I've thought Wolfgang Puck was a culinary genius ever since I caught one of his old shows airing as a "filler" on the early morning weekend programming block of The Food Network.  I couldn't understand a word the man was saying, but he seemed so into what he was doing, and his food looked so good, it was impossible to not want to jump in a kitchen after watching his contagious personality.  After I tried his recipe for garlic bread, the most amazing garlic bread the world has ever seen by the way, this man became one of my cooking idols.  Even Gordon Ramsay, my other huge favorite, worships the ground the man cooks on.

That status as culinary god was further cemented by eating at Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney...  Amazing food, humungous portions, and only a counter-serve credit?  A genius and a philanthropist to the cause of enjoying the best of Disney at a bargain.  My first trip to Disney in September of 2011, I ate there 4 times in 7 days.  In January, 3 times in 4 days.  This last trip, 3 times in 7 days.  When I get home, I always really regret not eating there more.  As I said, kind of a big fan.

When I got the recipe for his famous bacon wrapped meatloaf, I freaked out.  First I freaked out with excitement over actually having this recipe, the actual one from Wolfgang Puck Express.  Pair it with the cream cheese mashed potatoes and this was going to be a win.  Then I freaked out when I read the recipe...  Not a single ounce of bread crumb, bread, or panko to be seen.  His secret ingredient?  Mushrooms.  MUSHROOMS.  I hate mushrooms.  Hate, hate, HATE mushrooms.  Had Wolfgang Puck been feeding me mushrooms on the sly?  And I never noticed?  This, for me, was like seeing a piece of behind-the-scenes Disney magic that you never wanted to see.  I was totally convinced that this dish, one of my favorites, was ruined forever and despite loving it while I ate it, I could never think of it the same way again if it really and honestly did include mushrooms.

Turns out, after multiple confirmations, that yes, Wolfgang Puck uses mushrooms, not breadcrumbs, in his meatloaf under the belief that it makes the loaf moister, have better texture overall, and adds to the meaty flavor (as mushrooms absorb the flavor of meat very well) in a way that bread just can't. 

I almost passed on this recipe...  I just really hate mushrooms.  I didn't want to eat anything with mushrooms in it.  I literally had to sell myself on the idea of making this the entire time I was grocery shopping.  I had to convince myself it'd be worth it, that I wouldn't notice, and that it'd taste amazing.  When I chopped the mushrooms, I freely admit I went overboard, chopping them to almost a fine paste in the fear of tasting them when I ate a slice. 

As usual, it turns out my insanity was wasted...  When it was cooked, you couldn't tell that there were mushrooms, which if I hadn't melted down into full "mushrooms are nasty" mode, I'd have rationally realized as you can't tell when you order it at Wolfgang Puck Express either.  And the meatloaf was delicious, perhaps maybe slightly under seasoned from what is served (but that may have been my fault...  I forgot to add thyme and added less salt), but otherwise, an amazingly spot-on copy of what is offered at Wolfgang Puck express.  Honestly, it was like a slice of Disney vacation. 

Wrapping the bacon around the meatloaf was way easier then I thought to do, but very difficult to explain.  Hopefully, by the pictures I took, people can see what I did.  Basically I layered the bacon in a zipper-like fashion, with the end of the bacon slightly more then halfway across the bottom of the pan, then layering the next piece in the opposite direction.  This worked amazingly well, and it looked way cool.  I tried to make sure that the fatty portions of the bacon weren't all on top of each other, layering it so that fat was over bacon meat, not bacon fat over bacon fat (which hopefully makes sense), so as to keep the bacon from falling apart...  And it should go without saying, this is a really, really fatty dish.  I had to drain it partway through cooking so that the bottom of the meatloaf wasn't stewing in fat.  I'll also say that the waterbath was the big secret to the moistness of this dish, along with the mushrooms.  The extra little bit of hassle is totally worth it.

This was one of my favorite dishes to make and serve for this blog...  Seriously, it was amazing.  If I'd had beef broth on hand to make that amazing sauce they serve with it and some onion straws, I'd have been in heaven.  But there's always next time...

