OK - REALLY my last finish!

OK... OK. I promise this is the last one! I finished this up while I've been on my little Christmas staycation. I finished up the 1x1 on the fruit (which I thought would never end), and almost everything through the end of the Celtic Knots yesterday. Today I finished the BS on the Celtic Knots, and then did all of the drawn thread-work and beading today. I thought I would do this as just a one off, but I enjoyed working this piece so much that I think I will work the other three seasons. This makes me feel a little *less* guilty about starting the new sampler Tom got me for Christmas (which I still need to get fibers and fabric for). In the meanwhile I will keep trekking through Long Dog's Plight of Fancy (I'm in the bottom third!), and see if I can't get over my beading ADD and finish up a few of the Mirabilia pieces that I am sooo close to finishing in the New Year. Considering I lost my stitching Mojo for about half of this year, its not a bad accomplishment to have finished WIPs, about 10 ornaments, and continued work on Plight.

Last Stitching Finishes of 2011

So, I worked all of Teresa Wentzler's Byzantine Ornaments, plus a few other freebies she has released. My strength is definitely in the stitching, and not so much in the finishing! Well, there is always next year!

First: Celtic Sampler Ornament

Byzantine Oranament 1:

Byzantine Ornament 2:

Byzantine Ornament 3:

Intermediate White Work Ornament:

Peacock Tapestry Ornament:

Byzantine Ornament 4:

Byzantine Ornament 5:

Byzantine Ornament 6:

Torta di Mandorle

Last night I made this for dessert: Torta di Mandorle, which is an almond torte with chocolate chips. Who can go wrong with that? It is DELICIOUS (and of course a little home made whipped cream to top it off doesn't hurt either). You can find this recipe in Lidia Bastianich's "Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy" in the section on recipes from Liguria.

Nature's Alphabet - Elizabeth's Designs

I finally had a stitching finish this year! For a long time this year I lost my stitching mojo. Over the summer I picked up the needle again, and had been working on L&L's Angel of the New Dawn... but then I hit the 1x1 on the face and lost interest (for now anyway). I wanted something I could tick off the WIP list, so I picked up a piece I started many years ago. It actually only took me about  1.5 weeks to finish it, so without further ado... the pictures: 

Shooting

And now without further ado... a video of us off shooting from a few weeks ago! What fun!

THE Birthday Cake

I know. Its been a while. AND I made my husband a birthday cake that I just had to share with you! As always, hubby requested a traditional Black Forest Cake. It is laden with whipped cream, sour cherry preserves, and kirsche (this is a Cherry Brandy that merely enhances the overall cherry flavor... you otherwise have no idea it is there). The sponge is a dense chocolate torte, and it is a delight to the taste buds! I've always used Gourmet Mag's recipe, and wanted to link to it on Epicurious but they don't have it there, so I won't be providing the recipe for copyright concerns. However, you can find it on page 746 of The Gourmet Cookbook Bible by Houghton Mifflin. Everything is from scratch and as such it is a true labor of love (it takes about 4 hours from start to finish, and uses about every big mixing bowl I have) but the end result is incredibly worthwhile. In lieu of a recipe, observe in various stages of completion:

This is the chocolate and butter melted together:

This is the egg whites beaten to medium peaks:

This is the egg yolk, almonds, and other small dry ingredients whipped into the egg yolks:

This is after the chocolate mixture gets whipped into the egg yolk mixture:

This is before it goes into the Springform pan, when the flour has been added to the above chocolate yolk mixture, and then the whites have been gently folded in: 

Et Voila! (Yes, that is fresh whipped cream)

YUM!!

Barbecue Pork Sandwiches with Blue Cheese Coleslaw

By popular outcry, here are the recipes for the barbecue pork sandwiches and the Blue Cheese Coleslaw.

First the pork:

Dry rub:

• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon cayenne
• 4 pound shoulder pork roast 

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 cup apple juice
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire
• 1/2 tablespoon liquid smoke
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder 

Accessories:

• 6 soft hamburger buns with seeds
• Bbq sauce
• Cole slaw

Directions

Mix the dry rub ingredients in small bowl. Sprinkle dry rub all over the pork roast, pressing into the pork. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

When two hours have passed, preheat your oven to 325.


