Chapel of Eggs

Smoked Brisket

2012-01-22T07:24:00.001-08:00

Skate Wing

2012-01-22T07:21:00.001-08:00

Pan fried skate wing, stone ground grits with sharp cheddar cheese, steamed broccoli

Christmas Adam Byriani

2011-12-24T18:44:00.001-08:00

Chicken byriani, saag, green onion raita, cranberry chutney, pappad

Mid December Date Night at Home

2011-12-18T09:43:00.001-08:00

Barley pearl and kale risotto, grilled Dijon pork chops, apple red pepper slaw with elder flower vinaigrette. Paired with a Cab. Sauv.

Morning Glory

2011-12-16T07:24:00.001-08:00

My chapel on the last day of school for the boys before the holidays (aka my last morning to myself). Sautéed yellow peppers and artichoke hearts with thyme and basil, two fried eggs, a dollop of marinara and a dusting of parmesan cheese.

Earl of Sandwich, Deconstructed

2011-08-14T07:34:00.001-07:00

Rosemary & olive oil bread, pan fried eggplant slices, garden tomatoes, a scoop of goat cheese, drizzled with fresh basil olive oil, salt & pepper. I won Catan.

Sometimes It's Ramen

2011-08-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

I've always appreciated the blank canvas. Here's a working lunch: ramen - flavor packet + chili oil, fresh ginger & garlic, dark soy + leftover sauteed greens from the night before + an egg poached on top of the noodle raft in the pot. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds and rice wine vinegar.

Anniversary Dinner

2011-08-07T15:19:00.001-07:00

Summer slaw: shredded zucchini and peach with a Caribbean curry flavor--lime, ginger, curry, cayenne. Papad and dots of Rooster sauce.

Filet with a red wine reduction, turnip gratin (turnips from the garden), baby peas with mint.

Ambiance, pre-service.

2011-08-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Tea before entering the Tate Modern Museum in London. Cranberry scones, clotted cream, homemade strawberry jam, and some sort of fancy sounding tea I can't remember. We ate at the tables outside and watched Tate visitors turn their kids loose on the lawn after dragging them through the museum.

Pause for Breakfast

2011-08-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at home this morning. Bagel thins from the freezer, poached eggs, some lemons that needed to be turned into hollandaise, and two tomatoes from the local Farmer's Market, braised, + sprig of basil for color.

Lunch with Oscar Wilde

2011-07-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

From Trafalgar Square, walk toward St. Martin-in-the-Fields and you’ll find a small side street. A black marble statue of Oscar Wilde reclines there, the crazy old cat staring up at the stars from the gutter. We bought hot baps from Porky’s: ham, camembert, and pineapple on a fluffy white bun. We took them back to sit with Oscar and poke fun at the passersby, something we felt he would appreciate. A middle-aged bald man stopped by to explain the correct procedure. “Lean down as if you’re having a conversation, see. If you share a smoke or a drink, he likes that even better. Cheers to you.”

Pasta Salad

2011-07-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

I do not have a picture to share. Imagine a dusky pub at sunset. You’re tired. You’ve got a crick in your neck from trying to sleep on the flight from Hartsfield-Jackson to Heathrow. You sip a pint and look forward to a steaming plate of comfort food: linguine with prawns for you, chicken tortellini for Husband.

When your linguine arrives, it is not in the wide white bowl you imagined. Instead, it’s in a cereal-sized, cream colored crock. The prawns are not the prawns you imagined. Instead, they are snagged bits of crayfish. The linguine is not the linguine you imagined. Instead, it is salad greens.

Husband’s chicken tortellini is a quesadilla.

Okay, you’re in a different country. Perhaps there is a language barrier, you consider, staring at your plates as the waitress moves off to another task. But wait, you think, this is England. There is not a language barrier.

Husband offers to take care of it. He walks back up the bar, motioning back to your table. You see the waitress nod, look over at the table, shake her head, and then point to the menu. Husband comes back, sits down, picks up his fork.

“She says that’s what we ordered. Linguine and tortellini,” he says.

You assure him there is no country on earth where linguine is a bowl of salad and tortellini is a quesadilla, and make him try again. That’s what he does.

Eventually, a manager gets involved. He puzzles it out with the kitchen staff, unseen hermits who live in the basement below the pub and send up apparently random food choices through the dumbwaiter. It is revealed that at some point, at some time in the pub’s history, someone had ordered the linguine but asked for the prawns served on salad instead of pasta, with crayfish instead of prawns. Perhaps it was Meg Ryan. Anyway, the kitchen started serving it that way on a regular basis. They apologized, and one pint later the waitress brought over a platter of saucy noodles draped with pink prawns.

No explanation for the quesadilla. Husband said it was delicious.

London, Day 1

2011-07-29T15:42:00.001-07:00

Lunch at the Hoxton Hotel in Shoreditch, London. Prosciutto wrapped, grilled asparagus with two poached eggs and a balsamic drizzle.

Also, a shrimp burger and fries. Guinness.

Summer Breakfast If You Are 14

2010-05-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Dinner Alfresco

2010-03-21T08:49:00.001-07:00

Kids gone. Early spring dinner in the backyard. Dog patrolling the premises, hoping for a reward for her efforts. Menu: grilled ribeye steaks from grass-fed Berry cows, marinated in lemon and basil; winter squash souffle with a tinge of curry seasoning; baby turnips I pulled from the garden, tossed in olive oil and roasted with their green tops still attached.

Tapa

2010-03-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Braised artichoke quarters with a lemon-caper drizzle

Going Green

2010-03-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

French butter cookies, sables, made in two batches. Second batch dyed green, then gently rolled to look marbled. Sprinkled with coarse green sugar. Fed to hoard of tween boys in camo.

