milk and blackberries

Coconut Cake to Cure a Sweet Tooth

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 22:35:00 +0000

If you have people in your house who don't like desserts that are "too sweet," then you might not want to make this. We love it and make it a couple of times a year-- for a birthday, or Easter, or just when a hankering for something sweet is strong. The cake is moist and rich, with so much butter and and sugar in it (it is from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook) and five whole eggs. The frosting I prefer with it and included below is not the cream cheese frosting that the original recipe calls for, but just a favorite simple, sweet, vanilla one. Lots of coconut in the cake and on top provide texture, fun, and coconutty flavor. Enjoy!

Coconut Cake

slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home

Cake:

3 sticks unsalted butter

2 C sugar

5 large eggs

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

1 1/2 t almond extract

3 C flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t kosher salt

1 C milk

4 oz. sweetened shredded coconut

Vanilla Coconut Frosting:

(Barefoot Contessa cake recipe comes with a cream cheese frosting. I use this simple vanilla frosting instead, from an unknown source-- a photocopy from an old cookbook.)

1/2 C butter

1lb. + 1 C confectioner's sugar (about 5 C)

2 t vanilla

1/8 t salt

4 - 5 T milk

6 oz. sweetened shredded coconut

For Cake:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two round 9-inch cake pans, line with parchment paper, then grease again and lightly dust with flour.

In mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and fluffy.

With mixer on medium, add eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl once during mixing.

Add both extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk in three parts. Mix until just combined.

Fold in coconut.

Pour batter evenly into the two pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 30 - 45 minutes, till tops are brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in pans for a bit, then turn out onto baking rack to finish cooling.

For Frosting:

Cream butter, 1 cup confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and salt in large mixer bowl.

Add remaining confectioner's sugar alternately with milk, beating to spreading consistency.

To assemble, place one cake layer on a plate, top side down, and spread top with a little less than a third of the frosting. Place the second layer on top, top side down, and frost top of that with another third (or less) of frosting. Use remaining frosting to frost the sides. (This recipe never seems to completely hide every bit of cake, but the coconut helps, plus when you eat it there is plenty of sweet frosting to go around flavor-wise, so it seems like the right amount!)

Sprinkle the top with coconut and press more on the sides.

Serve at room temperature, but store in the fridge.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 19:21:00 +0000

A friend shared this recipe with me and I'm so glad she did. It's been a regular in our fall and winter meal rotation ever since. It's such a good one for so many reasons. It's basically taco night in another form (minus the carbs and with spaghetti squash added) so the whole family loves it. It's a one-dish meal so there's no need to dream up any side dishes. Spaghetti squash is just plain fun-- the kids love to help fork the tender strings of it out after it's been cooked. I like spaghetti squash fine with just butter and salt and Parmesan, or with marinara sauce, but it's not really exciting in those ways; this dish, though, showcases a lot of it in a really flavorful way. If you bake the spaghetti squash ahead of time, this meal comes together so quickly and only needs to bake long enough to melt the cheese. Everyone can top with their version of the perfect toppings and it's a party in your mouth.

Notes:

1. It's great to bake the spaghetti squash ahead (even the day before) so it isn't hot when you have to scrape it out. Plus, if the squash is already cooked (and scraped!) this meal is a super quick on to put together.

2. You could omit the beans (or omit the meat), and could change/add other vegetables as desired. This is a flexible recipe.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

adapted from blessherheartyall.com

1 spaghetti squash

1 lb. ground beef or turkey

1 package taco seasoning (or 3 - 4 T homemade)

1 C grape tomatoes, halved

1 C corn kernels

1 onion, chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

salt

2 C shredded cheddar

To Serve:

cilantro

sour cream

wedges of lime

hot sauce if desired

Heat oven to 400. Halve spaghetti squash and scrape out seeds. Place face down on greased baking sheet or casserole dish. Prick all over with a fork or paring knife. Bake about 40 minutes or until it is tender when you poke it. Let it cool (this part is great to do ahead).

When cool, use a fork and scrape out the inside of each squash half. Squash will come out in strings that look a lot like spaghetti. Scrape it out until you get all the way to the hard outer shell. Discard shells and set aside squash.

Brown meat in a large skillet over medium heat until fully cooked. Add onion, taco seasoning, and 2/3 cup water and cook another couple of minutes until most of liquid has cooked off.

Add tomatoes, corn, and black beans and cook another couple of minutes. Stir spaghetti squash into this mixture. Season with salt.

Transfer mixture to 9 x 13 casserole dish and smooth the top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted and browned slightly.

Serve by topping individual servings with desired toppings and a sprinkle more salt at the table.

Peppermint Bark

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Peppermint bark is one of our more recent Christmas "cookie" traditions. It's so simple, yet so tasty and additive. Plus it's beautiful and stores well, so makes a great addition to any cookie plates/tins/boxes you may be giving as gifts this time of year.

Peppermint Bark

from delish.com

12 oz. semisweet chocolate

12 oz. white chocolate

1/2 t peppermint extract

8 candy canes, crushed

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Melt semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler. Stir in extract. Pour into prepared baking sheet and spread into an even layer with small or offset spatula. Refrigerate until set, about 20 minutes.

Wash double boiler to reuse.

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Pour over set semi-sweet chocolate and them immediately sprinkle with crushed candy canes. (It's okay if the candy canes are unevenly crushed; my kids love finding chunks of candy cane loose in the tin and eating them.) Refrigerate until set, about 20 minutes.

When cool and hard, lift up bark from parchment and break into shards. Store stacked in a tin at room temperature.

We Made Cheese!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 03:11:00 +0000

Note: Oh, my. This post for so long fell into the category of neglected drafts along with so many others. I haven't been as on top of this blog in recent years as I once was, and so I recently found it just sitting around, last edited years ago. Seems a waste to leave it there (especially since it includes cute pictures of my then-round-faced toddler, and memories with some friends whom we still don't see often enough). So here it is-- maybe it will inspire me to make some cheese again soon...

Fresh mozzarella! All by ourselves in our very own home in about a half an hour.

We have some good friends who we don't see nearly enough. When we saw them one day back in 2013 and the topic of getting together to try making cheese was brought up for the two-dozenth time, they, despite the fact that they had at the time a 1-month-old baby, said, "how about tomorrow?" And so we made it happen.

I never once considered the idea of making cheese until I read Animal Vegetable Miracle. Barbara Kingsolver wrote about how she and her family took a cheesemaking 101 class with the "cheese queen," Ricki Carroll, in her home in Ashfield, Massachusetts and she wrote about how cheesemaking, particularly mozzarella making, was an accessible thing for anyone to attempt in their home. It was enough to get me to take the very same class in the fall of 2012. (At the time, I idealistically thought my children would only ever eat homemade bread and that I'd always have casseroles made up in the freezer and shelves of homemade jams and sauces to draw from; making my own mozzarella fit right into this image.) The class was a great learning experience and a really fun day-long adventure meeting a great variety of interesting people. In the class we learned to make mozzarella, as well as farmhouse cheddar, and ricotta.

I also ordered a kit from Carroll's New England Cheesemaking Company, which included a little recipe book, a thermometer, cheesecloth (not needed for mozzarella), citric acid, rennet, and cheese salt.

On our own at home, the mozzarella process was as manageable as both Barbara and Ricki said it was, and a lot of fun. We made two batches and already were improving our technique with the second round.

