Things I'm cooking while I'm not at work cooking.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009


So, here's the deal, I am on a mission. I am working on finesse. I've spent some time in the restaurant business (to many years to mention), and I've spent some money on my education (college in Denver, and New York, and culinary school in Florida)...yes...I am in debt. Well, I love to cook, and I can't seem to rip myself out of a restaurant, believe me I have tried. What I want most of all right now is to make dinner at home and make it look pretty. I have all the right tools (gadgets galore), I have tons of ideas, the education, the passion, and someone to eat anything I make...seriously, he will eat anything I make! Well, here was dinner tonight....
I started with your basic mire poix...carrots, onion, celery and some thyme and parsley. Then I added a whole bottle of cabernet and let the whole thing simmer until it reduced by half, maybe a little more then half. The house smelled great. A great start to my pretty dinner.
As my wine concoction was simmering, I pulled my mandolin out of the drawer, peeled one very large sweet potato and sliced it fairly thin.
I layered the slices of sweet potato on a sheet tray, drizzled them with some organic olive oil, sprinkled it with some salt and pepper, then I headed out to my patio garden (refer back to picture #1), snipped me off a sprig of fresh rosemary, minced it, and added it as well. I put the aluminum covered tray in the oven at 375 and baked them for 25 minutes.
At that point I strained my cabernet reduction, and poured it back into a saute pan, and mounted it with a couple tablespoons of butter. I wilted some spinach with garlic and...you guessed it...more butter, and I grilled some salmon.
Everything tasted great. All the flavors blended well. I am pretty sure my spinach was a little over done, and my wine sauce wasn't quite thick enough...but it was good, no great, and as good as gone, shortly after we sat down to eat.
More to come.
chow for now!