Technical Difficulties

Sorry for the technical difficulties this week. For some reason (probably because I wrote them all late at night), my posts this week didn't make it up correctly. I'm trying to fix it this weekend (by mostly re-writing them), but I'm also spending some time with my former roommate in North Carolina who just discovered he's deploying two months earlier than expected in a week-and-a-half.

The project will continue its regularly scheduled activities on Monday.

Pray for those deployed and deploying.

Day 8: Week One Recap

Day 8: Week One Recap

The Coley/O’Connell Project is one week old, and again I remain trout-less. I did, however, go on yet another shopping trip (so much for one trip at the beginning of the week), to get some Riesling wine and a couple other things I’m going to need. I also had my best buy yet: I walked into a local thrift store and walked out five minutes later with an ice-cream maker for $5. Patrick has seven or eight ice-cream and sorbet recipes in the back of the book and I was a little worried about how I was going to make those happen (stores don’t even sell coffee cans anymore). I’m really excited about this find.

Tonight turned into a prep night for tomorrow, when BigKip and the Senator come over for what will hopefully be a good meal. I made the Peach Puree with Virginia Riesling and set that to chill in the fridge. I’ve never made a chilled soup before, but this seems like there’s enough good stuff in it to make it un-screwupable. I also made some of the fillings for the Portobello mushroom main course tomorrow. This is a complicated recipe, but there are several things in it I can prepare and use in other recipes. This means nothing to eat tonight, except some leftover pizza. It’s still good.

Day 7: Straight to Lunch

Day 7: Straight to Lunch

Last night, I stayed up late to make Silver Queen Corn Saute specifically for lunch today. I wanted to make it yesterday because I had picked some delicious sweet corn at my sponsors’ on Sunday and I wanted to use it while it was still fresh. This may be one of the simplest dishes in the cookbook—it’s just corn, peppers, cilantro and bacon (naturally with a healthy dose of butter)—but it was also one of the best so far. It kept well overnight and I brought it in for lunch for me and BigKip. He said the yellow peppers I used (even though Patrick said red…I didn’t do well with shopping, remember) really brought the dish together. However, I think the key is good, quality corn. Fortunately, my sponsor dad gave me some excellent fruits and vegetables to use in this week’s recipes. The tomatoes last night were from Homestead Gardens and today’s corn was also. I’m anticipating using the peaches later this week when I have BigKip and the Senator over for dinner.

It turned out to be a good thing that I made two recipes last night because once again, I had a poor shopping experience. The commissary had no seafood department, and the store next to me had no trout (I couldn’t remember how much rockfish Patrick wanted or how to cut it); so still I am without the Potato Crusted Rainbow Trout. One of these days I’m sure I’ll have it…I believe!

So tonight, I confess, I ordered a pizza, watched The Usual Suspects and only made a couple of batches of Basic Pie Dough for later in the week. The pizza was delicious, the movie was excellent, and the pie dough was very fun to make (I suppose that's where they came up with the idea for play-dough). I feel a little guilty...but not that bad.

Day 6: Tomatoes for Dinner

I'm going to go ahead and admit that I'm bad at shopping. It takes me a long time, and I'm usually not very well-prepared, and I inevitably end up calling my mother to help me choose a vegetable or find where something is in the store, choose a brand or just all-around tell me what to do.

Tonight, I did none of those things. Rather, I spent so much time making my list of foods that I want to buy for the week's meals that by the time I finally got to the store, there was nothing good there. I don't really know all the rules to picking the best vegetables--I usually just go with 'what looks and feels like something I actually want to eat'--but I know that the stuff in the produce section of Giant that day was not for me. So, I ended up coming back to my apartment mostly empty-handed, late, with just enough to prepare a Garden Tomato Salad for dinner and then to stay up late preparing the Silver Queen Corn Saute for tomorrow's lunch.

I think I didn't prepare the tomato salad's dressing exactly as Patrick had in mind. That is, I simmered, and it smelled and tasted really good, but I wasn't sure exactly how he wanted me to incorporate it into the salad, so I just poured it on top of everything. It kind of got a little soggy, but it definitely tasted good. And, of course, the Asiago cheese was delicious. I'm surprised we never tried that back in my middle school Latin cheese tasting days.

One salad and one side dish down tonight, hopefully I'll get on track for something good tomorrow. I really want to try the Potato Crusted Rainbow Trout this week. It seems easy.

Day 5: Fresh (sort of) Tuna Cakes

I made one more dish before leaving the Riddle household this weekend: Tuna Cakes.

Tuna cakes are actually pretty easy to make. They're like crab cakes, but with tuna and with a mustard mayonnaise laid underneath. Of course, once again, the key is in what vegties Patrick said to add to the mix (dill, capers, red onion, gherkins, olives). Simple, but effective. The hard part of this recipe was acquiring the tuna during what turned out to be the great Annapolis tuna shortage of 2010. No less than four stores in town had NO fresh tuna...so I sinned against Patrick and got some frozen tuna. I think he would be okay with it in this case and at least I tried.

The mustard mayonnaise, by the way, is very easy to make and I recommend it to add a little flavor to some other dishes. You don't have to use very much, so I think it's relatively healthy. All you have to do is add dry mustard to Dijon mustard to mayonnaise in a 1/2:1:4 ratio. Then add salt and pepper and jimmy with it until it tastes right.

"This is an excellent way to use up any leftover pieces or trimmings from tuna steaks."