Darcey's Risotto

So gather round the television and watch a holiday favorite like Home for Holidays with Robert Downey Jr during his coke days and Holly Hunter crazy as usual and directed by Jody Foster.   It was very entertaining and fun to watch "the old days" - no cell phones and email.

Here's the risotto recipe that was the hit of the evening:

4 shallots
1/4 cup butter + 1/4 cup cubed for later
4 T. olive oil
2 cups Arborio rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups finely chopped kale
1 cup parm. cheese
salt and pepper to taste


Melt butter and olive oil in large heavy pan.  Add shallots, saute until translucent (I also used 3 cloves of garlic).  Add rice, stir for 1-2 minutes until it's coated in oil.  Add wine, stir until almost absorbed.  Add stock 1 ladle at a time.  Stir until all liquid is absorbed.  Add kale, parm. cheese, and butter cubes.  Stir until butter is melted and all ingredients are incorporated.

Spinach Lasagna

Finally, it is cool enough to make some fall/wintery foods - soups, chili and lasagna.  I bought some spinach from the farmer's market and was ready to go.  So here is how it all ended up.


Spinach Lasagna


Olive oil
2 c. chopped onion
3 minced garlic 
1 bag of fresh spinach (more if you have it)
1/3 c. flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 jar of tomato sauce (whatever your favorite is, I threw in some garlic, fresh tomatoes and some basil and of course a splash or two of wine and cooked it a bit with a great bay leaf)
12 lasagna noodles (for some reason my Whole Foods did not have the wheat ones that I prefer so I used regular)
2 c. shredded moz


1.  Put the water on for the lasagna noodles and cook them while you are doing the following.


2.  Saute onions until brown for about 8 min.  Add spinach and garlic. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes.

3.  Whisk together flour milk salt and pepper in a pan (I also added a few red pepper flakes).  Bring this mixture to a boil stirring frequently then reduce heat and cook one more minute.  Add 2/3 of the mixture (saving about a cup to put over lasagna later) to the spinach mixture.


4.  Time to put it all together.  Hopefully your noodles are done by now. throw a bit of tomato sauce on the bottom of the greased 13 by 9 pan, then the first layer of noodles.  Next half of spinach mixture, noodles, 1 c. tomato sauce and some moz cheese, noodles, rest of the spinach, then last layer of noodles.  Now the rest of the tomato sauce, the reserved milk mixture, and some more moz.  Bake 375 for 45 to 50 minutes.  Yummy.   


Get a fresh baguette from Rue Cler (after 2pm everyday) and heat it up.  You are set now.  Even better the next day of course.


Also, this takes a lot of pans.  Try to arrange for someone else to do the dishes for sure.

video class - home project - music

check out my class project on home:

Dino Crawl in Downtown Durham

For my friend Matt's Birthday, we decided to do a walking, eating and drinking exploration of downtown Durham on a Friday night. The weather was perfect and all the places we went were within a half mile (see below and link google map). I highly recommend getting to know downtown Durham. We tracked our dino crawl with a small card (above) that we filled out with dino pencils about the quantity of beverages (witnessed, of course, not that I don't trust ya) and about our good time (people were creative here). Here are the links to the places we went to. And yes, we did have designated drivers, of course.

Started off at Bull McCabes for dinner at 6pm, then Whiskey (new bar, had $3 drafts of good beer), Dos Perros (new restaurant closes at 10:30 but looking to open for late night later), Revolution (white leather bar stools and great mixed drinks), Pinhook (to catch some live music), then to West End Wine Bar (at West Village, they had some delicious chocolate covered potato chips). A couple of people hit the Federal earlier in the day.

We saw Durham's finest on Bicycles throughout the evening and it was great running into friends as we walked around. There are plenty of places to go. I have to say even with a bunch of people, we had great service from all the places. Sitting outside was great since the weather was nice at Whiskey and West End Wine Bar.

Let me know of suggestions for our next time out....




View matt b-day in a larger map

Dos Perros - A review

So I had to try the new Mexican restaurant on Mangum in downtown Durham Dos Perros that just opened last week. Since the film festival was in town I decided to make a reservation for 6 although I ended up with 7. We got there early so it wasn't too crowded for a Saturday night. Here is the rundown:

The Food:

For appetizer we had the following: Tortilla soup - very good, big bowl, Plantanos Rellenos - very tasty fritter looking things that had a spicy bite and a favorite amongst our crowd, Ensalada de Naranja, Jicama, y Cilantro - light and refreshing, also chips and salsa were served with homemade chips which were delicious, the verde salsa could use a kick, but I enjoyed it.

For the main meal we had:

Conchinita Pibil - which was pork roasted in banana leaves that had a delicious crust on it and came with some vegetables on the side, Tikin Xic Pescado which was grouper cooked just right with a side of vegetables, Enchiladas de Vegetales - which had a green sauce that was delicious, Mole Amarillo con Chochoyones - this was like soupy stew with vegetables and dumplings (not that great) but the sauce had good flavor.

