sweetbreads and panna cotta... as intrigued as i was?

restaurant week.

just the sound of it seems to call my name. a week of restaurants? i mean if it means great food for a price that's even close to a post-grad, unemployed, 21-year-old's budget, then i am so in.

and with a lot of high class restaurants in madison, wisconsin, offering a three course meal for only $25, i think that qualifies.

(we don't need to mention the fact that my date and i also shared a not-so-budget-friendly bottle of reisling. but it waaaas delicious.)

so after very little convincing, reservations were made.

and after some straigtening of the hair and zipping of a dress, i was on my way to madison.

and after some meaningless circles around the capitol building, i made my way into the restaurant.

and then after some direction giving from the not-so-madison-savvy yours truly, my date and i were seated in a gorgeous restaurant, nibbling on bakery-fresh bread and fresh whipped lemon herbed butter.

yum.

did i mention the wine?

1st course

tia's choice:

wisconsin beer cheese soup made with spotted cow and garnished with cheddar fricos

this was really great. the beer taste was present, but not over-powering and the little cheddar fricos were a perfect crunch to the creamy texture of the soup.

(my definition of "fricos": take shredded cheddar cheese, mound them on baking sheets into little rounds and then bake. once they're out of the oven, they're basically like crispy, very cheesy crackers... umm. yum!)

my choice:

sauteed oyster mushrooms, sweetbreads, house cured pancetta

ok let me just start by saying that sweetbreads are not a delicious pastry-like creation made with sugary goodness. no no. sweetbreads are actually glands or the pancreas of beef.

let me give you a second to get that.

beef pancreas.

...

aaaaand i ate them.

...

aaaaand they were so. good.

they kinda tasted like slightly processed chicken with a little fat around the edges.

...but better than that. because that does not sound delicious. hmmph.

anyways, on to the second course.

(by the way, i apologize for the less than great pictures. i forgot my camera in my car in the parking garage down the street and up two levels, so my camera phone had to do. sorry!)

 2nd course

tia's choice:

roasted eggplant timable with chick pea fritters and yogurt cucumber sauce

do you know what a timbale is? because i didn't. and neither did tia. and she's a culinary student, dang it! we didn't even know how to pronounce it. should we go with a spanish pronunciation? or a french pronunciation? or should we just play the dumb american card and call it exactly how it looks? ehh who cares how you say it... it tasted so flippin great!

it was like an eggplant and roasted red pepper puree all tucked inside a crispy eggplant ribbon "crust." thin strips of eggplant must have been baked to a perfect crisp around the savory and creamy center.

oh and don't get me started on the chick pea fritters. i love chick peas. on salads, in wraps, smashed and made into hummus.... i'm not picky. but this was like slightly smashed chick peas mixed with some real good herbs and i'm sure some other great ingredients and then made into little chick pea fritters that kinda reminded me of a potato pancake. crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

and the cooling effect that the yogurt cucumber sauce had was perfection.

my choice:

chicken and goat cheese crepes with a smoked tomato sauce and a warm beet and black eyed pea salad

crepes? flavored with herbs. so light and airy and simple and goooooood.

chicken and goat cheese filling? umm hello? doesn't that already say how great it was? it had goat cheese. c'mon people.

smoked tomato sauce? if it tells you anything, i could've eaten it as a soup... or drank it out of a glass, let's be honest.

warm beet and black eyed pea salad? beets were lovely, as beets always are. and paired with the tender and starchy peas it made for a fantastic little topper.

a fork-full of an herbaceous crepe wrapped around hot, shredded chicken and oozing with goat cheese with a few small cubes of beet and a couple black eyed peas all smothered in that smoky tomato sauce.

you can only imagine my state of bliss.

on to the third course! and what's that? i still have wine. oh, this is definitely a great dinner.

3rd course

tia's choice:

cabernet panna cotta with caramelized pears

holy guacamole. both of us had heard of panna cotta but neither really knew what it was exactly. it has the consistency of a custard, and after a little google magic, i will let you in on the secret. it is like a custard in the sense that it is a combination of milk, cream and sugar that is heated. however, there are no eggs, but instead gelatin is added to make it thicken into the beautiful consistency that it's known for. so there you have it.

and the caramel that was so craftfully swooshed across the plate was divine. i appreciate a good swoosh.

my choice:

deconstructed door county cherry pie

if you know me at all, you'll undersand why this was an obvious choice. i should just leave it at that but, i wouldn't want my last two fabulous summers of my life go unnoticed! i was mostly behind the scenes after all. but being surrounded by "door county cherries" and "door county cherry chocolate fudge" and "door county cherry tart" and "door county cherry turkey sandwiches" and "door county cherry meatloaf" can get a little repetitive.

