Anastasia's Table

Baked Quail Eggs with Spinach and Crispy Prosciutto

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:47:21 -0500

Today I played with the quail eggs that Mona Farm in Danville, NH brings to the Salem NH Farmers Market. Baked Quail Eggs with Spinach and Crispy Prosciutto inspired by Mona Farm's recipe for Baked Quail Eggs 10 quail eggs 10 mini fillo shells 2-3 tablespoons finely minced baby spinach 2 slices prosciutto Preheat oven to 350F. Place prosciutto on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes or until crispy. Let cool, then finely mince the prosciutto. Arrange fillo shells on baking sheet. Sprinkle a bit of minced spinach into each fillo cup. Carefully crack a quail egg into each fillo cup. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until the egg whites are cooked through but the egg yolks are still soft. Sprinkle with minced prosciutto and spinach. Serve warm. Serves 5 as an appetizer.

Winter Market Slaw with Maple Vinaigrette

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:39:56 -0500

I developed this recipe for a demo at the Salem, NH Farmers' Market. It's a great winter slaw to serve with roasted pork, chicken, beef, or lamb. Or to enjoy for lunch with some soup or a sandwich. It's a great way to enjoy some winter vegetables in a new way. The shoppers and the vendors at the market loved it. I hope you will too. Winter Market Slaw with Maple Vinaigrette 1 pound butternut squash, peeled and seeded 6 carrots, peeled 1 bulb celeriac or 1 turnip, peeled 1 6-inch piece daikon, peeled 1 apple 1 bunch scallions 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons maple syrup, I like to use Grade B syrup 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional 3 ounces Boggy Meadow Apple Jack Cheese, cut into 1/8" cubes, optional (or any Jack cheese) Shred the butternut squash, carrots, celeriac or turnip, and daikon in the food processor using the large shredding blade. Julienne the apples by hand. Chop the scallions. Put squash, carrots, celeriac, daikon, apple and half of the scallions in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper, toss to mix together. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, and maple syrup. Add vinaigrette to vegetables, tossing to coat. Taste for seasoning. Sprinkle with remaining chopped scallions and walnuts and cheese cubes, if using. Let stand for 15-30 minutes before serving. This slaw will keep well in the fridge for 3-5 days. Makes about 12 cups.

National Farmer's Market Week

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:20:17 -0500

The Department of Agriculture declared August 2-8 as National Farmers Market Week. The Derry Farmers Market just opened in July and I've been enjoying shopping at it every Wednesday afternoon. It's a small, but bustling market with a good mix of local products including produce, baked goods, maple syrup, wine, flowers and plants. I love being able to meet the people who are growing my food and learn about what they are growing and how they are growing it. This winter, I'll be getting 1/2 of a pastured pig from one of the farmers. This week's market bounty included swiss chard, eggplants, red onions, caramelized onion biscuits, lemon cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, leeks, and shallots. The lemon cucumbers are not lemony, rather they get their name because they look like lemons. I sliced them thinly and dressed them with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, minced parsley, and a splash of lemon. For an even prettier salad, you could slice one lemon cucumber and one regular cucumber. I love that you don't have to peel cucumbers that come from a local farmer. The eggplants are destined to be used in Tofu Triangles with Thai Chili Sauce that I hope to make tomorrow. I bet some of the hot peppers make it's way into this dish. The hot peppers will also be used in a Mexican black bean and corn salad. The caramelized onion biscuits were served with Salmon Cakes. These are very tasty. The baker has a variety of savory biscuits. There was one with zucchini and one with bacon and cheese. Maybe I'll try that one next week. On Sunday, the swiss chard will either go into scrambled eggs for breakfast or be sautéed with garlic for dinner. The leeks will make an appearance in mashed potatoes with leeks. The red onions and shallots will appear in a variety of dishes throughout the week. Red onions are my favorite onions, and shallots improve just about anything. Some will go in salad dressing. The cherry tomatoes are for munching. They sit out on the counter ready to be enjoyed as a snack or as part of a meal.

