We are being punished with an unbearably dreary weekend, weather-wise. Yesterday’s heavy (torrential) rains and high winds resulted in a power outage last night that ended The Hurt Locker prematurely and sent us to bed without resetting the clocks for Daylight Saving Time. Today I’m finishing up a work in progress — painting our foyer. It’s taking longer than I’d like, mostly because the foyer is heavy on woodwork: crown moldings, a big front door with sidelights, and a coat closet. Nonetheless, the end is in sight, and this evening I have an extra hour of daylight.

On the stove, my big green Dutch oven is nurturing a pot of tomato sauce and meatballs, which I know I’ll be grateful for at the end of the day. Meatballs and sauce was the very first thing my mom taught me to cook, and I can still remember the first batch I made on my own, and how proud I was when my father proclaimed it delicious. I probably have tweaked the recipe a bit since then, but it’s still one of our favorite dishes.

I’ve tweeted about this recipe often enough and am posting it now at the request of a young acquaintance named Charlie Olvera, so that he might enjoy this dinner on a cold Long Island winter’s night. This is true comfort food — the chicken poaches in a small amount of liquid that forms the basis of a sauce. It’s like chicken soup, but better. It’s a meal in a pot, although I am rounding out our dinner with a tossed green salad and a crusty baguette.

You’ll need a Dutch oven for this. I’m using my beautiful (and inexpensive!) enameled cast iron one, but any deep covered pot will do. Your pot needs to be big enough to comfortably hold a 4 or 5 lb. chicken, and it needs a cover, and it needs to be oven-safe.

Ingredients:

• One 4- to 5-lb. chicken, washed and patted dry
• 1 medium onion, peeled and halved lengthwise
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut roughly into one-inch pieces
• 2 stalks of celery, cut in half
• 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 lb. baby potatoes, white or red (about 1 inch in diameter; if they’re bigger, cut them accordingly)
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1 cup of white wine
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Bay leaf

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat about 1 tbsp. of oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Pat the chicken dry and season it liberally with salt and pepper; tie the legs together with kitchen twine, and tuck the wings behind the back. When the oil is ready, put the chicken in the pot on its breast and let it brown for about 5 or 6 minutes. When it’s nicely browned, turn it over on its back and brown that side as well. When both sides are browned, remove the chicken to a platter, and add another tablespoon of oil to the pot.

Add the onion, celery, and carrots to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to brown and form a nice fond on the bottom of the pan, about 5 or 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the stock and wine and bay leaf and bring to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to incorporate the fond. Add the chicken back to the pot on top of the vegetables, breast side up, season the potatoes with salt and pepper and add them to the pot around the chicken, and cover the pot. Put the pot in the oven for at least an hour. You’ll want to cook the chicken until the thigh temperature registers 170 - 175 degrees (this takes roughly an hour to 70 minutes, and it’s extremely forgiving, i.e. this is hard to overcook). When it’s done, take the pot out of the oven, remove the chicken to a serving platter, and tent it while you fix the sauce.

Remove the potatoes and carrots to the serving platter with the chicken. Take the onions, bay leaf,  and celery out of the pot and discard. Boil the remaining liquid a little until it thickens slightly, and serve with the chicken, carrots and potatoes. If you’d like a slightly richer sauce, you can whisk a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter into the sauce off the heat.

You can serve this with whatever starch tickles your fancy, but I really love a good baguette with this. Any simple green vegetable makes a nice accompaniment. Or if you’re lazy, just eat the chicken and veggies and call it a day.

With a little input from the folks who will be at the table, I put together my menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner. I’ll be cooking Christmas Eve dinner at home this year, which is a change for us, and one I’m looking forward to. I’ll keep to the Italian tradition of having fish or seafood, although I’m certainly not making seven kinds. We’ll start with a shrimp cocktail (Jim will make his excellent cocktail sauce) and some puff pastry pinwheels filled with spinach and cheese. Our main course will be poached salmon served with a dill/creme fraiche sauce, accompanied by roasted white and green asparagus and a nice loaf of bread (served with truffle butter). Dessert will be Christmas cookies (and I will cheat and buy them at our local Italian pastry shop) and molten chocolate cakes.

Christmas breakfast at our house has, for the past several years, consisted of freshly made cream scones with clotted cream, lemon curd, and jam. There’s always a big pot of coffee and some tea for Jim. We see no reason to stray from this path.

Unlike the Cratchits, I’m not looking forward to putting a roast goose on my dinner table. At our house, dinner on the big day will be a small prime rib. This isn’t actually one of my favorite cuts of meat, but the menfolk adore it, and I certainly don’t mind roasting one once a year. We’ll have roasted brussels sprouts and garlic mashed potatoes with that, and dinner rolls (I’ve not yet gotten up the nerve to do Yorkshire pudding). I feel like we should have something a bit lighter to start, so I’m thinking we might actually begin with a salad of mixed greens dressed simply with olive oil and my good balsamic vinegar. Dessert will be those Christmas cookies again, and some pound cake.

We’re looking to make some homemade eggnog this year, too, although where it fits in to all this I’m not sure. One thing I can tell you is that it’ll be good.

