theKitchenHelp

Meals February 7-14

2022-02-07T07:10:00.003-05:00

Meals February 7-14

Cream

Almond extract

Salmon

Spinach

Beets

Yukon gold potatoes

Greens

Brussel sprouts

Meals

Beans and greens

Chicken and rice with peas and Brussel sprouts

Chickpea Caesar salad

Wheat berry, grapes, arugula salad pg 62 w veg

Salmon, spinach and Butternut w spice pg 182 w veg

Ricotta and oregano meatballs (ottolenghi) with instant pot Polenta, peas and

Barley bowls w roasted veg and avo dressing pg 49 w veg

Beef meatballs with lemon and celery root (ottolenghi) with broccoli and Lima beans

Chicken Marbella (ottolenghi p 229) with instant pot polenta and roasted veg

Slow cooked chicken with corn crust w Brussel sprouts and Lima beans

Holiday Lemon Squares (Lemon Love Notes)

2020-12-14T09:59:00.007-05:00

I remember these as a Christmas treat my grandmother would make, and every year when my wife asks what kind of cookies I want, I say Lemon Squares. She usually says... you're supposed to make those in February and they are called 'Lemon Love Notes'. Its a good thing I'm flexible and happy to eat them in February too.

The recipe for these can be found in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. Her recipes are reliable and she takes better pictures. Check out her book for the details.

#cook90 day one...breakfast

2017-01-01T15:09:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago a Food & Wine article on how to poach eggs inspired me to cook eggs for day one of #cook90. My goals were something quick, easy and tasty breakfast in the new year. My solution was poached eggs with blanched escarole. Prep and cook time 12 minutes... the results are below.

#cook90 challenge

2016-12-29T09:55:00.000-05:00

To go along with a cookie free January and start the year off right, we're joining the #cook90 challenge. Check out the details on epicurious or copy/paste the URL http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/cook90-starter-guide-2017-article

Weekly Menu 3/18

2012-03-18T10:37:00.001-04:00

After a long hiatus (and I could give more than a few excuses), I am getting back to the weekly meal planning. The problem is STRESS. It is stressful to pick-up the young Master of the house, get dinner ready, clean-up the kitchen, do story/playtime without a little planning. Sure, it's easy to go to the pizza place or Crisp and Juicy (my California friends should think el pollo loco) but eating out is a very expensive habit. And, if you're going to eat out, go someplace that makes a meal you can't easily make better at home. Besides cooking is fun and a healthier option for the family with a little planning.
This week we're planning on the following:
Curried Salmon, Kidney Bean Curry with Rice (but not the Brown Jasmine rice that Jen doesn't like)
Greens/Spinach pasta with Mushrooms and Peas (See Pasta p.222- Paglia e Fieno)
Curried Lentil Soup (See Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking...)
Grilled Pork Chops, Sweet Potato Mash and Greens
Homemade Ricotta (See SmittenKitchen's recipe) for Grilled Veg (Eggplant and Zucchini) Focaccia Sandwiches and Pumpkin Ravioli.
Pictures and posts to follow. Welcome back.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Home

Kitchen Remodel

2012-01-02T22:07:00.001-05:00

Right before Thanksgiving and Christmas is probably not the best time to start a remodel on your kitchen, but we did. We'd been saving money for what seems like forever. Jen had been considering various design options again for what seemed like forever. We joined Angie's list to find a contractor but ended up going with a contractor who has been working our neighborhood for the last few years. ( I have to check with him before posting his company name. ) Our kitchen was cold, didn't have enough storage, didn't flow very well, and was ugly! We wanted to update the look, fix some of the obvious design flaws (dead space in the corner, a misplaced dishwasher), and make the space more usable.

Before Remodel

After Remodel (though still incomplete)

The cabinets, short 30 inchers topped with a soffit, were circa 1980. The particle board shelves were warped and broken on some, and the laminate was pealing in places. Not in obvious places perhaps, but when you know where to look you see those little things all the time. The dishwasher and stove were not old, but they were not the appliances we wanted either. The stove was a 24inch Hotpoint, and the dishwasher, although a pricey, high end model, left crumbs on the dishes and continued to break. I had replaced the control panel once and door latch was about to go out...again. The floor was some type of faux hardwood which had seen better days. So, we decided this year to get a new kitchen for Christmas!

