A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Happy Halloween 2011

My favorite Halloween bit of all time:

  

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. 

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!

Apple Cake with Caramel Apple Filling ("Dexter" Dinner)

 

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!

Timpano di Maccheroni: The "Mythic Pasta Dome"

  

This recipe was so much fun to make!  I'd seen it years ago, a classic Italian dish made famous by Stanley Tucci's movie "Big Night" , the story of two restauranteur brothers (Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, more recently starring as Adrian Monk) whose fortunates are on the wane.  In a last mad dash, they have one "Big Night" extravaganza to save the restaurant and this is one of the dishes they served.

I served it our Dexter Dinner group to celebrate the season six premiere of Dexter. We gathered for Timpano, Death in the Afternoon cocktails, and Dexter (Apple) cake. Everything, including Dexter, was delicious!  This recipe is definitely a showstopper and very flexible. I'll be serving it again.

Several years ago, I had planned on making it for my pasta-lovin' niece Jordan's birthday party as a truly celebratory entree but at the last minute I flinched, afraid I would leave the whole family in the lurch if I messed it up, and simply served baked mostacciola instead. While the dish does have several steps, almost all of them can be made ahead and the whole dish can easily be finished early on the day of serving and baked a bit before serving.  Actually, with at least a half hour cooling time it's a great dish to take to a potluck or to serve at an open house. I only made a 2qt bowl full and not only was it plenty of food for the four of us watching Dexter that night, there were leftovers, and during the dinner, the dish was still warm to the touch 45 minutes after cutting.

As much as I sort of dreaded and anticipated and was scared and excited all at the same time about preparing this dish, it really is much easier to make than it looks! I promise.

Slow Cooker Meat Sauce for Pasta

 

The first step in preparing for the "mythic pasta dome", Timpano is to create meatballs (traditional) or chunky meat sauce for the pasta.  Although I eat meat, I've found that many times I have a little texture problem when it comes to meat and I find myself pushing away the ground beef or meatballs and eating the pasta and sauce.  I do the same thing with chili with beans: I tend to eat the beans and work around the larger chunks of meat. Not any more.  Since experimenting one time with chili by putting the raw ground meat into the crockpot and slow cooking it for 10+ hours I've found that I know longer push aside the meat. The long slow cooking breaks down those tougher textures for a silker, more homogenous sauce.  I now always make my chili and pasta meat sauce this way.  The convenience is great also: throw it in the slow cooker and forget it.  This recipe makes approximately seven cups, three of which will be used in the Timpano.  The other three cups freeze very well for another meal another time. 

Dexter Dinner: Timpano, Dexter Cake, & Death in the Afternoon Cocktails

 

Dexter premiered season six last night and we were there! Last year, my cousin, James, came over to the house on Sunday nights so we could all watch Dexter together since we were all huge fans.  We adopted Auntie Miranda into the cult and have been a Dexter Dinner foursome ever since. We always meet at Gene's and my house and I make dinner, usually using them as guinea pigs to test new recipes.  It's a win-win for me and for them and the safety net is that if it's ever is a win-lose, there's always pizza that can be delivered.

 

Literally, for years I've been wanting to make Timpano, the classic "mythic dome pasta" (Mario Batali) dish made famous by the movie Big Night from 1996 where Stanley Tucci, as one of two restanteur brothers (Tony Shalhoub is the other) makes this dish for their "big night" make it or break it extravaganza.  My understanding is that Tucci himself came up with the idea to use this recipe in the movie since it's one that his family actually makes for special occasions in real life. In 1999, following the popularity of the food from the movie Tucci's mother and the chef who consulted on the film authored a cookbook "Cucina & Famiglia: Two Italian Families Share Their Stories, Recipes, and Traditions" by Joan Tropiano Tucci and Chef Gianni Scappin.

This week I'll be blogging my version of the Timpano recipe starting with a 15 hour slow cooker meat sauce for pasta, Auntie's fruited salad and vinaigrette, the apple cake with caramel apple filling, and Death in the Afternoon cocktail created by Ernest Hemingway using Absinthe which is now legal in the U.S. again.

Let's begin with the meat sauce...

Slow Cooker Meat Sauce for Pasta

Timpano the Mystic Pasta Dome

Death in the Afternoon Absinthe Cocktail

Apple Cake with Caramel Apple Filling