If it ain't Italian, it ain't Chef Enzo!

And this was definitely not Italian.  This was Chef Wanda Calkins brining a Thanksgiving turkey and the associated dressings that go along with a South Louisiana Holiday Meal.  There she is hiding behind all that steam from the pre-brining pot.

The rice dressing was superb and yet oh so easy to do.  I could just make a meal of this rice dressing alone.  Now that I have the super fast rice cooker from Ann's Pampered Chef party this will be on my menu often.

Not to be outdone was the cornbread dressing.  I like Wanda's way of cooking and teaching.  She drops a lot of tidbits that help with cooking and cleaning and thinking about a meal.  Like she cooked the cornbread in a sheet pan.  How is that for crispy corn pone?

But the coup de grace was the turkey.  The magnificent perfection of that bird as it emerged from the oven was enough to make me overwhelmed with passion.  Brining is something I have wanted to try for a long time.  The  brine solution permeates the meat of the turkey so that each moist bite is infused with deep flavor.

Are you hungry yet? 



cooling the brine





I love her classes because she has such a great sense of humor.  Sh knows all her people and we shoot good natured ribs back and forth.  She was ready to put Ann and I on the ship herself at one point!  Like when she chopped her finger up with the herb shears.  Got to admit they were sharp little booger! 

She might be missing a finger, but you cannot fault her cooking!

Have some pictures for you, don't cha know.  Check them out. 



Wanda expertly cut that turkey up and we ate so much.  The meat was so juicy, I will do this technique again and again. 



                                           Here she is, talking about something good. 



brining solution herbs

The turkey she cooked for us was brined the night before.  She demonstrated the technique then cooked the second turkey without being brined.


Finally!  Food!



 

   









The store in the background is a fun place to check out all the newest gadgets and cookware.  And the prices are not half bad either!  I am checking out the dressings and Ann is off shopping for something.  We have our priorities straight!

glen:  gotta go, I am starving again.



Fast winds and fast times



From NBC 33 news photos

When I had just gotten home from the cooking class yesterday the winds began to blow and the rain came down furiously.  Frank kept yelling, Microburst!  and I thought he was nuts.  But after surveying the damage in our close area it may well have been one of those mini tornadoes.  We were without lights from 4:30 pm to 8 this morning.  Telephone poles were twisted and one was completely snapped in half.  And trees were down everywhere.  One apartment wall was stripped completely of its bricks, which were then hurled at this poor woman driving by!  Not funny, but can you imagine seeing 15 bricks heading toward you for no apparent reason?

Yesterday was the Italian Dinner Party Cooking Class with my favorite chef Enzo.  He showed us how to cook a 4 course dinner party for 8 with the most spectacular dishes and still have time to socialize with our friends. Some highlights from the class, well, heck you just want to see the food, don't you!

Here he is roasting a pepper.  Isn't he a dreamboat?  A good looking man who cooks like this?  I could just near abouts leave Frank (who only vacuums).

Is there anything better than Marscapone Cheese?  Not in this world.  Mix it with some strawberries and whipping cream and you get these beauties!

Yeah buddy, can you say food orgy?

Next he set up the Gorgonzola potatoes.  here it is just as it came out of the oven.  The hunk of Gorgonzola he used was incredibly beautiful and streaked with blue.  Again the whipping cream, but not too much!

The pasta course started with sea scallops and ended with the most incredible lasagna pasta you have ever seen.  He does his lasagna with tiny flat noodles with ruffly edges, not the big thick one with ruffly edges.  Hmm.  They provided a lot of surface for the Alfredo mother sauce to stick so you really didn't need a lot of sauce.

Then the salade course was Scaloppine Maiale.  He used pork rather than veal and showed us how to butcher the loin for use as thin medallions for the arugula and Caresse salad.  Another masterpiece from the hands of the master!

Here are the salads (and wine!!) waiting for the medallions to arrive before being distributed to the masses. 

 

This is what it looked like as just before I dove into the plate with wild abandon!

I see I am doing this all backward.  But the first thing Enzo did was to create an Antipasto plate on his grandmother's dish from way back in Italy.  It came here with the grandparents and got used at his father's restaurant in New Orleans and now we had the good fortune to share food from it.

His Antipasto consisted of the roasted bells, balsamic mushrooms (what are they called, those big ones?), hard salami made into cones with buffalo mozzarella inside, a wild assortment of olives, grape tomatoes with olive oil and mozzarella, Parmesan cheese sliced thin thin thin, cappicoa or prosciutto, and some tiny thin lemon asparagus spears.

Don't you want to take that man home with you and give him anything he wants in return for his cooking?

glen