The Service:

I consider this an important factor, and it was great service. We were seated promptly with an extra person added to the reservation at the last minute and our drinks came quickly. Some people in our party had to leave early for a movie and the split check was no problem. The server was attentive without being obtrusive just how I like it.

The atmosphere:

As you enter there is a long bar on the left and dining area on the right with the kitchen in the rear. At first I though that they only had those few tables but realized that they also have a downstairs which I did not get to check out. Upstairs where we were seated was quite pleasant with the open front window. It had a nice feel since it is in the rehabbed downtown building near City hall.

I plan to go there again for lunch and would recommend it. Add some comments if you have been there.

Cuban Revolution - a review

I really wanted to like it. Alas, the food at Cuban Revolution (at American Tobacco) was very mediocre. I had read review at Carpe Durham and others and wanted to try it myself. You know, to make sure they were not begin too harsh.

• The Food: chips and salsa - warmed chips and some bean and corn salsa that was very good but came in a micro container (our server did bring us more). spinach empanada - crispy fried outside - but bland and dry inside (I don't think there was salt and pepper). Beef empanada - the beef was better but still unremarkable. My companion had the combo - black beans (unseasoned) and some plantains (very good).
• The Service: we did not get a great table (in the middle) and it was not crowded (I picked a non Bulls Game day) which was just disappointing. The server was good.
• The atmosphere: I did not find it offensive or anything considering the "controversy" of the revolution theme. There were many tv's way high playing Cuban revolution stuff, but you really had to be looking to see what it was. They had some big screen's showing sports. The exposed brick was nice. With the TV's music and a not very crowded restaurant it was remarkably loud.

conclusion: sit outside when it is not steaming hot and drink beer, get an appetizer if you must.

the band in the carport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJTtoRvu1yM reggae nawing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8OQjOoqLHg garage la bamba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az3Mk8vVefA yeah, that song

you deserve a food trophy

see if you can guess what is in this lovely trophy of food that I made for a very deserving person....

The Bronto

check out the cartoon from my new favorite blog:

D-Town

Beaver Queen Pageant - Durga Beaver

Swords:

Beaver Queen Pageant - the contestants Beaverella

Nice Boots:

Beaver Queen Pageant - the contestants Dirty Beaver

The slip and slide was genius:

even more Beaver Queen Pageant Videos - the band

Beaver Queen Pageant Videos-The Band

Beaver Pageant 2009- The Band

Check out the videos from the Beaver Queen Pageant that I did in my spare time.
Beaver Action performed by Magical Mystery Beaver Band at the Beaver Queen Pageant 2009:

Magical Mystery Beaver

Grill - Everything!

Ok, just take everything and put it on the grill. Even the pears. Make a bit of a sauce, a little lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper, a few crushed red peppers. Oh, yeah, make sure you have plenty of gas. Propane that is. Good thing Home Depot has a new 24 hour self serve because it is always sunday late when you need some gas. Enjoy the grill, embrace the grill.

First Dinner of the Year

For the first dinner I grilled some salmon in a maple, orange juice, brown sugar, and rice wine vinegar. I took the left over marinade and cooked it down on the stove to make a nice sauce for the salmon. My new rice cooker made some great basmatic rice and I grilled some asparagus with soy sauce and garlic and threw some toasted black sesame seeds on top.

Happy New Year!

New Year's day serious breakfast sandwich

You know how you are really hungry (among other things) after New Year's Eve. Well, this is what cured me: toasted baguette with cheddar cheese, roasted grape tomatoes, spring salad mix, two scrambled eggs, cucumber, and some turkey bacon (optional).

New Year's Eve Little Bites of YUM

For a low key New Year's at a friends house, I made some little bites of Yum.

1. Grilled a small filet minion (just salt and pepper). I roasted red pepper, grape tomotoes and some garlic the night before. I made a roasted red pepper sauce with the red pepper mayo and some asian garlic pepper sauce for a kick. The roasted garlic was combined with rosemary and lemon and EVOO for a slight marinade/sauce for the filet. To assemble the bite I sliced up my baguette (from Rous Cler of course), spread some red pepper sauce, added a nice leafy green, the filet with roasted garlic and on top was a roasted grape tomato.
2. For the other plates I did a combo of green onion sliced long ways, avocado, cheddar cheese and grape tomato.
3. I also whipped up some stuffed mushrooms. The basic chop up the tops with some garlic and onion and add some herbs, butter, bread crumbs, fresh parm, and mozzarella.
4. Not shown is a artichoke dip I made. I usually make the one that is basically mayo parm garlic and artichokes. This time I tried a new recipe with some great northern beans. It was very good but not quite the same richness of the usual. I will post the recipe as an amendment.

This post dedicated to Lousious who went to kitty heaven that night.

leftover turkey with some killer gravy

So after a delicious turkey at my sister's for Christmas, I managed to bring some back to my house and make some turkey and gravy over biscuits that turned out really well. For the gravy I just did a traditional rous (equal parts butter and flour) cooked until it turns color, stirring constantly and then added some broth, thyme, salt and pepper and a penzey favorite mix that has sage and a few other things in it. The biscuits I have to confess were just Bisquick.