Sunday, the 24th of July 2016: COMO

I arrived back to my beloved COMO (COlumbia, MO) this past Sunday afternoon. Timing was excellent as it was just a bit before mom and dad's weekly Sunday Family Dinner & Game Night. Nearly every Sunday my cousins Curt and Cathy and their spouses, Pat and Tom join mom and dad for food and game fun. Often there are others that join in (especially us, mom & dad's kids and grandkids - we can't wait to visit and play!), but the six mentioned above are the core group here in COMO. As you can see, this past Sunday, we had gourmet pizzas on flat bread - above are three of the ones mom and dad made. Thought I'd include the video, 'cause it just so darn cute of the two of them! Mom assembled the pizzas, with help from dad, on flat breads with sautéed veggies and baby eggplant, some tomato sauce and Collina brand Italian 4-Cheese Blend, mozzarella, feta and/or ricotta cheeses. There was a bowl of fresh basil leaves on the table as well as a bit on top of some of the pizzas. All were delicious, no matter what the combination, and there were even a few slices left over for lunch the next day! 

Part of my COMO families SND tradition is to play a game after dinner is done. Last Sunday, that game was Sequence, a game easily played with an odd number of people as it's always the gals vs. the guys. It's a fun game - even better because we gals won that night! (Mom and dad have a neat homemade board one of their friends made them, but you can buy a board as well.)

Two of our flat bread pizzas - stagger the start of the baking times so all of them aren't done at once!
(Of course! Trader Joe's has a great flat bread!)

flat bread/pitas - the thinner the better (click here (what we used) & here for examples)

assorted veggies of your choice, sautéed - this night we used: 

red pepper strips

onions, sliced

baby bok chop, chopped

mini/baby eggplant, sliced 

grape tomatoes, halved
chanterelle mushrooms, torn into bite-size pieces
yellow and green zucchini, sliced

basil leaves, chiffonaded (fancy word for cut in strips)

fresh roma or other tomatoes, sliced and set aside

olive or grape oil

pizza or marinara sauce of your choice (we used Newman's, 'cause we had it on hand)

pepperoni, salami, procuitto, other cured meats, optional - but good

Italian 4-cheese blend (We used Bella Collina brand from Sam's Club)

mozzarella, sliced or shredded

parmesan or romano, grated

feta, crumbled (try to find either Bulgarian feta or Greek feta - there is a HUGE difference in taste from US-made feta cheeses - click here for an article on the difference)

basil leaves, whole, for the table

Preheat oven to 425º F. Figuring on 1/2 a flatbread for a light eater and 1 flatbread for a more vigorous eater, line as many cookie sheets as you need with parchment paper and place the flatbreads on the cookie sheets, leaving room between them. 

In a large skillet, coated lightly with oil, sauté your veggies, in this case red pepper strips, onion, bok chop, and grape tomatoes until just al dente. Set aside.  

onions, peppers, tomatoes, bok chop just at al dente

In the same skillet (or a separate one), coated lightly with oil, sauté the eggplant rounds until just browning and softening. Set aside. Sauté the remaining veggies individually and set aside. 

baby eggplant just warmed through

Now for the fun part! Assembling your pizzas! You can do any combination of ingredients you want! If you watch the video, above, you'll get an idea of how mom assembled at least three of ours. 

Pizza 1: First marinara sauce, then ricotta cheese spread all over and then a healthy coating of the Italian 4-Cheese blend. On top of that, the sautéed mixed veggies. Finally, more Italian 4-Cheese blend and parmesan. 

Pizza 2: Marinara sauce, then Italian 4-Cheese blend to cover the flatbread. On top of that, place the sautéed eggplant all around the top in a single layer. Put some of the sautéed veggies on top of the eggplant. Sprinkle Italian 4-Cheese blend on top and some parmesan cheese. 

Pizza 3: Much like pizza 1, but without any grape tomatoes.

