house of warwick

We moved (duh!) and that meant a larger kitchen for me. Tammy’s a baker and not as much of a cook, although she can whip up a mean soup on the strength of smells alone. I’m an event chef; I like to cook for people. That said, last weekend was a “pressure cooker” because I was cooking for some extended family, one of which was a chef himself. The menu was designed to be small courses served with social time in between.

The starter course was potato leek soup, a rustic Cook’s Illustrated recipe that rarely fails to disappoint. What’s funny is that it’s easy to make and not too expensive. Side note: if you have homemade broth then chose that over store brands. I used a organic chicken broth that cost on a quarter more than the name brand and it made a big difference.

Second course was butternut squash risotto, another gem from Cook’s Illustrated, which features a unique method to extract plenty of squash flavor: roasted innards! You scoop the stringy goo and seeds out, roast them in a skillet and add it to the broth as a base for the “stock” to add to the risotto later. I like the flavor where the sage punctuates the sweetness of the squash, but my experience is that it consistently comes out gummy. Most people that have tried it like it that way, but I’m hoping for a better texture that allows the shape of the arborio rice to come through.

Main course was a modified chicken saltimboca. We did the tenderloins instead of the breast and that allowed better portion sizes for everyone. My lessons learned here were important, especially regarding the correct placement of sage and prosciutto. I undercooked the pieces in the pan due to the falling sage burning on the skillet surface, so instead of warming in the oven, I moved the temp up to 375F and then 5 mins of broiling near the end. It produced fantastic results, so I made a mental note to restructure the cooking times with more broiling to crisp the prosciutto.

The title of the post mentions profit so here’s the money shot: cost savings. I was able to feed six people all of the food above (even a white cake and frosting for a birthday cake) for $37.00, much less than we all would have spent at a restaurant and the food was just as good.

Yum!

I’m still here and still trying to find time to write. When I’m home, I’m spending my time cooking, getting stuff from storage unpacked, ironing the occasional shirt and even playing some Halo 3. I’ve got some posts stacked up, so it’s time to write again.

Here’s Google’s election map for easy reference:

I’m writing this on an dial up internet connection. Yuk! The modern web is mostly usable on a 56K internet connection, but it drags. Online shopping is mostly a joke–photos and images take forever to download. We still don’t have DSL on at the new house. It’s a very long story, deserving a blog post of it’s own.

Tonight it’s dinner at Tuscan Grill on the east side of Springfield. We’re taking my mother-in-law and her husband to a nice restaurant to say “thanks” for their hard work over the last couple of weeks. Much like my parents did for us when we moved in to Kickapoo, Anne and Burl have sure “filled the gaps” with our new house.

Tammy and I chose dinner at home tonight, a small part of a larger plan to spend less money on eating out. We had leftover port filets from the night before so that became the base of a fantastic pasta dish. Thepork had been grilled and wrapped with bacon so a carbonara was a perfect choice. To save a pit scrubbing, I used a single skillet, starting with the pasta. I cooked it until just under done then reused it for growing butter and making a white sauce. Not to rush the story here, but since it’s time for bed, everything was added to a cassarole dish and put under the broiler. Poof! A great dinner for pennies!

This is the last weblog post I’ll write from the comfy confines of 853 S. Kickapoo.  I’ve enjoyed my time here, and while looking around at the nearly empty house, I know I’ll miss it.  It’s a house of a little over 1000 square feet and that makes for an intimate experience, but most of all, the house had very different environments.  The kitchen was filled with windows and curtainless, so during the summer, it was like a screened-in porch.  The den was just right for the two of us to watch TV and feel completely isolated from the rest of the house.  It’s also the warmest and coolest in the appropriate seasons, making it Tammy’s favorite room.

There’s not much to say here except “Goodbye old friend.”

Goodbye Kickapoo…