Trina's page of Blogginess

Mmmmmm.....

Chicken Pot Pie!

Wow! Dick and I just made what may be my most favorite recipe that we've made yet!

While we were in New York in October we had some fantastic little chicken pot pies at the Boat House in Central Park. I think this was the first time that I realized that it was a dish that we both enjoyed so much, and something that we should try to make someday.

We've been doing a lot of cooking since then, especially out of the cookbook Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. I had bought this cookbook for Dick years ago (he's a big Jacques Pepin Fan) and we've used it for a couple of recipes, but never really paid much attention to it. We watched the movie Julie and Julia a few months back, and were completely inspired. As this is the only Julia Child cookbook that we currently have (we'll be fixing that soon) we decided to dive into it, and have been trying out several recipes. We've also been recording and watching the Julia & Jacques Cooking At Home series on PBS which are on the air again.

Anyhow, we finally tried the Poached Chicken in aromatic vegetables recipe last night. It's fantastic - it's a whole chicken, leeks, celery, carrots, baby onion several different herbs, and white wine. Very simple, very yummy.

As much as we enjoyed this recipe, one of our favorite parts that are mentioned both in the book as well as on the TV series is that you can use leftovers from this dish to make two other dishes: Chicken, rice and vegetable soup and Chicken Pot Pie!

After dinner last night, we portioned off the amount of chicken, vegetables and broth that we'd need for the Chicken Pot Pie that we planned to make tonight, and used the rest as soup for lunch. Really yummy.

This evening, I made the dough (I used to make pies with homemade pie crust, but it's been a long time) and boiled done broth to start a roux. The roux was pretty simple - butter, flour and a little bit of cream was added to the condensed broth.

The chicken pot pie was SO good! It turned out just as good (or better!) than we had hoped! Success!

...and pretty, too!

This recipe is a keeper for sure. I can't wait to make it for company! :)

Labels: food

I was invited to attend to pot lucks with friends this weekend.

Dick and I have a very yummy mango salsa recipe that we've been making for years, and have shared at many parties. We actually received a request to make it for tomorrow's party, so I figured I'd pull double-duty and match a triple batch so I'd have enough to bring both days.

I love mangos, but they're kind of a pain to prepare. My sister bought me this very ingenious device last year: a mango splitter! Let me tell you: this thing is the frickin' bomb! It works like a charm, and makes seeding a mango so much faster (and neater!).



I highly recommend it, if you are in the habit of eating mangoes. It will make your life much easier. :)


Dick and Trina's Triple Batch of Mango Salsa Goodness!

Labels: food

Muff Me

Pete just returned from a trip to New Orleans. He was there for Siggraph, as well as to visit his family.

Surprisingly, I've never been to New Orleans - it's a place I certainly hope and plan to go someday.

One of the culinary treats of New Orleans is the Muffaletta, from Central Grocery.

here's a description that I found on the web:
Central Grocery is home of the muffuletta, one of New Orleans' great sandwiches. A circular loaf of soft Italian bread is sliced horizontally and piled with salami, ham, and provolone, which are in turn topped with a wickedly spicy melange of chopped green and black olives fragrant with anchovies and garlic.

Today, on his way home from the airport, Pete dropped by our house to present us with a muffaletta sandwich, hand delivered directly from Central Grocery!

By the way, he brought us a "whole muff", as opposed to a "half muff", or even a "quarter muff". These things are huge! Dick and I each ate a quarter-muff each. We still have a half-muff left for later!

Mmmmmm!!! It doesn't get better than that!

What a friend. Thanks, Pete!

Labels: food, friends

I've mentioned before that Dick and I order our pizza delivery from Amici's. They have really good salads, pizza and pastas.

We usually order a couple of salads (the chilled broccoli is our fave) and share a small pepperoni pizza.

Tonight, when I called to place our order, I remembered that they offer half-baked pizzas. For some reason, we never tried this before.

So, the salads and pizza came. We heated the oven to 475 and popped in the pizza while we ate our salads. The pizza only took 5 minutes to finish baking.

The pizza was fantastic! OMG. Best pizza delivery experience ever!
It's totally the way to go. The pizza is (obviously) fresh and piping hot out of the oven, and tastes so much better than when it's delivered fully cooked.

If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend!

Labels: food, san francisco

The latest installment of the "What Trina eats while Dick is away" saga...

Oh, my...

Blane has been telling me about a sandwich shop called "Ike's Place" for several weeks now. Somehow, I've managed to live in the Castro for over 10 years without ever knowing this place was just a few blocks away!

Blane and I have both just finished a couple of major work projects, had some free time this afternoon, and decided to treat ourselves to a little decadence.

Here's the deal with this place: it's so popular, and so busy, plus the bread for each sandwich is baked to order, so wait time is usually between 15-40 minutes, depending on how busy they are! Whoa! Blane suggested that the best strategy is to phone in the order about half an hour before you're ready to pick it up.

...which is what we did.

I called in our order at 1:15, asked them how long I could expect for it to be ready, and they said 1:45. Blane and I got there around 1:35, waited 10 minutes in line, and as we were paying the cashier, our sandwiches were just being finished. Good timing!

So, what makes these sandwiches so good? I guess part of it is their "dirty sauce", which, according to their web site: Ike's house garlic aioli sauce, made with numerous herbs, spices, of course garlic, and some of Ike's own secret ingredients. Dirty Sauce is spread on the tops of Ike's sandwiches and baked with the bread, turning it into Dirty Garlic Bread, and then re-spread on the bottoms, just for that extra flavor.

Choosing a sandwich is a monumental feat. Take a look at their menu! (and that's not including the vegetarian and vegan sandwiches!)

What did we decide on?

Both Blane and I ordered the "Say Hey", or #24: Hot Pastrami, Bacon, Swiss
I had mine on wheat, and ordered it without mayo, but with mustard.

Blane had his on dutch crunch with extra dirty sauce and mozzarella sticks! WOW!

We did run into a couple of snafus. When I called in the order, they were out of bacon (what?!) and the french fries and onion rings weren't available yet. (again: WHAT?!)

By the time we picked up our order, the bacon had come in, but alas, no french fries or onion rings for us this time.

The thing is: I certainly didn't need bacon on my pastrami sandwich - I mean, come on! :)

The verdict:

The sandwiches were pretty spectacular. I was only able to eat half of mine, but oh, was it so very satisfying. I'm looking forward to my eating my leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Labels: food, life in the castro, san francisco