Christmas card blues (r)

Marty took this nice photo of Ben the other night. Thanks, Marty!

I don't have much time for this, since I need to be writing and sending Christmas cards. Hope to get them done before I go to RF today.

On the cooking front. When we came home from brunch on Sunday, we found a whole boneless ham and a pound of bacon on our front porch. It was accompanied by a note from a couple of guys from Minnesota who hunt turkeys on our land every year. It thawed enough by evening that we were able to slice it for sandwiches for dinner, but what's to happen to the rest of it? I think I'll have to refreeze some, certainly I'll shave up a bunch for Mom (thank goodness for her slicer!), I'll make split pea soup (a ton for the freezer, always nice to have around), Charlie will have ham salad in his lunches (he likes it, I hate it). I guess I'll make some mac & cheese with ham, etc., etc. Any ideas are welcome! Think I'll give a chunk to Marty, too.

Better than wild turkey offerings. We've had them before, and we don't like it. Too bad! All this potential meat running around in our yard!

Here's a recipe from a recent newspaper (Wolfgang Puck). I made it on Monday night, and we'll eat the leftovers tonight. It was quite good.



Ground steak with roquefort cheese and green peppercorn sauce

(this is half of the recipe, and it still made enough for two meals for us -- certainly the things could be frozen, either before cooking or with the sauce after cooking)

Patties:

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 shallot, minced (I used onion)
salt
pepper
3 oz crumbled roquefort (or bleu, which is what I used)
1 1/2 TB oil

To assemble patties:

In bowl, thoroughly mix ground beef, egg, shallots and salt and pepper to taste (this assumes you like tasting raw meat and eggs, of course -- guess carefully, maybe 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper?). Divide into 6 balls of equal size (I weigh them, but it's really not necessary -- in my batch, each ball weighed 4.4 ounces). Using thumb, make indentation in center of each ball. Stuff each hole with 1 TB (I used a little less) cheese. Pinch hole closed (be thorough about this). Flatten slightly to form plump patty.

To sauté patties:

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Heat heavy skillet (enameled or stainless steel is better than non-stick, since it makes the sauce better), large enough to hold all patties, over medium-high heat. Heat oil until it flows freely. Add patties to skillet. Sauté for three minutes per side or until burgers are nicely browned. Put in oven while finishing sauce. (This oven part is my addition -- the sautéeing left them too raw, because they're thick, but further sautéeing would burn them and wreck the
sauce base. They should finish cooking in the oven.)

Sauce:

1/2 cup port wine (we found port too sweet and will use Maderia or Marsala next time)
2 TB bottled green peppercorns, drained
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 TB unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

To make sauce:

Pour off fat from pan. (If you have to use non-stick, strain all the pieces of browned stuff out and put them back in the pan.)
Return pan to heat. Add wine. Using wooden spoon, stir and scrape to deglaze pan deposits. Add peppercorns and cream. Simmer briskly, stirring frequently, for about five minutes, until slightly thickened. Whisk in butter, a small piece at a time.

Serve sauce over patties.



This was a lot easier than it seems. Not too many ingredients, and very good. The oven time has not been tried yet, but I'm sure it'll work. For us, an overcooked hamburger is better than a raw one, anyway.

Yesterday I spent much of the day working on cards. I also made a huge cauldron of chili, since our friends from Germany and Switzerland who now live in Quebec, Tom and Vera, were coming, and we didn't know if they were staying for dinner. Tom was my student a number of years ago (and he did the tile and some other masonry for us a year and a half ago), and we have visited back and forth for years. They live in Quebec now (both in school there -- Vera's 32, Tom probably approaching 50 by now), but lived in RF off and on for years and have a place in France that Tom's rebuilding (Charlie and I visited there in '98), and they also live in Germany sometimes. Anyway, I shall henceforth refer to them only as Tom and Vera.

They did come, at about 5:30, ate cups of chili ("dinner" wasn't ready, since I was making Mom's chili-cheese cornbread, and it wasn't even in the oven yet). They are headed for Germany today for Christmas (Tom's mother is quite ill), and then will be back to stay with us for two days after Christmas before they drive back to Quebec. They left at a little after seven, just as the corn bread came out of the oven, to stay with friends in Hudson.

We were going to watch the Packers' game, but it was too discouraging, so we watched an interesting show about American movies in the seventies (IFC) and went to bed.

Now I shall get busy on my cards!