July 23, 2012
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Friday, July 20, 2012
Friday night we had the new neighbors over for dinner and they’re super nice. Mr. Poe made a pork tenderloin and I made a couple of things. It all started out as a disaster. Thursday, I made an apple bundt cake but I either used too much apple, cut them in too large of pieces or both because when I unmolded the cake it completely fell apart and was more crumbs than anything else. Mr. Poe came in and witnessed the carnage and said ‘Don’t worry honey I’ll get a pie at Safeway.’ Safeway?? Seriously?? So I threw some of the cake at him which would have been funny except that some of it got into his eye which required flushing and now that’s grist for the mill for the rest of my life. Mr. Poe says I aspire to be a Julia but behaved like a Martha. Julia would have found some way to repurpose the offending cake but I just threw it in the compost bin and sulked. I had also planned on making ice cream so I figured that was gonna be OK. Friday morning I went to go make the ice cream and discovered I hadn’t put the freezing canister in the freezer and there was no way I was making ice cream that night. Double fail! Mr. Poe requested pineapple upside-down cake and so I made him one. It turned out very well and my reputation was salvaged– but only just barely:
I also made some appetizers: stuffed shrimp and some cheese wafers and I made canapes using romesco sauce which were popular. I made scalloped potatoes and those turned out pretty well but I got the sauce a little too hot because it curdled a little. Actually, Mr. Poe got the sauce too hot when he reheated them prior to serving. For the pork, I made wow wow sauce. Wow wow sauce was invented by noted foodie William Kitchiner in the early 19th century and is essentially a very savory gravy with chopped onions, pickles and herbs. Incredibly savory. It ended up on my radar when I was watching a show on Regency dining. You can see it here:
You can skip to about 9:30 to see the sauce come out. I like the whole Supersizers series and recommend watching them. They’re all on youtube and very entertaining. Here’s the recipe I used which has quite a few more onions then the classic recipe and substitutes capers for gherkins. Mr. Poe approves:
WOW WOW SAUCE
1/4 cup butter
2 medium minced onions
1/4 cup flour
2 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons mustard
1 teaspoon or more horseradish
dash tabasco
2 tablespoons or more capers
salt and pepper to taste
handful of fresh herbs if desired.Melt the butter and saute the onions in them. Don’t let the onions brown. Add the flour to the butter and onion mixture and stir for a minute. Add the stock, worcestershire sauce, white wine vinegar, mustard, horseradish, and tabasco. Simmer for at least ten minutes until the sauce becomes thick and incredibly savory. Add the capers and stir to heat through. Taste for seasoning and add pepper and salt if necessary. This can be refrigerated and reheated and is better the next day. If using fresh herbs, add them right before serving.
Dinner went well but we stayed up very late. I don’t think I got to bed until midnight.
