Last Night's Menu

I'm in such a cooking mood. The Menu last night was:

Sheep cheese from Rancho Marina with Membrillo
Salad greens with dried cranberries, toasted pecans and blue cheese with vinaigrette dressing
Chicken Quarters roasted with olive oil, fresh thyme and crushed red pepper
Potatoes roasted with fresh rosemary
Broccoli sauteed with garlic
Rustic Apple tart topped with whipped mascarpone cheese

I had been saving the Sheep cheese that I bought when I visited the Rancho and so I opened it. This piece must have been one of the more aged pieces because it was dry and a bit crumbly but the texture and saltiness was a good counterpoint to the membrillo.

I have opened a package of dried cranberries so I'm using them in everything while they are still fresh. They also were sprinkled in with the Apple Tart to add some color.

The idea for the chicken quarters came from the current issue of Fine Cooking. But their recipe called for sliced lemons and olives with seeds and dried thyme. We can seldom find lemons and it is hard to find a variety of olives. Besides the lemons and olives just didn't seem seasonal for the Fall and I always worry about serving olives with seeds mixed into a main course. Don't want any guests with a broken tooth. I have fresh thyme growing on the terrace and I think it is better than the dried any day of the week. Still the idea of the leg and thigh rubbed with a seasoned olive oil both under the skin and out seemed like it would make a good presentation on the plate.

Roasted potatoes and sauteed broccoli are a sure thing. Besides a lot of the broccoli for Whole Foods is grown near San Miguel de Allende so the broccoli that we buy here is always delicious and very fresh.

I tried the rustic tart recipe last week so I made another one. This time I added more spices to the apple mixture and used brown sugar on the apples rather than regular sugar. I also added the mascarpone topping.

Really simple food but with a little wine and some good conversation alongside, it was very tasty.