duck, duck, mmmmmmmmmm

although i don't eat it that often, i really love duck. like fish, the biggest problem has been where to get humanely- and sustainably-raised duck. well, every now and then, marin sun farms has some at the saturday sf farmers' market - they work in partnership with a duck farm - and so last saturday, i secured enough to make dinner for two.

it's a good thing i didn't really ask kevin what he thought about having it for dinner, cuz he would have said, "yuck, no thanks, ma'am." it turns out, except for peking duck (which, btw, is my absolute FAVORITE duck dish. [*mouth-watering, sigh*]), he was under the impression that he doesn't really like duck. well, he was wronnnnnnng! he actually really liked it and ate everything on his plate. (hrm, hrm, evidence i should keep ignoring him (just for dinner planning, of course)? heehee)

below is the recipe. i served it with creamy mashed potatoes and roasted baby carrots. the skin was perfectly crispy, the duck was a beautiful medium rare, and the sauce was delicately sweet and savory at the same time. this particular dinner takes about 45 minutes from prep to serve. enjoy!


Duck with Earl-Grey Tea Sauce

1 1/2 lbs boneless Muscovy duck breast
1 cup finely chopped shallots
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
4 tsps Earl Grey tea leaves
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsps butter, cut into small pieces
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450°F. Pierce duck breast skin all over with fork and then sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Over high heat, heat large skillet then add duck breasts, skin side down. Sear until skin is browned, about 5 minutes. Turn duck over and cook 2 more minutes. Remove pan from heat, set aside. On a roasting pan with a rack, transfer duck breasts and roast in oven for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 10 minutes.

While duck is roasting, heat skillet (with pan drippings) over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes, making sure to scrape up and stir in any browned bits stuck to pan. Drain off all duck grease from pan, then add stock, orange juice ,and tea leaves. Boil until mixture is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Strain sauce into a bowl and discard solids. Return sauce to skillet; add honey and bring to simmer. Whisk in butter, then season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Slice duck breasts thinly across grain. Divide equally into 4 servings and plate by overlapping slices slightly, then spoon sauce onto duck. Serves 4.

marlene's marinade

so remember how i was saying during a few posts that i didn't get what people meant when they said grass-raised beef had to be cooked differently? well i finally figured it out a couple weeks ago: it matters for really lean cuts of beef, like most steaks.

turns out you can't grill them up with just the usual salt and pepper (and maybe a little olive oil) rubbed in. well, i guess you CAN grill them up if you insist, but you'll wish you had just listened to me instead. ;) but seriously, grass-fed steaks are so lean, they really benefit from hanging out in a marinade, preferably for overnight.

one marinade i really like is a recipe from kevin's mom, marlene. it's especially great on beef tenderloin (which is what the marinade is actually for), but it works really well for any cut of beef. tonight we used it on a rib-eye steak. so, ok, rib-eye isn't all that lean, but it was pretty awesome anyway. recipe below.


Marlene's Marinade

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed

2-lbs beef of your choice (e.g., beef tenderloin or steaks)

Mix all ingredients into a Ziploc bag. Add beef to marinade. Marinate overnight. Roast or grill as usual. Reserve marinade; place in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer sauce until reduced by about half; keep warm.

If you're cooking with grass-raised beef, meat will cook more quickly than conventionally-raised (grain-fed) beef. Serves 4, with sauce on side. There should be enough leftovers for tasty things like sandwiches!

make me some pie!

well so it looks as though cherry season is in full swing in northern california. it's also already almost over - i started seeing cherries a couple weeks ago at the sf farmers' market, and this saturday, the farmer i buy my cherries from - twin girls farm - told me that they expected to have them only for a couple more weeks. *sniffles*

having heard this, i figured it was now or never to get my cherry pie on. we were going to a memorial day bbq on sunday; when i had asked what i could bring, i was told dessert or wine would be great. well, imo, bringing wine to a party is BORING, so i decided to make pie. the week before i had acquired my first-ever cherry / olive pitter that i was pretty enthralled with, so as i made my weekly farmers' market grocery list, i made sure to write down the ingredients i didn't already have on hand: namely, a pound or so of cherries and a 1/2 cup of lard from humanely-raised pork at prather ranch.

WHAAAAAAT - LARD?!??! you exclaim? yes, that's right. i use lard in my pie crusts. do you want to know why? because vegetable shortening is FAKE. it's WEIRD. it's NOT NATURAL. take a look at the ingredients in crisco: soybean oil (probably from a genetically-modified organism - "GMO"), sunflower oil (also probably from a GMO), fully-hydrogenated palm oil (sounds so natural - NOT), mono- and diglycerides (...), TBHQ (what the *fudge* is THAT?), and citric acid (noted in the ingredient label as an "antioxident"... whuh?!).

