A Food Journey with Scott

A Foodie's Farewell

2011-08-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

As a few of you may have noticed, I haven't been posting a lot lately. Ok, I haven't posted anything since May. No great reason except I've been busy. I think I'm blogged out for now. I am still cooking up a storm and have had some fun summer food experiences. I just haven't taken the time to take photos and write.

I can't thank you enough for reading and responding to posts over the almost three years I've been writing. It has been such a fun outlet for me to share all of these food related experiences as I continue to learn.

I got a Vitamix for my birthday which has opened up a whole new world of smoothies and sauces. It's so much fun.

I missed berry season for canning but have made up for it with peaches. I've canned rosemary peach jam and peach rum sauce. Then I canned some chipotle salsa.

My latest obsession is padron peppers. We had them at a tapas restaurant, then I found them at the farmers market. I sauteed them in a little olive oil, until they blistered, then sprinkled them with smoked sea salt (from Trader Joes). Amazing.

Thanks again and if you want to e-mail me one of your favorite recipes, I would love it!

My food journey will always continue!
Scott
(scott@climbingrose.com)

Men Who Cook

2011-04-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

My Mark doesn't cook a lot, but our good friend Marc does. Their wives were spending 12 hours on a field trip to Jamestown with fifth graders so the husbands got together to make us dinner. I have a weakness for men who can cook. Someone coined the phrase gastrosexuals for men (or women) who learn to cook to impress or entice the opposite sex.

The gastrosexuals Marc and Mark did a wonderful job. Mark made us grapefruit martinis and there was liver pate to start.
The first course was snails in puff pastry.

Marc made a wonderful flavorful broth with butter and garlic and then served them on the puff pastry.
Our girls had never tried snails before and 2 out of 3 approved.

The main course was pan fried turkey cutlets

with braised collard greens.

For dessert, daughter Madison used the leftover puff pastry and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and they served vanilla ice cream over them.

It felt so nice to be served such a lovely dinner in my own home!
A big thank you to the Marc(k)s.
You have an open invitation to cook dinner at my house anytime.

Meat

2011-04-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

How much do you think about the amount of meat you eat? (If you eat meat) I'm still ok with eating meat, but am trying to make better choices with how the meat I buy is farmed. I also think even those of us who eat meat could eat a lot less of it and add more fresh produce to our diets. I'm still trying to follow the meatless mondays movement and continue to see lots of references to it in the media. Check out their website which even gives recipes.
I teach yoga on Monday nights, so to honor that I usually end up making an Indian vegetarian dish. With Indian food, I don't even miss the meat.
Some people make a difference by eating vegetarian during the day, and then having meat with dinner. Any way you can find to cut back on your meat consumption will benefit your health and the environment.

What do you make when you have nothing planned for dinner? Do you have some fall back standards?
Like when you get home from vacation and not much is in the house. We've been known to have pancakes.
Some other favorites are omelets, quiches, grilled cheese and soup, spaghetti with olive oil and garlic and a wonderful stand by, spaghetti carbonara. I made some tonight!
It is so easy, and authentic Italian carbonara has no cream.

Just saute some cut up bacon in a pan. After awhile, add two whole garlic cloves, then a T. of butter.

In serving bowl, whisk two eggs and cracked pepper.

Boil a lb. of spaghetti , toss into eggs, then mix in bacon (taking out the garlic cloves)
Add lots of parmesan cheese.

You can't go wrong with this!

Sandwich Inspiration

2011-03-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

My good friend Ellen made me this amazing grilled portabello and goat cheese sandwich recently. The recipe was in Fine Cooking magazine. You can sign up here to get daily recipe ideas from them via their e-letter. I recreated it at home and had to make it a couple of days in a row (because it's so yummy).
First I make the pesto ahead of time then, grill the portabellos on a grill or pan.

Assemble the sandwich with the pesto, goat cheese and portabellos.

Brush the bread with olive oil and grill on the stove top or panini grill. The goat cheese melts down on to the mushrooms!

There's another grilled sandwich I make occasionally that this reminds me of. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe with pesto, mozzerella and tomato. Pesto is good on most sandwiches. My girls love a little smear on grilled cheese or turkey.
I used some leftover pesto for a St. Patrick's Day appetizer, crackers with goat cheese and pesto. It was the only green food item I served this year. I tried to keep my green influences to the decor. After last year's (green martinis!)

I bought a nitrate free corned beef this year from Whole Foods. Not as strong a flavor, but I liked it and it was a lot less salty. Almost more like a plain brisket.

Mixed Berry Oatmeal Crisp

2011-03-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of recipe I love to have up my sleeve! No special ingredients to run out and buy. Stock your freezer with a bag of frozen mixed berries and you'll always have a wonderful dessert to prepare for unexpected guests or if your cake falls on the floor (yes, I've had that happen). You can adapt the topping to whatever nuts you have on hand.
Mixed Berry Oatmeal Crisp was printed in the March issue of Bon Appetite.

Here the frozen berries are mixed with cornstarch and the crisp topping is thrown together.

Put the frozen fruit in the individual dishes and pile up the topping. They bake for about 40 minutes.
I'm just happy to have another use for these cute creme brulee dishes.

Excellent served hot with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Now that's showing some love.

Short Ribs

2011-03-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

I've only made short ribs a couple of times but this recipe is a keeper. I read an interview with Mark Bittman when he was leaving his regular column in The New York Times. They asked him to list his top ten recipes from all of his years of cooking and writing. This was one of them and it's so easy. Check it out: Short Ribs with Coffee and Chilis. After browning them I cooked them in the oven for almost three hours.

I served them over cheesy polenta and it was a fabulous combination.

And on a local note, we finally made it to the new Peter Changs. It was really good, but I can't wait to go back and try more dishes. They do have their wine/beer license and the service was good on a busy Friday night. Word on the street is that Mr. Chang may be there only temporarily and is just lending his name to the restaurant. Maybe he has another place in Atlanta? Not sure what to believe...... but I'll keep eating his creations if they're this good.

Rainbow Cupcakes

2011-03-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm always up for getting my kids in the kitchen with or with out me. Madison, my fifteen year old saw this recipe for rainbow cupcakes in a magazine and was dying to try it. It involved cake mix and lots of food coloring.
She made the cake mix and then divided the batter into 5 bowls to tint the batter.

She made a whipped cream icing. They were very popular with the younger crowd!

My work horse

2011-03-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

Did you buy a bread machine back in the bread machine craze of the 90's? I think ours was a Christmas gift and came from Sam's club. I would buy those bread machine mixes at Sam's Club. It sure was easy to throw some water and the mix in the pan and a few hours later, you had fresh bread. The house smelled wonderful but, oh those soft tasteless crusts. Next I got a recipe book on whole grain breads in your bread machine. I made a variety of dense brick loaves full of grains that were hardly edible.
So then the bread machine was banished to the basement for awhile and only used occasionally. In the past few years it has become my work horse! I use it for kneading and rising bread all of the time, just not baking.

It's very easy and comes out perfect every time. I just put my bread ingredients in, and put it on the 'first rise' cycle. It takes about an hour and a half, but if I'm away longer it's fine to just sit in there.

Then I take it out and put in my a bread pan and bake it in the oven so it has a nice crust.
I use it to rise my pizza dough too.
This crazy machine is also a rice cooker. The rice and water goes in the same container and there's a top for the rice cycle.
It steams rice perfectly, brown rice too.
It's only draw back is that it's quite large. I've pulled my back out hauling this thing up and down the basement stairs! But I use it a couple of times of week for dough and rice.
I bet you could fine a great deal on one of these at thrift shops or yard sales. I'm going to start looking for one exactly like the one I have because I don't know what I'm going to do if it ever stops working.

Cookbooks

2011-02-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

As you can probably tell I have quite a collection of cookbooks. I really love reading them. If I'm not in the middle of a novel, I tend to grab a couple at night and read through them before bed.
I was in the market for a mexican cookbook. I checked out some from the library by the very respected Diane Kennedy, but she'll have you growing the corn to grind your own masa if you follow her too closely. I decided I needed to own one of Rick Bayless's cookbooks on Mexican cooking. I researched them all and decided on Mexican Everyday.

He has lots of wonderful information between the recipes, so it makes for good late night reading. I haven't made anything from it yet but it inspired me to make tostados. We make a lot of quesadillas around here at lunch time. It's a great way to use up any leftover meat, vegetables or rice and I always have refried beans and cheese around. Then everyone makes them to their liking with or without hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, or avocados etc. You get the picture. I just never thought to do that with tostados, but they're great! Everyone loved them and you can't beat that crunch. My regular grocery store carries them, and the hispanic markets of course. They keep for awhile in the bread box too.

Ole´
I'm still riding on my high of visiting India and love love love the food.
I heard about this book The Indian Slow Cooker from a couple of different places, so I finally ordered it.

The recipes are so easy because you simple put all of the ingredients into your slow cooker. It uses a lot of Indian spices, but once you have those on hand it's so simple. Everything I've made so far has been fantastic.
I will work my way through the whole book. I did have to cut down on the amount of salt and chili's in most of the recipes.
I highly recommend it if you love Indian food.
Namaste

Real or Rumor?

2011-02-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

Could it be that the famous, yet elusive chef, Peter Chang is back in Charlottesville and opening a restaurant! Some friends told me they saw a sign up, so I went by to see for myself.
Sure enough there was lots of building activity and a sign in the window.

They had a sign up for hiring too, so it must be getting close. It's in the Barracks Road Shopping Center where Wild Greens used to be. I bet it'll do really well because good chinese food is really lacking in Charlottesville. We have excellent Indian and Thai but a great chinese restaurant will be very welcome. Can't wait!

Homemade Marshmallows

2011-02-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

For a fun project and a special treat for Valentines Day try a batch of homemade marshmallows. I've made them for the holidays too, to give with hot cocoa. One of my daughters wanted to take them to her class for Valentines Day.
You start by soaking the gelatin in water in the mixing bowl. Then boil the corn syrup and sugar mixture and when it reaches the soft ball stage, you pour it slowly into the gelatin.

Then whip it for about 15 minutes. We added some red food coloring for a pale pink effect.

Then spread it in a pan sprinkled with powdered sugar to dry overnight.

Then have a cute little girl cut out heart shaped marshmallows with a cookie cutter. Nice squares work too.

Roll the sticky edges in more powdered sugar.

Then pack in red box.

Happy Valentines Day!

Baking for stress release

2011-02-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

"When the going gets crazy, the crazy bake cookies."
That's me, the busier and more stressed I am, the more I want to hide in my kitchen and bake a big chocolate cake or loaves of bread. There's something so grounding and nurturing about it. I had a crazy day friday, with a big event that night but somehow I squeezed in time for a batch of peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. It helped me deal with the stress of the day.

Love this bumper sticker I got in the bag from my Penzey's Spices shopping spree this weekend.

To get through an occasional crazy day I reach for my espresso maker. I made some for a cousin recently and when he saw my stovetop model he said, "Cool, espresso old school"! Made me laugh.

I'm sure those super expensive machines out there make some amazing coffee but for the occasional cup of espresso, I love my little Bialetti.
I serve it in little espresso cups with sugar hearts and sometimes a splash of cream.

A perfect pick me up for another overcast winter day.

Waffles

2011-01-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

I love to make a waffle breakfast on the weekend. For a long time I've been meaning to try one of the recipes for overnight or raised waffles with yeast. I finally got around to it and I think it's the best waffle ever to come off of my waffle iron. There are a couple of recipes out there, the Marion Cunningham's raised waffles and Mark Bittman's overnight waffles. I followed Mark Bittmans and it was so easy to put it together, leave it on the counter overnight and then add the egg yolks and whipped whites in the morning.

It smells like bread baking when they are cooking.
This is definitely the new waffle of the house.

Masala Chai

2011-01-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've loved chai tea for years. I used to get the cartons of concentrate and make it at home or order it at a coffee shop. Our first morning in Mumbai at breakfast I asked for coffee and Mark asked for tea. My coffee wasn't very good so I took a sip of his tea and proclaimed "oh it's chai!" and I was hooked. He loved it too and every morning we drank at least three cups. It was very creamy, probably made with whole milk.

A typical breakfast in Mumbai: a boiled egg, spiced potatoes, bread, fruit and the fabulous tea.
I went to the grocery store in India to try and figure out how to make it like they do. I have a recipe from my yoga teacher here but it was quite complicated.
I bought a couple of beautiful boxes of tea in Mumbai. One says masala chai on it and the other one is darjeeling.

I started experimenting right when I got home. The box marked masala chai said to add a teaspoon to boiling water. OK, but no creaminess. Then I used 1/2 milk, 1/2 water and it got closer but not spicy enough. I decided to check in one of our local Indian grocery stores A Taste of India and see what they had available. He told me, to make it you use the regular orange pekoe tea and then add the spices which you can do individually but they had a spice mix all ready to add.

