{dinner 3-2-12}

Creative title today, right? This was just too delicious not to photograph. The boys headed off to the ski hill sandwiches in hand, so it was just my parents and I for dinner. My mom took charge of the meat, and I roasted up some veggies. She made a fantastic pork loin, pan fried with rosemary and garlic, then simmered in red wine. I roasted purple and green cauliflower, brussel sprouts and fennel with extra virgin olive oil, thyme, coarse ground salt and pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. The veggies cooked down quite a bit and didn’t look like enough to fill our hungry bellies, so we whipped up a salad of romaine, topped with sliced pears, walnuts, bleu cheese and a dressing of our favorite balsamic vinegar from Fustini’s with a little evoo. This was pretty much the best low carb meal I have ever had! 

Tomato Pesto Crostada

It feels good to be home. Went back to the gym yesterday. Made my own breakfast with lots of spinach this morning. Sleeping in my own bed. *Happy Sighs* Yesterday I had my “birthday dinner” with the family. My mom and I made 3 different crostadas, a big green salad, and steaks. I found the recipe from Always with Butter for a Tomato Pesto Crostada, and we did a fennel and mushroom variation as well as a Brie, caramelized onion and pear. I also added feta cheese and used provolone instead of Dubliner. (I don’t even know what Dubliner cheese is.) You can check out the Always with Butter website for the recipe. I will write out the variations below.

Brie and Caramelized Onion

1/2 round of Brie, peeled of the moldy
2 small onions, caramelized
1 Pear, sliced
Sugar
Toasted Pecans*

Sliced up the brie and place it with the onions in the middle of the dough. Bake. When it’s done, sprinkle sugar and pecans on top and caramelize them under the broiler, or if you have a fancy lil blow torch. (I wasn’t running up to the workshop to grab the one my dad uses to sodder pipes… I probably would have burned the kitchen up as well.) Serve with sliced pears.

*I toasted the pecans first. Bad idea. I had little burned pecans on top. Black.

Fennel and Mushroom

1 bulb of Fennel
6 oz Portabella Mushrooms (I love Meijer sales!) Sliced

Sautee the fennel until it is firm but cooked in olive oil with S+P. Throw your mushrooms in a little bit after because they will cook  faster. Top it off with some thyme. I didn’t have fresh or would have used it. When you assemble the crostada add provolone cheese.

***

These are easy and fast to make. The dough seems pretty fool-proof. I have this ineptness for reading recipes before I make them, and failed to notice the little sentence “Refrigerate for one hour before using dough.” but after about 15 or 20 minutes in the freezer dinner was still served before 8:30. Recommendation: Make the dough a day ahead of time, or in the morning. In other words, do as I say, not as I do.

I am going to be trying out some more variations with the dough I had leftover. (I made 3 recipes, one for each, but the recipe makes a lot of dough.). The crust is great, with a little cornmeal in it. Be expecting more cooking posts, I’m loving being back in my kitchen!