very gentle strokes to maintain volume. When a uniform color appears, add flour and fold until just combined.  Pour mixture evenly into four ramekins and bake 9 and a half minutes.  Remove from oven, let stand five minutes.  Use a knife to circle edges of ramekin, then invert molten cake onto a plate.  Garnish with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and a fresh berry of your choice.  Serve immediately!

Wait, Who’s Bob?  Who the heck cares?  This was the response I got when John and Kari first gave me this recipe.  There may have been an expletive involved, but then again, I like to embrace all the English language has to offer me so perhaps that’s just my memory.  John D’s mother, Sylvia, is a caretaker of the world.  She raised my husband, in a way.  And certainly kept him, as well as all of their friends, fed.  There are a few people in this world who live through providing, and Sylvia is one of them.  She will provide an answer, assistance, a contact, a friend, a shoulder, a pot roast, the list can go on.  That, my friends, is exactly what I am shooting for.  I would be the happiest mama on the block if I could spend my days feeding growing kids and their friends hearty and homey meals, meals that they’d not only want to pass along, but talk about years later.  That’s why I plan to have 80 children.  (Just kidding)  But seriously, one or two of them will eventually reject my presence and/or my cooking, so it’s time to shore up the reserves so I can guarantee that I’ll have a fulfilled adulthood.  (Just kidding again, sort of.)

Bob’s Chicken is straight up comfort food.  Had a bad day?  Eat Bob’s chicken.  Feeling under-appreciated?  Cook Bob’s Chicken.  Just recovered and found yourself back in black?  Make and Eat Bob’s chicken.  That’s my motto and I’m sticking to it.  This Bob had his eyes on the prize.  He saw a void in the world, looked out, and thought hey… I can make this better, and I’m going to do it with food.

This recipe can be as easy as you like or you can take it up a notch and add effects to make it drool worthy – as well as possibly coma inducing.  You can run with a box of store brand croutons – or you can make your own crostini like I do.  You can slap it all together and walk away – or you can add the cheese later once the sauce has begin to bubble ensuring a smoother texture and a phenomenal punch.  You can pound out your chicken, or you can throw it in there untouched and utilize the extra sauce to make the mouth-feel worthwhile.  If I had a restaurant, I’d garnish this with freshly chopped chives.  The possibilities are endless and you can take the basic ingredients and experiment with your pantry staples, all on a Tuesday managing to pull off dinner before everyone has to slug themselves into bed.   Just don’t run out of white wine.  Cause that will mess you up.  If you find yourself prone to this circumstance, hide one of those teeny tiny individual bottles of cheap white wine in your laundry room.  I won’t tell.  This recipe is so yummy you don’t even need to follow the “Don’t cook with it if you won’t drink it” rule.  It will taste better if you were willing, but it won’t destroy the comfort level.

Thank you, John and Kari, for loving us and always being willing to have Friday nights in our backyard.  And thank you, Sylvia, for raising these boys the way you did.  And thank you, Bob – whoever and wherever you may be – for saving boneless, skinless chicken breasts for me, all in one fell swoop.

Bob’s Chicken – recipe to feed 5 ravenous adults

3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts – thoroughly rinsed, trimmed, and dried with paper towels

fresh ground pepper

sea salt, finely ground

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 c. dry white wine – I like Sauvingnon Blanc

5 slices (or approx 4 ounces) swiss cheese, torn up to small pieces

1/2 c. butter

1/2 a baugette

3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

1 and 1/2 tbsps butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450.  Slice baguette into just under one inch rounds.  Halve smashed garlic, then rub one side of baguette with cloves, discarding pieces as they get too small.  Brush baguette pieces with melted butter.  Sprinkle very lightly with finely ground sea salt. Place baguette slices on a stone or a cookie sheet and toast until very lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Reduce oven to 350.  On a sheet of wax paper, pound chicken breasts with a mallet 1-2 minutes to tenderize and flatten.  Season with fresh ground pepper, then very, very lightly sprinkle with finely ground sea salt.  Place seasoned chicken breasts in a casserole in a single layer.  In a bowl, combine wine with cream of chicken and stir with a whisk to combine.  Pour mixture over chicken breasts, then top with toasted baguette slices(crostini).  Melt your half cup of butter in a glass measuring cup in microwave.  Drizzle melted butter slowly over crostini and chicken mixture.  If you feel you’ve covered everything – toss remaining melted butter.  Cook in oven for 25 minutes.  Pull casserole from oven and insert swiss cheese pieces into sauce and between crostini.  The hot sauce will provide an optimal melting and integration ground for your cheese.  Replace casserole in oven, then reduce oven temp to 325.  Cook another 15-20 minutes.  Let rest about 5-10 minutes out of oven to prevent scalding your loved one’s mouths.  Serve and enjoy!