Once you have the rennet or rennet tablets and the citric acid, all you need is a gallon of milk. For mozzarella, it can be pasteurized but can not be ultra-pasteurized because the cheese queen said she had tried it and that it doesn't work.

It was a really neat and rewarding process (I mean, we MADE! CHEESE!) and a great activity to do with friends.

I am sad to say that we haven't made it since. But, there's not a time I slice through a ball of fresh local mozz (which, thankfully, we can procure pretty easily around here) and don't briefly realize and appreciate how it was made. As with anything, this makes it taste all the better. But now that the kids are older and no one is 1 month old anymore, we should do it again and more often. It is a little like magic watching it turn from milk to soft but solid cheese in the pot. It is an activity and a meal/snack all in one.

30-Minute Mozzarella

from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company

1 gallon milk (pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized)

1 1/4 C cool, chlorine-free water

1 1/2 t citric acid

1/4 rennet tablet or 1/4 t single strength liquid rennet

1 t cheese salt

(Supplies needed: dairy thermometer, long knife (I used one meant for frosting cakes), colander, slotted spoon, large (1 gallon) stainless-steel pot)

Dissolve rennet tablet or liquid rennet in 1/4 C cool water and set aside. (Wrap remaining pieces of tablet in plastic wrap and store in freezer.)

Mix citric acid into 1 C cool water until dissolved. Pour into pot.

Pour entire gallon milk into pot and stir vigorously.

Heat the milk to 90 degrees Fahrenheit while stirring.

Remove pot from burner and slowly stir in rennet solution with an up and down motion for about 30 seconds.

Cover the pot and leave it undisturbed for 5 minutes. (This is when the magic happens!)

Check the curd by pressing down gently near the sides of the pot with the back of your hand. It should look like custard, with clear separation between the curd and the whey. If curd is too soft or whey looks milky, let it set for a few more minutes. The longer you let it sit, the easier it is to drain off the whey.

Cut the curd with a knife that reaches to the bottom of the pot. Cut in 1-inch cubes both ways, then at a 45-degree angle. (See photo above for my imperfect version of this.)

Place the pot back on the stove and heat to 105 degrees while slowly moving curds around with your spoon. Stir gently, pulling up with the ladle to cut any remaining big ones.

Take off the burner and continue slowly stirring for 2 - 5 minutes. (More time will make a firmer cheese.)

Ladle curds into a colander (over a bowl) and drain off as much of the whey as you can without pressing the curds too much.

Put curds in a microwaveable bowl and microwave for 1 minute.

Remove and drain off the whey as you gently fold the curds into one piece (knead a bit to squeeze out, stretch, fold, stretch again). Add 1 teaspoon salt.

Microwave another 30 seconds. Drain again and stretch the curd. It must be 135 degrees (or uncomfortable to hold) to stretch properly. Knead from the outside in, in a ball. Stretch it by pulling until it is smooth and shiny. The more you work the cheese, the firmer it will be.

Form cheese into a log or ball or braid it.

When finished, to stop it from further cooking, submerge it in 50 degree water for a few minutes, then ice water for 15 minutes. This will cool it down and allow the cheese to hold its shape and silky texture and keep it from becoming grainy.

Enjoy in any way you would enjoy fresh mozzarella! We had ours on bread layered with pesto and some sort of tomato topping. I don't remember what exactly but I do remember it was delicious and consumed immediately.

Banh Mi Chicken Sandwiches

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 01:29:00 +0000

In summers past, the kids and I would sometimes meet up with my husband in town at lunchtime on Thursdays to watch an outdoor family concert while we enjoyed a picnic. Sometimes I'd pack food, but more often we took the opportunity to patronize a new food truck that was right nearby selling Cambodian food. We liked their sandwich especially, with a choice of protein and pickled vegetables and cilantro on top. Later, that food truck became a restaurant, and we get delicious takeout from there now and then.

One day I was looking for fun sandwich ideas as I was planning our dinners for the coming week, and I came across this Vietnamese banh mi sandwich. I'm a sucker for anything involving rice vinegar, soy sauce, lime, and cilantro, so I had to try it. It was so good (and so easy). It reminded us a lot of the yummy food truck/takeout sandwiches we'd enjoyed. We've had it several times since and most recently because my son remembered and requested it. It is the absolute best if you love quickly-pickled vegetables and a tiny bit of spice. But the nice thing is this sandwich is simply a base of deliciously marinated chicken that everyone likes, and the other stuff can just be brought to the table as optional toppings so everyone can finish their own sandwich the way they like. The last time we had this, we happened to have leftover pickled onions from a recent taco night and those were a fabulous addition.

We generally take this meal (and most any sandwich night) as an excuse to eat potato chips on the side. (And if you're not a bread/sandwich person, I'm sure this same basic recipe for the chicken, vegetables, and toppings would be as amazing on a salad or on a bowl of rice.)

Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwiches

slightly adapted from Little Spice Jar

(serves 4)

for pickled vegetables:

1/2 C water

1/2 C rice vinegar

1/2 C sugar

2 t salt

cucumbers and carrots or other vegetables on hand, all thinly sliced into 1/4-in.-thick matchsticks*

*(original recipe called for 6 oz. daikon, 6 oz. carrots, and 2 Persian (small) cucumbers, but since

the first time we made this, I've skipped the daikon and used more carrot instead or added onion,

depending on what we had)

for chicken and marinade:

about 1 lb. chicken breast, sliced in strips

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 C soy sauce

1 T sugar

1 T mayo

1/2 t lime zest

2 t Sriracha (we use Cholula instead)

for sandwich assembly and toppings:

4 Vietnamese bread rolls or French baguettes (we buy "European Ciabatta Rolls" from Hannaford, which are the perfect size)

mayo

sliced jalapeno or more Cholula

chopped cilantro

For vegetables:

Combine liquids, sugar, and salt until sugar/salt dissolve. Add vegetables. Allow to pickle while stirring occasionally for an hour, or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

For chicken:

Combine marinade ingredients. Add chicken and allow to marinate for 20 minutes, or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Cook in a skillet until cooked through. (I don't worry too much if the marinade can't sit for long, since the chicken cooks right with its tasty marinade.)

For sandwiches:

Slice baguettes in half lengthwise and toast. Spread with mayo. Top them evenly with chicken. Serve at the table with sides of pickled vegetables, chopped cilantro, and jalapeno slices or hot sauce (and pickled onions if you have them). We eat potato chips on the side.

Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese and Chives

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 01:48:00 +0000

I never thought I'd post a scrambled egg recipe, of all things. But this is a favorite, almost once-a-week go-to around here and it's a little unique, so thought I'd share it.

Each September for several years now (except last year), our family has participated in the Tour de Taste, a bike riding and eating event in our local area. (It is the greatest concept and I don't know why there aren't so many more events of this sort!) There are three routes to choose from; we have always so far chosen the family-friendly six-mile ride around the lake. No matter which route you choose, there are many stops along the way to taste food. The food providers are area farms and restaurants. There are always a few too many sweet offerings for my taste-- donuts from a local diner, granola from a coffee shop, ice cream from a farm-based creamery. All delicious, but as I pedal I guess I crave more savory sustenance. I loved some meat and veggie pies offered by a trendy upstart restaurant, as well as apples and gourmet cheese doled out by a stop shared by an orchard and Vermont cheesemaker. One year, a local restaurant was serving scrambled egg sliders-- little egg sandwiches on brioche rolls-- that on our little piece of paper that listed all our stops hadn't sounded very original or exciting, but were so very tasty. Even my son, maybe 6 at the time, hinted that he wanted seconds, and since we were one of the last bike groups to pass through, Chef Martin obliged. We got chatting with him about what, exactly, he did with these scrambled eggs and he gave us these tips: use plenty of butter in the pan, cook them low and slow, and add in crumbled goat cheese and chives.

