Fraises et Tartines

Cast iron pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:24:00 +0000

I received a long-wished-for bread machine for Christmas this year. I crossed my fingers that I would not be one of the many people who has a bread machine and lets it collect dust for years before deciding to craigslist it. Let's just call that my new years resolution to not be a lets-her-bread-machine-collect-dust-until-it-goes-in-the-craigslist-pile person. So far, new years resolution is going strong! Not the best for my carb intake, but at least it's good bread.

I'll post about making bread another time, but for now, let's talk pizza. I've been a wee bit busy with the wee one, so sometimes it's hard to put together a well thought out dinner. On the nights that I just don't know what else to do, we usually make pizza. We always keep mozzarella, tomato sauce and pepperoni in the house. Sometimes we also have bell peppers or mushrooms to add, but if not, we at least can have pepperoni.

Around Christmas time, some friends came to visit us Quentin from Seattle. We agreed to keep it simple and make pizza, and they were sweet enough to pick up the fixings for it. When they arrived, I needed to nurse Quentin, get his purees ready for his dinner, get him bathed and ready for bed, etc. Luckily, we have been friends since college and used to routinely cook in each others kitchens. So, just like the college days, our friends (C & M) set out to learn my kitchen and get dinner going. M started prepping veggies and C asked where my cast iron pan was.

Me: Umm...cast iron pan? What are you going to use that for? I mean, you're welcome to use it, but why?
C: We're going to use it to make pizza. You've never had cast iron pizza before? It's awesome.
Me: Strange, but go on...

Once the babe had gone to bed and C and M had already made their first few pizzas (which I tasted...awesome indeed!), I had a chance to observe the magic. C taught me his secrets and we've pretty much only used this method since that day. It's so much better than using a pizza pan, and not much more work. I will now share the secret with you.

First, move your oven rack to the top 3rd part of the oven. Not right at the top, but higher than the middle. Turn your oven on broil and put the cast iron pan in. Also, turn the stove on medium.
This is basically to keep the cast iron pan hot because it's going to be going in and out of the oven. Now cut your dough into 3 chunks (more or less, depending on your dough recipe. If using store bought dough, I'd probably cut it in half).

Start to flatten your first chunk of dough.

Roll out the dough. I like mine pretty flat.

Take the cast iron pan out of the oven and put a splash of olive oil in it. Spread it with a metal spatula. Then put the flattened dough on. Return the cast iron pan to the oven and set your timer for 2 minutes.
Remove the cast iron from the oven and flip the dough.

Add your ingredients. Whatever you want, really. Here I'm making a pepperoni pizza with some oregano sprinkled on top. You can definitely get crazier than that, though. We were feeling a "pizza and beer" night, though, and in my opinion pepperoni pizza + beer is a perfect combo.

Now the whole thing goes back in the oven. Set your timer for 5 minutes. Check your pizza to see if it's done. It should be nicely browned. It might need another minute or 2 but it depends on your broiler.
Out comes the pizza!

DIY Footprint Thank You Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:16:00 +0000

And now for something completely different....

Ok so frankly I haven't cooked anything really blog-worthy recently. So instead I'm going to post a tutorial on how to make baby footprint thank you notes. I ran out of the baby boy thank you notes I got at Target, and even though Quentin is almost 5 months old, he's still receiving gifts that we need to write thank you notes for (he's so spoiled!). So I decided, instead of heading back out to Target to get more thank yous, I would attempt to make a more personal version.

Surprisingly enough, these are not pinterest-inspired. (If you don't know what pinterest is, you're missing out...email me for an invite!). While I would guess these have been done before, I came up with the idea all on my own!

Here's what I did:

I used washable paint to make imprints of Quentin's feet. It took 3 tries for each color to get a decent print. I originally wanted to do this project with his handprint, but without a second person to hold his hand open for me, this was totally out of the question!

Once the footprints dried, I scanned them into the computer and chose the best version of each color. I copied and pasted them into a "Pages" document (we're a Mac family, but I'm sure you can do this with Word). Each page got 2 footprints, on the right side of the doc. Then I added a text box and wrote "Thank you" vertically and changed the color to white. I thought about doing red font for the green footprint and green font for the red footprint, but decided I liked the look of white better. I had to do a little testing on regular printer paper to make sure everything was centered correctly for when I cut and folded my cards.

Once that was done, I printed several copies onto cardstock. In order to find the exact middle of the paper, I just folded it in half and creased the edge of the paper. I realize that I could have just measured and marked the middle, but for some reason when I did that the fold was always just a tad off. Hence the folding method.

Then I folded the paper flat, and cut it using a paper cutter.

I creased the edge of the paper in half again to find the middle. And using a blank sheet of cardstock to make sure I kept my line straight, I made a light but firm score in the cardstock using a box cutter. You should use just enough so that the paper folds cleanly and easily, but not enough that you cut through it (obviously). You can skip this and just fold it in half, but the results wont look as professional.

Tada! Footprint thank you card:

Hope you enjoyed this. I'm thinking about branching out and including more DIY type posts here if people like them. Feel free to give me feedback on what you would think of these posts.

And in case I don't get back onto fraises et tartines before next Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving!

Pesto and Heirloom Tomato Tarte

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:22:00 +0000

Finally a food post! It will be a quick one since I am about to head to bed, but that's ok because this recipe is super easy and delicious. I made it while Q was napping, when my mom was coming over for lunch. Of course, by the time we were ready to eat, he had woken up and I ate the tarte one-armed with a fussy baby in the other arm. This did not, however, make the lunch any less tasty.

