recipephile

100 Days of Dinner

My friend Jeffrey introduced to an interesting chap a few months ago.  His name is Evan and he is an artist, photographer and audio producer. He embarked on a photo project called 100 Days of Dinner.  Evan photographed himself and the food he ate for 100 days and has posted the images

Here. I was lucky enough to be a part of this very cool, photographic food diary.  The picture to your left is what Evan had at my place. Arugula salad with creamy balsamic dressing, pesto whole pasta and cheesy garlic bread.

The dinner was great, but what happened in the middle of our meal was even better. My neighbor above me was in the process of replacing his sub floor and as we were sitting there feasting away a foot came through the ceiling. 

It was repaired the very next day, but the hilarity of it all made for a great story.

Creamy Gorgonzola Dolce Buttermilk Dressing with Balsamic Tomatoes

A few weeks ago I spent one of my last weeks on Fire Island. The weather was amazing and the position of the sun made the evening air so calm and peaceful. The weeks are so very different than the weekends on the island. The atmosphere changes from non-stop energy to peacefulness and the people that stay during the week are just as calm.  

Over the last few years I have had the pleasure of befriending a wonderful group of "locals" on the island.  This group of people plays pool every evening at one of the local bars, Sip and Twirl and they often dine together.  Chuck and Judy, two of the pool sharks, have had their house on the island since the 50s (well... it has ben in Chuck's family since then) and Kirby and Ralph have owned their place since the 60s.  Jim and Jim, two of my favorites, run the local bed and breakfast The Pines Bluff Overlook. Scoring an invitation to dinner at the Jim's is always so amazing. Not only do they make great food, but they also pack their dinner table with some amazing people. 

So during my final week in Fire Island Jim invited me and my friend Patrick for dinner one night and prepared the best salad that I have had in a long time. It was so flavorful and very creative in its preparation.  

Jim uses Roquefort in his dressing, but I opted for the sweeter Gorgonzola Dolce and adapted the recipe even further to give it some additional color.

Here is what you will need:

- 1 cup of buttermilk

- 1 cup of sour cream

- 1 cup of Gorgonzola Dolce (about a 1/2 lb.)

- 1/2 cup of green onion tops chopped

- 3 tomatoes chopped 

- 1 cup of balsamic vinegar

- 2 heads of Romaine

Place the buttermilk, sour cream and Gorgonzola Dolce into a food processor or blender and blend well until smooth and creamy.  Add the chopped green onions, mix, cover and place into the refrigerator.

Chop the tomatoes and place into a bowl with the balsamic vinegar. Cover and place into the refrigerator.

Chop the salad and when you are ready to eat toss the salad with the dressing and top with the tomatoes.

Hummus

Once again I cannot take credit for this incredible recipe. My friend Jeffrey gets the kudos on this one.  It is really amazing.

You should know that Hummus is easy to make, and so much tastier, less expensive and more healthful than grocery store varieties.  Store-bought hummus often is made with sunflower, safflower, canola or very cheap (not extra virgin) olive oil, and tends to have unnecessary preservatives.

2 cans chick peas, saving the liquid from one of the cans
3 tbsp. tahini paste
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
juice of 2 lemons
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt

Rinse and pick over the chick peas. There's always one or two duds in each can.  Put the chick peas in your food processor along with the tahini paste, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt.  Turn the processor on.  As the chick peas begin to break down, slowly (very slowly!) drizzle some of the chick pea stock into the food processor until everything begins to blend and become smooth.  Generally this uses about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the chick pea stock. Continue to process the hummus for a full 2 more minutes.  Put in a bowl and drizzle more olive oil on top, along with a sprinkling of paprika or zatar. Serve with pita wedges and vegetables (carrot slices, radish wedges, 3" slices of scallion, green pepper) as an appetizer, or use as a spread on vegetable sandwiches.

Variations: add (during the processing) 1/2 cup parsley, or up to 1 cup of diced pitted black Kalamata olives (reducing the amount of salt you add), or use roasted instead of fresh garlic (upping the number of cloves by 5 or 6).

Notes On Creativity - Own It

Last night my friends Crispin and Brian decided to host a dinner party for a group of us. You may remember Crispin from his cheese discovery that I wrote about almost five years ago. He and I have been friends for a while now and his husband Brian has also become a close friend of mine.

I have to hand it to both Crispin and Brian, every time they host a party they own it. What does that mean?  From start to finish every detail is taken care of.  You never walk into their house and experience the two of them darting from room to room still preparing appetizers, cleaning the house or making the meal.  They are prepared, and with gin and tonics or a glass of champagne in hand they greet you at the door, take your coat and hand you a drink.  Both are masters in the art of entertaining and they play off of one another very well.  While Crispin prepares plates for dinner, Brian is entertaining guests and serving appetizers.  Its as if there is a maestro in the room silently directing their every move.

