Lots of Effing Dishes
I dusted off my William Sonoma French cooking cookbook for a somewhat easy Friday night dinner. I routinely make the pot de cremes from this cookbook but haven’t ventured very far into other areas in years. Most of the recipes are really easy.
I am not sure you can even get this cookbook anymore. I did find it on Amazon for $3.71 but couldn’t find it on Williams Sonoma. The pot de creme recipe is worth the 4 bucks. (oof is it really that cheap? I mean, that’s great for us consumers but I think it’s worth more than just $4~Rei) (I think there were 3 copies left at any price…all used~Terri)
I opted for recipes with very few steps and that included ingredients I had on hand. Menu: leek gratin, shrimp sauteed in butter, green beans sauteed in butter, and almond pound cake with raspberry coulis.
Rei and I started with the pound cake. Rei thinks that I didn’t let the butter get warm enough which made for a chunky butter batter. I agree with them. It was ok but tasted like cornbread (I don’t really like cornbread, but this was just enough not like cornbread to not be gross~Rei). Not bad with coffee this morning for breakfast.
Rei and I tag-teamed on most of dinner. While Rei was finishing up the batter for the pound cake (I’d pulled out all of the ingredients and prepared the dry side of the recipe), I got the raspberry coulis going.
Rei is trying to avoid processed foods/sugars so we added honey instead of sugar. Rei loved it but I am not a honey fan. (We added a smidge too much lemon juice to the coulis, but it was still yummy~Rei)
We opted not to strain through a sieve and enjoyed it chunky. Texture was not a problem for me.
Once the cake was in the oven, we got started on the leek gratin. It called for 3 pounds of leeks. It was good but next time we are going to use real bread crumbs (not the ones from the blue cylinder), add spinach, and use more Gruyere cheese. (Yeah, it was a little boring with only leeks~Rei)
Rei had the pleasure of cutting and cleaning the leeks…not their favorite task. (The cutting part wasn’t bad, but when I cleaned them in a colander in the sink, I couldn’t stand the sound of the gritty sandy shit grating between the colander and the bottom of the sink~Rei)
Once the leeks were cooked until translucent in butter, we got started on the roux. Rei loves stirring for 15 minutes at a time. (It’s my favorite part of cooking. My best dreams are the ones where I stand around for hours just whisking and whisking and whisking and whisking and whi — ~Rei)
Really pretty easy. Cut, wash and cook leeks, make the roux, combine, and pour into a casserole dish. Top with shredded cheese, bread crumbs, and dots of butter. Bake.
The shrimp and green beans were insanely easy.
Zeke bought de-veined shrimp so all he had to do was peel and rinse. I trimmed the ends of the green beans and got them blanched (5 minutes) in boiling, salted water.
Then it was 1 tablespoon of butter for the green beans. Heated until foamy, added the green beans and Rei tossed for 2 minutes (only one green bean casualty!). Onto the platter they went.
Then it was 4 tablespoons of butter heated until foamy before adding the shrimp to the pan. We used the green bean pan to avoid having to clean yet another dish/pan.
After about a minute, I tossed in some minced garlic and chopped parsley and onto the green beans they went. We will definitely be making both of these again and most likely midweek (Jennifer!). Super easy and super tasty.
We tried to FaceTime with Adam while we had dinner but there was some uproar in his dorm (Some people were yelling for some reason or another — is that what college is always like, or was that a notable exception? I guess I’ll find out in a couple years…~Rei) that made it hard to hear so we talked to him later while he was dining on food truck pizza. His dorm isn’t near a dining hall. When he comes home for Thanksgiving we will be cooking at home for all meals!
Too many bread crumbs! But we ate all the shrimp, most of the green beans, and made a serious dent in the gratin. Should be a great leftover today for lunch.
The cake looks better than it tasted darn it.
And that was it. No wine or champagne for me tonight…decided to give my liver a break.
Rei…anything to add?
We had the cake for breakfast today, and there was a part in the middle where it wasn’t quite cooked through, and that might be both of our favorite parts. Maybe we should just eat the batter next time and not bother with cooking it at all…(I am game!~Terri)
Right now it’s 9:30 am and too early for me to be conscious and communicating with the outside world…who knows what I’m going to say? Mom is writing something in her notebook with that one purple pen that writes really well, and I’m lowkey kinda jealous. (Can you say field trip to University Art Center?~Terri)
We’re also considering branching out to YouTube and Tumblr. How would y’all feel about that? Then we wouldn’t have to type out our bickering — you could get it in real time! (That could be painful~Terri)
I feel like if we filmed ourselves cooking, it would be such an awesome disaster of chaotic energy and wow I just spent like 10 minutes finding out what moral alignment Mom and I are. I get distracted easily, if you couldn’t tell. (Squirrel!~Terri)
Anyways, back on topic! I’m like semiconscious right now, and I think it’ll be better for everyone involved if I just shut up now…
But why would I do that when I can ramble even more and be obnoxious? Anyways, I’m really glad today is Saturday because weekends are not frequent enough for my liking and there is definitely a nap in my future. Also Dad and I are going to go practice my driving this weekend again. Not while I’m napping. That would be dangerous, and put a whole new meaning to the saying “I could do that in my sleep.”
Okay, I think that’s all I’m going to say for now. I might snatch the computer from Mom later if I think of anything more, though.
Alrighty! Ciao, and until next time, have a er’gjnqb’oghq[3y day! (Rei, could you at least try to use some real word as a base?~Terri)(No~Rei)
Rei and Terri (Why do I always get second billing?~Terri)(It’s alphabetical and I’m more entertaining~Rei) (That’s how I started playing the cello. My sister Sherry got the last violin. Cellos rule and violins drool!~Terri)(Okay thanks for the storytime, I’m going to take a nap now~Rei)