Ever since, we've been duplicating these eggs at home and we all love them. (One day we were out of goat cheese, but I decided to make scrambled eggs anyway and tossed in some grated cheddar. Both of my kids picked and prodded at their eggs and claimed they tasted "weird" with "that kind of cheese." They eat cheddar lots of ways but apparently they only now take goat cheese in their eggs; I spoiled them with this dish!) In the spring and summer when we have lots of fresh chives in our garden, we use those; otherwise we use some green onions/scallions in these eggs for a similar result.

Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese and Chives
Inspired by Chef Martin from Ariana's Restaurant

eggs (about 2-3 per person, depending on appetite; we do around 10 eggs total for our family of four)
chives, freshly snipped OR green onions, thinly sliced
goat cheese: about 1/3 to 1/2 of a 4-oz. log, crumbled
salt and pepper

Whisk eggs in large measuring cup or bowl; pour into buttered or greased nonstick frying pan on low heat (number "2" on our gas cooktop). Stir occasionally with heatproof spatula but let eggs rest; don't stir constantly. When done or almost done, turn off heat, crumble in goat cheese, sprinkle with chives, and stir. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve alongside toasted and buttered English muffin bread, toast, or bagels.

Pasta with Green Beans and Tuna

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 01:04:00 +0000

I think of this as a spring meal. It's light, but has the oily richness of the olives and tuna, so not too light. It's full of flavor and different textures-- curly pasta, still-crisp green beans, crunchy almonds. With parsley and beans it's full of green, so doesn't even need a salad and works as a one-dish meal. It's simple, and easy, and quick, and so few things are. And it's just as delicious warm, for dinner, as cold, the next day for lunch. Don't forget to taste for seasoning. An extra sprinkle of salt on top at the table is often needed to bring all the flavors together.

Pasta with Green Beans and Tuna
from Everyday Food, June 2010

12 oz. fusilli or short pasta
8 oz. green beans, trimmed and halved
12 oz. tuna, drained
1/4 C e-v olive oil
1/4 C natural almonds, chopped and toasted
3 T chopped fresh parsley
2 t lemon zest

4 t lemon juice
4 small garlic cloves, minced

1/4 C chopped olives or capers

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions, adding green beans 1 minute before end of cooking. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine ALL other ingredients; season with salt and pepper. Drain pasta and beans and add to tuna mixture. Stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and as salt as needed.

Rhubarb Cosmopolitan

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 04:17:00 +0000

This is a dangerously delicious way to enjoy bright, tart rhubarb and celebrate spring...

Rhubarb Simple Syrup
adapted from kitchn

4 C chopped rhubarb*
1 C sugar
1 C water

*If you have less rhubarb than this, just measure how much you have once it's chopped and then measure sugar and water accordingly to stick with the 4 parts/1 part/1 part proportions.

Combine all three ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low, stirring occasionally, until fruit is soft, 15 minutes or less. Strain through a fine sieve over a bowl. (Willem eats the softened rhubarb from the sieve at this stage, which is still really flavorful and definitely not something to throw out. When we've had some leftover that he doesn't eat right away, we save it to stir into plain yogurt or have over vanilla ice cream.) The beautiful strained pink liquid in the bowl is the "syrup" used for the drink recipe below. I make the kids rhubarb spritzes with the syrup as well: sparkling water with just enough syrup stirred in to give it color.

Rhubarb Cosmopolitan

1.5 oz. vodka
1 oz. triple sec
juice of half a lime
1 oz. rhubarb simple syrup

Shake all ingredients in an ice shaker, and pour into a glass!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 03:56:00 +0000

Strawberry-rhubarb should be the name of a deep pinky-red crayon. We make a strawberry-rhubarb pie about once each year, combining rhubarb from our garden with the spoils of our annual trip to a local pick-your-own strawberry farm. The result is as beautiful as it is delicious.

We have several raised beds and our single rhubarb plant takes up about a third of one of them. It is a perennial and every spring it is one of the earliest things to show a sign of life out there. It begins compact and strange-looking sometime in March-- a red and green eyeball, flush with the soil. Its stalks reach up and out until by May it shades anything near it and has gigantic, exotic leaves. It can be harvested well into summer. Each year I find new things to make with it. Still, we don't eat a ton of rhubarb. But it's not something I feel guilty about not using because it is always there and so abundant.

Willem, age six, and a rhubarb stalk with a massive leaf

This year's trip to our favorite p-y-o strawberry place was a little different than usual, with masks required, signs telling us not to eat while picking (I really missed eating the berries sun-warmed but resisted), and long lines both to be directed to our picking spot and to pay. But it was still a glorious day and it was fun to be out in the field together, filling up our flat. Willem has always been an awesome berry picker. Margaret, at five years old, still stands around and does a lot of talking about picking, but she's good company at least.

This pie recipe uses my default ingredients to accompany fruit filling: one cup of sugar and one quarter cup of flour. Some pies like blueberry require a little something more to hold them together (I use tapioca), and some pies like apple I tend to heap with as much fruit as they can hold so I do a little more sugar and flour, as well as cinnamon, in that case. But here sticking with the basic amounts of just flour and sugar yields a gorgeous, delicious pie that holds together but allows just a little ruby red juice to ooze into the pie plate after a piece is cut.

Once the pie pastry is made, this pie comes together easily. This weekend when we made this, I decided to make a lattice top to show off the bright filling.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
adapted from a King Arthur Flour baking class I took a long time ago

1 recipe pie pastry, with both halves chilled and ready to roll out
2 C sliced rhubarb (halved lengthwise first if large)*
2 C sliced strawberries*
1 C sugar
1/4 C flour
egg white and 1 t water mixed together to brush over crust before baking
crystallized sugar for sprinkling

*This amount makes a level pie, which was nice for doing the lattice top. But if you prefer a fuller, more rounded-looking pie with a traditional top, you could increase the amount of fruit/sugar/flour, keeping the proportions the same.

Mix together rhubarb, berries, sugar, and flour in a bowl.

Roll out bottom crust to a couple of inches bigger than the diameter of pie plate. Roll it up on rolling pin and quickly transfer to pie plate. Press lightly all around to secure it in plate.

Pour filling into prepared crust.

Roll out top crust to a size a little larger than pie plate. Then either roll it onto rolling pin and place on top of pie, tucking it under bottom crust OR create a lattice top: use a pastry wheel to trim off one side to make it straight. Continue to roll long, 3/4-inch-thick or so pieces across the whole round of pastry. Then start by laying one strip horizontally across one side of the pie plate. Overlap with another going vertically along another side at 90 degrees to the first piece. Add a third piece parallel with the first piece. Add a fourth piece parallel to the second. This time, lift up the first piece and tuck it under that so that it looks woven. Keep in mind the over-under-over-under pattern. Continue putting one piece horizontal and one piece vertical at right angles to each other, working from bottom left of the pie plate to top right and lifting up the pieces necessary to keep the woven look as you go along. When you've covered the whole top, tuck the ends under the edge of the bottom crust and pinch to seal.

Lightly brush all over the crust with egg-white wash. Sprinkle generously with crystallized sugar. Bake at 350 for about an hour or a little less, rotating halfway through.