We had the kitchen completely demolished. Every wall was brought down to bare studs. As an added bonus, the drywall was removed from the dining area so that it could be insulated while everything else was torn up. The kitchen was just brick and drywall, which made for cold winter mornings! Once the ceiling was taken down, we realized that we could raise the ceiling, which was only about 7.5 feet high and always left us feeling claustrophobic. Because our kitchen is at ground level, the ceiling was a dropped-ceiling to allow the routing of electric, gas, and water lines. By routing the lines through the ceiling joists instead of under them, we were able to raise the ceiling by 4 inches. That plus removing the soffits gave us the added height allowed for 39" cabinets. Mind you, the cabinets had already been delivered, so we had to return all of the top cabinets and order new ones. We ordered frameless cabinets from Ikea to give us just that much more storage space. They aren't solid wood, but they have a 25-year warranty and come with soft close drawers and doors. We splurged on the wood grain style to avoid the plastic look of white laminate.

We added a double bowl sink and a faucet with a retracting sprayer on the handle--our contractor thought they cost twice what we paid for them. The sink came from Overstock.com and the faucet from Faucets Direct.com I think. We splurged on a stainless steel KitchenAid range with 5 burners and a double oven, and a panel ready Kenmore dishwasher that blends in with the rest of the cabinets. The old floor was removed, and new Tiger Strand bamboo was installed. We put a cork underlayment underneath the flooring to protect our toes from the concrete slab below, and we replaced two of the three windows in the room. Now the kitchen is the toastiest room in the house!

As an added bonus, when we put everything back in the kitchen, we spent some time thinking about where we use things in the kitchen. Just reorganizing and having space for everything has made the space work much more efficiently. Even though we weren't able to change the footprint of the space, we don't have to dance around each other anymore. I don't have to unload the dishwasher onto the counter, close the door, and then put everything away anymore. Plus we have the most organized flatware drawer ever! Its fabulous!

So far, we're loving the new kitchen. Hopefully, there will be more posting about food now that this project is getting closer to completion. Of course, it might be interesting to write about our cooking adventures during the remodel... in the living room on a single hot plate and cuisine art pressure cooker.

The best part of the kitchen remodel is Jen and I are cooking together again... at the same time and really enjoying it.

Key Lime Pie...

2011-10-09T10:20:00.000-04:00

Key Lime Pie

To market, to market to buy... how does the nursery rhyme go? I think of this rhyme often when I head to Wegman's for my weekly shopping trip. Almost always I shop with a list to stay within our grocery budget.

This week as I walked through the fruit and vegetable stacks, I saw packages of key limes. I can't remember ever eating key lime pie and I had never made a key lime pie, but there they were right in front of me! An opportunity waiting to be zested, juiced, and made into something (hopefully) delicious!

Upon arriving home, I looked up several recipes (epicurious and Gourmet). Some topped with meringue, some with whipped cream.. but they didn't ring true with what I imagined key lime pie to be. So, I checked with my neighbors who spent their vacations on tropical islands and talked of key lime pie with knowing appreciation. They indicated that meringue or any other type of topping had no place on a key lime pie.

I decided on the almond graham cracker crust and the custard recipe from Gourmet with one small change.

The Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cup of toasted almonds (blended to powder)
1/8 cup sugar
5 tbs butter (softened)

Combine the ingredients above and press into a buttered pie pan. Bake at 350 until golden brown; then allow to cool.

The Custard
1/2 cup fresh squeezed key lime juice
14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yokes
1 tbs key lime zest (this is my addition to the recipe; a lot of flavor is derived from what we smell. Zest really gives the custard a lively flavor.)

Mix egg yokes and sweetened condensed milk until well blended. Continue mixing while slowly adding key lime juice. Mix in lime zest. Custard will slightly thicken. Pour custard into cool pie crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (For presentation, garnish with key lime slivers.)

