Penn's Woods

I took off a few days last week to visit my family.

First stop was Philadelphia. I went to Modo Mio with my sister. If you're ever in Philly, stop in. This ones intense...

That's chicken liver bruschetta. Faithful readers will know I've made my own delicious chicken liver pâté. That's what this tasted like. But they added apricot to kick it up a notch. Delicious. I'm gonna steal the recipe and make it.

That's my sister's cured beef with arugala, pear, and fresh ricotta. Unbelievable.

Here's my favorite of the night. Agnolotti stuffed with a sweet pea purée. This was so good. There's honey in the sauce to accentuate the sweetness of the peas. And those are hazelnuts which added terrific crunch and accentuated the earthiness of the peas. This was top notch. A pea extravaganza.

My sisters pasta dish, ravioli with fresh cheeses and golden raisins. Stupendous.

And a break before the main dish. This is how we started.

And here's an awesome veal cutlet. This was perfect.

And my sister got suckling pig. This was a flavor bomb. This was intense pork mania. It was almost too much. 

But, there's always room for dessert.

My apple crostini. Yep.

And espresso and sambuca.

This place was great. It's only $38 dollars  per person for 4 dishes and it's byo. Also, they don't skimp on bread. Being the piggy boy that I am, I had bread for every dish to sop sauce. 

I was really full after this meal. So full I shat in a bar later that night.

Hahaha, such a classy meal, and such low brow language.

The next part of the trip I went out to lovely downingtown and visited the farmers market, on a rainy, cold Saturday, and really cleaned up. 

Goat cheese and beets and snap peas and arugala and broccoli and cauliflower and purple cauliflower and rainbow chard and brussell sprouts. And eggs for aioli. 

Yeah, I finally made this stuff. I never realized how easy it is and how my fathers Caesar salad dressing is so closely related to French mayo. Oh well, now I know. 

I made it to have with roasted market veggies. 

That's Bronzini with the veggies and pork below. I blew the pics of the roared veggies and meals. Oh well.

Til next time 

Meat and pasta

So I owed my friend a meal for helping me move in...so we had wings and burgers. There's no burger pics out of total obliviousness due to a wing high.

These wings were so good I'm still thinking about them.

Out of...laziness? Economy? I had cream and cheese left over from the penne ala vodka...so I made al fredo sauce. It's tired of being passed over. It's smaaaaaattt. Not like everybody says!!

Next time...vegetables. 

Oh, how about a shot if a bachelors fridge??

Apropos of nothing

Well, a lot's happened.

I made donuts again. I nailed it. Apple purée filling. 

Then through the magic of a snipped ziplock bag and some sugar...

Also, I moved. 

It's still being unpacked, as Laura brannigan plays.

I got a gas stove. And a big kitchen. So...I've made a lot if pasta. Something I was too lazy to do for too log. Here's some penne ala vodka

And some rotelli with arugala and kale and garlic and oil and cheese and an egg. One of my faves and so easy. Yum.

I dot know how to end this. There's wings and burgers coming. So...here's a picture of my yard and 18 year old me.

(I found a lot of stuff unpacking)

Herbie Robinson, coxswains mate

Exciting post today, donuts and fish! 

I set out to make jelly donuts with a recipe from my friend who's the real deal.

She's so serious that the recipe was in grams, not cups, for greater accuracy...I still screwed it up by adding too much milk. I'm a moron when it comes to math, but what can you do. I gave it a college try.

After a half hour in a kitchen aid mixer with too much milk, there's the elastic unproofed dough.

Look at that beautiful dough.

And the too wet donuts before frying. They were jelly donuts, so I got blueberries and strawberries to use. After  mashing the fruit, I boiled it with sugar and lemon juice and got delicious jelly that I don't have any pictures of.

And there's the delicious final product. It looks like a duck on its period, but it tasted really great. Everyone loved them. I'll do better next time! Thanks, Lindsay!

On to the fish...

I went out on a party boat out of captree for fluke and seabass. Following a family tradition, I threw three pennies overboard for good luck. I was guaranteed success!

How could we go wrong? (Don't answer that)

I was shut out, no keepers, but my friend Chris, the master angler with a horrible fear of gross slimy fish, managed to hook two  seabass and a porgy.

They were filleted on the boat and ready to cook. Holy crap were they awesome. I put flour on them and fried them with garlic and basil, with roasted potatoes and sautéed snow peas. 

I could eat fresh fish every day and never get sick of it. What a fun trip.

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights

What a great film that was, right?

...

So I made some delicious food this past week, and also ate some delicious good prepared by other people.

How pretty is that? Cherry tomatoes and edible flowers and oil and vinegar and salt and pepper.

A delicious roast beet, green bean and onion salad. Yum!

And a delicious asparagus, scallion and goat cheese tart. Delish. 

Then I went to a Cuban place in Corona and had delicious Estrella beer and roast pork and rice and beans and sweet plantains...oh and the best espresso I've ever had...unfortunately, no pic.

That was so good I was ready for the good lord to take me. 

Also unpictured, the appetizers...I was too busy eating. There was croquettes (Cuban style...they were like potato croquettes, but only texture wise) they were great. Everything was, really. Independent of my love of this style of food. Also some tostones, some fried yuca, and my favorite, some mind melting chorizo. 

Man alive. What a week.