This blog has definitely taken a turn towards family entries - okay, they are mostly about Audrey - but luckily good dinners have begun to return into our mix of meals. Dinner still leans towards the quick and easy but here are some yummy meals we've had recently.
This first one wasn't recent actually and in fact, I promised many entries about it but never got around to it. It might of had something to do with the fact that this was my last real meal before morning sickness kicked in full force so it's only been recently that I could think back about this dinner and not feel ill. Here are some shots of our Cooking Extravaganza #2 with Matt and Sara. Unfortunately, I don't remember everything that was made amymore.
Course 1 - Lobster Bisque made by Sara
Course 2 - Duck with duck fat potato confit and bacon polenta made by Matt
Course 3 - Moroccan spiced lamb chop with twice baked potato and grilled vegetables made by Bill
Course 4 - Chocolate covered strawberry ice cream bon bon with walnuts made by me
We had another foodie night with Matt and Sara right before the Fourth of July this year and we were fresh off of our Alinea dinner. We took turns making courses again and even tried our luck at making Alinea's Hot Potato Cold Potato. Definitely wasn't the same but for our first attempt, it wasn't too terrible either.
Course 1 - Bill's Hot Potato Cold Potato - Using a dixie cup and toothpick: cold potato and white truffle oil soup with a hot potato, crimini mushroom (since we obviously can't find black truffles at the grocery store!), chive, parmesan cheese and butter on the toothpick
Course 2 - spring mix salad with candied pecans, pears, crumbled blue cheese and homemade strawberry vinaigrette made by Bill
Course 3 - the most delicious short ribs, which happens to be from the cow we all purchased, made by Matt
served with a take on a twice baked potato and a slaw salad - both Julia Child's recipes made by Sara
Course 4 - I believe this was also a Julia Child recipe - pound cake with rum sauce and strawberries also made by Sara
This next meal is just one that Bill and I had at home recently. There is a seafood truck - yes, a truck that sells seafood - that comes up to Iowa City from Texas about once a month and sells seafood. I know, we were totally skeptical and slightly grossed out too (the oil spill didn't help things either), BUT, we had only heard great things so we decided to check it out and are so glad we did. Bill bought shrimp and lump claw crab meat and decided to make crab cakes for dinner that night. I LOVE crab cakes. If they are ever on a menu, chances are that's what I'm ordering. The ones he made this night were the best ones I have ever eaten.....seriously. We served the cakes with a cranberry walnut salad, biscuits which I jazzed up with cheddar cheese and fresh thyme and a mango salsa (not pictured).
This last dinner was also just something Bill and I whipped up at home a few weeks ago. If you're a follower of this blog, you may remember my experience the first time I ever had pork belly. Pork belly is basically the slab of meat that bacon is cut from. Imagine bacon as a main course. Awesome, right?? We were so excited when we found out we could buy it but we weren't sure what to do with it. We ate at Perennial in Chicago about a year ago where they braised pork belly in red wine and then finished it on the grill so we decided to try that. We served the pork belly with a caprese salad and celery root puree - which was SO GOOD! We've had celery root puree a number of times - most recently at Alinea - but we'd never made it ourselves. I highly recommend trying it - peel, cube and boil the celery root just like you would if you were making mashed potatoes. Instead of mashing them, put them into a blender. I actually mashed them a little first with butter and cream but I think you could just add it all straight in the blender. Yum, yum, yum!
After writing this I wish we were having a super yummy dinner tonight instead of just leftover pizza! Happy eating!
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