Pizza 4: Drizzle some olive oil on the flat bread, then a layer of Emmentaler cheese. On top of the cheese, put a single layer of whole basil leaves. On that place a single layer of fresh tomato slices. Scatter some sautéed sliced onion on the tomatoes slices and then with feta. Then put a layer of very thin slices of lightly sautéed zucchini. Over that scatter fresh, sautéed chanterelles and then parmesan cheese. 

Pizza 5: Drizzle the flat bread with olive the cover lightly with marinara sauce. Sprinkle with some fresh basil and then cover with baby eggplant slices. Sprinkle the eggplant with sautéed onion slices and then a generous amount of sautéed chanterelle mushrooms. Lightly sprinkle the entire pizza with Italian 4-Cheese blend

Pizza 6: Drizzle flatbread with some olive and then smear with marinara sauce and then smear ricotta on top of the marinara. Place slices of mozzarella all over that and then scatter chanterelles, eggplant, sautéed yellow & green zucchini over all. Place pepperoni rounds all around the outside of the flatbread and top with grated parmesan cheese.

The first three pizza all ready for the oven:

top to bottom: Pizza 1, Pizzas 2 & 3

Pizzas #4 & #5 ready for the oven - no photo of #6, unfortunately:

left to right: pizza #4 & pizza #5
this photo courtesy of MumBum

Season all the pizzas with BumHot, (or bought red pepper flakes or cayenne) and any other seasoning you'd like, to taste. Place two or three pizzas in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until done to your liking. Remove them to a serving board, slice and everyone can grab a slice or two. While you're enjoying those pizzas, bake the rest of them and serve when the first round is eaten up!

~~~

See you on Sunday!

~

Gathered 'round: Mom & Dad Bum, cousins Curt & Pat Vogel, cousins Cathy & Tom Shryock, me

Thursday, the 14th of July 2016

The Veggies & Pesto Bread

Last Thursday, cousin Julie's daughter, Lauren, came out to CT (from NYC where she lives) with a bunch of her buddies and so we gathered for dinner*. They were on their way to Nantucket for a little R&R and stopped for the night in CT, well until 4am on Friday morning when they left for said vacation stop. As always, with any of our kids, Lauren had requests for the din-din she would have before departure. On the menu were the grilled veggies and pesto bread you see above, along with grilled shrimp (which I totally didn't photograph, darn it!). The meal was excellent, and the shrimp, tho delicious, superfluous as far as I was concerned!

On the menu: 

1 - Grilled Shrimp

2 - Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

3 - Grilled Mixed Veggies

4 - Grilled Pesto Bread

5 - Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes w/Burrata Cheese

6 - No dessert

1 - Clean and shell the shrimp. Melt butter in a bowl and add Old Bay Seasoning. Toss with the shrimp. In a grill basket, grill the shrimp, tossing continually, over a hot fire. Remove and cover with foil until serving. 

2 & 3 - Toss the portobello's and veggies, in this case, carrots, zucchini, onions and those tiny ~mini-sweets~ peppers, with a good Italian vinaigrette - if you don't have a favorite recipe, use Good Seasons packets mixed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Grill over medium-high heat all until done. Place on a platter or platters and drizzle all with balsamic glaze. These are all delicious served at room temperature. 

4 - Cut in half a loaf of good quality Italian bread. Heavily smear the bread with a good, fresh pesto, either homemade, or in Julie's case (and mine if I were making it), Stew Leonard's fresh pesto. Grill over medium heat until the bread is browning and the pesto beginning to ~melt~. Slice and serve either warm or at room temperature. 

5 - Slice the tomatoes and arrange around a round of pulled apart burrata cheese. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Be sure tomatoes are at room temperature. 

6 - Dessert....again a no go (sigh)

~~~

See you on Sunday!!

~

*Gathered 'round: niece Lauren and four of her friends, nephew Connor, and cousins Julie, Andy and Mike & me!

