Eeek! I haven't posted for days. Two houseguests in residence, and now a dinner party. Yesterday we had a Duck Boat Tour of Boston. Much fun, then on to the Museum of Science for an afternoon of really cool stuff. This is a great museum which should be put on any Boston vacation. The butterfly garden itself is worth the trip.
Last night we had a wonderful Indian feast at Masala in Needham. One can go crazy with just the breads. The youngest guest is a vegetarian and just loves the long menu of stuff that caters to her eating habits. We came home to feast on home made lemon lime ice milk which tastes rich and wonderful and I'm thinking ice milk is a misnomer.
So for tonight I am making a barbequed brisket, salad of red peppers and roasted califlower, rice pudding with fresh poached rhubarb and glaze, corn on the cob, smoked trout on endive with an herbed cream cheese, various appetizer cheeses. Not served in that order, of course.
Couldn't find trout at the fish counter, and had to buy already smoked at Trader Joe's who always reliably stocks it.
Corn came from Ward's berry farm which was aswarm with kids picking strawberries. Cute little girls in sun dresses with pails. Like a impressionist painting.
So now to wrap up details, vacuum, finish laundry, all that stuff and even set the table. Kitchen smells so good.
Bon appetit!
Grapeshot
Showing posts with label Endive with Smoked Trout Herbed and Cream Cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Endive with Smoked Trout Herbed and Cream Cheese. Show all posts
Friday, June 27, 2008
Saturday, December 08, 2007
In good company
Off to the Berkshires--not for skiing or leaf peeping but just to visit with good friends. I'm taking along the latest books of Chuck Hogan and Hank Phillipi Ryan, both good writers who will thrill and amuse.
The smoked trout is history and I have to whip up another batch to schlep along with the apricot bars, the cheese and the wine and even the granola that someone left behind at today's party.
Thisbe is in front of the computer, reminding me that Friday was cat blog day and beaucoup Fridays have passed without one mention of her sterling qualities. She sits on the front porch for a few minutes every morning in the frigid air with her fur fluffed up, then retreats to the friendly confines of the house, an inspired decision this morning when the gutter cleaners came along with a big black dog. I'm sure the dog was friendly, but you know, dogs and cats and all that. The foot of the bed at night with a cozy mohair blanket warmed by the electric blanket is all that a cat could want. So--this should make up for a bunch of cat blog days.
Christmas is well underway at our house, with shopping begun, cards almost done, house decorated, tree in garage, and thoughts of which cookies to bake in my head, pleasant thoughts, all. The birds have plenty of seed and suet, and the Christmas cacti have finally come to life. Each one has a story, of sentiment or neglect, and I like that. I like plants with history. Sid, from the dump 24 years ago, others, each with a tale. Remember when talking to your plants was the latest thing? Well, I still do. They are living things, after all.
Until Tuesday, then, and if you haven't visited my new spanking web site, done by moi with nothing but HTML and a little imagination, please visit www.judycopek.com.
Wait! Shouldn't it be www.grapeshot.com? Nope, that's the blog name, not the pen name. How many names can one have? As many as one's cat? Ask T.S. Eliot. Ask Thisbe.
Enough of this nattering.
Grapeshot
The smoked trout is history and I have to whip up another batch to schlep along with the apricot bars, the cheese and the wine and even the granola that someone left behind at today's party.
Thisbe is in front of the computer, reminding me that Friday was cat blog day and beaucoup Fridays have passed without one mention of her sterling qualities. She sits on the front porch for a few minutes every morning in the frigid air with her fur fluffed up, then retreats to the friendly confines of the house, an inspired decision this morning when the gutter cleaners came along with a big black dog. I'm sure the dog was friendly, but you know, dogs and cats and all that. The foot of the bed at night with a cozy mohair blanket warmed by the electric blanket is all that a cat could want. So--this should make up for a bunch of cat blog days.
Christmas is well underway at our house, with shopping begun, cards almost done, house decorated, tree in garage, and thoughts of which cookies to bake in my head, pleasant thoughts, all. The birds have plenty of seed and suet, and the Christmas cacti have finally come to life. Each one has a story, of sentiment or neglect, and I like that. I like plants with history. Sid, from the dump 24 years ago, others, each with a tale. Remember when talking to your plants was the latest thing? Well, I still do. They are living things, after all.
