Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A gravy boat?

Yes. A gravy boat.

Though mine is not at all floral. In fact it’s just plain glass.  This particular gravy boat is $75 and all my plates & bowls put together probably didn’t cost $75 because I buy everything on excessive markdown from chain stores & not from places that sell ‘china’.

Suddenly, it seems there are sauces everywhere in my life. I buy them, I make them, I freeze them, and I thaw them out.

This seems to be the Year of the Sauce.

I’ve always marinated things but I never took it to the next level, where you set aside some of the marinade for a pan sauce.

Also I usually broil things and the broiler pan does not lend itself to pan sauces.

But suddenly I am cooking on the stove top.

DH finally leveled the stove & all the liquid no longer pools on one side of the skillet & food cooks more evenly now.

I’m not going to tell you how long the stove has been out of level.

Longer than I have had a blog though.

Plus, I learned to make sauce from the marinade & discovered that drippings & stuff stuck to the bottom of pans is not necessary for a good sauce. It’s good, but if you have a marinade, you can work without it.

Also, balsamic vinegar.  Adds just right kick if you stir it in at the end. I have 4 different kinds of balsamic vinegar now as a result.

Wine in a box is handy too. It keeps much longer & I am no longer faced with needing to drink a whole bottle before it goes bad. Not that that is a hardship but I prefer to drink wine at leisure, not against the clock.

What am I cooking that ends with sauce?

The menu plan for the next two weeks includes – milk braised pork loin, chicken fried steak, steak bites, turkey croquettes, ginger chicken and parmesan crusted tilapia. All of which end with deglazing and/or cooking down things to get a sauce.

We’re also having lasagna, meatloaf, tacos, chicken sandwiches and a soup to be named later.

I foresee leftover gravy joining the meatloaf. Possibly the chicken sandwiches also  if I make chimichuri sauce for the steak bites.

It feels good to enjoy cooking again.

12 comments:

Darcy@Somewhatmuddledmusings said...

Oh! Chimichuri just rocks. Russ has a leftover steak from his Valentine's Day gift, and I need to make some up for him to put on it! Thanks for the reminder!!

SciFi Dad said...

Thanks for making my blood pressure rise so early in the morning by bringing up the fact that we no longer have a gravy boat after my MIL borrowed ours for Christmas and ruined it. (It was a thermal insulated chrome piece of awesome.)

Rinda1961 said...

Love, love, love chimichuri. It's offered with tri tip sandwiches at one of the big baseball complexes we used to frequent. We use a small pyrex spouted measuring cup/creamer for small sauces and gravies and a great big spouted jug for gravy at Thanksgiving or Christmas. The boats are just a bit prissy for us.
Rinda

Michelle said...

Ummmm, just let me know your address, I'll be over for dinner.

Sara said...

Um, how could you not formally introduce us to your gravy boat? Or have action boat shots?? WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?? :)

Andrea @ The Creative Junkie said...

I have to admit, I am awful at sauces. Except for a basic white sauce, I tend to stay away from them because they intimidate me. "Reduction" is a word that makes me break out in hives.

humel said...

I've just had such a lovely catch up on all your recent posts :-) (I do look forward to getting back into my routine where I have time for blog visits daily and can comment on each post as you publish it, but for now it ain't happening....)

So, sauces. They sound good. But I don't recognise half of the dishes you mention here - chimichuri? tilapia? Not sure I could even pronounce them!

Does the blight live on?

And what are the latest holiday plans?

Comfy Mom said...

now that sounds like a nice gravy boat

Comfy Mom said...

I keep running out of small plastic & pyrex cups for gravy. They are too useful for other things. I got the gravy boat hoping the odd shape would put off others from using it for random purposes

Comfy Mom said...

It was in the dishwasher when I wrote this post or I would have taken a photo. I felt kinda bad putting up a photo of a boat I don't own, but I needed a graphic. :)

Comfy Mom said...

I take reduction to mean "boil unattended for 10 minutes" and heck, I do that all the time unintentionally.

Comfy Mom said...

The blight does live on still. Tilapia is a firm, mild, white fish. Chimichuri is a sauce of garlic & parsley from Argentina that is awesome on beef & chicken as a sauce & as a marinade. The latest holiday plan is a day trip to DC by train.