His birthday supper.

(From here on, DB is dubbed 354. So may it be.)

354’s birthday was last Thursday; he turned 24. And while he usually has a family get-together, and he did have one, I got the actual birthday. So I felt that supper should be special, being as it was the actual birthday. It took me over a week to come up with the menu, partially from fretting over the meal itself and what I wanted to create, and partially because he’s kind of picky. I didn’t really want to do steak (even though I had a flank steak in the fridge, begging to be grilled), and he raised pigs with his granddaddy, so pork chops seemed like a reasonable choice. He’s going to Mexico on a mission trip next week while I’m home in KY, which reminded me of the two trips to Jamaica he’s made before, so a Carribean theme was in my head. I finally settled on a lime-and-cayenne sort of marinade and set my menu:

• Thin-cut boneless loin chops, marinated in lime-cayenne and grilled
• Grilled corn on the cob
• Baked potatoes
• Homemade white rolls
• White chocolate creme brulee

When I started, the dessert was the only thing I’d settled on beforehand, so when I finally had a menu I felt better. I threw the pork chops together the night before and let them settle in the fridge.

When I got home the night of, I let the dog out, changed clothes and went straight to cooking. The brulee was first, since I figured it would have time to set properly while I cooked and we ate. It ended up taking longer than I remembered, probably because I forgot to split the recipe. I ended up making four of them (which wasn’t a bad thing), which kind of threw me off because I don’t have multiple glass dishes for bain-maries. I ended up baking two of them in my usual 9″ square glass dish, and the other two in a 9″ non-stick loaf pan. I was hoping for the best with the loaf pan, because it was the only option I had. It worked, but I won’t be trying it again without having a knife at my throat. The brulees didn’t set as quickly as they were supposed to, but that might’ve also been because of my oven (which I am thrilled to no longer be using, the temperamental thing). In any case, by the time I got the brulees in the oven, it was probably too late to really start the bread, but being hardheaded, I did it anyway. I got it all mixed up and let it sit, covered, on the stovetop. I greased up my potatoes with olive oil, pierced the skins and threw them in the oven on the top rack to do their thing. I don’t like to waste foil or anything like that on veggies; I should’ve left it off the corn and done the same thing I’d done with the corn.

All said and done, I enjoyed cooking the supper for him. He was pleasantly surprised with the tang and heat of the pork chops, and he liked fixing his potato as he pleased. The potatoes were probably my second-rated pride of the supper, preceded only by the brulees. They were soft and fluffy after sitting in the oven for an hour or so, and perfect. I like hot fluffy potatoes.

Corn before being foil-wrapped and buttered. It was good-looking, for grocery corn.

Pork chops still sitting in olive oil-lime-cayenne-garlic marinade.

Creme brulee, in the oven and halfway through the baking process.

A plated meal, ready to be consumed.

The tablescape, waiting for us to sit down and eat. He brought flowers. They smelled delightful.

The finished brulee, before going into the fridge to set more completely. Man, they were tasty.

And with that final tease of a photo, I give you my beloved White Creme Brulee recipe:

White Creme Brulee

adapted from buhfly

cooking time: 45-50 minutes

ingredients:

4 egg yolks

1/3 c (+4 tsp) sugar

2 c heavy cream

4 oz white chocolate, chopped

½ tsp vanilla

directions:

Preheat to 300°F. Whisk together yolks and 1/3 cup sugar until smooth. In a medium (2-quart) saucepan, bring cream to a simmer over medium-high, stirring continuously. DO NOT LET BOIL. Add white chocolate, then remove from heat and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Temper egg mix with cream-chocolate, then gradually add cream mixture to the egg, whisking continuously until smooth. Add vanilla and stir. Pour mix into four 7 oz ramekins and place ramekins into a bain-marie. Be sure water is halfway up the ramekins for best results. Bake 45-50 minutes or until custard is set (i.e. until the centers of the custards barely jiggle when the pan is moved). Remove ramekins from bain-marie and let cool 10 minutes on a wire rack, then transfer to refrigerator to cool completely.

When ready to serve, sprinkle 1 tsp of sugar over each custard. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar OR place under the broiler and watch closely. Let sugar set before serving. Garnish with fresh berries, mint or whatever your heart desires. Serves 4.

You can obviously serve these when the custard is still warm but we prefer the chill of the set custard and the warmth of the sugar topping. The best part is cracking the sugar top with a spoon after it’s set fully and still warm, then digging out a spoonful of that silky, not-too-sweet but utterly rich and sinful custard and letting it melt on your tongue. It is orgasmic.

Finally moved; want cookbooks.

