dinner and a movie

Last night, I had a lovely, homey evening with my daughter, Ms. Iz. We ate linguine with butter. This does not sound spectacular, but it was because it gave us a meal fast and simple and satisfying enough to fill us, and left us with plenty of snuggle time.

To be honest, I hadn't had pasta with butter until very recent times. Gran Fran thought it a sin to use anything other than olive oil on all things pasta. As a matter of fact, she cooks her scrambled eggs in olive oil, too, so to this day, I gag at the taste of eggs cooked in butter. While Gran Fran just about passes out when she hears of said atrocity.

The butter pasta was a direct result of Julie & Julia. You know, how the butter is the queen in all of her recipes. As the movie progressed, Ms. Iz asked for a bowl of pasta. Whilst making it, I asked her if she prefered butter to olive oil (which I rarely do). She said, well, since Julia is using butter let's have butter. And, I'd also like to point out, this was her second viewing of the movie, and that she has proclaimed it her new favorite movie.

For anyone who has read my blog in the past, you know about the love affair I've had with Julia for pretty much my whole life. And, so, to be able to see the movie once again, have my daughter love it, and get to eat a bowl of butter pasta (mine with walnuts, red pepper flakes and garlic), it turned out to be a very nifty evening.

As for this evening. I'm back on romance (see previous post) as well as a childhood favorite. First in the queue was Love Actually. A sappy and beautiful movie about 7 different love stories in Britain that are somewhat intertwined. Lovley characterization of all kinds of love...first love, broken love, unrequitted love...and all perfect. The best part is when the little 10 year old girl is singing "All I Want For Christmas is You". Apparently, I 'm a sucker for a good romance.

Right now, it's High Society. There is no way to describe the beauty of this film. It is funny, sweet, smart and best of all a musical! You get Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Celeste Holmes. Cocktails are in order (many mixed drinks and much champagne is consumed), but I can't do that when I'm on my own, so I'll just watch and imagine.

Somehow, before VCRs or DVDs, we watched this movie many atime when I was little. Maybe it wasn't as often as I thought. More likely, it's due to the soundtrack being played over and over again.

All 5 of us (and Gran Fran and Joe, as well) can still sing every song in this movie. I remember putting on shows with my sisters and brother (5 of us in 7 years, we had enough voices fora pretty good chorus) in the living room. We used a piece of drywall (who knows where it came from) as a dance floor. There are Super 8 movies of this somewhere, I think.

Thanks to Joe, there was plenty of Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. Gran Fran leaned more towards Motown and Latin music. And both of them love a good musical. So we had quite a variety, always singing along, no matter if you knew the words, just get out there and sing it!

So, my friends, here is the recipe for my butter pasta, and please do make yourselves some and watch a couple of my faves along with a nice glass of wine!

Linguine with Butter and Walnuts
serves 4

Ingredients

1 lb best quality Linguine
1 large pot of salted boiling water
3 Tbsps Butter
3 Tbsps Olive Oil
1/4 cup chopped Walnuts

• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
  1 leaf fresh Sage, minced
  To Taste: Salt, Red Pepper and Pepper

Method

• Boil Linguine to your liking (I prefer mine a little on the soft side for this recipe).
• While pasta is cooking, heat a small non-reactive saucepan over medium heat.
• Add butter, olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
• Once the butter has melted, lower the heat to low-medium and all the garlic and walnuts.
• Saute until the garlic is browned slightly and the walnuts glisten.
• Remove from the heat and pour over the cooked pasta.
• Sprinkle the sage and a bit more pepper and red pepper flakes over the pasta.

Enjoy!

Bones...Not for Soup....for Roasting

There is a restaurant here in San Francisco, Bar Tartine, that has a lovely menu ranging from locally harvested veggies to fatastically prepared roasts. My most favorite item on their menu is the roasted beef marrow. I had never tried this dish before going to Bar Tartine.

Let me tell you, once I had them, I found every excuse to go there for dinner as often as possible. It is not inexpensive, so it was quite an undertaking financing my new obsession. But, they never let me down. Each and every order showed up at the table piping hot with a lovely herbed salad and perfectly toasted bread slices. Frankly, I like going there with vegetarians, that way I get the whole order to myself.

Today, I am on day two of staying home sick. As mentioned in my previous post, I have taken to cooking my own comfort foods. And, so, this morning when I was at Whole Foods picking up fruit, I wandered over to the meat counter. They did indeed stock (no pun intended...ok, well maybe a little pun), beef marrow bones.