Until Tuesday, then, and if you haven't visited my new spanking web site, done by moi with nothing but HTML and a little imagination, please visit www.judycopek.com.
Wait! Shouldn't it be www.grapeshot.com? Nope, that's the blog name, not the pen name. How many names can one have? As many as one's cat? Ask T.S. Eliot. Ask Thisbe.
Enough of this nattering.
Grapeshot
Friday, December 07, 2007
Endive with smoked trout and herbed cream cheese
This is from Bon Appetit (I think), otherwise from Gourmet. 2004. It looks pretty, tastes wonderful and is a little different. Easy to make. Smoked trout can be a bitch to find in Boston. In the summer, smoke your own.
Endive with Smoked Trout and Herbed Cream Cheese
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup minced fresh dill
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 t. (Packed) grated lemon peel
4 heads Belgian endive (green and red if available)
8 ounces smoked trout fillets, broken into 1-inch
Pieces
Fresh dill sprigs
Mix first 4 ingredients in small bowl. Season with freshly
Ground black pepper. (Can be made up to 2 days ahead)
Cover and chill. Bring to room temp. before using.
Separate endive into leaves. Spread a small amount of cream
Cheese mixture on base of each leaf. Top with trout piece, and
Garnish with small dill spring. Arrange filled leaves on a platter.
Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover; chill.
Cheers!
Grapeshot
Endive with Smoked Trout and Herbed Cream Cheese
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup minced fresh dill
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 t. (Packed) grated lemon peel
4 heads Belgian endive (green and red if available)
8 ounces smoked trout fillets, broken into 1-inch
Pieces
Fresh dill sprigs
Mix first 4 ingredients in small bowl. Season with freshly
Ground black pepper. (Can be made up to 2 days ahead)
Cover and chill. Bring to room temp. before using.
Separate endive into leaves. Spread a small amount of cream
Cheese mixture on base of each leaf. Top with trout piece, and
Garnish with small dill spring. Arrange filled leaves on a platter.
Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover; chill.
Cheers!
Grapeshot
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Saturday in Town
Up and about early for a trip to Boston. First a stop in Cambridge at the Micro Center where needed a sex change for a computer connection. No luck, which was real luck because today when we actually inspected the back of the computer where everything plugs in, we found that a flash/thumb drive could be plugged in directly.
Next door, at Trader Joe's the red shopping carts were zooming in and out. What a fantastic store! Reasonable priced cheeses! Just think about that. And two flavors of (cheap) Christmas Stollen, fresh from Germany. And desert honey! Again, cheap. Bargain wines, and best of all smoked trout.
Like canned white asparagus, smoked trout has become rare as hen's teeth, but Trade Joe had plenty, and now I can make my Endive with Smoked Trout and herbed cream cheese appetizer for all the parties next weekend. Look here later in the week for the recipe. All you need is smoked trout--the other ingredients are common.
Of course, we could have bought trout at the fish counter and smoked it ourselves, but kids, the temperature outside is 24 degrees and who wants to tend the smoker in that?
We saw the Napoleon exhibit--mostly stuff from the various periods of the Napoleonic age. What was instructive was that decorative objects began as rather simple designs and over the years took on a lots of gilt and furbelows, if you get my drift.
The empire dresses were so cool, esp. a white one with white embroidery. There was also a black with metallic embroidery that was to die for. Josephine's slippers look like a size 4 AAAA. I don't know anyone with such small feet.
In his early years, Napoleon was very fond of the bee as a symbol, which apparently harked back to early French comquerors. Our friend the bee. Maker of honey in a world that didn't yet know sugar, although the sugar beet came along soon thereafter (250 years ago--you do the math). I thought of the rare desert honey in the trunk of the car.
Desert honey is delicous because the dryness of the climate distills the flavors of the flowers to a wonderful essence. So our recent honey trail has been from Gumbo Lindo honey in Boca, to Sour Gum honey in Georgia to desert honey from (we assume) the Sonora.
We had lunch in the cafe at the MFA. The menu tempted with squash soup and various salads and sandwiches. Yours truly had the spinach and crimini quiche with a lovely salad. S.O. had ham and brie on a croissant with watercress and lentils with dried cranberries on the side. Lentils sounded weird but really tasted good. And the proper beverages, of course. Good people watching in the cafe, but Bostonians do dress rather unimaginatively. And drably. No matter what the Globe style sections say. Or maybe the stylish people go where I don't
We trekked back to the burbs for an open house at the artist studios in Stoughton, and I bought a Christmas present. After wine and nuts and conversations, finally back home where the house felt nice and toasty after our being out all day in the frigid wind.
