This, I should have seen coming. Queasiness aside, I have been pushing the limits of my abilities to lift and carry too many things for too long during the pregnancy, and this morning, I threw out my back. I just lifted Baby's little pink piggy stool, carried it to our coffee table, set it down, stood up, and felt this shooting pain in my lower back, enough to make me feel immediately lightheaded and needing to sit down immediately. Baby watched the whole thing happen, and in my panicked voice, I asked her to run upstairs to get Hubby, as my yells for him seemed to not garner a response as he was spending time in the bathroom. Well, surprisingly, Baby understood, enough to go scurrying up the stairs, even shutting the gate behind her, and then, I think she just went into our room but didn't know how, or remembered, to ask for Daddy. Luckily, Mark did hear one of my yells from downstairs, and came running down with her in his arms. She did, however, understand - she repeatedly pointed to my back, tapped it a couple of times, said "Mommy boo boo, mommy boo boo!" Yes, it really was too cute, my little EMT.
So, cookingwise... tonight, definitely was not one of those nights. Settled for take-out Italian, though I enjoyed it immensely. Watched as my beloved Eagles annihilated the Vikings (GO EAGLES!!), and then tried to get up from the chair to go send Baby off to bed. But, in recent weeks, I have been cooking. The scale says it. Put on 5 pounds in the past 4 weeks, thanks in part to my weekend saunters in the baking recipes (cakes, cookies, cakes, cookies, breads, cookies).
and now the meals...
New Year's Eve Dinner: Dinner of Pairs
Caramelized challah with creme fraiche and caviar (Baby licked off all the creme fraiche and caviar, that EMT with impeccable taste!) - did orange and black caviar.
Salmon-Cucumber roll (smoke salmon and cucumber, first try at rolling a non-rice-based sushi roll)
Chicken Orzo salad (cooked orzo in a mix of 1:4 balsamic to water, mixed in fresh cut green peppers and chives, S/P, dash of balsamic to finish)
Lobster with Asparagus thread salad (garnished with some fennel. Very simple - steamed lobster tails, cut up meat, serve simply with blanched asparagus and raw shaved fennel, then squeeze lemon and olive oil on top of all)
Lobster bisque (now this one was fun!)
Shallots
Olive oil
Garlic
Flour
Lobster shells (can be pre-steamed, as I used the left-over shells from the salad lobster)
1 stick butter
1 container half and half (or 2 containers, depending on how many shells you're using and how much steaming liquid you have left from steaming the lobsters)
S/P
Chives
Squeeze of lemon
- Saute shallots and garlic in olive oil until fragrant - sprinkle in a bit of flour to thicken to crumbles the mix of flavorants. Season with S/P as desired.
- Throw in shells. Mix to get some flavor out of the shells into the oil.
- Add 1 stick butter, mix well into shells and flavorants until melted.
- Add steaming liquid and half and half. Bring just to simmer and keep on low until serving time (bubbles should just break the surface, but NO ROLLING BOIL! Otherwise, the half and half will separate and curdle).
- Finish with S/P, chives, and lemon juice to taste.
- Strain all through a sieve, and serve hot.
this recipe, Baby asked for 2nds... then 3rds... It came out really well!
Salmon with hollandaise sauce.
Now this one, the salmon was relatively easy to make - just poached it in white wine and garlic.
Hollandaise, however, was my first take...
4 egg yolks
1 stick butter
3 T lemon
S/P to taste
Whisk vigorously all but S/P in top of double boiler - or do what I did, makeshift: put a SS bowl on top of a pot of water, but make sure bottom of bowl does not touch water (don't ask me why... I don't know, but this worked). Whisk vigorously... and you'll see the mixture start to heat, but no boiling! Keep whisking until everything is smooth, and season to taste. You can serve the hollandaise with everything - salmon, eggs, asparagus, bread. I threw in some parsley and chives to further flavor the sauce, but it came out well either way.
And then, we finished with dear Bondrew's black (chocolate) and red (red velvet) cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, to continue the color/main ingredient matching theme of the dinner.
The dinner dragged through a bit on the later end of things, and not all dishes made it to the table in a timely manner (not like our 12 course deconstructed Chinese dinner we had a couple of months ago), but we did enjoy the saunter of the evening. And we finished with a flavoring of Puerto Rican rum. The beverages, our dear friends Bondrew helped stage all the pairings, and we enjoyed quite a wonderful assortment of reds and whites, sparking and still, with all the dishes.
Until the next dinner!