All you need is a frozen puff pastry dough, some pesto, 2 heirloom tomatoes and some parmesan cheese. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough and press it into your buttered pan. Spread pesto on the bottom (I always keep ice cubes of pesto in my freezer for last minute pesto fixes...I think I used 3 cubes for this). Cut the tomatoes into thick slices and lay them in the tarte. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake for 15 minutes. Then lower the oven temp to 350 and bake for another 10-15 minutes...until the puff pastry and parmesan are golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes or so. Serve and enjoy!

p.s. I apologize to all readers who do not live in California...I realize that a post about heirloom tomatoes right now is a little late for you. Really, I'm not trying to rub it in that we are still enjoying tomatoes here.

Catch-up post

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:44:00 +0000

Alright so clearly I've gone on an impressive blogging hiatus. A lot has happened since my last post, so an update is in order. Let's pretend I had actually been updating this whole time with a few choice mini posts-

January 16, 2011- I am so excited to finally be able to share our wonderful news....I'm pregnant! I'm 16 weeks along and expecting our first baby in late June. We can't wait to meet him or her!

February 11, 2011- We had our 20 week ultrasound today and found out we're having a baby boy!! We were shocked...for some reason we fully expected this little bundle to be a girl, but we're thrilled either way.
February 24, 2011- We closed escrow on a house today. It's in a cute neighborhood of San Jose and we love it! Now we have room for our growing family.
Most of March 2011- We've been hard at work painting our new home. We haven't moved in yet because we hope to have it all painted before filling it with all our things. Don't worry...we're using no-VOC paint so preggers is OK to paint.

April 1, 2011- We moved into our new house today. Thank you SO much to all our wonderful friends who lent a helping hand (and very strong upper bodies) to move all our things. You are amazing! No pictures from today, unfortunately...you'd think I'd have had time to do that considering no one let me lift a thing.

April 30, 2011- We had a housewarming party today to welcome our friends and family to our new home. We purposefully set this date to force us to be all moved in a settled by the end of the month. It was quite a feat but we got everything done and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate!

May 1, 2011- Part of the "getting ready for housewarming party" last month was finishing up the nursery. We got some stencils to paint a farm theme on the walls. We love how it turned out!

In progress...

...aaaand done!

May 8, 2011- Finally a foodie-related one for you. Today is Mother's Day! Since I am not technically a momma yet, I made lunch for my mom (and dad and husband) today to thank her for being a wonderful mom! We had a lentil salad on a bed of butter leaf lettuce, topped with roasted bell peppers and a poached egg. Turned out pretty tasty.

Giant belly on Mother's Day

June 18, 2011- Father's Day! I went significantly less fancy for today's breakfast, but hey...give me a break. I'm 9 months pregnant. Plus, this is one of Trevor's favorite breakfast dishes- sauteed potatoes with onions, cheese and avocado with eggs on the side. Mmm!

June 26, 2011- Our sweet baby boy, Quentin, was born today at 8:36am! He is absolutely perfect and we are completely in love.

Proud parents

July 26, 2011- Quentin is 1 month old today. The last month has been wonderful, albeit more than a little tiring. But wonderful all the same. Little Q is starting to look at us more and pay attention to momma's voice. He loves to nurse and to cuddle. He loves to sleep on our chests.
August 26, 2011- Quentin is 2 months old today! He started giving us smiles a few weeks ago, but he sure makes us work for them! He's been smiling and giggling in his sleep since he was 3 weeks old, but isn't ready to giggle yet while awake. He is getting so strong already and is looking like he might roll over any day now!
September 26, 2011- Quentin is 3 months old today. He rolled over 2 days after his 2 month birthday. He kept doing it for a few weeks and then decided he'd had enough of rolling over and stopped. That's ok though...we're getting tons of sweet smiles now, especially when he first wakes in the morning!
October 12, 2011- Quentin is 3.5 months old and already getting his first taste of apple sauce. This was definitely not the plan...we were going to wait until 6 months (as recommended by the WHO), but our little man has reflux and kept spitting out his medicine, so his nurse practitioner suggested hiding it in a little bit of applesauce. The first day, he was very confused about what this foreign substance entering his mouth was. By the second day, he was taking my hand to help me shove the spoon in his mouth. He is quite a fan of applesauce. Must be because we all went to an apple orchard to pick the apples together and then momma made and frozen the sauce into baby-sized cubes. Lucky boy!

First taste of applesauce- confused

2nd taste of applesauce- big success!

October 15, 2011- Today we took Quentin to the pumpkin patch to pick out his first pumpkin! He was pretty intrigued by the sea of orange surrounding him, and all the other kiddos running around looking at pumpkins.

With his momma

With his daddy

Alrighty, I hope you enjoyed my collection of "mini-posts"! It has been quite an exciting 10 months since my last post...hopefully I wont neglect fraises et tartines for another 10 months. I have recently started taking pictures of my culinary creations again, and while they're not quite as complex as in my pre-baby days, we're still eating pretty well around here. Cheers!

Chicken Meatballs with Fettucine and Tomato Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 01:08:00 +0000

For Christmas this year, I got treated to a kitchen gadget I've had my eye on for ages, but never pulled the trigger on....because I mean, who really needs a meat grinder? I would say this definitely falls on the "want" side of the spectrum rather than the "need," but it's still really cool! Plus, as we are seeing more and more news stories about food-born illnesses, my already crunchy-green-locavore-sustainable self is becoming even more cautious about where my food comes from. Especially meat. Even more especially ground meat. I always have to wonder what all is included in ground meat, and what bacteria might be lurking in there. My solution for the past few years has been to purchase my meat from local sources of grassfed beef. For a while, we were able to purchase beef from our CSA. At the time, we were using Eating with the Seasons. They had a deal with Paicines Ranch in Hollister and would deliver the beef in a cooler along with our veggies. This worked pretty well for us, but I found the quality and variety of veggies to be lacking, so we switched to our current CSA- Two Small Farms. They don't offer meat delivery, but we've been very pleased with their veggies, so we're sticking with them! Next season, starting in March, they are splitting back to their two original farms- Marquita Farms and High Ground Organics. I'm sure we wont be disappointed! Anyway, back to the meat. After Paicines Ranch, we started buying most of our beef from Prather Ranch, available at the Campbell Farmer's Market, supplementing with grassfed beef from Whole Foods. The meat grinder doesn't change where we will buy our meat from, but I may start buying more whole cuts of meat and grinding them myself. Even Whole Foods is not perfect and grinding the meat myself helps me to know exactly what went into my hamburger.

