A (Non) Traditional Thanksgiving Feast.

        For the first time ever, we decided to host a small gathering at our house for Thanksgiving, (as opposed to the 30+ usually at my parents house). Since this was our first time hosting, we went with a pretty much pre-cooked meal. All from Costco's except for the rolls, (more on them later) . For the star of the show, we went with a Niman Ranch ham from Costco's . For those of you who have never heard of Niman ranch, they produce sustainably raised meats, that have never been fed antibiotics or hormones. Yes, they are a bit more expensive but the flavor is incredible. And since they buy from 650 US farms and ranches, the money stays in the USA.

       To go with the ham, scalloped potatoes. We could of course have made some homemade, (this was the wife's wish), but I decided to try another one of Costco's offerings and went instead with frozen cheddar potatoes. Both the wife and Kris thought this was strange, as their mom's homemade did NOT include cheese. But Mike and I thought they were quite good, never having had the originals. Here are a couple of pics of the ham and potatoes;

      Now for rolls to go with this feast, we decide to try and replicate the Lamson Family tradition. And this is where things get a bit weird. The Lamson family rolls are actually cinnamon rolls. And NO they were not eaten for breakfast or dessert but rather with the meal like regular dinner rolls. Other than getting past the fact you are eating a cinnamon roll, they really went well with the meal. The glaze on the ham included brown sugar and cloves and the cinnamon in the rolls complimented it perfectly. Of course, when you are trying to recreate a childhood memory, things never seem as good. But for Mike and I, who had never had the originals, we thought they were GREAT. I will write a separate post with the exact recipe, as it is pretty involved. For now here is a pic;

      We tasked Kris with the vegetables and she came up with two great dishes of carrots and squash (or so I was told, as I don't do vegetables so much). A great meal was had by all and for dessert, another Costco's original;

      For our official Costco's ratings;

Niman Ranch Ham  A+
Main St Bistro potatoes B
Dessert Assortment  A-

      And there you go, a rather simple, but elegant Costco's Thanksgiving.

Cooking 101: Grilled Indian Tuna Salad

      Another very simple recipe, takes no time but is TOTALLY dependent on one ingredient. You must have Sashimi quality Tuna available in your area, (shockingly our local Costco has some fresh and beautiful steaks). Start by finding your favorite spice mixture. For this recipe I used an Indian rub I had in the spice drawer,( you do have a spice drawer correct?), hence the name.

      I like to add layers of flavor to a dish, so I started with some liquid Jamaican jerk sauce rubbed into the steaks, followed by a healthy tablespoon of spice rub  and lastly I toasted some sesame seeds, (toasting gives them another layer of flavor, all about layers) and thoroughly covered each steak with sesame seeds. Then I let them sit for a couple of hours in the fridge, to let the flavors sink in. Just a couple words of caution about toasting sesame seeds, A) sesame seeds go from toasty to burnt in a split second, B) As sesame seeds toast they pop and jump around alot, have something over the top of the pan, (I used a grease screen) and finally C) If you think your cool and can do the wrist flip to flip over the food in your pan, remember that sesame seeds ALL OVER the kitchen make a mess.

      While your tuna sits in the fridge, prepare your salad. In this case I had found a nice "bag a salad" at Costco. It was called Parisian salad and came with some mixed lettuces, candied almonds, dried cranberries, feta cheese with a white balsamic vinaigrette. Sounds weird, but there is alot going on in this salad, some sweet, some sour, some salty, all of it very good and the flavors mixed incredibly with the finished tuna. Speaking of, now would be a good time to get that grill heated up, crank it up to high because you want a good crust and not much else, as we shall see. Once the grill is red hot, drop in your steaks, this is critical DO NOT walkaway, you want just a minute or two on each side, yea, yea, I know you don't like rare fish, get over it. Believe me when I say this is a totally different meal if the fish is cooked well done or even medium. The tuna will take on a whole different consistency, not necessarily bad but different. When good tuna is rare it has the feel of butter, soft, melts in your melt, luscious. Medium or (shudder), god forbid, well done tuna taste and feels more like what you get in the can, and if that's what your after, WHY oh WHY, pay for these gorgeous steaks??

