Daddy in the Kitchen

Big disappointment.  We had some previous success with gratins, so we had high expectations.  Gratin is French for "cover it with cheese," and how could you get that wrong?  Well, they managed.
I think the real problem is they tried to be healthy, and when your raison d'etre is "cover it with cheese," it's hard to make that healthy while maintaining the integrity of the thing.  And by 'hard" I mean "probably not going to happen."  The bread crumbs didn't help either; just made the whole thing grainy.

Divine.
This is another dish you'd expect to find at a five-star restaurant.  It takes a lot of time to (a) reduce the sauce and (b) poach the pears, but the payoff is worth it. The ricotta with pistachios is really just a garnish, but I can't imagine a better one.  Definitely a recipe to bring out when you want to impress someone - either guests or your special someone. 
Another hit from Farm Fresh To You - and they're still sending us pears.  Just saying.  ;-)

Best brisket I've ever made, and I've made a few.

Another great recipe from our local organic box.  I usually cheat and use store-bought sauces (mostly from Trader Joe's), but this time I decided to make the sauce from scratch.  (It helps to have a well-stocked cupboard.)
I decided to make this vegetarian, so I used extra firm tofu instead of chicken and veggie stock instead of chicken stock.  Didn't feel like anything is missing.  I also left out the chili sauce and hot pepper sauce because Yelena doesn't like spicy food.  Instead, I added some Sriracha rooster sauce to my own plate.

It's Passover (for another 5 hours).  That means I've gone a week without eating bread or pretty much any grain-related products.  (IE. no beer, no whiskey, and none of the doughnuts that were at work yesterday.)  However, it's not a week of pure misery; there are a few things that make it totally worth it.

I know it's been a while since I've done "Daddy in the Kitchen," but here's a quick one.  I've been starting to realize that certain things should never be bought, and should always be made at home, including apple sauce.  Once you've made it yourself, and realized how easy and incredibly delicious it is, you'll never buy another jar.

Spicey honey fig tarts.  Holy freaking cow.
This one came from The Inn at the Crossroads, an incredible recipe blog based on the food from the Game of Thrones series.  I didn't really notice when I read the books, but it turns out there are some amazing foods described between the pages, and they're all based on real medieval recipes.  Either GRRM did a hell of a lot of homework on medieval food, or he has an uncanny knack for guessing.

This is my second attempt to beat Nana's Spiced Squash & Apple Soup; the first attempt was an authentic Roman Spiced Squash.  The squash was a failure, maybe because I don't know what it's like to conquer the known world while wearing sandals.  The hash fared better.

Add this to the list of things that are better made by yourself, along with applesauce and peanut butter.  Our local organic box brought us a bag of fresh, ripe cranberries, oh-so-perfectly timed just before Thanksgiving.  And a week before that, a fresh pomegranate.  We'd already used half the pomegranate in fresh salads, but had just enough left for this recipe.