As far as chicken goes, Prather Ranch has whole roasting chickens, in season, although they often run out before I get to the farmer's market. Mostly, we get Rosie Organic Chicken from Petaluma Poultry (through Whole Foods). That's what we bought yesterday to try out my grinder! My new toy was super easy to use, and Trevor even said it was easy to clean. I think I see homemade bolognese in our future. Below, I've posted my recipe for the tomato sauce and for the chicken meatballs. Obviously, you can purchase already ground chicken for this recipe and they will turn out just fine. So if you don't have a meat grinder, don't fret...try it out!

Tomato Sauce:
Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, peeled and finely chopped
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomato sauce
2-3 Tbsp tomato paste
3 bay leaves
dried oregano to taste
dried thyme to taste
salt to taste

Instructions:

Heat a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat. Add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pot and then add the onion.
Once the onions begin to become translucent, add celery and carrots. Cook until they begin to soften.
Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer.
Add spices. Allow to simmer for about 40 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Before serving, remove bay leaves. Season with salt just before serving.

Chicken Meatballs:
Ingredients:

1 medium onion, cut into about 12 pieces.
2 very cold chicken breasts, fat removed and cut into 1-inch cubes.
5 Tbsp whole wheat bread crumbs
1 egg
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1-2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsp kosher salt
Olive oil for cooking

Instructions:

If using a meat grinder- set up grinder, turn Kitchen Aid to speed 4 and begin feeding pieces of chicken and onion. Use the provided plastic tool to push chicken down for grinding. If not using grinder, put ground chicken in a bowl and chop onion as finely as you can. Mix onion and chicken with your hands.
Add egg and mix into chicken.
Add breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, garlic powder and salt. Mix thoroughly with your hands.
Form meatballs and place them on a plate as you go to keep them from sticking together.
Heat a heavy-bottom pan (I used a cast iron pan) to medium and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
Place the meatballs on the pan, allow to brown on one side and use kitchen tongs to turn them.
Once the meatballs are browned on all sides they are ready to serve. Remove from pan and serve with tomato sauce and pasta. Enjoy!

Pesto, heirloom tomato, pepperoni & zucchini pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:24:00 +0000

I think I pretty much gave the recipe away in the title of this post. Pretty basic pizza, but don't let that boring word "basic" fool you. Sometimes the simplest meals are the best. You really can't go wrong when you choose ingredients at the peak of seasonality, make your dough from scratch... oh and the pepperoni was from an artisan "charcutier" at the San Pedro Square Farmer's Market in San Jose. I have to say, it was pretty delicious. For more specific "sub-recipes"...the dough recipe can be found here, and my pesto recipe is here. And the rest is pretty independently obvious. Have fun coming up with your own pizza creations!

And since this was such a short post, you get another pizza picture! Enjoy!

Making Homemade Applesauce

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0000

Last weekend I visited my good friend and her family. When I arrived, she immediately told me to keep my shoes on- we were going out back to see her compost. "I got my compost pile to steam!!!" Of course, this was something I wanted to see. She and I have long been on the same wavelength about the way we want to live our lives. We take immense satisfaction in doing things ourselves- even if it takes a little longer- in order to maximize food enjoyment and minimize our impact on this earth. In high school, we baked together and went berry picking together. We've long dreamt about our adjacent farms, complete with chickens for eggs, goats for cheese, vegetables and fruit galore, and and a brick oven for baking bread and pizza. Clearly, her parents have something to do with ingraining this lifestyle in her, because when they got married and purchased their home 30 years ago they planted many fruit trees, which are now thriving. They have lemons, oranges, nashi (kind of like asian pears), persimmons, nectarines, and apples. When I saw the apple tree, I asked what they were planning on making with the apples. My friend said that her parents don't use the apples because they tend to be very "buggy." She asked her parents, and they said I could take as many apples as I wanted! Hmmm.....it didn't take me long to decide I would make my year supply of apple sauce to freeze. So we set out to pick apples, and boy did we pick apples- 17 pounds in all! I also ended up with about 5 lbs each of lemons and nashi. Yum!

For the next 3 days, I was cutting and slicing apples (making sure to cut out any bugs, of course!) and cooking the slices down into applesauce. The recipe is a very simple one- apples, a little lemon juice (to keep the apple slices fresh until you are ready to cook them down) a little water (if the apples seem dry), sugar (if the apples are tart), and cinnamon (if you're a cinnamon kind of person). Really, all you need are apples. The other ingredients are up to you/the apples. It's also up to you whether you peel the apples or not. I opted to not peel them, but I did run the sauce through the coarse setting of a food mill to break down the peels a bit after cooking them. Once the sauce was ready, I jarred it, labeled it, and put it in the freezer to be enjoyed throughout the winter and spring.

Oh and in case you're wondering, 17 lbs of apples ended up filling 12 pint jars, plus several smaller jam jars and a medium-sized tupperware container.

Thanks you Travis' for all the apples, and the nashi and lemons too!

