use real butter

I have been quite busy of late, cramming in all sorts of things before my next treatment tomorrow. That’s right. I have a Valentine’s date with my oncologist. Not exactly my first choice :) Jeremy will be with me since I’d go careening into a ditch afterward if I drove myself home. So if I haven’t been on my usual round of food blogs, forgive me. I’ll have some down time coming up soon enough. Meanwhile, I had two most excellent tele days in a row. Tuesday, Jeremy and I went to Breckenridge.

looks nice

we found the powder

That’s when I realized I wouldn’t be able to make a Valentine’s dinner on Thursday because I would be Out.Of.It. Not only would I be unable to make the dinner, but I’d probably be unable to eat it. I don’t particularly care for Valentine’s Day and the unbelievably ridiculous expectations that are placed on men by society (i.e. the hetero female half and for instance, the diamond industry) to scramble around to woo women with… stuff. How about wooing women by not being a cad? Call me unsentimental. I’m not, but I am practical. My guy - he works his ass off, and yet he still cares for my sorry ass when I’m sick as hell, he takes me skiing or on walks to cheer me up because I love the outdoors, he respects me, treats me as his equal and better, he cleans the house, takes care of our pup, never complains, only has the sweetest words for me, shares his dreams and ideas, holds the flash and/or reflector when I need that extra hand for a food shot. This isn’t lost on me, so you can see why Valentine’s Day is a guilt trip I won’t impose on such a Good Man. Valentine’s Day is merely an excuse to cook a good meal for both of us. I moved it to tonight.

So on our way home we dropped by the grocery store in Breckenridge. Talk about well-stocked. Talk about a bougie ski town. I found everything I needed, more or less. The reason I couldn’t run to Boulder today was because…

i was here

my awesome group sans leyla who busted her knee at jackson hole :(

our instructor rips it up

We had such a phenomenal class. Bluebird day, some powder, and we learned to tele carve and practiced moguls. Wooohooo! It got downright hot (40F!!) and the snow began to stick in the afternoon. I had yet another fabuloso face plant that knocked the wind clear out of my chest. ha ha! When I biff, it is spectacular. And my camera didn’t die or kill me! Sweet. My legs were so unbelievably tired, but it was soooooo goooooood. Love the burn.

I rushed home in time to get started on dessert (my next post - whenever that will be). Then I began prep for dinner. I see that folks gush about Cook’s Illustrated all the time and I think it’s a great magazine. I used to subscribe to Way Too Many magazines before I decided to cull it down to bare essentials. One of the only rags I voluntarily subscribe to now is Fine Cooking, because I love the pictures don’t you know ;) I also love the recipes, their thorough treatment of topics, and that their ads don’t piss me off. I decided to make one of their crusted roast recipes, which we both love. It’s a total crowd pleaser for dinner guests too. Here’s the menu I whipped up in 2 hours:

organic yukon gold mashed potatoes
roasted brussels sprouts with shallots and lemon
sautéed spinach with garlic
crusted new york beef top loin roast
classic crème brûlée


The crust part of the roast calls for shallots, thyme, marjoram, garlic, and fresh, coarse bread crumbs. Marjoram and I are not friends. So she got the boot. I also increased the bread crumbs to 2 cups from the original 1 cup of the recipe since I find the seasonings a tad strong and we are always wanting for more crust (it falls off the roast into the pan, but it’s still good!).

for the crust

into the cuisinart for some quick pulses

mix it up

pour the butter

I’ve made this roast before with a rib eye roast and it was *amazing*. Unfortunately, all I could get in Breckenridge was this New York top loin roast, which cost me a pretty penny. Still, it is the porterhouse cut and the flavor is Very Good, just not as tender as say, tenderloin. He gave me a 3.2 pound cut with a nice cap of fat on top. Fat is good, it gives great flavor. Too much fat usually winds up with a smoking oven for me. I trimmed off 70% and left enough to still baste the roast in nice flavorful juices. Good and good.

salt and pepper rub

pan searing on all sides

Once the meat was seared, I spead mustard all over it. I happen to do the bottom because more surface area means more crust and more yum. The recipe called for Dijon and when I searched my fridge, the closest I had was Dijon-horseradish. I like horseradish… Slather it on lovingly and generously because you need enough of a layer to get the bread crumbs to stick. It’s a messy ordeal, but it’s so totally worth it.

slather with mustard

press the bread crumb mix onto the roast

Once I placed the roast in the oven, I turned to the pan in which I had seared the roast. What a mess, huh? No. It’s not a mess, but a lovely fond. You know, fond, the browned bits of goodness left in the pan after you have seared some delicious thing? Don’t you dare throw it out. That is the stuff of yum.