YUCK! seriously. "TBHQ?!?" apparently this is an ingredient that crisco thinks it can abbreviate and yet i (a decently aware consumer) have no idea what it is. you don't either, do you? frankly, i don't want to know, but since i'm not going to be eating it, i don't need to know. after all, why would i want to consume something that's been pumped full of hydrogen and is more likely than not made out of GMOs? no thanks. this doesn't pass muster with mwah and i certainly hope this doesn't pass any smell test for you, either. oh, but wait... crisco is odorless. so you wouldn't be able to smell it anyway. food for thought: when was the last time you encountered real food that had NO ODOR?! that's right! NEVER! (although i'm sure if you try crisco's "butter flavor" shortening, there might be some kind of smell. ahem.)

besides, using vegetable shortening, at least to me, is like using margarine when you could be using tasty delicious butter. i'd rather have nothing than eat margarine. margarine tastes gross - it tries so hard to be butter, but let's face it, it's just "chemicalicated" vegetable oil. yu-uck. you want to know *why* you can't believe it's not butter? BECAUSE IT'S NOT BUTTER! (garlinghouse, are you reading this?)

so why do i use lard in my pie crusts? well, the biggest reason is taste and texture. i think it makes pie crusts very flavorful and flaky. but it turns out from a "health standpoint" (hahahaha, i mean, we're talking about DESSERT. health! hahahahaha) lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than butter; lard also has no trans fat. i get lard from prather ranch, which subscribes to the ethos of humanely- and sustainably-raised meat. (yay!) plus, the people who work at the store in the sf ferry bldg are SOOOOO nice and friendly, too. [they also happen to have some pretty tasty beef hot dogs (no mystery meat!) that you can munch on (snarf, in my case) as you do your shopping.]

anyway, i majorly digressed. i was supposed to be writing about delicious, yummy cherry pie. below is a new recipe i tried out, and if i do say so myself (and i will:), it came out beautifully. i also really liked the crust - so much so that this might be my new standby recipe. don't be afraid of making a lattice top, either. it looks spectacular (and thus, many assume this = hard), but if you could weave a potholder in elementary school, you can weave a pie crust. for reals.

i finished baking the pie only a couple hours before going to the bbq on sunday, so it was still a little warm when people started to dig in. vadim - although he denies it - had at least 2 pieces, and he's pretty into food, so i'll take it as a sign that the pie was as tasty to everyone else (or at least just to vadim) as i thought it was. this one is a keeper. and, although we didn't have any, i bet either a little almond ice cream (yes, almond!) or whipped cream would be deeelish with this. enjoy!


Cherry Pie

Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup chilled lard, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
7-10 tbsps ice water

Filling
1 24-oz jar sour cherries in light syrup
1 15-oz can tart cherries, drained
1 lb fresh Bing cherries, pitted
6 tsps arrowroot
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 whole nutmeg, cracked in half
1 whole star anise
1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream


Pie Crust
Place flour, sugar, and salt in food processor. Add butter and lard and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer to medium bowl. Add ice water 2 tbsps at a time and mix with fork until dough begins to clump together. Gather dough together, divide in half and flatten each into disk. Wrap both well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an 1 hour. (DO NOT skip this step, otherwise, your pastry will be a mess.)

Filling
Strain syrup from sour cherries into large saucepan, reserving 1/4 cup. In a medium bowl, whisk reserved 1/4 cup syrup and arrowroot until blended and no lumps remain; add sour cherries and toss gently to combine. Set aside.

In the large saucepan with syrup, add cinnamon, nutmeg, and star anise, bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add tart cherries and simmer until liquid reduces to about 3/4 cup, about 10 more minutes. Discard nutmeg and star anise, then add sugar and fresh Bing cherries. Simmer on medium heat until fresh cherries are tender, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in sour cherry mixture to saucepan and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. (Don't turn your back on it, it thickens pretty quickly.) Immediately remove from heat and transfer to medium bowl to COOL COMPLETELY.

Assembling Pie
Place rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 400°F. Roll out first dough disk on floured surface to 13" round. Transfer to 9" glass pie dish. Trim dough to 1" overhang. Spoon cooled filling into crust.

