Savory & Sweet

Egg Pie and Renewed Resolutions

2012-01-29T21:45:00.003-05:00

This is the time of year when those bold resolutions we all made start to fade into the past. Regular life takes over and the urge to be better, stronger, healthier slowly recedes. Suddenly, often around the end of January or the beginning of February, we notice that the lists we made have been neglected and we are no closer to where we had been so resolved to reach.

This just happened to me this week, when I went back and looked at my list and realized that I can do better. I think part of doing better can start with this blog.

When I started this blog, over five years ago, I decided that I did not want it to be a diet blog. I had just lost 42 pounds and I was incredibly proud of that accomplishment, but I wanted an outlet where I could write about "regular" food, things that I would not normally have in my recipe rotation. This decision, as good as it was for me at the time, has actually made it very difficult to maintain the blog and also very difficult to maintain my weight loss.

I have no intention of turning this into a diet blog, but I do plan to post a bit more frequently about what my family and I really eat on a regular basis. A lot of this will look much like my recipes and writing in the past. I do not cook with fake ingredients. No sweeteners, fillers, or crap in my food. That is not good nutrition and really not good eating. I make an effort to get as many fruits and veggies in my diet as I can. Not only do I get all the good vitamins, minerals and fiber that come from fresh produce, but I also get to eat a whole lot more, which makes my tummy happy.

I eat better, healthier food when we cook at home. Others may be able to make great decisions at restaurants, but I have difficulty with both choices and portion. Instead, I can cook up great meals (for a whole lot less money) at home and thoroughly enjoy them. Then, when we do go out, I order what I want. And I thoroughly enjoy that too.

I thought I would start with the beginning of my day. Mornings around these parts have become more difficult and fast-paced recently. Trying to get all the people out of the house at the times they need to leave (especially on mornings when Ned wakes up early and takes our eyes off the ball) is nearly impossible. Actually, the problem is mostly me. I will spend as much time as I have plus an additional 15 minutes getting ready every day. I used to be able to get places on time, but not anymore. I often do not have time to make breakfast at home. Egg Pie is a great solution for those days (weeks) that get the better of me. I can bring my slice of Egg Pie to work with me and eat at my desk, it usually keeps me full until lunch, and it starts my day out with vegetables, which does not otherwise happen.

This could be called a quiche or a frittata, but I like to call it Egg Pie. It has no crust (like a frittata) but is cooked completely in the oven (like a quiche) and has so many possible variations that it can be a satisfying breakfast that you will not tire of for a long time. I like to make an egg pie on Sunday night and cut it into six pieces so it lasts me most of the next week.

Egg Pie with Swiss Chard, Zucchini, and Goat Cheese

This is an incredibly versatile recipe. The version that I prefer to make has 3 whole eggs and 3/4 cup of Egg Beaters. You could also use egg whites instead of Egg Beaters if you prefer. It could be made with all real eggs or all substitute also, depending on your calorie needs. Likewise, you can play around with fillings. Spinach, kale, swiss chard, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, onions, whatever you feel like and have available in your fridge will probably do. Different cheeses can shake things up too. Just be aware that some cheeses have more salt than others (ahem, feta), so you will need to adjust the recipe a bit.

1 large bunch swiss chard, cleaned well
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
olive oil or cooking spray
salt

4 oz soft goat cheese with herbs (one small log)

3 eggs
3/4 cup Egg Beaters
1-1/2 cups milk*
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Prepare a 9 inch pie plate by greasing with butter or spraying with cooking spray. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Remove the large ribs from the chard and cut into about 1 inch ribbons. In a large skillet, add the chard, sprinkle with salt and saute over medium heat in cooking spray or about 1 tsp olive oil until fully wilted and all moisture has evaporated from the pan, about 8 minutes. Spread the chard evenly in the pie plate. Repeat with the onions, salting generously, cooking until they are translucent, but not browned. Repeat with the zucchini, but turn the heat up slightly to brown them. Spread all the vegetables evenly in the pie plate.

Crumble to goat cheese over the vegetables.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, egg beaters, and milk. Whisk well until completely combined. Add the nutmeg, pepper and salt and whisk to incorporate. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. It should cover the vegetables completely.**

Bake in the middle of the oven until the egg mixture is completely set, about 45 minutes. Shake the pie plate gently to make sure the middle is set. There may be a bit of liquid from the vegetables, but it would be clear; uncooked egg will be cloudy.

Allow to cool a bit before cutting.

Makes 6 servings.

*I have been using 1% milk, but I have had good results with everything from skim to whole.
** If you need more egg mixture, just keep the ratio of egg to milk the same: 1/4 cup egg (one egg) to 1/4 cup milk.

Sausage Spinach Asiago Turnovers

2011-04-24T22:42:00.004-04:00

I get tired of the meat-veggie-starch dinner. It is functional but boring. Like a pair of good walking shoes. They get you where you need to go, but you don’t look very good once you get there. (or on the way, actually, continuing this pathetic metaphor). That kind of dinner is boring to make as well as eat. I am a COOK. I like to try new things, use my tools and be inspired by my food. Most weeks, I try to mix in something that is a little more exciting than the classic three part meat dinner and on occasion, I end up with something really terrific. This was one of those weeks. This dinner was the first time in ages that I have sat down at the table and said “I have to take a picture of my food. This is so good.”

This dish is not something that fits into the “healthy eating” category of my recipe book, but it really is worth the splurge. I use homemade pastry here. It is easy and really worth it. Of course you can buy a pastry dough, but why not just try to make it? If it fails, grab your backup out of the fridge, but if it works, you will not regret the (small) effort required.

Mike summed it up perfectly: “I want to go to the city where this is the street food.”

Amen.

Sausage Spinach Asiago Turnovers

Pastry dough
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 stick of butter, frozen or very cold
Ice water

Filling
1 medium sweet onion, chopped (1-1/2 to 2 cups)
1 lb sweet chicken Italian sausage (use patties or remove the casing from links)
1/2 lb frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed
2/3 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

Egg wash
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk

Make the pastry. Cut the butter into pebble size chunks. In a food processor combine the butter and flour. Pulse until the butter is pea sized or smaller. Very slowly, add ice water with the processor running. As soon as the dough comes together to form a ball, stop processing. (It should happen around 3 Tablespoons of water). Remove the dough, form into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Make the filling. While the pastry is resting, in a large fry pan, sauté the onion until tender. Add the sausage and cook through, breaking up with a spoon. Remove to a bowl to cool.

Squeeze the spinach out with your hands to remove as much water as possible. Add to the sausage mixture. Once the mixture is fairly cool, add the cottage cheese, asiago, pepper, nutmeg, and Italian seasoning. Stir well to combine.

Preheat oven to 425F.

Assemble the turnovers. Cut the pastry into five pieces and roll each out into a circle.* Mine ended up being about 8 inches in diameter and less than 1/8 inch thick. Place the pastry on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Position them as you would like them to be for baking. You don’t want to try to move them once they are filled. Pile filling in the middle of the pastry and carefully fold the pastry over to create a turnover. Match the edges up and roll them in to seal. You can crimp these with a fork to ensure that they are sealed. You really don’t want the pastry to break or to seep your yummy filling out onto your cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining 4 pieces of pastry.

Whisk the egg and milk together in a small dish. Brush over the top of the pastry.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Serves 5 (or 2 if Mike is the other person eating with you)

*It doesn’t need to really be a circle, it just needs to be somewhat symmetrical so that the edges match up when you turn it over. No prizes for perfection here – this is supposed to look like street food.

White bean dip with rosemary and sage

2011-02-09T17:49:00.003-05:00

While we're on a roll...

I thought I would give you yet another reason to use the bean cooking recipe I gave you yesterday. This bean dip is such a refreshing departure from hummus, but serves a similar purpose. Great with crackers or veggies, it also is an excellent addition to a wrap or sandwich. The key to this dip, however, is to make your own beans. It is just not as good with the canned beans (oh, and buy good fresh herbs too. Mandatory for this one.)

Like so many of my favorite recipes, this one comes from Cooking Light magazine.

White Bean Dip with Rosemary and Sage
Make a few hours in advance to allow the flavors to meld.

2-1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon bean cooking liquid
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 Tablespoon minced fresh sage
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped*
2 cups cooked white beans (cannellini or great northern), drained
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through. Add additional salt to taste. Chill before serving.

*Begin with one and add more if you need it. The first time I made this the garlic overwhelmed the recipe. It will also depend on the type of garlic you use.

How to Cook Dried Beans

2011-02-08T17:55:00.002-05:00

I tried to cook dried beans several times before I figured out a method that really worked for me. I found so many contradictory instructions involving soaking, not soaking, how long to cook, pressure cookers and other equipment. My head threatened to explode and the beans didn't come out well.

The reality is that there are three distinct methods for cooking beans (as far as I know. Feel free to correct me in the comments.)

First is the long soak method. The beans are soaked overnight, then cooked in water until they are tender.
The second is a quick soak method (spoiler alert: this is my favorite method and the one I will explain here). The beans are put in water, brought to a boil and soaked for only about an hour. Then they are cooked until tender.
The third method is in the pressure cooker, which I have never done, because I do not have a pressure cooker. I think the pressure cooker method is the fastest.

This is my method. I think it is fool-proof, if you just follow the directions. Another key to cooking perfect beans is to avoid adding anything to the beans that will mess them up until AFTER they are tender. This includes salt, sugar, and acid. Just cook them with aromatics and wait to add the rest of the stuff.

I like to cook a full pound of beans at a time. They fit well in my 6 quart saucepan and make enough for me to freeze and use for the next couple weeks. I make a different type of beans every time to replenish my stash. The method is the same for all the usual beans: kidney, great northern, garbanzo (chick peas), black beans, etc. Only lentils do not require the soaking step.

The length of time to cook a bean depends on a number of factors. Some are obvious like the size of the bean. Bigger or denser beans (kidney, garbanzo) take longer to cook than smaller beans (navy). The part you can't see: beans can be kept on the shelf for YEARS. The older they are, the drier and more brittle the bean, and the longer it takes to cook. There is no way to know how old your beans are unless you are getting them from the farmer. This is why you have to keep testing the beans throughout the cooking process. Figure on the whole process taking about 3 hours, give or take.

Another wonderful thing about making homemade beans is that the starchy cooking liquid is wonderful stuff to add to pasta sauces, soups and stews for thickening and bulk. It is a silky smooth liquid that also adds some flavor. Do not do this with the liquid from canned beans. Yuck.

Here goes.

This is a terrible picture of what my beans look like when they are frozen flat in quart sized bags

Cooking Beans

1 pound beans
plenty of water

Aromatics:*
sprig of thyme
bay leaf
onion
etc.

2 teaspoons salt

Quick soak:
Place beans in a large sauce pan (use one that is at least six times larger than the volume of dry beans you are cooking.) Add water until the water is twice the depth of the beans. Bring to a gentle boil. Time for four minutes. Turn off the burner and cover the pot. Leave for one hour.

Cooking the beans:
After the beans have soaked for an hour, pour off the water or strain them through a colander. You do not need to keep this liquid.

Put the beans back in the pot and cover with water until the water is THREE times the depth of the beans. Add your aromatics.

Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. There should be a bubble coming up every few seconds. This is very gentle, slow cooking so the beans remain intact. Set the timer for 30 minutes. Test a bean. If it is at all tender (you can bite through it) add salt (about 2 teaspoons per pound of beans). If it is not tender yet, set the timer for another 15 minutes and test again.

Once salted, check the beans every 20 minutes or so until they are done. In my experience, there is a moment when I look at them and they are suddenly much more puffed up and the liquid looks lower and the beans are suddenly done. White beans (which I make the most often) usually cook for about 90 minutes after the quick soak.

Allow the beans to cool. DO NOT discard the cooking liquid. I like to pack the beans in freezer bags, remove all the air and freeze them flat in the cooking liquid. They defrost looking just like the freshly cooked beans and they taste far better than the ones from a can. If you are keeping them in the fridge, store them in the cooking liquid. If you do not have enough cooking liquid to cover the beans, just add water.

*Choose your aromatics based on what you are using the beans for. If you are cooking black beans, for example, I might add cilantro and lime (but later, because of the acid issue) and garlic. For white beans, I usually add thyme, bay leaf, and an onion if I have one around.

Adventures in Soup: White Bean and Sausage Ragout with Tomatoes, Kale and Zucchini

2011-02-08T17:45:00.002-05:00

Time for another soup recipe, don't you think? This is one that is truly quick to make; weeknight worthy, actually. Or for those Sundays that get away from you. You can start making this soup after five and be eating it for dinner at 6.

In truth, this isn't actually a soup. It is more of a thick vegetable, sausage and bean stew, but it qualifies for our little series, I think. As comfort food goes (and this is very comfortable), this is a very healthy option. A lean sausage, fiber and protein-rich beans and a very hefty dose of leafy greens somehow manage to come together to taste downright indulgent. This is also one of those recipes that keeps pretty well in the fridge. After making this on Sunday, it also has been my warm comforting lunch at work every day this week.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Cooking Light. I found this in my Cooking Light Cooking Through the Seasons cookbook, but it is also available on their website. One important difference is that I use home cooked beans for this recipe. They taste so much better. Really. And they freeze beautifully. Before you write off making your own beans, give it a try, I implore you.

In fact, I am going to put up instructions for cooking beans now. They are the only instructions you will need and it WILL work.

White Bean and Sausage Ragout with Tomatoes, Kale and Zucchini
This is terrific on its own, but is also great with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top if you like. This stew also makes great friends with crusty bread.

3 links chicken Italian sausage (hot* or sweet, your choice)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, halved and then sliced in half-inch pieces
5 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
6 cups kale, cleaned, ribs removed and coarsely chopped**
1/2 cup water or bean cooking liquid if you are using home cooked beans
1 can (14.5 oz) chopped tomatoes with liquid
3 cups cooked white beans

Place the sausages in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook until the sausages are done, about 8 minutes. Remove the sausages to a cutting board, slice them in half lengthwise and then cut into half-inch pieces

In a large saucepan (6 or 8 quart), heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onion. Sprinkle with salt and cook until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage and the zucchini and increase the heat to brown the ingredients. Cook about 4 minutes. Lower the heat again and add the garlic, cook only until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the kale, water, and tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil, turn down and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally to incorporate and wilt the kale. Add the beans and cook until heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately and put the rest in the fridge for excellent leftovers.

Serves 4-6

*If you like spice, this would be wonderful with a good spicy sausage. You can also add about 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes to give it a little oomph if you want.

**I used a whole big bunch of kale, probably closer to 10 cups. It cooks down so much, you can just use a whole big mess and it will probably be fine. Who wants leftover uncooked kale in the fridge? Additionally, Swiss chard or spinach will work if you cannot find or do not like kale.

Adventures in Soup: Avgolemono (Greek Chicken Lemon Rice Soup)

2011-01-15T11:28:00.006-05:00

Winter days are officially upon us. Mike is outside shoveling for the second time today and it is only 11 am. The world is white and gray and sounds are muffled. It feels peaceful and quiet both inside and out today. As wonderful as Christmas and New Year's were with our families and friends, it is a relief to settle into the rhythm of winter, with its short days and long dark nights, warm comforting food, and arrays of hats, mittens, coats, scarves, and boots.

Last weekend marked the first time that Ned has EVER enjoyed being outside in the winter. Here is proof:

Love the action pose.

Mike took him sledding and I went along later to take a few pictures. The actual sledding was not his favorite thing, but wandering around dragging the sled was a blast. He was at it for about an hour before we put him in the car and took him out for hot chocolate.

This is the perfect weather for ladling up a big bowl of hearty soup, especially after a morning of romping around in the snow. Today's selection definitely qualifies as hearty. Somehow Avgolemono is incredibly refreshing at the same time because of the lemon flavor. It is actually a sort of custard soup. It does not have any milk in it, but it is thickened slowly with eggs. The citrus of the lemon cuts the richness of the egg in such a wonderful way. This is a favorite that I always order when we go to our neighborhood Greek restaurants, and my version is a pretty good approximation of what we have found around town.

Avgolemono (Greek Chicken Lemon Rice Soup)
The key to this soup is to let it thicken slowly and not allow the eggs to coagulate and curdle. This is done by tempering the eggs slowly with warm soup and then hot soup. You will end up with a perfectly velvety texture if you take your time. This video does a great job of showing the tempering process. Fast forward to about 3:30.

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
8 cups chicken stock
1 cup brown rice
5 eggs
Juice of 2 lemons
2 Tablespoons AP flour
1/2 cup cool chicken stock
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded with two forks (about 1-1/2 cups)

In a large fry pan over medium heat, saute the onion, carrots, and celery until the onion is softened and translucent, but not brown, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, combine the 8 cups of chicken stock and brown rice, bring to a boil and simmer. After about 30 minutes, add the onion mixture to the pot and continue cooking until the carrots are tender and the rice is fully cooked, about another 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, vigorously whisk the lemon juice, flour, cool chicken stock, and eggs until fully combined and lightened. Remove about one cup of broth from the soup pot. Allow to cool for a minute, then slowly pour into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Continue pouring hot soup into the egg mixture and whisking until the bowl is full. Then slowly pour the egg mixture back into the soup pot, whisking constantly.

Cook about 5 minutes longer, until the soup is very hot, but do not allow it to boil.

Serve immediately (because it is really good, but don't worry, the extra will keep in the fridge just fine.)

Serves 8-10

Toffee Squares

2010-12-11T10:37:00.004-05:00

As promised, here is the other recipe for my great Christmas Cookie Success last weekend. These are from The Pioneer Woman. Her recipes are wonderful and I would love to eat her cooking all the time, but she uses about 20 times more butter in all her food that I use, so in the interest of being able to fit my rear end into my pants, I generally avoid her recipes.

However, if Christmas isn't a time for butter and sugar, then what is it? Tis the season, so grab a couple sticks of butter, a pair of elastic-waist pants, and whip up a batch of these cookie bars. This recipe is so easy, so forgiving, and the results look and taste much more impressive that you would think for the amount of effort that goes into them.

While normally I would write out the whole recipe with instructions and everything else, I didn't adapt this recipe except using toasted almonds instead of pecans on top, so I will just point you to The Pioneer Woman's website and tell you to do what she says.

Cleta Bailey's Toffee Squares

Cinnamon Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-07T23:10:00.007-05:00

I love to bake and always have, but for some reason, Christmas cookies have gotten the better of me in the past. I have had a few successes, but nothing really worth writing about. I usually try to take on too much at one time and end of failing at all of it.

Well, this year, I chose two new recipes at the same time, and by some miracle, they were both fabulous. They will both remain in my file of go-to baked goods for a long time.

The one I am posting today is adapted from this recipe. It was originally supposed to be chocolate with mint chips, but I didn't have any mint chips and I was completely out of peppermint extract, so I could not even cheat and make mint cookies with chocolate chips. Instead I decided to go with a cinnamon chocolate combination. This combo is a classic in our family. It began when we were little with the Quaker Bonnet cinnamon ice cream with hot fudge sauce. This was our favorite special occasion treat. Since then, I have been spiking my hot chocolate and just about any other chocolate concoction with cinnamon.

I'm going to tell you up front on this recipe: THERE ARE NO EGGS IN THESE COOKIES. I went back to the original recipe several times to make sure I wasn't making a mistake and that there wasn't a typo. The cookies will not rise or expand as much as a standard cookie, so they end up being quite rich. These cookies do not have to cook for a specific amount of time to be safe. If you like crunchier cookies, bake longer. For fudgy cookies, you can guiltlessly cook these as little as you want. This means you can eat the dough (pregnant friends: go make these and get your cookie dough fix!) but beware, you could end up looking like this:

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Cinnamon-Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

1-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Coating:
3 Tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325F.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cocoa.

In a medium bowl, using electric beaters, mix butter, sugar and brown sugar until lightened. Add half the flour mixture and continue beating to combine well. Add milk and vanilla, mix to incorporate. Add remaining flour mixture and mix to combine. Do not over mix. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon for the coating in a small dish.

