Christmas Eve Dinner

We had a wonderful evening sitting near the fire just the two of us sipping Champagne and eating shrimp cocktail before our delicious dinner.

One the menu this chilly evening:

Simple Greens with vinaigrette and shaved Parmesan

Mushroom Risotto

Scallops for me

Fillet for Dave

Sliced Pears for dessert

Lemon Mushroom Risotto

1 C arborio rice

6-8 C chicken broth

1 shallot, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 T butter

1 t evoo

6-8 mushrooms diced

1/2 C freshly grated Parmesan

lemon zest

salt and fresh cracked pepper

Heat broth in a pot until warm and cover. In another heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter and evoo, saute the shallot, garlic and mushrooms until translucent. Add the rice and cook for 2 minute. Add enough broth to cover the rice and cook stirring frequently until most of the liquid in absorbed. Once absorbed add another ladle full of broth and continue stirring until most of the liquid is absorbed. Continue process until the rice is tender but firm to the bite about 35-45 minutes. At this point the risotto should be creamy and delicious looking! Remove from heat and add the zest of one lemon, salt and fresh cracked pepper and grated Parmesan.

For the Steak:

Allow the filet to come to room tempurature. Salt and pepper each side. Dave broiled his steak because it was way too cold to venture outside to the grill. He broiled it for 8 minutes for a perfect medium rare steak.

For the Scallops:

Remove the tough muscle from each scallop. Wash and pat dry. Lightly salt and pepper each scallop. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 T of butter and a touch of evoo. Gently place the scallops in the pan and cook with out touching for 2 on each side, until they carmelize and have a nice brown crust.

Pinwheels- Mom in the kitchen

Another Cook's Illustrated recipe! For some reason the East Coast receives magazine subscriptions faster then Colorado. My parents had already made this recipe before I had even gotten the magazine in my mail box! In this situation, it was a good thing because it is a more complicated recipe and took a bit of time to put together. My parents were out for their first visit in the summer since we moved here nine years ago! They had been here in the early fall and always in the winter but never to experience the amazing summers we have here in the mountains. We had a fabulous time and packed in a lot of activities.

As I've said before, I love cooking with my parents. They are each talented cooks and I love sharing recipes with them when they come out but this time they took the reigns and made this delicious and fun dish. Here are a few pictures of my Mom prepping the pinwheels. After taking a look at Christopher Kimball's Blog (the founder of Cook's Illustrated) he shows a nice picture of the pinwheels. Take a look at his blog. You can keep track of his adventures. We made them in the morning so that they had time for the flavors to meld. As you can see we used two flank steaks. One was more then enough for 4 people. They key to this dish is having a tight roll, an extra pair of hands to tie the twine and a sharp knife. Depending on the size of the flank steak, you will have 8-10 pinwheels per log. Insead of using one skewer per wheel we put 3 wheels per skewer.

Pinwheels
2 Flank Steaks about 2 pounds each (butterflied)
10 slices of provolone

8 slices of fresh mozzarella

1/2 C Flat leaf parsley

3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 C sun dried whole tomatoes

1 medium shallot, minced

1 t fresh minced sage leaves

3-4 T evoo
kosher salt and ground black pepper

butcher's twine

skewers

Combine garlic, shallot, parsley, sage, olive oil and a pinch each salt and pepper. Butterfly and pound steak into a rough rectangle. Spread parsley mixture evenly over steak. Layer tomatoes over parsley.

Finish with a layer of provolone and mozzarella. Make sure you leave a 2-inch boarder along the edge.Starting from the bottom edge and rolling away from you, roll beef into a tight log and place on cutting board seam-side down. Starting 1/2 inch from the end, evenly space 8-10 pieces of butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals underneath steak. Tie the middle string first and then the two outer, finish the remaining. Skewer beef directly though the seam and through the string. Using a sharp knife, slice roll between pieces of twine into pinwheels. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Preheat grill for 15 minutes on high. Turn one side of grill to low. Carefully brush grill with oil to prevent sticking. Grill pinwheels for 3-6 minutes until well browned. Flip and continue cooking for 3-5 more minutes. Move to cooler side of grill and continue cooking until desired doneness. Transfer pinwheels to plate and tent with foil to rest for 5 minutes. Remove skewers and twine and serve.

Steak au Poivre, oolala! Oh and Carrot Cake

That's right! Yum, yum. We finished off the M&B Bertolami birthday box tonight. The fillet mignon were amazingly delicious. I wish I could say I created this recipe but I didn't. This recipe definitely has a little spot in by heart. Way back when I was like 10 or something we went to Jamaica or it may have been Antigua (I can't remember) with the entire Feshenfeld side of the family. I know I had just had my hair braided into corn rows and I sure thought I was pretty spiffy. Each night of the vacation I had chicken au Poive. Yeah, I didn't like steak back then. My brother and I just had to sit down at the table and the waiter already knew what we would have, me the chicken and Matt the steak. I'm pretty sure I had a virgin pina colada as well! Pretty disgusting if you think about it, now that I know what's is in the sauce. Butter and heavy cream. Well tonight we tried to slim it down a bit by adding less butter and a mix of half & half and milk. We used more peppercorns that it called for because we really like the spicy bite it adds. Needless to say I didn't have a blender drink but stuck with a big glass of H2O! I don't think I will post the recipe but you can find it in The Gourmet Cookbook (the big yellow book, page 426). We rounded out the meal with some red potatoes and sauteed spinach.

Oh, that's right I also mentioned something about carrot cake. Everyone knows that this is my all time favorite cake. Dave made me the best cake last year for my birthday and this year I was lucky enough to have a wonderful friend Susan make me her famous recipe. It is so good! I think I was seven when I requested carrot cake for my birthday cake. After playing some crazy and creative game my mom created to wow my friends we came inside our old house in Boxboro and sat down to cake. At seven it was either "We're going on a lion hunt or the crazy spider maze game in the front yard. Every kid can't wait until the cake portion on a birthday party. I really couldn't wait because I knew what waited, boy were my little friends surprised when they saw orange shreds in the slice cake sitting on their plate. No one touched it, they all expected chocolatey goodness not somewhat healthy carrots. Oh well, more for me!

Cleaning and Grilling

We are rushing to get the house cleaned and ready for Pete and Jenny, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. We can't wait to have them to ourselves for a whole week!! We're heading out on an overnight raft trip down the Colorado this weekend so between cleaning the house and tearing apart the closets to prepare for the trip we had an interesting night of "cleaning". Thankfully I had taken a flank steak out of the freezer to thaw so dinner was a cinch and really tasty. At 8:30 we sat down to a juicy steak with a side of couscous and crisp sugar snap peas sauteed with a dash of sesame oil and of course a bottle of wine! Over dinner we made our grocery list and dinner menu for the week. I hoping to make the following- Lasagna, Black bean & Sweet Potato Burritos, Orange Tofu Stir-fry, Baked Chili Rellenos, Pizza, Pumpkin Ravioli, Sushi and Artichoke Linguine. Its going to be a busy week and I probably won't get to posting any of these until after they leave but I'm looking forward to the week ahead!

Spice-rubbed Flank Steak

flank steak trimmed
3 T brown sugar
2 t ground cumin
2 t ground oregano
2 t garlic powder
1 t salt
1/2 t ground allspice
3 T evoo

Mix sugar, spices and evoo and brush on both sides of steak. Let stand for at least 20 minutes. Grill to desired temperature. Since it has sugar in it make sure you keep your grill low so it doesn't burn; you will get a nice dark color. We grilled for 4 minutes per side. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into it. Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices. I found this recipe on Cooking Light- Southern Living.