Roll out second dough disk to another 13" round. Cut dough into 3/4"-wide strips. Evenly space 5 dough strips across pie in 1 direction and weave in 5 strips spaced evenly in opposite direction, forming lattice. Trim strips evenly with bottom crust overhang. Turn dough edges under, pinching to seal, and crimping edges decoratively. Brush edges and lattice lightly with whipping cream. Place pie on foil-covered rimmed baking sheet and bake until crust is golden brown and filling bubbles thickly, about 50 minutes. Cool pie on rack. Serve either lukewarm or room temperature. Serves 8-10.

why did i cross the road? to get to the (damn tasty) chicken.

about 5 years ago, i went on a vacation to punta mita, mexico, which is about a half hour northwest of puerto vallarta. now, i have a lot of friends who've gone on vacation to this area, and love it so much that they keep going back. i myself thought it was just...aight.

was it because of the weather? no, the weather was great. was it because the beaches were substandard? nope, the beach i hung out on was pretty nice and the ocean was beautiful. was the service at the hotel bad? no way, the service was top notch. nope it wasn't any of those things. it was the FOOD. the food was just so-so. and yes, i went to all the restaurants you're supposed to go to when you're there. none of it was really all that memorable; some of it was even bleh. (this is around when i started to realize just how important food is to me. if you can believe it, i actually lost a little weight on this vacation.)

i would have lost more than just a couple pounds if i hadn't gotten so desperate on my hunt for tasty food that i stopped by a roadside bbq chicken stand on my way back to the hotel one day. there were these ladies with grills set up all along the sidewalks of the main drag in a town between puerto vallarta and punta mita (i think maybe it was bucerias), and it was here that i discovered the best damn grilled chicken i've ever had in my life.

this chicken - which was covered in some kind of red rub / marinade - was served with several freshly handmade corn tortillas, rice, and your choice of several salsas. my favorite was what i guess had have been made of habanero peppers, because it was just about the freaking hottest (but extremely delicious) salsa i've eaten.

the chicken was so good, that for the remainder of the vacation (a good 4 more days), i would drive out from punta mita to this little town to get lunch. when i would come back to the hotel, all the hotel staff would smile as they recognized the packaging the chicken was wrapped in, and say, "that's great chicken, isn't it?" and damn it was, every single time. twice i also ate it for dinner (yes, that's how good it was; but it's also a sign of how much the other choices sucked)... which didn't exactly thrill the restaurant waitstaff when i brought in my chicken and asked if they minded if i ate it at the table. (they were too nice to say no, and in fact not only brought me plates, but warmed up the tortillas and rice for me. i told you the service there was top notch.)

when i got back home, i dreamt of this chicken day and night for a solid month (seriously, not joking). i nattered on about it to all my friends until they got sick of hearing the story, and then i kept on nattering away anyway (this is why i love my friends so much). i can't say for sure how much of the chicken's tasty goodness was because i had some serious FOOD GOGGLES (kinda like beer goggles, except in this case it's when food that's only so-so seems to taste much better than it is), but i'm convinced this wasn't a case of food goggles. (but then again, i didn't get the er, benefit, of waking up next to it to see it exposed in the potentially cold, harsh light of reality.)

i would seriously go back to punta mita just so i could have that chicken. (a sure sign that food is DEFINITELY important to me.) i've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it was marinated in; i have one more recipe to try (i have a feeling this is it), but in the meanwhile, here's one that gets pretty close (recipe below). it's a little labor intensive, but i've found most good barbecue recipes are. there's no getting around that.

[btw - one other reason i would go back to puerto vallarta / punta mita is because the baskin robbins in PV happens to carry my favorite flavor - strawberry shortcake - that for whatever reason seems to have been discontinued in the US. go figure. i went a little ape shizzle over that, too, when i was there. great diet, hunh? good thing the ice cream was too far to get every day. otherwise, it would have been: chicken and ice cream, chicken and ice cream. i probably would have come back from vacation not a couple pounds lighter, but a completely different shape...one strongly resembling a circle. :]


Mexican-Style Barbecue Chicken

2 3-lb pastured chickens, each halved

Marinade (Achiote Recado)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsps achiote (annatto) seeds
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 medium white onion, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 tbsp dried Mexican oregano
1 tsp freshly ground allspice
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup ancho chile powder
4 tsps coarse salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 300°F. In a small saucepan bring water and achiote seeds to a boil. Simmer seeds, covered, for 30 minutes and remove from heat. Steep seeds for additional 2 hours.

Roast garlic and onion in oven on a rimmed baking sheet for 45 minutes, turning once, until browned and soft. Discard garlic skins. Drain seeds and using a blender, puree all the ingredients until smooth.