Take tablespoon-size spoonfuls of dough and roll them between your hands. Roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat and place them on your cookie sheet.* Press down on the dough to flatten.

Bake 12-13 minutes. Allow to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 36 cookies.

*If you are using a non-stick cookie sheet, you should not need to spray or prepare the sheet in any way. If you are not using non-stick, you might want a sheet of parchment or a silpat to ensure that the cookies do not stick.

Adventures in Soup: Split Pea

2010-12-05T22:24:00.004-05:00

I have just become involved with my Crockpot. It was not a tool that I grew up with, so this is pretty unfamiliar to me. When I first started using a slow cooker, it was to keep hot cider hot at a party. I knew this thing could do more, but I admit I did not really love the slow cooker’s reputation. I don’t like recipes that start with “take a can of cream of mushroom soup (condensed)” and that was what I associated the slow cooker with.

But now! Oh now! I have discovered the slow cooker’s calling. It is split pea soup. This thing makes perfect split pea soup. WHILE I AM SLEEPING. How awesome is that?

I began making this soup one evening when Mike was out and Ned and I were on our own. I have about 5 minutes in the kitchen before Ned begins taking all of our belongings off the shelves and wreaking general havoc. The preparation for this soup fit within that window.

I pulled down the Crockpot from its high shelf, where it sits, ashamed that its only role in our house is to make split pea soup. Ned got up on the stepstool with me; very helpful little fellow. I chopped one onion, pulled down and opened a carton of stock and a bag of split peas, and pulled a ham steak out of the freezer. Aside from when I was chopping the onion, Ned was on my hip the whole time. I set the timer, went upstairs, and in the morning, I had soup.

Really, it shouldn’t be that easy. But it is. And I’m not complaining.

Oh, and one other thing? This is so damn tasty. Super happy comfort food.

Split Pea Soup
This recipe calls for using a slow cooker, but this can also be made with a good, old-fashioned pot on the stove. If doing that, saute the onion, add the rest of the ingredients (except the paprika) and cook, stirring occasionally, until the peas are very tender (probably about an hour or so, but that really is a guess. I haven't made this on the stove in ages because my Crockpot ROCKS this recipe.)

One large sweet onion, chopped
Ham steak, ham hocks or a ham shank
1 lb dried split peas (green or yellow – I used half of each for this batch)
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
Water
Sweet smoked paprika*

Combine the onion, ham, peas, and stock in a slow cooker. Add enough water so that the peas are covered by at least 1-1/2 inches. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. This will be the consistency of a thick pureed soup, for the most part you will not find a whole pea in the soup. If you prefer a chunkier soup, check after about 6 hours to see if the peas are tender.

Remove the ham from the soup. If using the ham steak, shred all the meat with a fork and knife and return the meat to the soup. If using the shank, remove the meat from the bone, shred it, and return to the soup. Add salt to taste and sprinkle with the smoked paprika before serving*

Serves 8.

*Paprika is often used for garnishing and can be placed squarely in the “optional, I’m just here because of my good looks” camp. But not smoked paprika. Oh no, this stuff has a wonderful smoky flavor that does wonders for the split peas. Get the smoked paprika, trust me.

Adventures in Soup: Classic Chicken Noodle

2010-11-21T22:12:00.005-05:00

My friend Devon used to make a pot of soup every Sunday. A different soup each week. She usually made soup in much larger quantities than she needed (what is it about making soup that you end up with enough for an army?)

Inspired by Devon (which I always am) I've finally picked up this habit and I am loving it. My little family has been enjoying a different soup every Sunday and the leftovers have been the perfect meals for me to take to lunch. We have also had enough to freeze a few servings for later in the fall and winter so we can mix up the menu now and then. For my adventures in soup, I have been choosing healthy, filling recipes; no heavy cream soups around here. It occurred to me that I should be sharing these recipes on Savory and Sweet, both so others can make these, but (perhaps more importantly) so I can remember all these recipes.

Because these are often new recipes for me, I will only post the ones that I like, and I will point out changes that I could/would make in the future. Soup is a pretty flexible meal to make, so feel free to adapt as you desire.

First up: Classic Chicken Noodle Soup. I looked up a couple recipes, didn't really find anything that I didn't already know, and just forged ahead on my own experience. I will say that James Beard inspired me to add the green beans, so credit is due there.

My lovely mother had made me a roasted chicken a couple days before I made this soup. Once we had a lovely meal of chicken and a sandwich or two, there was meat left over and a carcass ready to be made into broth. If you are not so fortunate as to have a chicken carcass around (poor you!) buy bone-in chicken to roast and put into the soup. At least you will have some bones to help build a good broth. If even this is not an option, get the best carton of broth you can find. I did add a carton of broth to this for some more complex flavor. There's no shame in that!

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
1 chicken carcass
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 large onion, quartered
4-5 whole peppercorns
1 sprig of thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
several sprigs of parsley
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup cauliflower florets or stems*

Finishing the soup
4 cups best quality chicken or vegetable stock
about 2 cups shredded cooked chicken, light or dark meat (skin discarded)
1-1/2 cups carrots chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup celery, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch lengths
1 cup frozen peas
8 oz broad egg noodles
Parmesan cheese for serving

In a large stockpot, combine all the ingredients for the stock and cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 1-2 hours. Skim any foam from the surface of the water and discard.

Cook the egg noodles according to the package instructions, until al dente. Drain and rinse completely with cold water.**

Strain the stock, wash the stockpot, and return the stock to the pot. Discard the solids. Add the purchased vegetable or chicken stock and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the carrots and celery to the stock. Cook until the carrots are tender, about 5-10 minutes. Add the green beans, peas, and chicken and cook until the peas and beans are vibrant green and al dente, about 4 minutes more.

To serve, put the noodles in the bowl, pour soup over the top and sprinkle with cheese. Store the noodles and soup in separate containers in the refrigerator.***

* I know there are rules about putting members of the cabbage family in a stock, but I learned from a friend that a little cauliflower in chicken soup adds a bit of spice and complexity. Trust me, give it a try.

**When rinsing the noodles, run your fingers through them to separate the noodles and be sure to rinse them until they are completely cool. This will rinse away the starch and prevent them from sticking together.

***Storing the noodles in the soup will result in a gelatinous mass as the warm soup is sucked up by the noodles. Keeping them separated is the way to have perfect chicken noodle soup for the next few days. If you want to freeze some soup, wait until both the noodles and the soup are completely cool before combining them. Allow to thaw in the fridge before reheating.

Rosemary Asiago Olive Oil Crackers

2010-11-07T22:30:00.000-05:00

Such a long name for a little treat! As I have mentioned here in the past, I like to know where my food comes from. Additionally, I really enjoy carbs. A lot. Because of these two factors, crackers provide a bit of a problem for me. I want to eat crackers and they taste so yummy (see above re: carbs) but they are made of lots of ingredients that I can’t pronounce and I’m not sure really belong in actual food. Additionally, I am totally insulted by what a rip-off they are. I mean, come ON. Why on earth am I paying $4 for a crappy box of commercial crackers? Total racket.

Solution: these crackers. So yummy. Very easy. You can brag at your next cocktail party. I suggest you cut them a bit unevenly so people ask “are these homemade?!” and you can shrug casually and say, “yeah, I like to make my own sometimes,” with a healthy dose of faux-humility. People think of crackers of something that you can't (or at least don't) make at home, which is really silly once you see how easy it is to make them yourself.

The truth, though? They taste fabulous. They are something I am happy to feed my kid, and that is the true barometer for me these days.

Coming soon: homemade hummus to dip them in.

Rosemary Asiago Olive Oil Crackers (adapted from the New York Times)

I used a pasta maker for this one. The first batch I made using a rolling pin, but I wanted to get them a bit thinner, so I tried the pasta maker. I went down to setting 4 on the machine. They work well either way, but with the pasta maker, check them after 7 minutes.

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup whole milk (possibly more, up to about 1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine the flour, salt, asiago, and rosemary in the bowl of a food processor. Blend quickly to combine. Add the olive oil and pulse to combine. With the food processor running, slowly add the milk though the tube. Add enough milk to make the dough form a ball. It will be quite loud and violent when it happens; you will know when there is enough liquid.

If using a pasta maker, split the dough into two batches. Flatten the first batch into a flat disc using your hands. Feed through the pasta maker using the widest setting. Decrease the setting one notch for each pass through the pasta maker until you reach #4. Lay this sheet of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

If using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to fit the size of your desired pan. The dough should be quite thin, the same as a pie crust or a bit thinner. Lay the dough on your baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough in the shapes you would like your crackers to be. The cuts do not need to go all the way through the dough.

Bake for 7-10 minutes, until golden brown. Once cooled, the crackers will break easily on your cut marks.

Apple Cake

2010-10-31T21:26:00.003-04:00

Apple picking is one of my favorite fall activities. I am aware that this is not an earth-shattering announcement. Apple picking is a universally appreciated activity, especially in the Northeastern US, but it really does hold a special place in my heart. I have never returned from picking apples with anything less than an absurd amount of fruit, more than I could ever hope to use, and I haven’t been very good about storing it property. There are always days of making apple butter, apple sauce, a crisp, a pie, just some good old fashioned eating and of course my Cornish hens with apples, but still, too damned many apples. Until this year. I went apple picking with my parents and Ned and I didn’t bring home enough apples. We are almost out. We were out of pears in less than a week.

How could this happen? This is how:

This kid is nothing short of the best distraction I have ever known. We took his Christmas card picture at the orchard last year, and I just can’t get over how much I love this little red-headed kid surrounded by pumpkins, so I anticipate we will keep doing it every year.

In addition to apples, we picked up a big bag of winter squash, which I now need to use in creative ways. Still working on that one. This part of our trip was great, because Ned can't get into too much trouble trying with all his might to move an object that is completely stationary and really heavy.

Ned and my Dad did most of the picking while I took pictures of the whole affair.

All was well until Ned decided to steal another family's wagon. He didn't get far, since he couldn't budge this wagon either.

When it was time to wheel our wagon full of fall bounty to the car, Ned had a very willing grandfather there to help.

I am sharing a recipe for an apple cake with you, made from the last few apples from our picking adventure. This is a variation of a plum cake that my friend Emily made on our recent visit to Philadelphia. This is not in any way whole grain or low-fat, but it is so freakin’ good it is worth Every. Single. Calorie. Seriously.

Because the texture of apples is so much more dense than plums, I cooked them until tender and cooled them when making this into an apple cake. If you want to revert to the plum cake recipe, simply chop raw plums and toss them in, no pre-cooking necessary.

Apple Cake (adapted from a Plum Cake recipe given to me by my friend Emily)

1 Tablespoon butter
2 cups chopped apple (about 2 medium apples)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Melt butter in a large fry pan over medium heat. Add apples and cook until tender but not mushy.* Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture and eggs to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix well to combine. Spoon into greased and floured 8 inch springform pan and smooth the top. This makes a very stiff batter, almost like a cookie dough.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon to make the topping.

Toss fruit with 1 teaspoon flour. Add fruit to springform pan over the batter and sprinkle with topping. Bake for 1 hour. Cool to room temperature and enjoy.

*Remember you are trying to mimic the texture of a plum, so make sure you are not making apple sauce in this first step.

Garlic Roasted Tomato Pizza

2010-10-28T23:01:00.004-04:00

garlic from Singer Farm Naturals

For the past couple years, I have occasionally been writing articles for Edible Buffalo Magazine. You can see the latest one on garlic here. As much as I enjoy writing for Edible, I really do prefer writing in this space right here. And I miss it. My photos are brighter and more vibrant here, I can write about what I want to write about, with my own tone here. I like hearing the feedback when I write here. I miss all of that when I write in print publications.

There is also the issue of space in a print publication. Today I want to share with you a recipe that didn't make the cut for the latest issue of Edible, a shame because I think it was the best recipe of the bunch. This pizza recipe has a really nice crust, infused with some garlic flavor (remember, the article was on garlic...), covered with garlic roasted tomatoes, bacon, and basil. Even if you have to resort to grocery store tomatoes, the roasting process will make them sweeter and richer than your standard (or sub-standard) off-season tomato.

No photo of this one today, but there is more to come soon, I promise.

Garlic Roasted Tomato Pizza

DOUGH

1 package (or 2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1 cup whole wheat flour

1-1/4 – 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon garlic olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

5 cloves garlic confit or roasted garlic

TOPPINGS (increase the quantity of toppings if you choose to do two thinner pizzas)

6 plum tomatoes

6-8 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 pound bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/3 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

12-15 fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried

Garlic olive oil

salt

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, honey, 2 Tablespoons of the All Purpose flour, and 1/3 cup water. Whisk together and allow to sit until bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the whole wheat flour, one cup of the all purpose flour, and the salt in a large bowl. Stir well to completely combine and evenly distribute the salt. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the yeast mixture and remaining water. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well. It should form a ball but be quite sticky. Turn out onto a floured counter and knead well several times. It should be quite soft, but if it is very sticky, continue gradually adding flour while kneading. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and leave at room temperature to rise until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Slice the tomatoes in half across the hemisphere. Squeeze out the seeds and discard. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and lay out, skin side down, on an oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle the garlic into the tomato quarters, drizzle with olive oil and salt. Bake for about an hour or until the tomatoes have dried out a bit and are caramelized around the edges.

Increase the oven temperature to 500 °F. If you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven to heat. Punch down the dough and gently stretch it with your hands to about the size of a large baking sheet. For an even thinner pizza, divide the dough in half, stretch thin and put on two baking sheets. Either slide the dough onto your pizza stone or put it in the oven on the baking sheets. Bake about five minutes, or until it puffs up a little bit and begins to harden. If you are making a thinner pizza, watch very carefully; it may only need a couple minutes. Remove the dough from the oven, brush generously with garlic olive oil and quickly add the toppings. Begin with the bacon and tomatoes, then basil leaves, mozzarella, and finally the parmesan. Sprinkle with salt. Return to the oven and bake another 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the edges of the crust are browned.

Sunday Supper - Roast Chicken

2010-01-31T07:36:00.001-05:00

We had another round of Sunday Supper at our house last weekend and the recipe was a hit. I'm dying to share it with you, but this is going to be a short post for several reasons.

1. I am an idiot and did not take a picture of the two ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL roast chickens reclining on an assortment of perfectly roasted veggies with thyme sticking out every which way. And this is despite the fact that I was sitting staring at the cooked chickens for about 2 hours before we ate them due to a plumbing emergency at the house of our Sunday Supper partners in crime. So while my neighbor and I sat around with our babies, drinking a beer and catching up, our husbands were two doors away dealing with a flooded basement and calling workmen. During that entire time of staring at my two gorgeous roasted birds, it did not occur to me to pick up the damn camera. Because I am an idiot.

2. I used this recipe, as written, from Ina Garten. It appears on the Food Network website. Follow this link. I did not adapt it. Adaptation was unnecessary. Make it as written and you will not be sorry. This is (seriously) the best roast chicken I have had. It is simple and just perfect, which is probably why Ina Garten calls it "Perfect Roast Chicken." Huh.

Giving Thanks and Looking Forward

2010-01-01T09:37:00.001-05:00

I have so much to be thankful for in 2009 and I thought this was the perfect time and place to recognize that.

My thanks:

1. Ned.

My little boy. My sidekick. My beautiful little red-headed son. A year ago we did not know who he was or what he would be like. Now we cannot imagine our life without him. He is the lens through which I am beginning to see the world in a different way. I want things to be better for him, fair for him, good for him. I am grateful for his smiles, the way he clings to me like a little tree frog when he is sad or tired. I love how surprised he looks when he sneezes and then his giggles at his great accomplishment. I love how much he looks like his dad and how I sometimes see myself and my family in that little face too. The earnestness with which he tries new things, and the purity of his excitement and exuberance. In short, I love this little guy.

2. Three years of marriage to my darling husband.

3. Having my family and Mike's family all home for Christmas and having each and every one be healthy (I mean, there were a few sniffles here and there, but no cancer.)

4. My sister and her husband moved back to Western New York. Love this one!

5. New babies all over the family. Welcome Penn and Lilly. Plus two more to come in 2010 - Hang in there Lynn and Sarah!

6. New family members - Cara, Scott, and soon Joe. You are all wonderful additions to our family, but better yet, you make your respective spouses (my darling cousins) so very happy and I just love you all extra for that.

This year had its challenges as well. My life has adjusted and moved in ways that I didn't know it could, that I didn't know I had the capacity for. But the human spirit can handle a tremendous amount, particularly when it comes to those you love. I think about and pray (in my own way) for those who are facing adversity, particularly my wonderful, beautiful friend who is staring down an awful, scary cancer. We love you so much, Gab. I have also said goodbye to some wonderful people this year. People who have touched my life and made it better. I'll simply say: "You will be missed and certainly not forgotten."

Now it is time to look forward. I have never been a big one for resolutions, but I feel like this year I have a few that are worth working on. I'm not talking about losing the baby weight here (although that would be nice too!)

Resolved:

1. I will be more present in whatever it is that I am doing. Being with Ned and Mike, working, driving my car, eating a meal, knitting, cooking, writing. I want to be there, not half somewhere else. I owe that to my family, to my employer, and to myself.

2. I will take more pictures. There is so much around me that I want to be able to remember and record. There are stories and situations I want to be able to tell Ned about later.

3. I will consciously be more kind to others. It is so easy to be kind. We could all do it a little more often.

I think that is enough to work on for this year. Three little things seems manageable, right?

Best wishes to you for a happy, healthy, and joyous New Year!

Cranberry-Raspberry Sorbet

2009-11-24T22:45:00.003-05:00

This is actually a recipe re-posting. I first put this on the blog two years ago, intertwined with a post about cancer. I think this recipe deserves its own page, untainted by disease, so here it is. Go make it. It is good enough to post twice.

This recipe initiated years ago when I used to host Fakesgiving. I had a Thanksgiving dinner party the week before real Thanksgiving with a wonderful group of friends. It was a chance to celebrate with a whole different group than we would see on the holiday itself. It was also a great opportunity for me to try out some recipes without risking ruining the Thanksgiving meal. If Fakesgiving didn't go all that well, we could regroup and eat our favorites with our families in just five days.

These events invariably lasted until about 4 in the morning and usually involved a wine bottle count that was higher than the head count. I also gained some new stuffing recipes and made up this sorbet recipe in the process.

Unfortunately, Fakesgiving has gone the way of the Dodo for now. Maybe it will see a resurgence in the future, but I can't help but think of those magical, laughter-filled nights when I make this sorbet.

This also happens to be one of the most beautiful sorbets I have ever seen. The color is almost impossibly red. It is a bit tart, the perfect antidote to a massive Thanksgiving or Christmas meal. This is a wonderful light dessert on its own or an excellent compliment to a rich cheesecake or flourless chocolate cake. I have served it with both over the years with terrific results.

Cranberry Raspberry Sorbet

2 (12 oz) bags fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
pinch of salt
3 (20 oz) large bags frozen raspberries, thawed

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cranberries, sugar, water and salt. Cook until the cranberries pop and the entire mixture is bright red. Remove from the heat and cool about 5 minutes.

Place the raspberries in a blender and process until the smooth. Run the mixture through a coarse sieve to remove the seeds.

Combine the two mixtures and process in batches in the blender until smooth (being very careful of the hot cranberry liquid).

Cool in the refrigerator about 2 hours or until completely chilled through. Process in an ice cream maker, following manufacturer’s instructions.

Sunday Supper - Chicken braised in dark beer

2009-11-17T07:04:00.011-05:00

We have started a bit of a tradition with our neighbors that I hope is going to stick. They are a wonderful young couple with a little boy just 5 weeks younger than Ned. She and I like to cook and shop and talk about being mommies. He and Mike like to listen to music and talk about building things and working with their hands. We all like to eat really good food, which brings me to the Sunday Supper.

