CLASSIC Spanish Potato Salad
4 weeks ago
Our Thanksgiving 2014 Place Setting
Concept by Rochonne
Our theme was "On the Dock of the Bay - Thanksgiving in the San Francisco Bay Area",
featuring a Bay Area-inspired menu
Our theme was "On the Dock of the Bay - Thanksgiving in the San Francisco Bay Area",
featuring a Bay Area-inspired menu
Rochonne and I wanted to showcase a favorite place on our culinary map for Thanksgiving 2012:
DOWN by the BAYOU
THANKSGIVING IN SOUTHERN LOUISIANA
THE CAMERON AND ROCHONNE SIMMONS FAMILY
CAMERON – ROCHONNE – ALEXANDRA – FRANCESCA – CHANDLER
MS. SHYRL HAYMAN
THANKSGIVING DINNER CELEBRATION
THE SIMMONS FAMILY RESIDENCE
GILBERT, ARIZONA
NOVEMBER 22, 2012
First Course
Basil-infused Chilled Pineapple Tea, Bourbon on the Side
Birds’ Nest with Caviar and Sour Cream
Bacon-Wrapped Dates
Louisiana Mini Crab Cakes
Columbia Crest Grand Estates Riesling
Columbia Valley 2010
Second Course
Cajun Crab Corn Chowder
Shrimp-Cucumber- Sweet Onion Salad with Buttermilk Vinaigrette
K-Paul’s Southern Biscuits
Saint-Reine Brut Blanc de Blanc
France Champagne NV
Main Course
Dry-Brined Free Range Cajun Spiced Fresh Hen Turkey
Hickory Smoked Spiral Ham
Four Potato Gratin
Candied Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Uncured Bacon Cornbread Dressing
Herbed Sausage Sourdough Dressing
Macaroni and Three Cheeses
Mixed Greens with Smoked Turkey
Smashed Russet Potatoes
Smoked Turkey Butt Gravy
Cranberry Pomegranate Sauce Cointreau
Louisiana Hot Sauces
Main Course Wines and Beverages
DeLoach Vineyards
Heritage Reserve Chardonnay
California 2009
Chateau St. Jean
Pinot Noir
California 2010
Martinelli Sparkling Apple Juice
Fiji Water
Perrier Sparkling Water
Desserts and Fruit Plate
Old-Fashioned Bourbon Caramel Peach Pie
Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Praline Glaze
Red Velvet Cake
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Fresh Whipped Cream
Fresh Apple, Pear, and Blue Cheese Plate
Dessert Wine
Chateau Bellingard
Monbazillac
The Holidays in Review
Now that we have shifted from holiday mode to deep winter mode (and yes, the Upper Sonoran Desert has a deep winter, relatively speaking: a brief period in January of highs in the 50s and rare cloudy skies) Rochonne and I wanted to look back a bit at the recent past and reflect upon the blessings the season brought our family. The house looked the best we can remember, beautifully festive in deep red, gold, and forest green. Ro’s Thanksgiving and Christmas place settings were marvelously executed with Christmas’s in particular really bringing out the season in high style elegance – the burgundy ribbons on the teacup handles? Brilliant. The food was bountiful and lovingly prepared, and our family-centric approach was something Ro and I ask ourselves why we hadn’t done it before. We hope your holidays were as rich in the spirit of generosity, graciousness, and humility as ours were. And we hope 2010 is better for you than 2009.
Let’s review, shall we?
I dry-brined the turkey as I did last year. I prefer this method to wet-brining because its technique is simpler to manage. You merely coat the turkey with kosher salt. I use about 1 ½ tablespoons per pound. The trick is you need to do it at least 3 days in advance of cooking for the moisturization cycle to complete, whereby the salt pulls fluid from the turkey, which is then reabsorbed. Dry-brining helps the turkey stay moist, which is particularly valuable for the breast meat. I have not given up on wet-brining – whole turkey immersion in a salt water bath – in that I like how is “kosherizes” the fowl. You can see a lot of impurities, blood and the like, in the water you remove the bird from. After roasting I put it breast down on a cedar plank and smoked it over coals, then brushed it with a honey butter glaze.