Delicious Couscous Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 03:06:00 +0000

I can not get enough of this salad any time I make it. It's crunchy, it's sweet, it's tangy. It's great alongside meat or fish at dinner. It's great as an accompaniment to a cheese platter. I bet it would make a very popular potluck dish. It was one of the first recipes that helped me realize that parsley, whose fresh taste I love, can be used in a primary role in recipes and not just as a garnish. The recipe calls for "one bunch" of parsley. I have made this before with a lot of parsley, with the couscous and everything else along for the ride. But it is just as delicious when I've made it using whatever amount of parsley I had available in my garden at the time. I think, too, it would be a great recipe to remember for when you bought parsley for a specific recipe, and then have a lot of it leftover sitting in the fridge. Any amount of parsley works, and the rest is pantry staples (I didn't used to keep pearl couscous on hand but I do now because of this recipe). This salad would make-ahead very well, although that's not the kind of thing I manage to do very often around here!

Couscous-Parsley-Dried Cherry Salad
adapted from Budget Bytes

Salad Components:
1 C dry Israeli/Pearl/Middle Eastern Couscous, cooked according to package directions and cooled
1 bunch parsley, chopped (this is flexible whether you have a lot of parsley or a little)
1/2 C sliced almonds
1/2 C dried cherries (or apricots, chopped)

Dressing:
2 T olive oil
2 T vegetable oil
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 T Dijon mustard
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t salt
ground pepper to taste

Combine salad components in a medium bowl.

Whisk together dressing ingredients and then pour over the top of it all.

Potato and Blue Cheese Tart

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 02:57:00 +0000

While I was making this, Margaret asked me what was for dinner and I replied, "I know you are going to like it." She responded, "Does it have cheese?" It has cheese alright, and she was indeed a fan. This is a summer favorite, but it could be made any time of year. Made of potatoes and blue cheese and crust, and a sprinkling of mixed fresh herbs if you have them, it pairs beautifully with a green salad with vinaigrette.

When I made it recently, I paused to appreciate how easy and satisfying it is to make good tart dough in the food processor. (I tried once to make pie pastry in the food processor and the end result was such disappointing texture and appearance in the finished pie that it was not worth the convenience-- but not so for tart dough!) After a few dry ingredients go in the food processor, you add the slices of butter and blend until it is a coarse meal consistency. Then you add your liquid (water or egg) and blend until it comes together in a perfect ball that rolls up stray bits without any effort. Then you have a compact ball of buttery pastry. You don't have to flour a counter and roll it out, but can just press it out into a tart pan and fill. I don't make a lot of savory tarts (or tarts in general) but this and a rich tomato-mozzarella one are my favorite to date. I have tried the Smitten Kitchen tart shell recipe but I think I like my go-to tart recipe here a little better (simpler ingredients, richer flavor, and it makes a little bit more so it doesn't need to be stretched quite so much to fill the tart pan). Either way this makes a delicious cheesy, earthy, meatless meal.

Potato and Blue Cheese Tart
from Smitten Kitchen

1 lb. small red potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 C heavy cream
1 egg yolk
4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled (or about 3/4 C)
1 T finely chopped herbs of choice (we used thyme, oregano, and chives from the garden)
salt
savory tart shell from this recipe, pressed into tart pan and ready to fill

Preheat oven to 350.

In medium saucepan, cover potato slices with water and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until tender. Drain, cool slightly.

Arrange potatoes, overlapping slightly, in concentric circles in tart shell. Sprinkle with cheese. Whisk together heavy cream and egg and pour over the top. Sprinkle with herbs and salt.

Bake on a baking sheet until bubbling and golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Macaroni and Cheese with Leek, Tomato, and Bacon

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 03:00:00 +0000

I feel like I am always stirring into my mac and cheese some chopped tomato or peas or other things to give it color and texture so this recipe is perfect for those of us who want a little more in our mac and cheese. I also love that this is a one-pot meal; everything goes in in the beginning and then gets simmered a while together-- no roux, only one pot to clean, and you can just walk by every few minutes and give it a stir. This came from The Pampered Chef's 29 Minutes to Dinner book that I once bought at a Pampered Chef party. That book actually holds several now-loved go-to recipes (I'm thinking of this tortellini supper, and these gyros)-- though the recipes are often written in a more complicated manner than they need to be, either because of unnecessary steps/dishes or because of the sheer distraction of reading multiple, bolded product names within each section of instructions. So I am happy to have a translated version here of what is actually a very easy recipe, so I will maybe use it even more.

Macaroni and Cheese with Leek, Tomato, and Bacon
adapted slightly from The Pampered Chef's 29 Minutes to Dinner

8 slices bacon
1 lb. cellentani or other medium pasta
5 C water
4 oz./1 C grated cheddar cheese
1 oz./1/3 C Parmesan cheese
4 oz./1/2 C cream cheese
1 t salt (or less)
1/2 t ground pepper (or less)
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise then into 1/2-in. slices
3 large plum tomatoes, diced

Slice bacon into thin strips and cook; set aside.

In large stockpot, place ALL other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat, and simmer for 10 - 12 minutes or until pasta is cooked and sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in bacon, or serve bacon as a garnish at the table.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 21:23:00 +0000

Hamburger Helper will always have a soft spot in my heart. When my husband and I first lived together before we were married we were pretty economical and not terribly creative when it came to food. One summer during a grocery-store run we bought several boxes of Hamburger Helper mix at something unbelievably cheap like three boxes for a dollar. I might have gotten a little sick of it, eating it at least once a week after that thrifty purchase. But I felt surprisingly grown-up, making it and eating it together after finishing what felt like the never-ending mowing required at our summer rental.

One Sunday afternoon last winter when the contents of the fridge were getting sparse and I was trying to figure out what we could eat that night, I was craving something warm and filling and found myself googling "homemade hamburger helper." I was so glad I found this. One-pan pastas are so easy and good in general and we've come to rely on this one when we are out of fresh produce and down to pantry staples-- pasta, meat from the freezer, spices, and cheese (we always have cheese). Unsurprisingly, it's a big hit with the kids. It's guilty-pleasure comfort food at its best. Sometimes if I'm feeling a little inspired, as in the photo at the end of this post, I toss in a can of diced tomatoes or a chopped-up carrot or onion to increase the vegetable intake and it still goes down very easily.

One-Pan Homemade Hamburger Helper
slightly adapted from The Salty Marshmallow

1 lb. ground beef
1 T ketchup
1 t Dijon mustard
1 t hot sauce
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1/2 t seasoned salt
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
12 oz. pasta
4 1/2 C broth or water
optional: can of diced tomatoes, chopped onion and/or carrot
1/2 C sour cream
2 C shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat until no longer pink. Drain grease from pan if needed.

Reduce heat to low and add all remaining ingredients except sour cream and cheese. Stir well to combine. Cover and simmer 12 - 15 minutes.

Turn off heat and stir in sour cream and cheddar cheese.

Sheet Pan Chicken, Potatoes, and Leeks with Arugula, Yogurt Sauce, and Lemon

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 02:45:00 +0000

This is one of my favorite spring meals. I always love a truly all-in-one dinner where I don't need to think about separate side dishes. But this has so much more going for it than easy planning. It's such a lively celebration of flavors all at once-- just enough hot sauce in the marinade for flavor, not heat; lemon zest adds bright zing in the pan, as does fresh lemon juice squeezed on the whole thing just before eating; the chicken and potatoes are simple and satisfying and the arugula and yogurt round it out without being too filling.