Every couple of weeks we have been getting together for a Sunday meal, usually some kind of comfort food, good drink, and great conversation. It is a no-pressure situation. If the kids are crying, we have twice the number of adults as children to handle the issue and everyone understands completely. Since we are eating so well during these Sunday Suppers, I thought I would feature some of the recipes on this blog, both so you can share them and so I can find those recipes again when I want them.

This recipe is the procrastinator's answer to braising. When I started making a braised dish at 4:30pm and guests were invited for 5:30pm, Mike made a pre-emptive beeline for the snack cabinet. When dinner was finished and ready to be served at 5:45, he raised his eyebrows and looked quite impressed.

Chicken cooks quickly, but can still get the earthy warm flavors of a good braise, especially with the help of a malty brown beer and a shot of gin (I mean, what isn't better with a shot of gin, right?). This is cooked on the bone, which adds body to the sauce and makes the meat take a bit longer to cook, an advantage for this dish. You want the meat to be tender and flavorful, but not cooked to death.

This is also fairly healthy as far as comfort food goes (although the pile of mashed potatoes under the chicken is another story). This dish is made with skinless chicken and gets its creaminess from Greek yogurt, not cream. I even used fat free Greek yogurt (it was what I had on hand) and the results were terrific.

Mike had some fun picking out beers for this meal, as well. He chose one beer for me to cook with and two for tasting with dinner. Our neighbors brought a bottle of Cupcake Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. Did I mention that we tend to drink well during Sunday Supper? The cooking beer was a Sierra Nevada seasonal. The two tasting beers were Troegs Troegenator Double Bock, a dark, malty beer brewed in Pennsylvania in the Belgian Double Bock style (my preference) and Delirium Tremens, a spicy lighter beer brewed in a monastery in Belgium. Mike found all three beers at the Village Beer Merchant on Elmwood Avenue at Anderson Place. You can fill your own growlers with beer from their taps. Check it out if you are nearby some time.

By the way, watch out for the flambe in this recipe. Mike and I nearly lit the kitchen on fire. You might not want to have the recipe hanging right next to the stove. I'm just saying...

***

A quick photography note: I have been very frustrated by the photos I have been putting up on the blog, but I am of the mind that a bad photo is better than no photo at all. You should have an idea of what your food will look like when you make it. In the past I have put an enormous amount of time into the photography for this blog, and right now, with very little daylight this time of year and the demands of my new family, I just can't get the results I used to get. It will get better, I promise.

In the mean time, see how good it looks in the picture? Yeah, it looks WAY better in real life.

Chicken Braised in Dark Beer (adapted from Cooking Light)

3 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 skinless chicken breast halves, with bone*

2 skinless chicken thighs, with bone*

2 skinless chicken drumsticks*

2 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon canola oil

3 Tablespoons dry gin

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrot, peeled and chopped

3/4 cup shallot, peeled and chopped

8oz package of sliced mushrooms

3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

3 sprigs fresh parsley

2 bay leaves

1 cup dark beer

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Roll the chicken pieces in the flour mixture to coat them completely. In a large deep skillet or a dutch oven with a top, heat the butter and oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken to the pan, being careful not to crowd the pieces. (I was able to do this in one batch, but you may need two). Brown the chicken on both sides, about 10 minutes total.

Turn off the burner, remove from the heat, and pour the gin into one side of the pan. Very carefully ignite the gin, stand back, and wait for the flame to die down. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm.

Turn the heat back to medium and add the shallot, carrot and celery to the pan. Cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the mushrooms, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves. Place the chicken back in the pan, and pour the beer over the top. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.

Remove chicken from the pan and place on serving dish or individual plates. Stir the Greek yogurt into the pan and heat gently about one minute. Do not boil. Season with additional salt. Remove the bay leaves, thyme stems, and parsley sprigs. Pour the vegetable and sauce mixture over the chicken.

(Serves 4)

*I bought a whole chicken, pieced it, and removed the skin. This did not take long and I was able to save the back bone, wings, and other assorted parts for stock. This also gives you exactly the number of pieces you need for this recipe. It is, however, much faster to just buy the chicken pieces.

Happy Cow Pot Roast

2009-11-03T22:01:00.005-05:00

At 6:30 this morning, I suddenly realized that I had a culinary crisis on my hands (good heavens! not that!) I had defrosted a beautiful braising cut of beef in the fridge and if I did not do something with it immediately (i.e., before I went to work) I wouldn't have a chance to cook it before it went bad. Much as my body was begging me to hit the snooze one more time, the motivation of not wasting this cut of meat was enough to get me going to the kitchen. Twenty minutes of prep later, I had the crock pot going and I was getting ready for work. Let me tell you, at 8 tonight when I finally rolled in the door, I was pretty happy I had put in the extra work this morning.

Before recently I didn't spend too much time thinking about where the beef came from. Pot roast, like any other comfort food, should be cheap and relatively easy. My mantra had always been that you want the cheapest cut of meat you can get if you are going to braise something. The more connective tissue to break down and create the body of the sauce, the better. All that tissue breaking down leaves the piece of meat tender and tasty. And I'm still right about this, to some degree. Now I am going to suggest that you buy the cheapest cut of meat you can get, as long as it comes from a happy cow. After watching this movie and reading this article and reading this book, I became convinced that life is just too short for eating industrial food. Even if you don't want to read/watch these, take my word for it: buy organic, grass-fed, happy beef. It is tasty, better for you, and carries much less risk.

I got this cut of beef (an arm roast, actually, further down the limb of the cow from the chuck roast) from a wonderful new shop in Williamsville, NY called Farmers & Artisans. It is in the old Sweet Jenny's building, for those who know the neighborhood. They feature local and regional foods, have an on-site bakery, and are a year-round source for the kind of things we usually only find at the farmers market during the summer. This should also be a go-to place for New York State artisanal cheeses.

Farmers & Artisans got their hands on some Amish grass-fed beef that is simply wonderful. These cows ate what they were supposed to eat: grass. It is flavorful but not gamey. I highly recommend going out to raid their freezer and treating yourself to a good comfort food meal one of these nights.

Pot Roast with Roasted Vegetables

Roast
3 pound braising cut of beef (chuck roast, arm roast, etc.)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup red wine
1 12oz can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup beef stock

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium fry pan over medium-high heat. Brown all sides of the beef, taking about 3 minutes per side. Remove beef and place in slow cooker.

In the same pan, lower the heat to medium and saute the onion until tender but not brown. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add these ingredients to the slow cooker.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine and pour over the beef in the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients to the cooker, cover, and cook on low for 7-8 hours.

Roasted Vegetables*

3 carrots, scrubbed
3 parsnips, peeled
2 small turnips, peeled
3 potatoes, scrubbed

Cut all vegetables into 1 inch pieces. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place in a single layer in a baking dish. Roast at 400F until browned on the outside and fork-tender, about 50 minutes.

(serves 8)

*Go crazy with this. You could add celeriac, rutabaga, beets, fennel bulb, squash, sweet potatoes, or any number of other things to this mixture. I'm just telling you what we did for dinner tonight, but use your imagination and the ingredients that you like for this.

Squash Ravioli with Sage Browned Butter

2009-10-19T21:57:00.011-04:00

I had a culinary triumph this weekend.

There are several items in the food world that have always intimidated me. I have generally tried them, failed, and then spent (wasted) much time trying to not make them again. Pizza crust is one of these things. So is bread. I overcame that one not too long ago. The most recent is fresh pasta.

Is it just me, or am I intimidated by Italian carbohydrates?

Anyway, out of the middle of nowhere, I decided it was high time I conquered fresh pasta. I actually didn't conquer it so much as I nicely sidled up to it, got affectionate, and made a new friend. It did not make sense to me to put a whole lot of effort into making regular old spaghetti. If I was going to do this, it had to be worthwhile. I had a nice big batch of leftover squash and a big sage plant in my garden. I decided on rustic looking squash ravioli.

This was absolutely divine. The browned butter makes all the difference. I made the first batch on Saturday and we just melted the butter with the sage. On Sunday night, I browned the butter with the sage in it. The toasted milk solids in the browned butter were wonderful and the sage was fried to a marvelous crisp.

If you are not compelled to bust out your pasta maker any time soon, consider picking up some wonton wrappers in the produce section of the grocery store. They will be a little thin, but should do the job nicely. Even if you don't make ravioli at all, brown some butter with a good handful of sage in it. You won't be sorry.

Squash Ravioli with Sage Browned Butter

Squash
1 winter squash (butternut, buttercup, acorn, etc.) - about 2 cups of flesh
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground corriander
3 Tablespoons orange juice
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
salt to taste

Roast the squash whole in the oven at 325 F until tender. Cut in half, remove and discard seeds and membranes. Scoop flesh into a small bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well to combine. Allow to cool fully.

Pasta
4 eggs
500 grams all-purpose flour (about 3-1/2 to 4 cups, depending on humidity)
1 egg, lightly beaten for wash

Place flour in a bowl, make a well in the center and add the 4 eggs. Begin to combine the eggs and the flour with your hand, gradually incorporating more flour until you have a very firm dough. The dough should not be at all sticky. Pour this out onto the counter or kneading board. Knead the dough until it is completely homogeneous, adding more flour as necessary.

When it is smooth and even, cut about 1/5 of the mixture off and cover the rest of the dough with plastic wrap. Roll the small piece of dough through the widest setting on the pasta maker about 6 times, folding in half between each pass. Next, narrow the pasta maker one setting with each pass through the machine until next-to-last setting. The dough will not be quite transparent, but will be quite delicate.

Repeat this process with another piece of the dough so you have two very long sheets. Lay one sheet on the counter and brush completely with egg wash. In two long columns, dot about 1 Tablespoon of squash mixture every 3 inches or so. Lay the second sheet on top and, working carefully to line up the edges and remove air pockets, seal the two sheets together. Use a sharp knife or pastry cutter to cut between the ravioli. Lay flat on a floured surface. *

Sage Browned Butter
1 stick salted butter
4 Tablespoons fresh sage leaves

Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat to melt. Meanwhile, stack the sage leaves in a neat pile and slice very thinly crosswise to get short strips. Add the sage to the butter and cook until the butter separates and the solids become a toasted brown color. Remove from heat immediately.

Assembly
Boil a pot of water, cook the ravioli (4 per person for an appetizer) for about 4 minutes (5-6 minutes from frozen). Serve with about 1 Tablespoon of sage browned butter per person.

(This will make far more squash than you will need for the pasta. The pasta will serve about 12-16 as an appetizer or 6-8 as an entree. The sage browned butter will serve 8 as an appetizer)

* If you would like to freeze these (which works really well) do so pretty quickly. Freeze them on waxed or parchment paper in a single layer until solid, then pack carefully into a freezer-safe ziplock bag or storage container. Do not stack unless they are frozen; they will stick together and you will cry.

Grilled Asparagus

2008-06-11T23:24:00.005-04:00

Just over two weeks ago, Mike had an accident on his bicycle and broke his collar bone. He hit the ground going 23 mph and is probably really lucky that the collar bone was the worst of it. He has been home and out of work for these past weeks and will be home for at least a couple more.

Somehow in these two weeks since the accident, I have managed to barely cook at all, yet we are generating unprecedented quantities of dirty dishes. I have no idea how that is possible, except that we are very well behaved about eating takeout Chinese or falafel or sushi on our ceramic plates, which then need to we washed. By me. Because Mike only has one arm at the moment.

The only thing that I have really managed to get onto dinner plates for the two of us is grilled asparagus, maybe because it is such a seasonal food, and not even my poor injured husband will keep me from fresh, local asparagus. From the time that I was little, asparagus has been one of our classic family foods. For other (perhaps more normal) families, it was peas or carrots. For us, it was asparagus and artichokes.

My parents still have the special white enameled pot with a stained interior that is used only for cooking asparagus. Oblong with a rack inside perfect for cradling the tender spears, the pot held just enough water to cover the asparagus. Half the rack broke about two decades ago and it was fixed with string, which is now also dyed the unique gray-green color of asparagus. The asparagus was boiled only until blanched bright green. These then were eaten with our fingers, as was the French custom passed down from my grandmother, tips dipped in ranch dressing, a more American interpretation, to be sure.

Somehow a few years ago, someone in the family got the idea to throw the asparagus on the grill instead. Rolled in a little bit of olive oil with chopped garlic and a generous pinch of salt, grilling gives these gorgeous veggies a deep nutty flavor that even asparagus haters are bound to love. Asparagus lovers will just have one more way to love asparagus. We have a full on mutiny if asparagus is prepared the old way now. Boiled asparagus requires an explanation, like torrential downpour, or blizzard, or too much other stuff on the grill. Our poor white enameled asparagus pot sits in the back of my parents’ cupboard, waiting for the day when it will be called into service again, but it isn’t looking too good.

Grilled Asparagus

The spears seem to shrink on the grill. Cook more than you think you will need. We are big veggie fans, and I cook about a pound for the two of us. In inclement weather, feel free to broil these about 4 inches from the heating element for about 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on them; they will burn before you know it.

1 pound asparagus spears, washed, ends trimmed*
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
sprinkle sea salt

Place the asparagus in a one gallon zip-top plastic bag. Add garlic, olive oil, and sea salt and mix together well. This can sit for about an hour before you use it.

Preheat grill to medium-high. Immediately before you are ready to eat, place the asparagus on the grill perpendicular to the grates, so the spears don’t fall through.** Grill until tender and has good grill marks.

(Serves 2-3)

* Trimming should be done carefully and by hand. Break off the end as close to the bottom as you can. It will naturally break at the right point, leaving the tender part for you to eat and the woody end for the compost (or the dogs, in my parents’ case!)

** You can use a veggie rack for this, but I find it unnecessary

Catching up with Spring

2008-05-01T22:28:00.005-04:00

I'm running about two months behind where I was last year and I think the tomato seedlings are going to end up being just as leggy as they were when they went into the ground last year. Not to worry, though. I ended up with more tomatoes than we could possibly eat last year and I imagine we will again this summer. Except this time around I am growing five varieties of heirloom seeds. More on that as we get a bit closer to harvest; I don't want to jinx my little seedlings.

Part of the delay can be blamed on the company I ordered the seeds from, which took about eight weeks to get them to my door. That was a frustrating long wait, but once I got the seeds I planted them right away and even managed to not over-plant. The other reason I am running so late is my own (admirable, I'd argue) self-restraint. Last winter I had seeds in hand and was ready to begin gardening about a month after Christmas. I grew so many seedlings that I was still trying to give them away in mid-June. By the time August rolled around, I was so sick of gardening I didn't know what to do with myself.

This year I might have over-corrected a bit. Next year I'm thinking I need to split the difference, plant seedlings in mid-March and get a proper grow light so my little seedling buddies have a fighting chance.

This weekend we are planning to tear up most of the backyard, a task that Mike finds perfectly normal and I find slightly terrifying. The end result will be two beautiful raised beds for even more vegetable bounty.

Alas, my garden is not producing all that much yet. We have some of the perennial herbs coming up as well as some self-seeded arugula that went to seed already after last week's heat wave (but in the mean time provided a wonderful salad). This is the perfect time to take advantage of all that wonderful food we froze last summer. We still have a freezer-full, and while the garden isn't producing, we may as well eat our way to the bottom.

The better part of a pig is in there, most of which is simply labeled "pork roast". The packaging gives no indication at all as to which part of the pig this might come from or how it should be cooked. It seems that there is a lack of pork roast recipes out there anyway, so I went ahead and made up a recipe to use up these "roasts".

Roast Pork with Apricots, Currants and Onions

Mike and I have eaten this twice now and both times we have finished it before I had a chance to photograph it. It is a great combination of flavors that would probably go quite well with dark meat chicken as well. This is also an excellent way to take that slow cooker out for a final spin before putting it back in the cupboard for the summer.

1 pork roast, picnic shoulder or Boston butt (about 3-4 pounds)
1 large sweet onion (Vidalia or Texas 1015), sliced
6-8 whole cloves of garlic
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup dried currants
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard or coarse country mustard
3/4 cup aromatic white wine*
1-1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the meat, using a little olive oil if necessary. Rotate the meat to brown all sides, approximately 3 minutes on each side.

In a slow cooker, layer the onion on the bottom, add the garlic cloves, apricots and currants and place the browned roast on top.

In a small bowl, combine the wine and mustard and whisk to combine. Add this mixture to the slow cooker. Sprinkle with thyme.

Cook on the low setting for about 7 hours or until the meat is cooked completely and fork-tender.

(serves 4-6)

*I used a Muscat from Peller Estates in Niagara on the Lake for this recipe. It was a slightly sweet white wine. A good oakey Chardonnay would be wonderful in this. Be sure to use something you will want to drink since you will have most of the bottle left!

Garbanzo Cakes

2008-03-05T07:02:00.001-05:00

Or “garbanzo burgers”. But I fear telling you this is a veggie burger, lest you start to conjure images of tofu “burgers” with grill marks painted on them. So I choose to call these cakes.

I am a huge fan of cake. Really any kind of cake, chocolate, vanilla, whatever. Call it by another name: gateau, torte, I’m still in. Even the good old savory cakes, like crab cakes or salmon cakes, get me every time. Get me in trouble, in fact. I blame cake for my pants being tight. That doesn’t make me love cake any less.

I find it appealing to have all the ingredients and flavors in an organized little package, yet not a fussy one. The best cakes out there aren’t the ones that look like works of art; they are the ones that look like cake, shaggy and home made, rich and delicious. In my family, cakes are also symbols of occasion. There was never a cake in our house when I was growing up unless there was a very good reason to celebrate, usually a birthday. Likewise, we weren’t making up crab cakes for Tuesday night dinner. They were a rare treat, reserved for visits to restaurants that had particular skill in the production of the perfect crab cake.

Trouble is, I’m tired of crab cakes. Not the really good ones (can one really get tired of the real thing? I think not.) I’m tired of seeing them on every menu and waiting until I’m a bit closer to the Chesapeake before I take a bite. Or on the rare occasion that I fall for it, spending a meal munching on a mediocre crab cake while plotting how to steal food from my neighbors’ plates.

It is not that we cannot produce a great crab cake in Western New York, it is that the crab cake has become too accessible. Everyone figures that they know how to make one, diners find it comforting and easy to order, and so we all meet at the lowest common denominator. As ubiquitous as the balsamic reduction, the crappy crab cake abounds.

I wanted to make a different kind of cake, one that mixes marvelous flavors together into a neat little gift. I narrowed down on the humble garbanzo bean. The chickpea or ceci bean, so often ignored in the corner of a salad bar or as the forgotten base of hummus, here is more reminiscent of its role as the shining star of falafel. The spices are different though, as is the texture. This flavor combination is one of my favorites: curry, green onion, a nut, and a fruit. Cilantro is optional (but highly recommended for brightness). I recently used this combination to make a curried quinoa dish. I’m telling you, the combo doesn’t fail so long as you balance the flavors.

Make these as highbrow little hors d’oeuvres with a delicate dot of sauce right on top – bite size garbanzo cakes with mango yogurt frosting. Or you can do what we did for a weeknight dinner: serve generous garbanzo burgers on toasted mini-pitas (just the right size!) with a good dollop of sauce. A veggie burger never tasted so good. Cake was never so good for you.

Garbanzo Cakes with Mango Yogurt

For the mango yogurt:
1/4 cup Major Grey chutney
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

For the cakes:
8 oz canned garbanzo beans (or dried beans, cooked)
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 scallion, chopped, both green and white parts
1/4 cup cashews (about 1 oz), chopped
1/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 mini (3 inch) pitas (optional)

Mix the chutney, yogurt and cilantro together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Mix garbanzo beans, egg, curry powder and salt in a medium bowl. Mash using a potato masher or the side of a fork. The mixture should not be smooth, but should be mashed enough to become moist and stick together. Add the cashews and panko and mix well.

Form the mixture into four patties with your hands to make burgers. If you are making small cakes, shape into 16 mini patties. If the mixture seems dry, mash a bit more until you have a paste that will stick together well.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and fry the patties until cooked through and golden brown on both sides.

Serve the patties on toasted pita with plenty of sauce or serve the mini cakes with a dot of sauce so they can be eaten without a lot of mess.

