I am blessed in my friendships— I have such wonderful friends around the globe.  I’ve been helped out of many a mess; shared in fun times; been proud of their accomplishments (I truly have some super-women friends); and inspired by so many of them.  One area (not surprisingly) in which I have been inspired, is in my cooking and baking.  I love cooking with friends too — my house or theirs, I find it a fun thing to do together with a glass of wine or cocktail in hand and fresh news to share. 

Two of my girlfriends are a constant in inspiration and cooking camaraderie.  One (AK) has 3 kids and one (SO) 2 kids— all that eat well (as in, they like our food).  I love when we can all get together and cook/eat/play.  We always have fun.

Recently for SO I tried out one dish that AK had cooked for my family- stuffed pork roast— which is stuffed with stuffing (as in traditional Thanksgiving-style sausage stuffing).  I think my girlfriend made it better than I did, but it was still quite good.  I was too afraid of getting the stuffing mushy that I erred on the side of too little stock to moisten the stuffing so it was too dry. The pork itself was great. 

I also introduced SO and her girls to kale chips which my boys and I love. I made some with sesame oil, canola oil and salt and some with olive oil, salt and pepper.  The boys were cheerfully exclaiming, “kale chips!” when they saw them.

Simple Sausage Sage Stuffing
4 links, casings removed, Italian sweet sausage
1-2 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, diced
4 cups croutons
Handful fresh sage, chopped
Approx 1 cup chicken or veg stock
salt & pepper

In a large stock pot sauté the sausage until cooked.  Set aside. Then sauté the onion and celery in olive oil (or sausage fat) until onions are translucent.  Add sausage back in with croutons, sage, ½ tsp salt and pepper. Mix well and slowly add stock until stuffing sticks together nicely but isn’t too mushy.  Add more salt if necessary.  Let cool then stuff your meat/bird. (Tie if necessary to keep in the stuffing.)

I’d never stuffed anything with this type of stuffing besides a turkey or chicken.  Now, I figure I’ve tried something new thanks to my friend.  And this is only one of many dishes/desserts these two are introducing me to…and inspiring me to do it too.

My husband, the chef, was home from work for 4 days in a row, a much deserved and overdue break.  During that time he spoiled us with wonderful meals that I’m not as likely to make— only in that they include the wonderful sauces derived from his demiglace.  Demiglace that he makes from scratch (roasted veal bones & roasted veggies made into stock with aromatic herbs) that I don’t have the time or impetus to make myself.

One night for dinner he made a veal saltimboca. (I never buy veal, although we may be getting some this year with our “meat share” of our CSA.) Veal medalions pan seared then topped with sliced prosciutto & sage sauce. 

The kids loved it although my youngest didn’t like the look of the veal at first and it took a bit of coaxing to convince him to just try one little bite.  I don’t push them to finish something they don’t like but I do usually try to get them to at least taste something new.  If it gets too difficult, then I will drop it.  I don’t want to force them and know that they’ll be more willing to try if they see us all enjoying it instead of fighting it off.  And at least he loved his vegetables: broccoli, swiss chard, and peas.

The other wonderful meal that my husband made was a roast leg of lamb. Now, I can make a great lamb roast but my chef showed me a new way of doing it that resulted in a wonderfully tender and evenly roasted meat.  The lamb was a boneless leg from New Zealand that I purchased at Trader Joe’s (it’s not lamb season in NZ now) and I know NZ lamb is grass-fed and have such a great delicate flavor.

He put the seasoned (salt and pepper) leg into the oven at 200ºF oven for an hour then raised the temperature to 225°F for another 2½-3 hours until the internal temperature of the lamb was 140ºF.  And then let it sit for another 30 minutes outside the oven. It was very tender by roasting it at a lower temp for a longer time. It retained the moisture and reduced shrinking (a similar method he uses to make a prime rib roast).  To the pan he then added juices shallots, garlic, rosemary, demiglace and red wine then brought it to a boil and scraped any bits off the bottom.  Then he transferred the sauce to a sauté pan and reduced it until it was much more concentrated. 

Both the lamb and the sauce were delicious!  The boys loved it all.  The eldest two had extra sauce on their mashed potatoes once they tried it on the lamb.   We had zucchini and spinach to round it off.

So glad to have had such high caliber dinners this week.  I love that my kids are mostly open to eating all types of foods too.  I think by putting the food in front of them and giving them the opportunity to actually try it— they do.  Especially if you eat with them.