But then, the questions began: "is it for soup?" "did you want the femur or the knuckles?" "how many pounds did you need?"

Short of telling the butchers about my craziness for the Bar Tartine version, I tried to give them the sense that I knew what I was doing. I explained I was just roasting them and serving them with toast. He figured out that I wanted the femur cut into smallish pieces and went off to saw the bones apart for me. In the end, I didn't come off as an idiot, and came home with $12 worth of the loveliest beef marrow I've ever seen (ok, I guess I'd never seen it raw until this morning...).

In the end, I realize that Gran Fran did make osso bucco periodically utilizing the same (or very close to the same) types of bones. Once I got them marrow home, I placed some in a pan and stared at it. It resembled the cooked appetizer I loved from Bar Tartine, but it also seemed like a daunting task to get these bones from raw to roasted.

The recipe I based my first batch on came from Group Recipes. I used it mostly to make sure of how to put the bones in the pan, but improvised from there. So, herewith, my version (I've now made two batches) of an almost-as-good-version of Roasted Bone Marrow ala Bar Tartine.

Roasted Bone Marrow serves 6 as an appetizer

Ingredients: 3 lbs Beef Bone Marrow cut into 3 inch long pieces

• 1 cup loosely packed Italian Parsley
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

• Place marrow bones cut side up in oven proof skillet or roasting pan.

• Roast in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, just until the marrow gets soft, the outside of the bones are lightly browned and the excess fat on the bones has browned as well.

• While bones are roasting, finely chop the parsley and garlic. Mix with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you have an electric chopper, this is a good time to use it.

• Toast bread pieces.

• Serve with small spoons to scoop out the heavenly marrow, which can be placed on the toast with the parsley mixture.

ps check out those photos, huh? thanks again to gran fran and joe for my swanky new camera! xo

Saffron Rice...Don't Forget to Remove the Bay Leaf!

Hello Friends. Have I told you about Gran Fran's Saffron Rice with Shrimp? It is truly extraordinary. I cannot recall a time without it showing up on a large buffet set out for friends and family. There is some idea in my brain that it was always included in group parties, but I don't recall it being made as a main course until we were grown.But, beyond the loveliness of the dish, I do know that I will always hear Gran Fran's voice in my head, loud and clear "You can make a nice dish of Saffron Rice with Shrimp, but don't forget to remove the bay leaf." She said this with a warning in her voice that matched only her request for us kids to cross the street when a dog we didn't know approached us.

I suppose she is right. The bay leaf can be sharp and doesn't really taste all that good. But, the flavor it lends to a recipe is immeasurable.

So, in closing on this little post, enjoy the following dish. Simple to make, serves many and is generally enjoyed by a host of different palettes.

But "Don't forget to remove the bay leaf."

Saffron Rice with Shrimp

serves 6 as a main course

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Rice
• 5 cups Water
• 6 Boullion cubes
• 1/2 cup White wine, Vermouth or Pernod
• 2 cloves Garlic, quartered
• 4 Tbsps Butter
• 1 tube Saffron
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 1/4 Tsp Fennel Seeds (if you have them on hand)
• Salt, Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes to taste

Method:

• Bring water, boullion, garilc, butter, saffron and bay leaf, fennel, pepper and red pepper flakes to a boil in a large nonreative pan.
• Once it has reached the boil, reduce the heat to medium and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or so.
• Add the rice to the liquid. Bring to a boil again. Stir rice and reduce heat to medium/low to achieve a simmer.
• Cover closely with a fitted lid, and simmer for 21 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Sauteed Shrimp for Saffron Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 Lb. Shrimp, cleaned and deveined, tails off
• 2 Tbsps Butter
• 1/4 Tsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 Lemon, zest and juice
• 1/4 cup White Wine, Vermouth or Pernod
• Salt, Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes to Taste

Method:

• Heat nonreactive skillet over high heat.
• Add butter herbs and spices and lower heat a little somewhere between medium and high. Sautee for 1 minute.
• Once butter has melted, add shrimps. Sautee until opaque, about 4 minutes.
• Remove shrimps from pan.
• Turn off the flame. Add wine, lemon juice and zest to pan and turn the flame back on the medium. Reduce the liquid by about half, scraping up the brown bits in the pan at the same time.
• Pour the liquid over the shrimp.
• Stir it all together with the rice and ENJOY!