Rinse chicken, then place in large sealable plastic bags and pour in marinade, making sure chicken is completely coated. Marinate chicken overnight.

Preheat oven to 250°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil. Remove chicken from marinade (discard marinade). Bake chicken skin side up until cooked through. Cool completely.

Preheat grill on low. Oil rack and place chicken, skin sides down and grill chicken, turning once or twice, until skin is crisp, about 45 minutes. Serve chicken with rice, salsa, guacamole, and fresh corn tortillas. If you do serve it with an especially hot salsa, then make sure to provide your diners with a few cold beers to chase away the hot! Ok, who are we kidding - even if the salsa is the pansy kind, serve it with beers anyway. Serves 4.

it's like buttah

so i realized the other day that i never talk about fish. part of the reason is we don't eat it all that often; but a big reason we don't eat it that often is i wasn't all that sure where to get the sustainably-caught kind.

well this most unfortunate situation was effectively brought to an end this past weekend, when as i was buying strawberries from yerena farms (to replace the ones i had - *SOB* - accidentally wasted the night before), i noticed the booth next door was a fish supplier called shogun fish company. [interesting that strawberries and fish are booth neighbors... hmmmm, must speak to farmers' market coordinators... (yeah, sure, i'll get on that right after i pay my PG&E bill on time)] i peeked inside and saw a lot of great fish: sushi-grade ahi, halibut, rock cod, salmon, petrale sole...and, could it be?!? my stars, it was! BLACK COD!!!

i quickly mentally edited my plans for monday night dinner, snatched up two 6-oz-ish fillets, and tremulously handed over some of my wadded up cash to the lady (she wasn't so happy about that. *sigh* oh well.). you'll have to pardon me for going a little nutso over the fish (too bad the fish lady wasn't as understanding), but for the record, fresh black cod isn't available in the places i usually shop for food, or if it is, it isn't fresh - it's frozen.

now those of you who know fish are probably going, "HUNH?! she got excited by BLACK COD? how low brow!" well, for your information, black cod by any other name is called sablefish, or, although not entirely accurate, also known by most fine diners as "butterfish." yup, that's right, you can all lower your haughtily upturned noses and realize your snobbery has no place at the house of froon.

i have to tell you, one time i discovered a "friend" of mine didn't like butterfish, and i believe, coincidentally or not (i do not recall, senator), we fell out of touch soon afterwards. i haven't spoken to him since. i kid, i kid. (about the fact that i had a friend who doesn't like butterfish. but hello, NOT about what i would do if i realized i DID have a friend with such incredibly bad taste. a girl has to have her standards.)

anyway, our favorite way to consume black cod / sablefish / butterfish is when it's miso-glazed (ever had it at nobu? they have the *best* black cod EVERRRRR! they serve it in lettuce cups with crispy noodles. yummy yummy!). below is a great, extremely simple recipe (also works very well with chilean sea bass, just marinate it for a couple hours, although this would obviously entail not subscribing to the "locavore" philosophy) that you could most definitely make for a weeknight dinner. don't skip the mashed potatoes, either - they make this dinner really spectacular!

enjoy!!


Miso-Glazed Butterfish

1/4 cup light yellow miso
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sake
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
dash of hot red pepper paste

4 6-ounce butterfish (black cod) fillets

Preheat oven to broil with rack about 8" from broiler. In a large bowl, whisk first 7 ingredients until well blended and no lumps remain. Place cod fillets in bowl and turn once to coat.

Transfer fish to a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. Broil until opaque in center, about 8-10 minutes, depending on thickness. Serves 4. Serve with sauteed baby bok choy and wasabi mashed potatoes (recipes follow).


Sauteed Baby Bok Choy

6 baby bok choy, sliced crosswise into 1/2" pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute for about 2 minutes. Add bok choy and saute until wilted, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4


Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
4 tbsps salted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup whole milk
2 tbsps wasabi powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add potatoes and cook until fork tender, about 12 minutes. Pass potatoes through a ricer (or mash with masher). Add butter, milk, and wasabi powder and mix until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4.

strawberrygate

this past weekend got off to a somewhat bad start on friday night.

kevin and i were going to dinner the next night with the ventursons and the webellos down in saratoga, and i had volunteered to bring dessert. as we all know, strawberries are in season, and i remembered i had once made a strawberry cheesecake that mikey (venturson) had really liked. mikey is one of those guys who rarely gets effusive about food, so when he went bonkers over this dessert, it burned into my brain, so i decided to make said strawberry cheesecake.