So I think I have it down now. I use 1/2 water and 1/2 milk adding a teaspoon of tea per cup and then a teaspoon of the kamal tea masala per cup and simmer it for about five minutes.
Definitely a taste of India!
(And definitely has caffeine, I had to cut back on my tea consumption to get a good night sleep)

Mumbai, India

2011-01-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

I'm still digesting all that Mumbai is.... what you see, hear, smell, taste and the trials of communication. I think it needs to be processed in a different way than I might normally judge a country and it's people. Overall it was an amazing experience and has altered me in that wonderful way that travel opens your head and heart .

One of the most interesting things to me was the dabba or tiffin( the container) wallahs. I'd seen the metal containers before at World Market. And now I know their story.
Mumbai's 5000 dabba-wallahs work tirelessly to deliver hot lunches to office workers throughout the city.

Lunch boxes are picked up each day from homes and restaurants and carried on heads, bicycles and trains, and taken to a centralized sorting station. A sophisticated system of numbers and colors is then used to determine where every lunch must end up. More than 200,000 meals are delivered in Mumbai in this way- always on time come monsoon or searing heat.

The same intricate supply-chain system has been used for centuries and dabba-wallahs are known to take immense pride in their work. On average only one mistake is made every six million deliveries. Impressive!
We brought home a three stack dabba for packing lunch sometimes.

footnote-dabba-wallah info from Lonely Planet guide book on India

Holiday Feasting

2010-12-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

Lest you think, my dear and faithful readers, that I only report on my picture perfect successes in cooking.
I've had some amusing (after the fact) kitchen challenges this holiday season.
I bought some nice cornish game hens on sale and thought it would be a lovely dinner for the night I finally had everyone back under one roof. I found a recipe for some wild rice with mushroom stuffing for the game hens and started in on making the stuffing.

When I went to get the games hens washed and ready I found I had mistakenly put them in the freezer instead of the refrigerator! After I got over how mad I was at myself, I started the rounds of defrosting them in the microwave. I needed a lot of patience. It finally worked and then I used my convection oven so they ended up cooking up nicely. Whew!

Then came Christmas Eve. I decided to make this wonderful looking coconut cake with fluffy icing.
First I made the lemon curd filling. It needed to refrigerate for a couple of hours, which I did...
But when I went to put the layers together, the lemon curd wasn't firm enough so it dripped off of the cake layers and the layers started sliding off of each other. Nothing some wooden skewers coulded help!
I frosted around the skewers and the cake tasted good. However the recipe left off some ingredients in the frosting too. It needs a cup of sugar and 1t. vanilla.

I renamed it 'The Snowball Cake' and when I make it again I will refrigerate the lemon curd overnight.
Not to be out done, my dad used the handy dandy skewers to hold our Christmas Eve lamb together too!
We had some hardy laughs, but ate very well.

More Food Gifts

2010-12-23T06:53:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my food basket gifts for family. Including some pistachio, berry and chocolate biscotti.

And granola.

New this year, is this dry chimichurri rub.

We have an annual neighborhood holiday progressive dinner. We hosted cocktails this year so I served champagne cocktails with a splash of the cranberry orange vodka, garnished with the vodka soaked cranberries.

For a non alcoholic choice and for the children I love to make punch. I started making punch years ago when I inherited this lovely punch bowl from my grandmother. Punch seems a bit retro these days.

I make this with a bottle of cranberry juice, a big can of pineapple juice, 2 cups of ginger ale, 2 cups of seltzer. And it's nice to make a pretty ice block to keep it cold.

Holiday Food Gifts

2010-12-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

I've been hard at work on my holiday food gifts.

This year's liquor is cranberry orange vodka from Michael Chiarello.

You start with cranberries, sugar, and vanilla, heating them for about 6 minutes until they start to get juicy.

After they cool, put them in a jar with orange peels and cover with vodka.

Let it sit covered in a cool place (my basement fits the bill) for about one week.

Then strain into bottles. This is soooooo much easier than my lemoncello endeavor last year. Zesting all of those lemons about killed me.

Besides looking beautiful it's delicious. I already served it for a gathering, putting an ounce or two in a champagne flute, filling it with champagne or prosecco and garnishing with the vodka soaked cranberries. So festive!!

It can also be served with tonic.

This is a curry lentil soup in a jar.

And as usual, there are my jam's from summer canning.

This year I made balsamic strawberry jam, strawberry syrup, and raspberry jam.

Food Storage

2010-12-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

I am loving my new food storage system. I've always just had a set of plastic/tupperware type containers. Over the past year I started picking up different glass storage containers from Marshalls or Tuesday Morning. I even have a few from antique stores with the glass top, like my grandmothers used. Then I saw a set advertised at Big Lots by Anchor Hocking. For $20 you can get a 20 piece set.

You can freeze them or put them in the oven. We use them for leftovers all of the time and they heat up food perfectly in the microwave, and they are not plastic! (Just the tops are). They stack nicely in the refrigerator too.
I'm so crazy about them I'm even giving a set for Christmas. (Hope you're not reading this Dad!)

Turkey Talk

2010-11-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

Turkey terminology has changed. When I went to buy our turkey this year, I saw the abundance of fresh turkeys. That used to be all of the frozen turkeys. They seemed quite hard (frozen) so I asked the butcher if they were previously frozen. He said they keep them at temperatures down to 32º but were considered fresh, never frozen. Then I noticed the butterballs and store brands were injected with the solutions just like the frozen ones used to be. It seems like they've just changed the wording on them since more customers want "fresh" birds.

I explained I wanted to brine my bird so I didn't want one already injected with some solution.

I finally found this beautiful 20 lb. Bell & Evans bird, on sale.

For brining this year, it fit so nicely in my canning pot. I used a premixed brining solution from World Market, covered it with water and brined it for 24 hours.

Once it was rinsed really well and roasted for 4 hours, she was a beauty. I think one of the moistest turkey's I've ever cooked.

Happy Turkey Day!

Indian

2010-11-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

I made Mark an Indian feast for his birthday.
We started with Mangopolitans, using mango vodka(2oz.), regular vodka (1oz.), mango nectar or puree (2T.) and fresh lime juice (2T.).
For starters I made the Samosas I blogged about in Feb.
Then the curry shrimp I've been making for years and he loves. It's such a good recipe I got from one of Ruth Reichl's books. It can easily be doubled and you can adjust the heat depending the kind of curry powder you use.

Then I tried a vegetable dish from southern India I learned at my friend Kumud's cooking class.
You can use any variety of vegetables so I used butternut squash, potatoes, green beans and peas.

A recipe for Avial.
I also made basmati rice, but not the way the Indian cookbooks and rice packages suggest. They boil the basmati rice in lots of water like pasta and then drain it, steam it and fluff it. I cooked it the regular way with no time for failure in the rice department.
A really great addition to the meal and my favorite new thing was this green chutney.
I don't have a picture but here's the recipe. Great to dip the naan in.
Green Chutney
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 cup fresh mint
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1-2 hot green chilis (serrano)
2 cloves garlic
4-6 Tbsp. water
1tsp. salt
1-2 Tbsp. lemon juice
10 cashews
Blend all of the above in a blender until ground to a smooth paste.

For dessert I made toasted coconut icecream and mango sorbet. They were served with ginger cookies.
I was too busy to take many pictures but it was a really fun meal so I hope I've inspired you to put on some bollywood music and get your curry cooking going!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie?

2010-11-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

I know it sounds contradictory but hear me out. I was checking in on some of the food blogs I follow, which have links towards the bottom of my page. One of them is Molly Wizenburg's blog Orangette.
Her book 'A Homemade Life' is a fun read too. Anyway her latest entry is about this whole wheat chocolate chip recipe. I wasn't that intrigued until she mentioned that they taste a bit like digestive biscuits. I've had quite a thing for digestive biscuits for years. I keep them in my car so when I'm driving home and am so hungry I start looking around for kid snack droppings, I can take the edge off with a not so sweet biscuit. So because of that comparison I was compelled to give them a try. I used White Whole Wheat Flour like she recommended. I think regular whole wheat would make them quite dense.
They are yummy! (And do I dare say "good for you too!")

Apple Season

2010-10-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

We eat a lot of apples in our house, so apple season makes me very happy. There are a lot of wonderful orchards near where we live in Charlottesville to buy local apples and even pick your own. There's Carter Mountain, Drumheller's Orchard, Chile's Orchard and many more. My mom brought me some wonderful apples from Flippin-Seaman Inc, so I made some applesauce. I forgot how wonderful it is and just how quick and easy it is to make. I don't have a food mill so I peeled and cored them first.

After they cooked down I mashed them with my potato masher and then hit them with the immersion blender briefly. Add what ever spices you like. I put cinnamon, ginger, cloves and a little brown sugar and lemon juice. It freezes well too.
So grab some fabulous fall apples and make some amazing applesauce!

Hachis Parmentier

2010-10-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

This week's recipe from Dorie Greenspan's new book is for hachis parmentier. It's similar to a British shepards pie. I followed her recipe exactly, which used beef chuck and sausage but in looking around the internet it seems it's commonly made with lamb and other kinds of minced meat.
I assembled the first set of ingredients to cook with the beef.

After adding the sausage, that all goes in the baking dish and then it's topped with mashed potatoes, sprinkled with cheese and dotted with butter.

It bakes for 30 minutes and it's made to be brought right to the table.

It got two thumbs up from the whole family and really is the ultimate Fall/Winter comfort dish. It tastes like a warm hug.
I can see how easy this would be to make with any kind of left over meat. The recipe is a keeper.
The only down side is the amount of pots needed (one for the beef and broth, one for the sausage, one for boiling the potatoes and then the baking dish. That never seems to deter me though!

I mentioned my friend the chocolatier (Michele Sanders) recently and then received a box of her amazing chocolates as a gift from someone else. I don't know if you can order them on line yet but I think you can buy them if you visit their beautiful new winery, Glass House Winery in Free Union VA.

Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

2010-10-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Week two for me with French Fridays with Dorie. The assignment, Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup. It was much easier than I imagined, but I did take a short cut. Since I already had some ground spices on hand, I used them instead of the whole spice or seeds. For instance, the recipe called for two points of a star anise, coriander seeds, and white peppercorns. I had ground anise, ground coriander and ground white pepper so I used that instead. Shown here with my fish sauce.

Otherwise very straight forward recipe. Just a yummed up version of chicken noodle soup. Next time I get a cold, I'm making this. I wanted it a little spicier so I put a dab of thai red curry paste in my bowl.
I got my chinese egg noodles and ginger from C'ville Oriental. Look at how fresh and plump their ginger is.

And if, like me, you're wondering, 'why is Vietnamese soup in a French cookbook'?
Since Vietnam was a French colony years ago, there is still a big influence of Vietnamese food. Lucky French!

The book again is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.

French Fridays with Dorie Greenspan

2010-10-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

If you've ever clicked around from my blog list, other people's blogs that I follow, you may have checked out Dorie Greenspan. She's written many cookbooks and always has a lot of great information on her blog. She just came out with a gorgeous new cookbook called 'Around My French Table". The pictures are beautiful and most of the recipes have a wonderful story behind them. It doesn't seem like complicated french food, just lots of basics you can feed a family or entertain with. I think it is such a bargain from Amazon for $25 plus free shipping.

To tie in with the release of her new book she's doing French Fridays with Dorie. You sign in and then make the chosen recipe of the week and everyone blogs or comments on their experience on fridays. So this is my first week and the recipe was Gerard's Mustard Tart.
I was a little surprised the tart crust has an egg in it, but it was a great crust. The tart has dijon and whole grain mustard in it.
Here's my tart before it went in the oven.

And when it was done!

I thought is was really wonderful, especially the crust. I served it with a salad and a chilled glass of white wine. Sitting in my back yard on this warm night I was transported to France.

Flank Steak

2010-10-04T13:44:00.000-07:00

Flank steaks freeze well, so it's a great thing to pull out of your freezer when you don't have other dinner plans. I've been tweaking this marinade and am finally really pleased with the results. I think it makes all the difference to let it marinate all day. If your steak is frozen, defrost it overnight, then mix up the marinade in the morning, pour it into a ziplock bag with the meat. Leave in the refrigerator all day.

1/2 cup soy sauce (I usually use reduced sodium)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
lots of crushed garlic
lots of grated fresh ginger root
1 T. honey
lots of fresh ground pepper

Take the flank steak out of the marinade and sprinkle it generously with coarse salt and pepper. Then grill it! Let it rest and then slice it really thin across the grain. mmmmm..........

I have a friend who is a chocolatier. She makes absolutely beautiful and delicious chocolates and took special classes to learn her craft. I asked her about her favorite brand of chocolate to use, and she said she likes Callebaut as in Barry Callebaut chocolate. They have great prices on it at C'ville Market.

They also sell it at King Arthur Flour.

It comes in various size bags and they have unsweetened, bittersweet, and semisweet. I use my little kitchen scale to weight out the ounces needed in a recipe. I've been having great results so far.

