The Last Super

Butter and Baby Cows

Menu:
Saltimbocca alla Romana
Risotto
Broccoli Rabe

Drinks:
Cosmos...Duh
Veuve Clicquot

For the last meal of the 2013 we figured go rich or go home. Saltimbocca, a traditional Italian dish, filled our quota of fat, salt and flavor for the year to come. It is a thin slice of veal, the poor baby cow (YUM!), topped with fresh sage and a thin slice of pork product. Molly 2 in her infinite wisdom or lack there of, decided to use pancetta, although the recipe called for a prosciutto. The meat was then cooked in tablespoons of butter. It tasted rich and decadent, but both Mollys agreed that in the future we should stick to the recipe and use the prosciutto, the pancetta proved too thick and didn't create the crispy crunch that we were looking for. 

The risotto that we cooked is a go to side dish for us. This time we didn't have enough risotto rice, so we substituted with brown rice. Healthy right? The brown rice took slightly longer to soak up the chicken broth, but in the end the flavor was amazing and hardy. We did decide not to incorporate the parmesan into the risotto, but instead grated it on top so it wasn't too heavy and balanced with the saltimbocca.

We've never cooked broccoli rabe before. Initially when Molly 1 suggested broccoli rabe we both were imagined broccolini and didn't picture the leafy, bitter monster that is broccoli rabe.  Clearly we need a crash course in veggies 101. We feel like the recipe would've been a success had the proportions been correct. We were tipsy and didn't really read through the instructions. Whoops. Instead of using two bunches we used one, so the dish turned out more spicy than normal.

We've already talked about how much we love cosmos. This week was no exception and that was our introductory drink to cooking. Our accompaniment to dinner however was Veuve Clicquot, a deliciously smooth champagne. We wanted something fancy to toast to our last blog entry of 2013. 

May the new year bring you joy, merriment, wealth, lots of sex, and delectable food. Not necessarily in that order. 





Links:
Saltimbocca alla Romana 
Risotto
Broccoli Rabe
Veuve Clicquot

Hot Tamollys Get Crabs

A Holiday Feast For Friends

FEAST!

Menu:
CRAB!
Caesar Salad
Baguette
Corn
Garlic Butter
Tartar Sauce
Creme Brûlée 

Drinks:
Cosmos
Cranberry Jell-O Shots
Champagne
Wine

Appetizers and Jell-O shots 

As a special treat for friends, the Mollys decided to host a Holiday dinner party. If you live on the West coast December means Dungeness Crab. What better thing to do for friends than a crab feast. Molly 1 wanted to get live crabs, which is of course the freshest way to enjoy crab, but Molly 2 could not stand the idea of actually boiling the lil' crustaceans and nixed that in the bud.

With crab there's not much to cook, so it's all about the condiments that go with the crab. We made three different types of garlic butter: a plain one, an herbed one, and one with chili flakes. All turned out amazing. Molly 2 made a simple tartar sauce and Molly 1 made a Caesar salad; dressing from scratch. The Caesar dressing was so delicious it could have been put on anything. Initially when we started to make it the anchovy paste made Molly 1 gag, but once everything was combined it was divine. The baguettes this time were not made from scratch, but came from the best local bakery in town ACME! Their bread is a staple in the bay area and the line for the bakery everyday proves it. For dessert Molly 2 made Creme Brûlée. It was very simple and easy to follow the recipe from Alton Brown. The key to making smooth creamy Creme Brûlée is to not let the eggs curdle when they are combined with the hot cream. You have to pour slowly and constantly whisk or else you'll get egg chunks. Also through extensive research and a little too much fun with the new blow torch, which was bought for the occasion, the Mollys found out that raw sugar caramelizes better than regular sugar and should be sprinkled on top. 

The drinks were many and free flowing (as they should be at any holiday fiesta). Molly 1 made excellent cranberry Jell-O shots that went down easy and jiggly ;). The recipe came from a great blog called A Beautiful Mess, and was extremely simple to follow. If you've made Jell-O before this recipe is a no-brainer. The cosmos on the other hand weren't so easy to nail. Molly 1 tested out the recipe a couple days before and lets just say it was not up to snuff. First, she didn't have the proper serving glasses. Next, the proportions of liquor to juice weren't coming out right. So at dinner the next night she asked the bartender for some tips on how to get this drink to be like the ones consumed on Sex and the City. What we concluded was this; when shaking your Cosmo make sure the ice cubes aren't too big so that they melt a little thus giving your cocktail more volume, secondly double the amount of cranberry juice. In the end both Mollys loved how they turned out and solved the glass problem by making triples so they fit better in a larger glass. Who doesn't love a bigger drink!