Steak & Cocozelle Squash Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Yesterday, for the first time, I tried my hand at canning. Tomato sauce, to be specific. I purchased a large amount of organic heirloom tomatoes from a guy who had somehow decided that he needed to plant 40 tomato plants in his backyard this summer. Tomato overload for him=lucky day for me! He gave me a very good price for a beautiful harvest of tomatoes (more on this in a future post). Suffice to say, I was exhausted last night and definitely not in the mood to cook more. So I had Trevor grill some steaks from Prather Ranch (grass-fed beef purchased from the Campbell Farmer's Market), and I sliced up & sauteed some Cocozelle Squash, which were purchased, along with the tomatoes, from my newest overzealous gardening friend. The beef was a delicious treat, and exactly what we both needed after a hard morning workout for Trevor and a kitchen "workout" for me. The squash, though, was my favorite. I was unfamiliar with this type of squash and O.M.G. it was so scrumptious! I could eat it everyday. For the rest of my life. I'm not sure Trevor would be quite so enthusiastic about it (he doesn't usually get as excited about vegetables as I do), but lucky for him they're surely only ridiculously delicious at the peak of their freshness- in the summertime. This brings me to my locavore thought of the day- If you eat what's in season, you'll never get bored with any one fruit or vegetable in particular. You might tire of zucchini at the end of a particularly healthy summer harvest, but after abstaining from it for 8+ long months, you will be more than ready to start zucchini overload all over again. So go enjoy the last few weeks of summer produce! Soon I'll be writing about winter squash, potatoes, kale, beets, spinach and all my other favorite fall produce.

Holy mother of....

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:44:00 +0000

CABBAGE??

Picked up the CSA veggies today and we got this HUGE head of cabbage. Actually, looking at this again I don't feel that the picture does it justice. But really, it's big. And heavy. And chock-full of vitamin C. I'm not sure yet what this cabbage will end up in, but I'm sure it'll be tasty. It might not even be in a fraises et tartines creation, since we are now splitting the CSA box with a friend, but nonetheless I'm sure it'll be tasty (unlike many people, I'm actually a cabbage fan).

Up next...what do you do when life gives you 17 lbs of apples...?

Paella!

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:23:00 +0000

Ahh Barcelona...we spent some time there last summer and had a marvelous time. If you remember from a previous blog post of mine, we were not lucky in the food department while we were there, but I would give Barcelona another chance in a heartbeat. This time, I would be armed with recommendations from friends who have both visited and lived there. I'm sure we would not be disappointed. One of the mainstays of Catalan cuisine is paella, and I'm fairly certain that paella is to Barcelona what quiche is to France. Each family has their own recipe that differentiates it from others.

A few years ago, my good friend Anton spent a summer in Barcelona. He has many good memories from those few months and often reminisces about his time there, including the delicious paella he ate there! We've talked for months about getting together to make paella someday, and finally found the time to do it! He asked his friend from Barcelona for his paella recipe, and he was kind enough to share it with us. It turned out delicious, so I'm sure there will be more paella-making in our future.

Paella:

Ingredients:

3 cups paella rice
1lb canned tomatoes, pureed
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
8 chicken drumsticks (or whichever part of the chicken you prefer)
1/2 lb calamari
1/2 lb cuttlefish (or octopus, or if you can't find this, add an extra 1/2 lb calamari)
1 lb mussels
1/2 lb clams
8 prawns, deveined
1 red bell pepper, sliced
olive oil
salt to taste
a few pinches of saffron
1.5 L water

Directions:
1. Boil a small amount of water in a medium-sized pot. Clean the muscles and the clams, then put them in boiling water until they open. Drain the water and set them aside for later.

Cleaned mussels & clams

2. In a large dutch oven boil the 1.5 L of water.
3. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add some olive oil and fry the chicken drumsticks until they are golden on all sides.

4. Add the chicken to the boiling water.

5. In the same olive oil you used to cook the chicken, fry the cleaned cuttlefish and calamari. When cooked add them to the boiling water with the chicken.

6. Add a little more olive oil to the frying pan and cook the bell pepper until softened. Once bell pepper is cooked, transfer it to a bowl and set aside.

7. Use the same frying pan to cook the prawns. Cook for one minute on each side and add them to the bowl with the bell pepper.

8. In the same pan, cook the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the bell peppers and prawns to the onions and pour in the tomato puree. Cook until the tomato puree thickens.

9. Add the tomato mixture to the boiling water. If you have a paella pan (which I didn't when making this), add everything from the dutch oven to the paella pan. When it starts boiling add the rice and the saffron. Mix in shellfish. Stir and allow to cook for at least 15 minutes (or until rice is done). Remove from heat and cover with foil for 5 minutes before serving.

Que aproveche!! Enjoy!

Summer Beet, Heirloom Tomato, Goat Cheese Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:58:00 +0000

This simple summer salad was inspired by the bounty of our CSA and the farmer's market. Once again, summer has supplied us with amazingly fresh and flavorful food. When you have such good ingredients, you don't have to do much (or anything) to them to make them taste good. This salad was nothing to put together, but Trevor and I absolutely enjoyed it to the last bite. You can follow my recipe, or head out to the farmer's market this morning and see what inspires you! Let me know what you come up with!

Summer Beet, Heirloom Tomato, Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients:
4 small beets
1 medium heirloom tomato
4 cups fresh baby spinach
2 oz soft goat cheese
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
a few splashes of walnut vinegar
salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place beets in an oven-safe heavy bottom pot (like a dutch oven, or roasting pan with a lid). Lightly coat the beets in olive oil. Cook beets for about 40-50 minutes, until you can easily stick the tip of a sharp knife in them.
As soon as you can handle them, peel the beets. One trick I learned from my mom for peeling beets is to use a dry paper towel to push the beet peel off. It's surprising, but really works and is much easier and faster than peeling them with a knife!
Cut the beets into thin slices. While they are still warm, cover them with red wine vinegar. While the beets soak in some vinegar, prepare the other ingredients.
Divide spinach onto 2 plates. Slice goat cheese into "coins" (as best you can, perfection is not essential here). Cut the tomato into wedges.
Arrange the beets on the spinach, top with goat cheese and tomatoes. Drizzle with walnut oil and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve immediately.