I have learned so much from the two of them, not only about entertaining, but also about the importance of long lasting friendships and how that can be celebrated by gathering around a table and toasting past, present and future memories.

So next time you host an event take a lesson from my two very good friends -- Own It.

Jeffrey's Tabbouleh

Last Monday Jeffrey and I spent the morning cooking up a storm.  He summoned me to come over and help him make food to eat for the week.  We work well together in the kitchen and I feel fortunate to have him as my friend and also my cooking buddy.

Ever since he got back from Israel Jeffrey has been preparing and eating all different kinds of Middle Eastern food. 

Tabbouleh, if you do not already know, is a wonderful Middle Eastern salad with vibrant flavors, primarily from the parsley, lemon, and nuttiness of the bulgur wheat.  The trick is to have just the right amount of lemon juice, and to let the flavors meld before serving.

Here is what you need to prepare this tasty dish:

3 cups fresh parsley, stemmed and finely minced in a food processor
1 cup bulgur wheat, soaked for 75 minutes in water and lemon juice
2 ripe tomatoes, cored and diced
1 medium cucumber, cored and diced
1 red onion, diced
2 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tbsp. mint, finely chopped
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
juice of 2 lemons
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and chill for 2-3 hours to allow the flavors to blend. Taste, and if necessary correct any imbalances in seasoning.  Serve in a bowl or on a bed of lettuce.

Jeffrey's Amazing Gazpacho Made With Amy's Tasty Heirloom Tomatoes

 My sister stopped by yesterday and brought amazing heirloom tomatoes from her garden. She and my brother-in-law grew a garden in their back yard and grow not only tomatoes, but also eggplant, corn, basil, strawberries, melon, green peppers and jalapenos. 

My phone rang quite early on this Labor Day morning.  It was Jeffrey and he had some ambitious cooking plans for the day and invited me to join him.  He wasn't planning on making gazpacho, but I had the tomatoes and so I decided to bring them with me so we could use them to make this tasty chilled soup.

Here is what you will need:

- About 8-10 medium sized tomatoes 

- 1 green pepper, diced

- 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, cored and diced

- 1/4 cup of fresh chopped parsley

- 1 medium red onion, chopped

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 cup of bread crumbs

- 1/2 tsp each ground cumin, tarragon and basil

- 1 tsp of Tabasco

- 2 tbsp dry vermouth

- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Puree the tomatoes in a food processor and place into a large mixing bowl.  Add all of the other ingredients and mix well.  Place 1/2 of the mixture into a blender and blend well.  Transfer back into the bowl, mix well, chill for two hours and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve cold and garnish with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt.  I much prefer the yogurt and I always use Greek strained yogurt because it is so so yummy.

Bob Evans Breakfast Casserole

My very first job out of college was with the sausage company Bob Evans .  It was truly an amazing experience, I learned so much, thoroughly enjoyed the people and ate a lot of sausage.  I was also very very fortunate to meet Mary Cusick, who is now the EVP of Marketing for Bob Evans Restaurants.  She and her husband Dave have remained very close friends of mine.  They are also fellow foodies and Dave runs a cooperative food and gourmet goodies market in Columbus, OH called the The North Market

Mary and I were chatting last week and all I could think about during the call was the amazing flavor of Bob Evans whole hog sausage.  It is my favorite breakfast sausage on the market, but you cannot get it in San Francisco so I begged her to send me a box of goodies.  A few days later her marvelous colleague Sarah called me up to give me the good news that the sausage was on its way and the following morning a frozen package arrived with sausage (the original BE sausage roll, maple links, regular links and patties), dinner rolls (I love their dinner rolls), sausage gravy and hash browns.

Our breakfast party was amazing, Courtney made her famous Poached Eggs Atop Fontina Tomato Bruschetta and I served lots of sausage, sausage gravy and biscuits and a Bob Evans breakfast casserole.

Here is what you need to make this dsh:

- 1 9x12 Pyrex dish (sprayed with Pam)

- 1 bag of Bob Evans hash browns

- 1 onion chopped and cooked until slightly caramelized

- 1 Original Bob Evans Sausage roll (14 oz.)

- 6 eggs

- 3 cups of cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350. Cook the sausage and set aside. Cook the hash browns until brown and cripsy and line the bottom of your Pyrex dish (kind of like a crust). Add the onions and the sausage (spread over the entire hash brown crust). Crack and beat the eggs and add them to the dish.  Cover with cheddar cheese and bake for about 25 minutes.

Remove, cool slightly and set aside.