Dinner Tonight

Have I mentioned how much I love food?  And how much I love to eat food?  Funny, as I am on the journey with my own children through their childhoods, I realize that I was a super picky eater when I was a kid.  But now, I love mostly anything - except canned spinach, mayonnaise, and mushrooms.  Here are a few of the things that I hated as a child:  spaghetti, pancakes, ketchup, and canned spinach (that one stuck!).  I was pretty weird.  But back to the present - I love food.  Someday, I would love to be a food blogger.  But, I am not a photographer, and it seems like that is a prerequisite for food blogging.  Plus, even when I'm in a camera mood, I always get busy cooking and forget to take pics of the steps, or I get busy eating and forget to take pics of the finished product.  I just like to eat and also to talk about what I ate, am eating, or am going to eat soon. 

So for dinner tonight, I made roasted pork loin (I marinated it in some Meyer Lemon Salad Dressing that I had on hand) with blueberry/pear chutney, roasted broccoli, and a turnip gratin.  The pork was good - hard to mess up roasting a pork loin - toss it in the pan with a little EVOO, salt, pepper, and don't overcook it.  Its a pig.  It is delicious.  (Make sure the layer of fat is on top so that the flavor drips down into the meat as it cooks!)  The roasted broccoli was the same.  Toss it with EVOO, salt and pepper, throw it in the oven and don't burn it.  Yummo.  (I'm channeling Rachael Ray here - can you tell?)  The blueberry/pear chutney was disgusting, and went straight down the garbage disposal after dinner.  We won't discuss it.  But the turnip gratin - OH WOW!!! It was AMAZING!  I want to eat all of the leftovers, and I actually may.  Let's give it an hour. 

Here is the recipe - I totally adapted it from Ann Burrell's recipe for Turnip Gratin on the Food Network.  I did change it a bit, b/c, well that is what I do.  I'm sure that her's is delicious too, as written.  I just like to tweak things for our family.  :)

1.  First I took about half the turnips that my Aunt Denise gave me from their garden this weekend (really, I think that they were meant to attract deer - they weren't really in an actual garden as much as they were scattered around the deer feeder.)  The deer didn't want them, and their family doesn't really like turnips, but we LOVE them, (and when I say we, I mean me) so we took probably five lbs.  It was fun - we were just walking through the pasture, we'd see the tell-tale turnip greens and pull that baby on up!  I washed, cut off the tops and bottoms, peeled them, and sliced them super thin. 

2.  Actually, FIRST, I took about a cup of heavy cream, added a cup of chicken stock, added some smashed garlic (four cloves, smashed, then cut in half), dried thyme, salt and pepper.  I set this in a small saucepan and put it on the stove on low to warm while I was dealing with the turnips.  Keep an eye on this that it doesn't burn or the cream doesn't curdle. 

3.  After I had my turnips all sliced up nice, I started layering them in a greased smallish pie pan. (Like 8 inch round pan)  I think after the peeling, cutting off bad parts, lopping off the tops, I had about a lb. of actual turnip "meat".  I arranged them slightly overlapping in circles to get a layer of turnips.  Then I put a couple super thin pats of butter.  Then I sprinkled some shredded swiss cheese on top, then I poured a little of the warm cream/stock mixture.  I did remove the garlic but left the thyme in.  Then I repeated this process to yield four layers.  You want cheese sticking out on top, so add a little extra to that last layer if you want.

4.  Cover with foil, stick in a 400 degree oven, and let it cook for an hour.  After 45 minutes or so, take off the foil.   After an hour, the cheese should be slightly browned on top, and the liquid should be bubbling.  When you take it out, it looks pretty liquidy, but as it sets, the turnips soak up some of the liquid and it is perfect. 

Oh, the deliciousness.  The turnip has the texture of a potato, but a slightly spicy-radish like taste.  Its not a radish, so even if you hate radishes (as my girlfriends in college did - remember the "radish effect"?)  give the turnip a chance.  It is mild with a bit of zip.  Zip is always good.  I also like that this changes it up from the normal broccoli/salad vegetable routine.  Who eats tons of turnips, really?  I guess after this recipe, we will!  Enjoy and have a great night! 

PS - Thank you Denise, for the wonderful turnips - we so enjoyed them tonight!  But even more, we enjoyed our visit with you all so very much.  We can't wait to come back!  Love you.