Post-dinner Ro and I talk about the stars of the dinner. I thought everything shined as always but I particularly recall the rye bread dressing (first time I made the dressing with rye bread), the salad, the Piper Sonoma, the turkey and ham, the gratin, sweet potatoes, etc., etc., etc. Ro’s coconut buttermilk pie was delicious.
A note on wine and beverage. Ro and I chose Canadian whiskey and ginger ale for our cocktails this year. It was a drink we enjoyed during the fall season leading up to the holiday and we decided to feature it before the meal. The Piper Sonoma Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, primarily made with chardonnay from, in my opinion, America’s best sparkling wine appellation, added an elegant touch to the salad and appetizer plates. For the main course wines, I went for the classic Burgundian pairing – as I often do on Thanksgiving - of chardonnay and pinot noir. Sourced from the Russian River Valley, I chose the Clos du Bois Reserve Chardonnay and Kenwood Vineyards Pinot Noir, both from the highly-regarded Sonoma 2007 vintage. Go for premium water on Thanksgiving. I’ve long loved the French Alpine essence of Evian and it was nicely chilled and refreshing. The Monbazillac is Sauterne-like. I love well-chilled late harvest desert wines, whether they be the white Bordeaux sauvignon blanc-Semillon blend, Riesling, or viognier. The white Bordeaux Monbazillac paired exceptionally well with the candied apples and pears of the tarte-tatin.
Alexandra mentioned during the season that she likes Christmas Day food more than Thanksgiving because Christmas has its breakfast AND dinner. Thanksgiving’s dinner is a blow out but breakfast that morning is every man and woman, boy and girl, for his/her self. It may be a bowl of cold cereal. Christmas morning starts with a breakfast we have once a year on that morning. It is centered around cheesy, buttery grits, fried catfish, and scrambled eggs. Mother Dear (Ro’s mom) never eats the grits. She’s missing out on some good eatin’.
Christmas dinner is less intense than Thanksgiving. It allows Ro and I to focus on elegance and refined execution and gives us an opportunity to maybe do something a bit different than we did for the great November holiday. I made what I call “Turducken and One” – the brilliant Paul Prudhomme’s masterpiece of a stuffed boned chicken inside of a stuffed boned duck inside of a stuffed boned turkey, that I went one better by putting a stuffed boned cornish game hen in the chicken – for Christmas Dinner 2005. We typically do a smaller turkey and another protein, often beef. I found a New York Strip ROAST up Val Vista at Safeway that was one of the most beautiful pieces of beef I have ever seen. I sear-grilled it over charcoal, then finished it to medium in the oven. The strip roast added a different, very appealing taste to the plate. Ro’s mixed greens contained dark meat from the legs of the Thanksgiving bird I froze just after the holiday. My flourless chocolate torte with a glossy ganache glaze for dessert is now the classic way we finish our Christmas dinner. At dusk with the house aglow in Christmas cheer and in the company of Rochonne’s mother, this was our dinner menu the evening of December 25.
Ro typically makes black-eyed peas and I do the gumbo for New Year’s. This season we did the peas for New Year’s Eve dinner and ate gumbo a good part of New Years Day. It worked out beautifully. I offered to do the stock for the peas. The pig’s tail I got from Lee Lee’s – a remarkable Asian supermarket in nearby Chandler – added tasty depth to the stock and the fresh – not dry – peas soaked it up nicely as they cooked. I added some crisped salt pork and Ro’s hot water cornbread was a delicious accompaniment as was Blackstone’s 2007 Monterey Pinot Noir..
The gumbo is the single dish that I put most effort into each year and I only make this type of gumbo – seafood and andouille - one time a year. It is inspired by a Paul Prudhomme (my greatest influence) recipe. I greatly expand from his “holy trinity” (bell peppers, celery and onions) to include leeks, shallots, fresh garlic, red and orange bell peppers, scallions, and fresh herbs. My stock – filtered water and roasted vegetables, shrimp and prawn shells, mussels and clams in shells, crawfish when I can find them, crab scraps, etc., brews overnight, at least 12 hours. This year I simmered my roux 3 hours to get it deep and dark on New Year’s Eve and let the combined roux-seasoned vegetable mixture blend overnight. I combined the boiling stock and roux mixture New Year’s Day morning and added the seafood – 5 different kinds of shrimp and prawns, including dried; whole crab parts, crab meat, smoked oysters and mussels in their liquor - and grilled andouille in the early afternoon. No rice this year, just saltine crackers. The gumbo tasted great while watching Oregon play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl and sipping sparkling wine. For desert, a slice of spiced rum raisin cake and vanilla ice cream with a shot of chilled Monbazillac.
