Oh my goodness, can my mom cook! We went down to visit my folks in the country this weekend. Here’s a peek at what we ate. Give a holler if you’d like a specific recipe.
Oh, and “springtime feast” is not quite accurate. It was upwards of 90 degrees on Saturday!
Springtime Feast in the Country: Appetizers & nibbles
For starters, she put out a good bottle of wine, a bunch of cheese, and a handful of nibble-y things.
There was a bowl of good, mixed olives.
A cream cheese spread with pecans, dried cranberries, and concentrated orange juice.
I also got to taste a batch of Guinness mustard she made recently. She used a mixture of powdered mustard and mustard seeds, so it’s hot, hot, hot!
Springtime Feast in the Country: Roasted Beef Ribs
So you probably know by now that I come from a long line of carnivores. Mom made a giant batch of roasted beef back ribs, which her butcher cut just for her. They’re some of the meatiest ribs I’ve seen lately. (And that’s coming from the gal who does a semi-regular Rib of the Week.)
She drizzled them with a little olive oil:
And sprinkled them with a little homemade rub.
Then roasted them in the oven for about an hour (15 minutes at 450, then about 45 minutes at 350).
And man, they were just divine:
Springtime Feast in the Country: Garlic & herb bread
She spread a loaf of fresh ciabatta thickly with a garlic and fresh herb compound butter.
This was one of the first things I attacked when it came out of the oven.
Springtime Feast in the Country: Simple roasted shrimp with two sauces
My mom also managed to snatch up some gigantic shrimp.
She roasted them in the oven, a la the Barefoot Contessa.
This is a fabulous, no-fuss way to cook shrimp for a crowd without making a giant mess on the stove.
When they were done, she heaped them on a platter and whipped up two sauces.
One was a rouille�a sauce with roasted red peppers, olive oil, garlic, fresh bread crumbs, oregano, egg yolk, and hot pepper sauce�that’s often served with seafood or fish stew.
The other was a homemade tartare sauce.
There was also some steamed asparagus on the side, dripping with loads of butter.
Springtime Feast in the Country: Ah, dessert
And it wouldn’t be dinner at my folks’ house without a few desserts. Mom made a double ginger bundt cake (with powdered and crystallized ginger).
It made a little too much batter for her bundt cake pan, so used the extra to make two cupcakes.
Here’s the inside of the cake, dotted with chunks of crystallized ginger.
She also made a French cheesecake from an old friend’s recipe. It has a short crust instead of a graham cracker crumb crust.
It was creamy and absolutely divine. (At this point, I was so stuffed that I was getting sleepy.)
Last but not least, we sampled her homemade almond nougat candy. It was kind of more like taffy than traditional nougat, because it didn’t have honey in it. She and my dad likened it to Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy. It was really, really good.
As always, we headed back to Boston feeling just a little fatter�and very, very happy.