Sunday, the 10th of July 2016

The beginnings of Broiled Tomatoes w/Feta Salad

Yesterday there were eight folks gathered 'round our dinner table*. And did we have a feast! Our menus generally are based on what any one of us in the family is hungry for (that usually means me, if I'm the one doing most of the cooking that night). Tonight son Bly, who lives in the city and was out for a visit, requested steak as he hasn't yet found a butcher shop close to him and his wife that has anything but meh-tasting beef. He also asked his sis to make pork belly - something Brynnly's becoming semi-famous for; it's that good. The rest that followed was, yup, what I was hungry for! 

 1 - char-grilled marinated London broil

2 - steak au poivre mushroom sauce

3 - caramelized skillet corn

4 - seared pork belly

 5 - tomatoes w/feta salad

6 - fresh ~pickled~ cucumbers

7 - no dessert - ran out of time

1 - Beef has gotten so expensive! This time, tho, I was in luck because Stew Leonard's had their London broil steaks on sale for only $2.99/lb.! London broil is a flavorful, but somewhat tough meat that just needs a tenderizing marinade and to be cut on an angle in thin slices. It's just as good as any sirloin when treated correctly. 

For the marinade: In a blender combine olive oil, worchestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, curry powder, Mister Mustard, well, mustard (Shop Rite carries it). Amounts are up to your tastes. We were grilling two 3 lb. steaks so used (but didn't measure anything) about 1/3 C. olive oil, 1/4 C. worchestershire and red wine vinegar, 4 T. curry, 1 T. mustard. Marinate for at least 1 hour before grilling. I put the steaks in an over-sized zip-lic, poured the marinade in and left the steaks on the counter so they would come to room temp.  

2 - I know, I know...steak au poivre doesn't have mushrooms in it and uses brandy and whole peppercorns. Ours didn't follow the rules! 

For our sauce: In at least 1/2+ stick of butter, we sautéed two 10 oz. packages of pre-sliced white mushrooms with half of a diced onion. As that began cooking down, 1/2 C. bourbon was added, along with 3 T. coarse-ground Tellicherry black pepper. Just before serving a 3/4 C. half & half was added and all was heated through. 

3 - Follow the link for the skillet corn recipe. This time we used frozen corn. In my humble opinion, the very best frozen corn I've ever eaten comes from The Fresh Market grocery store. It's their own store brand and comes in 2 lb. bags. We used a bag of the yellow corn and a bag of the white corn.

4 - Daughter Brynnly made the pork belly (when you purchase it, be sure to get a slab of pork belly (see photo here) and not thin cuts that won't stand on their fatty side. Our slab was about 8" x 4". Preheat the oven to 425º F. In a large iron skillet, sear the pork belly on both sides so it's nicely browned, turning frequently, about 5 minutes per side. While that's searing, make your marinade. There isn't any set marinade for pork belly, and the 3 times Brynnly has made it, she's used a different marinade each time. This time it was: soy sauce, fresh grated ginger, a touch of grapefruit zest, a dash of Mr. Mustard and grape seed oil - mix all together with a stick blender or stand blender. When the pork belly is well seared, remove it from the skillet and drain the fat from the skillet. Let the skillet cool down a bit (so the marinade won't burn), place the pork belly back in it, fat side up, and pour the marinade over it, being sure all sides get covered with it. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. When done, remove it from the skillet and cut it into bite or two bite-size pieces. Place in a bowl or small platter and serve. 

5 - This recipe came out of the cookbook ~Culinary Masterpieces~, a wonderful cookbook published  in 1993 by The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City to celebrate the museum's 60th birthday. The whole darn book is good, but I think their tomatoes with feta recipe is my very favorite. 

