Jim and I took a road trip to my mom’s house for a family gathering starting on Sunday. A few family and friends from out of town were there, and my mom put me in charge of the menu for nine people! Yes! I LOVE meal prepping and planning! The only thing that would be on the menu for certain were these gorgeous mesquite pork chops from a local butcher called Ream’s Meat Market in Elburn. (Highly, highly recommend Ream’s!) These were a request from my mom’s partner who would be grilling them, which was honestly a relief for me since that meant I only had to worry about appetizers, sides, and desserts. (I love the supporting roles of a meal!) I would just build an army of sidekicks around the pork chops!
Now that it’s fall and I was dealing with pork, my first thought was apples. Apples and pork work really nicely together! I just read a chapter in my Salt Fat Acid Heat book by Samin Nostrat on how to construct a salad from just about anything, and I was feeling very inspired. Thinly sliced apples atop a bed of arugula (very fall-like produce) and crumbles of roquefort, diced figs, torn croutons, candied pecans, and bacon lightly macerated in an apple cider vinaigrette would be a great sidekick or prelude to the porkchops. According to Samin, the key to any salad is creating a balance between salt (bacon, roquefort, croutons), fat (olive oil, roquefort, pecans, bacon), acid (figs, apple cider vinegar, apples), crunch (figs, croutons, apples, arugula, bacon, pecans), and savory (bacon, roquefort) flavors. Autumnal salad, done!
Pre-dinner snacky-apps included Jim’s and my latest mid-morning craving: caramel apples with cheese. Jim helped me assemble the plate of alternating sharp yellow cheddar slices with tart green apples and alternating white monterey jack cheese with red apples, all with a yummy drizzle of caramel and a neat row of club crackers. This was so simple to make because we used the Ghirardelli ice cream caramel sauce! All we had to do was cut the cheese (ha) and apples. These went fast.
Handy tip: If you are out of ranch dressing but want a companion for chips or pretzels, make your own. You need 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp onion salt, and 1/4 tsp parsley. This dip went especially well with Dot’s Pretzels, which, if you haven’t had yet, are highly addictive! And they’re proof that you don’t need to fuss a lot with preparing appetizers. If you don’t have sour cream, use Greek yogurt! If you don’t have lemon juice, use a splash of vinegar. If you don’t have onion salt, use garlic salt. If you don’t have parsley, who cares? It’s more decorative anyway!
To our surprise (and delight), we laid out the brownies and half-moon lemon cookies with the appetizers and people were equal opportunists in treating those desserts as pre-prandial snacks. In all fairness, brownies play nicely with red wine, and the refreshing zing! of the lemon cookies cleansed palettes between salty snacks. I think I will start adding more sweets to my appetizer planning from now on.
The roasted Brussels sprouts and cabbage were my own recipe and we borrowed the hash brown casserole recipe from Ree Drummond.
I am pretty sure Hawaiian rolls go with anything and everything, from a softened pat of butter to mopping up the deliciousness remaining on your plate. Plus, they only take 3 minutes to warm up in the oven. Before Jane added her show-stopping popovers to our Sunday meals every week, we often had Hawaiian rolls with butter alongside dinner!
In general, I think it’s really important to think about the big picture of the meal you’re going to serve if you’re cooking for a crowd. One of the most important things is that you have to consider your oven’s capacity. (Have you ever tried baking multiple things as once? Don’t.) You can only bake one thing at a time! It’s also important to consider what is fresh and in season and what will work well with the flavors you have. I like to sketch out the menu like I envision it on the table to make sure I have all the right bowls and serving ware, too. I also make a list of everything on the menu, and then I number the list in the order I will make it, adding notes like baking times and temperatures.
It’s all good practice for the upcoming holidays when you really want the timing down pat! I’d love to hear from you with ideas for meals and planning!
Broasted Brussels sprouts (and/or cabbage) Recipe
Ingredients
1 lb Brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise OR half a head of cabbage, coarsely sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Grated Parmesan (optional)
Lemon zest and juice (optional)
Procedure
Preheat the oven to 400F and line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Arrange halved sprouts face-down on the parchment paper. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the sprouts look brown and a bit burned. It’s fine if they look burned–this provides a very nice charred flavor. Serve as is or toss with grated Parmesan cheese or lemon zest and juice.
Note: Use the jelly roll pan because it gives the sprouts room. If you crowd Brussels sprouts in the pan, they will be mushy because the water in them will evaporate into the sprout directly on top.
Autumnal Salad
Ingredients
2 oz Arugula
4 oz Roquefort bleu cheese, crumbled
5 oz Candied pecans
4 oz Dried black figs, destemmed and cut in half, lengthwise
2 oz Plain croutons
8 Strips bacon, fried and crumbled
1 Honeycrisp apple, sliced thin
1/2 cup Extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup Apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper, to taste
Procedure
Combine arugula, pecans, and figs in salad bowl with your hands. Make sure it is homogenous. Top with the thin slices of apple, the bleu cheese, and the bacon. Toss the croutons along the circumference of the bowl.
In a large measuring cup, combine olive oil, vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. Whisk together until smooth and adjust for taste.
Wait until you are about to serve the salad to add the dressing, or allow people to add the dressing themselves.
Cakey and Fudgey Brownies Recipe
Grease a 13” x 9” pan and preheat the oven to 350F. You can line it with parchment paper for easy removal, too.
In a microwaveable bowl, melt 1 stick of butter with a 4 oz semisweet or bittersweet Baker’s chocolate bar, broken into pieces. It takes about a minute, but stir it about half way through.
In a large bowl combine 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 3/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and 1/2 cup buttermilk. Whisk together and then add the chocolate butter mixture, mixing until well combined.
Pour brownie batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake 40-45 minutes. Sprinkle 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips on top AND/OR sprinkle a pinch of coarse sea salt on top. Allow it to cool at least 10 minutes before cutting. You can pick it up by the parchment paper if you’d rather cut the brownies out of the pan.
For clean cut edges, run your knife or spatula under hot water for a minute and then cut. Clean the knife between each cut.
Half Moon Lemon Cookies
For the cookie (from Alton Brown’s Sugar Cookies)
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling dough
With a stand or hand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the egg and milk. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. On low speed add the flour to the butter mixture until combined and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Divide the dough in half and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F and sprinkle your surface with powdered sugar. Roll the dough out to about a 1/4″ thick and cut into moon shapes using a circular biscuit cutter. Bake about 1″ apart for 7-9 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for a minute before transferring to a wire rack.
For the lemon icing
2 cups of sifted powdered sugar
Juice and zest of one lemon
Whisk together powdered sugar with lemon zest and juice until a thick icing forms. Add more sugar if icing is too thin. Spoon or brush icing onto slightly warm cookies and allow to cool completely before serving.