Photo Essay

This is where my food vacation started.  Upon getting home I had to go to the oral surgeon and get two wisdom teeth removed, so the role of food in the beginning of my break was to annoy me.  I didn't eat anything except for soup and ice cream in the beginning of break, on account of the stitches.  However my food frustration didn't last forever and I was eventually able to diversify my diet, and to be honest time flies when you're on vicodin.

After a few loopy days of soup and ice cream my mom hired me to help her in preparing a dinner for some of her friends' birthdays.  This was great for me because I knew I'd get snack on and make some great food, and getting paid a little made the deal even sweeter.  Less enjoyable duties included setting the table, seen here.

Though I don't frequently help my mom prepare multi course meals, this job was indicative of the role food plays in my family in general, where eating and cooking is also something that brings people or our family together.  My family is passionate about food and for me part of going home is getting to experience that again.

The first course of the meal was home made potato gnocchi, which required us to bake some potatoes, put them through a ricer a couple of times and then make a dough with some flour and egg.  After that we rolled the dough into strands and cut them into gnocchi sized pieces, heres a picture of my masterful rolling technique.  These things were so damn good, mostly due to their being perfect vehicles for unnecessary amounts of butter.

Sauteed onions with butter sauce and fried sage leaves was served with the gnocchi.

The second thing we made was an oven roasted cauliflower dish.  It was roasted with lemon and olive oil and then my mom threw some spices and capers in it, im not sure what really went into it though because I was still cleaning the stuff from the gnocchi while it was being made.  

This was an appetizer my mom cooked up without me.  These are little filo cups, kinda like mini pie crusts, that are filled with buttery lobster, called lobster bites, (imagine lobster roll meets crumbly mini pie crusts).  

Last but not least on the menu was roast leg of lamb.  The lamb was cooked with a bread crumb crust that contained orange marmalade, cranberry jelly, garlic, dijon mustard, and some things I forgot.  Though the recipe sounded sort of strange, it actually turned out really well and gave a sweet but also sharp accent to the lamb.