All Natural Beautiful Easter Eggs

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:55:46 -0500

Are you or someone in your family allergic to or senstive to food dyes? Or maybe you prefer to avoid the artificial colors usually used to dye Easter eggs. Well, you can still have beautifully dyed Easter eggs. The ingredients are simple and you probably have many of them in your cupboard and refrigerator. This activity will take a little longer than dying eggs with an egg dying kit, but it’s worth the extra time to make naturally dyed eggs. It’s a good idea to wear gloves when you make any of these dyes. Unless you also want to dye your hands. And don’t use your favorite towels to clean up; use old rags and paper towels. Yellow Dye: Turmeric, is a spice best known for being an ingredient used to make curry, is the perfect dye for yellow Easter eggs. To make yellow turmeric dye, bring 1 quart of water to a boil, add 1 tablespoons white vinegar, stir in 3 tablespoons turmeric. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the turmeric. Remove from heat. Let cool until you’re ready to use it. These deep yellow eggs were soaked in the turmeric dye for a few hours. Red Dye: Beets are used to make red dye. If you’ve ever cooked beets, you know about how they stain. You can use fresh or canned beets. You need 1-2 beets, about 3/4 pound. Roughly chop your beets, and place the the beets, 1 quart of water and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the beets and cool the dye liquid until you are ready to use it. Blue Dye: When you boil red cabbage, the resulting purple liquid will dye your eggs blue. It seems odd, but it works! So for your blue dye, you need 1 pound of shredded red cabbage. Add the cabbage, 1 quart of water, and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the cabbage and cool your liquid dye until you are ready to use it. Here’s the red cabbage dye before the cabbage has been strained out. Cooking Your Eggs: While you are making your dyes, you should also cook your eggs. For the best colors, be sure to use white eggs. Everyone has their own method for hard-cooked eggs. The first thing that you might notice is that I'm calling them hard-cooked eggs rather than hard-boiled eggs because I don't boil the eggs; boiling the eggs often results in rubbery whites, green tinged yolks, and shells that are impossible to remove. Here’s my method. Place the eggs in a saucepan, fill the pan with water to cover the eggs by 1 inch of water, add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water (don’t worry, your eggs will not taste salty), bring the water to a boil, immediately remove the pan from the heat, cover the pan, and let the eggs sit in the pan for 16 minutes (for large eggs). But you’re not done there, you want your eggs to be easy to peel. My secrets to easy-to-peel hard-cooked eggs are twofold: salting the water and immediately plunging the cooked eggs into an ice bath (equal parts cold water and ice). Let the eggs sit in the ice bath for 5 minutes.

Cooking with Kelly

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:59:23 -0500

One of the things I love about my job is that everyday is different. And no matter how much I plan my day, an interesting challenge almost always presents itself. Today was no different. Unless you live under a rock, you know that the Northeast is experiencing serious flooding. Well, that flooding closed my client's daughter's school, so she was home today. Kelly is in third grade and she loves to cook. I rarely see her because she is either in school or at her summer program. But today when she unexpectedly had no school, she helped me cook her family's meals. I took a few minutes to think about how Kelly could help me, then we got down to work. I wanted to find things that she could do on her own or with just a little bit of supervision. Kelly likes to wash vegetables. Great! Kelly washed all the vegetables for me. Kelly likes to peel carrots, so Kelly peeled the carrots. She knows how to do these things, so while she did them, I did other things. Since Kelly likes to peel carrots, I figured she'd like peeling potatoes. Only she has never peeled a potato. So I told her to just do what she did with the carrots. Her family is a swivel-peeler family. I'm a Y-peeler gal. She was having a little trouble with the potatoes, so I offered her my spare Y-peeler to see if that was easier. Kelly is now a Y-peeler convert. And the proud owner of my spare Y-peeler. I also snuck in a little lesson on cleaning up after yourself. Kelly cleaned up all her peelings and washed her cutting board. Look at that concentration! And forgive the blurriness, third graders move very quickly! The potatoes went into an Indian Curry with Potatoes, Cauliflower and Chickpeas. Kelly helped with stirring that. She loved the smell of the curry and knew that it was curry, but she doesn't eat curry.

Happy Birthday! A love letter...

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:19:04 -0500

Seven years ago today, Anastasia's Table, LLC went from being a crazy idea to an official legal entity. Here's the birth certificate. March 27, 2003 marked the beginning of a huge adventure for me. Sure I could cook, but I knew nothing about running a business. What amazed me at the beginning of my adventure and continues to amaze me seven years down the road, is the overwhelming support of family, friends, colleagues, and even of people who barely knew me. Sherrill St. Germain is my "career reinvention" role model. We worked together at what proved to be our last corporate jobs. When she got laid off, she decided to become a financial planner. While I was still employed by that company, I watched in awe as she reinvented herself. You hear about people doing this, but it becomes real when you see someone you know do it. When my time came, Sherrill had blazed the trail and was helping others navigate it. And she still does. My husband, Tom Spine, is amazing. Frankly, while the idea of starting a personal chef business was brewing around in my mind, I was terrified to speak of those plans. Why, because it would mean a huge change to our lifestyle. But when I worked up the nerve, Tom was willing to give it a go. And he has been a huge supporter of my business.

