Madison Dinner Club

Rabbit with Rosemary and Mustard - Jan 27, 2012

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-06:00

Nick's Aunt Judy is a talented and experienced home cook and an amazing recipe resource. A few years ago I asked her to share some recipes for cooking rabbit, as I had had some at a restaurant and loved it. Promptly, a nice fat envelope arrived in the mail full of fun recipes utilizing my new favorite meat. Less promptly on my part, did I actually use any of them.

A perfect opportunity arose, however, when I stopped by my favorite butcher shop, Clancey's, on my way home from work last week and saw they had fresh rabbit behind the counter. One came home with me and I dug out those recipes. I decided on making 'Rabbit with Rosemary and Pommery Mustard,' which, if I'm reading Judy's documentation correctly, appears to be from the April 1983 issue of Contemporary Cuisine.

This particular recipe required me to debone the rabbit, which was quite enjoyable, educational, and somewhat similar to deboning a turkey. The rabbit meat gets sauteed in butter with onion, shallot, and garlic until nicely browned. Next I deglazed the pan with white wine (Judy has added a note here to make sure one uses 'good wine'), added some herbs, and simmered everything for about 20 minutes to cook the rabbit through. Once the rabbit is cooked, I removed it and continued to simmer the sauce to reduce it. I took some liberties with the recipe at this point, adding slightly less cream and opting to spend less time on the reduction process. I added mustard (although not pommery, just some that we had in the fridge) and chopped fresh rosemary, along with salt and pepper to taste. We served the rabbit and sauce over some rigatoni pasta. It was delicious and so fun to finally cook rabbit at home. I think I have quite a bit more to learn, but it should be an enjoyable process.

Roasted Chioggia Beets over Spaetzle - Jan 25, 2012

2012-01-30T14:17:00.000-06:00

Nick and I have a large number of root vegetables from our CSA. They're great because they store beautifully for months, which is especially good in our household since I have trouble being creative with them. I was making this meal up as I went along, popping some Chioggia beets in the oven to roast as I figured out the rest of the details. I knew that I wanted to use some of the sour cream we had in the fridge, because next to goat cheese, it's a beet's best friend. But on what should I serve this vaguely Eastern European combination? After flipping through our copy of 'How to Cook Everything,' which I had consulted to determine how I should roast the beets (individually wrapped in foil in a 400 deg oven for roughly 45 minutes, if you're curious), I decided on spaetzle. We hadn't made spaetzle in ages, it's quick, delicious, and seemed to fit the theme nicely.

It turned out much better than I could have hoped for upon starting to cook. I garnished with a little fennel frond. Dill may have been the more traditional choice, but I didn't have any of that, so fennel it was. It added a light and fresh flavor in addition to the pop of color.

And speaking of a pop of color, the beets were so beautiful that I couldn't resist some fun with color gradation.

Buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy - January 29, 2012

2012-01-29T11:38:00.000-06:00

I apologize for being mostly MIA this month. As seems to happen every year, January has been extremely busy at work with travel and learning a new territory and new programs.

So far, the new territory is great. I used to work most of the east coast, from South Carolina through New England and west to include Michigan and Ohio. That meant lots of trips to New York and Philadelphia. Great food cities, but major PITA for travel. Proof: while the airports in that region handle just 12% of the domestic flights, they account for 50% of the delays!

As of January 1, I go only as far north as Maryland and Delaware and continue to work in the Carolinas as well as picking up Tennessee and Kentucky. Also, we had our company meeting in Atlanta this year (this is the same meeting we usually have in Phoenix, where last year I managed to run into fellow Dinner Clubber and old friend Nick!). All that southern travel has given me hankering for good old biscuits and gravy, which I unfortunately have to pass up in restaurants since they are likely leavened with baking powder than contains corn starch. Boo.

But I think I have now mastered an at home, from scratch version of the classic southern breakfast dish that beats most roadside diners and rivals that of true southern cooks!

It actually starts the day before when I make sausage as a topping for pizza (which I'm still trying to master... I'll write about that soon). I have experimented with several different flavors, but my favorite for both pizza and the day-after-breakfast is a slightly spicy fennel sausage.