My whole family loves this meal, even though my kids still aren't big leaf eaters in general. When they were younger and we had a dinner salad, I would serve it to them deconstructed, with piles of each component separate on their plates. It made it more approachable to them than a big scary mix of foods touching one another and they tended to eat better that way. This became a habit for me and an expectation of theirs. It certainly trained them to be able to see a new or less favored food on their plate without stress, and often be willing to try a bit of it. But as they've gotten older, I felt we needed to help them move on to the next frontier in adventurous eating: trying foods in mature combinations, or, as the meal was intended. Now, at five and almost-ten, I serve them their own dinner salad piled up in the grown-up way just like ours (except very light on the lettuce (or here, arugula) and made up mostly of the other components). I hope they'll begin to notice the deliciousness of the whole, complete thing-- how the lemon squeezed over the top improves it all, and how good a blob of garlicky yogurt is right on their coveted crispy bites of potato. They can pick things apart to eat the chicken separate from the potatoes and ask for extra yogurt on the side if they want to, but sometimes they don't and we can celebrate "combination bites"-- trying two or more things all together on your fork at once.

In any case, this is a meal for those of us who love tasty combination bites. You need to start it about an hour or more ahead just because of the cooking time, but preparation time is simple and pretty quick. This just barely serves four of us with rarely a little bit left over for some lucky person's lunch the next day.

Leeks and lemon zest-- I used to skip lemon zest in recipes but it brightens up flavors so much and is worth grating

Sheet Pan Chicken, Potatoes, and Leeks with Arugula, Yogurt Sauce, and Lemon
adapted slightly from The New York Times
serves 4

For Sheet Pan:
1 1/2 lbs. chicken, cut in 2-in. pieces
1 1/4 lbs. small Yukon Gold potatoes, halved and cut into 1/2-in. slices
2 t salt, or less
1/2 t ground pepper
2 T hot sauce, such as Cholula
1/2 t ground cumin
4 1/2 T olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1/2 t lemon zest (from 1/2 a lemon)

For Yogurt Sauce:
2/3 C plain yogurt (not Greek)
2 small garlic cloves, minced or grated
s & p to taste

To Serve:
Arugula
Lemon wedges for squeezing
Olive oil to drizzle

Combine chicken, potatoes, salt, pepper, hot sauce, cumin, and 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Let stand for 30 minutes or for hours in refrigerator.

In medium bowl, combine leeks, lemon zest, pinch of salt, and remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil.

Heat oven to 425. Arrange chicken and potato mixture on large rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Roast 15 minutes. Then, toss lightly. Scatter leeks over the pan. Roast another 25 minutes, or until chicken and potatoes are cooked through and everything is golden and slightly crisped.

For yogurt sauce: combine garlic, yogurt, and salt and pepper to taste.

At the table, serve chicken and vegetables over a bed of arugula. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, and yogurt sauce.

Grandmom's Hamburger-Vegetable Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 02:07:00 +0000

This recipe comes from Gordie's grandmother's favorite recipes in a typed cookbook, illustrated by her grandchildren, and is one of two vegetable soups in there. We tend to make this soup in the space between Christmas and New Year's Day. It is so comforting to eat, as well as to cook-- the instructions are dump everything in a pot. I've adjusted the ingredients a tiny bit but not much and included the original recipe complete with dancing vegetables here just in case. We enjoy the barley in it, and we hardly ever eat barley otherwise (having to replace our expired bag of it once a year for this purpose). It is sublime with cheese bread, but makes a great warm meal with any bread or salad on the side.

Grandmother's Hamburger-Vegetable Soup

1 lb. ground beef

1 C diced carrots

1 C diced celery

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium potato, cubed

1 can tomato soup

salt to taste

1/2 C barley

1/2 t ground black pepper

8 C water

Brown meat in large pot.

Add remaining ingredients, cook until vegetables are done, and taste for seasoning.

Cheese Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 01:50:00 +0000

This one is high up on my list of childhood comfort food favorites, and I have started to make it in recent years after having nearly forgotten it. It involves store-bought pizza dough, cubes of cheddar that melt, and lots of butter that all come together to make crispy edges and deliciousness.... My classic meal is to have it with kielbasa stew as the two are a perfect fit and I never ate one without the other as a kid. But I also make it alongside black bean soup or Gordie's grandmother's hamburger-vegetable soup, or any soup that could use a little rich cheesy treat on the side to dip into it and scoop up dregs of it with. Mmmm.

Putting together cubes of cheese and balls of dough: a perfect kid job in the kitchen!

Cheese Bread

from my mom

1 lb. store-bought pizza dough, cut into 24 roughly equal small balls of dough

24 cheddar cheese cubes, about 3/4"

1/2 stick of butter (will not use the whole thing)

Wrap ball of dough around each cube of cheese and seal it up, set aside till all are ready.

Melt butter in a saucepan on stove top, then remove from heat.

Roll each ball of dough around in the melted butter right in the saucepan, then place in a loaf pan. (These pictures show more of a hodge-podge assembly, monkey bread style, which is fun. Lately I have squished the dough balls into one layer in the loaf pan, 4 balls by 6, and like the way that comes out.) Let them rise for a while.

Then bake at 350 for maybe 20 minutes or so. Check the bread and remove from oven when golden. (I like putting the loaf pan into a not preheated oven and then turning the oven on, as it seems to allow the bread some nice last rising time as the oven warms.)

Upend baked bread "loaf" onto a serving plate. Pull sections off the loaf and serve alongside/dip into soup or stew.

Fresh Corn Cream Sauce with Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 01:16:00 +0000

This is one of our things we like to make with corn in late summer. (Back in the days when we rented a place in Lyme, I used to drive the half mile up the road nearly every day in August to get corn from the farmstand we felt convinced had the best corn. In recent years, not living really close to a farmstand (or anything else) and no longer wanting to have to go to fetch it on the exact day we want it, I have adjusted my standards so that I regularly buy corn several days ahead of using it and just stick it in the fridge. And it is definitely not the same, but it still works.)

Anyway my mom and I first put together this recipe one of those days right after having bought some fresh corn from the nearby farmstand (our little notes here say 2008!) and after we had recently eaten dinner at a restaurant where my mom had had a pasta with a lobster and corn cream sauce. Whenever she eats something at a restaurant she really likes, she has to come home and try to replicate it, and she often does a pretty good job of it. Anyway, we left out the lobster (one of my two foods that I really dislike) and made this simple pasta focused on the corn, which I love. You'll noticed the recipe notes from ten years ago say we used a stick of butter and 16 ounces of heavy cream. Not sure if I batted an eyelash at those things back then or not. I can't see using that amount of butter now or the cream being necessary, so I cut the butter in half over the summer when we dusted off this old favorite, and I used entirely skim milk instead of cream. It felt plenty rich and was still delicious. But I thought it was fun to have our original notes here just the same.

A couple of other notes: I bet you could use parsley or basil for the fresh herb and would have a slightly different but equally delicious final product. One thing I love about cooking in the summer is that if I want a little of some fresh herbs I have them growing fresh right out in our garden rather than having to buy an entire bunch from the store. Yet I often forget to pick what I need before I am in the kitchen cooking. This has become one of the ways I enlist Willem's help in the cooking lately [summer 2017], handing him the kitchen scissors and asking him to go fetch a certain amount of something. It's made me realize he's a little fuzzy on which herb is which so it's been a learning experience. He knows what the basil is (we've got a ton of that and it's a precious ingredient in pesto which he loves). And he's fairly involved in the gardening in general, but the herbs overall I guess are just not high on his priority list. The other day I sent him for cilantro, describing where it was in the garden and how many stems to get, and he came back with parsley. The night I made this I sent him out for parsley and after a couple minutes went to peek out the window and saw him contemplating the oregano and lavender so I called out to him and pointed him in the right direction in time. After he came in I stuck it in his face in hopes that his good sense of smell would help him remember next time.