Eat Well!
Cameron
Let’s review, shall we?
Thanksgiving 2009
Thanksgiving has long been called by Ro and I our favorite holiday. I qualify it as such with mixed emotions in that there are elements of preparation, e.g., the vegetable chop, which I embrace with a modicum of enthusiasm. Thanksgiving is a MAJOR production in our household, something we plan for weeks in advance. It can be taxing, if not exhausting, to put it all together but it has always been worth the (substantial) effort. It’s a big deal because we go all out. And I think anyone out there who is a dedicated foodie knows what I’m talking about. Thanksgiving represents the ultimate opportunity to express your culinary inclinations. Pushing it to the limit is almost encouraged by the scale of food produced. I made a tarte-tatin for dessert with 5 different apples and 4 different pears. Rochonne’s Brussels sprout hash not only forever improved my perception of the sprouts, their crunchy al dente leaves were a superb palate cleanser, of great value given the likes of a four potato gratin, macaroni and cheddar, and rye bread dressing on the plate. That said, Ro and I dialed the menu down a bit relative to 2008. After all, it was just the five of us, for the first time that we could remember. Ro graciously conceded the cranberry sauce to me after years of our friendly competition. She liked the Cointreau-and fresh orange juice-spiked version I came up with. Here is what occupied our place setting for five on a beautiful clear and cool Thanksgiving evening in the Desert:
THANKSGIVING DINNER CELEBRATION
NOVEMBER 26, 2009
THE CAMERON AND ROCHONNE SIMMONS FAMILY
CAMERON – ROCHONNE – ALEXANDRA – FRANCESCA – CHANDLER
THE SIMMONS FAMILY RESIDENCE
GILBERT, ARIZONA
First Course
Sonoran Crab Corn Chowder
Parmesan Sausage Blankets
Second Course
Caramelized Bosc Pear Salad
With Butter Lettuce, Walnuts and Cranberry Blue Cheese
Wine and Beverage
Canadian Whiskey and Ginger Ale Cocktails
NV Piper Sonoma Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine, Sonoma County
Spiced Apple Cider
Main Course
Dry-Brined Cedar-Planked Fresh Hen Turkey
Honey Glazed Ham
Four Potato Gratin with Smoked Sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack
Candied Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Rye Bread Dressing
Macaroni and Cheddar
Mixed Greens with Ham
Brussels Sprout Hash
Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes
Roast Garlic and Shitake Gravy
Cranberry Sauce Cointreau
Main Course Wines and Beverages
2007 Clos du Bois Sonoma Reserve
Russian River Valley Chardonnay
2007 Kenwood Vineyards
Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Martinelli Sparkling Apple Juice
Evian Water
Perrier Sparkling Water
Desserts
Fall Orchard Medley Tarte-Tatin
featuring Golden Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Pink Lady, Jonagold Apples,
Bosc, Green D’Anjou, Bartlett, Red D’Anjou Pears
Rum Raisin Walnut Spice Cake
Coconut Buttermilk Pie
Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Fresh Whipped Cream
Dessert Wine
2005 Seigneurs de Monbazillac
Monbazillac, France
I dry-brined the turkey as I did last year. I prefer this method to wet-brining because its technique is simpler to manage. You merely coat the turkey with kosher salt. I use about 1 ½ tablespoons per pound. The trick is you need to do it at least 3 days in advance of cooking for the moisturization cycle to complete, whereby the salt pulls fluid from the turkey, which is then reabsorbed. Dry-brining helps the turkey stay moist, which is particularly valuable for the breast meat. I have not given up on wet-brining – whole turkey immersion in a salt water bath – in that I like how is “kosherizes” the fowl. You can see a lot of impurities, blood and the like, in the water you remove the bird from. After roasting I put it breast down on a cedar plank and smoked it over coals, then brushed it with a honey butter glaze.