So the thing about Asian food, and I’m sure this is one of those foot-in-the-mouth remarks, is back when I had gestational diabetes, I couldn’t pass my blood sugar after a meal at an Asain restaurant to save my life.  Even when I thought I was making good choices.  Now – the same can probably be said about restaurant eating in general, but I felt a particular hardship with Asian food.  Which, you know, scared me since my endocrinologist was all – “Your body can only produce so much insulin and once it’s done it’s done.  So you really should life long watch your sugars -lest this finger pricking and diet minding become your everyday existence.”  For those of you who *don’t* know me in person, I have absolutely ZERO risk categories for gestational diabetes and was totally floored by the diagnosis.  Consequently, I took this way more seriously than I probably should have.  And heaven knows I love an experiment, so I almost wish I could have tested my blood sugar after this meal, cause I’m betting, forgoing the rice and all that I could have passed.

On the other hand, if you find yourself to be among the 15 or so percent of humans who are salt sensitive – this is probably not the best recipe for you.  We all have something to watch, I guess.

Another nice thing about this meal is that it lies in the QUICK AND EASY category – a category which has been pointed out is sorely lacking here on dinnerandconversation.  Next time, I’d probably swap the zucchini for snow peas.  Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with snow peas, but most people love them and the zucchini disentigrated more than I like.  Also go for fresh on the bean sprouts – everyone in Dallas must have been eating bean sprouts this week because there were literally no fresh ones.  Which totally blows my mind, but I had to use canned.  This recipe also makes enough to feed an army, so be prepared or you know, cut it in half.  I’d say it will generously feed six adults.  The soy sauce marinated chicken is a technique I learned from one of my bestest friends, Marti, way back in the day.  Gosh I miss cooking with you Marti, and miss Austin just as much.  (Working on it…)  Some time when she’s not busy gestating or working or just making the world spin round, I’ll have Marti guest post with her Asian Chicken Salad.  She’s way funnier than me and a truly fabulous chef.

Another Version of a Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

1.5 lbs chicken tenders

1 c. soy sauce

1 crown broccoli, chopped

2 zucchini, halved lengthwise, then sliced into one inch sections on an angle

1 12 oz bag broccoli coleslaw mix

1 can bean sprouts

2 cans “fancy” sliced water chestnuts ** I swear if the label doesn’t say fancy, they’re mushy, but maybe I’m a marketing victim

2 tbsps fish sauce

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

Marinate the chicken tenders in a bowl in soy sauce for 10-12 minutes, turning occaisionally.  Heat wok on high heat, reduce to medium high, add 2 tbsps olive oil and chicken tenders in a single layer.  Cook 3 minutes, then turn to cook on the other side another 3 minutes, remove to a plate.  Add broccoli and zucchini ( if using snow peas in place of broccoli, delay adding those for 6 minutes.)  Cook covered for 8 minutes, stirring occaisonally.  Add remainder of soy sauce marinade and bag of broccoli coleslaw.  Cook two minutes, covered, then add water chestnuts, bean sprouts, fish sauce, and hoisin sauce.  Stir, then cook another 1 minute uncovered.  Slice chicken to 1 inch pieces on an angle, add back to veggie mixture, stir, let cook on medium heat 2 minutes and serve.

The fridge has been cleaned out and restocked, and I’m on my way back up the ladder after a dismal week of culinary mishaps.  It happens to everyone, I suppose, but for some reason I seem to take the hit harder than most.  I screwed up egg salad for the love of criminy.  That is just soooooo JV.  Anyhow, tonight I went with an old stand by.  I figure when you’re having a rough patch, go back to your roots.

This soup has always been a big hit at my annual soup swap, as well as a great course for a Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner – the color just works well.  My parents are probably laughing at me that I could even consider something called Spinach Soup an old stand by.  I was a pretty picky eater as a kiddo, not as phenomenally so as my older sister, but still, fairly anti-vegetable, etc.  The culmination of said pickiness came at age six, resulting in me vomiting out of sheer protest after being forced one bite of a spinach souffle, then immediately declaring a spinach “allergy”.  Did I ever mention I don’t like to be told what to do?  I also tried to convince my best friend’s mother I had an egg allergy around that time, but I’m pretty sure Margee saw right through that.  In any case, Margee pretty much let us do whatever we wanted to anyway.  But, hey, we all grow up some day right?