That’s right, I finally got the apartment moved from one to another this weekend. I’m living in a sinkhole of cardboard boxes and chaos right now; I have a cleared bed, an organized bathroom, and that’s about it. Everything else is surrounded. It makes turning the TV on and changing channels rather difficult. The only part that I haven’t moved yet is the kitchen. All my food is still in the fridge, all my pots and pans are still in the cabinets (except for my large pan and a baking dish or two). And I have to get most of it out of the way and moved before Friday night, because I will be leaving to go home for a week at 0330 Saturday morning. (I’m so excited I’m like to jump out of my skin!) I never realized just how much stuff I had until I put it all in boxes. I’m still trying to figure out how to organize a 7.5′x2′ pantry

I meant to post about DB’s birthday dinner last week, and I have photos uploaded and ready, but I just haven’t had time. Seriously. Trying to get a living space where you can actually live in it is tough work! I’m going to try to post about the birthday dinner as the day goes on. The creme brulee was particularly spectacular… and I have the recipe to share. I tried making up the buttermilk loaf as dinner rolls, but it failed because of me. I couldn’t bake it that night because it was too late; the loaf ended up rising three times. DB’s mom actually baked it and said that it never rose and was hard as a rock! I don’t have pictures of my baking failure, but suffice to say that I will be more careful from now on about picking my bread-making times.

Since the fall of Tastespotting, I now look at FoodGawker more than once a day for my food porn fix. I was greeted this morning with marinated flank steak, mac n’ cheese, Hillary Clinton’s chocolate chip cookies and pho. The last entry, from Jaden, also showcases a cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Now, if I had the cash and the patience, I would be like Heidi and have a bajillion cookbooks that would probably serve to make my little bookshelf look pretty. I only have a few as it is: my trusty BHG paperback, Barbara Tropp’s Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, Maryana Vollstedt’s Big Book of Easy Suppers, The South Beach Diet Cookbook, several pamphlets from the Beef Checkoff that include some super recipes and various other odds and ends from local papers and printouts that don’t exactly count as cookbooks. My ‘collection,’ as it were, is woefully inadequate. From now on, I’m requesting cash, vehicle upkeep and bookstore giftcards for birthdays and holidays. I have a running list of cookbooks in my head that should add themselves, however mysteriously, to my repertoire.

• The Joy of Cooking – How could anyone survive without this classic turn-to cookbook? This was my mother’s staple in the kitchen and continues to be so. I learned to cook as a youngster with her old, well-kept version of Joy. I consider it a necessary staple of any cook’s kitchen, and in some ways, a coming of age. I will not buy Joy of Cooking because it is, to me, almost the culinary equivalent of my great-grandmother’s pearls: I am still waiting for my mother to give me one and say ‘here, honey, this is yours.’
• Kentucky’s Best by Linda Allison-Lewis – My stepmother has a copy of this in her collection and I’ve used it with abandon. It ain’t my grandmother’s Bourbon County Ladies’ cookbook, but it’ll do. (I would really like to find that Bourbon County 4H cookbook, speaking of, but I have no idea who got it after she and Grandaddy died – or if it got thrown out.) This cookbook has old favorites (cheese balls, sausage balls, hot browns) and new wonderments (cheese-chutney pâtè? cashew-curry spread? None of these ever show up at my family’s Christmas table.) However, I will note that I do not use Linda’s recipe for beer cheese, though I can’t say that you shouldn’t. We just have our own family recipe and we like it that way.
• Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken: The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens by Ronni Lundy – I’ve never used this one, but I like the way Ronni talks to her readers. It makes me feel at home. I figure her recipes can’t be too far off the mark.
• The Blue Grass Cook Book by Minnie C. Fox – Never read this one either, but I’d like to.
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman – I am more or less still a fledgling cook. I’d like to always be a fledgling cook, so that I can never learn enough. But that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have accessible, informative how-to books on hand, does it? In fact, it requires it.
• Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg – I’ve heard so many awesome things about this must-have book that I must have it. Especially now that I no longer fear bread-baking, but am well on my way to embracing it. Now, if I could just get another loaf pan…
• Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz and Lara Hata – Again, another book that I’ve heard so darn much about that I crave it almost as much as I crave homemade ice cream. I love homemade ice cream! Especially vanilla ice cream made with Reyna vanilla… ooh-wee, that stuff is powerful.
• Room For Dessert : 110 Recipes for Cakes, Custards, Souffles, Tarts, Pies, Cobblers, Sorbets, Sherbets, Ice Creams, Cookies, Candies, and Cordials by David Lebovitz – Another Lebovitz book that I need to own. It beckons me with its cakes, its custards (I love custards) and cobblers. I’m convinced that Lebovitz will not disappoint me.
• The Best Of Cooking Light by Holley Contri Johnson – Despite all the artery-clogging, sinfully caloric recipes no doubt encased in the above cookbooks, I do often try to keep my cooking on the light and easy side. Cooking Light would be my anchor back to the mindful cooking that I should be doing (and away from that wicked and dastardly pair of Perfect Scoop and Room for Dessert…)

Of course, that is by no means a complete list, but it’s a good start, right? I’m open for suggestions, too, if anyone is willing to speak.

I’ll save the list of kitchen gadgets that I would love to see cluttering my counter for a later date.