Paleo Meal Part Deux

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:53:00 +0000

You might remember my account in a previous post about our friends who follow a paleo diet. The word "diet" doesn't really do it justice though, since this is no short-term eating plan for our friends, but more of a lifestyle. In short, the paleo philosophy is to eat as our hunter/gatherer ancestors would have- meat, vegetables, nuts, some fruit (in season), occasional honey, but no grains, legumes, sugar (really no processed food of any kind). If you want to read more about it, and our friend Richard's 60-lb weight loss, check out his blog- http://freetheanimal.com/ .

Whenever we have these friends over for dinner, they are quick to emphasize that "paleo is not a religion" and I don't have to adhere to it when preparing the meal. I appreciate their flexibility and may someday decide to make a not-completely-paleo meal, but so far it has been fun to menu-plan and think of creative ways to make a paleo meal. Honestly it really isn't such a far cry from how we already eat, since a big part of the philosophy is essentially elimination of processed foods. The biggest challenge is usually dessert, since sugar and flour are out. Last time, I made a raspberry tart with a crust made from coconut flour, almond meal, butter and dates. This time, the meal consisted of a mushroom souffle*, porc a la moutarde, fingerling potato "coins," and a blackberry mousse for dessert. I wish I could say the meal was a compete success, but it definitely wasn't my proudest moment in the kitchen. The mushroom souffle was tasty, but didn't rise as much as I would have liked and the pork was extremely tough. Luckily, the potatoes were tasty and the mustard sauce almost redeemed the tough pork. Needless to say, I hope to have a "redo" with these friends in the near future. The pictures turned out well, though, so I think I'll post those anyway! And as for the berry mousse, that recipe is coming soon. Also coming soon is a post about the delicious paella meal my friend Anton and I made together for our "Spanish" evening.

Cooking the destined-to-be-tough-pork

Fingerling potato coins

Mushroom souffle

Porc a la moutarde- will need to try again someday...without guests

* I realize there are accents missing from some of the French words in this post. I tried to put them in but Blogger freaked out and told me I had html errors. Rather than spend hours pulling out my hair trying to fix this, I decided to omit them.

Garden Update- July 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:04:00 +0000

I'm always a little apprehensive about venturing out to my patio garden after a long time away. We do have a drip system now (thanks to my wonderful, handy husband!) so the odds of my plants shriveling away have significantly decreased. But you never know when a hoard of aphids will attack poor unsuspecting tomato plants! When we got home Sunday night I took a quick peak outside and everything looked okay...better than okay, in fact. We had a bunch of new cherry tomatoes popping up and a new little eggplant! The eggplant...plant?...also has a bunch of flowers on it, so hopefully there'll be more eggplants to come. I see eggplant parmigiana in my future!

This morning I snapped a few pictures of the tomatoes and eggplant to share:

Sweet 100 Tomatoes

Baby Eggplant

How to make limoncello

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Once again, I have been neglecting fraises et tartines for far too long. Now that the school year is over and we're home from our various trips, I have no more excuses and so, here I am. Not that blogging has somehow become a chore, it just hasn't been a priority for, oh, the last 6 months (I suppose that much is clear). What I didn't realize prior to the vacation we returned from last night was how many people around the country (both known and unknown to me!) follow my blog. Over the last 3 weeks, we have been to 7 states (some just driving through) and seen friends and family along the way. I was a bit shocked but mostly humbled that at each stop along the way there was someone giving me a finger wagging and an "evil eye" for neglecting my blog for so long. I even got some, "My friend follows your blog and says you haven't updated in months!" Wow! Hopefully this will give me the kick in the pants I needed.

I thought that given my long absence, a guide to making limoncello would be an appropriate first post back, since this recipe is largely a test in patience. It takes about two and a half months to make, but the result is completely worth the wait. Strong, flavorful, smooth and refreshing, limoncello makes a superb after dinner drink.

To start, you'll need a large, 1.5 L, mason jar, 10 lemons, a 750 ml bottle of Everclear (get the strongest your state will sell you...here in CA that's 150 proof, but in New Jersey we found 180 proof, whew!), and a very sharp paring knife. Start by carefully peeling all the lemons. Make sure you don't have any white pith on the back of your lemon zest. This will make your limoncello bitter, and well, after two and a half months of waiting, that would be...bitterly disappointing. If you have pith on your zest, turn it over and shave it off with your knife. This is a labor of love, but it will be worth it. Once all of your lemons are peeled, put the zest in your mason jar, pour in the Everclear, and close it up. Now here's the hardest part....wait 2 months. I know it's long, but again, it'll be worth it! I usually use masking tape to label my jar with the date the limoncello is ready for step 2.