There are two keys to this dish.  Immutable food laws, in my opinion, regarding spinach.  One – Only cook the spinach for an extremely short period of time to protect the color, flavor, and prevent the bittering flavors from attacking you.  Two – don’t season until you’ve reheated your soup after pureeing and adding the cream and Madeira, salt has a way of changing the flavor during the heating process.  A third rule, not necessarily immutable, but in the quest for food excellence, I’d encourage is, use real cream.  Real heavy cream.  Generally, I’m apt to sub half and half cause we have it on hand, or if a recipe calls for whole milk, I run with skim or 1 %.  In fact, usually if it calls for half and half, I half the amount and make up the difference with 1% milk.  But that one’s largely due to my sheer panic that my coffee might not be perfect the next morning if I use all my half and half.  I’ve made this with half and half and it’s just not the same.  Opt for real cream.  This recipe was adapted over time from the Williams Sonoma Entertaining cookbook.  I know I added more potato, much more stock, knowing me – probably more liquor and generally changed things around a bit – but that’s originally where it came from.  I tried to find the original recipe, but I can’t find my cookbook at the moment, and it’s long out of print.

I find children to enjoy this more if you call it Green Soup instead of spinach.  My kids are aliens, but they both gobbled up a bowl and were thrilled.  I’ve served it to a couple other children with good results.  And just in case you’re a grown up who feels ill at the idea of cooked spinach, give it a shot.  It’s seriously one of my most requested recipes. This recipe makes a bucket load – probably at least 10 bowl size servings – so feel free to half it or to split it with a friend.  As always, food is love and your friend with thank you, unless they throw up on your table out of protest anyway.

Spinach Soup with Madeira

1/4 c. butter
2 1/2 c. diced yellow (or white) onion – just not sweet onions!
2 baking (Russet) potatoes peeled and thinly sliced
5 c chicken stock
2 pkg prewashed baby spinach (at least 9 oz size each, the kind in the ready to make salad section)
1 c heavy cream
1/2 c. Madeira wine
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper (lots of both to taste) probably at least 3 tsps of salt

In a 6qt saucepan over med heat, melt butter.  Add the onion and saute, stirring, until tender and translucent 10-12 minutes.  Add the potato and the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer until the potato is soft, 8-10 min.

Raise heat to high and start adding spinach by the handful, pushing them down in the hot stock with a spoon.  When all of the spinach has been immersed in the stock, cook until barely wilted no more than 1 min.

Working in batches using a slotted spoon, transfer soup solids to a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade.  If you put it all in at once, it’s liable to make a big mess and won’t get evenly chopped.  The resulting mixture will be very thick.  At this point you can STOP, if you’re preparing in advance.

Pour the puree back into the stock.  Stir.  Add the cream and Madeira and reheat gently, thinning with additional stock to your liking.  Do not allow to boil.  Season with the nutmeg and generously with salt and pepper to taste.

Dear Internet,

I’m sorry for disappearing so abruptly.  I just came home from Utah and then, well, life did what it seems to have a way of doing and straight took me out of the game.  Seriously you don’t want details, but I had some surgery and much to my dismay, it took just frankly took a truckload more to recover than I was expecting.  So, I’ve been out of the kitchen and off my feet.  It’s so nearly offensive when your body just fails you that often we find ourselves, or at least my family does, just plain hiding and sulking in a corner.  Or maybe not in a corner, but just unable to deliver your usual exuberance and zest for life.

But.  I’m happy to announce again, I’m back y’all.  And the kids return to preschool in a week so hopefully our lives will resume a semblance of normalcy.  I’ve missed you and I’ve missed my kitchen.

I like to fancy myself one of the old school members of our community.  You’re ailing, well the beach cures all.  Get thyself to the ocean, and HEAL.  Luckily the stars aligned and I had a beach vacation setup with my sweet family.  Loving husband could happily reside on a beach, in the surf each and every day, with just his fishing rod, swim shorts, some fresh shrimp for bait, and endless amounts of time.  So he did what he does best, one of the many things anyway, and caught dinner for us.  It wasn’t the year of the pompano, and I was off my a-game and didn’t have my proper spices, but it was still a fabulous dinner.  And it was fresh caught, ours, and didn’t cost $300.