      As always, lets your steaks rest a bit and then slice into 1/3 to 1/2 inch wide slices, (no, you don't need a ruler).  Arrange around the salad, (yes, presentation counts, even at home) and enjoy.

      A word about wine. As most of you know from reading here, I do not always subscribe to the "white wine with fish" theory. Salmon goes incredibly well with an Oregon Pinot Noir and for Tuna Steaks you need a big hearty red, look at the picture, does that not remind you of a big juicy steak.  So for this meal I chose a wine from one of our favorite little wineries, Oso Libre, ( you may remember them from the Tiny Thai review). I chose their 2008 Carnal, this is big wine, a nice blend of six different grapes, the majority being Syrah at 51%, Mourvedre at 21% and Grenache at 22%. We once went to a great wine school and something the instructor told us always stayed with me, pair spice with spice. And while a Zinfandel would have more pepper notes, the Carnal has some great mocha spices going for it, not to mention some wonderful stone fruit on the nose, mainly cherries. This turned out to be a PERFECT pairing, the flavors of the salad, the tuna and the wine blended together in perfect harmony. Total Bliss, If you can't find Oso Libre, look for a nice California Zinfandel or Syrah, these will all match great.

Cooking 101; Duck a L'Orange (sort of)

      First of all, sorry about the delay between posts. Summer has interfered with my writing. I seem to have scheduled WAY too many things to do in a short period of time. Surprise birthday party for wife's brother. Family reunion on her side of the family (post to come from that ). Vacation to Wisconsin, (LOTS of post from that one) and finally a major home remodeling, windows and vinyl siding ( maybe a post if it all goes well). Whew no wonder I am exhausted (NO nothing to do with age).
      Rest assured in the weeks to come you will have MORE posts than you care to read, (OK maybe one post is more but whatever). First up another product review. I know the title says Cooking 101 but really this is pre-cooked food so how hard can it be. When all is said and done, not hard at all. Let start with the ingredients for a delicious supper, one pre-cooked Maple Leaf duck in two halves, sold at your local Costco store (maybe, the one big complaint with Costco is one week it's here the next it's gone). One salad, your choice of ingredients, we had romaine and arugula with a poppyseed dressing , some grilled bread, again your choice , I love store bought naan on the grill and for dessert, scones in a box, surprisingly good if you dress them up a bit (more on that later).
     Ingredients lined up for cooking;

      First make the scones according to directions on box, I buy the King Aurthur brand ( good old Vermont company) and to the lemon and ginger scones I added some finely chopped candy ginger. Pop them in the oven and turn your thoughts to the duck, don't think long and hard about the sauce for the ducks like I did, there is actually a good orange sauce right in the package DUH !! Could of saved me some time. I suggest cooking the ducks on the grill, cuz even though they are pre-cooked there is still some fat (keeps them moist) and you WILL smoke up the kitchen. Since the ducks are pre-cooked, all you are doing is warming them up and putting some nice grill marks on them. Cooking time is 5-10 minutes per side. Throw some naan on the grill, make yourself a nice salad. We did romaine and arugula, the pepperyness (another new word) of the arugula balanced the sweetness of the sauce nicely. Take the scones out and make a quick glaze, (mix together confectioners sugar and milk to the right consistency to frost scones. I added some lemon juice to compliment the flavors in the scone) and sprinkle over the top of the scones and VOILA;

      Quick, easy and delicious. Try it for your next supper. OH and a perfect meal for either a powerful white like a crisp Chardonnay or a subtle red , California Pinot Noir comes to mind.

