Outside The Aisles

My 'hood...

There's certainly been alot about Durham in the news of late....mostly bad.  My town certainly has it's issues, but it's still my town and I really like it.  We live in Old North Durham which is basically a few blocks north of downtown.  There was a home tour last weekend and I was really surprised how well some of the houses in our neighborhood have been restored.  Also last week we read that a pretty sad building had been bought by a developer with the hopes of turning it into hip lofts.

The Farmers Market up the street is also getting a more permanant structure. Hopefully some of these improvements along with some other stuff that's already well on it's way will start to turn things around for Durham.

Reduction

Once in awhile, when we have more time to make a dinner, we make something that requires a reduction.  They're not terribly difficult, but do usually require more prep time.  This in one my favorites. Pork loin with Port, Jalapenos & Stilton.  It seems like a heavy sauce, but it's really not that bad.

Once you start this type of dish, things start happening fast so it's best to get everything out and cut, and measured ahead of time.  If anyone needs the exact recipe, feel free to email me.  As always, be careful anytime you're mincing fresh jalapenos..the hot stuff will stay on your fingers. 

Basically, you take a pork loin and brown it for about 5 minutes, then put it in the oven (at 400 degrees) while you're making the sauce. 

For the sauce, you take the same pan that you browned the pork loin and drop a cup of Port, and a half cup of chicken broth.  This is the reduction part, which basically means you stir the stuff around until it reduces to about half. (3/4 cup). Then you add heavy whipping cream, then the stilton and jalepenos. 

We always serve with rice.

Ahem.

It's been awhile, I know.  We certainly haven't stopped eating, and I haven't stopped blogging.  I promise. 

I'll try and start where I left off.   Around the middle of December we went into full holiday mode, funny thing is, neither of us is too much into the holiday thing.  I'm not against it, per se, and  I enjoy seeing all our friends at the requisite parties, but the over the top commercialism does start to get to me. 

This year had the extra challenge of the entire North Carolina contingent of my family spending Christmas Eve, Day, and the day after at our house.  This was the first time this happened, and while it didn't make me feel old, it did thouroughly stress me out.  In retrospect, I really didn't appreciate how my parents put up with our annual holiday invasions.  Never the less, in spite of the stress, it was great to see the everyone.  If any one is still reading this blog and you've only been the holiday visitor and never the host, heed this adivce.  Don't fall asleep on the couch right after dinner, offer to help with the dishes. You'll probably be told to fall asleep on the couch, but the offer will be appreciated.  Have a good time, but don't drink too much, enough said. If your the host, don't worry about the messes, just try to keep calm, stick with white wine...it won't stain your rugs.

We'll be back soon.  I promise.

Two Hour Delay

There was an ice storm last night.  It wasn't really an ice storm, it was more like scattered ice drizzle.  Never the less, the school where Jenn works was delayed two hours, so I decided my work was delayed as well.  After a call and some quick emails to work, it was time for some breakfast.  Jenn is very good about eating breakfast every morning, I'm very good about drinking too much coffee every morning.  We have some salmon that was given as a xmas gift from Jenn's sister, so I was psyched about breakfast.  We had bagels, smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, red onions and tomatoes.  I wish we had regular tomatoes, but since this was unplanned, all we had were grape tomatoes.

Great stuff.  I wish I had the motivation to make this sort of thing every morning.  I just can't motivated to drag myself out of bed for cold cereal, especially in the winter.

Favorite music of 2005

This is the first departure from food in the blog.  I hope there will be many more as I'd like to keep the blog somewhat diverse in its content.  I know the web, print media and television are overrun with "best of" lists, but they are pretty fun to make, and by no means do I consider my list of favorites to be any better than anyone else's list.  So, I welcome anyone else sharing what they liked this year.

From a music standpoint, I'll probably remember 2005 for some really great shows.  It seemed to be the year of the reunion.  I was lucky enough to see the Pixies last year at Coachella, but most of the Triangle caught them in Raleigh.  The Dinosaur Jr.  and Gang of Four shows at the Cat's Cradle were absolutely amazing.  Non reunion show highlights for me were Black Taj, Sufjan Stevens and Teenage Fanclub.  My biggest regret was in not getting an Arcade Fire ticket before the show sold out.  I heard it was a very fine show.