Mexican Salsa

2010-09-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

At Kumud's Mexican cooking class they made two salsas. First up was;
Tomatillo Salsa con Aquacate

1 lb. tomatillos, husked and washed
2 cups of water
4 jalapeno and/or serrano peppers washed
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 tsp. salt
3 ripe avocados diced

Cook the tomatillos and peppers for 10 minutes in boiling water. Grind them with onion, garlic and salt in food processor (adding water as needed). Transfer to a serving bowl and add the avocados and cilantro.

Next was the;
Salsa Macha
1/2 cup dried red chiles ( Chile di Arbol)
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1 tsp. salt
1/4 dry roasted peanuts
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup oil (safflower)

That's what the chile arbol look like in the bag when you buy them. Also pictured is the epazote used in the authentic tasting refried black beans.

To prepare the salsa macha, toast the chiles in the heated oil in a pan until nicely roasted and fragrant.

Grind the chiles (with the oil), garlic, salt, and peanuts in a food processor until the ingredients are coarsely crushed. Slowly pour in the water and continue grinding until it's smooth.

If you don't use the water but add more oil, it will keep in the refrigerator a lot longer.
This stuff is amazing.
I finally found a tortilla press in one of our local mexican markets.

Laura Lopez rolled perfect balls of masa for the tortillas.

Then she pressed them and put them on the skillet.

If you are interested in any of Kumud's cooking classes, e-mail her at kmdvanderveer@yahoo.com and she'll send out a notice when she's doing more classes

Pot Luck Dish

2010-09-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

The New York Times is asking for submissions for your signature pot luck dish. The top tested dishes will be featured in NY Times magazine. I don't really have a signature dish because I'm always trying new things. But one dish that is always a crowd pleaser is this spicy pulled pork. I didn't try to pass it off as my own. They asked where you got the recipe from on the form so I immediately fessed up it was from 'Everyday food'. I tried photographing it in my slow cooker and later realized how messy it looked with drippings all over the side.

I haphazardly made my plate and took a picture but I ended up submitting it because the pot looked so bad.

I topped it with avocado, sour cream, cheese, and cilantro. And you can see my misshapen homemade corn tortilla. Maybe they're looking for quirky.

Anyway, if you want to please a big group, make a batch of this in your slow cooker.
I usually get a bigger pork shoulder/butt so I double the other ingredients. It freezes well too.

Ingredients

Serves 8

1 medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 dried bay leaves
1 chipotle, in adobo sauce, minced
1 tablespoon adobo sauce
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 can (14.5 ounces) whole tomatoes in puree
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 3/4 pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and halved crosswise
Flour tortillas, lightly toasted, for garnish (optional)
Grated cheddar cheese, for garnish (optional)
Sour cream, for garnish (optional)

Directions

In a 5-quart slow cooker, combine onion, oregano, bay leaves, chipotle, adobo sauce, tomatoes (and purée), salt, and pepper. Add pork; toss to coat with sauce.
Cover; cook on high setting until meat is pull-apart tender, about 6 hours (do not uncover while cooking).
Transfer meat to a large bowl; shred with forks, discarding any gristle. Return meat to pot; toss with sauce.
To serve, discard bay leaves; if desired, garnish with tortillas and cheddar or sour cream.

From Everyday Food, December 2004

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Spicy Pulled Pork Recipe - MarthaStewart.com

Tamales con Queso v Rajas

2010-09-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

I had the extreme pleasure of taking another cooking class with my friend Kumud. But this time instead of her native Indian cuisine she has a friend from Mexico, Laura Lopez, who showed us her stuff! It's feels so authentic watching someone make food from the country they were born and raised in. It's one thing to watch someone on HGTV make a tamale, but watching Laura put them together you could feel the hundreds of times she's done it before.
The whole menu was amazing. I've been so inspired I'm finding reasons to go by hispanic markets all over town to peruse their shelves.
Here are the prepped ingredients for the class.

She started with sauteing the filling for the tamales.

Kumud and Laura at their demonstration table. Even Laura's daughter helped out.

Laura's experienced hand pressing the masa into the corn husk.

The tamales all go in the pot to be steamed for about an hour.

A few steps to make them, but not nearly as complicated as I imagined. Can't wait to try them. Their entire menu was vegetarian but I can't help thinking how amazing some spicy pulled pork would be in the tamales.(sorry Kumud :) )
I've already tried the Frijoles Refritos con Epazote, refried beans, and they are soooo much better than the canned. Maybe it's the epazote seasoning. I haven't found a tortilla press yet but I rolled some out and they were delicious if a bit misshapen.
More to come on my Mexican binge....

Sweet Potatoes

2010-09-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

Most of my garden is a dried up weed ridden mess, but the sweet potatoes I planted in May or June were still growing. What a blast to dig around in the dirt and hunt for the sweet potatoes. I want to try lots of other potatoes next year.

I made a sweet potato pie with them and still have enough left to try these Stir Fried Sweet Potatoes from Mark Bittman.
I hosted a 50th birthday cocktail party for a friend recently and the cocktails were a hit.

It's hard to go wrong with these pomegranate cosmos. We make them by the pitcher in advance and keep them in the freezer. Then all you have to do is shake and serve. This makes about 6 drinks
Pomegranate Cosmos
2 cups good vodka
1 cup Cointreau
1 cup Pom pomegranate juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Combine, shake, enjoy! They go down a little too smoothly so depending how crazy you want things to get, you may want to pace your guests!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

I spent Labor Day weekend in NYC , a birthday celebration/reunion with friends. I know, poor me.

Some of the dining highlights were: Libertador- Argentinean food on the upper east side. We had a very festive meal, my friend Laura goes there a lot and loves the salmon. We all shared empanadas and I had a skirt steak with chimichurri sauce.
They brought a wonderful dessert to the birthday girls.

Another day we walked over to the west side and had lunch at Cafe Frida (as in Kahlo) a yummy Mexican place. Not your typical 'taco with rice and beans' place.

I was in the mood for a salad and got this wonderful sesame crusted seared tuna on greens, with a nice spicy dressing

And for the uber trendy experience, after walking The Highline in Chelsea we went to the rooftop bar at the Standard Hotel for cocktails. Great views.

Then there was a stop for icecream at a little stand outside of Cafe Cluny in the village. It was amazing icecream and everyone went crazy for the mint chocolate chip. It was actually very similar to the bright yellow mint icecream I made and wrote about in July.

New York never lets you down when it comes to eating and always keeps me coming back for more amazing food experiences.

Last of the tomatoes

2010-08-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

A week of below 90º weather and I was craving some hot comfort food. It's already hot again now, but last week I indulged in some eggplant parmesan. I love this recipe so much because after coating the eggplant, you bake it instead of frying it. It doesn't soak up all that oil, but once you layer it with the sauce and cheese it's still so fullfilling. I served it with some penne, a salad, french bread, and red wine. Mama Mia!
It makes enough for two dishes so one is in the freezer for another night.

I tried to take advantage of the last of the tomatoes. I ended up with a ton of very small roma tomatoes. I found a really easy way to make them into sauce and freeze it. I gathered all of the tomatoes I could, washed them and cut the very top stems off.

Then I put them in batches in the food processor, skins and all. I transfered all of that puree to a big pot and let them cook down at a simmer for 6-8 hours.

They started out with a lot of liquid. But after 6 or more hours they got really thick and the skins just cooked away but gave it a beautiful color.

I ended up with a few bags for the freezer. I didn't put any seasonings in it yet. Depending on whether I use it for pasta or chili later I can flavor it up then. It would be worth buying up tomatoes at the farmers market while they're so delicious if you don't have a garden, just to freeze some sauce for later.

A Classic Cookbook

2010-08-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

While wondering through a thrift store in Gloucester VA recently, I had a score of a find! I always head right to the cookbook section of used book stores just to see what they have. Well, there sat an original "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in great shape and a tag on it for $2.95! I was thrilled! It's not the first printing in 1961 but soon after. It was a missing link in my cookbook collection.

As I thumbed through the book on the way home I thought, wasn't it about a year ago that I made a big french dinner in honor of Julia Child's birthday? Well I checked and yes it was, to the day! I found her amazing book on what would have been her 98th birthday.

I have no plans to try to bone a duck but I better do her proud and make some boeuf bourguignon!

Sweet Frogs

2010-08-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

Check out the newest frozen yogurt place to open in C-ville on the downtown mall. Sweet Frogs. It's very cute inside and the self serve yogurt and toppings system reminds me of Pinkberry and other places I used to be addicted to in NYC.

You pick from 8-10 flavors and then an enormous array of toppings. All kinds of fresh fruits, nuts, granola, and of course candies. You pay by the weight, so beware of the very large bowls they provide you.
I'm already thinking of an excuse to go to the mall to get me some more Sweet Frogs. ( It could be considered lunch I think)

Here some very cute girls enjoying their Sweet Frogs.

Indian Cooking Class

2010-08-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to take a cooking class (B-day gift from Ruthann) with another friend Kamud Vanderveer. She was born and raised in India and really knows her stuff. Her sister Hema was visiting for a couple of months so they did the class together. I was very excited because we all love Indian food and I'd had the pleasure of dining at Kamuud's before.
The menu for this class was from southern India which is quite different from what is offered in most Indian restaurants around here. They demonstrated the making of Avial -kind of a vegetable stew, Ollan- black eyed pea and vegetable dish, brown rice (which they make in a pressure cooker), Gothanmai Payaasam- a dessert, Pineapple Pachaddi- a pinapple chutney, and Mambalam Morkootan- a mango chutney.
Everything had so much flavor, and besides a little ghee (clarified butter), was completely vegan.

Sauteing the spices with curry leaves.

I learned about jaggery, a sweetener. It's pictured on the far left. Lots of coconut was used, either fresh or pulp frozen.

The vegetable stew cooking.
And on to the best part. After all the demonstrating, questions, picture taking etc., we sat down to eat it all! It was fantastic!

Now I need to get inspired to try this at home. I think I'll just try a couple of items from the menu at a time.
She may do another series of classes so if your interested e-mail Kamuud at kmdvanderveer@yahoo.com.

Vlaamse Frites

2010-08-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

A friend of one of my daughters had lived in Amsterdam and recommended a fabulous frites place. (Thank you Helen!) We love an adventureous destination especially if the reward is food. We were not disappointed when we finally found it. We got big pita's with falafel and tons of put on your own toppings. Then the frites with various sauces.

We tried a curry sauce and something really spicy. Most of the locals just got mayonnaise.

If you happen to be headed to Amsterdam, check out Vlaamse Frites!

Dining in Russia

2010-08-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

We had a night in St. Petersburg to go to dinner before the theatre. We told our guide we wanted authentic Russian food in a place locals would eat too. She narrowed it down to a couple of places and took me in to choose based on the atmosphere. The minute I saw these chandeliers and the painting on the walls I said "This one is perfect!" It was called Sadko.

We started with vodka, served chilled in little glasses. The waiter told us it's meant to be downed in one gulp. I'm a sipper. The girls had mors, a berry drink.

Then I ordered a few appetizers so I could taste a lot of different things and the rest of the family got entrees.

This was a pickled platter, with salted cabbage, really nice.

Then a herring salad with beets and egg. Very good.

I had to try the caviar too. As expected it was very fishy and salty, yikes. I think I prefer the black eggs. We all had a taste and then ate the delicious blinis plain.
We also tried draniki (potato pancakes), beef stroganov, and chicken kiev.
A very cool experience we won't soon forget.

Helsinki, moi moi

2010-07-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

I'm doing some traveling this summer and am experiencing some food around the Baltic.
Our first stop was Helsinki. Our first breakfast was plain yogurt, with granola in the top, a sandwich and some pretty bad coffee. The bread was very nice and grainy.

I love going in to food markets in any and every country. In Helsinki the salmon was piled high and looked so fresh. I was going to load up on crisp bread but realized I can easily get it back home.

Then we tried some traditional finnish pies, Karjalanpiirakat that come with different fillings.

They're very common and everyone has their own old family recipe. We had potato, carrot, and the really interesting sweet rice. I may try to make some when we get home using this recipe link.

On the streets we bought the most amazing fresh peas and snacked on them right out of the pods.

At the busy market place where the boats come in with fresh fish we got a lunch platter from one of the stands. It was the freshest tasting fish I've had in a long time. It came with potato balls, a little salad and wasa crisp bread. The fish had a spice mix on it and was grilled right there at the stand. It was the best food I had in Helsinki. The picture is quite orange because the tent we were under is orange.

For dinner we had Thai one night and Nepalese the next. Lots of Nepalese restaurants. It seemed very similar to Indian.

A curry chicken, rice, naan etc. Very good but not as good as the fresh salmon.