(Serves 4 for burgers, makes 16 hors d’oeuvres)

My Cooking Addiction

2008-01-21T22:26:00.000-05:00

We had a few of Mike’s closest friends over to the house this weekend to celebrate his 33rd birthday. I love throwing parties and I use it as an excuse to try new recipes, cook things I would not normally eat, and generally make a wonderful, big, fun mess in the kitchen.

Mike knows this about me. And so, as a birthday present, he asked that I not cook anything for his birthday.

Nothing?

That’s right. Nothing.

I went off to Wegman's and picked out some dips and spreads, choosing a lemon hummus and baba ganouj from the olive bar. So far so good. I was being very well behaved. I picked up a couple different kinds of vegetables for crudités.

Suddenly I just couldn't help myself. Cheese plate? How boring. I’ll bake a brie and drizzle it with honey and pistachios (actually the pistachios were Mike’s addition, and a brilliant one, it turns out). Crackers? Sure, we can have some crackers, but I’ll whip up a batch of pita chips too.

The other thing that would be so good and is really, really easy is my roasted red pepper dip. I’ll just grab the ingredients and if I make it, great, if not, no big deal.

I was like an addict let loose surrounded by her vice. I can stop any time, I tell myself. All evidence to the contrary.

Probably good that I went ahead and got Mike that pea coat for his birthday since apparently I failed miserably at his “no-cooking night” treat. I did manage to have all the food out on time and the kitchen clean before my head hit the pillow, so all did turn out pretty well in the end.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

This is so incredibly easy to make and tastes amazing. I have changed the recipe a number of times since I made it up about 10 years ago and I think that this version is the winner. Feel free to use low fat versions of the sour cream and cream cheese if you like. You shouldn't notice a difference.

12 oz sour cream
2 blocks of cream cheese (8 oz each) at room temperature
13 oz. jar roasted red peppers, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine the sour cream and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Mix well using electric beaters until smooth.

Finely chop the roasted red peppers. This can be done in a food processor, but be careful to pulse. The mixture should be chunky, not pureed. Using a fine sieve over the sink, strain the peppers for a minute or two to release excess liquid. Add the salt to the peppers and allow to dissolve for a minute before adding the peppers to the sour cream mixture.

Mix well and chill at least half an hour or up to three days before serving. Adjust salt to taste.

The New Year

2008-01-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

I've been feeling a lot of pressure lately where this blog is concerned, not in the least because I am hearing from people about not writing enough (which I love hearing, by the way, don’t stop!) Most of the pressure, however, resides in the fact that I aspire to have each story and recipe be special, different or important. Fancy, even. I want each one to be appropriate to the season and to reflect what is healthy, yummy, and good to eat at the given time. I long since gave up trying to post a story without a recipe – I heard about that move for a long time.

In order to get over this stumbling block, I have decided to expose the other side of the coin: I give you some good, old fashioned, boring, everyday life from Savory and Sweet (i.e. my excuse for being absent).

Since about mid-December, Mike and I have rarely eaten a meal at home. We were incredibly lucky to have all of Mike’s family together for Christmas. Although my sister and her husband were missing from the mix, we still managed to have some merriment in my family’s house too. Mike and I worked through the whole holiday with just a couple days off, so post-work became family time just about every evening. Exciting family dinners, gorging on meals out, and much more alcohol than I am used to marked the holiday season. Not to mention my mother-in-law’s Christmas cookies and my mother’s pumpkin bread. So very, very good.

Immediately on the heels of the holiday, Mike and I came down with varying versions of the plague. Finally coming out the other side of it, I am longing for normalcy. I have never wanted so much to sit down in front of one of our weeknight staples and relax in our own house. Which is exactly what we have started doing.

A couple weeks ago, fortunately before the onset of the plagues, I was suddenly craving lentil soup. This is twice in one year, people. I don’t know what is going on with me and the lentils, but I think I like it.

This recipe makes a big pot and we feasted off it for multiple lunches and dinners. This is especially appropriate for the New Year as well. The lentil's round shape is reminiscent of a coin and symbolizes prosperity in the New Year in the Italian culture. I'm not Italian, but I'm married to one, so I'm sticking with the tradition.

And so it is that I return to my normally very healthy and nurturing life. I will share with you the adventures that I will encounter over the coming months in my kitchen, my garden, and my life, fancy or not. I invite you to join me in cooking again and even becoming a regular at the gym. My dress pants will thank me. They will thank you, too, for your patience with me.

Lentil Soup (adapted from Cooking Light)

This soup is easy, quick, and unbelievably comforting. One of the virtues of the lentil is that it is so small that it does not require soaking like the larger beans do. That means that, pantry to bowl, this should take about 35 minutes.

I found that this soup thickened up a lot in the fridge, but the addition of a little water before heating it fixed that right up. Feel free to change the seasonings as you see fit. The oregano in this soup is tasty, but it is a versatile recipe that would take well to other spices. I think either curry or cumin would be wonderful. Smoked paprika would also be a lovely option. This is a great time of year for those warm spices.

4 cups organic vegetable broth (it is worth getting the good stuff for soup or making it yourself)
3-1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped parsnip
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes (I like Muir Glen)
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper

Combine the broth, water and lentils in a large heavy bottomed pot (I use my enameled cast iron Dutch oven). Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the onion, carrot, celery, and parsnip. Cook 5 minutes longer. Add the remaining ingredients and cook about 10 minutes.

Taste for seasoning and enjoy with good crusty bread.

Makes 8 generous servings

The Big C

2007-11-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

About 6 weeks ago my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. Following 5 hours of surgery by an amazing surgeon and 6 days of phenomenal care at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, he is now safely at home, healing and improving every day. Cancer is one of those things that truly pull the rug out from under you. I use the word “things”, vague as it is, because in our culture, cancer has moved beyond just being a medical condition to become more of a phenomenon, involving incredible emotion and fear. This is not the first time this horrendous disease has touched my family, and the cases before this one never involved a recovery.

So why do I mention all of this on a food blog? Well, in case you missed the part of middle school when you studied anatomy, the colon has quite a bit to do with the business of food. Seriously, if I can convince even one person to get screened for colon cancer through my words, I will have succeeded. If you are young, go hound your parents. Check with them to be sure they have been screened. Then check with them every day until they go and do it. If you are over 50, get yourself in there and get it done. No colonoscopy can be as unpleasant as the 6 days of recovery I just saw my dear dad experience.*

Additionally, this is the perfect time of the year to count your chickens and be thankful for them. Take a moment to appreciate your friends, your family and your own health and theirs. Then be thankful for the fact that when not all is going perfectly, we have places like Roswell and other medical centers full of people trying to figure out solutions to all that ails us.

Next week we will host the first Thanksgiving in our new house. Mike and I will welcome both of our families as well as some particularly valued friends. As Mike’s grandfather said “You will truly make your house a home.” The day will include traditions from both Mike’s family and mine.

There is so much to be thankful for.

*After reading this post, my father asked me to pass on the following: A colonoscopy is a non-event. It is not painful in any way, the sedation removes any feeling (and you won't remember any of it). It is tremendously effective at early detection and the inconvenience of the procedure is certainly worth it.

Cranberry Raspberry Sorbet
This is a cranberry-raspberry sorbet that I have made for thanksgiving before. It is a winner, especially with this cake. Neither is overly sweet, and together they are a tremendously rich combination of flavors. Both can be made ahead. The cake can be frozen for about a month and defrosted in the fridge a day or two before the event. The sorbet is the color of a precious gem - quite a winner on the holiday table.

2 (12 oz) bags fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
pinch of salt
3 (20 oz) large bags frozen raspberries, thawed

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cranberries, sugar, water and salt. Cook until the cranberries pop and the entire mixture is bright red. Remove from the heat and cool about 5 minutes.

Place the raspberries in a blender and process until the smooth. Run the mixture through a coarse sieve to remove the seeds.

Combine the two mixtures and process in batches in the blender until smooth (being very careful of the hot cranberry liquid).

Cool in the refrigerator about 2 hours or until completely chilled through. Process in an ice cream maker, following manufacturer’s instructions.

Frost! Quick, save the basil!

2007-10-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning to shiny glittering frost on each blade of grass on the lawn and on each leaf of what remains of the garden. It fortunately didn’t seem to hit too hard, so I decided to salvage the basil tonight.

Just a few weeks ago, Mike and I took a vacation to New Hampshire, Vermont and the Adirondacks. Perhaps I should re-phrase that: Mike and I ate our way through New Hampshire, Vermont and the Adirondacks. One little town in New Hampshire has become very special to me over the past 11 years. It is where I have gotten together with two of my best friends and had some of the heartiest laughs of my life. There is also a well-developed tradition of eating far too much really excellent food. There are cooking adventures every year, and this one was no different.

My friend Emily is our anchor in New Hampshire. It is at her family’s home that we get together on what has become and annual basis. Emily doesn’t cook a whole lot (though she and her fiancé Eric have recently become addicted to Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, so I think they are beginning to cook everything). But despite her primary role as eater, not cook, Emily has been my go-to person for pesto for more than a decade. Ten years ago, I was in culinary school, Emily was in high school and I would step aside and hand her the pesto ingredients. Not only has she become even better at making pesto, she has fully trained her husband-to-be in the proper technique.

This year we realized that frost would surely hit before the family was up at the house again. The leaves were already tinged with reds and oranges, warning us that winter is on the way. In addition to what was in the garden at the house, one of Emily’s cousins had a bumper crop of basil and offered some up. Of the mind that if some basil is good, more must be better, we took all that we could get.

When it took us two full batches in a salad spinner to get the basil cleaned, we knew we were in some trouble. Eric whipped up an expert batch of pesto, keeping at least half of the base to take back home with them. We had pesto pasta that night for 10 people, pesto mayonnaise the next day for about 6 and were still wondering what on earth we were going to do with the pesto. We stopped short of putting it on the flourless chocolate cake, but not much else was safe from a dollop of pesto.

Desirous to find yet another thing to do with pesto, I came up with this pesto spaghetti frittata. We were barely able to snap a shot of it before it was devoured for dinner. This is fantastic comfort food.

Pesto Spaghetti Frittata

1/2 pound spaghetti
olive oil
3 Tablespoons basil pesto (see recipe below)
7 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain. Dress with the pesto, adding a little olive oil if necessary to distribute the pesto.

Vigorously whisk the eggs, salt and pepper together to break the yolks and lighten the mixture.

Over a medium flame, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a broiler-safe frying pan. Add the spaghetti and cook until the noodles are heated through. Pour egg mixture over the pasta, tipping the pan and moving the egg mixture around to cook most of the eggs through, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle the top with both cheeses and place under the broiler until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on it!

(Serves 4-6)

Basil Pesto
There are some things that become better with variation and experimentation. Basil pesto is not one of those things. There are all sorts of things that can be done to spice up a pesto: mixing other herbs in, substituting different oil, using almonds instead of pine nuts, etc. I am here to tell you that this is really folly. A good basil pesto will serve you well as a base in all sorts of applications. Mess with it once it is on your pasta or in your mashed potatoes, not while making a huge batch. I may come to eat these words someday (yum!) and I will welcome the opportunity. For me to be wrong on this would mean the creation of a variation that is worth the work and waste of the basil; that I could stomach.

2 cups packed basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil (good quality)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Combine basil, salt, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor or blender. Blend about 30 seconds or until the garlic is completely chopped and the basil forms a thick paste. Drizzle olive oil in to desired consistency. Add cheese, process to incorporate. Store covered in the refrigerator.

This pesto can be frozen, but the cheese does not do well in the freezer. Prepare up until the addition of the cheese, pack into ice cube trays or freezer containers and freeze until firm. If you use the ice cube trays, pop the pesto cubes out when firm and store in a freezer bag in the freezer. Don't forget to add the cheese once you defrost!

(Makes about 1 cup)

Back from Vacation

2007-09-28T06:53:00.000-04:00

I was going to sweep in here with a post on chicken and just ignore the fact that I haven’t been around for a while. Then I thought to myself “Holly, these people aren’t idiots. They are going to notice that you’ve been gone.” And so I listened to myself and I am sheepishly asking your forgiveness for my long absence. I took an unexcused late summer vacation.

"Where did she go?" You ask. Nowhere at all.

I have been seeing to the house, my job, my marriage and my family. I have been visiting, sleeping, lounging, and of course, eating. I spent a few blissful weekends at the beach, listening to the waves roll in at night. I have been frequenting the farmers market, canning and getting ready for winter. I have been in denial that summer is going anywhere at all. My freezer is filling up gradually. Not enough to keep us in local food for the winter, but it is a start, and I know that next year will be better.

One way that I decided to preserve summer for the dark days of February was by roasting 7 quarts of beautiful beefsteak tomatoes. These reduced to the most lovely concentrated flavor and the garlic and thyme complement their richness. I’m looking forward to zipping these up into a creamy roasted tomato soup with a big hunk of bread a couple months down the road. In the mean time, we have been using the stash in the fridge to make up some mean dinners for the early fall. The other night it was sautéed pork with green peppers, onion and roasted tomatoes over pearled couscous. Divine!

Thanks for your patience with me. School's back in session. My pencils are sharpened.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes (adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine)

6 beefsteak tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F.

Prepare a roasting pan (or two) that can accommodate 12 tomato halves. Line the pan first with aluminum foil and then with parchment paper

Cut the tomatoes in half across the equator. Place cut side up in the roasting pan. Sprinkle each half with garlic, a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar and thyme leaves. Drizzle all tomatoes with the olive oil.

Roast for 3-4 hours or until the tomatoes have collapsed and browned at the edges. Keep in the refrigerator or freeze for winter.

Sautéed Pork with Green Peppers, Onion and Roasted Tomatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large green pepper
1/2 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
2 center cut pork chops
1 cup chicken broth
3 oven roasted tomato halves, coarsely chopped

Slice the pork chops into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a medium sauté pan or fry pan, heat olive oil, add peppers and cook about two minutes. Add onion, cook for two more minutes, until the onion begins to soften. Add the garlic and cook for one minute, until the smell of the garlic blooms.

Turn the heat up to high. Move the vegetables to the edge of the pan and add the pork. Allow the pork to brown in the pan. Add the chicken broth and the tomato halves. Continue to cook until the pork is cooked through, about two more minutes.

Serve over pearled (Israeli) couscous.

(serves 2)

Sandy Feet on a Cold Kitchen Floor

2007-08-27T07:02:00.000-04:00

Summers when I was little meant long, hot days spent at my grandparents’ house at the beach on Lake Erie with my cousins. Why were these times so special? These cousins are seriously cool people, and they always were. We all lived in different places and our lives came together in the nexus that is the summer house. It was there that I first listened to American Pie, learning all the lyrics and singing along while any number of relatives played the guitar, drank my first whisky sours (the family drink), sipping the sweet stuff from my dad’s glass, and indulged in an obscene number of bread and butter pickles.

On hot summer days, we would run up from the beach to the back porch, do a cursory rinsing of our feet in the special porch sink just for this purpose and run into the kitchen. There was pretty significant risk in this since sandy feet were absolutely not allowed in the house, but we threw caution to the wind. One of us would pull the huge jar of pickles from the fridge and with competing forks, we stabbed at the pickles to see how many we could get on the stout salad forks. Standing there in wet bathing suits, hot from the sun with the kitchen floor cold beneath our feet, we nibbled the pickles right off the fork. I don’t ever remember having bread and butter pickles at home; we were dill people, but during these lazy days of summer, the sugar flowed freely and cold pickles hit the spot. Heck, anything was allowed at Grandma and Grandpa's house, it seemed.

I found this recipe for bread and butter pickles recently and I wondered if it could live up to my memory of those summers. As I made them, my kitchen gradually began to take on the smells of Grandma and Grandpa’s house during those pickle feasts. First I added the vinegar and sugar, then the turmeric – getting closer now. Next the mustard seeds, ahh, that’s even better. Finally the celery seeds. My childhood came rushing back full force.

Though fully clothed and in my very own kitchen, in my mind I was 7 years old, in a wet bathing suit, warm from the sun, standing on the cold kitchen floor, ready to stab as many as I could.

Bread and Butter Pickles (adapted from Preserving the Harvest)
Preserving is not difficult, but if it is not done properly, it can be very unsafe. If you are unsure of how to can, look up the appropriate method through your local cooperative extension. There are abundant resources on the Internet on this topic. This is especially important if you are at high altitudes, where you will need to process longer. You must use appropriate, brand new tops for your canning jars. These should be the type with a flat top that has a rubber rim and a separate ring that screws down over the top. Look for Ball or Mason jars like these.

6 lb medium cucumbers, scrubbed and sliced 1/8 inch thick
1-1/2 cups peeled and sliced small white onions
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup salt
Ice cubes
4-1/2 cups sugar
2 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1-1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
1-1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
3 cups distilled white vinegar

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cucumbers, onions, garlic, and salt. Mix completely. Cover with ice cubes and let sit for 3 hours.

In the meantime, thoroughly wash and rinse 7 one-pint jars. Place the jars in a 250 F oven for about 30 minutes to sterilize. In a small saucepan, cover the jar tops (just the flat part, not the ring that secures the top) with water and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about 5 minutes, turn off the heat and keep them warm until needed.

Rinse the cucumber mixture well, remove the garlic cloves and drain the liquid.

In an 8 quart pot, combine the sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric. Stir in the vinegar and heat until boiling. Add the cucumbers and heat 5 minutes longer.

Pour into sterilized jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of space at the top of each. Cap and seal the jars.

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water-bath canner.

Enjoy in 6 weeks.

(makes 7 pints)

Blueberry Almond Tart

2007-08-04T22:06:00.000-04:00

Gabrielle, the angel who introduced Mike and me, is my only friend who would call me on a Friday in late July and say “I just threw a roast in the crock pot. Come over for dinner.” I just adore this woman!

I hurried home from work, threw together a blueberry tart (more on that in a minute) and went over there to gorge myself with Gab and her lovely man Damien over comfort food. In addition to the roast, we had sauteed mushrooms, mashed potatoes, peach cobbler, and this tart. "Not a vegetable on the menu," Gabrielle said proudly, shoulders thrown back in the pose of a defiant child. It is not that I advocate avoiding vegetables. On the contrary, the rest of this blog should convince you that I am a veggiephile (if that can be considered a word) and would normally work on convincing you to eat many of them.

There are those times, however, those hot summer days when all the rules are thrown out the window. These are the times when we indulge in the things our parents told us not to do, including veggie-free meals with three desserts (did I mention there were chocolate covered cinnamon cookies as well?) for three people.

I was lucky enough for this to be the eve of my 29th birthday as well. The perfect occasion to celebrate with two inspiring, creative friends and think about all the opportunity and possibility for the next 29 years and beyond.

I have been wanting to try a recipe out of a cookbook I just got: Perfect Light Desserts by Nick Malgieri and David Joachim. This book brags that these light recipes contain real butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Amen, I say. Of course, on short notice, I didn't have all the ingredients necessary to make one of the recipes in its full glory. In addition, I'm not one to leave a recipe well enough alone, so I used the pastry cream from the raspberry tart (the gorgeous one pictured on the cover of the book) and added ground almonds, my own little touch. Blueberries instead of raspberries and we had ourselves a blueberry almond tart!

The blueberries in this tart were only made sweeter by the fact that I picked them myself with two of my friends and their little boy the weekend before. They hold up so well in the fridge, they tasted like I had picked them that day (plus there was all that extra love in there from the handpicking).

Blueberry Almond Tart (loosely adapted from Perfect Light Desserts)

Since I made this after work in a big hurry, I chose to use a store-bought roll-out crust (no shame in that, people). If you have a favorite crust recipe, go ahead and use that, but you can always take cheaters' route and do what I did (It's the hot-days-of-summer - you're entitled!)