in and of itself, this was not the problem. i went to whole foods on my way home from work, got graham crackers (after spending about 10 minutes reading several different boxes to see which was the least chemically egregious...the crazy part is who knew so many companies make GRAHAM CRACKERS - not that i spent 10 minutes reading the ingredients... ahem), cheeses (cream and mascarpone), and then went on my merry way and began the cheesecake-construction project.

first, the crust came out perfectly - beautifully golden brown, perfectly level. never had i made a crust so perfectly. NEVER.

the strawberries from the farmers' market were also perfect. they roasted perfectly. i actually managed to wait until the cheeses and eggs were actually at room temperature (usually i'm too impatient and just use the ingredients even though they're still a little cold) and they blended incredibly smoothly and perfectly; i leveled the different layers of cheesecake, well "perfectly" is a word that comes to mind.

i got an unusually good, tight seal with the tinfoil around the springform pan. i used my relatively new (smaller, manageable) roasting pan, perfectly timed the water coming to a boil, and when the hour was up, found a perfectly set, lightly golden, not-a-single-lump-in-sight cheesecake.

now comes the bad part.

i got out the roasting pan from the oven and set it by the sink. i then got two oven mitts and carefully raised the perfect cheesecake. i then carefully set the cheesecake on the built-in rack we have in the sink. and then less than 1 second later, my weekend got shot to shizzle.

somehow...i don't know how... [unsteady, wobbly voice] but the cheesecake tipped over into the (TINY!) area that isn't covered by the rack and...and... ...and the whole, perfect cheesecake upended into the drain. *sniffles* *hiccup* kevin heard me shout in dismay and anger "oh FUDGY FUDGE!!!!!!!" (except, puh-leeease, i didn't say "fudgy" OR "fudge") and ran to the kitchen to see me standing extremely still and staring at the sink drain. (some random thoughts that ran through my head as i stood there, perfectly still: "it's midnight. no stores open that have good strawberries."; "oh fudge, that was like $40 worth of ingredients LITERALLY FUDGING DOWN THE DRAIN!!!!!!"; "hmmm, i wonder if the flyers are going to be able to pull if off tomorrow." [haha, yeah RIGHT! i totally wasn't thinking that. but i bet kevin was.]; "this isn't really happening, is it? is it?!?!")

i then literally threw in the towel (kitchen ones) and declared, "i can't deal with this," and stomped off to the living room, sat down, and stared blankly at the tv (not even sure it was on... hmmmm). this is when i'm reminded how good i have it: kevin just started to clean up. i managed to mutter a "thank you."

poor kevin. he tiptoed over to me a few minute later and asked if anything was salvageable. i bit out a "no" and then in an attempt at making it clear i wasn't upset with him: "thank you for taking care of it." he then tiptoed away and finished cleaning. he tried to ask me what happened, but i was having none of it. i bluntly told him i didn't want to talk about it, and sulked my face off for the rest of the night.

i wasn't really even ready to talk about until we were actually at dinner the next night. i pretended it was a funny story, but lemme tell you something: there ain't nothin' funny about what happened on friday night. my perfect cheesecake got perfectly ruined by a very imperfect mwah. what's that dumb saying: "waiting for the other shoe to drop"? well, i WASN'T WAITING for the other shoe to drop, so why did it have to... and into the SINK?! why? WHYYYYYY?!?!?!

anyway, below is my beloved strawberry cheesecake recipe. i adapted it from a martha stewart recipe from a couple years ago - my version is much more "strawberry-er" and lighter yet creamier (yes, it's possible). i really love this cheesecake. and if i can get over what happened friday night, i'll be making this soon, because strawberries are going to go away soon and not come back for a whole year! :( don't be intimidated by the multiple parts to the recipe - it's actually really easy to make.


Strawberry Cheesecake

Crust
1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers
2 tbsps sugar
4 tbsps unsalted butter, melted

Filling
2 lbs strawberries, hulled
2 tbsps raw honey
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 lb, 3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 lb, 3 oz mascarpone chese, room temperature
2 medium eggs, room temperature
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and the melted butter in a small bowl. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan to make an even layer. Bake until crust is firm to the touch and has just darkened, about 10 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack, and let crust cool completely.

Cheesecake
Lower oven to 300 degrees. Put strawberries in a medium bowl and drizzle with honey. Toss to coat. Place strawberries in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until strawberries turn deep red, about 1 1/2 hours. Transfer strawberries and honey syrup to medium bowl and mash. Let cool completely.