Low Country Cooking

2010-07-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

We went to some friends' house for dinner the other night. They had just been to Charleston, SC where they took The Taste of the Lowcountry cooking class at the Charleston Cooks, Maverick Southern Kitchens. They were inspired and even brought back the grits from South Carolina.
Even their third grader was into it so he was our chef for the evening. Very cute.
He's really on to something because every girl loves a guy that can cook!

For the menu, which they printed up, we had grilled shrimp with low country seasoning, cheddar scallion grits, and warm okra and tomato salad with walnuts. All delicious together.

I don't think to make okra very often so I asked her for the recipe.

Warm Okra and Tomato Salad

Water

Salt

1 to 2 large tomatoes

½ pound okra

1 T unsalted butter

¼ cup canola oil

1 onion, diced

¼ cup toasted walnuts

½ cup sherry vinegar

½ pint grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise

1 T minced garlic

1 T sugar

3 T basil, cut in thin strips

Salt and pepper

1.) Fill a large stockpot 2/3 full with water and place on high heat. Salt the water and bring to a boil.

2.) Fill a large bowl with ice and water to make an ice bath

3.) Score bottoms of tomatoes with an x. Place tomatoes in boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Pull the tomatoes out and place in ice bath. As soon as the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, removed from ice bath and peel off the skin. Cut tomatoes in half horizontally and squeeze out the seeds. Roughly chop the tomatoes.

4.) Cut off stems of okra – discard. Slice okra into ½ inch segments on the diagonal.

5.) Melt butter and oil in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion to the pan and cook until translucent

6.) Add the okra, walnuts, vinegar, chopped tomatoes, grape tomatoes, garlic and sugar to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes.

7.) Add the basil to the pan and immediately turn off the heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I was to bring dessert so I decided to try a couple of ice creams from my new David Lebovitz cookbook The Perfect Scoop.

First, I made fresh mint ice cream. The taste was wonderful, subtle and fragrant but as soon as I added our fresh egg yolks the beautiful pale green color turned bright creamy yellow. Someone said I should just say it's some exotic yellow mint. It was very good and I crumbled brownies over it. I can't wait to make it again.

I also made a fresh peach ice cream.

Here's his Fresh Mint Ice cream

1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt
2 cups lightly packed fresh mint leaves
5 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt in a small saucepan. [I usually put the pan over medium heat and stir occasionally until I see it start to steam.] Add the mint leaves, and stir until they’re immersed in the liquid. Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

Strain the mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Press on the mint leaves to extract as much of the flavor as possible, then discard the mint leaves. Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl, and set the strainer on top.

Rewarm the mint-infused mixture. [Again, I usually put it over medium heat, stirring occasionally, and watch for steam.] In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mint liquid into the egg yolks, whisking constantly; then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. [You can test it by running your finger across the spatula coated with custard. It’s done when your finger leaves a definite trail that doesn’t flow back together.] Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Summer Squash

2010-07-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

For a couple of weeks I had a plethora of summer squash. I love it and am always looking for interesting ways to enjoy it. I did a basic sauté with onions but at the end, added pesto and it really complemented the squash. We also grill it a lot. Slice it the long way and brush the slices with olive oil with some herbs and salt and pepper.
I remember my mother freezing a lot of vegetables so I wanted to give that a try too.

Wash, trim and slice up the squash.

Put it into boiling water for about 3 minutes.

Immediately put it in ice water to stop the cooking.
I did this in batches.

Lay on paper towels to try a bit.

Bag, label and freeze.
In a couple of months I can whip out some home grown squash from the freezer.

For my first Meatless Mondays I made Thai Squash Soup. The recipe calls for it to be served cold but we ate it hot and it was fantastic. I may have to actually buy some squash just to make more of that soup.

Mama's Farmhouse

2010-06-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

After asking around we finally found a couple of locally owned restaurants serving southern fare.
Mama's Farmhouse is Southern Cookin'- Family Style, aka all you can (and shouldn't) eat.

A little lacking in the atmosphere, but enough food to put us all into a food coma.

The Drinks were served in charming Ball jars. Good idea for a southern dinner or picnic.

Biscuits and corn muffins to start served with maple butter.

Then..........more food than you can imagine. Chicken fried steak, fried chicken, turkey with dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, corn pudding, macaroni and cheese.
And then banana pudding or peach cobbler to top it off!
Another night we got catfish @ Pop's Catfish, which they said they get from Mississippi .

I just heard about a new movement called Meatless Mondays. For our health and to reduce our carbon footprint. Some restaurants are embracing it with entire menu's going meatless on Monday's. I like the idea of it being a certain day and just making it happen once a week. Not too much to ask of us all but what an impact we can make. Check out the website for recipes and inspiration!
Meatless Mondays (I wonder if that'll ever catch on in Tennessee?)

Tennessee

2010-06-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

I've been desperately trying to find some "local " eats while visiting Tennessee this week. So far it's been dominated by chain restaurants and All You Can Eat buffets, which I think should be outlawed except for maybe teenage boys. We had some great barbeque at Corky's BBQ in Pigeon Forge.
I finally found something fun and unique! We just stopped at an out of the way country store and I got these deep fried peanuts! You eat them shell-n-all.

They're surprisingly good, spicy, and addicting.
I'll continue my search for some Appalachian vittles.
Ya'll come back now.

Local Eats

2010-06-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to the Art in the Park festival in Staunton at Gypsy Hill Park. Very nice event and while we were there we got hungry for lunch and someone recommended an easy walk to Jimmy Anderson's Food Mart.

It's a quirky little grocery and deli that makes good sandwiches and soups. (Don't go if you're in a big hurry). My favorite part was the Queen City Brewing Soda's that they had for sale.

We got a couple of root beers and sat down for the wait for our sandwiches and before we could wonder where they're brewed, we looked out the window and across the street saw......

The Queen City Brewing !!

Those soda's didn't have to travel far.

I had a nice dinner with friends at Three Notch'd Grill in Crozet this week.

I asked about their most local item on the menu and they recommended the rag mountain trout stuffed with asparagus, leeks and brie. Really delicious and locally caught!

Sand Pail Cake

2010-06-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

My lovely cousin from Arizona that visited last week said she was having a little thank you gift sent, so to be on the look out for it this week. The UPS guy pulled in the drive way and left two boxes from Dean & Deluca. I was immediatly excited to see what was inside.
First was a lovely bottle of Savingnon Blanc from Rudd Vineyards in CA.

Then there was a cooler box containing this ridiculously cute sand pail cake. The entire thing is edible!
The shells and sand are white chocolate, the inside is chocolate cake, and the outside is a fondant.
You too can order one from deandeluca.com !

I made deviled eggs from our chickens' eggs last week for a gathering. Fresh eggs are so hard to peel, so I did a little research to see if there was a way to make it easier. The most common recommendation was to put them in ice water immediately after the boiling water and let them sit for awhile. No such luck here, it took me about an hour to peel a dozen eggs. Next time I get a craving for deviled eggs I'm using store bought eggs. I did use one double yoker which made for a very amusing deviled double yoker.

Tastes Like Summer

2010-06-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

It's blueberry and raspberry time again! The blueberries are so big this year. I need to go back and get more for canning. Our local berry patch is so popular (over picked), they've really limited the hours of picking.

I had a big dinner for visiting cousins last weekend and used some of these berries to make

raspberry tiramisu.

My dad came up to see the visiting family and decided since they are from Arizona maybe some good Virginia soft shell crabs would be fun to serve.

He loves to use an electric wok, so he sauteed them up in that.

Tasted like summer in Urbana to me! Fantastic.

I rounded out the dinner with spicy grilled shrimp, mahi mahi kebabs, orzo salad, fresh greens from the garden and bread.

It was a lovely night catching up with family.

Honey

2010-06-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

My youngest daughter Ruby (9 yrs. old) just had a wonderful experience gathering honey from bee's at her good friend Lillian's house.

They donned the proper attire and then helped Lillian's Dad transfer the honey combs to another box to get to the honey. She was very brave and interested in the whole process.

They spun it out of the combs and then put it into jars.

She came home with jars of honey and lots of fun facts about honey bee's and the workings of a hive.
She's been eating honey on everything since then. It's wonderful raw local honey.
Maybe I'll get to watch (from a distance) next time.
If you're interested in keeping bee's here's a great article from Mother Earth News called Keep Bee's Naturally .

Burgercentric

2010-05-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

I was on a burger kick for awhile and now every where I turn I seem to see articles about burgers. It's grilling season and Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I don't usually eat a lot of beef burgers but was inspired to try Kathie Lee Joel's patty melts from the New York Times. Only because she was being interviewed by the recently retired NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, whose book 'Born Round' I was reading at the time. I did like how thin they were, but I refused to use the "american cheese" for them. I drew the line there. Cheddar or swiss was wonderful on them.
I've also made salmon and tuna burgers recently. A great, fast weeknight meal if you buy them frozen. For tuna burgers try a little wasabi mixed with mayo and for the salmon just a nice dijon/mayo mix or curry is nice.
Then I decided to try lamb burgers.

There are so many great recipes out there but I made these with lots of feta, onion, garlic and parsley. I thought they were terrific.
This week in the NY Times Mark Bittman covered pork and fennel burgers.
I made buffalo burgers years ago and recently venison burgers which I blogged about. (April blog)
A stand by dinner for us for a long time has been turkey burgers. My daughter Madison made them years ago from her Williams Sonoma Kid's Cookbook and we've been making them ever since. Keep a pound of ground turkey in your freezer with a bag of sweet potato fries and you always have a back up dinner ready. These are so simple but really make for a super moist burger. I usually do them on the stove top.

Deluxe Turkey Burgers

In a bowl mix 1/2 cup bread crumbs ( I use italian seasoned) with 1/3 cup milk. Stir with a fork and then add 3 T. ketchup, 1 egg, 1/2 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper. Add 1 lb. ground turkey, mix ingredients just until blended. Divide into 4 burgers.
Add 2 T. vegetable oil to a frying pan over med/low heat. Add burgers and cook about 5 min. per side.
So good with your standard cheese, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion!

And for locals, I hope at least once in your life you've been to The White Spot for the Gusburger. It's infamous in Charlottesville! It's a cheeseburger with a fried egg on it!

First Harvest

2010-05-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

This year's garden is coming along. There are some gaps that make me suspicious of possible predators. I don't get deer..... there are a few rabbits..... but ok I think the chickens ate the seeds. There, I've said it.

I started everything but the tomatoes from seed. The fennel and beets are sporadic, the basil didn't come up at all so I bought some plants. The lettuce row is splotchy but what's there is great!

My first harvest was of the radishes.

Washed up and they are delicious!

Strawberry Madness

2010-05-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

I've always loved strawberries. When I was little my dad planted a strawberry patch in our garden just for me. It is strawberry season around here, so a friend and I went a pickin this week. We headed out to Critzers Family Farm in Afton. It was a great day for picking because it was cool and misty, always better than hot and buggy. When you're picking with a friend the time can really fly because you're picking and talking and next thing you know you've filled two flats of strawberries!

I came right home to start canning. It's a really rewarding process once you've done it a couple of times. I was a bit ambitious and got through three batches. Those three batches only used up one flat of strawberries!

I made regular strawberry jam, strawberry balsamic jam and strawberry sauce. I ended up with 18 jars.

Now what to do with the rest.....
Well I gave some bowls away to neighbors, then I made strawberry ice cream and went looking for some more fresh rhubarb. I made a strawberry rhubard pie last week and the family loved it and wanted another one.

We were so indulgent we had strawberry rhubard pie with strawberry icecream topped with strawberry sauce. I highly reccomend buying up some local rhubarb and making a pie or a crumble. The tart and the sweet together is incredible.

I love the unusual ones. Get pickin!

Iron Chef Darden

2010-05-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

We went to a fun event last week at Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar. Darden (UVA Business School) put together their own Iron Chef competition. There were three groups of four competing. First up were the professors, then the second years, and then the first years. Each group got 50 minutes in the kitchen to put together an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. The secret ingredient they all had to use in each course was pork. I think they got to make a plan ahead of time and bring one bag of groceries. They had to work quickly and were working up a sweat while we stood around sipping wine and cheering them on.
There were three judges, one of them was Charles Roumelioties a co owner of Orzo. It was very nice of him to let them use his kitchen. It was perfect for this because it's open to the restaurant. The other judges were the owner of Feast and another gentleman that runs a local farm that sells meat.(maybe he provided the pork?)

Here the professors are plating their entree.
After the judges tasted each course, we tried to get our hands on it to get a taste too.
Here's the beautiful dessert from the professors.

And the winning team was....... the first years!!

We're trying to figure out how to recreate this with friends at home. Each couple gets a certain amount of time and has to use some kind of secret ingredient to put together different courses for a meal. Should be a blast!

Pad Thai

2010-05-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

One of my daughters loves Pad Thai whenever we go out for Thai food, so I decided to try making it at home. Mark Bittman did a piece on it in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. The first time I made it I didn't have all of the exact ingredients, so next time I stopped by C'ville Oriental because I knew they would have everything.