Here is a list, in no particular order, of some of my favorites of the year.  Of course I welcome anyone else's additions to the list.  I've been turned on to some great music as a result of some year end lists and reccomendations.

Bloc Party - Silent Album

Doves - Some Cities

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

Broken Social Scene

The Clientele - Strange Geometry

Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah

Beck - Guero

Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

Teenage Fanclub - Man-Made

Sufjan Stevens - Invites you to Come on and feel the Illinoise

Calexico /Iron & Wine - In the Reins

Black Taj

Dead Meadow - Feathers

Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headcase

The Game - The Documentary

12.11.05 Menu

There were a couple of Christmas parties and a free Duke basketball game last week, so more than half the menu made the trip to this week. 

Lemon Soy Chicken thighs over rice

Cod w/shallots, Vermouth & Thyme, wild rice and green beans

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Parmesan Stuffed Chicken Breast w/pan roasted rosemary potatoes

Pork Tenderloin w/Stilton & Port over rice and edamame

Pizza!

12.04.05 Menu

It's getting chilly here. Wait, no, it's cold. This week's menu seems pretty ambitious (frozen lasagna not withstanding). 

Cod w/shallots, vermouth & thyme, wild rice & green beans.

Spaghetti w/fresh mozarella

Chicken thighs w/soy sauce & lemons and rice

Frozen Lasagna

Sauteed Pork Chops w/apples over mashed potatoes

Shrimp Creole

11.26.05 Menu

We spent the holidays in my hometown of Hamilton, Ohio.   We drove up to Ohio from Durham, which was made much more enjoyable since we had a book on tape.  For this trip we chose Zadie Smith's new book On Beauty.  It was pretty entertaining, but I thought there was too much unresolved at the end.

I truly believe there's a radio rule in Ohio, as it seems like everytime I enter the state, Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" is playing somewhere on the dial.  (This time it was playing on Classic Rock 92.5 The Fox)  There was also an abundance of Bob Seger, Van Halen and other assorted not so classic rock bands all over the dial  don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining about this.   While I really love the radio in Durham & Chapel Hill, it can be fun hearing all that music from my childhood.  I just wonder if the people that never left the area get sick of "Night Moves" by Seger after all these years.

The other highlights of the trip were spending time with my family and seeing my friend Trisha, her husband Chris and their very cute little boy Robbie.

We arrived back in beautiful Durham Saturday evening.  Sunday followed and the menu needed to be made. Since we spent Thanksgiving in Ohio, we were without the benefit of bountiful leftovers.  It must also be noted that although Shrimp again made the menu, it was again bumped to the next week.  We also brought back some amazing goodies from Jungle Jim's in Fairfield.  Among them being Great Lake's Christmas Ale, a belgium beer, sparkling cider, gnocchi, Turkish Olive Oil, 3 cans of olives stuffed with anchovies, garlic, lemons.  The menu:

Sheppard's Pie  (we wanted to go meatless, but Whole Foods didn't have the right tofu)

Olive Pesto over gnocchi

Pizza Bread (comfort food = sub roll + pepperoni, mozzerella, provolone, marinara sauce & red onions)

Spicy Shrimp (didn't make it past the on deck circle)

Red Curry & rice

Roasted Whole Chicken w/mashed potatoes & orange glazed carrots.

Ohio State v. Michigan

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this past weekend was Ohio State vs. Michigan Saturday.  Normally I've been a nervous wreck leading up to this yearly meeting, but this year I wasn't as stressed.  I'm not sure what was different about this year.  It certainly wasn't overconfidence, and I lived through the Cooper years so I've come to never expect a OSU victory. 

My friend Derek hosted a game party with some really good chili and assorted other game food.  The game was very exciting as always, with the Buckeyes pulling out a win and hopefully a spot in the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame.

O-H!

I-O!

11.20.05 Menu

This week is cut short because of Thanksgiving.  We also succumbed to a couple meals that we just didn't feel like making.  Pad Thai and Salmon are getting carried over this week.  Jenn found a recipe that we're going to try for the first time before we head up to my parents in Ohio.  My sister Emily  also wanted us to cook Cincinnati Vegi chili on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Here is the short week:

Pad Thai

Salmon Croquettes with rice and edamame

Ginger Chicken with Peaches and Onions

Vegi-Cincy chili

Thanksgiving...so, you know.

Spinach Shells & Cheese