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2 months later...take your mason jar out of hiding and prepare a simple syrup. I usually use a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar but some people like it sweeter and prefer to use more sugar. This is really up to you and your taste so experiment! You'll want about 4 cups total of simple syrup so if you're using a 1:1 ratio, combine 2 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar in a saucepan and heat slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Some say that if you stir the simple syrup as it's dissolving you'll end up with a cloudy limoncello, but I'm not convinced. I'll need to experiment further with a side-by-side comparison and report back. Once your simple syrup is ready wait for it to cool completely to room temperature (another test in patience...good thing I gave you a ton of practice with 6 months between blog posts!). Once completely cooled, add the simple syrup to the steeping alcohol, leaving the lemon zest inside. Now you're in the home stretch but you'll need to dip into your patience reserves just a little bit longer. Wait 2 more weeks. Then strain out the lemon peel and bottle your limoncello. I like to use bottles from French Limonade, which you can buy at Cost Plus, Whole Foods, and BevMo, because they have the EZ tops. Drink the Limonade, wash the bottle and then use it for bottling limoncello. Once bottled, store the limoncello either in a dark closet or in your freezer. I prefer the limoncello cold, but without ice, so the freezer is perfect. With the high alcohol content, it wont freeze so you don't have to worry about putting a glass bottle in the freezer. Enjoy the fruits of your patience in the smallest glasses you have. Limoncello is very strong and is best enjoyed in small sips. Cheers! Or rather, Salute!

Brussel Sprout Chanterelle Pasta with Brown Butter

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:03:00 +0000

Okay okay, I realize how ridiculously long it has been since I wrote a new post. I apologize. I'm actually touched by all the nudges I've gotten from friends to update the blog. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Before we get to the good stuff (the food, obviously) I should fill you in on recent exciting developments in my grad school/career as an SLP. First, I've officially graduated with my Masters Degree in Speech-Language Pathology. It has actually felt a little anticlimactic since I walked in the graduation ceremony in June, finished my student teaching in December, and had my degree post to the university website about a week ago. It seems like such a momentous accomplishment should be accompanied by more than a link on a website, but at this point, I'm just happy to be done.

The other good news is that I have a job! I'll be working as an SLP for a preschool for children with special needs- the same place where I did my student teaching. I'm thrilled about this, because I already know that the people and children at the school are wonderful. I know it will be a great experience! I get to start the job as soon as a little piece of paper (actually, an email) comes through- my credential. So until then, I've been trying to get things organized, start getting back in shape and simply enjoy the rest of my time off.

Alright, now on to the food porn. This dish was introduced to me by my supervisor at the aforementioned preschool. I believe she found the recipe in San Francisco magazine. It is simple and delicious...simply delicious! A huge part of what makes this dish so tasty is how fresh it is, so make sure your ingredients are at their peak of freshness. Especially the brussel sprouts- try to get them on the stalk; I promise you they will be better this way.

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. shallots, minced
6 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1/2 lb chanterelle mushrooms, sliced (or substitute shitake)
1 lb. brussel sprouts, thinly sliced
10 oz. fresh tagliatelle or fettuccine pasta (I opted for fettuccine, but I bet tagliatelle would be delicious!)
Grated parmesan
Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

Cook 2 Tbsp of butter over low-medium heat until it becomes light brown. Add the shallots and sage and cook until the shallots begin to soften (about 2 minutes). Turn the head up to medium. Add the mushrooms and brussel sprouts. Continue cooking until mushrooms and brussel sprouts start to soften (3-4 minutes). Turn heat off, and cover to keep warm.
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Drain but do not rinse. The pasta should be very wet.
Add the pasta to the pan with the brussel sprouts and mushrooms. Add the butter, parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. If the pasta seems dry, add the reserved 1/2 cup of cooking water. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Alyis N' Rose Cafe- Bean Pie & Carrot Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:50:00 +0000

I discovered bean pie and carrot pie for the first time at the San Pedro Square Farmer's market. Generally when I shop at the farmer's market, I like to stick to the basics- veggies, fruits, eggs & sometimes meat. The cookies, bread, homemade tamales can definitely be enticing, but the high price tag usually deters me from making the purchase ($7.00 for a small bag of biscotti?? I can make that at home!). Plus, those items are usually not the healthiest, so I try to avoid them. Enter: free samples. One fine morning I was minding my own business, about to walk home from San Pedro Square, and a nice gentleman offers me a taste of bean pie. Hmm...I think to myself, bean pie eh? Unsure about this combination, but never one to turn down a new and interesting food, I accepted. The bite reminded me of a smoother, slightly more dense version of pumpkin pie. Next I tried the carrot pie, and found that it was even more like pumpkin pie than the bean pie...only slightly more...carroty? All in all, delicious. I decided I would break my "rule" and bring home some pie. And the consensus at home was positive as well. Give this pie a try (hey, that's a good little jingle, maybe I should go into marketing...).

If you can't get to the San Pedro Square Farmer's market on Fridays between 10am and 2pm, you can get this pie at Alyis N' Rose Cafe in Santa Clara, CA. If you need any more convincing, check out their great reviews on yelp!

Catch-Up...Last Week's Veggies

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:57:00 +0000

I haven't been the best lately about photographing and posting our veggies from Two Smalls Farms each week. Last week was a beautiful box, so I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of our loot. Here it is! ...including the huge red cabbage that I finally finished today! When my co-workers saw my lunch yesterday and today I definitely got a few "Wow...red cabbage AGAIN??" Good thing I love it!

Red Cabbage Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:14:00 +0000

This is a pretty simple recipe, but I thought I'd share it with you anyway since it's a classic French salad. I've been reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee, which has inspired me to write my recipes in a more stream of consciousness manner.

Start with a very fresh head of red cabbage and cut it in half. Then cut one of the halves in half. Keep one quarter of the cabbage out and put the remaining pieces in the fridge. Using a sharp knife or a mandolin, slice the cabbage very thinly, and then give the entire pile a few chops so that the cabbage slices are not too long to eat easily.

