Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
Sitemap ·
Our Recipe Book ·
Steven's Recipe Book ·
Ann's Recipe Book ·
Meal Ideas ·
Copied Recipes
Random ·
Random Links
Home > entertaining
All for 'entertaining'
All sub pages for /_tags/entertaining
Moussaka, French Onion Soup, Sides and Bread Pudding (company) -- back to top
We were having company over so we went for a full three course meal. Sadly, in the rush of getting everything out, I didn't get a good picture but that is fine because we didn't really do too much new stuff.
We made french onion soup just like we have in the past but we made a bit more. About 6 cups of broth (mix of beef and chicken) with about a cup of white wine. It came out pretty good. I do not remember if it was 2.5 or three onions. I will have to ask Meredith.
We made the moussaka as we have in the past (with points on that last one). It was good. We made it the night before and refrigerated it. I think that caused the bechemel sauce to crack differently but it was still good. It was actually nice because we did it such that as the sauce cooks down (the longest part), we ate dinner the night before. It made this a less intense meal for one night.
We also had roasted butternut squash and steamed broccoli. I think we over-roasted the squash but both Meredith and I like it mushy so it was not really a bad thing. The broccoli was normal and good.
For dessert we made bread pudding again from the same recipe. We again only used half brown sugar and half splenda. Meredith also added more splenda but I will have to check with her on how much. We also added raisins which was really good. This time we used bananas as the recipe calls for. Also, we used whole wheat bread to make it healthier. With the extra splenda, it was really, really good! We will have to do this again.
We topped it with Trader Joe's Frozen Yogurt.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 905, 2011-01-21_121252
Pizza -- back to top
We had company over and did make your own pizza. I used the standard dough but I didn't halve it so I made 8 pizzas. There were a variety of different toppings and everyone did a different mix of toppings. They were the normal with soppressata, goat cheese, ricotta, spinach, etc. We also had pineapple which I think was used once. I think I captured most of them but not all. Also, my pizza came out looking like a heart (below). We used low-fat or fat free cheesed.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1421, 2011-09-22_085557
Real chili cook off -- back to top
Meredith's sister was visiting and we decided to do a real chili cook off unlike last time. It was a while ago so I will not remember all of the things. Brooke's was the closest to normal chili. She used taco seasoning and normal chili powders. She also used some gimme lean which gave it a different but nice texture. Meredith's was based on the chocolate one from last time (link above). I do not know the exact changes. Mine was strange. I used a lot of adobo sauce from chipotles in adobo giving it a smoky taste. Then I added curry powder. Finally, instead of beans, I used lentils. So, it was strange to say the least. Mine is in the while bowl, Meredith's is the top and Brooke's
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1428, 2011-09-28_115729
Pizza and Oysters on the Half Shell -- back to top
Meredith and I had Wes and Rebecca over and we did a make your own pizza with oysters on the half shell as an appetizer. We bought 2 dozen (though they gave us more) and it was a nice sized appetizer. We all took turns shucking them and did a pretty good job with most. We served them with the regular stuff: tabasco, cocktail sauce, other hot sauces, lemon slices, etc.
For the pizza, we had frozen, leftover Trader Joes dough from a party. We defrosted that along with the leftover cheese. The sauce and all of the toppings were purchased though. The dough is a bit strange. It stretches really, really well but it doesn't really rise at all before the oven. Also, I cooked it at 400 instead of 350. Each pizza was made from half a 16oz dough ball.
Everyone got to make two pizzas however I only took pictures of the first. (and most saved the second for later)
They are:
Justin's first (Pictured lower left):
Justin's Second:
Meredith's First (Picture, top left). Tex-Mex style
Meredith's Second
Wes's First (Pictured, bottom right)
Wes's Second:
Rebecca's First (Pictured, top right)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6257, 2013-07-06_134033
MYO Pizza and Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Soup -- back to top
We had a bunch of friends over and did make your own pizza. Not much to tell here. The usual toppings including:
We used TJ's dough balls. Note to self, when quick-defrosting a dough ball, put it in a bag. The included bag did not suffice and we had a few wet dough balls.
We also made our Roasted Broccoli Cheddar soup. We followed the basic recipe except roughly 1.5-2.0x it. And we used real onion in addition to scallions. Finally, we used Osem to keep it meat-free. A minor change we did was to cube the cheese instead of shredding. This to make it easier (no need to clean the food processor) and we figured it would cook fine. However, it seems to have burned a bit on the bottom. We need to be more careful of that.
Oh, we also added some crushed red pepper to the soup and some garlic powder to the roasting broccoli.
No picture.....
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6745, 2013-10-12_175500
Lebanese Moussaka (with Cauliflower Rice) and Ramen Rice Krispie Treats -- back to top
Meredith and I had friends over so we decided to make some strange and different foods. They brought the salad which was very good but I do not know what was on it. I talk about the things we made below
We made Lebanese Moussaka using the same recipe as last time including those changes (canned chick peas, tomato liquid, extra seasonings including pomegranate mollasses, etc).See note below about pomegranate mollasses.
Other than doubling everything, we stayed pretty true to the recipe. I should note that we didn't have ground all-spice so I ground it myself but they ground easily. We also let it cook for a good, long, while.