Meatless Monday

2009-10-26T17:05:00.001-07:00

Tonight: Vegetarian Pad Thai. I skipped the tofu--not a fan--and replaced it with sauteed golden chunks of sweet dumpling squash. It's milder than acorn, but I think more flavorful. We added fresh cilantro from the garden, some frozen peas and beans, squeezes of lime and dashes of red chili sauce. Overall, very fast and easy. And the kids ate seconds.

No, I'm Not That Hungry. I Think I'll Just Have a Couple of Carrots for Dinner....

2009-09-13T13:33:00.001-07:00

After

2009-08-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

Before

2009-08-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

Date Night Dinner

2009-08-30T06:48:00.001-07:00

I wish I'd taken a picture, but it would have been fuzzy. There was some wine involved.

On the plate: a bed of saffron risotto. To the side, thin asparagus quick-sauted in olive oil, salt and pepper, then sprinkled with lemon zest as it went on the plate (if you do the zest with the asparagus, the acid turns them brown as they cook).

Gently placed atop this: a filet of red grouper from our local butcher/fishmonger. I pan-seared it, then just when the sticky parts got going good on the bottom of the pan I tossed in about a 1/2 cup of lemon juice/white wine. Steam & bubbles. I added about a handful of mint & thyme from the garden, a few capers, and then put the lid on the still hissing fish. After about 5 minutes of steaming, they were ready and the sauce had picked up those brown bits and thickened. Deep and rich, acid from the lemon and velvet from the fish.

The plate still needed some crunch. I flash-fried some baby okra from the garden, cut them lengthwise, and used them as a garnish for the fish. On the side, we had the heirloom tomato preserves I made a few weeks ago. Sweet, gingery, minty, and red as a dollop of garnets.

Noah Makes Dessert

2009-08-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

Graham cracker crusts with melted butter. Sliced apples. Caramel sauce & cinnamon on top. Bake for 10 minutes, or until you get bored and want to go watch TV.

Sunday Planning

2009-08-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Sweet and Salty

2009-08-17T17:59:00.001-07:00

Me gustan los dos.

Monday with Meat

2009-08-17T17:53:00.001-07:00

We were going to try to do meatless Mondays this year, but I forgot about this pork roast. I bought it on Friday, planned to cook it on Saturday, and other things happened. Between the planning and the other things I did manage to stick the pork in a shallow dish and cover it with garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil and red wine.

Every time I opened the fridge I craved roast meat.

So we made it tonight, along with some rice and green beans. We eat a lot of green beans.

Here's the meatless plate:

Sunday Breakfast

2009-08-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up with a need to fry green tomatoes. I love fried green tomatoes; we've only had them once this season and that just seems a shame. We're growing Cherokee purples, along with some persimmon looking ones and your usual big red varieties. They've gotten so jumbled up and falling over, I can't tell one plant from another. These are the Cherokee ones, I think. Firm and meaty, they make a good fried version because they hold their shape but still have that tart, juicy flavor of a tomato just turning ripe. While I was up in the garden, I picked a red Anaheim pepper and a few leaves of basil.

I fried the tomatoes after seasoning them with a little Adobo seasoning and dredging in yellow cornmeal. I took the pepper and placed it right under the broiler till the skin turned mostly black and bubbly, then I took it out and wrapped it quick in aluminum foil. When the tomatoes finished, I started poaching some eggs the chef way, which is to do it straight in hot water rather than use some sort of egg poaching pan. I can't stand washing those things, they always stick, and I like the free-form edges of a poached egg.

The dish seemed to need some acid because the tomatoes only got sweeter with cooking. I made a quick, light hollandaise using Smart Balance and one egg. I chopped up the larger basil leaves and tossed them into the sauce.

After peeling and de-seeding the pepper, I put strips down on each plate, topped with four slices of tomato, then topped that with two poached eggs. I drizzled the basil hollandaise over the whole plate, then sprinkled with basil leaves. I did not say "bam." I never say "bam." I said "breakfast."

It turned out really well. Basil and tomato love each other, of course, but having the tomato with that slight edge of crunch filled out the dish more. Also, the tanginess of the lemon in the hollandaise paired nicely with the spicy red pepper. I thought maybe we'd miss a starch of some kind, or a meat, but we didn't.

I'd do this again. For company, I'd add a fruit salad.

Junk Food

2009-08-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Blah. We ate poorly yesterday--food from out and heavy on the salt. Plus a few glasses of wine. This morning I feel like mimicking the deer coming to snack in our yard. I'll just graze on green things all day.

Or purple things.

Or red.

Wednesday dinner

2009-08-12T19:10:00.001-07:00

Meatloaf. Perfect for Wednesday night. Also, mashed potatoes just dug from the garden, and green beans I made Noah pick as part of his pre-dinner chores.

Tuesday dinner

2009-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm making Sam's ziti. With some adaptations.

I used Roma tomatoes from the garden, ground turkey, and 1/2 tube of Tennessee Pride sausage.

I sauteed garlic, chopped green peppers (also from the garden) and the meat. Then I added the tomatoes, peeled & squished. I let that simmer for a bit with some fresh oregano and basil and a bay leaf. Then, before picking up the kids from school, I added about a cup of red wine.

It's been cooking all afternoon. In just a minute I'll mix it, top with cheese, and bake for about 20 minutes.

I think I'll serve with some lettuce. We have some in the fridge, I think.

It's an Anne Sexton poem

2009-08-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

And I'm not crazy about her, but I've always liked this poem.