It's in Seminole Square Shopping Center and has everything you could possibly need for making Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai. They have fresh asian produce too.

It's really fun to look around in there. For this I needed rice noodles and tamarind paste. Here's the recipe I followed for Pad Thai.
It's quite easy and quick once you assemble all of your ingredients.

Add extra spice if you like an extra kick.

Cornbread Topping

2010-05-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Next time you're planning on making chili and cornbread. Try this: after making your chili, put it in a baking dish, mix up your corn bread and smooth it over the top. Bake however long the cornbread needs. I would only put it over chili that is pretty thick. I think if there's too much liquid in your chili the cornbread mix might soak down into it.

I used Trader Joe's cornbread mix here, and it baked up nicely on top of the chili.
It would be yummy over black beans too.

Taste in the Air

2010-04-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

Whenever I fly for travel, I order a nonalcoholic bloody mary mix. I never drink this at home or order it in restaurants. I sometimes get a little queasy when flying and it always seems to settle my stomach. I've been doing this on flights for twenty five years. However I never order coffee on a plane which I drink regularly. It always tastes so bitter to me, I came to the conclusion that airlines just make terrible coffee. Maybe not so... There's more going on here than my own crazy habits. Mark came home recently and told me about this fascinating study on how air pressure and altitude affect your taste buds. It's a german study done by Luftansa, so check it out and see if any of these taste bud quirks while flying pertain to you too.

Luftansa Study

I gave up buying nice wine glasses years ago. We just broke the delicate ones too easily. I started buying them in bulk from Pier One or World Market. Great for parties, but I never really liked the way they felt in my hand, they're so thick and heavy. Last spring when we were in Italy, every restaurant had the nicest glasses. Was it the italian wine, being in Italy, or the glasses that made it all seem so wonderful? (answer: all of the above) I noticed Bormiolo Rocco written on the base. I thought when I get home, I need to find some of these.

I've seen a lot of the Bormiolo's around but they seem a lot bulkier than the ones in Italy. Then I started seeing Austrian made Stolzle Lausitz glasses around too. I finally bought some Stolzle glasses at Tuesday Morning at a great price. I really love the way they feel.

I think even cheap wine tastes fifty percent better from a nice glass!

Venison

2010-04-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

I had never cooked venison until recently. A neighbor of ours is a hunter, so last fall he gave us some deer meat. He explained that if you're skilled at cutting it up and don't let the knife that's cutting the meat touch the bone, it won't have that gamey taste. I've eaten very little venison in the past. He gave us a pack of ground meat and a pack of steaks. So I had to ponder what to do with it!
A few months back I decided to tackle the ground meat. The girls asked what was for dinner so I said "burgers". No lie there. I even mixed in some ground sausage because someone told me that would give it a nice flavor and keep it from getting too dry. We grilled them and they were really good. When everyone was finished eating, I asked the girls how they liked their first venison. After some screaming, one actually admitted to liking them better than regular beef burgers. The others were still in shock. So much of eating anything different is in your head.

Then I looked around for what to do with the steaks. Our local paper did a write up in the food section on venison steaks over smashed cauliflower. It was flavorful and still not gamey but I think we all liked the burgers better.
We thought our chickens had stopped laying for awhile, when our neighbor brought us over to see what she found in her garage.

14 eggs! I guess their nesting box in our shed just isn't up to their standards. They seem to prefer moving blankets.

Duck

2010-04-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

I finally defrosted that duck I bought months ago. One of my resolutions for the new year was to expand my cooking repertoire with things I've never made before and duck was one of them.
I've since seen fresh ones at Whole Foods so next time I'll buy a fresh one.
I followed a very simple recipe from Gourmet Today for Crisp Roast Duck.
It was amazingly easy and oh so crispy and we like crispy skin. Years ago when we lived out west we went to family gatherings in Arizona for Thanksgiving. We watched in horror as they removed all of the skin from the turkey before carving it. They were being health minded but I was thinking it's thanksgiving if you can't eat crisp salty poultry skin then when can you! We almost tried to sneak some from the trash.
With crispy poultry skin in mind, this roast duck was right up our alley!

First prick the skin all over and pour 2 cups boiling water over the duck to seal the skin.

Then pat dry. Season with 1 T. kosher salt and lots of fresh ground pepper inside and out.

Roast breast side up @425º for 45 min. Turn over, roast another 45 min. Turn back to breast side up for 45 min. Viola, crispy duck!
I served it with some sauteed fresh spring asparagus.

And popovers, which are so much fun to make and watch pop up in the oven. So delicious hot right out of the oven. They actually went really well with the duck.

So I'll check duck off my 'never cooked' list and think of what to tackle next. I was considering shad roe but, I think I've already talked myself out of that one until next year.

50th Birthday Bash

2010-04-08T17:15:00.000-07:00

My family threw a 50th birthday bash for my brother last weekend (and we're all still recovering)!
My dad was in charge of the meat and he did an amazing job with it.

He made a raised fire pit, using a grate we got for a previous pig roast. To one side he burned oak logs
until they were charcoal and then shoveled them to the other side under the grate. He put the meat on the grate and then covered it to smoke the meat. It was mostly pork and some chicken.

He also used these wonderful churrasco skewers he made, for the chicken.

You can almost taste the wonderful smokey flavor just looking at it.

After many hours on the grill , the pork was chopped up and ready to serve on buns.

Everyone got to pick which barbeque sauce they wanted to try. My dad made and named them all.

People brought sides and we had buns for the meat.

There was a keg of beer, lots of wine and we topped it off with a couple of brownie cakes I made.
There was some dancing involved and a great time was had by all!

These Are a Few....

2010-03-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Of my favorite things!
I'm not especially committed to brands most of the time, but there are a few items I always go back to and stock up on when they're on sale.

These fire roasted canned tomatoes are fantastic. I think a lot of brands are making them now but they give a great smokey flavor to chili or tomato sauce.

Duke's mayonaise is the only one to buy if you're not going to make your own. Any good southerner will tell you so.

I love these canned chipotle peppers in adobe sauce. A lot of recipes call for them now too. I open a can, chop it up in a mini chopper and then put it in the refrigerator. Just a smear on a quesadilla, burrito, taco, pannini, or chili is great!

Nutella pretty much speaks for itself. What's not to love (except the calories). Buy some croissants, open them up and put a smear of nutella on them. Wrap them in foil and warm them in the oven. Voila, you are instantly in France eating a fresh hot chocolate/hazelnut croissant.

And the olives; I love the olives you can get from all of the olive bars (in the grocery stores) now, but for a martini I always have some bottled on hand. I love to mix it up a bit and use olives stuffed with jalapenos or spicy peppers. Adds a nice kick.

I love Barilla pasta and yes they do sell it it Italy, I checked. DeCecco is wonderful but usually expensive, I get it occasionally for entertaining.

There are lots of wonderful icecreams out there and I love to make homemade in the summer but our standard, always have on hand, (usually in two flavors), is Breyers. Vanilla and coffee are my favorites and they're great for topping all kinds of desserts. It's on special a lot so I usually get two for $5.

Have you seen these Dorot herbs in the freezer section? In the winter when I don't have fresh basil on hand it really perks up a dish. It has perforated cubes so you just use what you need. Brilliant.

Going Green

2010-03-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to go too green? Why yes it is and I think I crossed that line on St. Patrick's Day this year.

I was feeling festive and the girls love the tradition of an Irish dinner but ...........

It started with these Emerald Isle cocktails. Nigella Lawson was raving about them on NPR that morning but she can make dirt sound delicious. They are gin with creme de menthe. One was plenty and we agreed never to make them again. This green edamame dip was good and good for us too.

Then I made Mrs. O'Callaghan's Soda Bread from Bon Appetit. It was delicious but very rustic looking.

(Like something you would be served at a Renaissance Faire)

Then of course, the corned beef and cabbage. I promised Mark I'd make him pork next year because he's the only one that doesn't love corned beef and cabbage.

And we topped it off with a green sprinkled banoffe pie!

I think I'll channel my green endeavors to the garden from now on.

Kebabs and Kabobs

2010-03-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

In my Jan. 26th 2010 blog entry I mentioned a wonderful chinese restaurant we had been to for lunch and what a great value it was. Well Asian Inn Taste of China has more of a following than I realized. I just heard the hoopla about the famous chinese chef, so check out these articles in The New Yorker and Oxford America all about chef Chang here in little ol' Charlottesville. I must get there again soon before he up and leaves!

And now about those Debbie Meyer Bread Bags....I put some bread in a regular ziplock and some in the Debbie Meyer bread bag for about a week. They seemed to dry out about the same, still no mold on either one, but the bread in the regular ziplock got a strong alcohol smell but the other one was still fine. They were from the same homemade loaf, so I give the bread bags two thumbs up. The Debbie Meyer Green Bags seemed to work too, as long as you dry the produce off really well before storing it in the bag.

Finally got to Ariana Grill and Kabob House last week. Someone may want to tell them their web page may appear frightening to some people. ( It made me laugh hard).

My lunch was great. I got two appetizers: Baudinjam Buranee- fried eggplant and Bolanee Kachalow- turnovers with seasoned potatoes.
Mark got a kabob wrap that was good but nothing special. We tried a green tea and a Doogh (yogurt drink).
We both flinched on our first sip of the Doogh. I guess we're so use to sweet yogurt drinks. This was quite sour, almost like buttermilk, with cucumber and mint. I can see how it might be very refreshing, (in the Afghan desert).
Looking forward to trying more items for dinner. We love kabobs and even speak kabob. Kacheckbob kaitbob kaoutbob. I think I'd only had kebabs before...

Flour

2010-03-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

What kind of flour do you use? I'm always curious what other's opinions and experiences are with different kinds of flour. I always have on hand; all purpose flour, bread flour, and whole wheat flour. I love King Arthur Flour so whenever I see it on sale I buy a lot of it. Sometimes it's hard to tell if your baking or cooking is getting better because of something you're doing or is it that you've just learned to use great ingredients.
I tried some local Wade's Mill flour from Whole Foods recently and it gave a nice texture to my scones. I always use their cornmeal, it's great.
I ran into my friend Ellen at Sam's Club recently and she was buying their 25 lb bag of bread flour. I just hadn't considered it before, but she bakes a lot of bread and was having good results with it. It had been recommended to her by someone else. So in my cart goes the 25lb. bag. It was only $6.87!!

My bread has been fine with it. My only complaint is that it's bleached. So I still look for King Arthur all purpose on sale, but the 25 lbs. for $6.87 can't be beat for all of the loaves I make for sandwich bread. King Arthur cake flour is wonderful too. I've used it recently for coffee cake and caramel cake.

These "as seen on TV" stay fresh bags were also recommended to me, so I thought I would give them a try. They are supposed to prolong the freshness of your bread- (brown bags) and fruits & vegetables-
( green bags).

They seem to be working well but I'm going to do a true test. For the bread I will divide a loaf in half and store one half in a ziplock bag and the other in the new bag and see if they really work.
I'll do the same with some kind of vegetable in the refrigerator. I will report back to you with my results and see if they are worth it. I got these at Bed Bath and Beyond and Target.

Granola

2010-02-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

I've been making my own granola for a long time now, probably twelve years or so. It's really easy once you get your recipe down. I make a batch at least twice a month. I've made huge batches for gift giving too. I eat it about 4-5 days a week and really swear by it's health benefits (it's keeps you very regular too!). I eat it with yogurt or kefir , a little milk and fresh berries. It really powers me through the morning. Equivalent granola in the store is so expensive. I am going to share my recipe which is just that, the way I like it. It's so easy to make it your own with the add ins you like best. I'll walk you through the basics but encourage you to try different things until you come up with your ultimate granola.

Scott's Granola

4 cups oats (not instant or quick cooking) a great item to get from the bulk section

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1/2 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

1/2 cup chopped up pecans and/or almonds ( or any nuts you prefer)

3/4 cup shredded coconut (optional but gives good texture)

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup oil (vegetable or canola)

1/3 cup molasses (or if you prefer use honey)

Mixture of dried fruit. ie. raisens, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dates, and I love to put in some chopped up dried crystallized ginger.(1/2 cup or more)

Preheat your oven to 300º.

Gather your ingredients

Measure all of the dry ingredients and the spices into the bowl, except the dried fruit.

Measure out your water/oil/molasses mixture and pour over the dry ingredients, stirring it all together.

Divide between two baking sheets and put in the oven for 44 minutes.

Stir and rotate shelves half way through baking time (At 22 min.)

When done just let cool on the baking sheets, then add your dried fruit.
Store in an airtight container!

Lightening Up

2010-02-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

I'm one of those kooks who is still enjoying this cold and snowy Virginia winter. So I'm still making lots of soup and other winter foods ( I have a pot roast in the crock pot right now). But a couple of weeks ago my mother in law was visiting, so between meals of slow roasted short ribs and linguine bolonese, I decided to lighten things up. As if it were spring I made a large salad and topped it with roasted salmon. I made a soy glaze of 1/4 cup soy sauce and 1/4 cup maple syrup reduced on the stove top to 1/3 cup. Brushing this on the salmon before, during and after roasting the salmon (450º for 10min.) Then broiled it for 3-5 minutes.
It tasted so fresh and light.