Combine liquid ingredients and the garlic powder in a medium bowl and pour into a large Dutch oven or Le Creuset style pot. Place pork in the pot and tightly cover with aluminum foil then lid. Roast for 4 hours or until fork tender and shreds easily. Brush the roast with cooking liquid every hour.

Remove from oven and let stand until cool enough to handle. Shred the pork with a fork or tongs into bite size pieces.

Serve on hamburger buns topped with BBQ sauce and Cole Slaw.

Next, the Cole Slaw:

Ingredients

• 1/2 small head green cabbage
• 1/2 small head red cabbage
• 4 large carrots, scrubbed or peeled (optional)
• 2 cups (16 ounces) good mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) crumbled Roquefort blue cheese

Cut the cabbages in half and then in quarters and cut out the cores. Sliver your cabbage by running your knife from the outside of the cabbage towards the core (it is easier to lay it on one of the cut sides while shaving the cabbage. Likewise you can always use a food processor to do this faster). Repeat with carrots. Transfer into a large bowl, discarding any very large pieces. Before you pour the dressing on the salad, save a handful of the grated vegetables to decorate for serving. Transfer to bowl with the cabbages. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, both mustards, vinegar, celery salt, kosher salt, and pepper. Pour enough mayonnaise dressing over the grated vegetables and toss to moisten well. Add crumbled blue cheese and toss together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours to allow the flavors to meld. Serve cold or at room temperature

Corned Beef!

I know. It's a lazy picture. That being said, the great thing about the corned beef project last month is that it was so hands off. I've been working a ton of overtime, and have had little energy to do much of anything.

The corned beef is delicious, and my husband has been making corned beef sandwiches with homemade Carroway Beer Mustard (also from the Charcuterie book), and a lovely pile of Emmenthaler on top. He cannot get enough of it. It's definitely the best corned beed I've ever had, with little exception. I just wish I had a meat slicer so I could slice it a little easier.

I didn't do anything creative with it, and we still have a ton of it left. I may freeze it so we don't get sick of it and waste it... but so far we are going on a week strong of corned beef sandwiches. Yum!

Next project is hot smoking. I'm not a huge fan of Canadian Bacon, (maybe I've just never had a good one), but Tom is begging me to choose it over Taso Ham. I suppose we will just have to stay tuned to see what happens in the kitchen. :-)

Pancetta and Carbonara

Yeah, I know. Crappy picture. Wah.

My pancetta finished a week ago, but, due to my work schedule and various things going on, was only able to use it today. I decided that the best way to use it was in a carbonara, of sorts. And by the way? I was a little nervous about my Pancetta. Since we are in Utah, and the air is so dry, I was worried that it would be Pancetta Jerky instead. Although my edges were a wee bit dry, it was gloriously red and beautiful once I cut into it. I was so excited and really, quite proud of my charcuterie accomplishment!

Back when we were living in Virginia, just outside of DC, one of our favorite places to eat was Brio at Tyson's Corner (after they added on the extra wing). They always made a great Carbonara, and we would always get it with their chopped salad. Carbonara seemed like the perfect vehicle for my home made Wild Boar Pancetta for challenge two of Charcutepalooza.

Since I didn't have access to anything large (pork belly-wise), I secured a lovely wild boar pork belly from Caputo's in downton SLC. A little less than 2 lbs., so I thought too small to roll and tie. I decided to just wrap it in cheese cloth and hang it flat. The edges got a little too dried out, but the inside was just too divine, as you can see from the mediocre picture above. The curing process was quite simple. I really must invest in a wine refridgerator to control the humidity until we buy our dream old home with a root/wine cellar that will do double duty. In any event, using the wild boar made it a bit richer than typical pork, but oh! How could you go wrong??

In any event, like I said, Carbonara! I spent a week researching various methods of Carbonara. Cream? Stock? Which is better? I determined that the best first method would be the authentic stock version. If worse came to worse, we still have lots of pancetta to try the cream version, right? (I may still do that just for experimentation purposes, even though it isn't quite authentic).