Post-dinner Ro and I talk about the stars of the dinner. I thought everything shined as always but I particularly recall the rye bread dressing (first time I made the dressing with rye bread), the salad, the Piper Sonoma, the turkey and ham, the gratin, sweet potatoes, etc., etc., etc. Ro’s coconut buttermilk pie was delicious.
A note on wine and beverage. Ro and I chose Canadian whiskey and ginger ale for our cocktails this year. It was a drink we enjoyed during the fall season leading up to the holiday and we decided to feature it before the meal. The Piper Sonoma Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, primarily made with chardonnay from, in my opinion, America’s best sparkling wine appellation, added an elegant touch to the salad and appetizer plates. For the main course wines, I went for the classic Burgundian pairing – as I often do on Thanksgiving - of chardonnay and pinot noir. Sourced from the Russian River Valley, I chose the Clos du Bois Reserve Chardonnay and Kenwood Vineyards Pinot Noir, both from the highly-regarded Sonoma 2007 vintage. Go for premium water on Thanksgiving. I’ve long loved the French Alpine essence of Evian and it was nicely chilled and refreshing. The Monbazillac is Sauterne-like. I love well-chilled late harvest desert wines, whether they be the white Bordeaux sauvignon blanc-Semillon blend, Riesling, or viognier. The white Bordeaux Monbazillac paired exceptionally well with the candied apples and pears of the tarte-tatin.
Christmas 2009
Christmas Breakfast
Mimosas and Orange Juice
Yoplait Fruit Parfaits
Cajun Fried Catfish
Buttered Cheesy Grits
Scrambled Eggs
Hash browns
Bacon
Biscuits
Cinnamon Buns
Christmas dinner is less intense than Thanksgiving. It allows Ro and I to focus on elegance and refined execution and gives us an opportunity to maybe do something a bit different than we did for the great November holiday. I made what I call “Turducken and One” – the brilliant Paul Prudhomme’s masterpiece of a stuffed boned chicken inside of a stuffed boned duck inside of a stuffed boned turkey, that I went one better by putting a stuffed boned cornish game hen in the chicken – for Christmas Dinner 2005. We typically do a smaller turkey and another protein, often beef. I found a New York Strip ROAST up Val Vista at Safeway that was one of the most beautiful pieces of beef I have ever seen. I sear-grilled it over charcoal, then finished it to medium in the oven. The strip roast added a different, very appealing taste to the plate. Ro’s mixed greens contained dark meat from the legs of the Thanksgiving bird I froze just after the holiday. My flourless chocolate torte with a glossy ganache glaze for dessert is now the classic way we finish our Christmas dinner. At dusk with the house aglow in Christmas cheer and in the company of Rochonne’s mother, this was our dinner menu the evening of December 25.
CHRISTMAS DINNER CELEBRATION
DECEMBER 25, 2009
THE CAMERON AND ROCHONNE SIMMONS FAMILY
MS. SHRYL HAYMAN
THE SIMMONS FAMILY RESIDENCE
GILBERT, ARIZONA
First Course
Cream of Celery Soup
Second Course
Mixed Greens Salad
Wine and Beverage
NV Piper Sonoma Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine, Sonoma County
Sparkling Apple Cider
Evian Water
Main Course
Dry-Brined Smoked Fresh Hen Turkey
Grilled New York Strip Roast
Four Potato Gratin with Smoked Sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack
Candied Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Sourdough Bread Dressing
Macaroni and Cheddar
Mixed Greens with Dark Turkey
Roast Garlic Gravy
Cranberry Sauce Cointreau
Main Course Wines and Beverages
2000 Qupe California Central Coast Syrah
2007 Kenwood Vineyards Sonoma County Chardonnay
Sparkling Apple Juice
Sparkling Cherry Juice
Evian Water
Dessert
Flourless Dark Chocolate Torte with Ganache Icing
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Fresh Whipped Cream
Fresh Ground Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee
Dessert Wine
Dow’s NV Ruby Port
Porto, Portugal
New Years Day 2010
Ro typically makes black-eyed peas and I do the gumbo for New Year’s. This season we did the peas for New Year’s Eve dinner and ate gumbo a good part of New Years Day. It worked out beautifully. I offered to do the stock for the peas. The pig’s tail I got from Lee Lee’s – a remarkable Asian supermarket in nearby Chandler – added tasty depth to the stock and the fresh – not dry – peas soaked it up nicely as they cooked. I added some crisped salt pork and Ro’s hot water cornbread was a delicious accompaniment as was Blackstone’s 2007 Monterey Pinot Noir..