1 roll out crust, or crust of your choice, rolled out

1 cup fat free milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 Tablespoons Amaretto liqueur
1/2 cup blanched toasted almonds, chopped very finely

1-1/2 pints blueberries, rinsed, dried and picked over

powdered sugar for finishing

Turn the pastry dough into a tart, quiche or pie plate. Press it gently into the pan and pinch the edges. Pierce the bottom and sides of the dough with a fork. Bake according to the directions for your particular dough, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

In the mean time, make the pastry cream. Combine the milk and half of the sugar in a small pan. Bring to a boil over low heat. In a small bowl, mix the rest of the sugar with the flour and combine well. Whisk the eggs into the flour mixture. When the milk boils, pour about a third of it into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour this mixture back into the milk mixture over low heat. Whisk constantly until the mixture returns to a boil. Cook 20 seconds longer and remove from heat.

Add the vanilla, butter, Amaretto, and almonds. Refrigerate this mixture until cool.

To assemble, spread the pastry cream in the bottom of the crust, top with blueberries and sprinkle with powdered sugar

(Serves 8)

We've adopted (a chicken)!

2007-07-27T21:40:00.000-04:00

My friend Emily used to say that she wished she could pre-pay for meals so that the the bill's arrival and the ensuing scrambling for wallets, credit cards, cash and tip calculation couldn’t ruin the magic of a wonderful meal. I couldn’t agree more. Unless you have a powerful level of concentration (or intoxication) it is hard to ignore that black folder on the table, indicating the end of your reverie.

I have finally accomplished pre-payment with groceries. Mike and I have adopted a chicken and joined a CSA.

What? you ask.

Through Blossom Hill Farm south of Buffalo, we have adopted a healthy, well-fed, humanely treated chicken that we have named Frances (despite suggestions that we name her Sesame). For 24 weeks we will get a dozen eggs a week and in December we get Frances herself. For soup.

Now, this may seem like a somewhat perverse version of adoption, but I feel pretty good about the way my chicken-child is living out her days. Plus, each week when I go to the market to pick up my farm-fresh Frances eggs, I have the incredible feeling of getting something for free since I prepaid for her adoption.

Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) fruit share, through Native Offerings Farm is supplying us (and my friends Lori and Ted) with fruit each week for the whole summer and fall. Again, I go on Thursday evening after work to pick up my fruit and, arms swinging, no wallet on me, I walk away with fragrant fresh fruit. Heaven.

I feel good about the transactions, I feel great about the fact that I am supporting my local farmers directly through these programs and I feel positively amazing about the quality of food that I am getting through these avenues. The eggs that we are getting from Blossom Hill Farm are unlike any eggs I have ever had before. The yolks stand right up, verge on the color orange rather than yellow, and have an amazingly rich egg flavor. They are a variety of sizes and large ones are likely to have a double yolk. Mike says they taste more like eggs than the eggs we get from the grocery store or even the co-op.

We have started becoming creative with our uses for eggs. They are working their way into our diet more than ever before, which is convenient since we are getting a dozen a week for just two people. It is a good thing that chickens that are raised to be free-roaming and who peck around and eat what their bodies need have been shown to have eggs with lower levels of cholesterol and higher levels of essential fatty acids than industrially raised eggs.

These are wonderful in frittatas, meringues, poached with asparagus and mushrooms, or in a breakfast sandwich, but my favorite way to eat these is baked. This is something that I first learned about on Chocolate and Zucchini and I have since learned that the English word for this dish is "shirred" eggs. We just call them baked eggs in our house. Over a mixture of ham or turkey, sautéed shallot or onion and goat cheese, the egg is cracked and baked in a water bath for about 12 minutes. With slices of good toast for dipping in, this is an easy weeknight dinner.

Baked Eggs

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 shallot, chopped or 1/3 cup chopped onion
2 thick slices ham, chopped
1-2 oz goat cheese
2 fresh eggs
2 pieces good bread for toasting

Preheat oven to 425F. Put a kettle of water on to boil.

In a small fry pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the shallot or onion, add a pinch of salt, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.

Prepare two ramekins* with butter, oil or cooking spray. Add the cooked shallot or onion, the ham, and the goat cheese evenly between the two. Carefully crack the egg over the top of each, being certain not to break the yolks.

Place the two ramekins in a larger ovensafe baking dish. Fill the large baking dish with boiling water that reaches about halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake for 12 minutes or until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny.

Serve with buttered toast of your choice for dipping.

(Serves 2)

*I think ramekins are just the greatest bakeware you can buy. They are absolutely adorable! The ones I use for this recipe are a 1 cup capacity and that seems to work well. An oven-safe bowl will always work, but this is a great excuse to get some ramekins. They are available through all the normal places, and there are always a few hiding at TJ Maxx (shh... don't tell!)

My Local Meal, By Mistake!

2007-07-21T09:05:00.000-04:00

Inadvertently, I made a meal this week that was almost completely local. Why is this such a big deal, you ask? Because I didn’t have to think about it. It is so easy to run to the grocery store, pick up what we need for dinner or for the next couple of days, ignore the little label that says the food came from California, Chile, or Florida and then run home to cook up a good meal.

Our lives have become saturated with imported food to the point that it requires real effort to buy food that is grown or produced locally. There is plenty of garlic growing locally, but do they have any of it at my grocery store? No siree. The beets at the store? Imported from elsewhere. There is a little farmstand display at the front of the store featuring local foods, but why oh why are the blueberries at the store from California when they are practically falling off the bushes at farms all around the area? I have to make a concerted effort to have what I need in my fridge by noon on Saturday or I will not have another shot at the farmers for a week. That, my friends, is pressure.

And so it happened earlier this week that I decided to throw together an impromptu meal for Mike, his brother Matt, and me. Remarkably similar to my poached eggs with asparagus and mushrooms on goat cheese toast, this is an easy, weeknight dinner for us. Poor Matt was caught in the crossfire of Mike and me in the groove of making one of our favorite routine meals. Mike took charge of the zucchini while I handled most of the rest. All three of us yammered on, recounting the day, and telling stories while we worked, and before we knew it, dinner was on the table.

I began with my own bread that I made over the weekend, toasted golden brown. There are a few ingredients in the bread that are not local, but my parents recently found a wheat grower in the area* who was grinding his own flour, so at least the whole wheat portion of the flour came from nearby. The honey in the bread came from a nearby apiary.

On top was a spread of ricotta cheese from Upper Canada Cheese Company. This ricotta is made from the milk of Guernsey cows, which, apparently, are cows with quite a pedigree. Once I tasted this cheese, I absolutely believed that these cows were in some way magical, or at least special. It was the creamiest, richest ricotta I have ever eaten. I added a bit of thyme from my own garden and some sea salt (hmm… no sea near here, alas). After that was zucchini that was a gift from my co-worker Pat, who had an unexpected bumper crop. Mike sauteed the zucchini until it was brown around the edges so it had a nice nutty flavor. Crowning the whole stack were local eggs that we get each week from our adopted chicken (more on that later).

I decided that this stack of goodness needed a side dish (not to mention some more veggies). I ran out to the garden and found three carrots and a beet that were perfect for picking. I sliced them up and tossed them in an improvised dressing of red wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, ground coriander and celery seed.

It wasn’t until I was halfway through the meal that I looked down and realized that all of this wonderful, beautiful food (which was also really yummy, by the way) came from right nearby. By making a little more effort at the store each week, I have managed to replace some of my imported staples with things that I can get right in my own neighborhood (or even my own backyard).

Will it always be like this? Probably not. Carrots and beets are thin on the ground around here in the dead of winter. By making the effort to freeze, can and root cellar as much as possible, though, maybe I can help those farmers stick it out for a few more years, until we all realize exactly how much better your food tastes and how much better it is for your community if you buy local. Will I be one of those 100-milers? I don’t think so. I love avocados, oranges, lemons, olive oil and about a dozen other things that never grow here, regardless of the season. But maybe I’ll think a bit more before I pick up a tomato in January or California blueberries in July when the ones on the bush are still warm from the sun just a few miles away.

*Local means Southern Ontario to me as well as Western New York, but there are those pesky agricultural laws to worry about. Be sure to check out what is legal before you try to bring a load of local food home from Canada.

Cherry Clafoutis

2007-07-17T19:48:00.000-04:00

My friend Lori and I are splitting a fruit share though one of the local community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Now about 5 weeks into the program, we are completely hooked. When I go to pick up my fruit each week I have intense vegetable envy. Why, oh why didn’t I just sign up for the veggies? The greens, the herbs, the unpronounceable and unrecognizable vegetables that my neighbors are taking home each week – what an adventure that would be in the kitchen! We are already making plans for next year’s bounty.

This week I went to pick up our share and took home four pounds of cherries for the two of us (or two couples, I should say). That was a pound of cherries per person. One day and two hours later our cherries were gone. This fruit tasted like no cherries I had ever had before. They tasted like sweet cherries, to be sure, but the overtone was of flowers. It was as though I was inhaling jasmine while eating the fruit and the two flavors melded together somewhere between my nose and my mouth.

I couldn’t seem to stop eating them. I am surprised I avoided a bad case of the gollywobbles (according to my mother this is the uncomfortable tummy that results from eating too much of any one thing, but I always heard it applied to cherries). Instead, I hatched plans to seek out more cherries the following day to see me through the rest of the week.

I’m always fascinated by foods that are not the colors I expect them to be. Purple beans and asparagus, orange tomatoes, you name it. If the color is a little funky, I’ll probably be interested. That would explain why I wanted to give these Queen Anne cherries a try. They look positively fake, like plastic fruit. Their exterior ranges from yellow to fire engine red; even their flesh is a soft golden yellow of an apricot. Yet they taste just like a dark red perfect cherry. None of the floral overtones with these ones, but they are fantastically beautiful to make up for it.

Next I found a huge basket (either 6 or 8 quarts) of dark sweet cherries. After some running around town to buy a cherry pitter, I came home, pitted about 2 quarts and froze them. What to do with the rest? Cherry clafoutis, obviously. If this is not obvious to you, make this dessert and it will be. This is a traditional French dessert from the Limousin region. This is one of the few desserts that we were taught to make in culinary school as students in the cuisine course. The pastry students really cornered the market on desserts in that program.

A clafoutis is fresh fruit with a pancake-like batter poured over the top. The result is similar to a flan, but leans a little bit toward a cake. This works beautifully with many other types of fruit, so feel free to experiment during the rest of the summer, but cherries are the traditional choice.

I have been putting off making clafoutis for about 10 years now (food avoidance is turning into a theme here in July), mostly because I could not face the reality of cutting a pound and a half of cherries off of their pits with a knife. This is not only extremely easy to make (assuming you have a cherry pitter), but is a casual, beautiful dessert for summer that is much less fussy than many of the other French desserts.

I did have one little hiccup in my clafoutis making this weekend. While it would seem that my tart pan is about the 10-inch one described in the recipe, obviously that is not the case (needless to say, I haven’t gotten my tape measure out yet to test this.) So you see that the beginning pictures are in a round white tart pan and the resulting dessert is suddenly in a square ceramic baker. A magical alteration of pottery in the oven? No, folks, that is my inability to judge the necessary pan size. As a result of the pan change, my clafoutis was much deeper that it should normally be. The result was no less enjoyable, though. When I saw Mike help himself to seconds, I knew I had a good thing going here!

Cherry Clafoutis (adapted from this recipe on Allrecipes.com)

I increased the baking time to adjust for this, adding about 50% more time. The important fact is that the clafoutis be cooked through in the middle and browned all over. I also don’t think a clafoutis is meant to have corners, so there was an unexpected result (a bit of overcooking).

1-1/2 pounds fresh pitted sweet cherries
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons brandy*
1 Tablespoon Creme de Cassis*

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease a 10 inch tart pan or a slightly larger baking dish. Place the cherries in the baking dish. They should fit mostly in one layer.

Mix the flour, salt and sugar in one bowl. In a different bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla, brandy and creme de cassis. Add the flour mixture gradually, whisking constantly until smooth. Pour over the cherries.

Bake for about 45 minutes** or until the clafoutis is golden and puffed up. Serve at room temperature with a dusting of powdered sugar. This is best served like a cobbler - very casually served in scoops. It is difficult to serve this in perfect slices.

(Serves 8-10)

* The recipe called for 3 Tablespoons of kirsch, which I did not have on hand. Since kirsch is a cherry brandy, I decided to go with plain brandy plus the blackcurrant flavor of the creme de cassis. It worked beautifully. Go with whatever you have on hand in these general categories.

** My little mistake resulted in over an hour of baking. If this had been in one layer, the 45 minutes should have been sufficient.

Baking Bread: The Test of a Daughter

2007-07-12T21:23:00.000-04:00

When I was in college, basking in the domestic bliss of my first apartment and making all those chocolate truffles, I got the idea that to truly become a domestic goddess, I should begin to bake my own bread. To me, nothing is more indicative of home and hearth than homemade bread, likely because I grew up in a house where it was the only bread we ate. My mother went so far, when I was a teenager, to look into the possibility of selling her bread, turning the nurturing of our childhood into a lucrative business. This was around the same time that Atkins became popular. She thought better of it and continued to bake for our family and for close friends. A loaf of Connie’s bread is pretty much a sure thing if you have had a death in the family or a hard time. Going through chemo, moving to a new home, or even as a hostess gift for dinner parties. She has other tricks up her sleeve too, but the bread is a classic.

And so it was that in college I decided I would have to make bread. How could I show support of my friends, thanks for their generosity and all the other things my mother had used bread for during my childhood without going ahead and baking bread? Truffles were a start, but bread was the real deal.

I decided, however, that my bread needed to be different. I preferred a sourdough, so I started reading up on sponges and biga. I wanted it to be interesting and complex in flavor. I wanted to use exciting flours. I went out and bought a couple of books, one of which was full of recipes that require no kneading. I set to work in my minuscule kitchen and wound up with a rock solid pile of dough. I couldn't even knead this supposedly soft-dough no-knead thing. I looked at the recipe, looked at the mass of dough and began to cry. By the time I called my mom, I was fully sobbing.

"Sob, sob. Mom, hiccup, I can’t sob bake bread.”

“Of course you can. It’s not that hard, just go through the recipe again.”

She read through it with me, agreed that it really should have worked and then started to talk to me about how baking is done by feel and it is really not difficult. Now, I know that she was being supportive and trying to encourage me to try again, but pointing out that baking bread is easy when I obviously had no ability to do it made me feel even more inadequate. I threw out the huge hunk of dough, dried my tears and waited a full six years before I attempted bread again.

I know now that she is right. Baking bread is really not difficult. It does not always turn out perfectly, but the basics are actually pretty easy. When I approached bread baking again, I actually turned to that same no-knead cookbook I used all those years before. This time, I started with the first recipe in the book: a focaccia that can either be made as a flat bread or a loaf. I did it as a loaf and it turned out perfectly, flavored with olive oil, coarse salt and rosemary sprinkled on top. I had succeeded at using yeast and my nerve was fortified.

As a wedding gift from my incredibly loving and generous aunt and uncle, I received a KitchenAid stand mixer. I had been dreaming of this moment for years! This was my chance. I felt the need to be deserving of my beautiful mixer and I set forth on another bread mission. This time, kneading was required. I found two different recipes and started baking and baking. Four loaves in that first weekend. I was on a roll! I gave loaves away, praying that they were actually baked all the way through and that they tasted as good as I thought they did. Raves came back.

I was a bread baker! I assumed this role with pride, adding to conversations about the weekend, “oh, I baked bread this weekend,” with the nonchalance of a person who has been doing it successfully for years.

My parents happened to stop by the day that I was baking the first loaf. I nervously showed my mother the rising loaf. She looked, smelled, oohed and ahhed appropriately. Then she showed me how to determine if it had risen long enough (wet your finger and stick it into the dough. If it stays depressed, it is ready to be punched down), she helped me shape the dough and put it into the bread pan. She left before it was done, but the second I took a bite, I called her to report my triumph.

There was no surprise in her voice when she told me “Of course you can make bread. It’s not that hard.”

“Well, it was hard for me,” I told her.

She asked me what had changed that made it work this time and I have been thinking about it ever since. Was it my willingness to follow a recipe? My patience? Maybe it was just knowing that there are friends around me who I want to support by giving them a loaf. Maybe it was that I want my husband to have his lunch on homemade bread. Maybe it was that someday, I want to have kids, and I want them to associate the smell of baking bread with hearth, home, and Mom.

Maybe, just maybe, I have grown up a bit.

Daily Bread (adapted from this recipe on breadnet.net)

This was a really general recipe that can be made with about a million variations. I am writing up the version that I have settled on, but look to the original recipe to alter it to your taste. It also has very helpful tips in case you have a bread crisis. This bread will keep for over a week because of the oil, sugar and salt (all preservatives). It is a wonderful sandwich bread, not as good for sopping up sauce, and it makes terrific nutty flavored toast.

2-1/4 cups warm water (not hot - about 95 F)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup oatmeal
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
2 rounded teaspoons sea salt
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup wheat germ

3-4 cups bread flour

1 egg (optional)
sesame seeds (optional)

Combine the water, honey, and olive oil and set aside. In a large bowl (or the bowl of the mixer) combine the dry ingredients through the wheat germ (do not add the bread flour yet). Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until completely incorporated.

Add 2 cups of the bread flour to the mixture and mix until incorporated. Continue adding flour until the mixture forms a soft, somewhat sticky dough. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth.

Put the dough into a large bowl and set aside to rise in a warm dry place.* Allow to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. When you suspect that the dough is ready, wet your finger and poke the dough firmly. If the indentation remains, it is ready.

Punch the dough down, separate in half and knead each half for a couple of turns. Shape each half into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan. In a small dish, whisk the egg to break up the yolk and lighten a bit. Brush the top of each loaf with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.

Preheat oven to 350 F and set the loaves in a warm dry place again to rise until doubled.**

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. I also use an instant read thermometer to make sure the internal temperature of the loaf is at 200 F.

Allow to cool before cutting or freezing. Do not store in the refrigerator, it will become hard very quickly.

(makes 2 loaves)

*I put mine in the oven with the oven light on. This is just enough heat to get that yeast going.

**For the second rise, I use the top of the fridge, since the oven is preheating.

Farmer Holly

2007-07-07T20:45:00.000-04:00

Things in my garden are growing. I have a bounty, such as it is. Under all those huge red-tinged green wings, beets are actually forming.

Little carrots are shouldering the soil out of the way.

Furry tomato stems are dropping their golden flowers
to make way for tiny, bright green fruits. These are the same tomatoes that I raised from seed in my dining room during the dead of winter. The mother of an Olympian could not feel more proud than I do now.

My string beans have delicate purple flowers on them. I knew I didn't order the scarlet bean, but it never occurred to me to wonder what the color would be if it weren't red.

My zucchini and pumpkins have the predictable squash flower on them, but how was I to know the the zucchini flower would be curled around into the shape of soft-serve while the pumpkin's looks like a ruffled petticoat?

Amazing.

My cucumbers are falling a bit behind, so I put the metal garden ornament that my mother-in-law gave me behind them. It commands them to GROW.

Evidently I left it near the lettuces too long.

So the arugula has gone to seed. Twice. The lettuce bolted and my radishes produced beautiful leaves and no roots whatsoever. So what? I have the glow of an urban farmer and I am basking in it.

Minted Fresh Pea Soup with Asiago Hazelnut Biscotti

2007-06-28T18:19:00.000-04:00

I went to see Bobby Flay perform this spring. Now, I'm not really one for the grandstanding celebrity chefs (preferring instead the ones who make me feel like I've just been invited to dinner - Giada DiLaurentiis, Ina Garten, and Nigella Lawson, for example) but Bobby Flay was coming to Niagara Falls and I could get tickets. The presentation was fun to watch and I had a great time giggling in the audience while elbowing my friend Paul on one side and my mother on the other side.

I didn't walk away with a whole lot though. It was really more about the show than the cooking, which is fine, but I was there for the cooking. The one thing I walked away with was the inspiration provided by a pea sauce that Flay made for lamb chops.

