Dani Does Dinnerparties Part Two

Tonights dinner I planned based on ease. I wanted:
1. Easy to cook
2. Tasty
3. Hearty, and most importantly
4. FAST

Yet it still had to be special enough for the "Ayanda Keith Dube upgrade from the 2.9 to the 3.0 version."
Apparantly, it is New and Improved. Sleeker, stronger, faster and built to last so I needed to get it while I could, as this promotion ends 11 October, 2013.

In other words, it was AK's 30th birthday.

We also needed to prepare something desserty to take to brunch the next morning.

So for the birthday dinner, the menu was as follows:

Caeser Salad

Garlic Bread
Steak
Potatoes

Birthday Brownie (why mess with ooey gooey perfection?)

All super easy, yet its amazing how many people screw up even those simple items, especially garlic bread.

Garlic bread should NEVER have garlic powder in it. ONLY fresh garlic. DO YOU HEAR ME PEOPLE?!? FRESH! GARLIC! Its not that difficult. Mix a whackload of fresh minced garlic with some butter, and maybe a bit of olive oil. Thats it. Shmear it on the bread. Toast or bake it lightly. Don't overthink it, don't add a bunch of crap it doesn't need. Use a good bread. Personally, I love Ace Bakery baguettes. They make a MEAN loaf of bread, and I love it. It is totally yummers.

Since Alan can't eat this, I make the same thing but use goat butter (bleh) for him, and one of the spelt breads that he can eat, but the principle is the same. And for God's sakes... NEVER use margarine. That stuff is just yellow plastic. If you can't use butter at all, use extra virgin olive oil.

Steak is also an easy thing to make, and gets massacred often. First of all, use a fabulous cut of meat. Don't overcook it. Make it super thick, and BBQ it on indirect heat. I make a blenderized marinade out of olive oil, whackloads of garlic, tons of zataar and Indonesian peppercorns and pour it over the steak. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Never salt your meat until just before you cook it, unless you want a tough, dry waste of money.

I make one steak that is big enough for everybody to enjoy, and you just slice off pieces. So this steak is about 3 inches thick, and weighs about 4 -5 pounds. Whatever doesn't get eaten, gets turned into a stir fry for dinner another night.
Turn your entire grill on to a bazillion degrees. You want it SCREAMING hot. Shut half the grill off, and toss your steak on the "off" side, and STAND BACK. It helps to have a spritzy bottle full of water here, to put out the flames, as the marinade flares.

Note to self: Tie hair back and wear a freaking hat unless you want bangs and love the smell of burning hair. Trust me on this one. Its words to the wise. :(

With a steak that big, I cook it about 13 minutes per side, rotating it slightly to get those beautiful grill marks. Once its off the grill pour a little reserved marinade on it, cover it with tin foil and leave it for 5-10 minutes to rest. The steak should turn out beautifuly rare.

Caeser salad can be made the usual way, just use pecorino cheese instead of Reggiano. Pecorino is a sheeps milk cheese that is similar in texture and flavor to parmesan. Ideally, reggiano is the best, but if you can't handle cow's dairy, you have to find alternatives.
The usual ingredients are: EVOO, garlic (and LOTS of it), lemon juice, pepper, worstechestwishtechesteshisteshire sauce, anchovies (and lots of these too!), egg yolk, tabasco and dijon mustard. It is a basic vinaigrette with cheese added. For some reason, people very rarely put enough garlic in their caeser dressing. You should REEK of garlic when you are done eating this, as far as I am concerned.

Why mess with perfection on a dessert? Its fast, easy and delicious. Birthday brownies RULE.

For this visit with AK, we (well, I) decided to stay away from whiskey. Probably a wise decision. This time, all the pictures taken were safe to post. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, ALAN? But we won't discuss that anymore. That picture is in the vault. Locked away. Right? RIGHT?

ANYWAY. For the brunch, I whipped up a simple rice pudding with the left over sushi rice, lots of milk, a couple eggs, some raisins, a little sugar, a tablespoon of butter and lots of cinnamon.
Note to self: Either don't use sushi rice, or use a lot more milk and less egg.
It came out tasty, but I prefer it to be creamier or at least less firm.
Rice pudding always reminds me of my father and my childhood. Rice pudding was one of his specialties. Every time he made this, he would take a thoughful bite, and decide how he would adjust the recipe the next time.

Rice pudding summarizes so many of the reasons why I love cooking. Its fun, I can experiment, and be artistic. It brings back memories. Food is so often centred around friends and family time. Whenever we have people over, we gather in the kitchen and sit around and talk, eat, drink. I cook with love, and feed love to my family. I hope that when my children are grown, they will look back on their childhoods and remember specific food related memories; of joy, celebration, comfort and happiness.

There are three things I always said I would teach my children.
1. How to cook (they do)
2. How to dance (they can)
3. How to clean (still working on that one)

A man who can cook, clean and dance is a sexy man. Strangely enough, my husband can't cook, clean OR dance, and yet I still think he is the sexiest thing on the two legs.
I guess a sense of humor still trumps all. At least it does for me.

He's lucky though, that I love to cook. He burns water.
(And Alan, when you read this, KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT ABOUT THE EGGS IF YOU KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR YOU)

Happy experimenting!