Already Behind...
Well... I'm not exactly starting out the New Year out right. Several meals cooked, pictures taken, and no blog posts to talk about them. Not an auspicious beginning. But being that I did take pictures, there's hope.
I almost have an excuse - I redid a website and since it's a live site, I had to do it start-to-finish, plus I'm working on another one that's also going to be a lot of fun.
So back to cooking...
The first meal I didn't write about was a big pot of bean soup. I cooked a small ham for the two of us on New Year's Eve and even small hams are too big for two people. But that luscious bone makes for great soup. I don't generally follow recipes for things like soup - I've made them too long to think about what it is I do - but it's pretty hard to screw it up.
I soaked a pound of beans over night, drained and rinsed them, then placed them in a pot, covered with water, and cooked, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours.
Meanwhile, I sauteed a chopped onion in a soup pot. When it was translucent, I added the ham bone, covered it with water, and simmered it about 2 hours, uncovered.
I pulled out the bone, added the beans, a couple of chopped carrots, celery, and a bit of garlic powder, pepper, and herbs d'Provence.
It all cooked for another 45 minutes, or so, then I hit it with an immersion blender to break up some of the beans and thicken it up. Oh - and I also took all the ham from the bone and chopped it up and added it to the pot.
It came out pretty good...
Next was a simple Salisbury Steak. To ground beef, I added finely-chopped onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a splash each of soy sauce and worcestershire sauce. Formed it into patties and then cooked them on the grill. I made a simple mushroom gravy and served it all with mashed potatoes and peas. Simplicity. And tasty, too.
Victor took over on Thursday and cooked up a chicken cordon bleu with leftover ham and gorgonzola cheese. He pounded the boneless breast, added pieces of ham and then crumbled gorgonzola. He then rolled them up, dipped in egg and then into breadcrumbs and into the oven at 350° for about 25 minutes. Rice and cauliflower - along with a simple chicken gravy - finished the platThree excellent meals that took no time at all.
Cooking isn't as difficult as writing about it afterwards.
Really.
Happy New Year!
It is so nice to wake up early on New Year's Day feeling rested and refreshed!
I worked every single New Year's Eve from my mid-teens to my late 30's. The craziness of delivering pizza for Pirro's, glasses being thrown into the huge fireplace at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe, dealing with drunk employees and belligerent guests at any number of places, New Year's Eve was never a day I looked forward to.
When I left hotels and went into health care, I worked a few more, but usually only had to deal with the idiots peripherally.
And now I don't have to deal with them, at all.
Other than a couple of house parties over the last 20 years, we haven't gone out to celebrate. The lone exception was New Year's Eve 2003 when we went to New York and saw The Producers. It was the night Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick returned. Mel Brooks played the judge, and we saw Anne Bancroft step out of her limo just beaming at the crowd. I'm not much of a celebrity hound, but I swooned seeing her. She was one of my most favorite actresses of all time.
The theatre was a half-block from Times Square, so when we got out at 11:00pm, we headed to Broadway - and were stopped by cops and barricades. It seemed that "for our safety" we were not allowed in. No amount of arguing could convince these guys to let us through. They even lied to us saying if we just walked a couple of blocks we could see everything unfettered.
We headed back down to 8th - where there were a million pissed off people who also couldn't get in - and said hell with it, jumped on the subway back to the hotel and rang in 2004 with a glass of champagne in the lobby bar with a couple of hotel employees and a couple from Norway.
It was the last time we went out.
Our quiet celebratory dinner last night was a ham, so this morning was fried ham and over-easy eggs. I broke one putting it on the plate - oh well. Fried ham and eggs always reminds me of my father. He could do a mean Sunday breakfast with fried eggs cooked in an inch of grease that no one on earth could replicate. He's the only person I know who could get away with it - and make them taste so good.
Later will be bean soup - I soaked them last night and will get it on the stove soon.
It's great being clear-headed.
So here's a toast to 2012 and all the fun food we had - and another toast to 2013 and all the fun meals to come!
Happy New Year!