This soup is made from frozen peas. In the middle of pea season. Sounds silly, I know, but frozen peas are just easier to work with. The flavor is no less spring-like because the peas came from a bag, in fact, I can be sure that they were picked and frozen during the peak of the pea season, yielding the sweetest peas available. In addition, you won't have to spend hours shelling peas to get enough to make this soup and they are available year-round for your pea soup pleasure.

Bobby Flay went for a basil flavor in the soup, but I decided to nod toward the English with a minted pea soup. This is truly one of the most refreshing soups I have had. It is great both cold and hot. Drizzled with buttermilk, it is downright gorgeous, looking and smelling like the essence of Spring.

I really appreciate pureed vegetable soups for their intensity of flavor, but sometimes I crave another texture in there to mix things up a bit. For this, I created a savory biscotti. Biscotti are dunking cookies, which is perfect for a soup buddy. This one has a fairly mild cheesy flavor with hazelnuts, which are a soft nutty compliment to the green flavors of pea and mint.

Minted Fresh Pea Soup with Asiago Hazelnut Biscotti

Soup
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped leek
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 lb frozen peas*
2 Tablespoons mint leaves
1/2 cup buttermilk

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the leek. Cook until limp but not browned. Add vegetable broth, water, and peas. Bring to a soft boil and cook about 5 minutes or until the peas are heated through. Add the mint and buttermilk. Add liquid if necessary to reach the desired consistency

Puree in a blender until very smooth. If you would like a perfectly smooth soup, run it through a medium seive. I prefer mine with the occasional chunk.

(serves 6-8)

Biscotti
1 cup grated asiago cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a medium bowl, beat cheese and butter until the butter is lightened. Add eggs, incorporate completely and stir in hazelnuts.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add this mixture to the butter mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine completely. It may be necessary to use your hands to fully incorporate the flour.

Split the dough in half. Form each half into a log that measures about 5 inches wide. Place onto cookie sheets lined with parchment.

Bake 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife and a very gentle sawing motion, cut the logs on a diagonal into 3/4 inch slices. Return these slices to the cookie sheet and bake an additional 20 minutes. These may be baked more or less depending on the desired crispness.

(makes 16)

*If you can get them and are willing to shell them, fresh peas will work beautifully as well.

Poached Egg with Asparagus and Mushrooms on Goat Cheese Toast

2007-06-20T07:30:00.000-04:00

At the farmers' market this weekend I found what is bound to be the last of the asparagus for the season. When I actually bother to follow the seasons of my favorite vegetables and not just resort to the version that comes from California, I'm struck by the fleeting season of each variety. There are only a precious couple of weeks when I can devise new uses for asparagus, strawberries, sugar snap peas, arugula and radishes (although new uses for radishes has been a bit difficult - tea sandwiches, anyone?)

There is no prayer of getting most of the local produce at the grocery store (this is where my beloved Wegmans begins to let me down) so the pressure is on at the market on Saturday morning. I need to buy enough of everything that I can fully experiment without letting my eyes be bigger than my tummy. The only thing sadder than not getting enough produce is getting so much that it winds up going bad before it can be used.

This recipe is a wonderful combination of simple farm-fresh flavors that makes a great brunch and an even better weeknight dinner. Asparagus is a regal, beautiful vegetable that has always been special and beloved in my house. It can dress up any meal. The egg, on the other hand, is simple, casual, and messy. Eggs for dinner, like any breakfast for dinner, feels like cheating; a defiance of convention that just reinforces my ability to make my own decisions as an adult.

For Mike and me I cook three eggs, one for me and two for him. This is a great dinner for two. There is no advantage to making this in quantity, it doesn't keep and it isn't any easier. In addition, you should eat it with someone who already loves you, because it is quite a mess.

Poached Egg with Asparagus and Mushrooms on Goat Cheese Toast

As with any simple dish, be certain that you find the best ingredients available to you. A fresh egg is vital because the white will hold together well while poaching; an old egg will result in egg white all over the pan.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 quart mushrooms, button or baby bella, sliced
1 clove chopped garlic
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon white vinegar
2 eggs

1 bunch asparagus
1 Tablespoon olive oil
sea salt

2 slices good quality bread, ciabatta, baguette sliced lengthwise or any other variety that appeals to you, toasted
2 oz (half a small log) soft goat cheese

Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a medium fry pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, sprinkle with sea salt, and cook, stirring very occasionally until browned and soft and the liquid is evaporated. Add the garlic, cook for one minute more until the smell of the garlic blooms. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook until evaporated, about another minute.

In a broiler pan, roll the asparagus in 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and broil about 4 minutes. Turn the oven down to 425 F and cook until tender, about 8 more minutes.

Fill a small pan 1-1/2 inches deep with water, add the vinegar and bring to a low boil. Add eggs carefully without breaking the yolks and cook at a simmer until the tops of the eggs become white but the yolk is still very runny.

To assemble: Spread the toast with the goat cheese, top with asparagus and mushrooms. Balance the eggs right on top.

(Serves 2)

Lemon Berry Meringues

2007-06-10T22:02:00.000-04:00

When I was a little girl, my parents threw huge exciting parties in the summer. My mother must have had some sort of intimate relationship with the weather Gods, because we never had a drop of rain on the night of their parties, fortunate since there were far too many people having much too much fun to move them inside. I was always allowed to attend the beginning of the parties before I was sent over to spend the night at my grandmother's house next door to listen to the sounds of the band, the laughter, and the merriment from right next door until I finally drifted off to sleep.

The parties were never catered. There was a small arsenal of recipes that my mother still has that require only a fork so people aren't trying to cut with their plates on their laps. My mother always made meringues filled with chocolate mousse for these occasions. She would craft the meringues in the shape of shallow little bowls and fill them with a generous portion of the spiked chocolate concoction. This recipe is a variation on that favorite dessert, one that takes advantage of the spring berry crop and lemon curd, one of my favorite sweet-tart treats.

Now that it is spring and we haven't hit the hot, humid days of summer, it is the perfect time to make meringues. I'm not kidding when I say it has to be dry out when you make these. If it is a humid day, the result of this recipe will make you think you turned to the page for "chewing gum" by mistake. If it is dry enough and you have the patience to leave them in the oven for a long time, they will be light as air and blissfully sweet and crunchy.

There are two different kinds of meringue. Both have the exact same ingredients, yet the results are not at all alike. The first is Italian meringue. This is what you find on top of a lemon meringue pie. This meringue is made by whipping up your egg whites and pouring a boiling hot syrup over them while still whisking the mixture. The whites are cooked by the hot sugar syrup and the mixture remains spongy and soft. French meringue, by contrast,incorporates all the ingredients while they are still cold. Then they are baked in a very low oven for a long time, drying them out to be crispy, crunchy and light. It is the French meringue that makes a great base for these desserts.

There are a couple of keys to making this dessert successfully. First, your bowl and beaters must be really clean. If they are already clean, wash them again. Any oil or fat will cause the eggs to revolt. They simply will not whip up and it is the whipped eggs that make the meringue. Second, have the eggs at room temperature.

Third, following the the oil or fat preventing your eggs from whipping, be certain that there is no yolk in the egg whites. If you are new to separating eggs, try separating the whites into a small bowl and adding that white to the larger bowl once you have successfully accomplished the separation. If you are really bad at this, plan on a scrambled egg meal immediately following the meringue making process! I find it much easier to separate eggs with my hands, letting the whites slip between my fingers while the yolk stays in my hand. The shells just have too many sharp edges for the yolk to get caught on.

The other divine component of this dessert is lemon curd. This curd has a lovely tart flavor that isn't too sweet, a beautiful foil for the sugary meringue. The marriage of lemon and berries is also a favorite of mine. Lemon curd is really easy to make as long as it is cooked really slowly. If you cook it too quickly the egg will scramble, and while the flavor will still be great, the texture of lemon flavored scrambled eggs leaves a bit to be desired.

All that said, this is not at all difficult to make and results in a simple, beautiful, and wonderfully tasty dessert.

Lemon Berry Meringues

This recipe makes 12 meringues, but only enough lemon curd to fill about 8 of them. We like to keep the extra meringues around for nibbling or in the case of one breaking.

Meringue Cups

4 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar*

1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 225 F

Combine the egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar in a clean copper or stainless steel bowl. Beat using a hand beaters or a stand mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar to the mixture one tablespoon at a time while still beating. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

On parchment lined cookie sheets, form 12 meringue bowls by dropping the meringue onto the sheet and making an indentation with the back of a spoon. If you are handy with a pastry bag, feel free to pipe your meringue into little bowl shapes.

Bake for two hours. Turn off the heat and leave in the oven about 8 hours or overnight. If you are concerned about humidity, leave the meringues in the oven with the oven light on.

Lemon Curd (adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

grated zest of one organic lemon

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (make sure there are no seeds)

6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine eggs, sugar, and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Whisk vigorously until the mixture lightens in color a bit. Add the lemon juice and butter and cook, whisking constantly, over low heat until the mixture simmers for a minute or two and thickens a bit. Remove from the heat.

You can strain the mixture through a sieve at this point if you would like to remove the lemon zest. I chose to leave the zest in. Stir in the vanilla.

Cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate.

To Assemble

2 cups mixed berries, picked over

1/4 cup creme de cassis (optional)

Fill the meringues will the chilled lemon curd. Top each with 1/4 cup berries and a mint leaf to garnish. If you want to make the berries a bit more special, soak them in cremede cassis (blackcurrant liquor) for about 15 minutes before assembly. This will look a bit more messy, but will taste absolutely divine.

(Serves 8)

* Cream of tartar helps the beaten eggs hold their shape. If you are using a copper bowl (you lucky devil!) you can omit the cream of tartar. My mother does both. I think it is her version of a meringue insurance policy!

Ginger Carrot Soup with Cashews

2007-06-01T18:30:00.000-04:00

I love to find a recipe that I would never have come up with myself. This is a perfect example. I found this in the new printing of the original cookbook from the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, NY. Moosewood is an institution. It has been there for longer than most restaurants even dream of being in existence and it is completely vegetarian, as are all of the cookbooks. They celebrate vegetables, grains, and even dairy and eggs, but not meat.

Now don't get me wrong here. I love meat. I love meat almost as much as I love cake. But I also know that meat is often treated with hormones and antibiotics, which I'm not wild about putting in my body, and it is expensive to get meat that isn't treated. We resort to some egg meals like quiche or frittata, but sometimes it is nice to have some good vegetarian options that stand all on their own. This is one of those. It is actually a vegan recipe, lactose and gluten free. What is in it, you may ask. All good things. Fresh carrots and ginger, toasted cashews, and a combination of spices that I would never have devised.

This soup is a nutritional powerhouse too. Enough beta carotene to make your head spin (night vision, anyone?) and protein and good fat from the cashews. This is a great option for a dinner on a cool night with a hearty salad to fill in the rest of your nutrients. (Or just go ahead and add a big crusty loaf of bread!) This soup is fine served cool, but I think the heat really brings out the nuttiness of the cashews. It is so smooth and rich in flavor, you would never know that there is no cream in this soup. In fact, the cashews somehow both thicken the soup and give it an incredible lightness at the same time. The result is sublime.

This soup also became a loyal lunchtime companion. It thickened up a bit in the fridge, but just a little water before I microwaved it at work made it just as good as when I first made it.

Carrot Ginger Soup with Cashews (adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook)

The spices in this recipe are vital to the flavor. Don't depend on the allspice that you bought in the mid-nineties. The Lexington Co-op and many other health-food type shops sell spices in bulk. Get only as much as you need.

2 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 cups water

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon dried mint*

3-4 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup toasted cashews

Place the carrots in a medium saucepan and add the water. Bring to a boil, cover and cook until the carrots are very tender (10-15 minutes)

Heat the olive oil in a small fry pan. Add onion and cook over medium heat until translucent. Add ginger, garlic, salt, and spices. Lower the heat and continue to saute for another 8-10 minutes, until the onions are soft. Stir in lemon juice.

Combine the spice-onion mixture with the carrots and the cashews. Use a blender to puree the mixture until smooth.

(Serves 8-10)

* I couldn't find dried mint in bulk so I opened a mint tea bag and used the contents. Brilliant, I thought!

White after Memorial Day

2007-05-28T18:50:00.000-04:00

In honor of Memorial Day, I'm decked out in linen and Savory & Sweet has changed its outfit as well! Also note that the address has changed a little bit. You will be redirected to www.savoryandsweet.net if you go to your old bookmark that was at blogspot (but I recommend changing the bookmark just in case.)

The parallel is amazing: I moved, S&S moved; I changed my outfit, S&S changed too; I changed my name a little, S&S changed its name a little. Blog follows life, I guess.

I hope you enjoy the face lift, and I welcome your comments and feedback about the new look.

Bulgur and Lentil Salad with Tarragon, Almonds and Goat Cheese

2007-05-24T21:42:00.000-04:00

In the past three years, I have moved the same jar of lentils three times. By "moved" I mean to a different house. We packed up the couch, packed up the lentils and off we went. The couch went in the living room, the lentils went into the back of the kitchen cupboard, not to surface until our next life-changing transition. I began to resent the lentils. They stood for all those useless belongings that I can't seem to sort through in my house and that take up space that could either be full of something else or blissfully empty.

But they are perfectly good food, and I couldn't bring myself to throw them out. I ended up giving them to a friend for a craft project. Just one step away from food, if you ask me, in the levels of usefulness.

Then I started reading about French lentils. First it was on Chocolate and Zucchini. Then there they were on Buffalo Buffet. Everywhere I looked, it seemed, were lentils, lentils, lentils. But these weren't the same old brown or red lentils (it was the red ones that plagued me for three years), these are French green lentils.

These lentils are supposed to be different. Smaller and more firm than red lentils or plain old brown lentils, they are also far, far more beautiful. Like little river pebbles that are pretty enough but a bit dull, they become the most amazing colors of green, blue, and even purple as they are rinsed in water. Like little ugly ducklings, lentils have amazing inner beauty as well. The fiber, protein and low fat content that these tiny legumes pack make this an ingredient that you definitely want to work into your routine.

I found my lentils at the Lexington Co-Op in the bulk section for about $2.99 a pound. They are either called green lentils, French lentils or lentils de Puy, named after the region in France where they were grown exclusively for a long time. They are actually yellow on the inside and the green exterior is the seed coat of the bean. Lentils are so small and easy to cook that they do not need to be soaked like other beans do. They can be boiled directly from their dry state in about 20 minutes.

To continue the French theme of the lentils, I found a recipe that uses tarragon, a grassy, slightly licorice flavor that goes beautifully with the earthiness of the lentils. This also uses a base of bulgur wheat for the salad, making this recipe a great starter kit for eating lentils.

Lentils and I have some making up to do. I figured this might be a good way to ease into a better relationship with lentils and it turns out I was absolutely right.

Bulgur and Lentil Salad with Tarragon, Almonds, and Goat Cheese (loosely based on a recipe from Gourmet Magazine)

This was just as good a couple days later after all the flavors had melded. With all that protein and fiber, this makes a great lunch all on its own.

1/3 cup finely chopped shallot

3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/2 cup French green lentils

1-1/2 cups water

1 cup bulgur wheat*

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup finely chopped carrot

3 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup blanched toasted almonds, chopped fine

2 ounces goat cheese

In a small bowl combine the chopped shallot and 1 tablespoon of the vinegar.

In a small saucepan simmer lentils in enough water to cover by 2 inches until just tender but not falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well. Add hot lentils to shallot mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cool mixture, stirring occasionally.

In a small heavy saucepan combine 1- 1/2 cups water, bulgur, and salt and simmer, covered, until water is absorbed, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer bulgur to a large bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally.

Add lentil mixture to bulgur with celery, carrot, tarragon, remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar, oil, and almonds. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss well. Crumble the goat cheese into the mixture and stir carefully to keep the cheese pieces intact.

(Serves 6-8)

*Bulgur should be available in the health food section of the grocery store or at a health food store or Co-op. (I got mine in the Nature's Marketplace at Wegman's). If you cannot find bulgur alone, buy a commercial tabbouleh mix and use only the grain, not the seasoning packet.

The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

2007-05-19T21:53:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite things about being a newlywed and a cook is finding terrific new things to make for my husband. Now I know that this is not the sort of thing that a modern woman is supposed to say, and don’t worry, I’m not going to be barefoot and pregnant any time soon. You see, I have always found so much pleasure in cooking for friends and family and now I have an even better reason, on a daily basis, to try new recipes and devise new concoctions. I’m also blessed to be married to a man who will eat almost anything. It’s amazing.

Big weekend brunches have always been a big part of life in my family, first growing up and now as an adult in my own house. For the special occasion brunches we make quiches, fruit salads, quick breads, cured salmon and all sorts of other fancy things, but for the weekly Sunday brunch, I think we have perfected the breakfast sandwich. Mike begs to differ, as he thinks that the breakfast sandwich can always be improved. He has asked me to rename this post "the penultimate breakfast sandwich", but I have yet to find a better one, so I am sticking to my guns.

A sandwich is a funny thing, really. It can be so simple, but the combination of ingredients can make or break the meal. There is also the quality of the ingredients to consider. Get good bread. Really good bread, or in this case a really good bagel. Find nice sharp cheddar cheese that will have a good strong bite. Use fresh eggs. When you are making a simple dish, it is harder than ever to hide a sub-par ingredient. We have found a really good chicken breakfast sausage patty from Hanzlians, a local sausage company. They cook beautifully on a cast iron griddle and wind up with caramelized outsides. The flavor is unbeatable.

Finally, remember to roll up your sleeves, because when you bite into this luscious sandwich, you are going to have yolk running down your hands and you are not going to want to stop eating to clean up!

The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

2 everything bagels (we like Wegman’s)
2 chicken breakfast sausage patties
2 eggs
4 slices sharp cheddar cheese

In a skillet or stovetop griddle, cook the sausage over high heat until cooked through and browned on the outside. Set aside.

Meanwhile, toast the bagel.

Using the fat from the sausage fry the egg in the same skillet. Flip after about 2 minutes. Cook about one more minute or until over easy.

Assemble the sandwich: Bagel, cheese, sausage, and egg.

(serves 2)

Polenta with Mediterranean Vegetables

2007-05-02T06:53:00.000-04:00

Now that spring is in the air, I find myself wanting to eat more fresh vegetables and to buy things that are locally grown and lovingly delivered to the local farmers market. The one little hiccup in my plan is that the local plants have not figured this out yet. My first outdoor seeds have just started to sprout (little radishes, I think, but I can't say that it directly corresponds to anything on my clever little map of my garden) and the bulbs are in full bloom. But the strawberries, peas, and spring greens? Not yet, says Mother Nature. I've got a couple weeks before we start seeing those.

And so I must content myself with what is available at the store. Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm a really lucky girl when it comes to grocery stores. I've got Guercios* (the local Italian market), Wegman's (the Best Grocery Store on Earth), and the Lexington Co-op (our super-cool local natural food co-operative). All of those options still can't give me local fresh produce. The options look suspiciously like what was available in the middle of February (except now even the oranges look tired.)

I have developed a list of go-to foods for the winter months, a selection of vegetables that don't let me down, even when nothing is in season around here. They are my favorite Mediterranean veggies: eggplant, red bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and onions. Perhaps it is because these vegetables have such strong flavors, but they seem to hold up during even the darkest months and now into the bright spring months while the local food is just beginning to take root. This is what I use for my frittatas, my veggie-loaded chili, hummus wraps, and quiches. During the depths of winter, I roast them in the oven or saute them on the stove. In the warmth of spring, I head right out to the grill. The only thing to remember is that even the go-to veggies need to be firm and brightly colored. Don't settle for a limp zucchini, even in the winter.

My all-time favorite way to serve my go-to, never-fail-me veggies is with polenta. Sometime during my adolescence, my Aunt Sue introduced my family to polenta. Polenta was nowhere to be found in our diet when I was little, but, boy, was that about to change. Sue showed us the New Basics version of polenta, which remains my favorite to this day. This polenta cooks up firm. I pour it into a pie plate or baking dish and let it cool. Then I cut it into wedges and grill or brown it in a pan. There is no mush here, just a rich, textured corn pudding with crispy outsides and a creamy inside.