Raise oven to 325 degrees. Place cheeses into bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar and salt. Scrape bowl and then add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each. Scrape bowl and then beat in vanilla bean seeds until no cheese lumps remain, about 5 minutes.

Mix in 5 cups of cheese mixture to mashed strawberries and stir well. Pour strawberry mixture into crust and smooth with an offset spatula. Carefully pour plain cheese mixture on top of strawberry layer, also smoothing with an offset spatula.

Wrap outside of springform pan in 2 layers of foil and set in roasting pan. Fill roasting pan with boiling water until water reaches halfway up the sides of the springform pan and bake cheesecake until set, about 1 hour. Carefully remove pan from water bath and set on a wire rack to cool. Chill cake at least 4 hours, up to overnight. Serves 10-12.

meatballs!

when i joined marin sun farms' meat csa back in march, i signed up for "package #3," which is one of the smaller boxes: every month 2 lbs of steaks, 4 lbs worth of roast/braise meats, and 5 lbs of ground meat. i thought for sure i would have a problem figuring out what to do with the 4-lb roast every month, but in reality it hasn't been one at all since we have regular weeknight dinners with the sweenlinghouses.

in fact, the actual problem has been what to do with all the ground beef. there's just two of us at the house of froon, so eating our way through 5 lbs of ground beef every month is no easy feat. adding to this is the reality that most cookbooks i own don't really have much in the way of ground-beef recipes. you'd think it was a low-brow ingredient or something. hunh. wait a minute... ok, so now it's all starting to make sense. hmmm.

well, i don't really know what cookbook writers have against ground beef. maybe it's one of those things where they're supposed to act like it's not worthy, but at home, where they're away from prying eyes, they eat mounds of mounds of it. (real appetizing visual, right? :) kinda like what i'm convinced people who SAY they don't like pigs in blankets actually DO when they come face to face with said tasty morsels at parties (eat mounds and mounds of them, in case you were wondering. but i know you know this, since i've already shared with you my theory.).

the reality, as far as i can tell, is all of us meat eaters love ground beef. no, seriously. don't be such a snob. show me a carnivore who says s/he doesn't love a juicy burger and i'll show you a big fat liar. ok, maybe not LITERALLY "big" and/or "fat," but definitely a liar. c'mon, admit it, you've stood in the massively long line at an in n' out, marvelled - probably while also expressing annoyance - at how long it was, yet found yourself still standing in it anyway, all in the name of being able to get your grubby little paws on one of those perfectly-wrapped, egg-bun encased numbers. yummmmm. and if you *won't* admit it: LIAR! [+ accusatory finger jab!]

anyway, i digress. i wasn't trying to point out all the liars among us (and how many of you are out there? show of hands, please.). the point i was trying to make is there is a serious shortage of ground-beef recipes; this is somewhat unfortunate for mwah, since i happen to have an oversupply of ground beef. that said, i do have a few that i love; meatloaf, as you already know, is one of them. spaghetti with meatballs is another; recipe below.

personally, i recommend when you make this dish that you make lots of meatballs (reflected in my recipe) because you can use the "extras" for tasty things like, say, meatball subs. GENIUS! which, by the way, is what i had for lunch today (meatball sub, not a genius.). even yif really liked it, and let me tell you: he is one PICKY eater. honestly, i never thought i would say this, but p must be a very patient, er, "lady." (i'm SO going to regret complimenting her. i just know it. ;)


Spaghetti with Meatballs

Tomato Sauce
2 tbsps olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 28-oz can whole, peeled tomatoes
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsps tomato paste
2 tbsps chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tbsps sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Meatballs
1 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 medium onion, very finely chopped
6 tbsps basil, finely chopped
2 medium eggs
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-lb hot Italian sausages, casings removed
1-lb ground beef

1-lb spaghetti
Grated Parmesan cheese

Tomato Sauce
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion and sauté until onion turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Add rest of sauce ingredients, except salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens and reduces by about 1/2 (1 1/2 hours or so). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm.

Meatballs
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, mix breadcrumbs and milk together and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the meatball ingredients and blend well (using your hands is easiest). Form into 1 1/2" meatballs and place them on a baking sheet and bake until meatballs have browned on edges and are cooked through, about 25 minutes.

While meatballs are baking, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain pasta then mound in 6 dishes. Top each with meatballs and sauce. Pass Parmesan cheese so people can garnish as they desire. Serves 6, with enough extra meatballs and sauce for a sandwich or two.