Home for the Holiday

Days 85-90 and Everything in Between

In case you're wondering—I'm still alive.

I've been a busy bee the last week. I just wrapped up my biggest undertaking in culinary school: the menu project. For the last few months, I've been planning a multi-course menu, complete with food photos, recipes, a costing breakdown, an essay on my theme and so on. I turned the project in today and am happy with my work.

I'm also happy that it's over, which is why I celebrated tonight with some culinary school friends at Wondee Siam. A Thai classmate and friend took us to the amazing restaurant in Midtown. She says it's the closest food to home in New York.

Because of the menu project—as well as Thanksgiving—I took a mini-sabbatical from my blog. The holiday was amazing; I was so grateful to see my parents and brother in Ohio. We cooked our butts off and ate so much that my pants are definitely not buttoning like they were before. But it was worth it.

Besides the turkey my dad deep-fried, my mom and I cooked most of Thanksgiving dinner. Appetizers comprised butternut squash soup, a foie gras torchon and rabbit sausage; the turkey and gravy, leek bread pudding, sweet potato casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, a ribbon salad, cranberry sauce and Brussels sprouts with homemade maple bacon were the main entrees and sides; and two pumpkin pies and a caramel apple pie were for dessert.

As if that wasn't enough, my mom and I made my uncle's Polish sausage the next day. I've eaten the dish a thousand times during the holidays, but I've never seen how it's made. I now know the family secret (and am willing to share it with anyone who favors garlic and pork).

After the sausage making, our family headed to chef Michael Symon's flagship, Lola, located in downtown Cleveland. I've been there several times, but it was a first for my husband. He loved it. We (not surprisingly) gorged ourselves on beef cheek pierogies, pork belly, crispy bone marrow, ribeye steak with bone marrow garlic butter, pork chops with cheesy polenta and several desserts. Not to mention the wine and drinks—but how can you pass those when the menu is on an iPad?

I headed back to New York missing my family and feeling as stuffed as a turkey.

Nuts for Nut Rolls

Days 77 and 78

Ahh, the comforts of home.

The third and final buffet group presented its week's worth of hard work today. The theme was Croatia, and I was a happy camper: Several of the dishes reminded me of food I grew up eating. (I'm half Slovenian—the country of Slovenia is adjacent to Croatia and has very similar food—and the rest of my ethnic background is Italian, Irish and Polish.)

One dish in particular—potica—was especially meaningful. The first bite of the nut roll brought me back to Christmas in Cleveland when my Grandma Mary was alive. She would make it every year; if there was any left, we'd take it home and dunk it in coffee in the morning. The potica made for the buffet was awesome. Thank you, mom, for sending the recipe, and thank you, chef and a good friend (you know who you are) for trying your hands at a family favorite. Grandma would be proud.

I was obviously thrilled about the potica, but I was also psyched to work with rabbits. The butchering comprised the entire day. The first half, I deboned them and used Activa—also known as transglutaminase "meat glue"—to roll the rabbit into a sausage-like shape. During the second half of the day, I broke the rabbits into several pieces, including front and rear legs, tenderloins and the smallest rack of ribs you've ever seen. Butchering took up most of the day yesterday as well; I removed the legs and breasts from ducks.

I really racked up some butchering practice this week.

Holy Smoke!

Days 75 and 76

It feels like I'm smokin' through Level 4—maybe 'cause I am.

The wood chips and charcoal have made several appearances in the past few days of class. My team can't get enough of them.

It all started with the duck breasts; they were amazing (I offered a piece to Ryan's parents—

who visited this weekend and have never tried duck—and they loved it.) Next came the trout, cured in a brine of juniper berries, Madeira wine and maple syrup. Also awesome. The spicy Italian sausage wrapped up Friday.

Today, we smoked the bacon we cured last week. Tomorrow, we're smoking salmon, rabbit sausage and more trout.

The smell of burning wood chips certainly evokes feelings of fall. Sometimes I miss having a fireplace. I'm definitely looking forward to heading to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. My mom and I have been planning the menu; deep-fried turkey, leek bread pudding and sweet potato casserole are confirmed.

Oh, and the infamous Level 3 lemon tart might make a reappearance...

Getting Corny

Michael Symon is the man.

For those of you who only know him from "Iron Chef America," it should be made clear that the Cleveland chef was cooking amazing food long before his Food Network days. I grew up in Cleveland myself—proudly, I might add—and I can truly say I have eaten some of the best food of my life at his restaurants. When I go back to visit my parents, I (easily) convince them to hit up one of his places for some beef cheek pierogis, cheesy polenta or a double-cut pork chop.

So when I turned on the Cooking Channel (Scripps Networks' newest venture) and discovered Symon making sweet corn ice cream with caramel-candied bacon and popcorn, I had to give it a go. (Side note: Those close to me know that I'll typically try any food once. They also know that for some reason, I'm not a huge fan of two things: watermelon and creamed corn. I'll eat them, but I'd rather not.) Sweet corn ice cream sounded closely related to creamed corn, but I was willing to give it a try since it was one of Symon's recipes.

I'm so glad I went for it. I omitted the popcorn, but I didn't lose the bacon. Everything is better with bacon. It could make an old shoe taste good.

That has me thinking: What about watermelon and bacon?