...even if a few of those examples are slightly exaggerated.

either way, i had to have it. and it did not disappoint. in fact, dare i say it was better than (almost) every other menu item ever coined with the door county cherry name?

(i say almost because there was the wood orchard door county cherry strudel that i was physically incapable of resisting.)

but the crisp and uber flaky round of pie crust, the ultra light, but incredibly flavorful cherry "filling", the obviously homemade whipped cream and the gorgeous (and somewhat shimmering..?) white chocolate garnish paired to be the absolute perfect ending to a fabulous meal.

and with clean plates, an empty wine bottle, and a diminishing crowd in the restaurant, we left with new culinary discoveries in our bellies and the strong desire for restaurant week to be everyyyy week. 

an actually achievable (and suprisingly savory) 30-minute meal.

i had just gotten out of the shower after working out and was looking through foodgawker and pinterest for something to make for dinner last night when my roommate calls out from the other room.

"you almost ready to go get a movie?"

"do you mind if i make some dinner first? i'll do it fast, like half hour?"

"oh yeah that's fine."

well great, now my options are canned soup or a sandwich... bummer.

but i really wanted sweet potato something or other. so i don't know whether it was the pity i felt for that sweet potato that had been forgotten in the bottom of the vegetable drawer far too many times this week or if it was the determination i had in making something half-way decent in the half hour i gave myelf, but either way... this was just what i was looking for.

ever since high school i had watched rachael ray's 30 minute meals and thought "well obviously you can make this in 30 minutes. all the ingredients you need are pushed to the front of your cabinets and all the equipemt you need is not only not sitting in the sink waiting to be washed, but is laid out for you. if someone went through my kitchen and did all that for me, i could do that in 30 minutes too."

but friends, jesus walked on water, the titanic sank, and a 30 minute meal is achievable.

(just to be clear, this dish is no where near jesus walking on water on the unofficial unbelievably-holy-cow scale, but i'm just saying... it's possible.)

and ohmygoodness, it is so creamy and delicious and healthy, it blew my mind.

i started boiling the water for pasta and threw the cute little bow ties in when it was ready. i then threw my sweet potato in the microwave because there was really no other way i could've gotten it all the way cooked in the small window of time i had.

(i make it sound like the world would've collapsed and hell would've broken loose if we had left to get this movie in 45 minutes instead of the 30 minutes i had said. but really i was just challenging myself i guess.)



while that's cooking, i started sauteing some onions and mushrooms with a little bit of olive oil until they were nice and soft. once they looked beautiful, i added in a tablespoon of butter.

is there anything better than butter melting into some soft veggies?

i'll answer that. nope.

when the sweet potato came out of the microwave, i peeled off the skin and mashed the flesh with a potato masher.

once the sweet potato was mashed, my butter was melted and making those mushrooms savory and happy and begging for a roux. i threw in some chicken base and then the flour, and tossed it to combine.

i tossed in the milk and whisked it to get rid of the flour lumps so it would thicken faster. i turned the heat up a little so it would come to a boil faster. but before it started to simmer, i threw in the mashed sweet potato.

if you know a thing or two about rouxs and you already looked at the recipe, perhaps you caught my problem. i had a total of 3 tbsp of fat and only half that amount of flour. however, i figured the starchiness of the sweet potato would help the sauce thicken up more.

knowing me, i would find the exception to the rule.

anyways, after the sweet potato was incorporated and the sauce started to thicken, i added in a decent sized pinch of cayenne and a healthy amount of cinnamon.

but after i stirred those in and tasted it, i thought for sure i ruined it. too much cinnamon! a perfectly good sweet potato... wasted! gahh!

but wait, i told myself. just.... wait. stir it, keep it simmering, just let it seep into the sweet potato-y goodness that is forming on your stove.

because what seemed like an over-seasoning turned into the slightly sweet, mostly savory, creamiest pasta sauce i have ever created. seriously.

i tossed in the bow tie pasta and gave it a stir. and i put it on a plate. and i sprinkled it with a little cheese. and i grabbed my fork and took a bite.

and then i grabbed two more forks because i could not keep this sweet potato sensation to myself. i made one roommate stop playing fifa to try it and i made the other roommate stop doing her homework to try it.

let's just say a couple minutes later, they were both wandering into the kitchen, piercing the their forks into the creamy little bow ties still left in the pan asking what was in it and how did i do it and "how do you just come up stuff like this?"

i don't really have an exact answer for that but let me warn you, this stuff is addicting.

as in two helpings for dinner last night and leftovers for lunch today.

and can i just add that the orange-ness of the sweet potato makes this sauce especially halloween-friendly? i'm really not a big halloween person, but if you're looking for a good "orange" recipe for this weekend, this one is sure to warm you up.