Fresh Corn Cream Sauce with Pasta

6 - 8 ears fresh corn, or 2 or 3 C frozen corn

1 lb. pasta (penne, rotini, bow ties)

~4 T butter

2 C milk +

salt and pepper

1 - 2 green onions, sliced, or 1/4 of an onion, diced

2 - 3 T fresh parsley, minced

~1/4 C flour

1/3 C Parmesan, grated

Cut corn off cobs. (In our notes we wrote to boil the corn, then cut it off. I don't think this is necessary as you end up sauteing it a few minutes anyway, although the one plus to dunking it in the boiling water for a minute first is that it is much easier to slice off the cob if it's been cooked without the kernels flying everywhere.) Cook pasta in the same water after corn if you've cooked the corn.

In large pan, melt butter. Add onions, and soften a bit over low heat (I covered the pan). Add corn and saute briefly. Add flour, stirring in a little at a time. Slowly add milk, stirring. It will thicken up a bit.

Add parsley, Parmesan, salt, and pepper at the end. Serve over, or stirred into, pasta.

No-Knead Overnight Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 01:01:00 +0000

A friend recommended this recipe to us to go with roast beef for a holiday party a few years ago. It now feels like roast beef would be incomplete without this perfect, easy bread. We could make it any time but it's become a tradition along with a roast and vegetables for Christmas dinners. It is crackly, crusty, on the outside and tender inside.

No-Knead Bread
from Jim Lahey, via The New York Times

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 C all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ t instant yeast
1¼ t salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam-side-down on towel and dust with more flour, bran, or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex, or ceramic-- we used our 5-quart round Le Crueset) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Slice, and enjoy as is or with salted butter alongside dinner.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Parmesan & Honey

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 01:58:00 +0000

We fell in love with this combination that we'd never before had back in 2009 when we went to Italy. We had it at Enoteca la Fortezza di Montalcino, outdoors, after walking along the castello walls and while looking forward to exploring Brunello di Montalcino land for the day. We were in the courtyard of an old castle and got to sample several different ages of Parmesan (we did this several times on the trip and oldest was always best) along with delicious honey.

I think it is fun to serve this with a few different ages of Parmesan for tasting comparison, or with just one good one.

Serve it as a lovely snack or appetizer before an Italian-themed meal, or sprinkle with walnuts and peppercorns and serve as an elegant nibble to pair with a wine tasting, which was how we had it in Italy.

With good ingredients, this is the perfect combination of simplicity and deliciousness-- things I'd very much like to channel more of.

Ricotta is another cheese that is good with honey, smeared on toast and drizzled with it.

Black-Bean Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:04:00 +0000

Garlic-pepper sauce being made

This post has been an intention, and this recipe a loved one, for so long that I had photos in here of baby food jars, filled with it and ready to freeze. Margaret has always loooved this soup. And well she should, because it is delicious. The name and the fact that it is a gray, pureed soup makes me never really crave it or remember how good it is. But when we make it and actually eat it, the flavors are just so alive and bright; it is really startling how tasty it is. I think the fresh lime juice, as in most things, makes a big difference, so again I think it's super important to keep a few fresh ones in the crisper. I have made a really quick simple meal of this soup on weeknights alongside grilled cheese because all you really need to have are the cans of beans and the garlic-pepper sauce stored in the freezer (one of the few pre-made and frozen meals I seem to reliably keep on hand these days). I have also given a batch of the soup, along with a quiche, as a dinner for new parents or a coworker-- packs up nicely to give away and can be frozen or eaten right away. We haven't had it in a while but before we know it it will be soup season so here it is! I've been lucky enough to be invited to a super-fun (and super productive in the sense of filling the freezer with pre-made meals) soup swap a few years in a row. Once I brought carrot soup and once I brought this Thai-coconut one (also limey and bright tasting); maybe this winter I will bring this.

Oh and I really love having an immersion blender, recommended for this recipe. The blade end pops apart from the plug-in part and goes in the dishwasher as one piece and cleans well. It is a gadget surprisingly well worth having. I don't miss splashing hot soup batch by batch into a blender.

Black-Bean Soup

from marthastewart.com

1 C garlic-pepper sauce (recipe below; I make this and freeze it in one-cup Pyrex and it is enough to make the soup a half dozen times or more)

14.5 oz. chicken broth

1/2 C water

2 15.5-oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper

2 - 3 t fresh lime juice (or up to half a lime that we squeeze in)

(optional: sour cream on top which we don't feel it needs)

In a large saucepan, heat garlic-pepper sauce over medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes.

Stir in beans, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook 5 minutes.

Puree with an immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper.

Squeeze in lime juice, stir, and serve. (Serve topped with sour cream or yogurt if desired.)

Garlic-Pepper Sauce

3 T olive oil

2 large onions, coarsely chopped

2 green bell peppers, ribs and seeds removed, coarsely chopped

2 red bell peppers, " "

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 t dried oregano

1 t ground cumin

1 large tomato, coarsely chopped

3 C mixed cilantro leaves and tender stems

salt and pepper

In a large Dutch oven or pot, heat oil over medium. Add onion. Cook, stirring often, until starting to soften, about 5 minutes.

Add peppers, garlic, oregano, and cumin. Cook, stirring often, until peppers are crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Add tomato. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes more.

Transfer to a food processor/blender (or get out immersion blender). Add cilantro, and puree until slightly chunky. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer sauce in 1-cup quantities, to containers to freeze and use as needed to make a batch of soup, above.

Family Trip to France

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 01:15:00 +0000

(Ha! I notice the last post I did was during last year's February vacation. Well here I am a year later.)

We went to France! I have such fond memories of this trip. It struck me as such a beautiful country and has a soft spot in my heart. We were talking near the end of the vacation about our favorite things. Gordie mentioned being able to see the ironwork of the Eiffel Tower up close and learning about how it came to be; experiencing the countless impressive bridges and tunnels through dramatic landscapes as we drove over to the Alps from Burgundy one day; and the double helix staircase at Chateau de Chambord, possibly designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Some of my favorite things were the amazing macarons in pure flavors with their luscious textures; the coq au vin I ordered one night (at the oldest cafe in Paris, which I am sure added to the romance) that was so perfect and was like so many dishes we had that were cooked well and tasted really good; and how I loved the cafes everywhere that were a part of life in Paris, with chairs perfectly lined up behind tiny tables filling the sidewalks aimed to watch the street and how you could just sit yourself down at one whenever you needed refreshment or a break without waiting to be seated. So, basically, his favorite things were buildings and my favorite things were food.

I found Paris such a charming city. I am sure it has its pickpockets (which we'd read about multiple times) and darker sides, but we never felt in danger. I was struck by how there was never a gritty or unpleasant street I turned down. Every street was charming, with its cobblestones, tiny shops, and narrow sidewalks echoing another time. It was so much fun to discover what we could of it for the week we were there. In lots of ways I could see why Paris seems to be more of a destination for couples rather than families, and I found myself imagining us going back there maybe in a few years on our own without kids....as well as maybe visiting parts of the country we didn't get to, such as Provence and Bordeaux.