So, I wasn't much in the mood to make my own pasta tonight (that is reserved for tomorrow wherin I will make Duck Breast Prosciutto Ravioli), but I got this lovely tri-colore bowtie pasta by Rao's (in NYC!!) . Salted the pasta water exceptionally well, and set it to boil. Pre-heate a sautee pan over a medium high heat. Prepped three eggs, separated (froze the whites for macaroons or whatever...nothing goes to waste), whisking the yolks gently for use in a prep dish or small mixing bowl. Cube about a cup of pancetta (in about a 1/4" dice), and once your water for pasta is near boiling, add your pancetta to the sautee pan. Since pancetta is a high fat cut of meat, it will render quite a bit of fat. Yum! In this case, don't drain it. It's a great seasoning agent, and really helps everything come together. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of stock. Once your pancetta has cooked for a few minutes and rendered quite a bit of fat *AND* you know your pasta is al dente,  add your stock to the sautee pan and bring to boil, which will come together quite quickly. Transfer your pasta directly to that sautee pan using a spider, stirring well to combine. Remove from heat immediately, and add your three egg yolks. (The heat from the pasta will cook your yolks, but if you are pregnant, elderly, or of ill health, please excercise caution and coddle your eggs briefly in hot water or the stock before adding them to the pasta). Immediately add two large hand-fulls of fresh grated parmesan cheese (don't use the crap from the green can or the whole thing will be ruined), and stir until melted and combined. Serve immediately.

I used fresh eggs and fresh cheese, and stock that I made last weekend. The pork belly turned into pancetta was humanely and locally raised. It makes all the difference in the world!

Duck Prosciutto

Again, apologies for the crappy picture.

This is my first experiment with Charcuterie at home. I'm so pleased! I was really concerned with how the dry air of Utah would affect the outcome, and as you can see the bottom side did dry out a little more than I think it was supposed to. Also, I was really nervous to eat this. I know I know - a week of a full salt cure took care of any risk of botulism, but I still thought that I might put it in my mouth, seize up, and collapse on the floor, much like you see in the old Looney Tunes cartoons... even with "x" for eyes.

Nevertheless, we are still here. We only have half of the breast left! My husband couldn't get enough of it! It really is incredibly flavorful, and has a delicate saltiness to it. I actually chiffonade-d a bunch of it and threw it into a baked mac and cheese dish. I thought it would go well with the three cheeses I used - a local sheep's milk blue cheese from Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery, Promontory Cheddar from Beehive Cheese Co., and a french Gruyere. Yum! We pretty much ate a lot of it the moment we brought it in. I think I will definitely pick up more duck breast from Nels on Saturday at the locavore market.

So this Year of Meat. Charcutepalooza. What am I doing this for? Well, I've always been a science nerd. My favorite part of science was always lab. I see cooking as a giant, and tasty, extension of lab. Except there is no chance of explosion... generally speaking. I'm looking to expand my cooking chops in new ways that push my comfort levels a little. I also know I could just buy most of this in the store, but it's really expensive to do that, and you don't always know what its provenance is. Part of this is in an effort to learn conservation. I have discovered that when you are really invested in every step of the process of cooking, you are far less likely to create food waste. I also like the idea of being as self-sustaining as possible, and being able to turn the most basic of ingredients into a finished item. You don't *need* to go buy ricotta... you can make it with milk, cream and vinegar. You don't *need* to buy bread or bagels or pasta... you can make it with flour, eggs, water, a little salt and sometimes yeast (of course other things if you are making more than the basics). I get a great sense of accomplishment to say that I made this, and the taste difference shows. Lastly, a lot of this is just because I really like to eat these things. Not gonna lie. I like meat. (But only good meat!)

Anyway, enough rambling. My Wild Boar Belly has cured for the last week, and was just set to hang in the closet. I didn't roll it - it was just too small - so I just wrapped it in cheesecloth, and it will hang for 5-7 days. Yum!