Although I originally started making granola using a recipe from the Morning Glory Farm Cookbook, I’ve modified the basic formula enough that I think I’m evolving my own granola style. This past weekend I made a batch of almond-apricot granola that came out really good, and I’m posting it here (at least partly at the request of my friend Stephe). I used sunflower seeds alone because they’re always available at the supermarket, but if you  have other seeds (or nuts) that you like, you should feel free to mix and match and substitute to your heart’s content. I may experiment a bit once I locate a good online source of nuts and seeds in bulk.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups oatmeal (I use Quaker Old Fashioned rather than the quick-cooking stuff — it has a better texture)
• 2 - 2.5 cups unsalted sunflower seeds (or a mixture of sunflower seeds and your seeds of choice)
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1.5 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup dried apricots, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the first six ingredients together in a large bowl and then spread in a large baking pan (you should have enough room in the pan to comfortably stir the ingredients without spilling them over the sides. Bake at 325 for approximately 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Lower heat to 250 degrees and continue baking for approximately an hour, or until the granola starts to turn a nice nutty brown. Stir it frequently to brown it evenly and keep the stuff on the bottom from over-browning. Add the almonds and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove granola from oven and then add apricots. Stir thoroughly and cool in pan. When granola is cool, pack it into an airtight container, where it will keep for quite some time.

You can serve this like cereal, or enjoy it with yogurt (and fruit if you’d like). It also makes a nice snack for eating out of hand. If it doesn’t taste as almondy as you’d like you can experiment with increasing the amount of almond extract a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, Jim and I took a ride to the Penzeys Spices store in Norwalk. I’d been ordering spices online from Penzeys for a while, but never bothered to make the trip to a brick-and-mortar store. I’m so glad we went. It’s not a very big place, but the aroma is huge — you walk in and your senses are immediately stimulated by a wide variety of spicy/herbal fragrances. One of the things I bought was a small bag of jerk pork spices. According to the bag, it’s hand-mixed from paprika, allspice, ginger, red pepper, sugar, ground Grenadian nutmeg, black pepper, garlic, thyme, lemon grass, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and mace. It smells — well, it smells warm and inviting, and familiar and exotic at the same time. In the Caribbean, jerk pork would traditionally be made from a whole roast pig. I, um, didn’t go that route.

So, last night’s dinner consisted of a jerk pork roast and Caribbean rice. I served the pork with a jerk dipping sauce that was made by a co-worker of Jim’s with hot peppers from her vegetable garden. I picked up a bag of plantain chips in the Latino section of the grocery store and called it a theme dinner.

Caribbean Jerk Pork Roast

• 2-lb. boneless pork loin roast
• Jerk spices (I highly recommend using Penzeys if you’re not inclined to mix your own)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat roast dry with paper towels, and then rub generously with spices (I spread a little of the spice mixture on a sheet of wax paper and rolled the pork around in it until it was well-coated). Bake for one hour and 15 minutes, or until the pork registers 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Slice and serve with or without jerk dipping sauce.

Caribbean Rice

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut (I suspect the idea is to use unsweetened — they don’t carry that at my supermarket, so I went with sweetened)
• 1/2  onion, minced
• 2 cups rice
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 firm ripe mango, peeled and cubed

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add coconut, and cook, stirring, until coconut is lightly browned. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add rice, and stir to coat. Add stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, or until stock is absorbed and rice is tender. Remove from heat, add mango, and serve.

NOTES: The jerk season is fairly spicy, so be forewarned. The dipping sauce we had was very hot as well (I can’t remember if she used Scotch bonnets or jalapenos, but in either case, we used this sparingly). The rice is absolutely delicious, but it needs some green. Given the other flavors, I would be inclined to throw in a handful of chopped cilantro. The mango adds a wonderful touch to the dish, and cuts the coconut nicely. I will look for unsweetened coconut for next time.

Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone. I’m a little frustrated at not having found the time to pre-blog the menu and some of the recipes, but things have been pretty hectic at work and at home. We did have a good dinner. Here’s what we ate:

Roast Turkey with Sausage Stuffing and Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Green Been Casserole
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Pine Nuts
Pumpkin Cheesecake

The turkey was good. My stuffing doesn’t vary from year to year — it’s essentially a bag of Arnold’s herb stuffing, a stick of butter, chopped celery, chopped onion, and a pound of Italian sausage meat. The cranberry sauce recipe was pretty simple too: two bags of cranberries, two cups of sugars, two cups of water, the peel of one orange, and a cinnamon stick. The mashed potatoes were just plain ol’ mashed, the roasted sweet potatoes were chunks tossed with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme leaves. The green bean casserole was the standard Campbell’s mushroon soup/French’s onion rings deal, but I did use fresh green beans. And the brussels sprouts were cooked in a little water first, and then finished in a pan with olive oil, minced garlic, and a handful of pine nuts.

Dessert was a fabulous pumpkin cheesecake that Jim made.

I drank way too much coffee today but I’m relaxing now with an after-dinner cordial (Cuarenta Y Tres). Thanksgiving was good.