Sausage
1 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons toasted and lightly pounded fennel seeds
1 large (or two small) garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix gently with your hands. Cook a small portion to see if the seasoning is to your liking and adjust.

Then I use about half the sausage for the pizza and save the other half for breakfast the next day (this also keeps nicely for a week or so in the fridge so you don't necessarily have to do the pork overload of back-to-back meals!).

I've tried a few different recipes for buttermilk biscuits and have combined a few to create what I think is a winner. Tasty, flaky, and easy. What more could you ask for?

The key to making this recipe really easy is the pastry blender.

I finally bought one a couple months ago and I it has changed my life. That is a bit hyperbolic, but not really! I use it for biscuits, pies crust, and flour tortillas. I no longer need to drag out and then clean the bulky food processor, nor do I struggle to use knives or a forks to "cut in" butter.

Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use Hain's Featherweight)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk dry ingredients together, then add the butter use a pastry blender to mix. Leave a few large clumps of butter. Stir in the buttermilk with a wooden spoon until the mixture is a soft, slightly sticky ball. Transfer dough to floured surface and form into a rough ball (don't overmix!). Use dough cutter to divide dough into 8-12 equal size pieces. Shape and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until biscuit tops are light brown.

I'm still working on a system for dividing and shaping so that they come out prettier, but the taste and texture is perfect.

While the biscuits are baking, you can start the gravy.

Sausage Gravy
1/2 pound sausage
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (whole is best, but reduced fat tastes fine too)
Optional: Tabasco for additional heat, salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the sausage over medium heat until not pink. Sprinkle flour over sausage and cook until everything starts to get a nutty brown (about 3-5 minutes). Slowly add milk in three or four additions, stirring between each addition. Reduce heat and cover, allow to cook until thick.

Place two biscuits on a plate and smother with gravy (you may have extra biscuits - they freeze nicely). Enjoy!

Pork Rillette - Jan 18, 2012

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

I wasn't kidding when I mentioned that Nick and I had been having 'snack-y' meals lately. Here's another one. This was definitely consumed while watching football. Pork rillettes are our favorite menu item these days and if a restaurant has these, or something similar (often referred to as 'potted meat'), rest assured we'll be ordering some along with our hearty winter beers. Pork rillettes are similar to pate, or confit...meat and fat cooked slowly and at great length until it turns into a rich, spreadable consistency. It is rustic, hearty and delicious.

I happened to find this little container of potted meat at my favorite local butcher shop, Clancey's. I was there picking up some other supplies and was delighted to find this. Nick and I served it with the remaining crusty bread (purchased for our French onion soup), some quick pickled red onions (white vinegar and pepper corns), my homemade sage and Sauternes jelly, and a hearty mustard. Delicious! This is my new favorite hors d'oeuvres, hostess gift, and quick weeknight dinner.

Here are my other Clancey's goods. Lard, rendered on site, for my pie crusts, of course. And in the back there? Duck fat. Hell yeah.

French Onion Soup - Jan 17, 2012

2012-01-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

French onion soup is one of my all-time favorites. It's so simple and so delicious. It is absolutely perfect for cold winter evenings. Light a candle, open a bottle of red wine, and you're all set for a cozy night. This is another repeated recipe (I realize I'm on quite a roll). Nick and I did this last Valentine's Day. The recipe serves two, which is why I love it so much.

Here's my pot full of sliced onions and thyme. I think it's magical that this ends up as this:

A slice of crusty bread and some good quality Gruyere cheese makes a perfect crouton. I could seriously eat this once a week.

Fennel and Grapefruit Salad - Jan 16, 2011

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

Here's another repeated dinner, but grapefruits are perfect right now! Nick and I made this last winter to accompany a delicious pork roast. Both recipes are from one of our favorite Madison restaurants, L'Etoile, and were featured in a Food & Wine article about the restaurant. This ended up being a nice, light dinner for us last week.

