Inspired by the popovers we had at Pie in the Sky, my sister in law and I both attempted them this week. I made the mistake of using large crystal sea salt instead of Kosher salt and they were a touch saltier than I would have liked. Just as we had done at the cape, I served them with grilled sausage, shredded cheddar and onions sauteed golden brown. The kids didn't want salad (although it was divine because finally we have California heirloom tomatoes yippee!), they just wanted more popovers. Make a double batch if you try them, trust me.
The Mr. can not tolerate certain words and phrases, especially if used in conversation during mealtime. Delicious and meat are among the top offenders, but if you'd want to send him off in irrevocable disgust just offer to make him a plate of food. No finger wagging out there, more than likely there is some word or figure of speech that bugs you too if you think on it a while. Our one friend despises slacks, my brother and his best friend tease my mother that their ears bleed from her use of marvelous, the sound of a perfectly intelligent human ending every sentence with a squeaky question sound makes me crazed with furry. So relaxed. My son asks in a very sweet and innocent way - why in the world would any one waste their time and energy getting sideways over meat? Wouldn't you rather be offered steak than meat son, well wouldn't you? Wouldn't you?
Right-o Daddy-o, whatever.
Night before last I soaked a bag of Black-eyed Peas with no particular culinary direction in mind so in the morning went looking online for one. Will follow Tyler Florence over Emeril Lagasse or Bobby Flay any day of the week but didn't quite find what I wanted. Luckily my ex-professional pastry chef friend was over for dinner so together we combined aspects of 2 recipes. It's always nice to invite a professional chef over before you have cooked dinner, I highly recommend the practice! She brought a nice bottle of Chardonnay to boot - Bliss from Mendocino County. Perfect for the preparation hour!
The beans cooked most of the way earlier in the day based on a Spicy Black-eyed Beans recipe. I substituted a can of chopped green chillies and two small red dried ones to lower the heat for the kids, canned whole peeled tomatoes which I added much later in the cooking, and dried Mexican Oregano. We were totally out of fresh tomatoes and so we pulled out a couple of the stewed ones from the beans to make the "vinaigrette" in the Grilled Shrimp and Black-eyed Peas which we served as a sauce on the side. After a quick look see at the Scoville Scale to make sure we wouldn't blow anyone up, we substituted the Guajillo chilies I had on hand for the Ancho chilies in the dry seasoning mix. My friend adjusted the sauce with lemon and cilantro (maybe fresh tomatoes would have been bright enough flavor but ours needed the help) and we crumbled Mexican Cotija cheese to use as a condiment. Since my little one isn't so hip on shrimp we grilled a couple of chicken breasts after a quick marinade in olive oil, fresh garlic, sea salt and lime juice. Just in time for dinner, our Vegetarian friend and two of her little dogs arrived and Wednesday night dinner is served. Opened a 2006 La Crema Chardonnay that I got on sale at Lucky's for 13 bucks which of course means it could probably be found cheaper elsewhere but I am kind of partial to it since my brother bought a ton of it for us to enjoy when we were back in MA.
The Mr. was not in for dinner last night and we felt so sorry for the guy having missed out on this one. The Vegetarian even ignored the bacon and took home a quart of beans for lunch today it was such a winner.
This is hilarious!
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