Hey - found that taco fryer mentioned in this month's edition of Cook's Illustrated. Seems you can buy it at http://www.kitchenemporium.com

You'd think we starved between mid Feb and now. Well we didn't. We ate like pigs, thank you very much. One highlight being hamburgers on the *new* grill (we love it!), with grilled purple onions and portabella mushrooms. That with a startling array of mustards and other condiments, the meat takes a back-seat to the rest of the burger. We love CostCo and bought a huge bag of frozen burgers. Now J.T. can have a grilled burger for lunch any time he wants - way better than McDoodles.

Anyway, today was a big production day - Easter. We are not a religious family, but I like to take advantage of these holidays to bring the family together over good food. I sound like a commercial...

First off, a side note about how I prepare. I usually do Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Three or four Thanksgivings ago, I created the spreadsheet of all spreadsheets. Seemed over the top at the time, but now it's a life saver. I have a spreadsheet page for the shopping list, and one for the schedule. When you're cooking lots of dishes, the schedule becomes real important if you care about finishing everything up about the same time. The shopping list uses 4 columns: "ingredient", "aisle", "dish" and "do I have it?". I put *all* ingredients on this list, even if I have them. Ingredients I have get an X in the "do I have it?" column. When I go shopping, I sort by "do I have it?", then by grocery "aisle". This makes the shopping a total walk in the park and I rarely forget anything - typical shop time is under an hour. (It helps to have your grocery store aisles somewhat memorized...) On the day of the cooking, I re-sort and print by "dish", then by "ingredient". I use this master list to get out all the ingredients. It also turns out that many recipes use the same ingredients (garlic!, butter, etc.) and making a list like this helps me accumulate what I need.

But the best part, is using the list again next year. Especially for Thanksgiving, which is all about tradition and cooking many things over and over and over (I always make sure to serve a new, experimental side dish to keep the family on their toes). Turkey, stuffing, gravy, and our next-day turkey soup we do every year. And I already have the grocery list, and schedule, all put together - it's awesome!!!

OK enough of that. Here was the menu for today:

Wine: Nob Hill 2000 Alexander Valley merlot (got a pretty good)
and Kendall-Jackson 2001 Chardonnay "grand reserve" got a great.

Sides:
Barley Risotto with mushrooms & gremolata (Fine Cooking Apr/May 2002) great
Broiled asparagus with soy-ginger vinaigrette (Cook's Illustrated Mar/Apr 2001) great
Salad with lemon-walnut vinaigrette (dressing: Fine Cooking Mar 2003) great

Main:
Coke Ham! Yes indeedy. Ham brined in a solution of 6 L of Coke and a bunch of salt, plus other misc. stuff that I don't believe made a bit of difference. Unfortunately, we have no idea how this ham would have tasted without the brining and the apple cider-brown suger glaze, but gosh darn it was very moist and tender ham. It deserves a great.

And for Dessert:
"Better than almost anything" Cake, from the back of a cake mix box. :) Not sure about better than almost nything, but it was very good. I kept expecting to taste alcolhol - I think the recipe would be a good base for a rum cake. Rum yum!

The barley risotto took time, but Mom assured us it was worth the effort and gave it an official excellent. J.T. and I were not sure it deserved it, but I waffled between great and excellent. If you like the nutty flavor of barley, and LOVE mushrooms (we used 4 different kinds: porcini, baby bellas, shiitake, and, uh, bulk) - this "risotto" is indeed, well worth the effort, which wasn't all that difficult.

That reminds me. Another dinner we threw together is worth mentioning. The mushrooms reminded me... *sigh...mushrooms...*

Side: frilly lettuce salad on a bed of beets with lemon-walnut dressing (yes, the same dressing as above) (Fine Cooking Mar 2003)
Not too many beet lovers in this family - not many likers either. I was so intrigued by this recipe I thought maybe it would create some converts. And I admit, I loved this salad. (And beets are so good for you, it's worth the trying...) The secret is the beets are sliced and roasted under the broiler with olive oil and salt n pepper. I swear magic happens when you cook a veggie with olive oil, salt and pepper, a secret to grilling many vegetables, like the onions. The beets lost some of their "earthy" flavor most people don't like, and it was replaced by a nice carmalized sweetness. It was, yummy. The recipe gets a great for those that don't like beets, and an excellent for those that do. :)

Main: "updated" beef stroganoff, which received a strong great by the crowd, though if left up to me, would be excellent. The "update" was through the addition of dried porcini mushrooms soaked in warm water for 30m, then the porcinis, along with a bunch of fresh mushrooms, and the "mushroom broth" created by the porcinis, added to the creamy stew like mixture. Holy cow, it was awesome.