Dinner for mom

It's my mom's birthday Wednesday so Rory and I are having the family over for dinner next Saturday. I've been swamped at work because of my deadline and hadn't had much time to think of a menu. While I was initially considering a porchetta, it's off for now. We need to look at a house before dinner and I won't have time to roast the beast so I'm holding off for now.

But I'm still going with an Italian theme, relying heavily on the Marcella Hazan cookbook my sister got me for my birthday. I'll also be doing my first fresh ravioli, which should be fun.

I didn't necessarily mean for this to become an Italian feast but it is appropriate. My mom cooked Italian food the entire time I was growing up because that's what her mom cooked. The Bologense I cook is based on my great grandmother's recipe.

The other thing I'm excited about it the focaccia, or more specifically the crecentina, I'm going to serve with the meal. It's basically a bread with bacon.

I am once again making a pork themed meal and when I was looking for stuff to make that recipe popped out at me.

On tap is the crecentina, ravioli, drunken pork roast, brocoli and parmesan, potatoes with mushrooms. My sister is making a chocolate cake and I'm making tiramisu ice cream.

Christmas breakfast

I know it's been almost a week since Christmas, but it took me a few days to get these picture from my sister. For as long as I can remember after my family exchanges gifts on Christmas morning the extended family has come over for breakfast. All told it's probably around 20 people, give or take. This is one of the reasons I cook and that I enjoy cooking for others.

For the most part I stay out of the way as my dad has everything under control. He makes sausage gravy a couple of days ahead of time and then does made to order omelets with a variety of ingredients.The biscuits and gravy is a highlight for me. There is no exact recipe, my dad just puts it together, but here are some basic ingredients.

2 pounds of pork sausage
1/2 gallon of 2% milk
2 cups of coffee
1/2 cup of flour (give or take)
salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce to taste

Brown the sausage, add the milk and coffee. Thicken with the flour until it's the desired consistency. Let simmer for at least an hour before serving or cooling to serve later.

I should have some new posts in the next couple of days. I made my tacos the other day and am making turkey soup as I write this.

Cookbooks

The Chicago Tribune lists 20 Cookbooks every cook should own and I have two of them: Joy of Cooking and How to cook Everything. I'm asking for a couple of new cookbooks for Christmas, an Art Smith book and Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. Thinking about it I wouldn't mind picking up one of Nigella's cookbooks and there are a few from that list I should investigate, such as the James Beard and one of the Julia Child. Also, Ruhlman's new book has me intrigued, but I will have to take a look at it.

The purpose of these lists is to generate some controversy, or in this case some conversation. One guy that's underrated and it's probably do to some controversy that surrounded him is Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet. When I was growing up his show was on at my house ever Saturday afternoon. My parents had all his cookbooks, in some cases multiple copies because I ended up with an extra. I've looked through his book recently, but until I saw that list and I thought about him I didn't realize he passed away a few years ago. Anybody starting out I would recommend checking his books out.

I got both the Bittman books for Christmas last year. Prior to that it had been awhile since I bought one. Even now I find my self reading the Food Network and Epicurious sites and printing out recipes. I'm at the point where I need a binder and three-hole punch to keep them organized.

What's your favorite cookbook?

Ruhlman vs. Bourdain

I'm trying to figure out if these two really don't like one another or if it's all a publicity stunt. I'm leaning towards the latter. I saw the No Reservations episode this season where Bourdain went to Cleveland and found it extremely entertaining. I guess Ruhlman has been on an episode in a previous season where they went to Vegas and something happened. I haven't seen that episode.

I've liked Bourdain for awhile. I'm a Top Chef fan and enjoy his guest judging spots on the show and have started taping all the back episodes of No Reservations. Bourdain makes me laugh. He's a bit nuts, a bit of an asshole and I enjoy that.

Ruhlman seems a bit more reserved, but still entertaining. I just recently started reading Ruhlman's blog and found it to be interesting.

Though the fact is I probably would cook very little of what they make. Some of there stuff is just a little too out there for me, such as the cassoulet recipe.

Pan-fried pizza

So, I'm a huge Mark Bittman fan. I have How to Cook Everything and The Best Recipes in the World and have cooked numerous recipes from both. I don't know how long ago he started doing the New York Times column but I also have been reading his weekly column there for a few months. I have made a few dishes from his 101 Summer recipes, but this weekend I decided to make his most recent recipe: Pan-fried pizza (registration may be required for both those links).

I had never made pizza dough before and only once made anything with yeast (potato rolls, a story for another day). It wasn't that bad. Instead of using two cups of white flour I used a cup of whole wheat flour and one of white (my attempt to be a little healthier). I made the dough just before the Bears game and didn't touch it for about four hours. It seemed to double in size but I couldn't get four crusts out of it. I don't know if using the whole wheat flour impacted that and if I should have used more yeast or what.Also, I didn't mix it in my food processor. I attempted to do it that was, but the flour, water and oil weren't combining and I ended up using the KitchenAid. I thought it was odd that he suggested using the food processor to begin with. I have an old one that my folks gave me but it sits in the box on the shelf most of the time (unlike the KitchenAid) and I only use it when a recipe specifically calls for it. My knife skills aren't all that great but I rather chop stuff up myself.

Sorry for the digression, back to the pizza ... I still got two pretty good sized pies out of it. I don't have a rolling pin and was having some trouble when Rory suggested using a can on Pam non-stick cooking spray as a make shift roller. It worked like a charm.

I cooked the dough as the recipe suggested. It was chewy, not anything like your traditional Chicago-style pizza, but still really good. I used traditional toppings, some sausage, mushrooms and and mozzarella cheese. I was feeling lazy an used some canned pizza sauce instead of making my own. The Ragu was just OK, I'll probably try something else in the future. I sautéed both the cheese and mushrooms before hand.
Depending on what you were looking for this could be a good appetizer suggestion or with a little bit of planning a good dinner. I think you would be fine letting the dough rise a little bit more than an hour. But if anybody know how using the whole wheat affected the recipe let me know.