Sweet husband will probably kick me for posting this photo of him with fish – but you have to see it in action to appreciate.  And when I say appreciate, I mean appreciate like the four exuberant toddlers who couldn’t wait to touch this fish.  Tiny pixie, aka junior fisherman in training seen in the corner of said photo, couldn’t have been more excited about this catch.  I’m pretty sure she informed all of Watercolor about daddy’s catch.  In fact, when said fish was caught, She was the deciding factor.  Sweet husband asked her if he should release it or if she wanted to eat it, and well – she was firm in her decision.  I’m raising a baby who loves food as much as her mama.

The rice pictured was all mine as well, but we had some miscommunication on the grocery list, not once but twice!  And wild rice it was.  I’m hear to tell you, Internet, Uncle Ben’s wild rice, still tastes like Uncle Ben’s even if you leave out the seasoning packet.  But thank you Daddy for making that second trip to the grocery, I’m sorry you were mislead.  If the stars had aligned properly, here’s the recipe on how I would have made it – but please note – your rice will look different if you make it with long grain white rice versus a wild grain mixture.

If you haven’t been to the Destin/Seaside/Florida panhandle area, here’s what you’ve been missing.  ALOT. 

Destin is my childhood.  It’s my sweetest memories, my most beautiful place, the place that makes me whole.  That’s my entourage in the photo,  *I* don’t do swimsuit photos!  But they’re all so cute how can you resist?

Oh yes, and our local Publix grocery didn’t carry my blackened seasoning of choice – Cajun’s Choice – I used the Old Bay plus Blackened Seasoning.  Cajun’s Choice is SPICY!  Old Bay is “seasoned”,  as my mother would say, not *hot* but flavorful.  Also, sweet husband wanted a point made that though catching the giant fish is much more fun, smaller fish are much much more tender and flavorful.

Blackened Redfish

5 lbs redfish fillets – I’m totally guessing here – it was a huge fish upwards of 20lbs, trimmed and cleaned heartily and fed 8 adults easily with leftovers

Blackened Seasoning

Kosher Salt

Olive oil

Clean and fillet fish or purchase that way from your fishmonger, (I like Rex.)  Drizzle with olive oil, rub olive oil evenly with your hand, then sprinkle with blackened seasoning and kosher salt.  Grill on medium heat for about 8 minutes per side, depending on thickness of fish.  I watch it until the edges are totally opaque, then flip.

Spanish Style Rice

1 and 3/4 c. Long Grain White Rice * see notes above

3/4 of white onion finely diced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tomatoes, chopped

4 c. chicken stock

In a skillet, heat olive oil on medium heat.  Add rice and onion, cook 6 minutes, add garlic and cook 2 more minutes.  In a separate sauce pan, heat chicken stock to a boil, add tomatoes, then rice mixture.  Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook 30 minutes.  Test for texture and seasoning, adjust cooking time and salt/pepper as necessary.

Biscuits are something people develop extremely strong opinions about and at the same time such an intense love affair for the preferred style it becomes difficult to even appreciate other methods.  When my sister’s husband wanted to move from the city of San Francisco out into the woods to have trees and nature and a pool, he bribed her with a freezer full of Marshall’s biscuits from Alabama.  I’m not even kidding about this.  I guess a good biscuit is hard to come by in the Bay Area.  I don’t even have a separate freezer or a garage for that matter, let alone room for a freezer filled to the rim with biscuits.  My husband lives and dies by biscuits and gravy.  As I’ve said before, I just don’t function well before about 10 am and two cups of coffee so I’m not really cut out to be a morning baker at this point in the game.

Well, it’s been a rough week for me, so for some reason, my reaction has been to bake.  Baking is not something I’m particularly good at, so I’m not sure what prompted this adventure.  Possibly it’s that I *can’t* do it in my sleep and it requires a level of concentration distracting me from other thoughts.  That said, the biscuit process probably took me about three hours start to finish, which is absurd.  The recipe doesn’t take that long, I just kept getting distracted by life or phone calls or a small child or a grown husband.  And there was the problem of I missing several key ingredients.  Well, I never have buttermilk on hand as I just don’t see the point in buying it when you can make your own very simply using ingredients I always have on hand.  Plus, what in heavens name, am I going to do with the remainder of the buttermilk after I’ve used the portion the recipe requires.  Aside from throw it out after it expires, Ahem.  Not so great for my food waste reduction goal.

