This week's recipe - oxtail barley soup

Oxtail Barley Soup - doesn't that sound yummy? 

This week's recipe is from The Wooden Spoon cookbook. All different soups and stews. This is the first time I've cooked from it and I was pleased as punch that it actually had a recipe that would use up my oxtails. Which, by the way, are really weird looking. The center is sort of...squishy.

Yum, oxtails!

It's a simple recipe and it came out great.  More a vegetable soup flavor than a beef one though so I had to adjust my expectations once it was done. Regardless, it used a few simple ingredients and turned out a soup that had good flavor and enough quantity to feed us three meals. Not bad for the wag end of a cow. 

Boca Bistro in Saratoga Springs

My brother and I were in Saratoga the other day and decided to go to Boca Bistro for lunch. It's a Spanish Tapas bar that I've been meaning to try.

Nice ambiance and good decorating. We were seated in the little wine cellar alcove and it was pleasant and fairly quiet despite the very large party seated in the main area. The service was quick, pleasant, and appropriately attentive.

They started us with a hospitality bowl of mixed olives (excellent) and sliced bread (a bit stale).  The menu was varied and interesting though prices seemed a bit high; more Saratoga in summer than winter rates.

They had a good wine and beer selection and the server was kind enough to bring us a sample of a local brew they had on tap. A coffee stout that I expected to love but didn't so very glad to have the opportunity to try it first.  I ended up with a Malbec that had a great description, but was a bit lacking in spicy notes (maybe it was just a bad alcohol day for me). Not bad by any means, but not what I normally expect from a Malbec. Matt had the beer (surprising both of us as he's not typically a stout drinker).

The special of the day was a filet mignon sandwich that sounded wonderful and we added calamari and sweet potato fries to round out the meal and give us enough to share. The calamari was excellent - barely coated in batter and very tender. The aioli was a bit lacking in depth, but they brought some freshly made cocktail sauce (extra spicy) when requested. The sweet potato fries were wedges not those stringy things you usually get, again perfectly cooked, and had a thyme honey sauce (honey from their own hives) that was stellar. And the sandwich - whew! Excellent. With a spicy coleslaw on the bun to add texture and crunch to the buttery soft steak.

So, I'd say a winner even with the slightly elevated cost. It ended up being about $35 each including tip and drinks. Certainly not bad, but more than I usually spend on a lunch with no leftovers.

Topsy Turvy weather

The weather continues to astound with it's variability. We had a hard freeze with all the streams inches thick with ice. Then we had a full day of hard rain and suddenly everything let loose.

The green is a layer of ice under the water

Way wider than usual

Beautiful 

Matt's stream

Water and ice

Ice

Walking through the woods was tough. Ice lay just under the surface and it was easy to slip over the wet leaves. Our land isn't exactly flat either so getting up and down hills was an adventure. Cooper had to engage four-paw drive just to maintain progress. We even had trouble despite the crampons on our boots. Great fun to slip and slide and toss ice balls. Plus it's great when you get home to hot coffee, fresh cinnamon bread toast, and a roaring wood stove. 

This week's recipe: Toaster Pastries

This week's recipe is again from the KAF Baker's Companion cookbook - toaster pastries. Chris picked this one and it looked fun. You make up the dough the night before, chill overnight, then finish them for breakfast. 

Assembly on these takes a bit of time, so be sure to leave enough lead-time in the AM.

The dough is very sweet. In fact, it's now going to be my go-to sugar cookie dough. Very yummy.

Extremely hard dough

Took a bit of effort but I got the dough divided into four segments, rolled it out, filled it with the jam mixture, sealed them, and cooked them up. In fact, it took nearly an hour to do all that.

Homemade strawberry and some purchased grape jams for filling

 You can have one batch baking while you're mucking about with the next.

Pretty

At first I considered this recipe a C at best. It was a bit of a pain to make. Took a good bit of time, including planning ahead for the chill factor. Tasted very sweet. But then we popped a couple in the toaster for a late afternoon snack and I realized that the results would be enjoyed for days. These really did reheat well in the toaster (I didn't put the frosting on them - one, I thought they were already sweet enough, two, I could easily envision toaster fires) and we enjoyed them immensely. 

I am leaning toward simply cutting and baking them as flats then toasting and spreading fresh jam on them as we eat them. I think they'd be just as good, much faster, and I wouldn't have to worry about the jam leaking into the toaster (not that it has yet, but it's a concern). So it's now been upgraded to a B on my recipe grading scale.

Keeping NY resolutions

So far it's been amazingly easy to keep my New Year resolution. Not exactly a hardship to cook and eat!

The chicken tortilla soup came out great. I decided a breakfast food should come next so dug out a raised/glazed donut recipe. The recipe was easy to follow (KAF Baker's Companion) but the yeast flavor was more pronounced than I liked. Not sure if it was the overnight rise in the fridge or what. Well worth trying again though so I'll be tweaking the recipe to my taste. I also need to be a bit more careful about the frying time; some of the donuts came out a bit tough which indicates I left them in too long. Since you cook them less than a minute per side, it can happen wicked fast. 

Much better tasting than they look here

I also tested a CI recipe. Turkey meatballs that came out fantastic. Not sure when this recipe will hit the magazine, but I hope they don't change a thing (okay, it needed more sauce, but the flavors were wonderful).

Incredibly tender and flavorful

Then of course life happened and two weeks ran into each other so I made two recipes the same day: the seeded mega crackers from KAF Baker's Companion and Hummus from BHG 15th edition. Served up with veggies and fruit it made a nice meal.

Making the crackers (wine required)

The crackers were easy and really tasted great. The hummus was okay - Chris like it a lot, I thought it was just so-so.  I did three versions - original, Sriracha, and EVOO with fresh parsley.

They're huge - about 7 inches across

The recipe made eight crackers and we had three left over. I crisped them in the oven the next morning and put peanut butter on them for a quick breakfast. Yum!

Some desserts coming up (Dream bars, Almond Toffee bars) and an oxtail soup that looks interesting (yes, I have oxtails in the freezer, don't you?). 

I'm loving the time spent reading through my cookbooks. I'd forgotten how fun it is to just peruse the recipes, marvel at how things change (in 1987 BHG didn't even mention Hummus in their cookbook), and figure out whether a recipe will be worth it or not (so far, so good). 

It's cold out; no wait, it's warm; what is it??

The weather has been topsy-turvy the past few weeks. Freezing, warm, raining, snowing, etc. Minus 20 one night, 50 and sunny a few days later. We've been mainly working on finishing up the mudroom built-ins but there's always time to fit in fun with Cooper.

Agility class has kept us active.

So fast we're a blur

And morning walkies are beautiful with all the ice.

This root amazes me

 Cooper can be very demanding when she's bored.

This is what she does when she want attention.

 Hardly any snow, but just enough to play in.

She's so fast!

And then the thermometer broke

We've had such a mild winter. Little to no snow, lots of sunshine, and temperatures that seemed downright balmy at times. Chris hasn't had to use the snow thrower at all this year and only back-dragged the driveway a couple time (mainly to run the tractor I think). Sure, we've had ice to contend with and the wind has been high at times but overall it's been quite pleasant outside.

And then this weekend hit. February decided to nail us with sub-zero temperatures. How cold? Not sure - the outside thermometer broke. The weather station says it's -16 in our nearby town but we're often colder than them. So I'm going to guess -20 (why not?).

Poor Cooper is making quick work of her morning potty break - outside, go, inside, curl up by the wood stove. Looks like it's going to be a good day to do inside stuff.