Beer Grain Bread

2011-09-01T09:36:00.000-04:00

Spent brewing grains

Earlier this week I dusted off my brewing equipment. Brewing beer is a great hobby but it is not an easy hobby while looking after an infant/toddler. Before the little guy showed up, I brewed everything from dry malt extract kits to my own recipes using specialty grains with unprocessed hops. (Processed hops look like the food for the rabbit in your 3rd grade class.) Brewing like most cooking activities produces organic waste. I have to admit that most of the organic waste either goes to our compost pile or to my worms. (Yes, I really have worms in two medium size bins on the patio. It's incredible what they do with kitchen scraps.) Anyway, with beer the hops go to the compost pile but the spent brewing grains get put in freezer and made into bread.

I needed a recipe to use my grains in so I pulled out my favorite bread book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This is a great book for making the making of great tasting bread easy! Recipes that make you think that you're in France and have just stepped into the street with a fresh paper wrapped baguette from the local boulangerie. Really, it's that good. Unfortunately, there were no recipes that called for spent beer grains though I pondered modifying the peasant loaf recipe to suit my needs.

Next, I turned to brewing blogosphere to locate a spent grain recipe and found a recipe by Jasmine at the brewblog beersatjoes. I like the recipe because it features the spent grains rather than uses them as an adjunct ingredient. Now, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I left out the egg and substituted water for milk mostly because I couldn't imagine how they affected baker's science. (My wife always warns me when I attempt to bake that baking isn't an art, it's science. ie. follow the recipes!) Once the ingredients were complete and rising, it was time for some serious play at the library and park. A two-year old has his needs.

Spent Grain Beer Loaf

The rise time was probably about 3 hours by the time we finished at the library and park. I punched the dough down and pulled off a nice sized piece for my first loaf. Kneading the dough just long enough to shape it and put it in a silicon loaf pan for a 30 minute rise before baking. The remaining dough was placed in the refrigerator following the model of the Artisan Bread book.

The bread came out of the oven perfectly cooked. The yeast pockets were perfectly formed and the bread had great flavor. I spread a little cranberry cinnamon goat cheese on a slice still warm from the oven!

Hurricane Irene IPA ...

2011-08-30T17:02:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Irene had an interesting effect on DC area. People were rushing for last minute shopping, at one of the local Target's there were no D size batteries, and my weekly early morning shopping trip found the cashiers struggling to keep up with the unexpected rush. I tracked the storm on and off as it approached and decided that a few hours housebound would be most productive in the kitchen. As long as there was electricity the only thing to do is make a batch of home brew.

Brewing Pot

Home brewing is a science and art project which creates beer for personal consumption. The nice thing is that with the right ingredients you can make a darn good beer... the not nice thing is you have to wait! Wait for the water to boil, wait while the wort (wort is jargon for unfermented hop, malted barley water) boils, wait while the wort cools, wait while the wort goes through 2 or 3 fermentation stages. The average amount of time is about a four to five weeks from start to finish; 5 hours of actual brewing and clean up, two/three weeks of first and secondary fermentation, and two weeks of conditioning. Conditioning is a mini-fermentation stage that creates the in-bottle carbonization that brings about a nice head of foam when poured into a glass.

Perhaps the most noted person in the US for spurring interest in home-brewing is Charlie Papazian. His book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, was the first one I read back in 2004 when I began brewing. The Brewmaster's Bible by Stephen Snyder is my favorite guide book. It has some great recipes and advice about brewing. Both are great resources if you decide to take up this hobby. Kits can be found with dry malt extract, liquid malt extract and specialty grains. Specialty grain brewing requires special equipment for extracting the sugars but the results are incredible.

The recipe for Hurricane Irene was an IPA kit from the good folks at homebrewers.com. It contained one lb of specialty grains (the raw ingredient for malt extract), seven lbs Briess golden light (liquid) extract (basically malt syrup), one oz Galena bitter hops, two oz UK Challenger hops and an eleven gram packet of beer yeast. The kit also came with instructions that are great for the first-time brewer. I did it my way... here's how.