The cream of tartar was another problem.  Cream of tartar in baking is a leavening agent.  I know how to sub for baking powder using baking soda and cream of tartar, but I wasn’t sure how to get backwards.  It was more complicated than I imagined, and I probably should have just asked Robert Shimmin, but I was trying, stubbornly, to pull this off on my own.  The biscuits turned out well, though if I’d gone with the original recipe, who knows, they may have been better.  I’m going to try them again with the cream of tartar and report back on my results.

The recipe is adapted from a post by Jen of userealbutter.com She writes a fabulous food blog that I love and admire.  Her original recipe is here.  Go by it – or go at it with my changes.  She has wonderful pictures for a play-by-play cooking experience.  The adjustments I made are the buttermilk – to 2 cups of 1% milk, I added two tablespoons white vinegar – you can also use lemon juice – and let it stand for a good 10 minutes.  Since I didn’t have the cream of tartar, I used 4 1/2 tsps baking powder and only 1 tsp baking soda instead of the original 2 tsps.  Also, I used a glass to cut out my biscuits since I don’t have a biscuit cutter, a neat trick I learned from my big sis!  I also wasn’t paying attention at the point when it said to start with 1 and 3/4 c. of the buttermilk and dumped it all in.  My dough wound up too wet for proper kneading, but I rescued it by sprinkling on lots of excess flour.  Forgive me Internet!  I’m not a true baker by nature!  My oven’s kind of persnickety,  so I started checking at 16 minutes and felt like my were finished in about 17 minutes.

Two other points of conversation for this recipe, the White Lily Flour mentioned in the original recipe is something I’ve sought after for YEARS but can never find.  Back in school in my Nutrition and Food Science days, this flour was purported as being the chief flour for baking.  It’s been 12 years and I can’t remember why now, but if you can find it, you should buy it!  The other great rec for non-bakers like me is a pizza stone.  Back in my working days, I had an employee who just loved to host Pampered Chef parties.  I always felt compelled to buy something and most of what I bought I disliked for one reason or another.  But the pizza stone is awesome.  It makes it nearly impossible to burn cookies or biscuits.  Nice even baking.  A++ and highly recommended! Looks like now they have a rectangle one I’d like even better.

Extra Flaky Style Southern Biscuits

4 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsps salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1 3/4 to 2 cups cold buttermilk
8 tbsps butter, really softened and cut into 1 tbsp pieces
1 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450° . Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut cold butter or shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry blender. (Mixture will resemble coarse crumbs, with no large chunks of butter.) If butter gets very soft at this point, refrigerate mixture for 20 minutes. Add 1 and 3/4 cups buttermilk, stirring just to moisten all ingredients. Dough should be soft and moist; add remaining 1/4 cup as needed. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface and knead gently about 10 times, or just until dough holds together. Roll or pat dough into a 14-by-10-inch rectangle. With short side nearest you, spread top two-thirds of dough with 3 tablespoons soft butter, leaving bottom third, closest to you, unbuttered. Fold dough into thirds by pulling bottom third up over center and then pulling top third over middle. Turn dough so short side faces you. Roll into a 9-by-12-inch rectangle. In same manner, spread again with 3 tablespoons soft butter and fold letter style. Turn once more in the same manner. Roll into a 9-by-12-inch rectangle (I used the rolling pin again); spread with remaining 2 tablespoons soft butter and fold up. Work quickly and gently so as not to overwork dough. Roll dough into rectangle 3/4-inch thick on floured surface. Cut into rounds using the top edge of a drinking glass. Place on pan, 1 inch apart. Lightly brush tops with melted butter. Bake in center of hot oven about 17 minutes, until golden brown and firm.

So it’s a bit non- traditional, but we ate our lobster bisque accompanied by grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches.  Loving husband and I had a miscommunication and he ate my reserved lobster meat before I could add it to the bisque.  I can’t get upset, though, since that means A) he loved the prepared lobster and B) anyone willing to eat leftovers deserves a medal.  I’m absolutely thrilled with the results of my lobster bisque – especially since this was my first lobster cooking experience in the first place!  I’m very pleased with the overall color and taste.  I think it held its own with any lobster bisque I’ve ever purchased.