I'm a big fan of Seafood @ West Main. That's were I get our fish for sushi too.
Speaking of sushi, we ate at Tokyo Rose the other night for the first time in 5 years or so and it was really really good. I will be back soon!
Back to the meal........

For dessert I did pears poached in red wine, topped with whipped cream. What a beautiful fall/winter dessert. So elegant but delicious and not so heavy.

We are so fortunate to live in a time (and country) where you can walk into your local market in February and have access to so many fresh fruits and vegetables. In support of our wonderful Buy Fresh/Buy Local campaign, I take a little longer to see where my produce is coming from. It's so easy in the summer to buy practically everything from local sources, but it becomes a challenge in the winter. I start by trying to buy, if not from VA, then maybe the east coast, then at least from the USA and when all else fails, I buy a papaya and thoroughly savor every bite. My friend Lorrie turned me on to how good and healthy they are with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

A great start to your day.

Fresh Egg

2010-02-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I can change that title to fresh eggs soon. We only have two chickens, Ivy and Charlotte and the poor things have been shed bound with all of this snow. They are only about six months old. I think the first egg came out of boredom. They usually have run of the whole yard and just wander back in to the shed at night.

The girls just let them out for some fresh air and they seem so happy. I'm so proud of their first egg. It is so big it must be a jumbo! They are kind of plus size gals.
I even thought the little poop on it was charming.

Now I need to decide how to eat the first special egg.......

P.S.- The next day I decided to fry it up for breakfast and lo and behold I got another surprise!

A double yolker!!

I just read up about them, and found out it's common when they first start laying until their reproductive system smoothes things out.

Samosas

2010-02-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

When our girls went to public school in the very ethnically diverse Los Angeles County, a school potluck was an international feast. I have a vivid memory of the Indian mother that brought the most incredible samosas to a kindergarten gathering. I've always wanted to try making them.

I followed the recipe from the new Gourmet Today. I can't find the exact recipe on line but this link is pretty close. I chose to make the classic potato and pea filling(which is vegan) but the spiced lamb sounds good too.

Next time I think I would roll the dough a little bit thinner.

Here they are waiting their turn to be fried.

The filling had a nice spicy kick, so we ate them with a bit of mango chutney.
Next time I make shrimp curry for a dinner party I think these would be lovely with cocktails!

Gourmet Today

2010-02-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

I picked this up at Sam's club last week out of curiosity and then couldn't put it down, so it ended up in my basket. I heard a bit about it when it first came out, but I made the assumption it would be complicated food taken from the magazine. It's so approachable and really all about how we cook today. I can tell I will use this for years to come. It was listed at $40. and Sam's had it for $24.95. I've been cooking from it since I brought it home.

The first thing that caught my eye was Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock. I've been looking for other good uses for my pressure cooker besides beans. And the weather was calling for me to make some homemade chicken soup.

I gathered the ingredients: a small chicken, onions, celery, carrots, thyme, garlic, parsley stems, a bay leaf, salt and peppercorns.

I put it all in the pressure cooker and added 7 cups of water. Brought it to a boil and then put the top on it.

Once it was hissing I turned it down to a simmer and in 15 minutes it was done!

I removed the chicken and picked all of the meat off it for the soup and had extra for chicken salad.
Then I strained everything else out and let the stock cool. After adding fresh carrots, celery, onion,
the chicken and egg noodles we had some comforting chicken noodle soup.

Vodka

2010-01-30T05:43:00.000-08:00

See what happens with all of these cold winter days. We start debating Vodka!
We both like a good martini occasionally. Mark has taken to buying really low shelf Popov (must we let this budget thing effect our vodka?). I say it's fine for him because he likes to mix in lots of sweet stuff. I however drink it straight up with an olive. Well if I had my way I'd drink only Grey Goose. Have you seen how beautiful that bottle is! And it's from France, need I say more. Anyway, I said I'd be fine with the lowest brand a restaurant would serve you which is usually something like Smirnoff. While we were at the liquor store I got another really cheap brand, Burnett's, which my dad has always liked.

Let the tasting begin:
I set it up so he couldn't put the same kind in every glass and then say "fooled you". We poured them together and then mixed them up, since the glasses were labeled.
I stand by the fact that Popov is very strong smelling with a chemical taste. I, however chose the smooth non chemically taste of Burnett's over Smirnoff. I'm a bottom shelf drinker after all. My low brow husband picked the Smirnoff as the smoothest.
At least we haven't started buying Popov and putting it through our Brita filter. ( Mom why does the water taste funny?)

My perfect size martini with the perfect olive ratio.
I hope the sun comes out soon........., oh look it's schnowing aagain.......

P.S. I still accept gifts of Grey Goose!

Chicken Pot Pie

2010-01-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

On a cold rainy January Sunday I decided a homemade chicken pot pie would hit the spot. I followed the recipe from The Art & Soul of Baking. The book has fantastic bread recipes so of course the crust was wonderful.

You can check out the recipe here and look at their beautiful picture. Ok, so I don't have a chicken cookie cutter. I had to assure the children that our cat and pet bunny were still just fine. You use what you have, right (for the cookie cutters). I thought this would look better than the dog bone cutter.

I've dined at several asian restaurants recently. I tried the fairly new Tara Thai in Barracks Road. I didn't realize it was a chain, until I saw the interior. It's identical to the one in Richmond at Short Pump. The food was tasty but I had a bad stomach later!

A great new chinese place is A Taste of China on 29N. At lunch time, for $6.25 you get a soup, a roll, a noodle dish, a main course, rice and a little dessert. It's a lot of good, fresh tasting food for a deal. It's my new local favorite chinese. I wasn't so impressed from what else C-ville had to offer as far a chinese food.

Then I went to a birthday gathering at Thai 99. I hadn't been in years and hadn't been crazy about the food but I was pleasantly surprised. I had a curry and it was great. A while back Mark and I had a wonderful lunch at Pad Thai. We really have some good Thai choices in Charlottesville.

I hosted a breakfast recently and served lox and bagels. I got a variety of bagels from Bodos, which I declare are as good as any bagel in NYC. I mixed up some herbed cream cheese and had some plain, then I made a platter of lox, red onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and capers. Yum.

Surviving January

2010-01-22T11:39:00.000-08:00

I placed a big order from Penzeys Spices before Christmas. I have been ordering from them for a long time, and love looking around their store in Richmond. I wanted to share what a better deal it is when you get the 4oz. bag as opposed to the 1/2 cup jar. You get twice the amount of spice for the same price. Just put it in your old jar!

Of course that's only for spices I use a lot of, frequently. Otherwise, a great idea is to go to the bulk food section of your local Whole Foods. Yesterday I needed some ground coriander and what I had on hand seemed quite old because I don't use it very often. At Whole Foods I was able to buy a couple of teaspoons for about 16 cents. Much better than buying a new bottle which could loose it's flavor before I used it again.

I'm still making lots of soups with this weather and when we had a real cold snap recently I took advantage of having the wood stove burning continually by simmering some Chili on it!

I made some mushroom soup this week which was the best I've ever made. It's a little rich but worth it!

Give it a try. It's definitely guest worthy.

Mushroom Soup

I used three different kinds of fresh mushrooms.(shitake, baby bellos, button) What ever kinds you can find fresh, use three packages.

Heat 1 stick of unsalted butter in a soup pot with 2 leeks chopped up and cleaned. Saute about 15 min.

Add the sliced up mushrooms and cook 10 more minutes.

Add 1/4 cup flour, cook 1 min.

Add 1 cup white wine, cook 1 min.

Add about 4 cups stock. I used chicken, you could use mushroom or vegetable stock.

Add 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

1 1/2 t. salt

1 t. pepper

Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 15 min.

Add 1 cup half and half and 1 cup heavy cream

Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

Eat warm with fresh bread!!

Christmas Day

2010-01-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

We may spend Christmas Day in our pajamas, but we still eat well. Years ago, we started a tradition of having crepes Christmas morning.

I make a basic sweet crepe and then we put in mixed berries and vanilla yogurt, and topped them off with maple syrup. My dad chopped up this beautiful fruit salad. ( Notice the strawberry man in the middle!)

Santa was very good to me! Actually my men were. My Dad gave me the ultimate spanish cookbook '1080 Recipes'. I'd checked it out of the library a number of times and knew I wanted to own it. I love the illustrations by Javier Mariscal so much. He also brought me some coffee and saffron from Spain. Mark got me Italy's bestselling culinary bible 'The Silver Spoon '. I've got some reading to do.

New Year's Eve was pretty calm around here (besides six teenage girls running around!).

I did make these spicey glazed nuts (another David Lebovitz recipe) that I could not stop eating. They are so addicting.

Happy New Year! Here's to some wonderful culinary adventures in 2010. One of my resolutions is to broaden my food repetoire. There are so many things that I've never made before, that I need to just dive in and try. I started today by buying a duck. I've never made duck before so here I go.

Christmas Eve Dinner

2010-01-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

We always have our big holiday dinner on Christmas Eve. That way we can hang out in our PJ's all day on Christmas Day with no pressure of entertaining or cooking. That's a good thing!
My Dad is always here and sometimes my Mom and stepfather.
My Dad does an amazing job with lamb, so he makes it most years. This year he roasted it with rosemary and garlic and then deglazed the pan with some red wine. It was delicious!

We also had potatoes dauphinois (scalloped potatoes with gruyere), creamed spinach, rolls and we started with a roasted butternut squash salad with cider vinaigrette. This salad was really good but I think the squash needed to be roasted a little longer than the recipe states.

For dessert I did a pumpkin roulade with ginger buttercream. It was quite easy to make. Here I am rolling the ginger buttercream into the cake.

And then the finished cake with holiday embellishments!

Happy Holidays!

Birthday Cake

2009-12-29T16:03:00.000-08:00

My brother Rob's birthday is right before Christmas, so the family always gets together and I make his birthday cake. They've gotten more extravagant over the years. Last year's Devil's Food Layer Cake with Peppermint Frosting was so high, the cake dome wouldn't fit on it. It was on the cover of Bon Appetit so I decided to make this December's cover cake too. It was a Peppermint Meringue Cake with Chocolate Buttercream. It's such a fun project but I usually do a couple of steps the day before.
Here's the cover photo: (What was I thinking, right?)

I started the day before with the meringue layers,(which are just like forgotten cookies), and the peppermint syrup.
Day two I made the chocolate cake and the chocolate buttercream. Then it was just a matter of putting all of the 12"x4" pieces of cake, meringue, peppermint syrup, and chocolate buttercream together.
Here goes on a meringue layer.

Brushing the peppermint syrup onto the cake layers.

After the top layer of buttercream I decorated with raspberries and mint leaves.

It looked very pretty when we cut into it.

Snow Days

2009-12-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

With two feet of snow on the ground, there wasn't much to do but cook! We went through some old Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines from Decembers past, looking for a fun different holiday cookie to make. We decided on mini black and white cookies. I bought a big one in New York last summer for everyone to try so they were familiar with them. They really taste more like a little cake than a cookie.

Ruby was my cooking partner and she chose the black and white cookies. A big help in the kitchen.
I thought a perfect snowed in dinner would be Coq au Vin.

Lots of chopping but ah so delicious. I including a little cognac and burned it off. Quite the fire hazard!

Tis' The Season

2009-12-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

Fa la la la laaa la limoncello. For those on my family gift list the following entry may spoil your surprise! It's no secret I love limoncello, there's alway a bottle in our freezer ( I've been know to take it camping). I've been trying to make all of my holiday gifts for the past few years and our trip to Italy inspired me to attempt to make limoncello.

I started with 100 proof vodka since grain alcohol isn't legally sold in VA. Instead of a vegetable peeler I used this handy zester. After 20 lemons a batch and I made two batches, my hands were raw! I think since the zest strips were so thin it helped to really impart the lemon flavor into the alcohol. I let it sit about two weeks and then added my sugar syrup. I've found various bottles to package it in for giving. It's quite yummy! Ho Ho Ho! It'll put the Happy in your Holidays!

I've done a little bit of cookie baking so far. A favorite is these Linzer cookies. I made them for a school fundraiser. I like them because they're so pretty but they taste really good too. Sometimes it's hard to get both from a Christmas cookie.

A family favorite is these incredibly easy forgotten cookies. My mom always made them for us and now my kids love them too. I looked around the internet for recipes and a lot of them added nuts. We don't.

Forgotten Cookies
2 egg whites
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 t. vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350º. Beat egg whites until stiff. Keep beating while adding the sugar, then salt and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheets. Put cookies in oven and turn oven off and leave overnight.

