Birthday Dinner

Birthday Dinner

Happy Birthday To Me! And what a fun birthday it has been!

It's been a crazy few days around our house... Wednesday, Victor had surgery on his foot. He had a Retro-Calcaneal Right Heal Exostectomy… Roughly translated, he had a bone spur on his heal that had gone around his achilles' tendon and they had to go in, cut the achilles’ tendon, scrape a bunch of crud, and sew it (and him) back together. He’s in a knee-high cast for the next 4-6 weeks, and lots and lots of therapy after. He's not exactly the most mobile person right now.

Yesterday, just to add a bit of misery to the household, I had a wisdom tooth pulled. We had already taken the time off to go up to New York to visit friends and celebrate the 34th anniversary of my 21st birthday.But... it was not to be.

Trust me... I would have rather been up there!

Fortunately, the surgery came out fine - as did the tooth. Between Victor's vicodin and my percoset, things have been going swimmingly along. The house has been full of family and friends, the phone and doorbell have not stopped ringing - plants and flowers and chocolates and a huge Edible Fruit Bouquet... and even an ice cream birthday cake!

The house finally cleared out and I decided I wanted a nice birthday dinner - and since Victor is out of commission as a cook for a while, I headed off to the kitchen...

We made a great stilton and arugula soup at work last week and I bought the fixin's thinking I'd make it at home. Instead, it became Chicken Breasts with a Caramelized Onion and Stilton Sauce served on a bed of sauteed Arugula and Baby Bella Mushrooms, topped with Caramelized Onions and Currants. Can you say "yummy" boys and girls?!?

I also made a classic pommes anna. Butter and potatoes. How decadent! It was just what the Doctor ordered.

It was one of those use every pan in the kitchen meals, but it was worth it!

And I made a Fresh Peach Pie for dessert.....

Happy Birthday, indeed!


Sausage

Homemade Sausage

 

I finally did it! I made sausage from scratch! I have been wanting to do this for years, and just never got around to it. Many moons ago, my sister-in-law, Debbie, gave us all the attachments for the KitchenAid. And I do mean all... So, I finally ordered casings from Ask The Meatman, and to work I went! What a blast!

I bought some nice, fatty pork - about 10 pounds total, and a huge tray of boneless chicken thighs...

The pork was ground (using the large-hole attachment) with onions, garlic, cracked black pepper, salt, and LOTS of fresh basil, oregano, rosemary, and parsely from the garden. I then added a bunch of pine nuts after it was all ground up.

The chicken was ground (using the smaller-hole attachment) with salt pork for fat, chipotles in adobo, more garlic, cumin, a combination of several different chile powders, smoked paprika, and a couple of handfuls of dried mixed berries.

Sausage

The mysterious part is I couldn't find the sausage attachment! I have never used it and it has been in the bottom cabinet with all the other attachments to the KitchenAid since we moved in. The pasta attachment was there, the grinder attachment was there, the slicer attachment was there, the food mill attachment was there. The sausage stuffer was not there. I checked every other cabinet, pulled everything out, searched the basement - all to no avail. So... off to the local Kitchen Kapers and for a mere $9.99 plus tax, I bought a new one - which means I shall find the old one any minute!

So... I ended up stuffing about 15 pounds of sausage - and I have several on the grill right now.

 

I'll let ya know how they turned out!

Sausage

 

 


Chipotle Chicken

Anouille Plus

We've been having a lot of food fun the past few days... Our friend Dorrie and her son Jordan are down visiting from Boston - and that means getting to cook even more food than we usually do!

We had planned on going over to Victor's brother's house for the 4th - they're out of town and have a pool - but the weather just wasn't cooperating, so... we just BBQ'd at home. Hot dogs, burgers, ribs, three different types of sausages... It was yummy. Of course I cooked a bit too much... So...

Last night I decided to just do a bit of a clean out the 'fridge dinner... I took the leftover sausages - andouille, chorizo, and spicy Italian - and sliced them up. I fried up a bunch of onions and mixed peppers, and added tomatoes and lots of chipotle pepper and cumin. I then grilled a couple of chicken breasts and added them to the pot.

Boiled up some egg noodles, and voila! Dinner was served!

It was spicy hot without being 5 alarm, and we had some crusty bread to sop up the sauce. Simple and satisfying.

Dessert was a snap... We just got in puff pastry at work, so I baked off a sheet and after it came out of the oven, i split it in two. Earlier, I took some raspberries and sprinkled a bit of brandy over them.

I whipped up some cream, spread half on the pastry, added the raspberries, more cream, and then the top. Can we say "Yummy" boys and girls?!?

I have a whole chicken marinating in the 'fridge for tomorrow.....