Thai Roll-ups

24 six inch diameter rice papers (circular)

2 smallish carrots, julienned

2 green onions, julienned

1 1/2″ piece peeled ginger root, julienned

2-3 large mushrooms, julienned

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1 cup hydrated saifun

24 cilantro leaves for garnish

Peanut sauce (homemade or purchased)

Prepare all the vegetables. Soak the saifun and drain when soft. When all ingredients are assembled, soak the rice papers until softened, a few at a time, and place between moist paper towels.

Place one rice paper in front of you. Put about a tablespoon and a half (total) of saifun, carrots, ginger, mushroom, green onion and chopped cilantro in the lower 2/3 of the rice paper and the cilantro leaf garnish in the upper 2/3 of the rice paper. Carefully , roll up the rice paper from the bottom, folding in the sides as you go along. It should look like a small eggroll. The cilantro leaf will show through the translucent rice paper.

Put the packets, folded side down in a container with a damp piece of paper towel in the bottom, and cover with a damp paper towel.

Serve with peanut sauce, either homemade or store bought. (I use the kind without coconut.) Dip and enjoy.

These are also great pan-fried in oil (make sure you use a nonstick pan) and served with the peanut sauce.

I am in dire need of more Jonsauce. I’m eating the last wee container today for lunch. I think the only thing I need to buy is mushrooms. Maybe an onion. It’s good though, I’ve got all this basil that I need to use before it goes bad. Huzzah.

I was over at Jon and Ryan’s yesterday after I went shopping (I bought Return of the King, a wooden corner spoon, some chips clips, and some wine stoppers). He made a potato gratin a couple days ago. It was incredible. I think he said it was a combination of Joy and Julia, with an addition or two of his own. I’m going to try and figure out what he did, because hot damn, it was good.

Also, yay! I have comments now. Ryan put them in yesterday.

Also, boo. Timberwolves, stop not winning. Why are you not kicking the Lakers’ asses from here to eternity?

Once again, yay. I have finished separating my blog into recipes and commentaries.

Woo, hors d’oeuvres party! Delight in the recipes I have left! They were very good. We all had an excellent time. Unfortunately, I now have four opened bottles of wine. I cannot imagine drinking them all. (I’m only an occasional wine drinker.) Suppose I’ll have to have another party. Except now I’m out of food. Hee!

Ryan and I have decided the basil leaves are almost Budandeddie. (Definition: very tasty, ridiculously involved, well-presented finger food. Named after Bud and Eddie, two friends who throw amazing parties with appetizers that I cannot even dream of ever matching in excellentness.) They were very pretty. I took a picture.

The spicy bean dip is a total guilty pleasure. I love the stuff. I haven’t made it since that horrible, horrible semester in grad school. I think I took a hiatus because of bad memories. But damn, is it good. The one complaint I got was that it needed salt and spice. Which makes sense, because I forgot to salt it, and I didn’t put in nearly enough cayenne.

Also, don’t be afraid of resalting the pate if it’s not spectacular. A little more salt could really help.

Stuffed mushrooms… mm. The recipe is a combination of Alton Brown and Julia Child. (To digress a bit: I got a copy of the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking for one dollar at the White Elephant Sale earlier this year. To that I say, “One dollar? Kick ass.”) The filling is damn tasty. I went out and bought a bottle of Madeira for this recipe, and I have to say, totally worth it.

And while I’m ranting, I’d like to give a shout-out to the Good Eats Fan Page. Sometimes the recipes on Food Network’s website are a bit off, so it’s great to be able to read the episode transcripts there.

Dude. Sandra’s secret family recipe for fried chicken was SALT and FLOUR. Why does she have a cooking show?

Stuffed Mushrooms

12 cremini or white mushroom caps, 2 to 3 inches wide

12 mushroom stems, minced

1 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced

2 clove garlic, chopped and separated

3 Tbsp onion, minced

3 Tbsp shallot, minced

1/4 cup Madeira

3 Tbsp bread crumbs (plus extra for topping)

1/4 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (plus extra for topping)

4 Tbsp parsley, minced

1/2 tsp tarragon

2 to 3 Tbsp heavy cream

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Put the mushroom caps in a large bowl with 1 clove garlic, rosemary, and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Toss to combine. Arrange stem-side down on a cooling rack over a baking pan (so that the moisture will drain out as they cook). Bake for about 10 minutes, or until a paring knife feels a little resistance sliding in (not soggy, but not raw). (Don’t turn the oven off.)

In a pan, melt the butter and oil together. Add the onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring quite frequently. Add the shallots and 1 clove garlic and continue cooking for another 1 to 2 minutes or until soft. Add the minced mushroom stems and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or so. Add the Madeira and simmer rapidly until almost totally evaporated.