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Wolfgang Puck's Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

As is served at Wolfgang Puck Express, Downtown Disney

 

°o°  3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
°o°  1 onion, peeled and diced

°o°  1/2 pound mushrooms, trimmed and finely chopped

°o°  3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced fine

°o°  1 cup heavy cream

°o°  1 1/2 teaspoons oregano, minced

°o°  1 1/2 teaspoons thyme, minced 

°o°  1 1/1 teaspoons salt

°o°  1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
°o°  1 pound ground beef

°o°  1 pound ground pork

°o°  1 pound ground veal

°o°  1 egg, lightly beaten

°o°  1 pound bacon

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil and saute the onion until translucent.  Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until they begin to color, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the cream, spices, salt, and pepper,and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are cooked, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  

Combine beef, pork, and veal, add egg.  Stir until ingredients are completely combined (using hands is sometimes easiest).  Set aside.

In a 9x5x3-inch pan, line the bottom and sides of the pan with bacon slices, making sure the edges overlap slightly and hang over the edges.  Add meat mixture, patting smooth and evenly.  Fold the ends of the bacon up and over the meat mixture, enclosing it completely.  Cover with foil and place in a roasting pan
 
Prepare a water bath by putting roasting pan in the warmed oven and adding boiling water until the water comes halfway up the side of the loaf pan.  Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil.  Slide shelf into the oven and bake 1 hour.  Remove the foil and continue to bake until meat hits 160 on a meat thermometer, an additional 30 or so minutes.  Drain if needed.

When done, remove meatloaf and allow it to rest in the pan for 10 minutes.  Cut the loaf crosswise into 8 slices.  Serve drizzled with gravy made from pan juices, if desired.

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Halloween...  One of my favorite holidays.  You have an excuse to dress up, eat tons of candy, and celebrate the darker, spookier side of life.  Being a lifelong fan of "Haunted Mansion" and lover of the weird and spooky, Halloween is my time of year.

When I got the recipe for the Jack Skellington Sugar Cookies, I was over the moon.  I love, love, love "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  I love cookies.  What a perfect match...  It was like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, like Madame Leota and Tarot Cards, like pumpkins and the headless horseman...  It just seemed to belong so perfectly.  Add to that my recent trip to Disney and seeing these cookies absolutely everywhere, I figured this couldn't be a cooler recipe. 

And then I made them.  Yikes.  The recipe I had?  Not good.  They were bland, they were dry, they just weren't that tasty.  And the sugar frosting?  It was really practically inedible.  Even my son, who I think is in some way related to the Cookie Monster, took one bite and wanted no more.  I can imagine no bigger sin in my son's world then to refuse a cookie, and if this one was worth refusing...  That says something.

Now, to be fair, a lot of the recipes I get are authentic, but they're done in such huge batches that they have to be scaled down by the chefs that give them to me.  After all, I have no real need to do batches of 100 cookies.  Sometimes, when those conversions are made, while technically accurate by proportion, they don't taste quite right.  This recipe was an obvious victim of that phenomenon as, when I made them the second time, I had the very exact same issues: a bland, dry cookie with icing that was gross.  Very un-Disney. 

But at least they looked great.

That all being said, it's not like this recipe is a total loss.  The idea behind it still works...  Just your favorite, trusted sugar cookie recipe (or buy some premade cookies, or premade cookie dough), ice it with white frosting or icing or chocolate, and using a small tipped bag of black decorator gel, and you have your own, edible, Jack Skellington cookies.

But of course, I also made another discovery in this process...  That I don't have the patience to decorate that many cookies.  But that's a problem for a different day. 

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October 17, 2012...  Day 11.  Still horribly sick with the cold that just won't go away.  Constant coughing, persistent sore through, and no end in sight.  Tylenol and comfort food are my only sources of relief.  Would write more, but the energy I've spent trying to type has wiped me out..  I must rest.  Winter is coming.

Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit (and watching too much "Game of Thrones," a decidedly un-Disney program, I might add), but I'm still in the death grips of what I've named the Florida Flu...  The worst cold I've ever had in my life, the onset of which coordinated perfectly with the day I was flying home.  Nothing says fun like bad cold at 40,000 feet, except for maybe spotting a creature on the wing of the plane ("Twilight Zone..."  I'm almost done, I swear).