Gather together fresh basil leaves that are washed and dried, fresh tomatoes, feta cheese and a balsamic dressing. Cover the bottom of your baking dish with basil leaves - be sure to cover the entire bottom. Place thickly sliced tomato slices on top of the leaves to entirely cover as well. Drizzle balsamic dressing over all, as you would a salad - not too much, not too little. Cover the tomatoes entirely with feta cheese: 

All covered with feta and ready for the broiler!

 Broil about 5" from the heat source until the feta is nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let come to room temperature to serve. You can make your balsamic from scratch, but I usually just use the Good Seasons Zesty Italian packet and carafe. Use a spatula to serve this. 

6 - One of our very favorite salads! And there's just no way to mess up the recipe, because it really isn't a recipe! Follow the link here or above for the recipe. It's nothing more than slicing cucumbers, putting them in a bowl, covering them with vinegar and adding fresh-ground pepper and fresh dill (dry is fine too) - and it's just as good without dill. You add ice cubes to cover and then sprinkle salt on the ice cubes. Just make it about an hour before dinner and that way the ice has time to almost melt, making it easier to get to the cucumbers. Don't make this too far ahead as the cucumbers will be limp (not good) instead of crisp. Mikey Mig's girlfriend Christina adored these and at the end of our meal, pulled the bowl over and ate every last one left!

7 - No dessert this time. 

~~~

See you on Sunday!

~

*Gathered 'round: GB & I, daughter Brynnly, son Bly, Bly & Brynn's buddies Gilby & Mirabel, Bly's buddies Mikey Migs & his girlfriend, Christina

Our Sunday Family Dinners Explained

Rosemary blossoms, February 2009

I wrote the below post originally in February 2009. It pretty much perfectly explains what our
Sunday Family Dinners are all about and why they are so important to all of us.
For the original post, click here. For the re-posted post, click here.
For cousin Julie's wonderful take on SFD, click here.
(The oven fries recipe, below, is often a part of our SFD's.)

My World: 

There's one huge aspect of my world that I really don't write much about here, which is really quite odd, considering how important it is to me. It is something near and dear to my heart, whatever the aspect of it is. Matter of fact, it's quite near and dear to the hearts of my family and friends as well. We have shared many wonderful times over it, and, I suspect, will continue to do so ad infinitum. 

So what, you ask, does the above photo have to do with anything at all, let alone the mystery aspect of my world I'm blabbering on about? Nothing and absolutely everything, that's what! It's a pretty enough photo that I enjoy looking at, and hope you do to, but what it really stands for is...food. Food. It's such an important part of my world and I really don't talk or write about it as much as I should. How often have we gathered together, be it two, ten or many folks, to celebrate, commiserate, grieve, just be with each other, laugh, love, play, where food is the centerpiece of the gathering? How irritated do the children of this wonderful collective family of ours get when we miss Sunday Family Dinner two weeks in a row? (Right now they're really mad - we're going on our 3rd week of missed SFD with no end in sight. It's not a good thing.) How wonderful is it to gather together and share good times over good food? It is a pleasure to be forever treasured. And I know we're sending these children of ours forth into this world with the conviction that our Sunday Family Dinner gathering is a tradition whose celebration is sacred, should always be nurtured and never ever forgotten. Food is good. Life is good. For the most part. 

~

Those Oven Fries

potatoes, chunked, quartered, cut in wedges, whatever

extra virgin olive oil, enough to coat everything

garlic and/or onions, chopped

fresh rosemary leaves, stripped off tough stem

fresh ground pepper and salt

cayenne

(lemon juice is a most excellent addition)

oregano or other herbs if you think necessary - I don't

Now you know why I can't bake - I don't measure anything...ever. Preheat oven to 425º. Wash potatoes, cut into whatever shape you want. Using whatever amounts you want, place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 10 - 15 minutes. Turn potatoes over and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes. Serve immediately. 

Delicious with just about everything, but especially good with roast chicken, lamb and salmon. It goes without saying (so why am I saying it?) they're delicious with hamburgers and steak. Heck, they'd be good with liver!

~~~

See you on Sunday!
~