After I met Mike and we had been cooking together for a while I told him I was planning to make polenta for dinner. He turned his nose up. I was amazed. Who would not like polenta? Then I learned what traditional polenta is: a corn porridge with red sauce poured over the top. Being a texture guy, Mike did not find this appealing. I told him "try my polenta. I promise you will like it." I was willing to go out on a limb with this one. I was right.

This has turned into one of our favorite meals. The great thing is that the polenta can be made in advance as can the roasted vegetables. It is pretty darn good-looking too, so this makes a great entertaining meal. The higher you build the tower, the more impressive it looks, but beware the leaning tower! Just be sure your plate is big enough to catch it if it falls.

*Guercio and Sons
250 Grant Street
Buffalo, NY 14213

Polenta with Roasted Vegetables
This is an incredibly adaptable meal. Consider ingredients in the Mediterranean family and choose your favorites. Good additions would be Nicoise or Kalamata olives, anchovies, artichoke hearts, capers, roasted tomatoes (better when they are in season), or sun dried tomatoes. Gorgonzola, feta, or blue cheese could replace the Parmesan if you so desire.

Polenta (adapted from the New Basics)
3 cups milk
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Combine milk, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan and heat just to a simmer. Slowly add the cornmeal in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

Lower the heat. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture has thickened and leaves the sides of the pan, about 10 minutes. Add the Parmesan, combine well and remove from the heat.

Use a rubber spatula to pour the polenta mixture into a greased 8" x 8" inch brownie pan or a pie plate. Smooth the top with your spatula. Set aside to cool. Cut into 8 slices (for the pie plate) or cut into quarters, then cut each piece again on a diagonal (for the brownie pan).

Mediterranean Vegetables
1/4 cup olive oil, separated
4 portabello mushroom caps, cut in thick slices**
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small or medium zucchini, cut lengthwise in quarters
1 medium eggplant, cut in 1/4-inch thick rounds
2 red bell peppers, cut vertically in quarters
salt

**If you intend to grill the vegetables, leave the mushrooms whole until they are cooked. Marinate them prior to cooking in a mixture of the balsamic vinegar and garlic to achieve the same flavor.

Heat the oven to 425F

Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a large fry pan. Add mushrooms and saute until limp. Add the garlic, saute for 2 more minutes and add the balsamic vinegar. Cook long enough to evaporate most of the liquid.

Meanwhile, place the zucchini, eggplant and peppers in a single layer on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Brush with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Put in oven and cook about 15 minutes. Flip the vegetables, brush the opposite side with oil and cook another 15 minutes or until tender to a fork.

To assemble
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup basil pesto
small chunk of Parmesan cheese or about 1/4 cup coarsely grated
balsamic vinegar

Heat a fry pan over medium-high heat. Brown the polenta on both sides. Be sure to cook long enough to heat the polenta through.

Place two wedges of the polenta on the plate, pile high with veggies and drizzle pesto over the top of each one. Use a vegetable peeler to create large curls of Parmesan on top or sprinkle with grated cheese. Finally drizzle a small stream of balsamic vinegar around the bottom.

(Serves 4 for an entree, a half portion will make 8 good appetizer portions)

Dijon Thyme Chicken Thighs

2007-04-12T22:30:00.000-04:00

Working and finishing up my graduate degree is turning into a bit of a challenge (though graduation a month from today should provide some relief!) I suppose nurturing my new marriage, getting the new house settled, and raising a crop of tomatoes in the dining room aren't helping the time crunch either.

All of this wonderful excitement in my life has taken my attention away from the cooking I love so much and has made me resort to meals that can be labeled "quick and easy". That label often translates to "bland and boring", but not always. One solution is the addition of herbs and spices to otherwise completely unexciting foods.

My mother-in-law, back when she bore the label "my boyfriend's mother", asked me what I use thyme for in my cooking. Being an Italian-American cook, she didn't count it among her staple herbs and spices. I was flummoxed. I am a cook trained in France. What don't I use thyme for? If it is savory, I probably add thyme. My stews would never be the same without it. My frittatas without thyme? Never! Sometimes it even winds up in my (Italian-style) red sauce.

Thyme is actually a member of the mint family (who knew?) much like rosemary (again, who knew?) Common thyme is what is most commonly used in cooking, hence the name perhaps, but there are also varieties like creeping thyme that people like to use in their gardens. Creeping thyme turns out to be much better for walking on or lining the edge of a garden than for eating. Somehow in all that creeping, it loses its thymey punch.

My mother has an unbelievably strong affinity (which sometimes manifests as evangelism) for lemon thyme. Epicurious defines thyme as having a "light lemon aroma" and now that I think of it that way, it is true. I suppose that since thyme is lemony anyhow, I can allow my mother the indulgence of her lemon thyme, and as a nod to her love for the stuff, I might just plant one in the garden.

Thyme is a woody perennial native to Mediterranean climates, like rosemary. There is none of the astringency of rosemary. Thyme is softer, more civilized. Appropriate, somehow, to the delicacy and depth of French cooking. Being a woody herb, thyme lasts better through cooking than some of the more delicate succulent friends like basil or parsley.

Thyme was used by the Greeks as an aphrodisiac and by the English as a symbol of courage. It was made into perfume, and used to repel insects in a linen sachet, much like lavender is used today. Although I make no promises, it is entirely possible that making this (quick and easy) chicken will make you sexy, courageous, and keep all insects at bay.

Dijon Thyme Chicken Thighs

2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 boneless skinless chicken thighs

Combine the mustard, thyme, olive oil and garlic in a large zip lock bag. Add the chicken thighs and roll them around to coat evenly with the marinade. Squeeze air out of the bag, seal, and marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Line a broiler pan with aluminum foil. Arrange the chicken on the pan, leaving a little room between the thighs. Broil about 6 inches from the heat for 5 minutes or until the top of the chicken browns. The edges will become a little crispy. Flip the chicken and broil 5 minutes more, until cooked through and browned.

(makes 4 servings)

Signs of Spring

2007-03-22T07:45:00.000-04:00

Ahh… Yesterday was the first day of spring! As though someone sent a memo to nature, Tuesday it was 20 degrees, today it is in the 50’s. It has started to smell of earth outside. My garden is (prematurely) calling to me, begging me to plant something, anything.

My first tomato plants are getting their second set of leaves. Like lanky teenagers they are wobbling around, and like an overprotective parent, I am worried that they will self-destruct (or more likely, the cats will get them!)

I am eagerly anticipating the first fresh peas, local asparagus, and butter lettuce – all foods that actually taste like the color green, the foods that give the crayon in the Crayola box the name “spring green”. For now I am still stuck in root-vegetable land, but days like today remind me that the real spring (not the one marked on the calendar) is just around the corner.

Eating My Way Through New York

2007-03-18T20:10:00.000-04:00

My friend Denise and I decided we needed a little girl time, so we took a trip to New York last weekend. Our goals were simple: eat, shop, relax. The first thing on the agenda was Chinatown. Not only a mecca of knock-off purses and pashminas (I'm too embarrassed to admit how many I bought) but also hubbub and crazy energy on an unseasonably warm late winter day.

Unfortunately, we were not able to pick up a meal in Chinatown because we had just eaten an absolutely enormous and delectable brunch (takeout from EJ's Luncheonette) at my aunt and uncle's apartment. We dug into crunchy french toast, omelets, homemade oatmeal and waffles with bananas. Much as I would like to, even I cannot eat again so soon!

The other factor was how intimidating the Chinese restaurant choices are. I had no idea, besides two remarkably vague descriptions of where to find a restaurant, of where I would be able to find the best (or at least good, authentic) food in the area. When I was in Italy, someone tipped me off on how to identify the best places to buy gelato. When the banana gelato is yellow, they are using artificial colors (and probably flavors as well). When the banana gelato is a dull gray color, get in there and order anything you want. It will be terrific.

So is there a guide to Chinese food like this? How do you know where to order the dim sum? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

What we did get in Chinatown was a gander at the street markets all over the area. Dried fish labeled in Mandarin, piles of kumquats, and rows of vegetables I cannot even identify were at every corner, tempting me with their intense colors. Not having a kitchen or even a clue of how to prepare them, all I took with me were a few pictures.

While we didn't get to eat Chinese food in New York, later that evening we did go to an amazing, beautiful little restaurant on the upper east side that my aunt and uncle recommended. Called Giovanni 25, they specialize in excellent, traditional upscale Italian food. The service was outstanding, flavors balanced and the offerings from the menu are things that most Italian-American restaurants don't offer. I had the goat cheese stuffed zucchini flowers on a bed of tomato sauce followed by a wild mushroom tagliatelle with a truffle sauce. I would like to say that we ordered a great bottle of wine to go with this, but it turns out that a good vodka-tonic is much better for good girl gossip! I will tell you though, that the raspberry sorbet and the chocolate souffle go beautifully together. A combination you know I like!

Walking home, a bit tipsy in the pouring rain, I felt just a bit like a New Yorker, it felt just a bit like spring, and I felt fulfilled and ready to go back and be a Buffalonian again.

EJ's Luncheonette
1271 3rd Avenue (at 73rd)
New York, NY
212.472.0600

Giovanni 25
25 East 83rd Street
New York, NY
212.988.7300

Duel Fuel or Why My Stove is Better than Yours

2007-02-20T07:45:00.000-05:00

When my cooking goes wrong, I'm not apt to blame it on anything but myself. The truth is that the cook can be blamed for things going wrong most of the time and I admit that. There are, however, those times when you can blame burning, underbaking, uneven heat, overbaking, hot spots, excessive heat, and inadequate heat on your stove and oven. If you ask me (and most other people who cook), gas burners are better than electric and electric ovens are better than gas. This makes for a funny marriage of energy types.

A gas burner is super responsive. As soon as you turn that knob, the heat changes and you can see by how much. A gas oven, on the other hand, has periods of being on and periods of being off. It will heat up to 15 degrees above your target temperature and then cool down before igniting again to make up for lost heat. An electric stove will maintain the same temperature fairly consistently. Since sugar burns at 350 degrees, heating the gas oven to 365 in order to stay somewhere around the right temperature means that your angel food cake may come out looking less than angelic.

In the past, the cook would have to decide her priorities: Is baking more important or am I more concerned with cooking? Well now I can bake my cake and eat it too. Duel fuel stoves have come down in price dramatically, even being offered in everyday appliance lines like Kenmore. The fact that my house came with no appliances at all turned out to be a huge advantage. I could finally have the stove of my dreams! (or at least a version of the stove of my dreams).

Now that I've rubbed in how much better my stove is than yours, I need to be totally honest. I don't really pay too much attention to the fact that my stove is duel fuel. Instead I find myself much less annoyed by burning, underbaking, uneven heat, overbaking, etc.

I do confess to feeling the tiniest bit of gratitude every time I pull a perfectly cooked dish out of the oven, though!

Chocolate Love

2007-02-13T21:09:00.000-05:00

In honor of Valentine's Day I feel the need to spread some love and a great recipe for chocolate truffles. About six years ago, when I was in college in my first apartment with a kitchen the size of a postage stamp, I saw the movie Chocolat. The movie was so beautiful and inspiring that I immediately went to the store, bought ingredients, went home and turned my kitchen into a truffle factory. I started in January and I didn't surface until well after Valentine's Day. Everyone I ran into recieved a truffle. "Good morning Professor! Have a truffle!" I carried them on me at all times.

I started with the basics and then progressed to the sublime. I never wanted truffles that were covered in hard chocolate. Mine were covered in nuts, cocoa, or sugar, the better to bite into the ganache. Cinnamon-Dried Cherry ended up being my favorite, inspired by the brownies that my college choir director treated us to a couple times a semester.

This winter I have a new invention in honor of Savory and Sweet. They are mint truffles made with real mint teabags so they have that fresh cool mint flavor rather than an artificial chewing gum flavor. To further bring out the sweetness of these chocolates, I decided to roll them in a mixture of granulated sugar and sea salt. Truly a beautiful savory-and-sweet marriage.

These are not hard to make and would be really fun with kids. Just choose the best chocolate you can. Find the Ghiradelli chocolate chips right alongside the others in the baking aisle. It is worth the extra 50 cents (it is also worth it for cookies, by the way!)

These are easy to make, allow you to get up to your elbows in chocolate and are guaranteed to make all your friends love you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Truffles
(Loosely based on a recipe from Bon Appetit Dec. 1999)

Cinnamon-Dried Cherry Truffles

Truffles
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 12-ounce package (about 2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons dried tart cherries, finely chopped
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Coating
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

Bring cream to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk in vanilla. Pour into medium bowl. Add chopped cherries and 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Cover; chill until firm, about 3 hours.

Line baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.

Mix 2 Tablespoons cinnamon and cocoa in a small bowl. Roll each truffle between your hands to make it roughly round. Roll around in the cinnamon-cocoa mixture to coat.

Mint Truffles

Truffles
2/3 cup whipping cream
3 peppermint tea bags, tags removed
1 12-ounce package (about 2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

Coating
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon finely ground good quality sea salt

Bring cream and teabags to boil very slowly in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Remove tea bags and add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Pour into medium bowl. Cover; chill until firm, about 3 hours.

Line baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.

Combine the sugar and salt in a small bowl. Roll each truffle between your hands to make it roughly round. Roll around in the sugar-salt mixture to coat.

The Potager in My Mind

2007-02-07T07:35:00.000-05:00

Now that I have a real house with an actual yard, I am finally ready to have a proper kitchen garden. I have envied all those beautiful gardens around town, having what I'm positive is an underappreciation for the amount of work that goes into making them as amazing as they are. I'm about to find out exactly how much work that is.

For the mean time, though, I am gardening in my mind. I am imagining where I will put the parsnips, the tomatoes, the beans and the zucchini. I am looking critically at the sunlight in the yard at various times of the day, pretending that I have any ability at all to estimate where the sun will be at the same time of day in July. I am arranging for compost to be delivered from my parents' house (the best compost in the world, by the way). I even bought seeds. Now that is the part where commitment comes in! The style of gardening that I have in mind is the French kitchen garden or potager. The potager typically uses intensive gardening methods to get a huge yield out of a relatively small plot. Soil is cultivated to at least 18 inches to allow roots to reach down and plants to reach straight up. Another feature of the potager is that there is typically a mix of ornamental flowers with the vegetables. Strange bedfellows, perhaps, but no more strange than sweet and savory flavors in one dish. Why shouldn't the beautiful and the useful be combined? Maybe having the flowers in with the veggies will help show exactly how beautiful growing food can be.

Louis XIV even had a potager at Versailles, although I anticipate mine being of a slightly different scale!

I have grown herbs and tomatoes in pots for the past couple years, but I am eager to actually respond to what is in the garden with what I make in the kitchen. I anticipate a July full of tomatoes, a June of radishes and young greens, zucchini and beans throughout the season. September will be marked by parsnips, next January by the tomatoes I will can. My herb crusted chicken will be crusted with the herbs from my own garden: basil, parsley, chives, rosemary and more. My salads will sing with sweet peppers, nasturtium flowers and my very own lettuce.

I know that this will grow over time, though the years I will be able to both figuratively and metaphorically put down roots in my new home. Perennials finally seem worth it to me, and as they grow, I will too, learning to care for them and supply them with different companions over the years.

Cooking Up a (Surprise) Wedding

2007-01-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

Ingredients:
Take two people in love but sick of wedding planning, a minister, and four conspiratorial siblings.

Add four shocked parents, a magical setting, 50 guests who have no idea what is going on, a few flowers, and an amazing cake (yum).

The result? One of the greatest weddings I've ever been to (though perhaps I'm biased since I was the bride!) On December 29, 2006, Mike and I decided to get married our own way on the night of our engagement party, six months before our planned wedding. It was not easy to keep this secret for more than a month, but it was definitely worth it.

I would love to expound on the amazing food we had at our wedding, but to be honest, I didn't eat a bite of it. Call it bridal jitters, preoccupation, or whatever else you want, but the only thing I ate was my wedding cake. The picture here is showing us cutting the cake using my dad's sword from the Navy, just as my parents did in 1973 and my sister and her husband did last summer.

We got the cake from the Dessert Deli in Amherst and it is truly the best wedding cake I have ever eaten. We actually ended up choosing almost the same flavor cake as my sister had at her wedding: chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream filling and white buttercream on the outside. It had the added benefit of being really beautiful, painted with maroon and gold scrolls and a few flowers. Six days after the wedding I shared some of the cake with my coworkers and it still tasted terrific. This was a cake that was worth going back for seconds. I just can't wait until December 29, 2007 when we get to eat the defrosted top layer. If that tastes good, I'll know that this is truly the best cake in the world!

Dessert Deli
716 Maple Road
Amherst, NY 14221
716.689.2115
www.dessertdelibakery.com

I'm Back! (with a festive dip)

2006-12-17T17:56:00.000-05:00

I feel a need to offer an explanation for my absence this past month. We bought a house. A real one with walls and floors, porch and yard, and, of course, a kitchen! It is a mess and we have no idea where we are going to put everything, but it is ours, and that feels damn good.

Saturday night was our first get-together in the house. We opened the doors to friends and family to warm the house, stock the bar and eat yummy food. I came upon a recipe for spinach artichoke dip and ended up changing it around to suit my tastes. I have made it a few times now and it has been a hit every time. To take a little pressure off the new homeowners, my mother made this recipe and brought it Saturday night.

Stay tuned for the adventures of my new kitchen, hang tight while I wait for my internet to be re-connected, and in the mean time, enjoy the holiday season, lights, and spirit!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup sour cream*
1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. salt
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
2 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese*
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine 1/2 cup mozzarella, sour cream, 2 T of the Parmesan cheese and the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and combine well. Spoon mixture into a baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Mozzarella and 2T Parmesan cheeses. Bake for 30 minutes until brown. Yield: 5 1/2 cups

*I used fat free sour cream and one fat free cream cheese and one 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese. It turned out great and was a lot lighter on the hips!

S'mores Indoors

2006-11-21T19:28:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about living in an historic neighborhood with beautiful, traditional, old houses is the fireplaces that my friends and I have at our disposal. Nothing says cozy like a crackling fire on a day when it was dark by 5pm. Even better, though, is bringing summer and winter together in an almost impossibly delicious hands-on dessert: s'mores indoors. The name was coined by my friend Rob, but it finally has grown up a little bit over the last week.

Getting together for the hockey game last week with the carbonnade was great, but we needed to wash down all the manly stew with a good winter dessert. Leftover Hershey's Kisses from Halloween was the only chocolate available, which meant we needed to be creative about our s'more construction. The answer turned out to be what you see here. We toasted the marshmallows until they were golden brown and mushy all the way through. We upended them onto graham crackers and pushed the kisses down into the soft centers of the marshmallows. We left them to sit for about 30 seconds before eating them and the chocolate, warmed from their little marshmallow sweaters, was completely melted.

Who knew campfire food could be so sophisticated? Then again, who knew dinner party dessert could be so fun?

Carbonnade a la Flamande

2006-11-12T16:54:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday night we got together with friends and neighbors to watch the hockey game. I made dinner for the group, and wanting to choose something that mixed well with hockey, I decided that the food had better actually be made out of beer. The ingredients of this stew were declared to be "manly" by my neighbor - beef, beer and bacon, for starters. While the ingredients may be manly, the appeal of this carbonnade extends to both genders without any problem.

A carbonnade is technically just a beef stew that is made with beer. Carbonnade a la flamande is a traditional dish that originated in Northern France and Belgium. There are two differences you may see between a traditional carbonnade and the recipe here. The first is the absence of vinegar in my recipe. I'm not crazy about the flavor that it gives the dish. That said, you are more than welcome to add in about 1-1/2 teaspoons of red vine vinegar if you so desire. The second difference is the thickener used. Some of the carbonnade recipes I found call for slices of bread spread with dijon mustard that are placed on top of the stew while it cooks. These are then incorporated into the stew at the end as a thickener (and introducing the mustard flavor to the stew). I chose the simpler flour method for this recipe, which was used in many of the other carbonnade recipes I found.