Used Specialty Grains saved for Bread

Start by putting 4 gallons water on to boil. While water is heating, though still cold, add 1 lb specialty grains to steep. My stove is wimpy so it takes about 40 minutes to bring the water to a boil. Just before the water boiled, I removed the specialty grains from the pot. (I save the specialty grains and make bread with them.. there will be a future blog entry on making bread.) Now add the LME (liquid malt extract) and bring to a boil. Once the wort has a nice rolling boil, I add the bitter hops and continue to boil for an hour. After 40 minutes (of the hour long boil) I put my wort cooler into the pot. (The wort cooler is a long coiled tube of copper that cold water to run through, and cools the wort in about 20 minutes. The cooling hoses can be seen in the picture of the brewing pot... this tool allows to work with larger quantities of water during the brewing process.) Finally in the last 10 minutes of the boil I add the finishing hops. When the hour long boil has complete, I turn off the heat and begin cooling. In 15 minutes, the wort has cooled from 212 to 120 degrees. 10 minutes later it's below 100 degrees and I transfer the wort from the brew pot to the sanitized fermenting bucket.

Wort in Fermenting Bucket

un-yeasted wort or spiese

During the brewing 3/4 of gallon has evaporated. I added 1 and 3/4 gallons of water to bring the fermenter up to 5 gallons and stir the wort. Next, I proof the brewing yeast in one cup of wort and take 32 oz of un-yeasted wort, called speise, for the conditioning step which will be about three weeks. By doing this I don't have to add bottling sugar when it's time to bottle the beer.
The last step before pitching the yeast is to measure the the specific gravity of the wort. Specific gravity tells how much dissolved sugars are in the wort. Specific gravity is needed to determine the amount of alcohol in the beer when fermentation is complete. The SG for the Hurricane Irene IPA was 1.044 which could result in a 5.375% alcohol by volume (ABV). To get a more accurate ABV, SG has to be measured when fermentation has stopped and then you have to do the math. This batch will probably be about 4.8% ABV. Now that everything is done it's time to move the brew to a dark corner, put a cover on it and seal it with an air-lock. The air-lock looks like a sideways S which is filled with water. The water allows gas (oxygen and CO2) to escape but doesn't allow air from outside to flow back in.

This batch will be ready for drinking right around halloween...maybe I should have called it pumkin head IPA? Nah!

It's been two days since I pitched the yeast and the fermentation is highly active. The air-lock actually bubbles frequently while fermentation is active.

Facebook comments has been enabled if you feel like sounding off.

Secondary Fermenter

Update 9/10/11 - Transferred Hurricane Irene IPA to the secondary fermenter. My primary reason for doing this is sediment. I do not filter my homebrew, which means the yeast, hop and malt particles that have settled to the bottom could end up in my bottles. By transferring to a second fermenter most of the sediment stays in the primary fermenter. I don't expect additional fermentation but there is a potential for more fermentation. The SG 1.008. ABV is pretty close to 1.044-1.008=.036, 36/7.5=4.8% (check my original estimate.) The next step will be bottling.... the waiting continues...

Update 9/24/11 - Bottled today. Specific gravity unchanged - yield 36-16oz bottles. The yeast cake was rinsed and saved for a future batch of homebrew.

Carboy fermenter, bottling bucket, siphon and bottles

S L O W…. Cooked Pulled Pork

2011-08-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

Few things are as satisfying as those that require us to slow down and take our time! Think back to your first kiss…that first glance, the waiting and wondering, more eye contact before you begin talking, casually at first… then talking endlessly in every free moment. Next perhaps you’re holding hands and talking more. Eventually a moment arrives in quiet embrace and just before your lips touch, you catch your breath! (Savor this moment!) Then BOOM! Fireworks explode as time stands still and you wish the moment would never end. Slowing cooking pork can be like the build up to your first kiss; only the dinner and lunchtime sandwiches really last longer.

I prefer a picnic shoulder over a Boston butt cut. Yeah, both are technically shoulder meat. The store-bought Boston butt (in this area) is over-trimmed leaving too little fat. Consequently, the absence of fat doesn’t allow the meat to maintain the sweet, moistness that should be in every bite of a pulled pork sandwich. Another way of putting this is, you shouldn’t have to add bbq sauce to dry pulled pork just to eat the sandwich.

