Sunday Dinner at My House

I don't come from a particularly large family, but Sunday dinner was always something special. When I plan a "Sunday Dinner" at my house, memories of my childhood come flooding back. They are memories of slow cooked foods, smells and sitting around the dinner table. These memories are something I like to recreate with the my "family" of friends here in Charlotte, N.C.

This past Sunday is just the one a series of "family" dinners I hope to blog about here. The menu this week, an ode to summer.  A rustic tart of caramelized onions, goat cheese, tomatoes and time paired with fresh shrimp and a  classic Caesar salad. For dessert, another "tart" of sorts with lemon curd, fresh blackberry and blueberry "jam" and homemade whipped cream.

I'll let you in on a little secret,  the dessert "tart" was created more out of necessity rather than the desire for a sweet ending. I hate to waste anything and I was only preparing dinner for two on Sunday. Instead of keeping a lone sheet of pastry in the freezer, I researched some recipes to base dessert on. You'll see all the recipes in just a bit.

After working all day, this menu was an undertaking that I wasn't certain of. As much as I love to cook, I've never worked with puff pastry before and my nerves were at an all time high. Give me phyllo dough and I've got you covered, but for some reason puff pastry scared the heck out of me! Never fear, I am happy to report things went smoothly and everyone left full.

I know that I put a disclaimer on my last post but it can't hurt to reiterate it. Here is my warning: I am a terrible recipe follower. Maybe it is my penchant for questioning authority or maybe it is just irreverence, either way I use recipes as guidelines. This being said, I'll do my best to make notes along the way of changes I made or things I omitted.

Let me just say, Ina Garten is a genius. If there is one "celebrity" chef that I want to adopt me, it is her hands down. Don't get me wrong,  I love Paula Deen as much as the next Southern girl, but Ina has got something! She certainly got it right with this one.

Garten's "Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart" not only looked delicious, but it was easy too. I didn't have a bottle of dry white wine that I wanted to sacrifice for the good of the tart, so it was omitted as well as the basil leaves (the market was fresh out Saturday). Again, another reason I meant to start my own herb garden. I also halved the recipe since I only need to make two of the four tarts it produced, that's where dessert came from.

In reviewing the finished product Megan, my dinner guest, and I both agreed it needed a little more salt and cheese. We both agreed there can never be enough cheese, yes my arteries are clogging just hearing this. Megan also noted that she likes her food a little on the salty side whereas I tend to under-salt recipes that include cheese.

As I mentioned earlier, shrimp accompanied the tart as the main dish. Usually I restrict myself to using only Carolina-caught shrimp, but again my local Harris Teeter was out. I settled for farm-raised shrimp of the 16/20 count variety.

About 30 minutes before I was ready to sauté the shrimp I made a little marinade. You take a little bit of EVOO, some red pepper flakes (err on the side of caution if you don't like things spicy), thyme, salt, pepper and just a few minutes before they jumped into the pan, some fresh lemon juice. That's all it takes! If you wanted to squeeze some extra flavor out of the sea creatures you could always throw some finely diced garlic into the mix.

My next tip about this dinner is cooking the shrimp. Things can get a little tricky with the timing of the dishes. The tart needed to bake about 25 minutes and the shrimp were going to take about five minutes from start to finish. Thus, I slid the shrimp into a pan on medium-high heat with a little less than five minutes left on the tart timer.

Once the shrimp turn that opaque whiteish-pink color with a little sear on them you are all set. The biggest mistake people make with shrimp anywhere, restaurant or otherwise, is to overcook them. Most seafood is delicate and shouldn't cooked to well-done temperatures. We'll get to my feelings on how other meats should be cooked a little later.

All that's left to do is toss the salad Megan brought and eat up!

I served my favorite Shelton Vineyards Reisling with the meal and it paired wonderfully! If you're ever in the Charlotte, N.C.-area it is definitely worth the trip. They have an excellent restaurant on the property aptly named the Harvest Grill Restaurant.

Up next, my summer berry tart...


 

Not Your Momma's Meatloaf!

I admit, I am not meatloaf's biggest fan. First of all, I think the name of the dish could use some reworking! Who wants to eat something called "meatloaf"? Even with such strong feelings, research shows that you have to try something at least 11 times to really know if you like it or not.

We'll call this recipe number six and we've found a winner! 

Instead of the traditional beef-based meatloaf, this recipe called for ground turkey and mushrooms. Admittedly, I'm a little late to the turkey party, but I'm here with enthusiasm. Without further adieu, here is the Turkey Meatloaf recipe I snagged from Epicurious.com. 

As with most recipes, I've made slight changes to suit my taste, available ingredients and lifestyle. Most notably in this recipe: the type of mushrooms, breadcrumbs and baking method. My local Harris Teeter had regular white button mushrooms on sale so I chose to substitute them for the creminis (or Baby Bellas as they are also known). 

This recipe also calls for fresh, homemade breadcrumbs from white bread. I didn't have any on hand at the time so I substituted for panko breadcrumbs instead.  I always suggest you look at the recipe reviews for helpful hints on substitutions. If you don't have it readily available in your pantry, chances are someone else has run into the same problem.

Lastly, I made a change that allowed my meatloaf to carry me through the rest of the week. Not that you couldn't achieve similar results through a traditional loaf style, but portion control was on my mind. At the suggestion of a friend, I gave my cupcake pan some extra use and divided the loaf into about 11 servings.

I served my meatloaf with pseudo-creamed spinach and simple mashed potatoes. All you need for the spinach is a little bit of sauteed onions and garlic which I steeped in some heavy cream. Just add the spinach to the cream until it wilts, add salt and pepper (some people like a little nutmeg too, but it's not my favorite so I omitted it) and your done! 

You'll see how this meatloaf lives on later in the week...