Take the pan off the heat, and stir in the bread crumbs, Gruyere, Parmesan, parsley, tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste. Slowly mix in the cream until the mixture is moist but still holds together. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Try to dry the mushrooms as well as you can. Turn the mushrooms stem-side up and fill each with about a teaspoon of the mixture. Do not pack it in. Over top of the mixture, sprinkle some more bread crumbs and Parmesan.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then turn on your broiler and let the tops of the mushrooms get browned. Best served hot.

Basil Leaves Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

4 oz. goat cheese

2 Tbsp heavy cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

20 large basil leaves, about 3 inches long

1 small tomato, finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Toast the pine nuts in a small skillet over medium-low heat, shaking the pan often (do not leave these alone). When golden or slightly brown (3-5 minutes), remove from the pan and let cool.

In a bowl, mix the goat cheese with the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Spread about 1 teaspoon of the cheese onto each basil leaf. Curl up the leaf sides so they stick to the cheese, like a bowl (or more like a taco shell). Press 3-6 pine nuts into the cheese. Sprinkle the tomato pieces and any extra pine nuts around the plate. Drizzle with olive oil and some more salt and pepper.

I’m making a bunch of hors d’oevres for tomorrow. Family and friends are coming over to my place before we go out for dinner.

If, in response to the recipe below, you think “Liver? EW,” then I feel sorry for you. I love the damn things. Ever since I was in Italy and tasted fegatini, I cannot get enough of them. I made several batches before figuring out a good recipe. The first try was just kind of bland, with a lingering bitterness (I didn’t think to add a pinch of sugar). My second attempt had sherry and lemon zest, and it just tasted wrong. On the third attempt, I didn’t get rid of enough of the liquid before putting it into the food processor, and I ended up with liver soup (it was tasty, but the consistency was gross). I think this is what I came up with on my fourth try. I started making this about two years ago, but I haven’t written it down until now. (I’m glad this blog has made me do so.)

I’ll be posting the other recipes and commentaries as I make them.

That coleslaw was pretty damn good. I ate a little, and I don’t even like the stuff. The dressing was go-od. Our friend Eddie said, “Only in this house can I get spicy coleslaw.” Because Jon is generally generous with the peppers, and I followed in this tradition. It was lacking zing, so I added some cayenne (about 1/2 a teaspoon) and Tabasco (probably another 1/2 to 1 teaspoon). I didn’t do this, but possibly some lemon would have been a good idea.

Rite Aid (oh, that was lame, I had to look up on Google to see if it was “Aid” or “Aide”) is my buddy this week. They are running their “Four bottles of Coke for $3.76” campaign. Unfortunately, I went to TWO Rite Aid’s this morning and both were sold out of the D.C. I blame vanilla, lemon, and lime. And possibly cherry. These products take up room on the shelves that should be kept free for the Coke and the Diet Coke. There’s a reason why no one’s buying them. “But Sarah, why didn’t you check to see if they had any more in the back?” Well, I did. Apparently they are getting restocked tomorrow. Gr.

I am not a fan of Albertson’s. The cashiers (at every branch I’ve visited) just.don’t.care. However! This is averted if you use those self-check-out things. (Assuming they are working.) Going to Albertson’s early in the morning means that they still have packages of bacon end pieces. I like buying these. They’re $1.49 a pound. Which is fine for me; all I do with bacon is chop it into little pieces to put in potatoes. I think I bought about two and a half pounds. I froze it; it’ll last a good long while.

I finished the fried chicken last night. Mm, so good. I’m getting a bit pudgerific, though, so I probably won’t be doing that again for a while. I hate diets, but it looks like I’m going to have to go on one soon. Bleh.

I got an email from Jon today. It said:

you should blog.

I should blog.

we should all blog.

Yes, I have been rather lax in attending to my blog lately. For that, I am sorry. I hadn’t really made much, until yesterday, when I fried a chicken. I followed Alton Brown’s directions, and it turned out quite tasty. For those of you keeping track, this now puts AB’s recipes at four successes to three failures.

I got to test out that Lamsonsharp handle holder last night while frying the chicken, and it did a pretty good job. After being on the handle of a rocket-hot cast iron skillet for a half hour, it was getting kind of hot. I could still hold it for about ten seconds, but I wouldn’t want to try any longer than that.

I am currently engaged in making coleslaw. “Currently engaged” meaning I am in the last hour of waiting for the salted cabbage to drain. I’m using Alton’s recipe, since I couldn’t get into the Cook’s Illustrated website (I’ve got a user name and password, but the dumb site is being stubborn). I have to admit, coleslaw is really not my thing. When I was but a small child, I had an aversion to anything involving mayonaise. At barbeques I was eating hot dogs and hamburgers (no bun, please- I also had things against bread back then- as well as ketchup) and nothing else. Since then, I have grown to like the potato salad and the mayonaise (in small quantities), but coleslaw hasn’t really grown on me. Ryan asked me to make it for a dinner she, Jon, and Leigh are holding tonight. Jon has made chili (best.chili.ever). Leigh is making cornbread. Ryan has made strawberry shortcake. Good times.

And so, I present you with recipes cribbed from the Food Network’s website.