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.



Oh, my gawd! Not that!



Oh my,where do I begin.  Cooking class with my favorite Italian Chef at Fresina's Pasta Company.  I cannot imagine a better way to spend a Friday than with this wonderful group of people.  Here are Ann and Linda (she is the boss lady of the place) hanging together sampling some of the luscious goodies.  Chef Enzo does make that antiquated electric stove sing, yeah darling.

First we had some wine.  Then created an appetizer of cauliflower and broccoli fried and topped with a red sauce to die for.  The veggies were not greasy or over done, they were still crisp in the center.  Even cold they were incredible dipped into the warm sauce.  

Then we had some more wine.  A hearty red with a full flavor.  My favorite soup of all time is Pasta e Fagioli.  I learned the very secret to making this zuppa.  You need the right little tiny pasta d'italias.  And it is not only the right sausage but the right stock!  I am not giving that one away.  You have to come eat with me first! 

We cooled the portions we took home on the stairs, too funny a picture to pass up.

Next some grapefruit wine before he butchered some chicken, sliced thinly for scallappine.  Dredged in spices and fried in incredible olive oil.  They were held in the oven until the Marsala was ready. 

Talk about incredible.  Sweet sweet Marsala.  I love you!

Demi glace, ahhh.  It feels good just tossing around the words that make up this recipe. 

He plated the pollo with a capellini aglio olio.  Tons of garlic, just what an Italian girl wants for dinner!  Frank can't wait for me to fix this for him.  His favorite thing in an Italian restaurant is the Capellini Pomodoro.  Check it out.  Are your taste buds watering yet? 

While he was cooking, Chef Enzo created quite a mess.  Even though he is a really neat cook and uses paper plates when he can, he created a lot of dishes this time.  So I jumped in and washed stuff up.  We talked about his new boxer pup Vito.  What a great name.  Vito Signorelli!  Something for that little guy to live up to.

I went home the rest of the leftovers and all the wine.  Great pay for little work, I say.  When I got him DiNozzo was so happy to see me.  The first thing he did was to plunge his head into the bag and check out the goodies I brought with me. 

About 5 minutes later I hear a gigantic scuffle in the yard and Chloe the Smelly Basset comes running to me with her mouth salivating.  She is literally dripping with drool!  I check her and she appears to be fine.  So I go check DiNozzo thinking maybe they got a snake or something from the crazy neighbor over the fence.

He does have a piece of saran wrap hanging out his mouth.  I chase him down and he is happy to comply with chase game.  He stays right ahead of my grasp.  Finally I corner him and take the

REGGIANO PARMASEAN CHEESE

out of his mouth.  Oh, my gawd, not that!  Take the soup, take the wine but NOT the cheese!

So what do you expect I did?  I rinsed it off and popped it into the fridge!

glen:  I am NOT going to waste THAT!

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