As a reminder, dinner parties can be stressful, so we suggest inviting a good friend/guest over a little early to help out with the last minute prep or table setting. This also gives you time to get out of your crusty apron and into your party dress. Just make sure not to micro manage them (like Molly 1 does), after all they are doing you a solid.      

Links:
Tartar Sauce
Creme Brûlée
Caesar Salad Dressing 
Cranberry Jell-O Shots
Cosmos

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Summer in Winter

Menu:

Sweet & Sour Pork Sliders

Baked Fries

Ranch 32 Pinot Noir 2011

Tonight's dinner was an homage to summer and those warm nights, eating in the backyard and listening to the crickets (if we had crickets in Berkeley). The pork sliders were like the name of the recipe, sweet and sour, although the sweet aspect was a little overwhelming. The main component in the marinade were oranges; orange juice and orange zest . We decided in the future that it would be just as good if not better to make the recipe without the orange zest(shame on you Giada De Laurentes). The slider recipe, from the food network, our favorite recipe site, came with a slaw recipe that added a nice, refreshing crunch to the slider. The buns we used for the sliders were Molly's 2 favorite, Hawaiian Sweet rolls, which turned out to be too much sweet on sweet in the end.

Molly 1 got the baked fries recipe from her father:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Cut russet potatoes into 1/3 inch slivers lengthwise
3. Lay potato slivers on baking sheet in one layer and sprinkle with olive oil to coat but not drench (you want them to be crispy)
4. Salt and pepper to taste, I also use Herbs De Provance 
5. Bake for 30-40 min turning once.

This time we piled all the potato slivers onto one sheet and ended up with soggy fries. NOT GOOD. That's why its important to give your fries room to bake and get crispy. 

We have decided to include our wine pairings with the meals. This will not only help readers choose good wines to go with the meal, but it will more importantly help us remember what wines we drink and if we liked them or not, since we're usually tipsy by the time we get around to writing our blog entry. This time we chose Ranch 32 pinot noir not because we knew what it tasted like, but we could buy one and get the second for .05 cents. It was initially really sweet when tasted by itself, but when paired with the sliders, mellowed out and provided a crisp palate cleanser to the meal. We would recommend this wine with something light like chicken, fish, or pork, but it would not be able to stand up to beef or lamb.

We can't wait to make this again in warm weather, when we can use the grill and get some good chard marks and smokey flavor on the meat.  

Links:

Sweet & Sour Pork Sliders 

Ranch 32 Pinot Noir 2011

Ragu Ragu

Italian Comfort Food

Menu:
Ragu Sauce
Hand Made Pasta
Fresh Baguettes 
Arugula Salad with Beets

Tonight's dinner was all about warmth. We wanted to make something that reflected the cold weather and warmed us up inside. (Something besides the wine.) Originally we thought stew, which we'll probably make in the future, but then Molly 1 found this amazing Ragu recipe so we decided to give it a go. After all, Ragu is traditionally, in a sense, an Italian stew.

For this meal the Molly's shelled out some dough for a pasta maker. Usually we don't advocate buying kitchen supplies since were financially unstable... but this seemed like a useful investment. Molly 1 was in charge of making the pasta and ragu. 
The ragu was so simple. Literally chop the veggies, brown the meat and then let it simmer while you prepare the rest of the meal. The pasta however, was a nightmare. Molly 1 doesn't have a large food processor so she had to alternate between mixing in the smoothie blender and a Cuisinart food processor from 1989 (not even kidding). The next steps were very simple to follow and the pasta maker was easy to assemble and use (we got ours from Bed Bath and Beyond). The only advice we give is to make sure you have a large food processor and to use regular flour instead of wheat flour.


Molly 2 made the baguettes, which, unfortunately, turned out more like baseball bats. The recipe was easy enough to follow, but for some reason, they were not light and fluffy like described, but dense and doughy. The flavor was fine, and once drenched in stew you couldn't tell that they were as hard as hockey pucks, but in the future we would recommend using a more complicated sourdough recipe for baguettes, rather than trying to make them in one day. It's probably well worth the effort. 

Regardless of the missteps, the meal was exactly what we wanted, warm and cosy.