Next make the vinaigrette in the bottom of a salad bowl. Combine a few small spoonfuls of dijon mustard with a splash of red wine vinegar. I don't ever measure this so I can't give you specifics. I like to stick my nose in the bowl and smell to see if there's a nice mustard-vinegar balance. Add some salt and freshly cracked pepper. Next, slowly drizzle oil into the mustard mixture while beating it with a fork or whisk. I like to use a combination of walnut oil and olive oil. I find that if I use only olive oil, my vinaigrette comes out a bit too fruity. As you whisk in the olive oil, the mixture should emulsify. If you notice that the vinegar and oil are separating, slow down or stop the stream of oil and continue to beat the mixture. Once it begins coming together again, add a little bit more oil (again, I never measure...some people prefer a more vinegary vinaigrette- i.e. me- and some prefer more oily, it's up to you to decide what you like!).

Delicata Squash Macaroni & Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:27:00 +0000

Once again I've let several weeks go by between posts. This must be a sign that it's no longer summer, and I'm back to work. I'm loving my internship at the preschool, and I'm still cooking fairly often....just not taking the time to photograph and write about the food. I'm going to try to be better though!

This recipe was one I just had to post because Trevor loved it so much. A supposedly "healthy" version of mac and cheese, by Martha Stewart. I actually found the recipe on Kitchen Gadget Girl's blog, as she planned on cooking this up for her family after receiving a squash in her CSA box a few weeks ago. Seeing as we belong to the same CSA (Two Small Farms...a great option if you're looking for a local food source!), we also received squash in our box a few weeks ago. In fact, we've gotten some delicata squash, some butternut and a sugar pie pumpkin...and this is just the beginning of the fall/winter squash season (and I love it!). Winter squash are wonderful because they're so versatile, and you can save them for a long time before using them if you're overwhelmed with other more perishable veggies. Plus, they're so wonderfully comforting and bring about a strong feeling that fall has finally arrived!

The "Healthy Macaroni and Cheese" recipe from Martha Stewart calls for 1 small butternut squash, but you can substitute any winter squash. Kabocha would be great if you have one, but I had delicata squash, so I decided that would do the trick. As I mentioned earlier, my husband Trevor loved this recipe and would never have guessed that there was squash in the mix so I guess this is a good thing if you're cooking for a picky eater.

Ingredients for 6 servings:
1 small butternut squash (about 1 lb)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups milk
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp coarse salt, plus more for water
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 pound macaroni or shell pasta
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
4 Tbsp grated Parmesan
2 Tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel, seed and cut the squash into 1-inch pieces. Combine the squash, stock and milk in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork (about 20 minutes). Spoon the squash into a food mill (or alternatively, smash with a fork), and puree the squash, milk and stock together. Add the nutmeg, cayenne, 3/4 tsp salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil and add salt. Stir in macaroni pasta and cook according to package directions for al dente. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Add squash mixture, cheddar, ricotta and 2 Tbsp of Parmesan. Stir until well integrated.
3. Lightly coat a 9-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Transfer pasta mixture to dish. Mix breadcrumbs, remaining Parmesan and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over pasta.
4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove foil and continue baking until lightly browned and crisp on top- about 30 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Sick gourmet?

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Friday marked the end of my third week of my Student Teaching at a preschool for children with special needs. It has been a wonderful experience so far and, of course, the kiddos are absolutely adorable and mostly well-behaved. I've loved it so far. As I neared the end of week 3 and had not yet gotten sick, despite the dozens of children sneezing all over me, I thought I must have an immune system of steel. Friday morning I woke up feeling great, at 10am the runny nose started, by noon the soar throat was in full swing, and by Saturday morning I had a fever that lasted the rest of the day. Gosh these kiddo germs sure are strong!! Needless to say, I haven't had the energy or appetite to cook much these last few days.

Friday night, I did muster up the energy to make a sausage, potato and cabbage soup that warmed me up and upped my vitamin C (from the cabbage). Saturday was leftover cabbage soup for lunch and pâtes au beurre ("pasta with butter") for dinner. This morning, I'm starting to feel a little better, and suggested we have an omelet for breakfast. After all, we still have tons of veggies in our fridge that cannot be ignored!

Well my sweet sweet husband took charge (i.e. would not let me help with anything), and created an absolutely scrumptious omelet with cherry tomatoes, avocado, scallions, onion, turkey sausage and feta cheese. The sausage had a nice smokey taste and the feta was a perfect complement of flavors. The tomatoes were also a perfect addition. At this rate, I'll be better in no time! Thank you sweet husband.

Two Small Farms

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:47:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, we decided to try out a new CSA, after a recommendation from Kitchen Gadget Girl. Her photo of purple cauliflower pushed me over the edge, and I decided it was time to try CSAs again. We stopped using Eating with the Seasons earlier this year, because there wasn't enough variety of produce, and the quality of the produce was a bit unpredictable. We're only on week 2 with Two Small Farms, but so far, we're extremely satisfied. The value is phenomenal ($22/week)- great quality, LOTS of produce, plus they include one or two herbs each week. We're doing a 4-week trial right now, and honestly, I'm not sure if we'll continue just because we can't keep up with all the produce. But I'm definitely a satisfied customer.

Here is what came in the box last week:

We got: Carrots, potatoes, onions, broccoli, fennel, Serrano peppers, tomatoes, a sugar pie pumpkin, and a bag of lettuce mix.

And here is what we got this week:

And a view from the top:

This week's box included: Basil, golden beets, 2 heads of orange cauliflower, San Marzano tomatoes, scallions, bell peppers, a big bunch of chard, a head of romaine lettuce, and celery.

I'll keep you updated on whether we end up sticking with it. It's a wonderful program, I just can't keep it up if food is going to go to waste.

Coconut Lemongrass Soup with Tofu

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:28:00 +0000

I realize that many of my blog posts begin something like: "So I was at the farmer's market the other day, and found some amazing _____, which inspired me to make ______." But what's a girl to do? The farmer's market is my inspiration, so it's only fair that my dishes be based on my local finds.