The part about craving comfort food?  That part is true, though.  And what I wanted, more than anything, is soup.  Nice, simple, delicious, hearty, soup.  The reason I went with this soup was simple...  I had all the ingredients on hand but the pumpkin and ginger, so I didn't have to do any major shopping.  Yes, it sounded awesome, yes it looked easy to prepare, but in the spirit of full disclosure, this recipe appealed to my total lack of desire to be seen in public, as well as my need to be disgustingly lazy.  And it was for these same reasons that I used canned pumpkin instead of a whole pumpkin, which was my only major change to the recipe.  Peeling, seeding, and chopping a 4 pound pumpkin?  I wasn't really feeling it.  I was, however, feeling opening 2 cans of pumpkin puree and calling it done.

I must say, this recipe totally hit the spot.  I didn't expect to really taste the ginger (I may have added slightly more then what was called for...), but actually it was a really nice compliment to the pumpkin.  I don't really get the point of the milk foam on the top...  It didn't add to the flavor, though it did look cool, but I've never made anything with a foam before and it was an interesting experience.  That said, it's not really necessary.

My big warning is that this recipe makes a lot of soup.  Enough to feed a small army.  Were I to do it over again, I'd half the recipe, for sure.  However, I fed my son a bowl and a half for lunch, then afterwards he asked to take a nap.  He was out for 3 hours.  So...  Parents, do with this information what you will. 

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Pumpkin-Ginger Soup

As is served on Disney Cruise Lines

 

°o°  3/4 cup butter

°o°  2 onions, finely sliced

°o°  1 stalk celery, chopped

°o°  2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated

°o°  1/2 cup flour

°o°  2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
°o°  1 (4 pound) pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and cubed (or 2 cups pumpkin puree)

°o°  1 1/4 cups heavy cream

°o°  3/4 cup apple juice
°o°  salt and pepper to taste

Milk Foam

°o°  1/4 cup whole milk

°o°  1/4 cup heavy cream

°o°  Nutmeg garnish, optional

Melt butter in a large stockpot, add onions.  Cook for about 2 minutes.  Add celery and ginger, cooking an additional 2 minutes or until onions are translucent and celery is soft.  Whisk in flour, stirring constantly, forming a rue.  Slowly add vegetable stock, whisking constantly to break up lumps.  Bring to a boil, allowing mixture to thicken.  Add pumpkin.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching.  Add heavy cream and apple juice, stir well.  Cook an additional 20 - 30 minutes until mixture is heated and pumpkin has softened.
 
Working in batches using an immersion blender or regular blender, blend the soup until creamy.  Add additional stock if soup is too thick.  Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, if desired.  Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.  Ladle into bowls and serve warm.

To make foam garnish, add milk and heavy cream into a small saucepan and warm, being careful to not boil the mixture.  Using an immersion blender, whip mixture until foamy.  Place small amount of foam in the center of soup before serving, garnish with fresh grated nutmeg, if desired.

Serves 10

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Sorry for the looooong abscence...  I was certainly gone longer then I'd ever dreamed I would be.  Unfortunately, illness, website problems, a new job, and yes, even a Disney trip kept me pretty occupied.  Of course the illness and website problems were kind of miserable, but I wish I could say that new jobs and Disney trips were my legitimate excuses for falling behind in life.  Usually it's a combination of children, an inability to be on time, and sheer laziness that present special challenges for me...  But that's a different topic for a different blog!

While I was at Disney, not only did I have an utterly awesome, amazing time (people, the new Fantasyland looks awesome.  Seriously.), but I came back with a new cookbook focused on Disney holidays and seasons.  Turned out that was a better-than-anticipated addition to my library, as I also brought back a monstrous cold that, 10 days later, is still making me miserable.  As a result of my cold and my longing for Disney, I seem to crave a steady supply of Disney-related, seasonably appropriate comfort food that requires little-to-no effort to prepare on my part, something this cookbook has in abundance.

Ironically, the first recipe I pulled from this cookbook actually wasn't all that easy to prepare (or should I say, it was easy, but it was time consuming), but because it has it's roots in one of the best places to eat at Disney, Artist Point, I had to make it.  Sometimes nostalgia and an overwhelming desire to eat well trumps convenience.