Today I made these Pumpkin -Spiced Whiskey Walnuts for gift giving.

Hits and Misses of Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

"When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else; who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be."
Molly Wizenberg from A Homemade Life

I had a wonderful time planning and preparing for my Thanksgiving meal for twenty this year. I like to try a few new things every year and stick to the classics that always work. I decided to venture out in the appetizer department. We tend to nosh all day until meal time around 5pm. I put together a beautiful pickled vegetable platter (insalata di rinforzo) surrounding a steamed head of cauliflower drizzled with a red wine vinegarette. Well it looked nice and I loved it but not a lot of people ate it. I may just have to accept the fact that my family is not Italian. I won't let it deter my lemoncello making endeavor!

Then I tried a recipe from David Lebovitz's fabulous book The Sweet Life in Paris. He called it chicken and apple spread but it's chicken liver pate. My kids were scarred by the smell of it cooking but a lot of others tried it. I think it was a great recipe if you like chicken liver pate, unfortunately a lot of people at my house on Thanksgiving did not. It is definitely a grown up taste and I would make it again for a cocktail party.

My brother always brings the oysters and they roast them over our fire pit.

As to the main meal: I got a 22 lb. fresh turkey and decided to try brining for the first time. My dad and I mixed up our brew in a cooler. We put water, salt, brown sugar, buttermilk, peppercorns, garlic and sage. We let the brine sit overnight and then soaked the turkey in it for 24 hours. I rinsed it well before cooking, but it browned so quickly! I had to cover it with foil after only 2 hours. I think the meat had a lot of flavor but we were joking that the dark meat was so dark it looked black.

For the sides we had mashed potatoes, stuffing, spinach gratin( I was told it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if I didn't make this as usual) and cranberry relish. My mom always orders an Edwards ham sliced thin. My brother Jack does the creamed onions and gravy. He used the cooked bits in the bottom of the pan for the gravy and it was so flavorful. My dad made a wonderful pot of kale and collard greens too. I roasted a mix of butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and brussel sprouts with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

And a new addition this year was rotkohl or german red cabbage. I think it went really well with the meal.

A week before I made and froze these pull apart rolls and sweet potato biscuits.

And on the dessert front. Another miss was David Lebovitch's dulce de leche brownies. I had such high hopes for these but they were so dense. I don't know what went wrong.

Otherwise I made pumpkin pie, bourbon pecan tart, and a walnut pumpkin cheesecake.
I feel full just thinking about it all. It was a great gathering with those I love!

Japanese

2009-11-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

So much food activity around here lately I haven't even found time to blog about it. We've celebrated a couple of birthdays, one with a fondue dinner. Always fun and delicious, we usually do cheese first with bread and vegetables to dip and then hot oil with chicken and beef to cook. I make a bunch of sauces to dip the meat in, but the curry is usually everyone's favorite. I'll remember to photograph next time!
Also had a Japanese meal which we started with a saketini made from a combination of different recipes (which is how I tend to cook too). I started with vodka, added a splash of a very mild sake and then some juice from the Lychee's which I garnished them with, á la olives.

When we lived in Los Angeles I used to go downtown where there was an entire Japanese department store and huge grocery store. I acquired a lot of my Japanese dishes and sake cups there. It was much easier to get all of my ingredients in one place too.

We had edamame, miso soup, cucumber salad, chicken yakitori, and a variety of sushi. Seafood @ West Main had some really nice sashimi quality tuna and salmon. Some folks drank Sapporo beer and others had cold or hot sake.

For dessert I made my first icecream bombe and served it with ginger cookies. It was mango sorbet, raspberry sorbet and strawberry icecream with a raspberry sauce on top. It got me thinking about all of the different icecream and/or sorbet combinations you could do...

The last sliver!

Scones

2009-11-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Years ago when we lived in Los Angeles my girlfriends and I would get together for tea at one of the nice hotels. It was a bargain to be able to sit for hours at the beautiful Hotel Bel Air. For $22 we would get a glass of champagne, little sandwiches, scones, cookies and all the tea we could drink. Sometimes they would have to ask us to finish up because the dinner patrons were arriving!
That's what inspired me to start making scones at home. I used to make créme fraiche to go with them for special get togethers.
I still love them and make a batch almost weekly, more so in the fall/winter. Late in the afternoon with a cup of coffee or tea, they are a perfect treat. A great after school snack or for breakfast with scrambled eggs.
Our favorite kinds are cheddar dill, buttermilk currant and chocolate chip orange scones. My children absolutely love the chocolate chip orange scones and I've been asked for this recipe more times than I can remember so I'm going to share it here. Once Upon a Tart, Barefoot Contessa and Joy of Cooking all have some great scone recipes too.

Chocolate Chip Orange Scones

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
6 T. cold unsalted butter (cut into pieces)
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
grated zest of one orange
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender. Stir in chocolate chips. Whisk together cream, egg and orange zest then add to flour mixture. Stir with rubber spatula just until it comes together. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into an 8 inch circle. Cut into 12 wedges, place on baking sheet and brush with cream. Bake at 425º for 12- 15 min.
Enjoy!

Halloween

2009-10-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

We carved pumpkins with the kids last night. ( I agreed just so I can get all of the seeds!)

I love to roast them. It takes awhile to clean them well but after they are clean and dry, I put olive oil (about 2 T.) and then various spices that you like and salt. This year I used chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and cayenne. Roast at 350º for 35-40 min.
I made one bowl less spicey. So delicious and good for you too!

Off to a school Halloween party. I made these brownies with skeletons. The skeleton icing was thinner than I had hoped so they ran a little bit but I doubt the kids will care. The head is a mini marshmallow.

My favorite thing to bring to parties for Halloween is a skeleton crudite platter. A cauliflower scooped out with dip for the head and then celery ribs, carrot arms, tomato joints etc. Always a hit.
These labels are really fun too. The big ones go on soda bottles and the smaller ones are for wine bottles. Instead of buying a terrible wine just for the fun label you can label whatever you like. I got these a year or two ago at maybe Dollar Tree?

Fall Cravings

2009-10-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

As soon as the cool weather sets in and you can smell fall in the air I start craving soup. I make a lot of soup through out the fall and winter. This week I made a roasted potato and leek soup. Roasting the potatoes and leeks gives it so much more flavor. So comforting with a loaf of homemade bread.

That brings me to my latest favorite gadget, the immersion blender. I debated whether I really needed another appliance in the kitchen when I had a blender that could do the job. Well it is so worth it, and makes pureeing soup so much easier with less mess and clean up. I will get a lot of use out of it. It also emulsifies dressings with a whisk attachment. I would definitely recommend a cordless version.

Another fall favorite around here is caramel apples. My daughter Maddie asked if we could make some this week, but instead of regular size apples I bought these adorable crab apples.

I think they are the perfect size for a snack or they'd be great for a party.

Family Gathering

2009-10-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

We had a warm up for Thanksgiving over the weekend with all of my brothers here. The guys said they would take care of the meat, Mom would do appetizers and I took care of the sides and desserts. We're getting out numbered by the kids these days but our total for Sunday supper was nineteen!

They decided on chicken and here's my brother Jack hacking them up, getting them ready for the grill.

He mixed up some rub from my spice cabinet to put on them.

I made roasted brussels sprouts which I just love. I put olive oil, salt and pepper on them and then roast them @400º for 30-40 minutes. A great fall side dish I think.

Then I did navy beans in the pressure cooker. Added a little salt, bacon (pepper bacon of course) and cumin.

Rounded that out with a baked macaroni and cheese and orzo with roasted vegetables. Everyone really loved the orzo. I've never made it before but it's a definite keeper in the recipe files. And there were delicious White House rolls from Ukrops (in Richmond).

Then there was dessert!! I figured I needed to make two with so many people. First I made a good ole chocolate buttercream cake which chocolate lovers always dig.
When we were in NYC over the summer a new Magnolia Bakery had opened near us. It's hard not to be charmed by the place, although the prices are a bit high. My daughter wanted to try the
"famous banana pudding" one night. We all tasted it and then I saw that they had the recipe in their newest cookbook. I was shocked to see it's made with jello pudding.I thought it would be pudding from scratch for sure. I've been looking for a time to try it and it was fantastic and so simple to make with vanilla jello pudding, nilla wafers, whipped cream and bananas.

Martha's Market

2009-10-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

A friend invited me to the preview party for Martha's Market held at John Paul Jones Arena. I didn't realize it would be so nice!! We headed for one of the open bars scattered around and I zeroed in on the Proscecco. Our first stop was for this gazpacho with avocado and shrimp served in martini glasses. Nice but a little over pureed.

Then there were cheeses, meats and roasted vegetables.

Really nice presentation on the oyster shooters. I don't eat oysters but they looked great.

They had celery puree on the bottom and tomato sauce on top.

There was also a carving station and tiny dessert tarts.

I took time out from all of the eating and drinking to try on this fabulous hat!

The whole thing was catered by the caterer for most JPJ events. They did a nice job! I hope I get invited back next year.

C-ville Piefest

2009-10-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

I saw a tiny blip in our local newspaper,The Daily Progress, about an upcoming pie contest. A pie throw down, count me in! What a hoot.
I decided to enter my chocolate cream pie mainly because the family goes crazy for it. I made it about a year and a half ago and then everyone wanted it for their birthday instead of cake. I don't have a ton of pies in my repertoire, so I thought let's go with the well loved chocolate cream.

I registered on their C-ville piefest site and that morning there were 24 people registered. Well many more showed up. I think they were so overwhelmed with the amount of entries.
It was a fun day at the new Mudhouse in Crozet. The Honey Dewdrops played and they raffled off our second pies to benefit PACEM.

I really felt for all of the judges. They divided them up with about six judging cream pies and six tasting fruit pies. They started with my pie! I couldn't believe it but they sliced it up and took little slices. I thought they would take one bite tops, but they ate the whole little slice. I thought they are in big trouble if they're going to make it through all of those pies.
They looked seriously ill by the end. It took them the full two hours to get through them all. Their palates must have been so overwhelmed.
The only bummer of the day was that after they finally finished tasting, it took the organizer another hour to add up our scores, so a lot of the momentum of the day was gone. They didn't really announce the prizes with the winners, so it was a bit anticlimactic.
The cream pie winner and best in show was a lemon chiffon pie. The minute it was announced I just said, "Can I get that recipe?!"
There was a nice article in The Daily Progress the next day and it showed them cutting into my pie!!
I'm already thinking about next year...........

Donuts

2009-09-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

How cute is the Carpe Donut truck?!

We were lucky enough to attend a WHTJ event out at the always lovely King Family Vineyards. Along with the spectacular view out back was the Carpe Donut truck. I was saving my appetite for the dinner catered from L'etoile so I sent over my personal taster, Mr. Mark to check them out. He wasn't sure after the first one so he needed to try another one.

Need I say more. Hot and yummy come to mind.

The cute cart reminds me of my cupcake truck dream that has yet to come to fruition.

(Imagine a small airstream painted up like a giant cupcake driving around town, stopping at little league games. Calling out, "I've got red velvet, devil dog, chocolate buttercream.......!")

Any investors out there????

End of Summer Eating

2009-09-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

I can't quite get my head around the fact that summer is officially over. I'm prolonging it as long as possible with fresh produce. I'm making a lot of trips to Lynchburg these days and have been stopping at the Saunders Brothers Market. Their corn was the best I had all summer. They have a huge selection of peaches and now apples. I tried a couple of different peach varieties and made this peach pie. I was inspired by Evan Kleinman, of KCRW's Good Food,' pie a day' project throughout the summer. I haven't made a lot of fruit pies but peach pie is delicious! I used to listen to Good Food in Los Angeles and now I download the podcasts.

I love substantial salads for dinner during the summer too. This was so easy, fresh and filling. I baked the chicken breasts in white wine and sprinkled them with salt, pepper, fresh basil and parsley. Then steamed the potatoes and asparagus.

Served it over a bed of greens with a balsamic vinegarette.

My other craze this summer was the ultimate BLT. First of all I discovered pepper bacon a couple of years ago and now it's practically all I use. I haven't found anything that calls for bacon that's not better with pepper bacon.

So I have a couple of great BLT variations. First if you ever make garlic aioli for dinner, you always have some left over. Use that for your mayonnaise with toasted white bread, juicy tomatoes, lettuce and of course, pepper bacon.

Or:

Instead of the aoili put a thin layer of pimento cheese on your toasted white bread with tomato, lettuce, and pepper bacon.

Papa's SQUASH SOUP

2009-09-08T18:08:00.001-07:00

Capture the last bit of summer cooking! My Dad (aka Papa), who is a wonderful cook, has been making this soup all summer. I'm going to have to make a batch this week, it looks delicious. Here are his steps along with wonderful photographs.

Chilled Yellow Squash Soup

1. In a large saucepan, fry 3-4 strips of smoked

bacon until very crisp.

