Entries tagged as ‘peaches’
My father and my step-mother visited recently, and while she was here, I was able to wrangle her mother’s brisket recipe out of her, much to my great pleasure, having enjoyed when she made it on several occasions. So, since J considers Easter a valid reason to make a nice big dinner, I thought it would be a good excuse to try the recipe. G&T joined us as well and so did L. For appetizer/nibbly bits, G&T brought cantaloupe wrapped with prosciutto and blue corn tortilla chips and hummus, as well as some red wine and dessert.
The recipe calls for 4 lbs of beef brisket, sliced onions, black pepper, Heinz chili sauce and bay leaves, and it takes over 4 hours to cook altogether, so I started it early in the afternoon. It takes lots of steps, but it’s worth the effort- it practically melts in your mouth! As well, I made a big tossed garden salad (G helped!), with tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions and mixed baby greens, with my homemade vinaigrette dressing, and some brown jasmine rice, cooked in mushroom stock and then tossed with the mushrooms that made the stock, after they were sautéed in olive oil with some garlic and fresh thyme from the garden.
At the same time that I started the brisket, I also baked a butternut squash, which lately has become one of my favorite squashes, much less foods, to my great surprise. Of course, the way I make it, it’s pretty much irresistible:
Mini tutorial: Butternut Squash
- Peel and de-seed it and cut it up into small pieces
- Layer it in a Pyrex dish with a bunch of sliced pats of butter (almost a stick) and cover liberally with five-spice powder, salt and black pepper.
- Bake covered at 350°F for 45 mins or until it falls apart when poked with a fork
- Let it cool some, and blend it in a Cuisinart / food processor with a little milk or butter until it reaches the desired consistency
- Keep warm for an hour or two before serving… the longer you can let it stand before serving, the more the flavor develops. Reheat before serving if you can’t keep it warm the whole time.
YUM! For dessert, a big creamy peach Boston cream pie/cake concoction. Not the traditional Easter Ham by any means, but who’s complaining? Not like there were any leftovers!
Categories: I Cooked · You Cook It
Tagged: baby greens, basmati, bay leaves, beef, black pepper, blue corn, brisket, brown rice, butter, butternut, cake, cucumber, five spice powder, garlic, green onions, Heinz chili sauce, hummus, melon, milk, mushrooms, olive oil, onions, peaches, prosciutto, red wine, salad, squash, thyme, tomatoes, tortilla chips, vinaigrette
A treat tonight- one of J’s Southern family-style meals! Pan-fried ham steak with red-eye gravy, red beans and rice (a mix from a package, but they are damned good), and a pot of J’s family heirloom Virginia half-runner beans that have been passed down for at least four generations by now. They’re a little tougher than your typical haricôts verts, so J puts them in the old-school pressure cooker with some bacon (we’re out of salt pork) to tenderize and flavor them. They’re delicious and grew so well in the garden last year, we’ll be planting more soon.
J baked a skillet cornbread from scratch with onions and Sriracha in it. We started off with a California-syle green salad (lettuce, tomato, avocado, cucumber, carrots and green onions) with the vinaigrette dressing I made the other night. (Did I mention there’s a tutorial on making a vinaigrette salad dressing coming up?)
And to finish off, PIE! Blueberries, cherries and peaches mixed together, with Ben & Jerry’s cinnamon bun ice cream to top it off. Sometimes it really is better to be cooked for than it is to cook!
Categories: J Cooked
Tagged: avocado, bacon, beans, blueberries, carrots, cherries, cinnamon, cornbread, cucumber, gravy, green beans, green onions, ham, ice cream, iceberg, lettuce, onions, peaches, pie, red beans, rice, romaine, salad, Sriracha, tomatoes, vinaigrette, Virginia half-runners
We have been having nice spring weather, and with the change to Daylight Savings Time, and G&T’s company, what better excuse to fire up the backyard bbq? So, prepared on the grill (over mesquite hardwood charcoal, natch): asparagus and portabella mushrooms in olive oil, which I prepped, and chicken breasts and chicken and apple sausage, all of which T grilled. I then tossed the asparagus with some balsamic vinegar.
In the kitchen, I made risotto with porcini mushrooms, onions, butter, olive oil, red wine (‘06 Rodney Strong Sonoma pinot noir) and fresh thyme from the garden that G picked, with Parmesan on top. We had the rest of the pinot as well as an ‘05 Big House Red, from Santa Cruz with dinner.
For dessert, we had some mango mochi and Ben & Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns ice cream. Oh, and as an appetizer, G&T brought a baked brie and crackers, which we served with a fresh sliced peach.
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
Tagged: apple, asparagus, baked brie, balsamic vinegar, butter, chicken, cinnamon, crackers, ice cream, mango, mochi, mushrooms, olive oil, onions, Parmesan, peaches, porcini, portabella, red wine, risotto, sausage, thyme