I'm ashamed to admit that I've only had gnocchi once in my life, at Le Cellier actually, and while I liked it, I'm basically clueless on how to make it.  I get the principle behind this potato-based dumpling, and I know it's a favorite to prepare on shows like "Top Chef," and I know it's an "in" food right now, however, that food trend has yet to hit our area of New Hampshire.  Such is the fate of those of us who live in an area where it's Chilis, Applebees, Taco Bell, or bust.  Seeing as I wanted to try something different (and I over-bought on sweet potatoes), this recipe was a great fit, though not without it's challenges.

First, I'll say that roasting the potato as opposed to boiling it was genius, as it both brought out the sweet, caramel-sugar taste of the potato, and it got me out of actually peeling a potato, my least favorite kitchen job.  By roasting it, the skin was easier to peel than an orange.  Already, huge win in my book.  While I'm sure it'd have gone faster to peel, boil, and mash the potato, the taste was noticeably better after roasting and if cooking it for an hour gets me out of peeling, then I'll do it with a big smile on my face.  However, like most people I suspect, I don't have a potato ricer...  But I did have a large strainer and a spoon which I used instead (and when that didn't go fast enough, an over-sized glass tumbler to mash it through the strainer).  While it gave me the desired effect, it did take forever to do and, unfortunately, I think that simply mashing the potato wouldn't give you the consistency needed for the dough.  Next time, I'm using my Salad Shooter (yes, I own one...  Don't judge) or a regular cheese grater since I realized that would be faster and as effective after it was too late for me to do anything about it.

Second issue was that, after adding all of it together, I added either too much flour or used too little sweet potato.  I added water to help get the dough to the right consistency, but in hindsight, I'll probably go with more like 1.5 pounds of sweet potato as opposed to 1 pound.  Sweet potato is easy to store and freeze and I think the flavor is only helped by adding more sweet potato instead of water.  But that said, even with water added, the sweet potato flavor was very pronounced and utterly delicious.  For those who don't have truffle oil, simply use another infused oil that compliments sweet potatoes, olive oil, or just leave it out.  While the truffle oil does give a nice hint of flavor, it's not something you need.  I'd probably make it without next time.

I also have to plead guilty to the fact that by the time I got to the 4th or 5th portion of the dough, I was tired (did I mention I'm still sick?) so my cutting of the gnocchi wasn't as uniform as it could have been...  It certainly didn't look like Artist Point and it won't go down as the prettiest dish I've ever made (I thought it looked like little orange scallops), but holy cow, did it taste awesome.  I love the buttery sweetness of the drizzle and the sweet potato flavor, which I was worried would be lost behind the butter, was perfect.  Maybe I'd add less butter next time, and I'd certainly try harder to make it look nicer, but other then that, I wouldn't change a thing.  I'm even tempted to add this to my Thanksgiving dinner...

And, a special note for my sister (and anybody else who cares)...  This freezes beautifully.  Freeze it in a boil-safe bag and then, when it's time to eat, drop the bag in boiling water, make and add the butter when you're ready to serve, and you're done.

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Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Honey-Truffle Brown Butter

As is served at Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge

 

Gnocchi

°o°  1 pound sweet potatoes
°o°  2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

°o°  1 egg yolk

°o°  1/2 teaspoon course (or Kosher) salt

Honey-Caper Brown Butter

°o°  1 stick butter

°o°  2 tablespoons honey

°o°  1 teaspoon truffle oil

°o°  Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450.  Using a fork or knife, pierce sweet potatoes all over and then bake until tender, 45 minutes for smaller potatoes, an hour or slightly more for larger potatoes.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then remove and discard peel.  

Using a potato ricer or grater, rice potatoes into a large bowl.  Add 2 cups of flour and egg yolk, stirring with your hands until the dough is soft, but not sticky.  Add more flour if needed to sticky dough, additional sweet potato or water to dough that's too dry.  

Divide the dough into 6 balls and roll each dough ball into a rope until it is about 1 inch thick.  Slice the rope into 1-inch pieces and transfer to a dish.  Repeat with all remaining dough balls.

In a large pot of salted, boiling water, drop the dough in batches into the water and cook until firm, warmed through, but still tender, about 5-7 minutes.  Remove using a slotted spoon, making sure they're well drained, and transfer to a covered baking dish.  

Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium-high heat until butter is browned, not burned, and has a nutty color and smell.  Remove from heat and quickly stir in honey melted and incorporated.  Add truffle oil and toss into gnocchi.  Serve immediately.  

Serves 4 

 

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