2. Remove bacon and crumbs and retain about

one tbl. of bacon grease. Add one tbl. of olive or

grapeseed oil and 1/4 stick of butter.

3. Add one med onion chopped and cook

on med heat until soft. You can add salt

and pepper to taste here or at the next

step.

Add one can of chicken stock (which in

this case was 24 oz of home made) and 3-4 chicken bouillon cubes,

keep on med. heat.

Chop four med. sized yellow squash

and add to mixture along with several

fresh basil leaves.

Cook until squash is very soft. Let cool

and then put in blender

Put blended mix into the frig until

chilled. Serve with crumbled bacon

and/or sour cream on top.

Krazy for Korean

2009-09-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite nights out in New York this summer was going to eat in Koreatown. I can't believe I've never done that before. A good friend took us and it was so festive for a group.

They barbeque the meat and vegetables on little grills in the middle of your table.

Then all of the relishes arrive. I've read all about kimchi but didn't know about all of the other

pickled items.

PART 2

It just so happens I'm in a book club with a wonderful Korean/American friend. She chose our latest book called "Still Life With Rice" that a friend of hers (Helie Lee) wrote. A true story about her grandmother's life in Korea through the war and occupations. It was such a fascinating story. Then she hosted book club and put out an authentic Korean spread.

We started with a Korean fusion appetizer of rice cakes wrapped in bacon.

Here she is explaining some of the relishes on the table.

She said it was hard to find authentic Korean ingredients around Charlottesville so she drove to DC to get everything.

Besides all of the relishes and barbeque we had a seaweed soup, mi-yuk gook that Korean woman eat during pregnancy and after giving birth.

For desert were these delicious little balls of mango icecream wrapped in a thin rice cake. I need some more of these.

She also makes and sells Palcha which is an amazing and versatile sauce and marinade.

While I'm on the Korean subject: normally I'm not big on writing out a lot of recipes for posting but....

About seven years ago one of my daughters chose Korea for a big school project and she (meaning me) had to make a food item to bring to the class. We contacted her best friend from California who was from Korea for ideas. Her mother who spoke no english wrote this out and sent it to me. I made it for the international day and it was really good. I'm inspired to make it again now.

Korean Bulgogi

1 lb. ribeye beef (thin sliced)

1 med. onion sliced

5 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons chopped green onion

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Combine ingredients and marinate 1-2 hours or overnight

Grill or saute in oil, med. hi heat

Add vegetables like carrots and muchrooms

Serve with rice.

Julia Child Birthday Dinner

2009-08-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

"If you're afraid of butter, use cream"

-Julia Child

I had a great time cooking and eating french recipes from Julia Child to honor her birthday.

We had my mom and stepfather over and they brought the champagne!

We started with a Bacon-and-Leek Quiche. It was a Julia recipe reprinted in Food & Wine's August issue.

My crust cracked a little and some of the filling ran out but it was still delicious.

For our main course I made her Salad Niçoise. Instead of canned tuna we grilled some wonderful fresh tuna our neighbor caught down in North Carolina. I baked some french baguettes to serve with it. What a great summer al fresco meal!

And of course there was dessert. I made profiteroles using Ina Garten's recipe for the dough. Julia's recipe just seemed a little more complicated. We filled them with vanilla and coffee hagen daz and topped it with hot fudge sauce ( a Julia recipe).

My mom loved these so much she took this picture and printed it into a post card. Very cute!

Zabars - A Foodie's Mecca

2009-08-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

Where we were staying in the city was not far from the fabulous New York institution Zabars. I hadn't been in so many years so I found a morning to go meander on my own.

I wandered upstairs to look at the house wares department. It was really impressive! I'd already perused Broadway Panhandler and Sur La Table in the city, which are both incredible stores. But I was amazed at how much Zabars has in stock, it's huge with an amazing selection. I also thought the prices were the best I saw in the city. My big purchase was a really large salad bowl, cherry wood, large enough to serve a dozen or so people. (only $29.)

And of course I picked up a variety of yummies down stairs, including cold cucumber soup, a terrific salmon spread, cinnamon rugelach and bitter orange marmalade to bring back to VA.

It's so worth a visit.

We also brought back 'Brunette' a belgian praline spread sold at Le Pain Quotidien. It's hazelnut butter and so amazing on bread. If you go to one of their places, they're all over the world, check out the Brunette. Their cook book looked really nice too. Ah..... maybe next visit.

Pommes Frites

2009-08-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
- Fran Lebowitz

I was in New York City for a couple of weeks so I have a few things to share. Of course we ate well but we tried to do so within a budget, which can be challenging in NYC. Some friends recommended Pommes Frites in the east village. I wasn't sure if we'd make it there but it happened to be a block away from where my daughter was dancing. It was a really cute and tiny place. I was expecting thin fries but they are fat belgian cut potatoes. We peaked in the back to watch their amazing potato cutting machine.

They have so many sauces to choose from and the guy was very patient and encouraged us to sample some before choosing. I can't even remember which ones we chose but they were all great and the fries where fresh, hot, and delicious.

Julie & Julia is so much fun. I think Meryl Streep did a phenomenal job capturing Julia Child.

Go see it!!

We're planning a dinner honoring Julia Child's birthday which is this Saturday August 15th.

Gather your friends and make some french food.

Bon Appétit.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Eggs

2009-07-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

I catered a cocktail party for my mom and a friend of hers last month. It was for about thirty people. We did some standard things like shrimp cocktail, a cheese board, and olives.

While thinking about summer finger food I wanted to do a twist on deviled eggs. I found this recipe for goat cheese st uffed eggs. The recipe was rated highly so I thought I'd give them a try. I was a little thrown by the chutney; what kind of chutney do you use? The only chutney I ever have on hand is mango chutney. I don't think it matters what kind you use. These were the hit of the party! They all wanted the recipe and now they're printing it in their neighborhood association's newsletter.

They also wanted the recipe for these crab cakes with lemon dill sauce that I made small for easy finger food.

I got a variety of cheeses from fabulous Feast!

Then I did roasted aparagus and wrapped them with prosciutto from Mona Lisa Pasta.

With the vegetable platter I put the dips in hollowed out peppers.

I used my stand by recipe for some outrageous brownies. The recipe makes a whole jelly roll pan of them.

I found authentic italian amaretti cookies to make this super citrus semifreddo. I've made this for the family and they loved it. It has a little bit of lemoncello in it (my absolute favorite liquor!) so I served little glasses of lemoncello with the dessert. I want to try making lemoncello for Christmas presents this year.

I think they had a good time and that's all that really matters when you throw a party!

Julia & Julie

2009-07-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited about the release of the movie Julie & Julia. I highly recommend both books that Nora Ephron wrote the screenplay from. I was so amused by Julie Powell's book Julie & Julia and have had my Julia Child moment and soaked up My Life in France. I can't wait to see what Meryl Streep and Amy Adams do with their characters.

Another very interesting looking movie coming out is Food, inc. It exposes America's industrialized food system and it's effect on our environment, health, economy and workers' rights. I definitely want to see it!

I've been trying to find some new food related podcasts (besides my favorite, The Splendid Table) to listen to on my summer travels and am really enjoying The Restaurant Guys . They own a couple of restaurants in New Jersey and have very interesting conversations with an array of foodie guests.

Eating well while traveling can be so difficult.

I'm really big on bringing some healthy things from home with you. There's nothing better when you're starving and/or queasy from getting up at 3am to catch a flight, than to pull a juicy apple or a granola bar out of your bag to tide you over when your flight is delayed. Otherwise, you end up grabbing overpriced fatty snacks at the airport. I have to share this picture of my airplane food. I hate to complain because it's rare to even get food on a plane these days, but after a week in Italy of the most amazing meals ever, this was my meal on the way home. Appetizing huh!

I've even taken to packing picnics for road trips. We find a grassy knoll at a rest stop and spread out a blanket and have a homemade meal instead of rushing through fast food or a sit down meal that disappoints and takes too long.

Enjoy those summer travels and eat well!

Summer's Bounty

2009-07-04T09:01:00.001-07:00

Ahh, to pick fresh berries. So delicious. I go to the "nameless "place to pick berries. Normally I like to share all of my sources but "nameless" has become overcrowded and so overpicked they've had to cut their hours! They don't even advertise.

But now it's peach time. I go to Chiles and Henleys for peaches.

I just love this time of the year with all of the amazing fresh produce. I grew a lot of vegetables from seeds this year for the first time, which is extra thrilling. (Although the weeds have taken over with all of this rain)

I took advantage of all of those squash blossoms in the garden one night.

They have a goat cheese filling and a beer batter coating!

I'd never made them before but they were great.

I made this fresh herb risotto to serve with them.

There is a great web site called eatwellguide.org that helps you find fresh farm sources for food when you're not at home but are trying to cook and eat well. Check it out if you're traveling this summer.

Zibibbo

2009-07-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

The best meal we had in Itally was at Zibibbo in Florence. A true dining experience. I read about it in the May issue of Gourmet magazine. The article was about the writer's (Flavia Schepmans) experience going to Florence and taking a week long cooking class at Zibibbo with Benedetta Vitali (shown in picture with me) the restaurant's owner and chef.

We got on a city bus in Florence for a 30 minute ride up the hill to Careggi. We were the "early" Americans, but Benedetta couldn't have been more welcoming. (Italians eat dinner around 9pm) She sat us down with some Prosecco while she went to print out the evening's menu. Then she came by to translate the entire menu for us and offered half portion sizes of some of the courses so we could try more dishes. She also knew her wines and made a wonderful recomendation for our meal. We were the only Americans there all evening.

I started with this wonderful smokey eggplant spread.

Then it was on to our homemade pasta course. One was orecchiette with a spicy sauce and then a tagliatelle with wild mushrooms. Really good!

One of our main courses was Florentine Stewed Calamari with Swiss Chard. So flavorful.

And the very regionally prepared pidgeon! It had a stuffing of liver, pears and orange zest. Mark said he liked the little bones and Benedetta said "Oh yes, zee little bones are our favorite part".

We topped it off with amazing dessert.

Zibibbo is a restaurant that should have a wonderful write up on Trip Advisor.

Beware of Trip Advisor

2009-06-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

We had amazing gelato in Italy. I tried different flavors everyday but never had a bad one! My favorites were marscapone with hunks of nutella and papaya. Mark tended to stick with dark chocolate and raspberry. You can't go wrong with that.

It can be difficult to find a good restaurant when you're traveling. I like getting friends' suggestions, otherwise I never know whether to trust a guide book. A couple of times on our recent trip we asked at the front desk of our hotel and they would always suggest some place but they never looked particularly good, authentic or busy. And I'm always thinking, are they getting a kick back for sending us there? Our first night in Florence we were looking for a place for dinner after a long day of travel and sightseeing. Mark decided to investigate online and turned to Trip Advisor. We had cross referenced our hotel choices on Trip Advisor before booking them, so it seemed like a good theory. He looked around and came up with the number one moderately priced restaurant in Florence. We headed out and found Osteria All'Antico Mercato. I guess we had some expectations since it was #1. We got settled and ordered. It was one of those menu's with way too many choices, that always makes me a little leary (how do they keep all that food fresh?). Then we realized we were surrounded by tourists and possibly an entire tour group. The food was OK but certainly nothing special. Mark recognized the owner up front from his web browsing and walked up to see what he was doing on his computer. Manipulating Trip Advisor perhaps! He asked how our meal was and when Mark said OK he handed him a card that said

#1 on Trip Advisor!

If you liked your meal please go to

tripadvisor.com and let them know.

Pretty disappointed but the next night's meal made up for it all........

Marks 2 Cents: From this dreaded experience I learned " if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right? ".

Osteria Bea Vita

2009-06-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Another great meal in Venice off the beaten path. This place, Osteria Bea Vita had a price fixed dinner menu so we decided to give it a try. It started with a delicious bowl of clams and mussels with bread to sop up the juices. The first course was amazing handmade gnocchi with a saffron seafood sauce. The second course was tuna and nothing special.

Then came the tiramisu. I had high expectations because I make a pretty good one at home, but this really was fantastic. I think it had more alcohol that I use. I'm salivating just looking at the picture and remembering it!

Venice

2009-06-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

The ultimate food journey, Italy!

Just returned from a trip where we had some amazing meals all in the name of blog research, right?! First we went to Venice where the prosecco flows freely. We tried hard to get away from the touristy/pricey areas and did very well! At Casa Bonita in the Cannaregio area we found a delicious bargain. The first night we just ordered pasta, salad, desert, and wine but after sitting there we clued in to what the locals were ordering and had to go back the next night to do it right. This (pictured) was an amazing, very venetian appetizer, but we couldn't clarify the names of some of the items. We tend to call everything shrimp and each item had a different name such as scampi, prawns, shrimp etc. There was some raw tuna and octopus too. So fresh!

Then we had the grilled fish of the day and the waiter filleted it all right at the table for us.

A real treat just to watch him.

A day didn't pass with out our afternoon macchiato.