When I am planning to slow cook pork, I start by making my rub – paprika, chili powder, sugar, brown sugar, salt, cumin, and coriander. (See “How to Cook Meat” by Chris Schlesinger and John (Doc) Willoughby for the St Louis Dry rub recipe). The ingredients fill a pint size Ball jar when they’re combined. The day before s l o w cooking, I rub the shoulder with the dry rub and refrigerate over night. In the meantime, I head out to my local microbrewery to pickup a couple of growlers of beer. At 5am the next morning, when the coals are ready, a handful of
hickory is thrown into the firebox; smoke fills the chamber. Keeping the fire and smoke going requires patience and a little brew for the next 10 hours. And, 10 hours is enough time to make coleslaw and green beans. I know my job is complete when the meat pulls easily from the bone with a fork. As the pork is finishing, wrap sweet corn in foil with butter, crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Toss the wrapped corn into the smoker near the firebox opening.

Your mouth will begin watering as you fill your plate. When take your first bite (savor this moment), BOOM! Fireworks explode as time stands still and you wish the moment would never end…

The dirty details… the fire is not magic; it needs tending! The coals keep the heat going. I always use Kingsford because they burn the most consistently (ie. heat and time). I’ve tried other and “natural” charcoals but most are too light, burn too hot and too fast. The overall goal is to keep the fire hot enough to create smoke with the wood while not allowing the wood to burn! The target temp. is between 200 and 275 degrees. The smoke comes from 3 or 4 chunks of hickory added about every hour and a half. (I don’t use the wood flakes whose instructions say soak in water for 30 minutes. Hickory ($) creates the traditional flavor the thought of bbq invokes. Mesquite wood ($) adds a slightly salty flavor, especially appropriate for Mexican/Spanish style dishes. Apple wood ($$) cooked meat when combined with ketchup makes a flavor like a rich, tomato based bbq sauce! It’s so good it’s absolutely insane.) The smoker chimney is adjusted between one-eighth to one-quarter open, essentially holding back the accumulated smoke and choking out any flames. The intake (the opening at the firebox) is alternated between halfway and one-third open. This opening depends on new coals being added and the need to get or keep them hot (keep in mind the target temp). Over time, the flavors of the seasons along with the smoke and heat will create that savor the moment flavor!

I am available for catering on this type of cooking… the rate includes research time to locate local organic farmers and round trip airfare… business/first class for me and my sous chef!

8/3 - CSA delivery - This week your box includes...

2011-08-03T14:54:00.000-04:00

The challenges for the week a mild considering this week's delivery. But I'll have to see how I can make it interesting.

Squash - Crookneck and paddy pan
Beta greens (a mix of swiss chard and beet greens)
Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Fennel
Green beans
Onions
Garlic
Tarragon

Cherry Pie

2011-08-03T09:49:00.000-04:00

Cherry Pie straight from the oven.. the foil prevented the juices from spilling into the oven (thank goodness!) -

This was my first attempt at making cherry pie - The recipe for the crust and pie are from Chez Panisse Fruit by Alice Waters - (Our copy is signed by the author thanks to our good friends Liz & Nick at the Blue Room in Cambridge, Ma.) The Sour Cherry Pie recipe calls for

5 cups sour cherries
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup)
3 tbs tapioca
1 tsp kirsch
2 pie crusts
2 tbs heavy cream (for brushing the lattice crust)
1 tbs unsalted butter

The recipe was surprisingly easy. Mix cherries, kirsch, sugar and tapioca and let stand for 30-45 minutes. Rollout crust, place in GLASS pie pan (the metal pie apparently react with the fruit juices), load filling into crust and cover with a lattice crust.

Unfortunately, I didn't have tapioca and didn't want the chalky mouthfeel that I often get from cornstarch so I skipped the thickener altogether. My pie was ~~a little~~ soupy but delicious and my kitchen assistant loved lending a helping hand!

