Golden Hour

St. Joseph's Day 2012

Low key St. Joseph's Day this year.  Dale had a class tonight so I had dinner on my own. Fish is often a traditional St. Joseph's Day food so I ended up grabbing some salmon sushi at Kowalski's.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Noel and I made a trip out to Afton yesterday and stopped by Squire House Gardens. The high was 80 degrees and buds were appearing on trees and shrubs. We had a lunch of corned beef and cabbage at Current. How appropriate for St. Patrick's Day.

Dale and I had our friend Eric over for dinner. Hamburgers, broccoli salad, and potato salad for dinner. Due to the pleasant weather, we had cocktails outside in the backyard . Now that doesn't happen very often on St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday Brunch at Grand Cafe

Dale and I had brunch this morning at Grand Cafe. I had the French toast and Dale had the oatmeal. Dale started with a blueberry scone which was absolutely delicious. The following is from Grand Cafe's website.

"The Grand Cafe is a neighborhood restaurant that offers New American and Continental bistro fare. Since our opening in 2006, our space has epitomized romance and repose, from the giant vintage Baker Boy oven to our eclectic collection of Minnehaha Falls artwork."

"We seek out the best local and artisanal products the Upper Midwest has to offer: our menu undergoes a near-complete makeover every season, though many items change from week to week as well. Our farm-to-table approach is consistently lauded by the Minneapolitan food media and local foods organizations as one of the best in the Twin Cities."

I love the neighborhood feel of the restaurant and the food is absolutely divine. Oh, and by the way, my grandfather had a Baker Boy oven at his bakery in northern Minnesota.

Grand Cafe - 3804 Grand Avenue South

Roasted Root Vegetables

Dale made roasted root vegetables tonight. They were delicious.

Mike and Charisse and Chili

We had our friends Mike and Charisse over last night and Dale did an improvised chili. Although we generally don't try out untested recipes on friends we felt pretty confident about this one. For cocktail hour Mike and I had martinis in the kitchen and reminisced about jr. high and high school. Dale and Charisse had beer and wine in the living room.

Egg Bake Recipe

The following is the egg bake recipe we used for yesterday's brunch. The recipe comes from allrecipes.com and was submitted by Gloria Rohlfing.

Brunch Egg Bake

"Here's an easy, tasty dish to make for company that still allows you to spend plenty of time with your guests. I grew up in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and food was always the center of attention at our family get-togethers. We think brunch is the best meal of the day to gather and enjoy. -Gloria Rohlfing, York, Pennsylvania"

Ingredients:

3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 (4.5 ounce) jar sliced mushrooms, drained

1/3 cup sliced green onions

1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 cups diced fully cooked ham

8 eggs

1 3/4 cups milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Combine cheeses; place 3 cups in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish and set aside. In a medium skillet, saute mushrooms, onions and red pepper in butter until tender; drain. Place over cheese; top with ham. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. In a bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, flour, parsley, basil, salt and pepper; mix well. Slowly pour over the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minute before cutting.

Dale made the egg bake and I thought it was absolutely delicious. It served seven people comfortably and we still had a couple of large servings left over.

Holiday Brunch 2011/2012 Season

Today was Epiphany Sunday. This past Thursday was the actual day of Ephipany so the Christmas season has pretty wound down. We had meant to have this year's brunch much closer to Christmas but schedule-wise today is what worked best. Our guests included some folks from church. Cyndi and her partner Maggie, Andrew and his partner Muricio, along with Reverend Aron. Dale made an egg bake from a new recipe, hash browns and sausages. I made a maple pecan bundt cake from a Nigella Lawson recipe. We also served fruit (pineapple, mango, strawberries). For appetizers we served brie and fig jelly on crackers. To drink we offered a lot of options but everyone chose mimosas. It was all very delicious and the company was fantastic. I'm finding more and more that I like hosting Sunday brunch. It's such a nice way to wind down the weekend.

Chocolate Cake

I went to lunch at IKEA the other day. I had the Swedish meatballs and then for dessert had their chocolate cake. I love chocolate cake.

Christmas Season 2011 - Twelfth Night 2012

Dale and I celebrated Twelfth Night with drinks, steak and dessert (and Downton Abbey too). It was all very lovely.

