Fun Playing With Lasagna Before and During the Superbowl

Superbowl Sunday is a top day for playing with food throughout the United States. Our Superbowl Sunday was no exception. A sure fire choice to be decadent and delicious, but no fuss during the game, is lasagna. Assemble during the day and pop in the oven before the game starts - and you have a hot, comforting dinner by halftime (or in our case, shortly thereafter). Inspired by a couple of friends' posts on Facebook, Bob decided to make a loaf of fresh Italian Bread.

I began in the afternoon by browning some beautiful ground grass-fed beef from Sand Farm LLC. As an aside, as many of you may know, Emma and Brandon (and little Zoe) lost their home and most of their possessions on Christmas Day. Contact Slow Food Ohio if you have anything you can donate to help them out.


Beef Sautees in Olive Oil


Onion, Carrot and Garden Chile Pepper From the Freezer Are Added

Salt and pepper also. I loosely followed Emeril Lagasse's Lasagna recipe. The sauce is liquid enough to cook the dried lasagna noodles perfectly and still have the right sauce consistency.


Garlic Joins the Party


Garden Tomato - Skinned, Seeded, De-Watered and Concentrated

Unfortunately, Bob only prepped about half the amount of tomato I needed, so I also added a can of crushed tomato. Also - about a quart of mixed stock that Bob recently made (turkey, beef, lamb, chicken bones) with a small can of tomato paste whisked in.


Meat Sauce - A Beautiful Thing

I got so caught up in putting together first the cheese mixture, then the lasagna, that I forgot to photograph. Micelli's Ricotta and Mozzerella joined together with 2 Aaron Miller eggs, lots of Romano and Parmesan cheeses, freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and a little milk. This was layered upon the dry pasta sheets, then covered with sauce (except for one layer, which I kept straight cheese).


Ready for the Oven and I haven't Missed a Play or Commercial

Around halftime, Bob dished up some salad and a slice of his beautiful bread:







And then - the lasagna - and we barely had to take our eyes off the TV to serve it!







Here's a shot of it after it cooled - alas, I still failed to really capture the cheesiness - oh the horror!



I hope you had fun playing with your Super Bowl food, too. Oh - who did I root for? Well . . . I live in Cleveland - 'nuff said?

Fun Playing With Great Food on New Year's Eve in Cleveland

We mostly stay home, or close to home, on New Year's Eve. Too many amateurs on the road. But this year, we were invited to join our friends Dave and Beth, and a whole bunch of their friends, for a special New Years Eve dinner at Bar Cento. This would be our first time to visit Bar Cento under the helm of new Executive Chef Michael Nowak and his crew.

Since dinner didn't start until 9pm, we decided to begin the festivities with a stop at one of our favorite, but undervisited places, Momocho. Chef Eric Williams was at the door and welcomed us. Surprisingly, the bar area was busy, but not overly so, as we took a couple of seats at the end. As always, the dim red lights on the first floor of Momocho presented a photography challenge to my limited skills.

We enjoyed a few drinks,


Cactus Flower Margharita

and two snacks:


queso fundito / house made chorizo sausage / rajitas / corn tortillas






guacamole / tradicional


Fresh Made Chips

We enjoyed our nosh and bid goodnight to Chef Williams, who checked out early, to spend NYE with his family at home for the first time in years! And just about 8:30pm, when the last reservations were to begin - Momocho was slammed! It went from brisk to almost-mayhem in just minutes. You just never know.

Shortly before 9pm, we headed around the block to Bar Cento. After being seated and looking at the menu, we eagerly anticipated the seven lovely courses listed on the menu, and ordered up the optional wine pairings.

I do not want to be too critical here - but I also want to be honest. Our dinner was overall a delicious and delightful experience. But I also came away with two big complaints, which I will get out of the way now. Please take these comments in the context of the whole review - it was a terrific dinner at an amazingly fair price. But to not mention the downs would be as unfair as leaving out the ups.

First bad - no one ever explained any of the dishes we were eating. This was a terrible shame, since, as you will see, Chef Nowak obviously put a lot of thought into it that we did not get to share. A corollary of this criticism is that the servers didn't seem to know much about the menu - when one of my dining companions asked our server about the contents of a dish, he said he didn't know. There was apparently no pre-dinner meeting so staff could be educated about what they were serving.

The second complaint is that none of the hot courses was served anywhere near an appropriate serving tempurature. This detracted from our enjoyment of these wonderfully crafted dishes. Kitchen and serving staff need to get on the same page to pull off this kind of dinner successfully.

With those two negatives duly noted - I repeat that this was a tasty, special, terrific way to ring in the New Year.

And so we began:


Antipasti

The menu described this platter, to be shared by four diners, as "Petit Jesus, Prosciutto Americana, Tomme d' Savior, Primadonna, Mushroom Salad, Pickled Vegetables, Roman Money." But no one told us about where the meats and cheeses were made, or what varieties the cheeses were, or what exactly was intended by the whimsical menu description. Was "Roman Money" the lentil salad? Or the salami rounds? No matter - it was all delicious!





The mushroom salad is tucked under the crostini at one o'clock. Despising mushrooms, I passed on that.



These pickled vegetables, on the other hand, were fabulous!



Ah, the power of cheese!



Wikipedia advises that lentils are a traditional Italian New Year's item.


My Antipasti Plate


Salad of Braised Artichokes, Zuchini, Preserved Tomatoes, Baby Lettuces

Bravo! A beautifully composed, delicious salad with homemade petite croutons and a lovely balsamic reduction.


Puree of Cauliflower Soup, Crisp Chickpea, Poached Lobster

This soup would have been outstanding had it been served hot, or at least warm. The scents and flavors tantalized, and the crispy chickpeas were little flavor bombs!



