Rob's Personal Blog

Bev's Farm-to-Table(Tounge-in-Cheek) dinner...late post!!

2009-11-29T17:36:00.001-05:00

This post is WAAAY late. I thought I had posted it already, but....I didn't. I've been too occupied with our other project. Some background. My Wife's friend from Montana flew in for our 'wedding' (aka very very small dinner >25 people), as a gift, she gave us a basket of some stuff from the farm she works on. best. gift. ever. She gave us some: Garlic Mint tea Lemon Balm tea Raspberry Jam

DeGroff Cocktail Brunch at Catherine Lombardi

2009-11-08T17:48:00.012-05:00

I loaded up on Ibuprofen and Laurie and I went to an awesome brunch today at Catherine Lombardi Restaurant and Cocktail Bar in New Brunswick, NJ. It was for the release of Jill DeGroff's new book Lush Life, Portraits from the Bar.Jill was there signing books and her Husband, King Cocktail Dale DeGroff was there mixing cocktails.Anyone who knows anything about food and cocktails knows that this

Timko's Tomato Sausage Risotto

2009-11-06T19:48:00.005-05:00

I never finished putting up my Italy trip report. I probably never will. Just too busy to do it justice. If you wanna hear about it, email me, this is an open invite for dinner at my house. I've been suffering from a crazy migraine post running the NYC Marathon (oh yeah, I ran the NYC marathon), and still have it...but needed some comfort food if I wasn't hitting the cocktail bar tonight. So, in

Our Honeymoon in Italy part 1.1 - Venice day 1

2009-10-05T10:01:00.009-04:00

I'm going to break down our 23 day honeymoon into a lot of parts, by city visited. We started our honeymoon in Venice (after flying into Rome, we trained it up to Venice), then Bologna, then Tuscany (Chianti), Positano, Naples, and finally Rome. For all of my pictures, click here. Click the "read more" below the pics for the post...all about Venice, well at least the first night. Also, I'll have

Apple Picking/Pie

2009-10-05T09:10:00.002-04:00

I'm procrastinating getting all my pictures/blog posts up about my honeymoon in Italy, but I promise I will. In the meantime...Yesterday, Laurie and I decided to go apple picking.Jonathans it was...(and some Crispens for later...)I still suck at baking/crusts, etc. but the crust was the best crust i've ever made....very very very flaky.

Grilled last night...Mexican Style...

2009-08-25T10:09:00.001-04:00

Was going to make the same dish Helena made...even bought what I needed for it. Then, realized, I spent almost 4 hours doing yard work on Sunday, I was going to grill and eat outside if it killed me. So I scraped some recipes off of Rick Bayless's site. Grilled Lobster with Smoky Garlic MojoGrilled Chicken with Escabeche SauceSome grilled corn with some Mexican cream and Queso Fresco Then,

Pollo en Salsa de Fresadilla Y Chipotle

2009-08-10T19:29:00.002-04:00

Still on my Mexican kick, I made Pollo en Salsa de Fresadilla Y Chipotle from Diana Kennedy's cookbook. Fan-fucking-tastic. Just with whatever leftover corn and flour tortillas I had in the house. Dinner for 2 total+lunch tomorrow for 2....7$ and I that's because I had to buy Mexican bay leafs and a bunch of extra garlic. Tomatillos? 2lbs for 99cents and I needed only 1.5lbs. Limes? 10cents at

More Mexican...

2009-08-10T09:21:00.004-04:00

Alright, I'm obsessed with Mexican food/cooking. I'm not good at it...yet, but damnit I'm trying. I think I like it because I like the Mexican grocers in town.I wanted something simple/basic to make last night so whipped up Diana Kennedy's recipe for simple Mexican Rice. Arroz a la Mexicana. Threw some left over grilled chicken in there too. Came out awesome. Could have maybe used some more

Summer Risotto

2009-08-05T10:17:00.005-04:00

Risotto is usually pretty heavy...but I craved it last week and whipped up a modified recipe I found on the web (I'll find it again, and post a link, I promise) made with summer squash, some fava beans, and fresh ricotta topped with some basil from the garden (by garden, I mean the pot of basil I try to prevent the neighborhood cat from pissing on!) It wasn't much less "heavier" but....it was my

Mexican Cooking

2009-07-12T20:09:00.003-04:00

Dipping my toe into wanting to learn Mexican a little more, I went to the bookstore and stole a few recipes...made Salpicon De Res from The Art of Mexican Cooking tonight. came out good. I'm not making my own tortillas yet........but that's just because I haven't picked up a press. ;) Been really interested in Mexican cooking lately...if you follow my blog you might remember my Caldo de Pollo

We made some Korean BBQ Short Ribs...