For the technique, I reserved all of my lobster shells yesterday after Amelia removed the claw and tail meat.  For the head half, I chopped the lobsters in half and removed the sand sac or grain sac as it appears to be called both.  I couldn’t find a picture online of one, and silly me had my hands all slimy at the time, so I didn’t take one either.  I’ll give the description a shot, since I couldn’t find a good description online, and they call me the google-nator.  It looked like a relatively empty area, directly at the front of the head, up near the eyes.  Inside the sac, it looked like little teeny bits of broken up shell.  Here’s a picture of my stock after straining 3 times, I think the color is just beautiful.

When you watch the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network, she thinks your fishmonger should have fresh, cooked, de-shelled lobster meat available for purchase.  I’m not sure that mine does, but I’ll put him to the test tomorrow.  If he doesn’t I’ll come up with something to add to our remaining bisque.

Lobster Bisque

(for stock)

1 tbsp olive oil

4 carrots, peeled and chopped

1/2 a white onion, sliced and quartered to slivers

5 stalks celery, chopped

4 lobster carcasses, chopped up and sand sac removed

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 14 oz can tomato puree

2 bay leafs

1 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 tsps kosher salt

4 cloves garlic, chopped

(for bisque)

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. flour

8 c. lobster stock

1 and 1/2 tbsp corn starch

1/2 c. sherry

1 c. milk

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 and 1/2 tsp kosher salt

parsley for garnish

In a large stock pot, warm olive oil over medium heat.  Add carrots, onions, and celery, sautee 10 minutes.  Add chopped lobster shells, then cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes.  Add bay leaves, tomato paste, and puree.  Simmer another 30 minutes, then add garlic, thyme, and salt.  Simmer another hour.

Strain stock through a fine strainer to a clean pot.  Strain 2 more times.  Wash original stock pot, then melt butter.  Add flour and cook resulting roux on medium six minutes, stirring continuously.  Start by adding 1/2 c. lobster stock, then 1 cup increments until you’ve added 6 of the 8 cups.  During this process, your mixture will go from a paste-like consistency, to a thinner soup.  Use a whisk the whole time to ensure smoothness.  Add sherry and milk.  Combine corn starch with a ladle full of stock, then add the remaining lobster stock.  Add stock and cornstarch mixture.  Add cayenne, pepper, and salt, then bring to a boil and reduce heat cooking on medium low for 30 minutes.  Stir every five minutes or so – being sure to scrape the bottom to prevent scorching.  Taste, season to taste.

*** Here’s where I would have added finely chopped reserved lobster meat if we’d still had some on hand.

Get out of dodge.  I’ve finally cooked fresh live lobsters!  This has been a want and a dream of mine for as long as I can remember.  There’s something so pure, raw, and unadulterated about taking a live ingredient and making it yours from start to finish.  It’s completely primal.  Now I’m not a hunter, and as I’ve mentioned before a pacifist by nature.  So the idea of boiling a live lobster is somewhat repellent, but also feels very natural, since I plan to use each and every last part of the lobster.  I’m embarking on lobster stock tomorrow, straight on my way to lobster bisque, which I hope! will mimic an iota of the culinary masterpiece of The Country Club of Peoria.  I know.  Peoria, really?  As in the small city in the heart of Illinois, miles away from any oceans?  Yep.  That one.  That’s my parents’ country club, and I’d just about give an arm for their recipe to lobster bisque, except then I’d have more trouble holding babies, and I love babies.  It’s more amazing than anywhere else.  Bold statement, I know.  Yes.  I get homesick.  Yes, I’m a tad nostalgic for a simpler life.  That said.  Their Lobster Bisque will change your life.  And if you haven’t been down Grandview Drive, or seen the bluff over the river, well you flat missed some of the best parts of the midwest.

Lobster and I, we have a unique kinship.  My best friend Lisa and I once ate at Truluck’s in Austin (when we totally couldn’t afford it) where we attempted to order two pound lobsters each.  Sadly, they were out of two pound lobsters, so when they offered two 1-pound lobsters for the same price, we jumped on it.  Even though that meant, we EACH HAD TWO LOBSTERS on our plate.  Every time I’ve gone to Boston (yep all two of them) I hopped straight for the lobster.  When restaurant.com sends me an email, I’m always secretly coveting the Lobster Gram.  At the Park City Farmer’s Market, I eyed the fresh Maine Lobster booth each week.  I even have a thing for Cider House Rules.  Enough said, point made.

