Tour of Fifty States: Arkansas' meal ... the LAST one!

Menu: Roast duck, Baked Risotto, Buttermilk Pecan Pie with Glazed Pecans

Outcome:  The duck was magnificent.  Glorious.  Heavenly.  Yep, we loved it!  The glaze that is added at the end of the cooking time really made it spectacular.  

Instead of making plain risotto, I got some wild mushrooms and sautéed them, chopped, and added them at the end of the cooking time along with a little white wine and a cup of real Parmesan cheese.  It had a good flavor, but the consistency was off. I've made risotto in the past, which is quite time consuming -- I found the baked risotto recipe and gave it a try, but the rice seemed to go from too al dente to quite soft in a very short time.  It was almost like mushroom-cheese oatmeal ... ah well, lessons learned.  When we make risotto again, it will be the good old 45 minutes of stir, stir, stir, stir at the stove! 

The pie.  Oh, the pie.  It was lusciously creamy, custardy, tangy yet sweet due to the real buttermilk, and oh, so good.  The glazed pecans that were scattered on the top didn't sink to the bottom as I thought they would, they just made a crunchy topping to the velvety filling.  VERY tasty and I plan to make it again!  Do you see a picture?  No!  I forgot to take one!  There are two slices left in the fridge and I'll try to take a picture before we polish them off, LOL.

Next up: Paula’s turn! She chose... oh, wait!  There's no more states left!!  Whatever shall we do?  Stay tuned ...

Roast Duck with Wild Mushroom Baked Risotto

Tour of Fifty States: California's meal

Menu:  Monterey Chicken, Almond Cupcakes
Outcome:  The Monterey chicken was good -- at the last minute, we decided to grill the onion slices and I think that came out nicely.  I kind of forgot the bacon though ... oops! To go with the chicken, we made a garden salad to represent the abundance of produce farms that California is known for.  We included Monterey Jack cubes, roasted California almonds, sunflower seeds, and some California raisins, as well. 
The almond cupcakes were divine!  For some reason, they came out on the small side, but no worries because they sure did taste good.  At first, I thought that placing a fortune cookie on top of the cupcake would be a good idea, but then ... wrapped or unwrapped?  We didn't want chocolate frosting on the wrapper, and we didn't want the cookies to become soft or stale if unwrapped, so we served them on the side!  Problem solved.
Next up:  Paula’s turn!  She chose Arkansas!  THE LAST STATE!

Garden Salad

 

Tour of Fifty States: Iowa's meal

What do you think of when you hear Iowa?  Corn!   Well, we did include corn in this meal and plenty of "corny" jokes were said around the table.  We couldn't "shuck" our responsibilities to put jokes in each others' "ears," now, couldn't we? 
Loose Meat Sandwiches were made popular on the "Roseanne" show from the early 1990s, when she opened a Loose Meat restaurant.  Yes, the show was set in Illinois, but it seems that Indiana and Iowa also lay claim to the Loose Meat sandwich.  See below the recipe title for a little more history. 
Menu: Loose Meat Sandwiches, Corn, Sweet Corn Panna Cotta

Outcome: The loose meat sandwiches were okay, but just not good. I followed the recipe below, but we found that more zip, more oomph, more gusto, etc., needed to be added. Perhaps I didn’t find a good recipe -- but we all agreed that the meat should have been saucier. This just seemed like a broken-up hamburger patty. We added cheese and extra ketchup to our sandwiches which helped a little -- I think we’re used to the “Manwich” style of sloppy joes, which are much more “sloppy” and saucy.  

 

Since both girls are in braces, we opted to have canned corn for them and corn on the cob for the rest of us.  (Not pictured, everyone should know how to serve corn!) 

 

The Sweet Corn Panna Cotta turned out to be the star of this meal. We didn’t have proper ramekins to let the custard set in, so I used some small dessert bowls. This worked in our favor, and we were able to have our dessert two different times. The first time I drizzled caramel over the top and the second time I spooned some freshly made peach preserves over the top. We liked the faint corn taste that was infused in the custard. Yes, I used the fancy cooking term "infused"! LOL   

 

Next up: Brandi’s turn! She chose California!

Tour of Fifty States: New York's meals

 Oh boy… I did it again.  I somehow overlooked writing up the last THREE states’ meals!  I realized last week, as I was prepping for our LAST state meal, almost 2 years into this adventure, that I never wrote up the last few!  Does that mean no one is reading? 

 

For New York, we knew we needed a “do-over” (see our previous New York meal) and for the state to have its’ foods properly represented.  So we went all out, and dedicated the whole weekend to the state of New York.  It was a fun weekend!  At the height of summer, the weekend began the kids’ first week of our summer visitation with them. 

 

Menu:  Spiedie Sandwiches, Beef on Weck, Buffalo Wings, Cheesecake, Pizza, Eggs Benedict

 

Outcome:  Thursday night we had Spiedies with Corn on the Cob (from Binghamton, in the region of NY that borders northern Pennsylvania, aka “The Southern Tier”.)  Bill’s aunt and uncle served these when we visited them, and we liked them a lot.

 

Friday’s dinner was Beef on Weck (from the Buffalo/Rochester area) with Skewered Red Potatoes, Onions, and Bacon (see Delaware for the recipe.)  I know I want to make this sandwich again, it was so delicious!  It was easy and quick, two more bonus points in my book.  J  Dessert that night was Aunt Barbara’s Cheesecake -- NY style, baked with a shortbread crust.  It’s unlike any other cheesecake I’ve ever had.

 

Saturday we had real NY bagels that we had frozen on our last trip up (Poughkeepsie) for breakfast.  I took the girls to Bee City in Cottageville and we had pizza for lunch!  For dinner, we had Buffalo wings (I had Teriyaki wings because I don’t care for hot/spicy food) with French fries. 

 

We finished up our salute to New York with Eggs Benedict (NYC) on Sunday morning, then we took the kids to their grandparents’ to finish up the week.   Overall, it was a great weekend. 

Next up:  Bridget’s turn!  She chose Iowa!