i am very fond of fond

What I do is use my fond to make a reduction sauce to serve with the roast. Remember, I loathe waste. Today I decided on a port reduction sauce, something sweet since Jeremy seems to like sugar in just about anything. I turned the flame on high and…

poured in the port

when it reduced by half, i added butter

and when it reduced to a thickened sauce, it was done

I set it aside, to be warmed up later. Meanwhile, all of the sides were made - chucked the Brussels sprouts into the oven on the rack below the roast. The roast is said to be done to medium rare when the thermometer reads 120F in the center. If we have guests and they don’t like rare (we love for our beef to moo) then I’ll follow that guideline. If it’s just the two of us, I go to 110F (about 50 minutes) because the ends will be somewhat rare or medium rare, which we’ll eat, and the rest will be very rare. The rest is going to be reheated, so who wants shoe leather for leftovers? I want some pink if not a lot on the leftovers. I removed the roast to the chopping board to rest for 10 minutes. In this time, the internal temperature will continue to rise and your roast will continue to cook.

what a beaut

Get a good knife and carefully carve slices off the end. Don’t worry if the crust falls off. It’s terrific served on the side.

dinner is…

no wait! don’t forget the port reduction

Next time: classic crème brûlée.

Roast Beef with a Classic Breadcrumb, Garlic & Herb Crust
from Fine Cooking issue #76

1 5-pound boneless strip loin roast or 5- to 6-poundtop sirloin roast with cap removed, trimmed if necessary, patted dry
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup coarse fresh breadcrumbs, preferrably from a baguette (I used 2 cups)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp fresh marjoram, chopped (I omitted)
3 tbsp melted unsalted butter (I used 4 tbsp)
1/3 cup Dijon mustard

Let the roast sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Position a rack in the middle of oven and heat to 400F. Put roasting rack in a roasting pan or heavy-dury rimmed baking sheet (line pan with foil for easier cleanup). Season the roast liberally with salt and pepper on all sides. Turn on exhaust fan. Heat oil in large sauté pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, brown meat on all sides, including ends, about 4 minutes per side (I am impatient, I seared for 2 minutes on all sides). Transfer meat to roasting pan. Set aside while preparing crust. In medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, garlic, shallots, thyme, marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pour melted butter over mixture and toss to combine. Smear the mustard all over the roast (I cover the bottom too). With hands, press breadcrumb mixture all over the roast into the mustard. Roast the beef until instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 125F for medium rare, about 60 minutes for strip loin roast or 60-80 minutes for top sirloin roast, depending on thickness. Check the crust often. When it is golden brown, tent the roast with foil to prevent burning. Remove roast from oven and let meat rest for 10-20 minutes before carving across the grain, into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Port Reduction Sauce

fond from searing the beef
1-2 cups port
1-2 tbsp unsalted butter

Heat the pan with the fond over medium high to high flame. Pour in the port and watch it steam off. Use a wooden spoon to rub at the fond while the port is boiling. You should “clean” the entire pan so the fond is suspended in the port. When the volume has reduced by half, add a pat of butter. Stir the butter in and continue to reduce until the sauce is thick enough to your liking. Remove from heat and serve with roast.

My first (food) love is sushi.

My second (food) love is a sandwich. It’s a beautiful thing, really. Totally flexible yet wholly satisfying and comforting. Sandwiches can be cold, hot, both, crunchy, mushy, gooey, spicy, tangy, sweet, open, closed, stacked, dainty, behemoth, you name it. I love me a Good Sandwich.

Oh, but a little business before I go on about my love affair with The Sandwich. Thank you to the person(s) who nominated this blog for the Death by Chocolate competition on Culinate. I am flattered, to say the least. Unfortunately, because of my treatment, I am unable to travel and feel it isn’t appropriate for me to enter. Not to mention, the entries are by some of my absolute favorite food bloggers like: Peabody, Bea, Helene, Anita, Jaden, and Meeta… just to name a few! I encourage you all to go and look, drool, and vote.

Thanks also to all of you for your kind words of support. I think my tastebuds are somewhat recovered (had an infection to boot). I’ve just accepted that my fooding will be boned until treatment ends in several months. So, no worries. I shall still attempt to cook and hopefully post. Things just have a way of improving or sucking very quickly here and I have to go with the flow day to day. Stick with me on this. We’ll go places, I promise. xxoo

I’ll admit that I’m not much a sweet sandwich fan. I will take salty over sweet any day. Despite my love of making sweets, I don’t dig on them too much. Take a taste for quality control, distribute. But once I make a beautiful sandwich, I’m not as magnanimous as all that. I covet a good sandwich be it grilled cheese, a BLT (the B, the B!), roasted eggplant, cucumber, Philly cheese steak, In-n-Out Burger (oh yes, ohhhhh yes), Green Bomber, Oporto, Chicken Diablo… The list is frighteningly and delightfully long. The beauty of the sandwich is how remarkably versatile it is, like no other.

