Sunday Dinner
Sunday Dinner. What a great tradition. It was usually a big dinner day for us when we were kids growing up - especially if Pop was home from the firehouse. It still amazes me how we all fit in that dining room around that table. It wasn't the multi-generational Italian Sunday Dinners of Victor's youth, however.
Ours were pretty much confined to our immediate family. Once in awhile it would include our great-aunts - or us at their home. His was the open door, everyone and their brother showed up. The Italians definitely ate more.
So it's really no surprise that if Victor is cooking, Sunday Dinner takes on that Italian abundance.
Today's feast started with homemade pasta. And homemade meatballs. And homemade sauce.
Pasta-making is one thing he really has down to a gastronomic science. He bought me the pasta maker years ago and I think I may have used it twice. He is the pasta king. He does it so well and so fast, there is just no reason for me to learn it. I concede to the master!
I had a veal, beef, pork combo that I planned to make into a meatloaf. Victor used it to make his meatballs.
Yum.
As I've said before on numerous other pasta dinners, there is no recipe for the sauce. It just is. It's very consistent, yet it can vary depending upon the meats used. It's always wonderful.
I know that's difficult for some folks to understand - they need a recipe with step-by-step instructions and exact measurements of every ingredient. But that's just not how it's done.
My contribution to dinner tonight was a loaf of bread.
I've been making this bread for such a long time now, I have it memorized.
- 5 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup rye flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt
- 3 cups water
Mix all ingredients, cover, and let rise three hours. At this point you can punch it down and refrigerate.
When ready to bake bread, cut off 1/3 of the dough and form into a loaf or ball. Place on cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet or bread peel. Let rise 30 minutes. Cut deep slits into dough with very sharp knife.
Preheat oven to 450° with pizza stone on middle rack and rimmed sheet pan on bottom rack.
Slide dough onto hot pizza stone and immediately add 1 cup of hot water to sheet pan.
Quickly close oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
The other nice thing about Sunday Dinner is we generally eat early. That means we get to have dessert early - and there's plenty of Victor's pound cake left from yesterday.
I ♥ Sunday Dinner
Crab Cakes and Pound Cake
By the time Saturday afternoon rolls around, I'm one tired puppy. It's the end of my work-week and after a long day of being charming, all I want to do is vegetate. It's much more difficult to be upbeat and pleasant at 60 than it was at 49. Hell. Tying my shoes is more difficult at 60 than it was at 49.
Eating is not more difficult. And it is always so nice to come home to a dinner already planned and dessert just coming out of the oven. Really nice.
I was planning a meatloaf tonight but when I got home Victor had pulled Crab Cakes out of the freezer and had a pound cake in the oven. He said he was cooking. I said I was eating. A perfect match!
The store-bought crab cakes can be a bit loose, so he breaded them to add a bit of extra crunch. Fries out of the freezer, peas out of the freezer. He made a quick tartar sauce of mayonnaise, pickles, and a splash of worcestershire sauce. It was perfect.
And the Pound Cake was just divine!
The recipe comes from his standby cook book - Better Homes and Gardens. It's an old one that has been around forever. He tweaks it to suit his mood. It suited my mood, perfectly!
Pound Cake
- 1 cup butter
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- juice of 1 orange
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time. Mix flour, salt, baking powder and soda. Mix ricotta and juice. Add slowly alternating with the juice.
Spread into a loaf pan and bake at 325° for 55-65 minutes.
To make it even better, he melted some orange marmalade and glazed the top.
Yum.
It was moist and tender with a perfect crumb and crust.
And there's more for tomorrow!
Pork Chops and Broccoli Pasta
All day long I knew we were having pork chops for dinner. I wasn't sure about what I was doing with them or side dishes until I started making them.
Some meals are like that. Yesterday I made sandwiches. Possibly the best sandwiches ever in the history of sandwiches. I knew they were going to be grilled chicken sandwiches on french rolls. Until I started making them, I didn't really know they were going to be dry-rubbed with chipotle powder, cumin, garlic, and Mexican oregano, grilled and sliced onto the rolls with a green chili mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and avocado.
They were a total mess, stuff sliding everywhere, and took at least 6 napkins while eating, and I almost needed a shower when I was done.
They were such a mess putting together I didn't even take pictures.
But DAYUM! They were good.
When I got home today, I marinated the chops in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and black pepper. I had broccoli, rice, noodles, pasta, potatoes... Somehow the idea of pasta and broccoli mixed together with boursin cheese developed. The chops went on the grill, the pasta and broccoli went on the stove, and in less than 15 minutes, dinner was served.
Boursin cheese is one of the most basic, no-brainer sauce and/or ingredient cheeses on the market. From stuffing into burgers, mixing into mashed potatoes, melting and thinning to pour over vegetables, or mixing into pasta and vegetables, it may be one of the most versatile cheeses ever.
Two great meals in two days that started with vague ideas.
I'm glad I finally cleaned the grill. I wonder what I can cook up on it tomorrow...