Nashville Weekend

Recently, I enjoyed one heckuva girls' weekend in Nashville.  I visited my lifelong friend, Cheryl, who is a superwoman in the kitchen. 

Cheryl picked me up at the airport and greeted me with a cherry limeade from Sonic.  She knows me so well.  As I sipped my tasty treat, we drove the half hour back to her house, making a stop at a local BBQ shack for our takeout dinner:  massive amounts of pulled pork; potato salad and slaw for her husband and stepson; and two bbq baked potatoes for me and Cheryl.

We set up our feast and planned our culinary strategy.  Some wine might have been poured.  I think we went to eight different grocery stores by the time the weekend was over.

Cheryl and Mike have one of those Big Green Egg smokers.  I asked if we could smoke something.  

Cheryl:  Sure, like what?  

Me:  Anything we could get our hands on.

First we had to prep dessert.  I mean, that's good strategy, right?  We didn't want to be sitting there after a southern smoked feast and not have an answer when Mike asked, Well, what did you make us for dessert?

We made olive oil gelato.

With the gelato chilling and various meats smoking, we worked on sides and gluten free options to accompany our smoked feast.

First cauliflower pizza crust.  Cheryl's basil plants were in full bloom, so we made a Caprese pizza.

Eggplant involtini

Polenta sausage spinach terrine.

A libation for the cooks.  Bourbon with rosemary simple syrup and orange peel.

And now for the main events.  We assembled a bacon bomb.  We made a crosshatch bacon "blanket" and filled it with sausage and crumbled bacon and slathered the outside with BBQ sauce.

The star of the show though?  A whole smoked chicken.  Best chicken I ever ate.

Ravioli Day

I was lucky enough to spend the day with my friend, Mary, earlier this summer.  She is a fantastic cook.  Even better, she's a fantastic Italian cook.  Back when Mary & I first met, I was domestically challenged.  And proud of it.  She would bring these fabulous leftovers for lunch everyday and make everyone else envious while we ate crummy fast food or humdrum frozen "entrees'.  Once we became friends, Mary would pack extra food and share her lunch with me.  I don't think I'd ever seen a yellow squash until she introduced me to her summer squash stew.  At Christmas, she'd make black bottom cupcakes and I couldn't get enough of them.

So fast forward and here I am in culinary school.  First of all, I believe that Mary is still shocked about that development.  Every fall, Mary makes a huge batch of raviolis for her family, "Ravioli Day".  I asked her if she wouldn't mind having a mini-ravioli day with me so I could learn from her expertise.

We made the pasta dough and the filling.  Then she taught me how to use the pasta machine and the molds.  We laid out the raviolis on the dining room table to dry.  

It was one of my favorite days of this summer.  I think we made 130 cheese raviolis, not to mention some fettucine noodles as well.  We stopped for a lunch break and Mary served some raviolis tossed with olive oil, parmesan, and blanched broccoli from her garden.  A simply perfect lunch.