2009-05-28T10:10:00.002-04:00

From THIS recipe....and they were great.

Grilled some of that chicken sausage I made...

2009-04-23T20:34:00.001-04:00

house was too clean today, so rather than mess it up so soon, decided to cook outside. Grilled up the chicken sausage, threw some rough chopped peppers in a pan (1 yellow, 1 orange, 1 jalapeno) with some evoo and 2 cloves of garlic just smushed for flavor. Cooked on high for a few minutes, then threw in some Sherry wine and cooked on medium low for about 7 minutes, salt pepper.... while the bread

Some people make friends, some enemies, me...I make sausage.

2009-04-22T22:57:00.001-04:00

Made sausages for the first time tonight, so just snacked on a bunch of "test patties"made chicken and sun dried tomato and then hot italiancame out well for my first time.was pretty proud of myself....no tears or nothing.

Timko Tuesday's Awesome Simple Dinner!

2009-04-21T21:42:00.005-04:00

Had one of those nights....went for a run, came home and dinner was spot on and super simple. Preheated the grill to incinerate, which on my propane grill isn't that high (about 700) unfortunately, I'm way too lazy to charcoal it for a Tuesday night. Aside from sourcing the morel mushrooms...(which I got at Whole Foods in Princeton for 39.99/lb....5 bucks worth was more than enough for a cup of

Productive weekend...so far...

2009-04-18T22:40:00.002-04:00

baked some babka coffee can style for the family for easter last night till about 1:30...yeah, my family requests the sprinkles...heh.woke up, did all the "first nice day of spring" yard work and cleaning out of the garage....for about 7 hours. backyard is grass looking good so far...Then went grocery shopping, then...for 6.25 mile run. tonight, experimented with the KA meat grinder and some

My Birthday 2009 - Laurie's Dinner for me...

2009-04-15T09:45:00.004-04:00

Click the "read more" for the rest of the post/pictures...So, my birthday is never that big a deal. Never used to be...until I met Laurie, and she decided it was. last year she surprised me with a trip to Rhode Island, this year, a spectacular dinner/evening. A rundown of my evening. Came home, went for a run, showered......came out to this waiting next to the recliner with my favorite bumming

Easter 2009

2009-04-15T09:37:00.004-04:00

Click the "read more link" for the rest of the pictures....Last year we had it at our house....here's the post.http://randallpmcmurphy.blogspot.com/2008/03/easter.html This year, at my parents. we made the crostini 'bar' and some loaves of bread. and a couple of magnums of some cheap italian wine.most people opted for herring and rye bread over our stuff.....such is life. Although my parents gave

Killer Tofu!!!!

2009-04-06T19:56:00.003-04:00

Been on a beet kick lately....Still on the beet kick.At least I can laugh at myself...hahaget it?The other night, I batched-up and froze from beet ravioli filled with goat cheese and ricotta.....and had to test out a few.yeah, i messed around with 2 different ravioli "tools" I like freehand or the bear-trap ones best.baked some bread from Artisan breads in 5 minutes a day. It's only the second

Pasta the way a whore would make it

2009-03-28T21:00:00.003-04:00

Yep, that's what it translates to. Puttanesca. Made some fresh pasta (4 xl eggs, 3.5c flour, should have used some semonila, but didn't have any, natch) Tossed some garlic in a pan, I think about 4 cloves, and some dried chilis....because I had them. I'm sure you can use some pepper flakes. Sauteed for a minute or 2, enough that I didn't burn the garlic, then threw in 2 cans of fire-roasted

Sunday Lamb

2009-03-22T18:21:00.003-04:00

Craving lamb today, I asked Laurie to pick up some rib chops (I initially wanted loin chops, but, well, you don't wanna hear my butcher rant). She threw some new red potatoes with some garlic, evoo, and rosemary in the oven. When they were done, I, trimmed, and S&P the chops, quick hot sear in the pan on both sides, and removed them. I had some garlic butter in the fridge left-over from some

Long overdue update post...

2009-03-09T11:48:00.006-04:00

Well, haven't posted in a while. Work's been busy, life's been busier. Rest assured I'm still cooking up a storm. Saw Watchmen this weekend, it was real good, but I'm a comic geek. Here are a few meals we cooked as of late. If anyone want's a recipe, just let me know. Nothing is too groundbreaking, really.REQUESTI'm looking for a good source of meats in NJ...just kind of a single source. I can

My Resume - Employment

2009-02-13T10:38:00.005-05:00