This post is no different. One of my very favorite vendors at the San Pedro Square market on Fridays in downtown San Jose has a variety of Asian vegetables and herbs. I almost always have to pick up some Chinese eggplant, which is a longer, less spongy version of eggplant. I love the eggplant cut into long slices, brushed with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs, and grilled. Last Friday though, I went for some stalks of lemongrass. I'd been craving coconut lemongrass soup with Thai flavors, and was determined to make some.

I was going for Thai flavors, similar to Tom Kha Gai. But since I'd never made this before, I did a little research online, and based my recipe off of this site and this one. The soup I came up with is not a traditional Tom Kha Gai, because there are no Kaffir lime leaves, or galangal, but I did get a nice lemongrass coconut flavor, which was exactly what I was looking for. Even with the warm weather we've been having, this was a very satisfying meal.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Carrots, cut into julienne
2 Anaheim bell peppers, thinly sliced
1/2 lb white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 head broccoli, cleaned and cut into florets
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 cans coconut milk
2 Serrano or Thai chili peppers, thinly sliced
2 stalk lemongrass, cut into 2-inch pieces and crushed
6 slices ginger
zest from 2 limes
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 package firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
juice from 2 limes
cayenne pepper (optional, to taste)
1 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped (for garnish)

Directions:

Heat the coconut oil in a medium saucepan. Add carrots, and saute for 3 minutes. Turn heat to low, and add garlic. Saute for 1 minute.
Pour in broth and coconut milk. Stir in ginger, lemongrass, chili peppers, lime zest, brown sugar, fish sauce and Anaheim bell peppers. Simmer soup for 15 minutes.
Add tofu & mushroom slices and lime juice to soup and continue to simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Add broccoli and cook for another 5 minutes.
At this point, taste the soup to decide if it has enough heat for you. I used Serrano chilies (would have preferred Thai chilies), and the soup was not spicy enough for my taste. So I added about 1/8-1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. Make sure to only add a tiny bit at a time, and retaste. You can always add more spice, but you can't take any away, so be careful!
Garnish with cilantro just before serving. Enjoy!

On waking up.

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:34:00 +0000

I'm not sure what's gotten into me recently. For the last month or so, I've been in a rut with my cooking and, as a result, with life in general. I can't pinpoint exactly why I lost my motivation for one of my passions (cooking...duh), but one day it was there, and the next day it just vanished. Poof! I think everyone goes through lulls in life, so I wasn't too worried about getting my foodie mojo back...it was just a matter of when. How many times would I open a new page in this blog and have absolutely no idea what I should write about? How long would it feel like a chore to put dinner on the table?

Well friends, today something turned around inside of me and I'm starting to feel myself wandering back to my kitchen, and thus to me. I'm starting to feel alive again. For those of you who don't understand how a "food rut" could affect someone so much, try to compare it to anything you are truly passionate about. We all go through these lulls in life. Maybe it's just a chance to regroup and realize why you fell in love with your passion in the first place.

So, in honor of my "awakening," I'm making lemongrass coconut soup for dinner and toasting with a glass of wine tonight. And to my readers (all 3 of you out in the blogosphere), I tip my glass to you. Here's to life's passions.

Grilled Lamb Steaks and Bell Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:45:00 +0000

The Campbell farmer's market has been growing and adding more and more vendors recently. Among them include a guy who sells raw milk (the same brand that you can buy at whole foods, but for cheaper!), a "live chocolate" vendor, and (my personal favorite) a grassfed meat seller! Oh happy day! Now I can buy my grassfed beef and lamb straight from a local ranch without having to deal with ordering in advance and picking up from someone's house in San Jose. I've done this a few times through Paicines Ranch, and they've been wonderful. It's just nice to have an option that requires less planning ahead. From what I understand, the grassfed beef from Prather Ranch (at the Campbell Farmer's Market) is local, but the lamb comes from a farm in Oregon. We've been getting the beef for a few months now, but decided to try the lamb this week. Trevor cooked up the steaks on the grill, along with some Anaheim bell peppers (also from the farmer's market), and all was delicious. I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, but here are a few of the ingredients from our simple yet tasty dinner.

Tarragon Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Julie) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:27:00 +0000

After picking my parents up from the airport the other day, I left their house with a big bunch of tarragon from their garden. While it may seem strange to base a meal off of an herb, that's exactly what I was going to do. Should I make fish? Chicken? An omelet? Hmm...I settled on Tarragon Chicken, a popular French dish (called "Poulet a l'Estragon"). I had never made it before, and didn't have a recipe, but it's a simple dish and I had a pretty good idea of how to go about making it. Start with some shallots, butter, chicken, salt, pepper, white wine, tarragon (duh!), and finish the sauce with some creme fraiche. I called my mom just to find out if I was completely off base, and she named these exact ingredients! After doing a little celebratory jig and patting myself on the back, I got to work. If you're not sure what to make for dinner, give Tarragon Chicken a try- it's simple and tasty (my favorite combination)!

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
4 shallots, peeled & sliced
1 tbsp butter
1/2-1 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped
4 tbsp creme fraiche
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a nonstick pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots and sautee for a few minutes, until they begin to soften.
Add chicken breasts. Brown the chicken on all sides.

Add the white wine. Sprinkle some salt and freshly cracked pepper into the mix.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of tarragon over chicken and white wine. Cover, and simmer for 5-8 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Once chicken has finished cooking, remove chicken from pan and place on serving plate. Remove the pan from heat. Mix creme fraiche into white wine and tarragon. Heat for another minute or two, just to warm the sauce. Do not allow the sauce to boil, as this may cause the creme fraiche to curdle.

Pour finished sauce on top of chicken. Sprinkle with remaining tarragon. Serve with rice or steamed vegetables.