Dinner at Disney World

I did not cook last week because my family and I went to Walt Disney World, Florida for vacation during the President’s Week. A great time was had by all. While we were there, we ate out at many of the restaurants at the theme parks and resorts. All of the restaurants we went to had great food, and I would highly recommend them all; but there is one restaurant that I would like to write about. We had dinner at the France Pavilion in Epcot at a restaurant called “Les Chefs de France.” Although there were many great items on the menu, I chose red wine braised short ribs. I did this for 2 reasons. First, there is a red wine braised short rib recipe by Hebert Keller that I want to try in the future, and I would like to see and taste what it should look and taste like. Second, it came with Potatoes Dauphinios. In my previous blog I wrote about trying to “tweak” a scalloped potatoes recipe, and I figured this would be a great opportunity to see what properly cook potatoes look like and taste like. I was not disappointed. The braised short ribs were very tender, and the red wine sauce was great. The potatoes were excellent too. This is what I want my potatoes to taste like. While examining the potatoes, I told my wife and friends it appeared as if I was putting too much cheese on my potatoes. My wife explained to our friends the problems I’ve been having trying to make potatoes (to soggy at times). Our waiter over heard our conversation and threw in his two-cents. He suggested using flour as a thickening agent and this should stop my potatoes from becoming soggy. He also suggested using a roux if I did not use flour. He then recommended adding some nutmeg for flavor. It was a great night. Not only did I get to eat some great food, but I also came out with some good suggestions for my potato dishes. So, I’ll be experimenting on my family when I get back home.

Bon Appétit

P.S. Here's a gift my wife bought me at one of the Disney Resorts to help out with my cooking. It's a Refrigerator magnet with measurements broken down.

Potatoes Dauphinios (Scalloped Potatoes) & Potatoes Au Greaten

One day my wife picked out a recipe from Julia Child’s cook book for me to make, Coq Au Vin; but that’s not the subject of this blog. With the Coq Au Vin, I cooked Potatoes Dauphinois. They turned out a bit soggy, and some of the potatoes weren’t cooked as much as I would have liked; but they were still good. Since then I tried Potatoes Au Greaten from a recipe I found on the Food Network web site. However, this time the potatoes weren’t cooked all the way through, and I used too much cream. Well, knowing to use less cream and to let it cook longer, one would think I would try it again…Wrong! I decided to try a different recipe. Once again, I looked up a recipe on the Food Network web site, I chose to make a Scalloped Potatoes recipe. One thing that is common with most of these recipes is Swiss cheese. While I love Swiss cheese, I wanted to change the flavor a little. Looking at some of the comments when I looked up the recipe, I read that someone had mixed in some cheddar, and mozzarella cheese into the recipe; so, I decided to experiment with that. I was careful with the cream, and I let the potatoes cook a little longer than usual. They came out of the oven bubbling, and all the potatoes were cooked through and weren’t soggy. The cheese combination worked out well, although I could have layered them better between the potatoes. Even though the potatoes came out fine this time, I’m going to keep on trying to “tweak” the recipe to fit my taste a little more. Here’s the recipe I used.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/scalloped-potatoes-recipe/index.html

Slow Coking

In my local paper, I came across an article on slow cooking. The article stated that it’s a lost art that is coming back because it’s easy to prepare beforehand. It just needs to be started before one leaves for work; and when one returns from work, dinner is ready. Well, I tried slow cooking. The day before I needed to start cooking, I made a marinade. It only took 10 minutes to make, and I put it in with a pork shoulder in the refrigerator. The next day, early in the morning, I put the whole mixture into a slow cooker for it to cook for 10 hours. The smell permeated the whole house. When my son got home from school, he kept asking me when we were going to eat. I told him it would be a few hours and asked him why. He said, “It smells so good.” It did smell good; and when we ate it, it was wonderful. The pork shoulder was very tender and juicy. My wife looked up other recipes that I could slow cook. I’ll try those recipes later, and I’m sure I’ll blog about that later, but here’s the recipe I used. Enjoy.

http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14143263?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

Homemade Fries

This Christmas a family friend gave my wife a Zyliss food slicer, and I thought to myself, “I could use that.” And so far I have (like so many of her kitchen utensils). It has a setting for Julian cuts, so I decided to try and make some homemade French fries. I did a little research on the internet on cooking fries and broke out the deep fryer. They tasted great. I knew my son liked them because he kept on stuffing his mouth full of fries. It’s a nice treat to have once in a while and not to tough to make. I think we’ll be having fries more often.