Raspberry Tart with Chocolate

2011-07-29T23:22:00.000-04:00

My father-in-law would say the best raspberries are black raspberries. I would disagree and say the best raspberries are those growing wild in your backyard! My wife has been nurturing a wild raspberry plant in our backyard and this year it paid off. The cornmeal crust is from Chez Panisse Fruit made by me but SHE picked the fruit and brought the tart together. She also made a pint of raspberry jam with fruit picked from this plant.

Ingredients: 1 precooked cornmeal tart crust - enough chocolate to line the bottom of the crust and about 100 freshly picked raspberries. Enjoy!

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

2011-07-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

"This week your box includes..." is written on a slip of paper that arrives with our CSA delivery. Our CSA delivery comes with the share we purchased from Virginia Green Grocer. The program allows us to receive fresh, organic produce. Our participation allows the farmers to offset their costs. The box usually comes with 6 types of vegetables and 2 types of seasonings and provides most of our vegetables for the week. Tomatoes full of flavor and meaty texture, eggplant with an even cream color inside, peppery arugula, spring greens and the basil aroma fills the room before opening the bag. All in all, it is really nice to have this service available.

Some say to be successful in business, business needs to be nimble; to encourage a successful farming community, the community needs to be engaged! CSA is one way to get engaged with your local farmers.

Our CSA supplements our local, 6x8 garden... though I really wish we had a big house on 5 acres just down the road where our vegetable garden would get more sunlight.

If you want to learn more about CSA, head over to you local library or check out some of these options on Amazon: Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat or Sharing the Harvest. Or search for a CSA program in your area.

Cherries in cornmeal tart crust

2011-07-28T15:52:00.000-04:00

Right around father's day the local farmer's market had fresh cherries. Having achieved moderate success with my Black and Blue Tart, I decided that it would be fun to try again. I of course forgot that cherries must be pitted fortunately my father's day present saved the day. Now what you need to know about me is I know nothing about baking! This should be evident since the cherries pictured are sweet yummy eating cherries and not pie cherries. In addition, the crust I was using for this recipe is a tart crust. I think the water content is too high to make cherries into a tart. Anyway, I forged ahead with my cherries and cornmeal tart crust. The result was pleasing though it did not come together the way a tart should. I cannot say enough about this cornmeal crust. It is awesome! The recipe can be found in Chez Panisse Fruit.

Fresh Pasta...is heavenly!

2011-07-28T07:26:00.000-04:00

Our weekly pilgrimage to the farmer's market is like sending a child into a chocolate factory! This past week I noticed the fresh pasta stand and asked about the pasta.... SIX DOLLARS A POUND! Are you out of your mind? That is not to say fresh pasta isn't worth the price but the mark up is unbelievable. Here is the cost of the materials to make fresh pasta

10 oz of flour = $1.75/(5x16)=.02 x 10= .22 cents

2 eggs = .22 cents

1 tbs Olive Oil = .01 cent

3 tbs water = is like a .0001 cent so lets call round it up to a penny

1 tsp salt = .01 cent

Total cost of materials $0.47 (This recipe will yield approx. 15.5-16 oz of pasta dough.)

You'll have to figure your own labor costs. With the Kitchen Aid it takes (me) about 20 minutes to roll and cut the pasta.

My Kitchen Aid has three attachments: an adjustable roller, a cutter for fettuccine and a cutter for spaghetti. I roll my fettuccine until the adjustable roller is set to 6; spaghetti is rolled to 5.

The pasta making is the easy side of creating a pasta dinner. The hard part is making the sauce; ragu needs time to fully develop its flavors. Plan on making the sauce before starting your fresh pasta.

Here's what to do..

Put a large pot of water on to boil; by the time the pasta is ready to cook, the water will be boiling. (Adapted from Good Eats 2 by Alton Brown) Whisk wet ingredients with salt and pour into the center of the flour. Gently mix until all the flour is mixed. DO NOT KNEAD the pasta! Divide the dough in half and roll the pasta to desired thickness. Then, cut and toss into boiling water. The pasta will ready in about 2 minutes. Drain pasta and mix with sauce of your choice.

7/27 - This week your box includes...

2011-07-27T15:01:00.000-04:00

The CSA delivery this week. Now what to do with it?