The gumbo is the single dish that I put most effort into each year and I only make this type of gumbo – seafood and andouille - one time a year. It is inspired by a Paul Prudhomme (my greatest influence) recipe. I greatly expand from his “holy trinity” (bell peppers, celery and onions) to include leeks, shallots, fresh garlic, red and orange bell peppers, scallions, and fresh herbs. My stock – filtered water and roasted vegetables, shrimp and prawn shells, mussels and clams in shells, crawfish when I can find them, crab scraps, etc., brews overnight, at least 12 hours. This year I simmered my roux 3 hours to get it deep and dark on New Year’s Eve and let the combined roux-seasoned vegetable mixture blend overnight. I combined the boiling stock and roux mixture New Year’s Day morning and added the seafood – 5 different kinds of shrimp and prawns, including dried; whole crab parts, crab meat, smoked oysters and mussels in their liquor - and grilled andouille in the early afternoon. No rice this year, just saltine crackers. The gumbo tasted great while watching Oregon play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl and sipping sparkling wine. For desert, a slice of spiced rum raisin cake and vanilla ice cream with a shot of chilled Monbazillac.
Eat Well!
Cameron
Fried Pork Chops Extraordinaire
Greetings fellow foodies! I often have the lead in weekend dinner preparation, as Ro handles weeknight dinners. While I did Saturday’s meal – a carne asade kidney bean chili with diced smoked poblanos, tomatillos, and chili powder-rubbed charcoal-grilled chopped sirloin, accompanied with sour cream cornbread and a blue cheese romaine salad and, oh yeah, fresh ruby red grapefruit margaritas – Ro, inspired by a vision of fried pork chops, took lead for Sunday dinner.
We found four beautiful bone-in center cut rib chops at the Fry’s just up Val Vista Drive. They were big – just under 1/3 pound each – and thick – a bit over ¾ inch – and lean, with a fine edge of fat. As we admired them on the shelf, we looked at each other and said, yeah, these will work. Ro planned to match them with her legendary macaroni and cheese, candied yams, spinach greens and onions, and biscuits – a menu that had the potential of being something special. My “mistress of seasoning” – her ability to balance seasoning to near perfect levels is a real talent – created a buttermilk bath for the chops, where they languished luxuriously for about an hour. During this time she assembled the mac and cheese, yams, and spinach greens. Ro’s mac and cheese renders irrelevant all other mac and cheese I’ve tasted. I could eat a whole baking dish of the stuff but that wouldn’t leave any room for the yams that she embellishes with a sweet butter syrup, candied pecans and light but wondrously gooey semi-melted marshmallows. Ridiculous. Pulling the chops from their seasoned bath, she dredged them in flour, dipped them in the buttermilk once more, and then dredged them again. With a nod to my frying skills, she solicited my support in cooking the chops. In response, I pulled out the serious hardware: my All-Clad 12-inch stainless steel Master Chef fry pan – the one with that mirror-like interior and lustrous matte-finished brushed aluminum exterior - because this was no time to mess around.
I heated a little more than a half inch of canola and olive oil – to make sure the chops were at least half submerged – to shimmering and placed two of them in the pan. Just two so they could stretch out and have some breathing room. I dropped the heat just a bit to prevent scorching, and then fried them for 8 to 9 minutes per side. That seasoned buttermilk and flour lent a gorgeous golden crunchy crust to those chops that was a sight to behold. Upon removing the first two from the pan I thought to myself “let me hurry up and get the other two cooking because I want to know what these taste like.” As Ro put the finishing touches on those mouth-watering sides, I finished frying the chops. We called Alexandra, Francesca and Chandler into the kitchen for dinner and they oooed and ahhhed at the feast we had laid out. They too particularly enjoy Ro’s mac and cheese and they were impressed with the size and crust of those chops.