New Year's Eve 2011

Dale and I stayed in tonight. We made a chicken pot pie and had left-over Yule log cake for dessert. Some years it's fun to go out on New Year's Eve and some years it's fun to stay in. This was a year for staying in. It was wonderfully cozy. We even got some snow.

Holiday Entertaining - Yule Log Cake

My friend Noel had Dale and me over last night and I made another yule log cake to bring along. It turned out great. Here's the recipe that came with the Nordic Ware cake pan.

Marble Yule Log

1(13.25 oz) box yellow cake mix [I could only find a 15.25 oz. box so I left a little of it out.]

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup sour cream [An 8 oz. container did the trick.]

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted [To melt chips I put them in small microwave safe bowl, added a little half and half and nuked for 90 seconds stirring every 30 seconds.]

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour yule log cake pan [I used Pam.]; set aside. In large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, water, sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium speed, 2 minutes, scraping bowl often [I didn't use electric mixer.]. Remove one-third of the batter and place in smaller bowl; set remaining batter aside. Stir melted chocolate chips into batter in the smaller bowl. Spoon half of the vanilla batter and half of the chocolate batter into prepared pan. Using a small spatula, gently swirl batters together. Spoon remaining batter into pan and swirl again. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick [I used a butter knife.] comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan; invert onto cooling rack and cool cake completely [I let it cool in the pan the whole time.] Decorate as desired [I used red and green "cake writing gel" for the berries and leaves.].

Holiday Entertaining

Last night we had our friends Warren and Gary over for dinner. Dale and I made lasagna and green beans amandine. For dessert I made a marble cake in my Nordic Ware yule log pan. Warren and Gary are also our neighbors and we found out that they are going to be moving soon. Thankfully not too far away.

Christmas Day 2011

Mom came over to our place on Christmas Day and we had Christmas dinner at about 5:00 p.m. We had turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans amandine and dinner rolls. It was all very delicious. Dale did almost all the dinner prep although I did help baste the turkey. I also carved the turkey and Mom made the gravy. We had chocolate roulade for dessert. It was all very delicious.

Christmas Eve 2011

Dale and I went to Mom's for Christmas Eve dinner. We started with some lovely hor d'ourves of brie cheese and jelly on crackers. For dinner we had cheese fondue and steak. Brownies for dessert.

Golden Hour - December 17, 2011

Delicious beef stroganoff for dinner tonight. Dessert was a roulade from Kowalski's. Divine.

Holiday Entertaining

Two couples that we know from the gym came over for dinner last night. Michelle, who teaches a spin class that Dale takes, and her husband Steve, along with Fred, who also takes the spin class, and his wife Linda arrived around 6:30. Appetizers included cheese, tapanade and crackers. Everyone drank wine except Steve and me who had Tanqueray gin martinis [Note to self: Steve loves Hendricks].

Dale made rigatoni and green beans amandine. Fred and Linda brought the most divine chocolate cake from Cafe Latte in St. Paul (see above photo).

It was a lovely group of people and a good time was had by all.

Thanksgiving Fiesta Ware

Thanksgiving 2011 Part 2

Usually when making a pot pie we make it with chicken breast and store-bought gravy. Thanksgiving leftovers allow us to make it with turkey and homemade gravy. Our regular pot pie is always great but the one after Thanksgiving is fantastic. We made the one shown above last night.

Thanksgiving 2011

Today turned out to be a beautiful, 59 degree, sunny day. Dale and I took the turkey out around 10:30 and got the neck and giblets out. That damn metal hook thing is always a bugger (you have to push down, not up, on it to get it out). Rinsed it all off and patted it dry. We let it sit for a couple of hours to bring it up to room temperature. Dale had the turkey patted down again, buttered, seasoned and in the oven by 12:30. Basted it every half hour. Made the cranberries at around 2:00. Got the giblets boiling at 2:15 to use in the gravy. Turned the turkey at 2:30. The turkey came out of the oven close to 3:00 so it could rest for an hour. Mom made green bean casserole and sweet potatoes. We ate around 4:00 and it was all delicious. I think it was our best turkey ever. Watched The Bishop's Wife later with Mom and ate pumpkin pie and had coffee. It was a beautiful, relaxing day.