Xiaoxi-Fest!

Xiaoxi turned 22 on Cinco de Mayo, so we made a feast in her honor. X is from South Carolina and little bits of the south are endearingly part of her persona like the y'alls that slip out of her mouth and her appreciation for truly good food, even if the recipe calls for a bit of lard. This made for the most amazing birthday meal!

The Menu included: Five Cheese Macaroni

The secret to a really good macaroni is using an interesting blend of high-quality cheeses. This particular version included garlic cheddar, brie, plain cheddar, Parmesan, and Gruyere. Making the cheese sauce is very simple. Melt some butter in a saucepan (I think 4 tbs) and then put in a 1/2 cup of flour to make a roux. Allow the roux to cook a bit before stirring in about 2 cups of heavy cream. Once the cream got nice and hot, I dumped in the heavy cheeses and stirred. I seasoned the sauce with salt, pepper (ideally white pepper, but we didn't have any), and nutmeg. Nutmeg may seem a bit counterintuitive but it truly is the secret to amazing macaroni. Once the sauce is made, it is very simple. Just mix al dente pasta with the sauce and put in a baking pan. Right before baking top the dish with bread crumbs and little slivers of butter. We baked this for 20 minutes at 450 while covered with tinfoil and another 10 uncovered.

Collard Greens

Emily truly worked magic with these collards; they were delicious! The secret is hers though since I was too busy with other preparations to notice what went into them.

Pork Tenderloin

The pork tenderloin is only as good as the pork itself. No matter how skilled you are, you can not make bad pork sensational. Knowing this, I went to Stew Leonards with Grace and Olivia to get "Naked Pork" aka pasture raised pork with minimal processing. Olivia marinated the meat about 3 hours before cooking time. The tenderloins were cooked at 450 for about 20 minutes.
Red Velvet Roulade

There were many attributes that had to be combined to make the perfect cake for Xiaoxi...it couldn't involve frosting, it had to be texturally complex, and it had to stick with the southern theme. This led us to a delicious red velvet roulade with a white chocolate cream cheese filling. The filling had chunks of chocolate in it to help with the texture. Xiaoxi loved the cake even though she is violently attacking it in the above picture!