Recipe Review 7/23/07

I had the Folks out for dinner on Sunday evening and this dinner turned out fantastic. Even though it was delicious, there are just a few things I would tweak in the next go around. But I’m like that, can’t leave a darn recipe or meal alone.

Penne with Roasted Veggies and Goat Cheese (Ckng Lght BB, link here) 9
Oh! Heaven in a bowl! Whole wheat penne is combined with roasted summer squash, garlic, onion, tomatoes that are drizzled with balsamic vinegar. This is then tossed with fresh basil and thyme and goat cheese, which creates a lovely decedent sauce. Mmm, mm, good!
This was served with a fresh sour dough flute from Cub; a garden salad (from my garden) with shaved Parmesan, fresh raspberries, raspberry vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. I had a small dish with olive oil and pepper for dipping the bread in. Very European.
And last, for dessert, I made Creme Brule:

Vanilla Creme Brule (Cuisine at Home Ad) 8

It has always appeared that Creme Brule was this really difficult fancy dish to make, but as the years have gone by, I’ve come to learn that it’s actually easier to make than homemade pudding. The hard part was finding the torch to caramelize the topping.

Sugar and a vanilla bean are pulverized to a powdered sugar consistency in a food processor. Combined with heavy cream and half and half , this is brought to a "steaming" temperature (except mine went from warm to boiling, oops! So I then had to cool it down by whisking and waiting). This is tempered into waiting eggs, strained to remove all the hard bean bits and poured into waiting ramekins in a water bath. Then bake, cool and refrigerate.
That is pretty much it.

Was it good? Well, the recipe made 6, there were 3 of us.....plus we got to play with a little torch...