so here it is. i was advised that i should start putting recipes up here and at first i was hesitant. i mean, most of the stuff i make, isn't following a recipe. it's adding stuff in until it works. but when i look at blogs, i definitely look at the recipes for guidance or ideas, or sometimes exact measurements. so here it is. i wrote this up as i was mowing down helping #2 so it was still fresh in my memory :)

Creamy Sweet Potato Farfalle

2 T. olive oil

½ red onion, chopped

4large button mushrooms, sliced

1 T. butter

1 ½ T. flour

1 large sweet potato

2 cups milk

1 T. chicken base (or one cup milk, 1 cup chicken stock)

1/8 tsp. cayenne

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ lb. bow tie pasta

½ cup shredded swiss cheese

Poke holes in the sweet potato with a fork and microwave on high for 8-9 minutes or until soft. Once it’s soft, put the flesh into a bowl and mash. (Or if you have more time, feel free to bake. It'll take about 45-60 minutes on 350, if that sounds better to you.)

Sauté onion on medium heat until it is transparent and starting to brown. Add mushrooms and sauté until soft. Add salt and pepper, chicken base and the 1 tbsp. of butter. Once the butter is melted, add in the flour. Then, pour in the milk and whisk so the flour gets evenly incorporated in the sauce. Turn the heat to medium high in order to get the sauce to bubble. Once the liquid is warm (but not quite bubbling), add in the mashed sweet potato and whisk to get rid of all the lumps. Season with cayenne and cinnamon and let simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the pasta into the sauce. Toss to coat the pasta and serve. Sprinkle with swiss and enjoy.

inspired!

maybe it was the fact that i just started a food blog. maybe it was the fact that i only had one class today and i felt the need to feel productive. maybe it was the fact that while i was munching on my raw, ranch-covered broccoli florets for lunch today, a caramelized onion mashed potato recipe was stumbled upon (as in i saw one in one of cookbooks, not the website that brings me to foodgawker everytime i just want to look at a few websites... there goes my afternoon.). or maybe my stomach was just growling a little louder than usual.


whichever the factor really was, ideas started flowing like i was standing in the grocery store, refrigerator doors were opening and closing like the lid of a freshly stocked cookie jar and onion skins were flying to every corner of my kitchen floor. i decided earlier today to pull a peppercorn-marinated pork tenderloin out of the freezer so i knew i had that to start with. mushrooms sounded delightful (when do they not?) and those mashed potatoes from earlier were still buzzing around in my head, so off i went. the end product: oven roasted peppercorn pork tenderloin with "porked-up" mushrooms. caramelized onion and garlic mashed potatoes. and some peas. :)

i started with caramelizing the onions because they have to be ready when the potatoes are done and i didn't want to rush them. onions like butter and heat but too much of either is not ideal.

if i told you i didn't sneak any out of the pan at this point, i'd be lying.

once i got the onions close, i moved to the main act. i cut the pork tenderloin in half so (a) it would cook faster and (b) it would fit in the little pan i decided to use. cookie sheets with no sides are not best friends with things that get juicy in the oven.

 i popped it in the oven at 400 degrees.

next step: potatoes. cut 'em up, throw 'em in a pot, and cover 'em in water. set to high. fork tender? done. easy as pie.

it was about at this point that i realized i needed to add something to the pork so it didn't seem like i just pulled it out of the freezer and stuck it in the oven.

mushrooms. but they need something. a sauce. or glaze. ahh yes.

 most of things i do with mushrooms are adding them to sauces for chicken or sauteing them for topping a steak. thinking back, a boss once told me that if you mixed beef stock and chicken stock you would get something that tasted like pork stock. at the time i thought that was the most ridiculous thing i had ever heard, but after some thought i went with it. the beefy-ness of worcestershire sauce + a little powdered chicken base i got from an Amish spice store = tangy and perfect for my peppery pork tenderloin. hence the "porked-up" name. i love thinking on my feet. YUM.

  

time to finish those long awaited smashed potatoes! onions, minced garlic, splash of milk, salt n peppa! and we're good to go.

put some elbow grease in and you have some gloriously silky smashed potatoes.

omggggkjdhaudfjksflerh let me tell you something. 

i'm not one of those cooks who knows they're really great cuz i know i screw stuff up, but let me just say something after making these potatoes: dang, i'm good.

finally the pork was done, so i took it out and let it rest a few minutes before i sliced it and topped with with the "porked-up" mushrooms.

i steamed some peas during all this, too, for some more veggies and an extra pop of color on the plate. i got it on the plate, snapped a quick picture and grabbed a fork.

this one's going in the stash of go-to recipes. you know it's good when i get back in the kitchen to clean up my mess and the leftover potatoes are still warm enough to nibble on. i dont think i put my fork down until every last mushroom was dragged through the delicious puddles of glory that always linger after a good home-cooked meal. :)