4 ears of corn

2 heads of cabbage

beets

eggplant

tomatoes

cucumbers

carrots

thyme

mint

So this is third time this summer we've received cabbage and there is only so much coleslaw can eat. Needless to say, I need some ideas. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison offers some options. One is Cabbage Leaves with Rice and Green Herb Filling (p. 349) - Epicurious has a couple of recipes I am eager to try: Holishkes (Stuffed Cabbage) from The 2nd Avenue Deli Cookbook and Beet and Cabbage Salad by Jerome Navarre from Chez Navarre in Toulouse, France. Pictures and comments to follow....

Oven-roasted chicken

2011-07-07T18:29:00.000-04:00

Oven-roasted chicken is one of my favorite meals to prepare.. it is also my nemesis! The breast meat is often done before the thighs are fully cooked! Leading to longer cooking time, which results in dry breast meat. (Ir)Regardless, I attempt this meal every few weeks. Thank heavens for Jamie Oliver and Christopher Kimball. Jamie Oliver provided the inspiration for this herb stuffed (under the skin) bird with citrus stuff deliciousness! Christopher Kimball provided the guidance on how to cook it without drying out the breast while achieving success in with a perfectly cooked, moist thighs! Yummmmm!

This chicken was stuffed with garden fresh tarragon and parsley creating a new found appreciation for tarragon! It was awesome.

Yogurt - The healthy breakfast

2011-07-05T12:46:00.000-04:00

Yogurt for Two
1 cup of plain yogurt, 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, 1/8 cup of pine nuts lightly toasted and 1 tbs sunflower oil- place these ingredients in a blender until smooth. Separate into two bowls and add 1/4 cup of your favorite granola. Enjoy!

Black and Blue Tart

2011-07-05T09:54:00.000-04:00

My own creation though I should follow a recipe. The cornmeal crust recipe came from Chez Panisse Fruit; It was great. For the fruit, I mashed 1/4 of the fruit, mixed 1 tbs of cornstarch, 1 tbs of sugar, 1/4 cup red wine (this was my mistake), 1/4 cup of water - I heated this mixture and simmered it for 5 minutes. The remaining fruit I mixed with 3 tbs of sugar. I combined the mixture, then poured the ingredients into the tart crust and baked it for 15 minutes. It was pretty but the flavor wasn't fantastic.

Ray Lee's chicken choy

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

It was asian menu night, I selected Ray Lee's chicken choy from "The Breath of Wok" by Grace Wong and Alan Richardson. I love this book! The recipe's are easy and flavorful. The chicken choy will be remade along with the stir fry red peppers.

Green apple, cheese & chard omelette

2011-07-04T17:43:00.000-04:00

From the host of “The Splendid Table” this recipe can be found in “How to Eat Supper” by Lynn Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.

This was easy to make but why omelette? Crustless quiche or frittata would be good names.

Delivered on 6/15

2011-07-04T17:42:00.001-04:00

This week your box includes

Broccoli
Turnips
Beta salad mix (defined as chard and beet leaf)
Bunching onions
Collard greens
Parsley
Cilantro

The challenge in the box this week is the turnips. I never know what to do with them. There is a recipe for a gratin but I think it uses rutabaga. Hmm.. I think I have menu block! Ideas on the turnip welcome. One other thing… are the turnip greens edible?

Orecchiette pasta with greens

2011-07-04T17:23:00.000-04:00

High Flavor, Low Labor - The greens are arugula from our garden. They are quite peppery but they are well established in our garden.

Pesto Drenched Tomatoes with Mozzarella

2011-06-27T14:05:00.000-04:00

The recipe for this dish is from "High Flavor Low Labor" by J.M. Hirsh. It made for a quick, refreshingly delicious lunch. Mozzarella was added (or substituted in place of the parmigiano). It was the perfect after farmer's market lunch. The only thing I would change is the balsamic vinegar in the pesto. (Hirsh adds it and I would not.) The balsamic vinegar links to (at least in part) his philosophy for meal preparation in our too much to do, to little time world. Balsamic vinegar packs a punch in terms of flavor but fresh pesto made a day ahead is just as flavorful. And, that's how I would make this dish next time.