We knew there was a chance this was a little crazy with young kids. But we went, with the reasoning that Willem was old enough to get something out of it, Margaret was young enough to still be portable and wouldn't be big enough otherwise to handle a trip like this for several more years, and because we had wanted to go to France for a long time. But I was so pleased (and relieved that we weren't crazy after all) because they were great travelers. Willem was a great walker, pounding the sidewalks all over Paris all day long without complaint. He loved stairs for some reason and would dash up or down them in museums and metro stations, waiting for us at the top or bottom of long sets before continuing. Our New Hampshire boy also was thrilled by the subway and became quite adept at turnstiles, crowds, and reporting to us exactly how long until the next train arrived as soon as we got to the platform. It was nice to give him a taste of city life, not to mention the tastes of French life. Both kids were up waaaaay past bedtimes, the concept of which we let go of during the trip in exchange for some of the restaurants we wanted to eat at not starting dinner service until 7. (Except for cafes that advertised service continu, restaurants generally were open about 12 - 2 for lunch and 7 - 11 for dinner.) We didn't stop and go back to the apartment we rented to allow Margaret to nap either (gasp! in our normal lives), because the days were so full of wonderful sights and things to eat; she very flexibly snoozed a couple times a day in the Ergo baby carrier while we wore her around, including every time we ascended something for a view, which was often. She also got excited, pointed, and learned to say bird ("buh!") whenever we saw pigeons.

We spent a week in Paris and then three days in Burgundy, so we only had a brief visit, but these are some of the food-related things we did and noticed and reveled in while we were there.

Willem loved ordering a different sirop at every cafe we went to along with sparkling water to mix it with himself (part of the fun) to make his own special drink. He tried mint, peach, violet, cassis, grenadine, lemon, and more.

We enjoyed these long yet not overly filling sandwiches. This I think was jambon y fromage. I had one that was just brie and chopped nuts and pepper. Willem had jambon-beurre (ham and butter) several times. They were simpler than how I would normally think of filling a sandwich but just a different style and did the trick.

While Willem is not as open-minded about what he eats at 6 as he was when he was younger, I enjoy that he at least likes to think he is adventurous and always wants to try especially wild-seeming things for the sake of doing so. He did some solid sampling of frog legs, oysters, and, below, escargot, complete with special little tongs and fork.

Favorite dessert! Cafe gourmand was on many restaurant menus. An espresso with a sampling of small versions of several desserts.

Nothing like starting the day people watching at a cafe with both a pitcher of pour-your-own hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) and a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice. The fresh-squeezed OJ of course was delicious, and it was the norm everywhere; there was even a machine for it with the oranges piled up and ready at the top in a tiny little convenience store attached to a train station.

I loved starting our days outdoors at a cafe on the street. How could that not put you in a good mood about the day to come?

Cafes on the street are pretty pleasing any time of day. This was a late afternoon breather.

I really enjoyed my only eggy breakfast of the whole trip: omelette aux fines herbes. I rarely make omelettes at home that aren't loaded with vegetables or some filling of substance and of course grated cheddar cheese. But this was the opposite. I had read a French omelette was all about technique. This one was lovely and refined, fresh and delicious with only the chopped fresh mixed herbs.

One morning we skipped the cafe routine and instead went to the market on the street where our apartment was and got these yummy sweet fraises des bois-- wild strawberries-- and other berries, and walked a few more feet and got some croissants at a bakery (a selection, naturally) and went and sat on a bench shooing pigeons away as we passed them all around.

Mmmmm.....

This was a gorgeous display at the produce market.

My delicious coq au vin. In the seven months since our trip I have tried cooking things we've had, including omelette aux fines herbes, boeuf bourgignon, salad with chevre chaud, but not this yet. I think it was too perfect to feel attainable to recreate! So. Good.

And another pic of it on my plate...

Sweet little Margaret woke up partway through dinner from her late afternoon snooze in the front pack that day and she liked it, too. I had to cut it into tiny pieces for her since at that point she had basically no teeth yet.

She was a big fan of steak frites when we had it, too.

Aside from the meats at dinner (and there was a lot of meat!), for Margaret, this was a trip of many croissant bits and lots of gnawing on the le quignon-- the prized crusty pointy end of a baguette.

No high chairs! We also didn't see many French kids out in restaurants. I've heard different reasons for this. Maybe they eat in, maybe they go out later than we do, maybe they are just not used to the same conveniences. I have ever since then thought of the ability to put my child down and eat, and help her eat, with two hands free as a luxury. Luckily, she was a great sport and there were two of us to share this job. Amusingly, once as we prepared to leave a restaurant where we had eaten with her on our laps, Gordie noticed on the way back from the bathroom two or three high chairs/booster seats stacked up high on a shelf collecting dust. Maybe it's more of a choice or philosophy to go high-chair-less!

We had some crepes, of course. The best were the most simple: honey, lemon and sugar, butter.

One day in sight of the Eiffel Tower Willem enjoyed this less restrained version that he was more familiar with. (I was just showing him these pictures I was going to post, and he said, "they, like, put a whole jar of 'Tella on that thing!")

Never having gone in a cheese shop in Paris is one regret of our trip. We didn't prioritize it in the first few days, then once we thought of it, we would look places up and find that they were closed Thursdays, or didn't open till 2 on Mondays, or were located very far from anything else we were thinking of doing that day. Once we came tantalizing close to going in one when we walked by one that was closed but peeked in the window at the tremendous variety and smelled the stinky-in-a-great-way, earthy smell wafting out through the door. In any case, I ordered cheeses at restaurants at least. They would serve a lot of cheese, always with a little salad for accompaniment, but usually not with bread and never with all the various little accoutrements that are often a big part of cheese plates here.

Salade de chevre chaud was a favorite way we consumed cheese-- goat cheese toasted on baguette slices floating atop a salad. We now have found a French goat cheese at our co-op that we love and we make a version of this at least once a month or so.

We of course had to seek out the best places to have super-thick hot chocolate served with a heaping bowl of whipped cream on the side. Here is Willem assembling his late afternoon pick-me-up.

Hot chocolate notwithstanding, this trip marked the first time ever that he was so tired he literally fell asleep at the dinner table.

Paris brest (pastry and praline-flavored cream):

Chocolate-shop deliberations. We had some delicious chocolates. The people manning these counters were so friendly and generous, offering samples and giving us extra pieces with our selections, seeming to be really proud of their product and enjoying themselves immensely.

Here we are having dinner with the folks at Moulin de Buffière where we stayed in the Burgundy countryside. (They had a high chair!)

The ritual of a leisurely time for aperitifs was so enjoyable. They brought out apple juice just for Willem, the only kid on premises at the time. We enjoyed Kir as we did in Paris-- a splash of creme de cassis in a glass of dry white wine. It's easy to get it too sweet but just a pale pink is very refreshing.

Margaret liked the melon soup so much, the second night chef/owner Dominique put some of the leftover in a sippy cup just for "MAH-gah-ret".

Veal blanquette-- the meat is not browned, but cooked low and slow in a creamy sauce. We as well as the other guests we ate with that night had seconds, even though that's maybe not something very French to do.

Trying frog legs on an outing in Burgundy

One day we did a (crazy-sounding to our French hosts) two-hour-each-way day trip from Burgundy to the French Alps for a day hike and to take in that incredible landscape. We stopped on the way back in Annecy, which was quite reminiscent of Venice, but with a big lake and wide open spaces and mountain vistas and a big grand park in addition to the alleys and canals and stone everywhere. We got to sample some fondue and other food with a bit more Swiss influence.