The fabulous thing about having dear sisters is you can rope them into all sorts of stuff you could never get away with on your own.  Kind of like this blog, I’ve gotten a kitchen and grocery budget hall pass ever since I started writing.  Ahem.  Please no one tell my husband I’m not really making money!  It’s all such a fabulous dream!  So when I arrived home to a Gourmet magazine with Lobster Rolls on the cover, *NOT* containing mayonnaise, it was a sign from the gods.  I called up my sweet little sister and announced, we’re making lobsters, how many should I order?  And of course, sweet little sister obliged as she is compelled to do, and a life long dream was fulfilled.

So here’s what they looked like, flown in fresh today to Rex’s Seafood Market. 

And of course, the fishmonger is all, “Dude, you ladies are headed straight home, right?  Cause you know you can’t leave live lobsters in a box in your trunk in 100 degree weather.”  And I’m all, “Shhhh.yeah   of course I wasn’t planning on popping into Target first for an extra large pot.  Like I’d be that stupid.”  Ahem.  Again.  I was going to be fast.  Maybe even leave Amelia in the car with the air conditioning running.  Anyhow, we went straight home and made do with the pans I have on hand.

So then we get the water boiling, salted it and were ready to hit the ground running.  At first, Amelia scoffed at me that I was using tongs to transfer the lobsters to the pot.  Cause apparently on tv, they always use their hands.  She figured out why that was a bad plan on lobster #3 when she nearly scalded herself with boiling water and came close to taking out a too-close-in-proximity computer after the lobster threw a conniption fit when approaching the pot.  This is how the guys looked in the pot.  Note the color and the steam.  Ahh…

The rest of the process was pretty painless.  And Amelia definitely can take on a job as lobster meat excavator, should you so be looking for one.  Her years of hitting every crawfish boil in a 50 mile radius have certainly paid off.  You need champagne uncorked, I’m your gal.  You need lobster de-shelled in the most efficient and effective manner, go for the younger sister.  It was an amazing day.  And we’re obsessed with the results.

If you shy away from shellfish due to to sometimes salt-watery flavor, go for fresh, go for live, and make the most of what you’ve paid for.  I can’t imagine you’ll be disappointed.

The recipe for these Lobster Rolls came from Gourmet magazine.  If you take the magazine, the photo is featured on the cover of their July 2009 issue.  If you don’t, please subscribe.  Your culinary appetite will be expanded and invigorated.  Please click here to their site to see the recipe.  The only changes I made, were my total inability to use hot dog buns, so I used french bread sandwich rolls, with a v-pattern cut from the top to make them open, and I cooked my 1.5lb lobsters 10 minutes, because I always prefer seafood well done.  Sweet husband loved these, but felt on future endeavors, I could add zip, so I’d probably go with more lemon, adding capers, then letting the mixture chill for about 2 hours before serving.  It was fabulous.  Couldn’t recommend this more!

Making a standing rib roast in Texas is July is borderline insanity, but it’s one of my favorite things to eat/cook so I do it anyway.  Apparently it’s one of my 2 year old son’s as well since he knocked back at least a pound of beef all on his own.  Plus he likes end cuts!  A whole standing rib roasts contains 7 ribs – ribs numbers 6-12.  The smaller end – closer to the loin the ribs 9-12 are generally considered more tender and a better cut of meat.  A rib usually serves two, so a four rib roast could serve 8 adults, unless they eat like Quentin… or me on prime rib night.

One of the most important things in preparing large roasts is bringing the roast closer to room temperature before cooking.  I bring my roasts out of the refrigerator about 2 hours before cooking.  Other than that, roasts are pretty easy to prepare.

Mashed potatoes are also one of my favorite foods.  I took the picture at the top before we topped them with our au jus – which made them even better.  My recipe for mashed potatoes can be found here, but I did want to include a photo of the potato ricer just in case you’ve never seen one in action.  They are fabulous tools! 

Standing Rib Roast

3 rib roast – approx 8 lbs

paprika

kosher salt

pepper

Bring roast to room temperature.  Preheat oven to 500.  Season liberally with salt, pepper, and paprika.  Cook roast at 500 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 325.  Cook about 15 minutes per pound, until meat reaches 135 degrees for medium rare.  Let rest 15 minutes, then cut down towards bone, then down bone to release meat.

Pour off all fat from roasting pan, then add 2 cups water to pan drippings to create your au jus, scraping up any brown bits.  Add any meat juices left from slicing meat, bring to a boil, then reduce two minutes.  Season to taste and serve with prime rib for dipping.