Cooking 101: Fettucine and Meatballs

      OK,  not so much a recipe this time, as an endorsement. Sometimes life gets in the way of Supper and you need to come up with something quick. Whether for a quick supper with the wifey or a meal with friends and family, here is what we put together on Saturday;

      All three products available at your friendly, neighborhood Costco store ( or I am sure, grocery store also). Add the first two ingredients to a crock pot, turn on low and go take a nap, (OK this was my recipe, you may not want to follow it exactly). Now if you ARE following exactly, wake up from your nap, realize the crock pot was on low AND the meatballs went in frozen, so now crank up the pot to high and after your guests arrive, stall them with appetizers and several drinks. Appetizers can be most anything, but as we had perused our local farmers market (see previous post) we had some stuffed breads to offer, garlic and roasted tomatoes and my favorite, blue cheese and pear.

      For drinks you can add your personal favorites or some of my previous tinis, OR better yet, here are two brand new concoctions for you to try. The first I call Tropics in a Glass ( makes two)
2 ounces Coconut Rum
2 ounces Mango Rum
2 ounces fresh Mango Juice
4 ounces Lemonade
Splash of pineapple juice from the sliced pineapples in a can
1 Pineapple slice split in two

Shake the first 5 ingredients vigorously in a shaker with ice cubes . Strain into martini glasses and one piece pineapple slice to rim and VOILA;

      The first drink was found delicious by all who tried it, For the second drink, I went away from the tropics and more to home grown fruits. This one shall be dub  ummmm hmmm naming contest, I will go with the Black Berritini but really that title sucks, all my loyal readers, what do you think? Here are the ingredients;

In a shaker glass , muddle

Large handful of ripe fresh blackberries
4-5 sprigs of fresh mint
 To this add;
2 ounces coconut rum
2 ounces regular rum
6 ounces lemonade

Shake vigorously and again VOILA;

      What would you name the lovely concoction? For the guys , two new beers, Ommegang Abbey and Noire de Chambly. The first brewed in Cooperstown  NY and the Second in Quebec. Both were delicious, with a slight edge going to Noire de Chambly.

      As you can tell, not images I took, sorry, forgot to photo the beers, ANYWAYS back to our regularly scheduled dinner. So with drinks and appetizers in hand and a very addicting program I had downloaded on the laptop, Spotify, (try the free version, you have to listen to a few ads but man is it fun to try and stump the computer), we were all having a great time. As far as we can tell, you just can't stump this program, I think they have every song ever made. In no particular order we  found and listened to Dominique by the Singing Nun, Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton, 10 cc, Play that funky music white boy (Leif Garret sang this also who knew?), Black Sabbath, The Ballad of the Green Berets Oh and about a few hundred more. So while everyone was engrossed in digging up the most obscure songs ever ( The Singing Nun,  REALLY), I checked on the meatballs, thawed and hot, just how I like my meatballs. On went a huge pot of boiling (OK, technically it started out as non-boiling and soon became boiling) water with olive oil and kosher salt thrown in. Drop in the fresh pasta, wait a couple of minutes, (no more people, this is FRESH pasta, no more than 2 -3 minutes REALLY). Dump the pasta into a nice big colander, back into the now empty pot , splash of extra virgin (olive oil !!) and you are ready to serve.

      Best way I have found is assembly line style. On the counter your first dish should be pasta, next the crock pot with the meatballs, (lid removed DUH) and finally a micro plane with a nice block of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Here is where you need to spend a bit more, c'mon supper was inexpensive, buy GOOD cheese (hey that should be my new motto). We went with a nice block from (where else) Costco but any good cheese shop can help you here. DO NOT buy shredded parm at the grocery store YUCKKKKKKK !!! And if you have some , some fresh thinly shredded basil over the top would be Divine (OH yea I just used the word Divine). Everyone agreed a great meal. And for dessert from our trip to the farmers market.

      Moroccan delights, small but intense flavors, a perfect dessert. But feel free to insert your own dessert. There you go, a quick easy meal for two or many more.