A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Happy Halloween 2011

My favorite Halloween bit of all time:

  

2011 World Series: Yay Cardinals! (And Bumstead's in Nixa reviews)

We watched and celebrated the game last night with good friends Jeff and Dee McKeel down in Nixa at Bumstead's. All of those things together made for a fantastic night!  Great friends, great food, great drinks, great GAME! After the win, champagne was passed out to all the patrons and the owner (?) jumped up on the bar to lead a toast to our favorite red birds.

 

 We all enjoyed being at Bumstead's. At first we thought there was no way we'd be able to get a table but we lucked out to spend a relaxed happy evening together. We'll definitely be going back!   Check out the MENU

 

 

Friday Food Fun

 

Good & Good For You: Sweet Baked Acorn Squash with Apple Butter

The most simple recipe ever and Gene and I both loved it. That's saying a lot for Gene because he barely tolerates acorn squash...so when he says "Yeah, that'll work" I know I've hit on a great recipe! 

Dexter Dinner: Aunti Miranda's Chicken Vindaloo

Auntie Miranda brought dinner to last week's Dexter Dinner and OMG it was wonderful. The even better part was that it was good for us too!  This is the perfect winter meal:  rich and soothing, deceptively simply looking but with complex flavors from the spices and pureed vegetable base. I'll be making this myself again and again.  Thanks Auntie!

Scotch Eggs: It's What's for Breakfast

I first heard of and tasted Scotch Eggs at a Renaissance Festival near Kansas City with my cousin Ann. We both reacted "No way! This is so cool!"  And tasty too!  It's a great way to use up leftover hard-boiled eggs and a great presentation for company.  I also like, especially for company, that they can be prepped in advance and finished quickly for a charming presentation. 

Tropical Fruits: Dragon Fruit

Dragon Fruit is a tropical fruit I'd never tried before. Auntie Miranda brought one over to one of the Dexter dinners for us all to taste.  The name comes from the appearance of the outer peel which does resemble dragon scales a bit. The inside is BRIGHT neon fuschia--there's no color enhancement to the picture. That's how bright the flesh is--beautiful!  The outside texture was firm without being hard and the inside texture and seeding is like that of a kiwi, the taste is a very pleasant combination of kiwi, banana, and mango.  Really yummy! 

 

Auntie's Fruited Salad with Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette

 

Isn't Auntie Miranda's salad for Dexter Dinner Premiere beautiful?  I'll let her tell you in her own words how she did it from the email she sent me explaining the PERFECT dressing:

 

"On the salad dressing - I knew that I was going to put mandarin oranges in the salad - so I did a Rachel Ray trick when I made the dressing (at home).  I started with a couple of tablespoons of orange marmalade and melted it in the microwave.  I added about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I added about a quarter of a cup of EVOO....and here's a trick I learned from Ann the other day.  Rachel always whisks her EVOO in - but I'm like Ann.  When I do that I never get a very good emulsion.  So I put it in the jar and shook it up and it emulsified in no time.

 

You can change out the marmalade to match whatever fruit you're going to put in your salad - strawberry, pineapple, grape, etc.  I just like a little sweetness in the dressing if you're going to put fruit in the salad."

Thanks Auntie!

"Dexter" Apple Cake with Caramel Apple Filling

 

Love fall and all the desserts that go with it, including this apple cake with fresh caramel apple filling!  Not to mention the Dexter aspect...hehehe!

Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" Cocktail with Absinthe

  

Our official Dexter Dinner cocktail, appropriate for its name, is "Death in the Afternoon" invented by Ernest Hemingway as it appeared in the 1935 cocktail barbook "So, the Red Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon."  Hemingways instructions were to pour one jigger of absinthe into a fluted glass and then pour chilled champagne in until it becomes milky and opalescent.  The rest his instructions are to "drink three to five of these slowly." 

Not a problem. It is, after all, in the instructions and rules must be followed.

Absinthe is a strong (110 proof) licorice flavored alcohol that was popular in the late 1800's/early 1900's artiste circles in Paris but was soon banned by most of the world for having hallucinogenic and highly addictive properties which later were found to be more myth and hype by the artistic community than fact. The ban was lifted in 2007 in the United States.