Kitchen Happenings: An American Tour

Hey gang. If you're a reader here, then there's a good chance that you were around for some of the glory days in the foodgeek kitchen. Back when we'd have 25 people over to watch the Illini and eat some pretty good food. Let's just say that we probably ate better than most students who weren't in culinary school. Flash forward a couple years. It had been a while since I had a crew over for a big meal. So on a whim, that changed today. I realized that I was in town for Easter weekend, as were a bunch of my crew down here. A plated Easter dinner for 9. The menu was solid, with some relatively modern appetizers, a changeup for the opening course, a old school main courses, and a nice mix of side dishes with roots all around the country.

Appetizers:
Pair of crostini - one was grilled chicken breast, drizzled with basil oil, and the other was an old standby: my two-bean and corn salsa. A nice opener which I knew would be a hit, as the execution was simple and the tastes actually popped in your mouth. I had the chicken breast already cooked and the basil oil is something that I always have on hand. Easy. The salsa can be made entirely with canned or frozen veggies, except for the fresh chopped onion. Easy. The trick is to work heavy on the spices, since the beans can take a lot of additional flavor. Also, adding a little olive oil adds a richness to the salsa that no one expects.

Grade: A-. Didn't feel like getting fancy with the presentation on the chicken crostini, and I made the bean and corn salsa a make-it-yourself thing.

Opening Course:
Fruit salad. I thought about going with a traditional salad, but decided to switch it up. And fruit salad is so easy. I wanted to add strawberries, but the ones at the store were awful, so I improvised. Fresh cantaloupe, fresh grapes (red and green), canned chunk pineapple, canned mandarin oranges. The two canned fruits are probably the canned fruits that taste the freshest - canned pears and peaches, which I actually like, just don't feel fresh. On the other hand, the pineapple and mandarin oranges hold up well. It was light, fresh, and a good transition from the sort of heavy appetizers.

Grade: B+. I wanted some berries, but was thwarted by the grocery store.

Main Courses:
Spiral ham. Store bought - just heat and glaze. Even a caveman can do it.
Baked chicken. Simple - season and brown. Bake until done. One of my solid standby dishes. Mental note - gotta convince people to eat the skin on the chicken.

Grade: B. Timing was off becaues of delays in guest arrivals, so the chicken wasn't hot out of the oven and the skin wasn't as crispy as it should have been. The meat was still tender and darned tasty. Ham is always good.

Side Dishes:
Turnip greens, cooked w/ ham hocks. This is definitely Southern soul food. A bit tricky. First time I've ever made these. These guys are so bitter that you've gotta cook them for a while in just plain water, strain them out, and then add more water and some flavoring to cook down. But after they cook down, they become soft, rich, and take on that smoky flavor that the ham hocks add. Only down side was that it was a bit on the salty side. This will be a future standby.

Grade: C. Next time, this will be much better.

Mashed potatoes. Takes you into the heartland. Credit for these go back to Mrs. C, who gave me the start point for making some incredible mashed potatoes. These were awfully decadent, though I did show some restraint. Low fat cream cheese, fat free sour cream, olive oil, and skim milk were added, as well as the usual spice blend. You got a nice tang, as well as the rich texture, and paired nicely with the turnip greens.

Grade: A-. Need a signature on this dish to make it really pop, like the appetizers. At the risk of being cliche and snooty, I'm thinking white truffle oil next time as a finisher to give depth.

Southwest Corn Casserole: A little Tex-Mex flair here. Again, credit to Mrs. C for the original dish, which I've modified. Incredibly simple. Can of corn, drained. Can of creamed corn. Package of Jiffy corn muffin mix. Half stick of butter (went with the real butter since I had it on hand!). 8oz of fat free sour cream. Some chopped jalapeno peppers. Chopped onion. Spices and a little habanero sauce. Mix it all up and bake. Incredibly tasty.

Grade: A-. Oven spacing issues forced me to bake on the bottom rack at a higher temp than i wanted, so the bottom was a slightly burned.

Honey, Pineapple, and Ginger carrots: Going for a West-Coast fusion sort of thing here. Becca (whose mom is Mrs. C) gets props here, for making a version of these when I was out in Cali. I left the ginger chopped little too big, which made the flavor a little uneven (a little spicy if you got a bigger chunk than intended. But, the flavor was good - a little tang, some sweet, and a little zing with the ginger. The carrots were cooked and then the glaze added the night before. So, the flavors got soaked into the carrots well, but the glaze sort of broke down, so it didn't have that nice sheen. Maybe next time I set aside half of the glaze to add at the end.

Grade: C. This will also improve next time.

To complement my handiwork, one of the gals brought some nice Illinois and Wisconsin wines for us to have with dinner. One of the gals brought a very tasty pumpkin bar sort of dessert which had a soft, yellow-cake sort of crust, pumpkin pie filling, and was topped with a nice strussel topping. This was definitely a winner. And some of the guys brought some ice cream, which is always a winner.

If wasn't out-sourcing dessert, I may have gone with one fewer side, only done ham, and added on my chocolate mousse and raspberry puree napoleon, served on fried won-ton wrappers. Though, as I think more, I may have opted to keep it lighter with a napoleon with white chocolate mousse, a chunky peach-pineapple mixture, and topped with a ginger syrup.

All in all, the food was solid. Would improve the turnip greens (less salt!) and carrots (only use the ginger juice, and keep some glaze for presentation) next time. Once I get a handle on these dishes, I'd need to figure out a way to really own the dishes (just like I need to do with the potatoes, and like I've done with the corn casserole). Would have gotten a smaller ham and found better baking trays for the chicken (space constraints make it a pain in the butt with all of the last-second adjustments you have to make. I'm going to consider easing up on the seasoning on the chicken and finishing with my mild, sweet, pepper sauce for my next go-around. And I wish that I would have done a nice cocktail as an opener with the appetizers, maybe my fresh grapefruit martini shots. Considering that I didn't even think about this until late on Friday night, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. I'll grade myself out pretty well.

Overall grade: B/B+. I sort of wish that I would have done dessert myself. The napoleons would have been a pretty modern way of finishing the meal, which would have given some interesting bookends to pretty classic main courses and sides. And I sort of wish that we had a soup course. I think that I may be better at making soups than cooking, which is a strange thought. Maybe I go back to a soup with turnip greens, white beans, and italian sausage.

Of course, I think that the soup will be a heck of an idea for the leftovers... I'm just happy that I've got a fridge full of leftovers like I used to back in the day. The current task, other than than eating a ton of leftovers, is to get my herb garden back in order. My basil is wretched, my sage needs to be trimmed, and I may need to completely re-do my soil. I haven't changed soil in a while, and it may be leeched. Anyway, until next time.

-foodgeek