Any trip to Connecticut is mostly centered around food. The time I spent with my sister I largely did the cooking. Much of it was out of my comfort zone except for the last night when I bought a beautiful inside skirt steak and made a great chimichurri, along with smashed potatoes with a generous amount of olive oil and parsley plus green beans sauteed with garlic. That was probably my most successful dish, and even Isabella who doesn't like to eat dinner ate her plate and asked for me. The meat, at least.
My father made oxtail soup, which I like a lot. I haven't tried to make it since a disastrous attempt like ten years ago. My pressure cooker and I don't get along too well.
This soup was good, though instead of oxtails with bones, they bought a slightly different, boneless cut. It was cheaper, and the flavor was still good, but I guess I never mentioned that I'm less a fan of eating the meat and more about the bones.
Day two we went to Bloomingdale's in White Plains. We had lunch in their restaurant. I got the lobster mac and cheese. It was described as a lobster bisque base. The lobster was cooked beautifully. The dish was very good but also very rich. I only ate about half of it.
Josh got the chicken paillard. There was a nice vinaigrette that went along with it and the roasted vegetables. I tried to deconstruct the vinaigrette. It's hard to remember now but I think the acid was lemon, and it was light and delicious.
My sister's only food request was this butternut squash and broccoli raab lasagne from the October Bon Appetit issue. It took a long time to prep, cutting and blanching the broccoli raab, then cutting up and roasting the butternut squash. Then make a bechamel, then construct. Then bake.
At my sister's urging, I used Barilla no-cook lasagne. I think it ended up a bit dry in the end. My sister and brother-in-law said they liked it, though I'm not sure. It was not that great to me.
For dessert, some of my sister's apple tart -- based on the Ina Garten recipe -- and a nice glass of whole milk.
My sister is very good about eating leftovers. Nothing gets thrown away: a single leftover pancake, vegetables left after a meal.
The first night, I had made spaghetti with meatballs and sausage. It was pretty good, actually. I had made the whole pound of spaghetti, so there was some leftover. There was also some roasted kale that was on the end of its time in the fridge.
I sauteed the kale, added the pasta, then added in the rest of the ricotta from the lasagne, and a big ole mass of parmigiano. It was pretty good.
My sister requested pork tacos. At the time, I thought she meant carnitas, though I later learned that she was really asking for a braised pork dish that I make with chipotles in adobo.
It was surprisingly difficult to get the pork I needed. Apparently the Whole Foods neither carried it, nor was very helpful. I ended up at ShopRite where they had a lovely 5 1/2 lb bone-in shoulder which they also nicely cut into slices through the bone.
I cut them up a bit more, heavily salted it, and into the oven until tender.
It came out quite well, and shredded the easiest of any meat I've had to shred. I took out most of the fat that I could, including the skin, which got a nice crust. As it turns out, my brother-in-law adores the crackin's and was chipping them off the pan.
Here are the tacos that night. I had picked up corn tortillas at Whole Foods which mostly ended up sucking. That's the pig skin on top. We also had red cabbage. They were a bit dry.
Day two of tacos. I headed up the pork for lunch and got some flour tortillas. Some avocado added some nice creaminess. They were delicious. Way better than the night before.
Isabella was hungry. I made her a burrito. I let her try all the pieces -- and she tries everything and knows exactly what she wants -- but she ended up with an avocado and cilantro burrito. She ate the whole thing.
For lunch, we walked down to a deli around the corner which is pretty respected for good sandwiches. I got the italian combo. Tasty.
For dinner, we went to my parents' house and my mother did the cooking. This chicken dish, however, is my dad's dish. He always uses dark soy sauce, which I find makes the dish too heavy. However, my mother seemed to have bought a different brand which has a lighter dark soy. I found it to be better. He did not.
My mom made shrimp with lobster sauce. I never remember to make this dish but it has always been one of my favorites.
Beef with broccoli, a classic I haven't had in a really long time.
For dessert, an apple tart that I made after learning the recipe from my sister. Turned out pretty well.
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