chopped leftover corned beef

The Reuben is one of my favorite sandwiches. Although traditionally prepared with rye bread, I can’t help but substitute some good old sourdough because we rarely ever have rye bread on hand in our house and neither of us is a huge fan. But rye aside, this time around I had a corned beef brisket instead of sliced deli meat in the fridge. I should have shredded the brisket while it was hot, but wound up slicing and chopping it when it was cold. I really love piling thinly sliced deli corned beef on a sandwich, but I have to avoid deli meats for a while. The point is… start with some good corned beef.

those would be lunch fixins

Round up some bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Russian dressing, and butter to accompany the corned beef. I like to squeeze out the sauerkraut otherwise I wind up with a super soggy sammy and that makes for a sad lunch. Now, to do it right, you’ve got to butter the bread. I typically butter the outside face because my waistline doesn’t really need the inside face buttered too. Ha - that’s your healthy step right there.

onto the grill pan

Set the buttered face down on a pan over medium heat. Layer cheese, corned beef, and then set the other slice, buttered side out, on top. You want the bread to turn golden and the cheese to melt at the same time. High heat will burn your bread before the cheese has begun to melt, so just be patient.

when it’s ready, flip the sandwich

Flip the sandwich and cook until the other side achieves the same golden crunchiness. Watch it carefully, it gets there much faster than the first side. Some folks like to dump a pile of sauerkraut on the pan and dry it out or brown it up. I can go either way there. This time I removed the sandwich from the pan and dressed it with sauerkraut and Russian dressing.

dress it while it’s hot

I prefer to slice my Reuben into two or three sections. It helps control the amount of oozage from the dressing and feels like I’m eating multiple small sandwiches, which is a concept that elicits great joy for me.

delicious reuben - the love affair rages on

Reuben Sandwich

2 slices of bread (rye or otherwise - nothing flimsy, okay?)
corned beef (slices, shredded, chopped, you pick)
Swiss cheese
sauerkraut, drained
Russian dressing or 1000 Island if you must
butter

Butter the outside faces of the bread. Heat a pan over medium flame. Set a slice of bread buttered-side down on the pan. Layer with cheese and then corned beef. Set the other slice on top, buttered-side up. Monitor that the cheese melts at the same rate that the bread turns golden and crisp. Flip the sandwich and brown the other side. Remove from heat. Open the sandwich meat-side. Layer sauerkraut and dressing. Close sandwich, slice. Serve.

I am not a banana enthusiast. If all of the fruits were lined up on stage for me to select one-by-one for eating, the banana would definitely be among the last remaining few, looking awkward and feeling self-conscious… I tend to prefer fruits that are juicy and refreshing. The banana makes me thirsty and drowsy. But I do know what is good for me and bananas are certainly that. I periodically buy some, hoping that the guilt of watching them rot will be enough incentive to chop one up to eat with some yogurt.

spotted bananas, my favorite!

Alas, I have outwitted myself. Overripe bananas don’t go into our compost - noooooo. Overripe bananas go into banana bread. For the longest time, my feelings about banana bread were pretty similar to my feelings about bananas. Thirsty-drowsy. That was until my good friend, Mary, suggested the addition of some chocolate around the same time that I was experimenting with an unsatisfactory recipe for the bread. There are two key ingredients to my banana bread recipe.

sour cream adds moisture

chocolate chips add… love

When I can find mini chocolate chips, I use them. They suspend nicely in the batter and for some reason, I am drawn to tiny foods. If I can’t find mini chocolate chips, I chop dark chocolate. That works too. Larger chocolate chips are fine, but I usually see a stratification as they settle to the bottom. You could try tossing them in flour first to see if it helps suspend them. Then again, my friend Sarah doesn’t care as long as there is chocolate in there.

batter up

I typically bake this banana bread in loaf pans or a bundt pan, but digging through my boxes of cooking pans, I re-discovered my old mini bundtlettes. I think it frightens Jeremy that I am delighted upon finding random baking equipment that I forgot I had.

the ugly banana is transformed into a beautiful bundtlette

My only gripe with my bundtlettes is that the chocolate chips stick to the pan and it’s quite the time-consuming ordeal to get them out without destroying the delicate shapes. Our neighbor, Tom, prefers the bundtlettes because there is more crispy surface area per bite as opposed to a loaf pan or a large bundt. Duly noted, sir!

you are looking at a cross-section of joy

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups smashed, very ripe bananas
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I usually put in 1 1/2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Mix in the bananas. Combine dry ingredients and mix into batter alternately with the sour cream. Add nuts and chips. Mix well. Pour into two greased loaf pans (8×4 inch), or one bundt pan, or 12 bundtlettes (or anything you want, really) and bake for 45 minutes or until top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the center. (Not wet and gloppy, but moist crumbs are okay). Dusting the pan with flour may be advisable for the bundtlettes.