Good Food Hunting

So, Saturday is the day. By this time on September 12, Chris and I will be arriving in our hotel room, hopefully soon to use the whirlpool part of the whirlpool suite although it will probably take me an hour to pull all the bobby pins from my hair (based on the trial run).

With a short work week and just 2 days left at home before we leave the cats in charge for 12 days, we decided to use up the fridge contents this past weekend, as much as possible (the dog is going to the kennel so the cats are bound to feel its their own honeymoon while we are gone).

This morning, I made the rest of the bacon I’d opened for the potatoes au gratin mentioned previously. I baked it, in two batches, in the oven at 400 degrees. This yielded some nice, flat, medium crispy bacon. it also yielded another 1 inch of bacon fat in our jar of fat. We had some (bacon, not fat) for brunch with omelets by Chris then I bagged the rest for sandwiches this week. I see a BLT in my near future.

After a brief break to do some laundry and talk to my maid of honor, I started in on the Fresh Peach and Candied Ginger Shortcakes recipe from Williams-Sonoma. Chris picked up the little booklet with this recipe during our crepes demo last weekend. I had been thinking about it all week then decided that with just a few fresh peaches, I could easily make this and use up the cream in our fridge. I did not make the caramel sauce listed at Williams-Sonoma because  I didn’t have corn syrup. Instead, I used this one at Simply Recipes. As indicated, it was really easy and it is really important to watch the sugar. I burned, only very slightly, the first batch. A comparison of the two jars shows the one is only marginally darker but it was definitely burnt.

I also got a great little, one-armed, workout in by whipping up the last of the cream to accompany our dessert. The final verdict is- the peaches were not that great, sadly, But, we both loved the shortcake/biscuits. I had plenty of dough left to make a number of small bite-sized ones which are quite lovely dipped in caramel sauce alone. I promised a few to the freezer for Chris but the caramel sauce and some cookies are going to the hotel with me, to be enjoyed by various wedding partiers. Okay, me but maybe some others too.

In between making the shortcakes and the 2nd batch of caramel, Chris made chocolate chip cookies for his bachelor party 2-day fest (starts Thursday noon, ends Friday evening). We made about 40 cookies, will be interesting to see how many are left by Thursday. Chris has decided to set a career goal of mastering the chocolate chip cookie and selling them for millions. I have resigned myself to eating a lot of chocolate chip cookies. So sad.

For dinner, we had mango jerk marinated chicken breasts from Whole Foods. Good idea, mediocre execution. The meat counter worker gave us two completely different sized chicken breasts so the one was cooking much faster than the other. And I thought the jerk needed more jerk (i.e. heat). To accompany, left overs from the fridge- squash risotto.

On Sunday, a returning to law school friend’s parents took us out for brunch at Clara’s where I ate a good helping of bacon too- the really crispy kind. I think after Wednesday, I will have to go on a bacon diet like my fellow mid-Michiganian blogger after his visit to Tony’s for the mega-BLT. That is okay since we’ll be in Vermont and I can just eat a lot of cheese, glorious cheese instead- and some lobster in Boston.