For the pasta course, there were two choices. To my great surprise, my husband opted for the vegetarian course:


Ravioli of Ricotta and Black Truffle, Poached Quail Egg, Parmesan

The perfectly poached quail egg is hiding under one of the raviolis. This dish offered a silky texture and sublime flavors.


Bolito Misto Papperdelle, Capon, Veal, Zampone, Braised Roots

The round meaty item in the center was the Zampone. It took Wikipedia to determine that Zampone is stuffed pig's trotter (I did figure out when I ate it that it was some form of forcemeat), a traditional Italian New Year's item. All of the meats were lovely, though the Zampone appealed more to Bob than to me. The jus was delightful, and the pasta toothsome. The mini-carrots were perfectly cooked. But the temperature of both pasta courses was tepid.

Bob and I broke from our usual pattern of sharing the different choices to both order the same entree - how often are you offered grass-fed beef? The menu gave no clue to the origin of the tuna course, so we both ordered the beef. But one of my dining companions allowed me to photograph his plate:


Risotto Di Tonno, Seared Tuna, Risotto Provencal, Crisp Rapini

I did not taste this dish, but the tuna I saw on another's plate looked like it was cooked way past a sear. However, the people that ordered it seemed to like it - it was crusted with black peppercorn, and accompanied by the cooling tomato risotto and rapini.


Dry Aged Grass-Fed Beef, Rouille, Caramelized Vegetables, Demi

Again, it took Wikipedia to determine that rouille meant "a sauce that consists of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and chili peppers." It certainly helps to explain the tasty bits of what seemed at the time to be "stuffing" dotting the plate. And though the meat was cooked longer than it wanted to be, it still retained a little pink, and was buttery soft and delicious (if a little colder than optimal), and also delightfully crusted with fresh black pepper.



The beef was served with perfectly puffed sweet potato fingers and a lovely braised slice of fennel bulb that I failed to photograph.


Formaggio - Aged Cow's Milk, Cranberry, Almonds

Another winning course - but I wish I knew what kind of cheese it was!




Crisp Sesame Bowl, Orange Curd, Cognac and Torrone Ice Creams

I am usually not a big fan of sesame, but this presentation and flavor combo blew me away. I would have liked to know if these were Jeni's Ice Creams, which are normally served at Bar Cento and are very popular, but which I'd never tasted before, or some other. I'm going to guess Jeni's, since both of these flavors are listed on their website.



Yum!



Complimentary bubbles toast at midnight for everyone in the house.

And everyone was given a little "goody" bag when they left, which contained two items. A small bottle of bitters (and Italian tradition with which I'm not familiar?) and a lovely macaroon cookie from A Cookie & A Cupcake, Chef Wendy Thompson's new Ohio City venture.





Caramel, I believe.



Notwithstanding my criticisms, I say again - the "new" Bar Cento has a lot to offer, and I look forward to trying more of Chef Nowak's creations. After the dinner ended, and the restaurant re-opened to the public (they serve food until 2am every day), people wandered in and ordered drinks and pizzas - and a wonderful time was had by all!

Happy New Year - good health, and lots of fun playing with your food!

Fun Playing with Aaron Miller's Grass Fed Beef

We have recently been fortunate enough to sample some wares from local farmer and Slow Food Terra Madre delegate Aaron Miller, on our own grill. Unfortunately, Miller Livestock has no website that I can find. I did find this info, which I'll share with you:

Miller Livestock is located in northeastern Ohio about 30 minutes from Youngstown. We strive to produce high quality beef, pork, chicken, lamb and turkey on clean, chemical-free pasture.

Beef is available nearly year-round, but spring and fall are the best time to purchase meat because the grass is the sweetest at these times. We sell beef by the half or quarter, as well as individual cuts and ground meat. Lamb and hogs are available summer and fall with greatest availability in the fall. Fresh chicken is available early June, September, and later in October. Turkeys are available throughout the fall or can be held for Thanksgiving. White and brown eggs from free-range laying hens are plentiful year-round.

Visitors are welcome—please call ahead. We welcome your inspection of our farm and look forward to meeting you.

Miller Livestock, Aaron Miller and Family, 9590 Kinsman-Pymatuning Road, Kinsman OH 44428. (330) 876-5655. E-mail: kins3yr@aol.com

We have been enjoying his eggs, which have yolks as yellow as our beloved Blue Eggs. Our first meat dinners were a package of hamburgers. We seasoned them simply with salt and pepper, and grilled them.










Simply delicious. And don't be fooled by the size of the "bun" - it's actually a bagel. The only delivery system Bob could think of when Mustard Seed was out of buns.

We later sampled a package of melt-in-your-mouth steaks; judging by the shape of the bone, I'd guess they were rib steaks.





Simply fabulous! Miller's Livestock is definitely recommended for playing with grass fed beef and eggs - as well as chicken and lamb, which we've also tasted at restaurant events.

More Fun Playing With Grass Fed Beef

Last night, we had our first taste of the hamburger patties we got from Brandon Smith of Wayne Cattle Company. They were fantastic! And good for you - grass fed beef is low in fat and saturated fat, but has a great beefy flavor.

The quarter pound burgers were a little thin, so they cooked very fast. We seasoned them with salt, pepper, and some of Emeril's "Baby Bam" hamburger spice and Bob grilled them on the Weber. Placed upon fresh buns from The Mustard Seed Market, with large slices of beautiful tomato and onions - it made a special dinner.









Instead of the traditional fries - I took my second shot at making stuffed squash blossoms, finishing off the Mackenzie Creamery cheese. I kept better control of the fry oil temperature (I had let it cool down too much the first time I made them) and the results were fabulous.





We had fun playing with Brandon's grass fed burgers!