As dusk fell on a warm early fall evening in the Valley of the Sun, we settled in to our kitchen dining table with candle light and fresh flowers as our centerpiece. Ro and I had glasses of crisp, chilled California pinot gris at the ready. After she humbly and gratefully acknowledged our bounty by saying grace, I dove right in to my chop.
I took one bite, reflected a moment, and glanced sideways at Ro on my right. She knowingly returned my look, took a bite herself, and nodded. We didn’t even have to say anything. The combination of the seasoned buttermilk bath and the searing, sealing effect of the frying lent a juiciness to the lean pork that was, quite simply, awe inspiring. Ro’s sides were fabulous: the mac and cheese at its usual high standard, the candied yams adding a superb sweet counterpoint, and the spinach and onions a fine green complement. The pinot gris paired deliciously with everything. There was nothing but the small bone left on my plate when I was done. It was a meal Ro and I lovingly prepared and one our family won’t soon forget.
Cheers! Cameron
We found four beautiful bone-in center cut rib chops at the Fry’s just up Val Vista Drive. They were big – just under 1/3 pound each – and thick – a bit over ¾ inch – and lean, with a fine edge of fat. As we admired them on the shelf, we looked at each other and said, yeah, these will work. Ro planned to match them with her legendary macaroni and cheese, candied yams, spinach greens and onions, and biscuits – a menu that had the potential of being something special. My “mistress of seasoning” – her ability to balance seasoning to near perfect levels is a real talent – created a buttermilk bath for the chops, where they languished luxuriously for about an hour. During this time she assembled the mac and cheese, yams, and spinach greens. Ro’s mac and cheese renders irrelevant all other mac and cheese I’ve tasted. I could eat a whole baking dish of the stuff but that wouldn’t leave any room for the yams that she embellishes with a sweet butter syrup, candied pecans and light but wondrously gooey semi-melted marshmallows. Ridiculous. Pulling the chops from their seasoned bath, she dredged them in flour, dipped them in the buttermilk once more, and then dredged them again. With a nod to my frying skills, she solicited my support in cooking the chops. In response, I pulled out the serious hardware: my All-Clad 12-inch stainless steel Master Chef fry pan – the one with that mirror-like interior and lustrous matte-finished brushed aluminum exterior - because this was no time to mess around.
I heated a little more than a half inch of canola and olive oil – to make sure the chops were at least half submerged – to shimmering and placed two of them in the pan. Just two so they could stretch out and have some breathing room. I dropped the heat just a bit to prevent scorching, and then fried them for 8 to 9 minutes per side. That seasoned buttermilk and flour lent a gorgeous golden crunchy crust to those chops that was a sight to behold. Upon removing the first two from the pan I thought to myself “let me hurry up and get the other two cooking because I want to know what these taste like.” As Ro put the finishing touches on those mouth-watering sides, I finished frying the chops. We called Alexandra, Francesca and Chandler into the kitchen for dinner and they oooed and ahhhed at the feast we had laid out. They too particularly enjoy Ro’s mac and cheese and they were impressed with the size and crust of those chops.
As dusk fell on a warm early fall evening in the Valley of the Sun, we settled in to our kitchen dining table with candle light and fresh flowers as our centerpiece. Ro and I had glasses of crisp, chilled California pinot gris at the ready. After she humbly and gratefully acknowledged our bounty by saying grace, I dove right in to my chop.
I took one bite, reflected a moment, and glanced sideways at Ro on my right. She knowingly returned my look, took a bite herself, and nodded. We didn’t even have to say anything. The combination of the seasoned buttermilk bath and the searing, sealing effect of the frying lent a juiciness to the lean pork that was, quite simply, awe inspiring. Ro’s sides were fabulous: the mac and cheese at its usual high standard, the candied yams adding a superb sweet counterpoint, and the spinach and onions a fine green complement. The pinot gris paired deliciously with everything. There was nothing but the small bone left on my plate when I was done. It was a meal Ro and I lovingly prepared and one our family won’t soon forget.
Cheers! Cameron
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