A Special Dinner for my Wife

Last week I surprised my wife with a candle lit dinner because of a special occasion. What is that special occasion you may ask? Well, she quit smoking two years ago and has not had one cigarette since! I am so proud her. So I though a nice high class dinner was in order for such a big achievement. 

The dinner started off with a simple yet delicious salad. Nothing too fancy, just regular lettuce with fresh tomatoes, basil, romano cheese and a home made herb infused olive oil and good balsamic sprinkled on top.

The pasta was fresh, hand made and cut. I rolled it out really thin using our pasta machine. The filling was a carbonara inspired filling of mostly egg with other ingredients. The egg was gently cooked in a double boiler so they cooked but didn't curdle. The mixture was then refrigerated for an hour to cool and set. That was then pipped onto the pasta squares as the filling. The sauce was really simple: very finely diced zucchini and guancianale saute'd and finished with a little chicken stock. It turned out pretty well, although I am going to have to perfect it (the filling was a little runny and didn't set quite right in the fridge, but the flavor was there). Everything really worked well together.

I also made a sirloin filet. I seasoned with salt and pepper and seared it in a hot cast iron pan. I then finished cooking it in the oven at 350 degrees until medium-medium rare. The topping was a pesto sauce I made in the mini prep of basil, romano cheese, 3-4 cloves garlic, salt and pepper, walnuts, pine nuts, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. The steak turned out great, with a flavorful crust and tender interior. The pesto went really well with the steak. 

We had a nice bottle of Pinot Noir to go with the meal.

The highlight of the meal was not the food itself. It was the look on Mel's face when she saw it and the card I got for her. It was a special night, for a special woman, and a special achievement. 

The good, the bad, Rose's

Tonight Mel and I decided to go out to eat. Originally we wanted to go to Twisted Rooster again, but when we got there it was absolutely packed and there was a huge wait for a table. So we decided to try a new restaurant, Rose's, located on the bank of Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids. They make Mediterranean style food. Here are what our plates looked like.

Mel ordered the spicy Italian sausage and Gorgonzola pizza and I ordered the angle hair pasta. I'll start with the positives- the pizza. Mel's pizza was pretty good and pretty reasonably priced at $14.25 for a 12" pizza. It is a thin crust pizza and they did a pretty good job with the crust. I had some minor issues with the crust though. While the outside edges were nicely cooked and had great flavor and texture, the middle wasn't as nicely done. Don't get me wrong it was done, as in it was not raw dough. However it didn't have the same crispiness as he edges had. When I think back of the best pizzas I have ever had, the crust was evenly done all over. Minor gripe aside, the toppings were very good. The sausage had nice flavor and was not too spicy, and was seasoned well. The Gorgonzola added a nice woodsy flavor to the pizza. Also on top were onions and some garlic, as well as mozzarella cheese. All the flavors worked well together and really formed a good pizza. 

My dish was angel hair pasta with tomatoes, chicken, roasted garlic, basil, green beans, bacon, and a garlic butter "broth." I will get straight to the point: this was one of the most disappointing meals I have had in a long time. First off the I would expect a restaurant that makes Mediterranean food to be able to cook pasta right. My pasta was incredibly overcooked. I like it al dente, so there is still a little bit of firmness to the pasta. This was cooked to mush basically. Next, the pasta was just piled in the middle with all the other "bits" around the outside. The problem was the chicken was cut into little pieces that were hard to integrate with the dish. It would have been better if the chicken was tossed with the pasta, or if a larger piece of chicken was on top or the side. The same could be said of everything else. Also, individually everything tasted fine. The beans were fresh, the garlic was sweet, and the tomatoes were tasty. But together it just didn't all go together well. To top it off, the broth was watery and just kind of sat in the bottom of the plate and didn't add a lot of flavor to anything else. Mel agreed that it was just OK, nothing special. In fact we new we could make a vastly superior dish. But what really made me mad regarding the dish was that it was $16.50. For $16.50 I expect my pasta to be cooked right and the flavors to go together coherently. Instead I received a dish that wouldn't be out of place at a national chain restaurant sold for $8 or  $9. Even that may be pushing it. 

The service was decent. Our server was friendly and was knowledgeable of the menu. The food came out fast, but was hit and miss. I have a hard time giving this restaurant my full backing. The pizza was pretty good; one of the better ones I have had in the city. But the pasta was not good at all, and was very disappointing. I would say if you haven't been and want to try it to go for the pizzas. Otherwise proceed with caution. 

New Years Dinner

Having written about our New Year Eve dinner, it is time for our New Year dinner.

Since Mel is Italian we had an Italian meal with lentils for good luck on New Year Eve. My family is from the south so for our New Year dinner we had southern food. 

I'll start with the black eyed peas. In the south you eat black eyed peas for good luck on New Year Day. I soaked the black eyed peas for a while in some water. I strained and rinsed them before putting them back in the pot and covering with chicken broth. Normally I would throw some bacon in there for some extra flavoring. However I found some smoked pig jowl in the store and decided to use that instead. I am glad I did as it added even more flavor to the peas than bacon. I cooked this for about 2 hours until the peas were cooked through and a nice thick sauce had developed. They came out with a nice smoky pork flavor imparted in them.

Using the left over gigantic chicken breast from the night before, I made some chicken strips. I dusted them with flour, dunked in some egg, then covered in bread crumbs. We had panko bread crumbs on had but any would do. I then pan fried them to golden brown and sprinkled with salt right after frying. Mel made a little dipping sauce of mustard and a little mayonnaise for the chicken that went really well with it.

She also made the salad. It had lettuce, dried cranberries, walnuts, and feta cheese. The real star was the vinaigrette. For Christmas my mom got me a bottle of good balsamic vinegar and a bottle of good black cherry balsamic vinegar. She used the black cherry balsamic with extra virgin olive oil to make a killer dressing that went really well with the salad. 

To round it all off we had some buttered buttermilk biscuits.

Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for reading my blog.