The one thing of note though is that I tried to make my own pomegranate molasses. I used this Alton Brown recipe (local) except that I apparently had some trouble. I followed the recipe closely, but I think that I let it go too long (either time or heat). When it cooled, it was like taffy. And made much less than the 1 cup. Then, after it was in the fridge, it turned to a solid block! I was able to microwave it (and turn it essentially molten) and use in. I used the planned amount (roughly double the Moussaka recipe) but note that it was probably even stronger.
I think, in the future, I will not be making it myself. I am sure I saved calories over the super-sweet store-bought stuff, but it just doesn't make sense. The cost of the pomegranate juice plus the time and effort aren't worth it.
Still, I thought the Moussaka came out pretty good. I was worried as it was cooking since it didn't have the full flavor, but as it cooked down, it started to taste great. I think next time, I will see if my Lebanese Cookbook has any different suggestions just to mix it up (though it would probably be less easy then). We served it with a double portion of Cauliflower Rice
Pomegranate Syrup or Molasses (From Alton Brown, via The Food Network)
Local Copy -- (U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case)
This was a strange one...
Meredith found this recipe for Ramen Rice Krispies on Joy The Baker (local). The broken (junky) ramen noodles are interesting enough, but when you add the furikake (to quote: "sweet/salty/seaweed/umami") seasoning, it gets very, very strange.
Making it was easy enough, though I used my hands to toss (since that is really the only way to do it) and it was HOT!. We just halved the recipe, which made more than enough for us (we only had one pack of ramen).
The only other changes we made were to use pam on the pan, and to use all of the ramen in the mix and just furikake on top.
Meredith seemed uncertain but I really (really!) liked it. I love salty sweets and this was a great example of it. We bought the regular furikake (see pictures below) but they also had others including one with bonito (fish) and one with wasabi. We will not be touching the fish one any time soon but the wasabi could be interesting!
Only thing that would have been better was if they were chewier. They came out hard as a rock.
Ramen Rice Krispie Treats (from Joy The Baker)
Local Copy -- (U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case)
Ramen Rice Krispies -- back to top
I made Ramen Rice Krispies again. There really wasn't too much to it including us doubling the butter as we now say in the recipe (though I am going to change it to 6-8 Tbsp). The other thing was I figured I could mix the furikake into dry ingredients and that worked well and made life easier.
I ate a few while putting them away and I liked them as usual. I do think we should change the butter to 6 Tbsp since I am afraid they will all stick by the time we serve them.
I really like this recipe since it is kind of odd but also tasty.
Chicken Skewers and Grilled Bacon Mushrooms -- back to top
My friends Wes and Katie were visiting ABQ and come over for dinner. We made two types of chicken skewers and also teriyaki mushrooms.
The chicken skewers were from Zahav (scanned here). It was part of their "Pargiyot Three Ways" though we only did two. For the "onion marinade" (they both have the same amount of onion but whatever), we followed the recipe pretty directly. For the harissa one, we did follow the recipe but used a tomato-based harissa (see below).
I tried to do a more Japanese style of skewering. I butterflied the chicken and then also pounded it thin. I cut it into smallish pieces and basically folded every piece as I put it on and packed it tight. According to Serious Eats, this helps to keep them from drying out. I also just think it looked good and gave some more texture.
Anyway, the chicken was marinated for a few hours and was really flavorful. I put on more sauce at the end before the last turn. They came out really good. The onion one was a bit lemony but not bad. I liked the harissa one a lot too! And the onions in both smelled really good while it was cooking.
Finally, I also made yakitori mushrooms as we did last time. Except I used regular mushrooms with 4 per skewer and a total of 1 slice of [center cut] bacon per skewer (basically a third). Like the chicken, I tried to also fold them up as I put them on. It worked really well. I was a bit unsure about the teriyaki (which I also made myself with some ginger an garlic) because it came out too thick. But heating it a bit helped. And it did end up giving it enough flavor. The bacon again gave a lot of flavor to the mushrooms.
Meredith and I used to really like the Harissa at Cava in Northern Virginia. She was working on it at one at one time but it was complicated and a lot of work.
Well, she found this article and recipe (LOCAL recipe1 -- now My Recipe Book). It seemed too good to be true. Especially since the ingredients on the package are:
Stewed tomatoes / Non-GMO canola oil / Spices / Extra- virgin olive oil / Fresh parsley / Kosher salt / Fresh garlic
and this one just calls for tomato paste instead of stewed tomatoes. And it just seemed too easy. But it actually worked really well. It had some crunchiness from the not-fully-ground crushed red pepper but was pretty spot on...at least to our memory. I think we would make this and keep it around. Especially it was so easy! (and the recipe does seem to come right from them!). Maybe next time, I will grind up the crushed red pepper in a spice grinder first.
When Meredith was in Durham at Burger Bach, she had a very flavorful, herb-centric salad and decided to make something like it.
She was inspired by Good House Keeping's recipe (LOCAL1) but added a ton of thyme and oregano. We basically did most of it by eye adding more oil, and then some water, as needed.
Our friends made dessert of a strawberry short cake. It was home made whipped cream with macerated strawberries and some Angel's Food Cake