One last French country breakfast before our drive-- to the train station, to the airport-- on the last day of our trip. It was quite different from our espresso and croissant breakfasts in the city. We loved Dominique's homemade yogurt in little jars and her whole lazy Susan full of various homemade jams and preserves to sample. We had fresh-squeezed OJ and coffee in handle-less mugs; Willem had bowls of hot chocolate with his breakfasts.

It was a fabulous, delicious trip, and I'm so thankful for the adventure.

Tacos

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:46:00 +0000

A favorite dinner of Willem's these days is tacos. He gets to try different combinations, everybody is happy, it's a super simple meal recipe-wise, and with a couple little touches can really hit the spot. Needed to post this so I don't forget it as a good weeknight option when I am desperate for ideas. These are a few things we like when we have tacos:

1. Homemade Taco Seasoning

I mix these dry spices together (ahead of time is great), then stir it into the 1 lb. of hamburger meat after it is browned in the pan. I feel better about this than using the packets of mix so that we aren't consuming maltodextrin, partially hydrogenated oils, etc.

Taco Seasoning Mix
Adapted from allrecipes.com

1 T chili powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder (or dried minced onion, or omit)
1/4 t dried oregano
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t ground cumin
1 t salt
1 t black pepper

Stir together spices in a small dish. Cook ~1 lb. meat till browned. Stir in seasoning mix and 2/3 cup water and 2 teaspoons flour until most of the liquid is cooked off. Smells delicious cooking!
2. Pickled Onions!
They make the meal for the grown-ups. Got them from this black-bean burrito recipe, but they are good on lots of stuff. Also can be made ahead, drained, refrigerated.

3 T red wine vinegar
2 T sugar
2 C water
1 t salt
1 small onion, thinly sliced

Bring first four ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan. Add onion and simmer, uncovered, about 3 minutes. Drain.

3. Shredded Chicken in Mixer

When we aren't using beef but instead leftover cooked chicken, I recently tried out the technique I'd been told about of throwing the boneless cooked chicken in the stand mixer fitted with the beater, and turning it on. Give it a minute and is is perfectly shredded! Probably everyone already knew this trick but me but it makes such a difference I had to share just in case. (We also use this technique now when making quesadillas, enchiladas, or anything with shredded chicken. So easy!)

4. Grilled Corn
Put a bag of frozen corn in a small rimmed pan. Toss with some oil, salt, and pepper. Broil for a few minutes, stirring once partway through till some pieces are browned.

Tacos

soft taco shells
beef or chicken
&
accompaniments:
grated cheese
chopped avocado
roasted corn
chopped lettuce
chopped tomato
pickled onions
sour cream
salsa
chopped cilantro
lime wedges for squeezing

Cook meat.

Prep and set out various accompaniments in separate bowls. Warm taco shells. Enjoy!

Boulevardier Cocktail and Negroni

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:02:00 +0000

Last summer we went to a great restaurant on Martha's Vineyard called 20 By Nine. (We were somewhat disturbed by the number of people strolling around Oak Bluffs who slowed down, half looked skeptically at the menu, and continued on. We were extremely happy there!) They had house-made ricotta, served with smoked paprika and chunky salt and parsley that we were all big fans of. And the cheese board was almost silly it was so over the top, as if they didn't have the discipline to decide which pairings to use so they just used them all. But what's not to love about delicious cheese and too many accompaniments to even try every combination? This was a restaurant that seemed to be trying hard to do things well, to be creative, and have an identity.

The menu was fun for us because it was full of small plates (sort of tapas) meant for sharing, and because it was a whiskey bar, serving countless types of whiskey and a few whiskey cocktails, but not really other liquors. We've become whiskey fans around here, particularly this time of year, and we've been enjoying a drink we've done our best to recreate in our favored proportions that one of us ordered back in July, perhaps even more in these chilly temperatures-- a Negroni with whiskey instead of gin. We've been calling this drink a Negroni with whiskey. A quick internet search reveals it is in fact a Boulevardier cocktail. Red, sippable, and potent, it is perfect for January.

Whiskey, sweet vermouth, Campari

Another cocktail we sampled: bourbon, Cointreau, lemon, lavender bitters

Patio all to ourselves

Crazy cheese board

Ricotta, paprika, salt, parsley, garlic

Fancy s'mores dessert

Dessert #2

Boulevardier cocktail

2 oz. rye whiskey
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. campari

Stir in a glass with a large ice cube and lemon twist.

When instead you have a hankering for gin, here's the standard version we like:

Classic Negroni

2 oz. gin
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth

Apple Weekend 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:25:00 +0000

Last month we got together with friends and family for what has become a special tradition. Even with babies and families and with a few hours between us all, we know that at least for one weekend we will all get together and catch up and do some really good eating! This was the twelfth year. Our tradition is gaining attendees; Brenna and Cassidy's friends Aaron and Neary decided to not only come up from Boston for the weekend but also to each participate by making a dish for the big meal this year. Here are some pictures of the apple fun...

It was so cold! Willem was so distressed by his cold hands while trying to pick apples, that my mother offered him her socks and he accepted. He was quite a lot happier after that.

Baby fun! These two are ten days apart.

And for the food...

Meg made a sweet-salty salad we gobbled up first of roasted squash, brie, candied nuts, apple, and dried cranberries, with a maple vinaigrette. Mmm.

Aaron assembling his soup right before serving. He knows Cass because they worked in kitchens together. I could tell he knew what he was doing by his perfectly diced pink chard I saw when I walked through the kitchen earlier in the afternoon. He is placing Hen of the Woods mushrooms into Lapsong Souchong broth along with the chard and flaky salt... I am sure I don't remember it all. But it was so interesting and thoroughly thought out. I ate every bite, mushrooms and all, and that's saying something.

Bren made sweet-potato bacon cakes with fried beet curls and a bourbon-habanero aioli.

Matt made really tasty Cornish pasty with beer-braised beef short rib, Stilton mac and cheese, and pickled caramelized onions. The pastry opened up in the oven rather than staying sealed, so didn't have the look he intended, but it was an awesome combination of flavors.

Gord made butternut-squash risotto spiked with truffle oil.

I made this Smitten Kitchen blue cheese and red potato tart that I can't get enough of, using our potatoes. I paired it with some greens with this shallot dressing.

Cassidy made this fancy scallop and pork lardon topped with a cider reduction on wilted leeks.

Neary made the only (!) dessert: apple-cinnamon ice cream with a sesame brittle, paired (I think spur of the moment) with a whiskey that was a very nice end to the evening.

Monte Cristos

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 18:50:00 +0000

What's not to like about a ham and cheese sandwich on French toast? It's a rich, buttery sandwiches-for-dinner option.

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

from marthastewart.com

Sandwiches:

Dijon mustard

8 slices bread

Swiss cheese slices

~1/2 lb ham

Batter:
4 large eggs

1/2 C milk

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1/4 t ground nutmeg

For pan:
4 T butter

To serve:
Confectioner's sugar

Spread mustard on bread. Layer 4 bread slices with Swiss cheese, ham, and cheese again. Place remaining bread slices on top.

In a shallow dish, whisk together dipping batter. Dip each sandwich in the egg mixture, turning to coat well.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. When butter is foamy, add the sandwiches, and cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, 6 to 8 minutes total. Serve immediately, dusted with confectioners' sugar if desired.