Okay, I admit it. Salad isn’t my favorite thing to do with pasta. In fact the phrase “pasta salad” immediately reminds me of those godawful concoctions of elbow macaroni, diced celery, and mayonnaise that we’re occasionally forced to endure at a potluck picnic. But this one is really good, I promise.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. rotini (I used tricolor, but that is purely optional)
• 1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
• 1 jar sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
• 1 jar pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 jar roasted red peppers
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar

While the pasta is boiling, prep the jarred veggies. I should note here that I don’t use the entire jar of any of these things — add the ingredients in the proportions and amounts that suit your personal taste. I halve the olives, slice the sun-dried tomatoes, chop the artichoke hearts, and slice the peppers about 1/4 of an inch wide. Add the drained pasta to the rest of the ingredients, and add just a couple tablespoons of your best olive oil, followed by a splash of balsamic vinegar. It really doesn’t need any seasoning.

I served it for lunch today with a couple slices of fresh mozzarella, and it was really tasty. It reminds me of a hot pasta dish I used to make fairly often. I think I need to practice that one and post the recipe. In the meantime, this makes for a very nice lunch. A piece of crusty bread would go nicely with this, too. And even a slice or two of salami. It’s a bit like an antipasto, so anything in that same spirit would do well here.

I coined a word today, inspired by the weather. We’re creeping toward the end of October — somehow I feel like I’ve missed some of it (I blame you, Vegas). Today’s skies have been darkly overcast, and it’s been blustery and cold. It makes me feel nesty… i.e. like nesting. You know… curling up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, comforting things to eat and drink, the company of my loved one and my cats. Nesty.

Frequently on Fridays we have what we call a nosh for dinner. By the end of the week, everyone wants a break, and what we most like to do on a Friday evening — especially a chill one like this — is enjoy a nibble of this and that, usually washed down with an alcoholic beverage. Sometimes the noshes are store-bought, sometimes I make them. They’re always simple.

Tonight’s nosh: country pate on a crusty baguette, accompanied by a (homemade) spinach ranch dip (yogurt, chopped spinach, an envelope of ranch dressing) accompanied by baby carrots, baby zucchini, and pita chips. I’m planning on starting with a bourbon and water, accompanied by a little pre-dinner snack — the best home-style maple kettle corn I’ve ever had.

Oh, and there’s two choices of Ben & Jerry’s for dessert. Yay Friday.

I popped a Perdue Oven Stuffer into the oven tonight. Nothing says “oh, look, a home-cooked meal” like the aroma of roast chicken. I brush mine with a bit of olive oil and then sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Since I hate to waste a hot oven, the green beans I planned as a side got roasted. I’ve never done that before, and I can tell you I’ll be doing it again. They were delicious. Just rinse, toss with a small amount of olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste, toss, and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Since the chicken was resting at this point, I kicked the oven temp up to 400, and roasted the green beans for about 10 or 12 minutes.

Rice salad: Cooked basmati rice (nothing added during cooking), dried cranberries, dried apricots (cut in thirds), a handful of fresh parsley, a half-cup of toasted pecans (halved). Dress lightly with a lemon vinaigrette.

Good dinner.

I’ve just returned from the 2009 BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, the third such event I’ve been to and the fourth time I’ve been to Vegas. We left home at 4:00 am on Wednesday, October 14 and returned around 1:30 am on Monday, October 19. Five days away from home means an awful lot of eating out, and since we were sandwiching (no pun intended, I don’t think) our meals in between a lot of other things, we really didn’t pay that much attention to the quality of the cuisine. I’m sure there’s a lot of incredibly fine dining to be had in Las Vegas. We just haven’t had the time to go looking for it yet.

Having said that, here’s what I ate and drank while I was in town:

• Burgers at In-N-Out (my friend Josh ordered for me so I could get one done properly — the hot peppers just make the whole thing even better)
• Excellent draft beer and high quality bar food at The Pub in the Monte Carlo (the flatbread pizzas are excellent, as are the scrumptious onion rings)
• The usual more-food-than-anyone-can-eat breakfast at the Black Bear Diner (Jim and I managed to eat there a second time on our last day in town)
• A very good dinner at Garden of the Dragon in the Hilton (oh, and the house specialty drinks were quite good, too)
• Another very good dinner at the Yard House out in the ‘burbs, in a very Vegas-y shopping mall (the sliders that my friend Phillip ordered were quite possibly one of the best things I tasted the whole time I was there)
• Very nice cocktails at the Rhumbar at the Mirage
• A halfway decent burger at the Paradise Cafe in the Hilton — this was a meal of expedience
• Cold beer fresh from the bathtub in a suite at the Hilton

We were disappointed to discover that Hacienda Margarita in the Hilton no longer serves dinners. This has been one of our favorite meet-and-greet-and-drink-and-talk spots, and the food was cheap and pretty decent. The margaritas were good, too. They still serve those, but I never got one this year.

Dunkin Donuts does not exist on every street corner in Vegas. Jim drove 30 minutes one way to get 2 dozen donuts and a box of Joe while we were there. Some people got to go to A&W Root Beer and have a float. I wasn’t one of them.

It was really nice to have a home-cooked meal last night, I can tell you that.