Pulled Pork Nachos - CWWYHC Super Bowl Edition

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:26:42 -0500

Tom asked me to make Buffalo Chicken Wontons to take with us to a Superbowl party, but I knew I didn't have enough time this weekend to make them. Yesterday we celebrated my parents' 54th anniversary and I made pot roast and veggies for that. Plus we were gone all day on Saturday to attend that party. While I was rummaging through the freezer to see what we had to use up in the Cook With What You Have Challenge, I found two quart bags of pulled pork. And at the end of January, I tagged this Serious Eats post about Pulled Pork Nachos. Perfect, a Superbowl party dish that would also help me use up pulled pork from the freezer and a bottle of barbecue sauce from the pantry. I decided to make the nachos using Tostitos Scoops to make them easy to eat. Add in some Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese and I had an almost instant party munchie that helped me pare down my pantry. The recipe is simple, line two baking sheets with heavy duty foil. Arrange Tostitos Scoops on the baking sheets. Put a spoonful of pulled pork in each Scoop. Top with a squirt of barbecue sauce, then sprinkle with shredded cheese. To make two large baking sheets of nachos, I used 1 bag of Tostistos Scoops, 4-6 cups of pulled pork, about 1 cup barbecue sauce, and two 8-ounce bags of shredded cheese. I assembled them at home, then tightly covered them with foil. Once we got to the party, I removed the foil and baked them at 350F for about 12 minutes. The folks at the party gobbled them up. Since the pulled pork was already made, it took only about 15 minutes to assemble these. So if you have some pulled pork in your freezer, try some Pulled Pork Nachos.

Quick Tip: Oven-Poaching Boneless Chicken Breasts

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:08:09 -0500

Oven-poaching is a fool-proof way to poach chicken breasts for chicken salads and other recipes. What I like about this method is that it is essentially hands-free. Once the chicken is in the oven, there's no adjusting the temperature to make sure the temperature is not too high or too low. This video uses bay leaves, peppercorns, and lemon slices, but you can change the seasoning to match your dish. For example, when I am poaching chicken for a southwestern dish, I'll add peppercorns, chili powder, and lime slices. For a Thai dish, I add ginger, garlic, and kaffir lime leaves. The next time you need poached chicken, try this method.

Rummaging through the fridge CWWYHC Days 14-16

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:20:11 -0500

My blog titles are getting too long, so I'm abbreviating Cook With What You Have Challenge to CWWYHC. I'm still nursing an injured thumb and I'm on my own again this week, so I've been keeping things simple, mostly because washing dishes with four stitches in my thumb is a pain. Saturday (Day 14) dinner was a delicious taco salad with taco meat left over from Taco Night. Sunday (Day 15) dinner was breakfast for dinner: fried eggs, toast, and fruit. I'm a big fan of breakfast for dinner, but Tom isn't, so I make it when he is away. Monday (Day 16) was my first day back to work since I massacred my thumb last Monday. I opted for the simplest of dinners, a sandwich, on a paper plate. No dishes. Tomorrow I'll start working on my stash of freezer meals.

Pizza and Pudding - Cook With What You Have Challenge Day 13

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:36:34 -0500

Tonight was the second Friday in my Cook With What You Have Challenge. Friday is pizza night so of course I made pizza with the help of my friend Pat. She did all the dirty work tonight, including washing all of the dishes. Thanks Pat! I made two small pizzas. One pizza was topped with hot Italian chicken sausage from the freezer. For the other, I roasted two red peppers from the fridge and an onion from the pantry. I use Pastene Ground Peeled Tomatoes for the sauce and tonight I opened my last can of them. I used half of the can, the rest will go into the freezer for next week's pizza, then I'll be out of the tomatoes needed for pizza. Oh no. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I've been craving something creamy and chocolately, so this afternoon I started looking for recipes for homemade chocolate pudding. I found this recipe for Best Chocolate Pudding on the Smitten Kitchen blog. I had everything needed but milk. But that problem was easily solved by the cans of coconut milk in the pantry. The pudding was smooth, rich, and creamy; the coconut milk flavor was there, under the chocolate, it was subtle, not overpowering. We both gobbled it up. Pat and I had pizza, played BananaGrams, then savored our chocolate pudding. A lovely evening.

Shrimp Tikka Masala - Cook with What You Have Challenge Day 12

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:49:32 -0500

My goal tonight was to use a partial bag of frozen shrimp. As I was thinking about the frozen shrimp, I remembered this recipe for Shrimp Tikka Masala that I had bookmarked earlier this month. Perfect. It would also allow me to use some yogurt I had in the fridge. And the ever-present onions, garlic, and ginger. My pantry, fridge, and freezer also provided everything I needed for jasmine rice and for an Indian-Spiced Spinach Madeleine. I made one substitution in the Shrimp Tikka Masala recipe. I used ketchup instead of tomato paste because there is no tomato paste in my pantry. Spinach Madeleine is my go-to recipe for creamed spinach, but I change it up to complement whatever cuisine I am cooking. For this Indian version, I used about 4 ounces of light cream cheese instead of the jalapeno cheese. I also start this recipe by sauteing a chopped onion or a few shallots. Tonight I used onion. You don't need 1/4 cup of butter for this recipe. I use 2 tablespoons of oil or butter. I seasoned the spinach with garam masala and a pinch of crushed red pepper instead of Worcestershire sauce and celery seed. Another great meal from the pantry. I'll definitely make the Shrimp Tikka Masala again.

Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 11 Taco Night

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:30:21 -0500

When I sorted through the refrigerator and pantry last week, I found an open box of taco shells, an open jar of tomato salsa, an open jar of salsa verde, a can of black olives, some cheddar cheese, onions, red bell peppers, an avocado, and scallions. If I added some ground beef from the freezer and bought lettuce and tomatoes, I had everything I needed for Taco Night. I don't follow a recipe for tacos. Along with the meat, I saute chopped onion and red bell pepper. I added in an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce, the salsa verde, chili powder, and oregano. I usually add cumin too, but I'm out of it right now. We opted for taco salads, so after heating up the taco shells, I broke them up into bite size pieces and we built our taco salads with the taco meat, cheese, lettuce, olives, scallions, tomatoes, avocado, and salsa. Tacos are a simple, but very satisfying meal. Sorry about the lack of pictures. It's too hard to steady the camera and take a picture with only one good hand.

Cook with What You Have Challenge - Days 9 & 10 Chicken Parmesan & Rioja Chicken

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:08:29 -0500

Monday was Day 9 of my Cook with What You Have Challenge. Dinner went into the crockpot first thing Monday morning. Rioja Chicken, based on this recipe from Cooking Light. I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs and I don't dredge them in flour. I also use orange zest instead of lemon zest. On Monday, I used dried apricots instead of prunes, because I had apricots. My plan was to cook rice and broccoli at dinner time. Dinner got a bit discombobulated Monday night because I cut my thumb badly while I was working and ended my day at the local urgent care facility with four stitches in my thumb. Dinner was the last thing on my mind when I got home. I pulled a bag of Steamfresh rice out of the freezer instead of cooking rice and Tom cooked the broccoli. We both liked this dish with the apricots instead of prunes and I wouldn't hesitate to make that substitution again. Gone from the larder are a package of frozen chicken thighs. a package of Steamfresh rice, an open jar of olives, and an open bottle of Rioja wine. Sorry no pictures.

Quinoa-Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:12:25 -0500

I'm posting this recipe because my friend Jaime requested it. Every time I make these stuffed peppers, they are a big hit. Poblano peppers are a relatively mild chile pepper that originated in the State of Puebla, Mexico. When poblano peppers are dried, they are called ancho chiles. Poblanos tend to be mild, but they can be hot. I like to roast them before stuffing. I usually roast and peel them when I use them in recipes, but when I peeled them to use in this recipe, they lost their structure and were hard to stuff. Roasting without peeling works well in this recipe. If you can't find poblano peppers, you can use bell peppers and then add more jalapeno to the stuffing mixture for a bit more heat.

Cook with What You Have Challenge - Days 7 & 8 Veggie Broth, Potato Soup, Black Rice Curried Meatloaf

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:29:57 -0500

Saturday was day 7 of my Cook with What You Have Challenge. I started the day making Baked Oatmeal, then shopped for vegetables and dairy. Potatoes seem to be multiplying in my pantry, so I decided to use some of them by making Irish Potato Soup, a creamy, but cream-free, potato soup. I wanted to make it with vegetable broth rather than chicken broth, and had added vegetable broth to my shopping list, but before I left for the store, I was thumbing through Mark Bittman's Food Matters, and saw a vegetable broth recipe. I had everything I needed to make Bittman's vegetable broth, so I took the broth off my list and made it Saturday afternoon. My first ever vegetable broth. I took Bittman's advice and sauted the vegetables. I also left the skins on the onions to add more color to the broth. The resultant broth was delicious, and I used up two onions, a few cloves of garlic, 2 potatoes, a few stalks of celery, and some sad looking carrots. I had dinner out: Thai food. Before going out, we made Thai mango pudding, using some unflavored gelatin and coconut milk from the pantry. On Sunday, Day 8, I used some of the potatoes, an onion, a bunch of shallots (because I didn't have any leeks), a few stalks of celery, and about half of the veggie broth to make the Irish Potato Soup. The recipe calls for 1/4 of butter, I used 1 tablepoon of olive oil. Sunday's dinner was Black Rice Curried Meatloaf with roasted potatoes and cauliflower. The meatloaf recipe allowed me to use up the open jar of mango chutney in the fridge and to use some black rice in the pantry. Other than the zucchini in the meatloaf I had everything I needed to make this meal. This time I made mini meatloaves. I tossed the potatoes with some garam masala. This time around, Tom gave the meatloaf two thumbs up. The recipe made six mini meatloaves, three of them will go in the freezer.