This stew makes a lot of sauce, so to take advantage of all that great flavor and to slip some extra nutrients into my meal, I added carrots and parsnips to the recipe. You could always add potatoes, which are a more traditional option, but I thought the sweetness of the carrots and parsnips blended beautifully with the stew.

Although this was a Saturday night feast, this stew definitely falls into my category of things to cook on a Sunday. After minimal preparation, I spent the next two hours hopping up off the couch to see if it was done. My advice to you: set the timer for about two hours, put in a movie and stay on the couch until the buzzer goes off. Like most stews, this is even better the next day and it freezes really well. Feel free to double the recipe for a larger group or to take advantage of the leftovers after busy work days in the future.

Carbonnade a la flamande

2 thick slices of bacon, chopped
1-1/4 cup sweet onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 pound stew beef, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bottle dark beer (12 ounces)*
1 cup beef broth
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 bay leaves

3 carrots, peeled
3 parsnips, peeled

Preheat oven to 325 F. In a large Dutch oven over medium heat add the bacon. Cook until some of the fat begins to render. Add the onion and salt. Cook until the onion is translucent and limp, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds longer. Remove onion mixture from the pan and set aside.

Combine the flour and pepper in a bowl. Add the beef and stir well to coat the meat. In the same Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the meat and brown it on all sides, toasting the flour well, about 4-5 minutes.

Add the beer, tomatoes, and beef broth. Scrape the bottom of the pan to release the browned bits. Add the onion mixture back to the pan. Add the brown sugar, mustard, thyme, and bay leaves. Combine well, cover, and cook in the oven for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours. The meat should be fork-tender.

Meanwhile, cut the carrots and parsnips into 1/2 inch slices. In a medium saucepan, cover the vegetables with water and boil until tender. Drain and set aside. Add to the stew when finished.**

(makes 6 servings)

* I used Saranac Black and Tan, which turned out great and had the bonus of being from my native New York State. For a more traditional flavor, aim for a Belgian ale, particularly a tripel.

** The vegetables will heat up really quickly once they are added to the stew. These can be cooked in advance and added to the stew when it is done, just be sure not to overcook them.

Sweet Fig Compote

2006-11-09T21:53:00.000-05:00

In my family we have what can only be characterized as a condiment problem. My sister actually drank ketchup with a straw when she was little (to be fair, I think it was a dare, but note that there was no reward involved and we only had to ask her once). For Christmas one year, my brother and I gave her a six-pack of mustard. And she loved it.

I currently have 7 different varieties of jam open in my fridge, not to mention the 5 varieties of mustard, ketchup, hoisin sauce, peanut butter, and marmalade. Mike noticed this recently and nearly threw a fit. He could not believe the number of different jams that were open. I put some good effort into finishing one of them to reduce the number. Then I opened another.

It only follows that I would like to make even more condiments to add to my collection. Dishes don't feel complete to me unless they are served with something: a sauce, a gravy or (dare I say) a compote. It allows for each bite to have a different flavor. More condiments mean more different and delicious bites I can compose right there on my plate.

In my entry on Savory Fig Compote, I promised a sweet version, so here it is. This plays off the flavors of the Mediterranean, using honey and lemon to enhance the earthy sweetness of the fig. The little bit of salt in this recipe is important for balancing the flavors, making the sweetness of the honey a bit more evident.

This is outstanding paired with Gorgonzola on baguette, as shown above, but don’t forget to try this with pork tenderloin or roasted chicken, spread it on some toast made with wonderfully grainy bread, or drop a dollop onto some unsweetened yogurt for a real treat.

Sweet Fig Compote

1 cup dried figs, chopped
1 cup water
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons honey

In a small pot over medium-low heat, combine figs, water, raisins and salt. Cook until reduced to a jam consistency. Add vanilla, lemon juice, and honey. Cook about 2 minutes longer.

(makes about 1-1/2 cups)

Sunday Frittata

2006-11-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

Weekend mornings are great times to indulge in brunch, but I am usually not in the mood for a fussy restaurant brunch that involves hollandaise sauce and mimosas. We typically head around the corner to our favorite Greek restaurant, Mythos, or we settle in at home with a pot of coffee and make a frittata.

The challenge for me on a Sunday morning is to be unspeakably lazy and still enjoy and indulgent brunch as though I had been cooking all morning. A frittata is the perfect solution because it is cooked in the oven and does not need the kind of attention that omelettes or pancakes require. Frittatas can also be really healthy brunch options, unlike many of the restaurant options, depending on what kind of fillings you add. I usually pack mine full of veggies to increase the bulk of the breakfast (not to mention the wonderful flavors) and give myself a few of my 9 servings of vegetables that are very hard to get in on a Sunday!

The one I made this morning was a really basic version that took advantage of what was available in the fridge. The one thing that separates a normal frittata from a great one is using fresh herbs. I like to use a mixture of basil, parsley, and chives normally. This morning I only had parsley and thyme and it still added a bright fresh flavor to the breakfast.

The general formula that I follow is veggies + egg + cheese + fresh herbs = frittata goodness. Very simple. Just be sure to saute the vegetables if necessary to get rid of extra moisture and it is sure to be a success. When I finish it in the oven the egg poofs up, resulting in a remarkably light but filling lazy breakfast.

Basic Frittata

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced sweet peppers (I used green, red, and yellow)
5 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 eggs
1 cup egg beaters *
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1-2 Tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (basil, parsley, chives, thyme, chervil, or cilantro)
2 oz grated or crumbled cheese**

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in an oven-safe medium skillet. Add the onions and peppers and saute until limp. Add the spinach and heat through.

Meanwhile, combine the eggs, egg beaters, salt, pepper and herbs in a small bowl. Whisk vigorously to break the yolks and lighten the eggs.

Add the egg mixture to the vegetables. Move the mixture around in the pan to begin cooking the eggs, about 1-2 minutes. Slide the pan into the oven and cook until firm, about five minutes. If you would like the frittata browned on top, put it under the broiler for about a minute when it is almost set. Remember that the handle will be extremely hot when you take it out of the oven.

This can be eaten immediately or can wait for a bit while the bacon and toast are finishing! (also makes great leftovers!)

(serves 4)

* This recipe will work just fine with 8 eggs or 2 cups of egg substitute, as your diet dictates. I mix the two for a good compromise of indulgence and health.

** I used goat cheese, which was great. Try to choose a cheese that goes well with the flavors of your fillings. I usually use Swiss, cheddar or goat cheese because they have such good flavors.

Boo! Happy Halloween!

2006-11-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a princess for Halloween. My mom indulged my whim (probably thanking the stars above that I didn't want to be a fried egg, like my neighbor did). And so my mom made me a blue, pink, and silver princess dress, complete with sequins and a poofy skirt. It was absolutely magical. Until it was time to go trick-or-treating. It was snowing outside, as it sometimes does in Western New York at the end of October. Suddenly I was the princess in a parka.

Night before last I was a witch, in hat only, and had some friends over to sit on the porch, all bundled up, and enjoy that when the first princess came up to the door, she was wearing a parka and she still looked like a perfect little princess.

We get so many kids coming by on Halloween that there is no point going up to our apartment. We just camp out on the front porch and enjoy ourselves. My favorite trick (appropriated from my friend Devon) is to put apple cider in the crockpot, leave it on low all night and plant a bottle of rum next to it. The cider was hot and ready all night and kept us toasty down there on the porch (the rum probably helped too!)

The other night was a perfect time to feature squash, another of my favorite Autumn foods. This soup can either be a spicy soup or a sweeter one, it is up to you, but the salty bacon, fresh, bright scallions, sweet pears, and smooth squash make an amazing combination.

Spicy (or not) Squash Soup

1 cup onion, chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
5 cups butternut squash (about 2-2.5 lbs)
4 cups water
1 teaspoon chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped (optional)
1 pear, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon olive oil
6 strips bacon, cooked to a crisp and crumbled
2 green onions, green parts only, sliced

Peel squash, cut vertically and scoop out and discard seeds and pulp. Cut into about 1 inch pieces.

Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottom pan over medium heat. Add onions and salt. Saute until very soft and translucent. Do not allow to brown. Add ginger and cook about 30 seconds longer.

Add squash and water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Add chipotle pepper if using.

Using caution with the hot liquid, transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and process until smooth.

In a separate pan, heat the additional teaspoon of olive oil over high heat. When very hot, add the chopped pear and cook until brown around the edges.

Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with bacon, green onion and pear and serve.

(serves 6-8)

Roasted Cornish Hens with Apples and Onions

2006-10-29T22:53:00.000-05:00

Sunday is the best day of the week for roasting things. Typically roasts require little in terms of attention and work, but they do require that you be present, even if that means doing the crossword puzzle in your pajamas at three in the afternoon.

Sundays are also my favorite day for making a special meal, the kind that brings people together and nurtures them before everyone parts ways and heads back into a hectic week. A Sunday dinner can be a sort of weekly Thanksgiving, both in the foods served and the recognition of another weekend past and the work that lies ahead.

The magical thing about Sunday dinners is that they can be eaten each and every week, unlike Thanksgiving, which really only comes around once a year. Now is the time to start the tradition of the weekly roast – pot roast one week, a chicken the next, beef burgundy the week after that. All are dishes that take some time to become the perfect comfort foods, but what better excuse to sit around home, playing with pets, listening to the radio with your feet on the ottoman? Also, each of these foods can be nurturing and healthy if it is eaten in appropriate quantities with good, healthy seasonal side dishes. (Be sure to put the extra aside for convenient and yummy lunches in the beginning of the week.)

This recipe is one of my favorite ways to capture Autumn. The apples and onions infuse the chicken with flavor and also make a healthy and tasty sauce. This is one of the quicker roasting recipes because the birds are so small. The sauce takes a bit of work at the end, but it’s worth the couple of minutes.

Roasted Cornish Hens with Apples and Onions

2 Cornish Hens (mine were about 2-1/4 pounds each. I prefer them a bit smaller, but it was what I could find.)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large sweet onion, peeled and cut into 8 wedges
2 large apples, cored, unpeeled and cut into 8 wedges
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 cup brandy or Calvados
1 cup water or apple cider if you like a sweeter flavor

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Rinse and dry the hens. Season the hen both inside the cavity and outside with salt and pepper. Stuff each hen with one wedge of onion.

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is very hot, place the birds, breast side down, in the pan. Agitate to prevent them from sticking and cook for about 2 minutes, browning the skin of the bird. Reduce heat to medium, turn the hens breast side up and fill around the birds with the apples and onions. If there are too many, lift the birds up and pack the apples and onions underneath them. Sprinkle thyme over the entire mixture.

Cover and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove cover, increase the oven temperature to 425 F and continue cooking until the skin begins to crisp and an oven thermometer reads 175 F when inserted in the drumstick or until the juices run clear, about another 15 minutes.

Remove the hens from the pan, set aside and cover with foil to keep them warm. Return the Dutch oven to the burner over medium heat. Add the brandy or Calvados and the water. Mash the mixture with a potato masher to break up the apples. Force the mixture through a sieve, using the back of a wooden spoon, into a smaller saucepan. Discard the solids. Cook the sauce until it is reduced to a gravy consistency and the alcohol is cooked off, about 4-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Using a large knife, cut each bird down the middle of the breast bone. Serve each person a half of a hen with sauce.

(makes 4 servings)

Happy Birthday, Dad. Nice vinaigrette!

2006-10-28T18:46:00.000-04:00

First, and most importantly, I want to wish my dear Dad a very happy 64th birthday. The Beatles asked it all those years ago: “will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” Well, I can assure you that we still need our Dad, adults or not, and we are certainly still feeding him!

Tonight brings a dinner of my Mom’s famous chili, cornbread, and a salad. Hors d’oeuvres will be 2 different cheeses with both sweet and savory fig compote as well as a spinach-artichoke dip with pita chips. For dessert, Mom made a traditional grocery store packaged cake (Dad’s pick), which of course she dressed up with her own touches.

But I want to go back for a moment to the maligned salad. Presented as the extra, obligatory vegetable that accompanies the otherwise indulgent and exciting dishes, salad is usually what we eat to make ourselves feel better about what we are eating. When salads are made well, though, with fresh ingredients that contrast and play off of each other, a salad can be a symphony in your mouth.

Salad dressing is almost always better if you make it yourself. It does not need to be hard or take a long time, but I can tell you that the one tool that will make dressing making a breeze is either a blender or an immersion (stick) blender. Your dressing will whip up in no time. You can always use a fork and some quick wrist action too.

My formula for great salad is assorted greens + fresh fruit (pears are great) + dried fruit (cranberries or cherries) + cheese (feta or blue) + a great dressing. Note the combination of sweet and savory!

Basic Vinaigrette

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons garlic or 1 teaspoon shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar or 4 teaspoons maple syrup
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine mustard, vinegar, garlic or shallot, salt, pepper and sugar or maple syrup. Blend well to ensure that the salt is dissolved. While still blending, slowly pour in the oil.

Note: I prefer the shallot to the garlic, it had a bit of a softer flavor and the maple had a very subtle but good Fall flavor.

Celebrating Autumn: Pears

2006-10-26T07:02:00.000-04:00

I’m going through a pear phase. I think I might have a problem. I’m talking one or two pears a day. I like to talk about eating seasonally, but I think I might be going overboard with this one. My current favorite is the Red Bartlett pear. This is one of the most beautiful fruits I have ever seen. They have become the subject of talk around my office, once even being mistaken for mangoes by a passerby.

So I did a little research on pears to find out what, exactly, I have been eating so much of. Pears originated in Asia – and that isn’t just Asian pears, I mean all of them. They ended up spreading into Europe and finally to England where a Mr. William was given some of the pear cuttings. He then turned around and named the variety after himself. I think this takes a special kind of arrogance, like someone giving me a basil plant and me responding with “This plant will now be called the Holloway plant.” Mr. William should be given a bit of credit, though, for creating Poire William – a fantastic pear brandy.

Next the pear made the ocean voyage to the Americas. Again it was renamed, this time by Enoch Bartlett in Massachusetts. I suppose we are lucky – it could have been called the Enoch pear.

Pears are a bit of a difficult fruit. I have always had a terrible time figuring out when they are ripe. My propensity has been to choose overripe pears and I am typically disappointed. Pears do not ripen on the tree. Unlike other fruits, they are best when picked unripe and allowed to ripen on the counter. This prevents them from becoming grainy. Once ripe, they can be refrigerated to halt their ripening. What this means is that you can choose exactly when to eat your pear by poking at it every day to see if it is ready yet. Since I have about five pears around at any given time these days, I usually have one that is ready to eat. The best way to tell if a pear is ripe is to press gently on its neck. You should feel it give a bit under gentle pressure. The even simpler test is to smell it. Basically, a ripe pear should smell like a pear.

There are about a million wonderful things you can do with pears – Pear tarts, a topping for oatmeal, sliced in a salad, and as an accompaniment to that wonderful gorgonzola I keep talking about. Right now, though, my favorite way to eat my red Bartletts is to cut them into eight wedges and savor every bite!

Check out this website for more great pear recipe ideas.

Curried Chicken Salad

2006-10-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

When dinner just cannot come fast enough, there is nothing like the rotisserie chickens that they sell at the grocery. I also happen to live in a place with the best grocery stores in the world. Wegmans has some of the best prepared foods I have ever tried, and I found out tonight that they even put a sushi bar in the store!

The chicken I bought tonight was a roasted garlic chicken, with whole cloves of garlic tucked under the skin of the chicken and roasted along with the bird. What wonderful flavor – I had never thought to do that. The advantage of the roasted chickens is that they allow you to enjoy a meal of roasted chicken and use the leftovers to make a recipe that calls for cooked chicken.

I first had curried chicken salad at a little restaurant called Rue de L’Espoir in Providence, Rhode Island. One of my best friends went to Brown University and we would head to Rue de L’Espoir on Hope Street (get it?!) for brunch whenever I went down to visit her. I can still taste the curried chicken salad wrap as though I had it yesterday.

Unfortunately, when you are trying to eat like a healthy, responsible adult, chicken salad does not usually fit into the program, which is quite frankly heartbreaking to me. Luckily, curry and yogurt go hand-in-hand and fat free yogurt is easy to find. The celery in this recipe adds both bulk and a bright fresh flavor to the salad. The chutney is spicy, sharp and tangy, a terrific foil for the creaminess of the sauce

The sauce that is used for this salad has other great uses. It makes an excellent dip and it is also a really good marinade for grilled chicken. The yogurt tenderizes the chicken and the spices make it taste wonderful.

Curried Chicken Salad

Sauce:
6 oz plain yogurt (I used fat free)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro*
1.5 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Salad:
1 cup chopped cooked chicken (breast meat)
1 cup chopped celery
1 scallion, finely chopped
1/2 cup raisins

4 Tablespoons Major Grey Chutney

Drain the yogurt in cheesecloth in a sieve.** Combine all sauce ingredients, mix into salad ingredients. Serve on a lettuce leaf, in a pita, or on a roll with the chutney as an accompaniment. (makes 3 generous servings)

* If you hate cilantro, as many people do, replace with about a tablespoon of chopped fresh flat parsley for a bright flavor.

** This is optional, but I like the slightly thicker texture. If you are in a hurry or don’t have the equipment, just pour any liquid off the top of the yogurt and soldier on. I used a coffee filter, which worked quite well.

What to do with smuggled fruit?

2006-10-22T21:46:00.000-04:00

There comes a time in every woman’s life when she finally has to face the fact that the things in the cupboard are not going to cook themselves. Today was one of those days for me.

Last January, Mike and I were returning home from our vacation to Chile and I accidentally imported a bag of dried figs. I honestly don’t remember whether I knew that I had the figs or not, but either way, there they are, ten months later, on my cupboard shelf. And they aren’t cooking themselves, I’ve noticed.

On the heels of my gift of cheese, I decided to use these prized fruits to make a compote to go along with the gorgonzola. This is my first version, but you can be sure that there will be a “sweet” version to go with this “savory” one.

Savory Fig Compote

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup sweet onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried figs, chopped
3/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme

Combine the figs and brandy in a small bowl. Allow to soak, reconstituting and softening the fruit.

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and salt and begin to sauté, stirring occasionally. Continue to cook gradually caramelizing the onions, about 20 minutes.

Once the onions are golden brown and very sweet, add the figs and brandy. Cook down until the liquid is evaporated and add the water and thyme. Continue to cook until the mixture resembles a thick jam. (makes about 1.5 cups)

About Savory & Sweet

2006-10-21T14:48:00.000-04:00

Savory & Sweet is the blog of Holloway Constantine - a food loving 28 year old woman from Buffalo New York.

The Gorgonzola Gift

2006-10-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

We had a massive storm here last week. A freak "October Surprise" as I reluctantly admit that the media are calling it. Two feet of snow fell on Western New York, and with all the leaves still on the trees, not even displaying their fiery colors yet, the heavy, wet snow clung to the branches and brought trees down all over the region. Streets were impassible, there was a driving ban throughout the region, and, as though mocking us, the sun shone brightly the day after the storm, illuminating the beautiful snow and heartbreaking destruction.

Of course the limbs also brought down power lines all over the region. Power was out everywhere including the Lexington Co-op, our local whole foods store. To be completely truthful, I have not always loved the Co-op, but it is growing on me, and it struck me to the core when I heard that because of the power outage none of the perishables at the Co-op could be sold.

I walked out of my house on Saturday afternoon to go to the grocery down the street that actually still had the lights on. Across the street a woman whom I vaguely recognized hollered "Do you like cheese, by any chance?" Do I ever! "Um, yea," I replied. She held out an enormous (quarter round) of gorgonzola. Barbara, it turns out, is the cheese monger at the Co-op. She had cut the cheese into four wedges and encouraged me to share.

What a gift to be able to give! This was, hands down, the creamiest, most wonderful gorgonzola I have ever eaten. With a bit of crusty bread and slices of crisp, sweet pear - yum!