gratin on the side

Saturday was a delightfully sunny, cool midwinter day in Chicago. We haven't had snow in ages, so the walking has been fine. Mid-afternoon we wandered out and made our way south, eventually stopping in at Pastoral.

Friends had gifted Conrad with a gift certificate for the store for his recent birthday. We'd never been in before, but we'd heard about it and wanted a good excuse to go. Mmmmm, cheeses. And more, as it turned out. Some wine, some condiments, some olives. Even some serrano ham, which we munched on as we headed north on Broadway.

One of our treasures we found there was a fresh smoked mozzarella. It smelled heavenly, as if bacon were pretending to be a fresh cheese. Yum! I immediately fantasized about what we could do with it.

Actually, I spent more time than I should have today daydreaming about the cheese and thinking of the contents of our fridge. Broccoli? Brussels sprouts? Frankly, I always hated cheese sauces on either. Late in the day, though, an idea hit me: an onion gratin.

Not everyone is a fan of onions, but I'm very fond of them. They can be marvellously sweet, and I thought that quality would offset the smokiness of the cheese well. When I got home, I discovered two roma tomatoes I'd forgotten about - something to round off the onion and cheese.

Into a pan went the sliced onions. I let them get a little brown over a moderate heat, then added chicken broth and cooked it down while watching my new favourite show, Heroes. Seriously, watch this show. Wow. After that, I layered the sliced tomato, sliced cheese, and the onion (seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried thyme) in two ramekins, ending with the sliced cheese on top. Into a hot oven alongside some chicken breasts I'd lightly marinated. The result? Yummy. No dairy other than the cheese, so not too rich. Also, no carbs beyond what's in the two veggies. Filling, though. And good. With the chicken, some asparagus, and a bottle of Chehalem 2002 Pinot Noir, we were quite content.

quick chicken dinner

I managed to get most of this done before swim practice, so it was only a matter of having Conrad puree the cauliflower mixture, preheat the oven, and get the water for the Brussels sprouts a-simmerin'. Simple. Dinner tonight: baked chicken breast marinated in the raspberry, shallot, and mustard vinaigrette leftover from the salad on Friday; Brussels sprouts; and a cauliflower, black olive, pine nut, and two-onion puree.

Now it's back to playing with librarything.com!

First signs of winter's approach

1. Flakes of snow. Not many. None stuck. But definitely snow.
2. Christmas music. Right now Oscar Peterson's version of Winter Wonderland is playing on my iTunes. You don't want to know how much Christmas music (and other shopping) I've done since the start of the month.
3. Chapped lips. Burt's Bees beeswax lip balm is now tingling all around my mouth.
4. Brussels sprouts. To me, they're a classic cold weather vegetable. Shown below is Conrad's dinner - he's not yet home from a veeeeeeery long day of work (poor guy!). I thought he might be home before I went to the pool, so I coated a pork tenderloin with a paste of rosemary, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt, black pepper and raosted it at 400 for about 35 minutes. Meanwhile I trimmed and halved a bunch of the sprouts, cooked them until just tender in lightly salted water, then drained them and set them aside, covered. I cooked three slices of hickory smoked bacon in a pan, removed the bacon when crispy to drain, the added some sliced shallot to the pan to saute in the bacon grease. After the shallots had browned a little, I deglazed the pan with some wine and added some coarse grain mustard. Then came the Brussels sprouts, followed by the crumbled bacon. Okay, not the best for Conrad's cholesterol, but low in carbs!! The plate shown is presently warming in a low oven.

Alright then, we just had the BNL version of Do They Know It's Christmas, and up now is their rendition of Carol of the Bells. Wheee!