We broke with tradition and ate in front of the TV while watching the Rockettes. Not their best performance, but some of the numbers were all right where they were actually, you know, dancing. They rode around in a city bus too long, and in the baggy Santa costumes their nice legs were out of sight. The best thing was watching when the camera panned to the faces of kids in the audience.
I tended to my Gather emails and worked on Festival Madness a bit. This Gather contest is a pain in the butt. I hate to troll for votes. Some of the entries are quite good--many of them need some editing and most of them aren't really my taste but I can see some good story lines developing.
On Amazon's contest, the chat groups were still causing lots of noise, and you can always see the cliques developing and everyone agreeing with everyone else, or not, and these contests that seemed like a terrific idea 4 weeks ago are now tedious to the max.
Grump. Grump. Bah, humbug.
Hanging in there,
Grapeshot
Next door, at Trader Joe's the red shopping carts were zooming in and out. What a fantastic store! Reasonable priced cheeses! Just think about that. And two flavors of (cheap) Christmas Stollen, fresh from Germany. And desert honey! Again, cheap. Bargain wines, and best of all smoked trout.
Like canned white asparagus, smoked trout has become rare as hen's teeth, but Trade Joe had plenty, and now I can make my Endive with Smoked Trout and herbed cream cheese appetizer for all the parties next weekend. Look here later in the week for the recipe. All you need is smoked trout--the other ingredients are common.
Of course, we could have bought trout at the fish counter and smoked it ourselves, but kids, the temperature outside is 24 degrees and who wants to tend the smoker in that?
We saw the Napoleon exhibit--mostly stuff from the various periods of the Napoleonic age. What was instructive was that decorative objects began as rather simple designs and over the years took on a lots of gilt and furbelows, if you get my drift.
The empire dresses were so cool, esp. a white one with white embroidery. There was also a black with metallic embroidery that was to die for. Josephine's slippers look like a size 4 AAAA. I don't know anyone with such small feet.
In his early years, Napoleon was very fond of the bee as a symbol, which apparently harked back to early French comquerors. Our friend the bee. Maker of honey in a world that didn't yet know sugar, although the sugar beet came along soon thereafter (250 years ago--you do the math). I thought of the rare desert honey in the trunk of the car.
Desert honey is delicous because the dryness of the climate distills the flavors of the flowers to a wonderful essence. So our recent honey trail has been from Gumbo Lindo honey in Boca, to Sour Gum honey in Georgia to desert honey from (we assume) the Sonora.
We had lunch in the cafe at the MFA. The menu tempted with squash soup and various salads and sandwiches. Yours truly had the spinach and crimini quiche with a lovely salad. S.O. had ham and brie on a croissant with watercress and lentils with dried cranberries on the side. Lentils sounded weird but really tasted good. And the proper beverages, of course. Good people watching in the cafe, but Bostonians do dress rather unimaginatively. And drably. No matter what the Globe style sections say. Or maybe the stylish people go where I don't
We trekked back to the burbs for an open house at the artist studios in Stoughton, and I bought a Christmas present. After wine and nuts and conversations, finally back home where the house felt nice and toasty after our being out all day in the frigid wind.
We broke with tradition and ate in front of the TV while watching the Rockettes. Not their best performance, but some of the numbers were all right where they were actually, you know, dancing. They rode around in a city bus too long, and in the baggy Santa costumes their nice legs were out of sight. The best thing was watching when the camera panned to the faces of kids in the audience.
I tended to my Gather emails and worked on Festival Madness a bit. This Gather contest is a pain in the butt. I hate to troll for votes. Some of the entries are quite good--many of them need some editing and most of them aren't really my taste but I can see some good story lines developing.
On Amazon's contest, the chat groups were still causing lots of noise, and you can always see the cliques developing and everyone agreeing with everyone else, or not, and these contests that seemed like a terrific idea 4 weeks ago are now tedious to the max.
Grump. Grump. Bah, humbug.
Hanging in there,
Grapeshot
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