Sunchoke and Smoked Trout Spread - Jan 15, 2012

2012-01-23T15:03:00.000-06:00

Nick and I have been enjoying some 'snack-y' dinners of late. It could have something to do with the NFL playoffs, but I'm not sure. This was the latest rendition of our favorite sunchoke and smoked trout salad from Asparagus to Zucchini, that I've posted many, many times before. Instead of a bed of greens, we decided to serve it up party-style with slices of carrots and beauty heart radishes and crackers. It was good, as usual.

Golabki: Stuffed Polish Cabbage Rolls - Jan 5, 2011

2012-01-14T09:00:00.001-06:00

This was an inspired meal... inspired by finding a darling little head of savoy cabbage from our CSA hiding in the back of the refrigerator. I was first introduced to stuffed cabbage rolls by Rima, founding Dinner Club member, and amazing cook. In her Lithuanian family, these are called Balandeliais, which means 'little doves.' After doing some research into my own Polish heritage, I found that we Poles call them Golabki, which translates similarly to 'little pigeons.' In fact, almost every Eastern European country has their own version, and you can find many of them listed here. Making these is a really fun process. I did it pretty quickly on a weeknight, but I already had the rice cooked from a previous meal.

The first step involved boiling the whole head of cabbage until the leaves were soft and pliable. I only used about ten leaves, but the rest of the cabbage can be chopped up and used as a bed for the golabkis to rest upon while baking (and is quite delicious served on the side). One thing that helps the leaves become more pliable is shaving down the thick center stem a bit, being careful not to cut through the leaf.

After mixing the rice, cooked onions, raw ground beef, garlic and seasonings together, I placed it on my leaves and rolled them up just like a burrito.

Next, I nestled them all into my Dutch oven, on the aforementioned bed of cabbage. I poured some beef broth over them and let them cook for an hour or so. Nick and I topped ours with sour cream, although depending on which recipe you choose there are different assorted sauces. These were so delicious and so much fun to make. I think we'll be doing these again soon.

Ranchers' Pie - Jan 4, 2012

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

This is a variation on shepards' pie that we've enjoyed a couple of times so far this winter. Because it includes ground beef in place of the traditional lamb, I've changed the name to something a bit more suitable. Try as I might, I cannot swallow ground lamb without it inducing a gag reflex. Something about the flavor just does not work for me. It's a bit upsetting, as I love everything else about sheep and harbor a secret dream of owning one or two someday. They're so irresistibly woolly! But, I digress. In addition to the substitution of beef for lamb, I've also topped our hearty winter pie with sweet potato mash, rather than regular potatoes. We have quite a few of them to work through from our CSA, and they are so lovely.

The recipe I follow is one from my sister Kate. It's originally from Gordon Ramsay, although I've made quite a few changes to it that I'm sure he wouldn't be happy about. But, I like his use of fresh herbs and red wine. In addition to the big changes I mentioned above, I also cut the recipe in half since it was just Nick and I for dinner. It works well both in a souffle pan or, as I did this time, in individual ramekins. The two of us each ate one ramekin and after some discussion decided to split another, leaving us with just one to save for later.

Cuban Sweet Potato Wraps - Jan 3, 2012

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

These probably look pretty similar to the sweet potato wraps I posted about a week or so ago, and they are, but for the addition some ham and black beans. I had some black beans in the freezer and some Christmas ham from my mom, and so decided to combine them along with some cumin and coriander. I roasted some sweet potato cubes tossed in coconut oil (one of my favorite combinations). Once the sweet potatoes and rice were ready, I simply reheated the black bean and ham mix. Nick and I wrapped everything up with the addition of some shredded cheese and coconut flakes. These were delicious, and more flavorful than our previous attempt.

Sausages with White Beans and Kale - Dec, 2011

2012-01-11T09:00:00.001-06:00

Alright, I think this is our last remaining 'Chez Jess and Nick' meal to post from 2011. Sadly, the details are foggy as so much time has passed. I believe this dish consisted of sauteed red kale from our CSA, combined with onions and cannellini beans and topped with pan-cooked sausage segments. Nothing too fancy, just another bowl of winter comfort food. One might even call it a 'cheater's cassoulet.'

Now that my 2011 housekeeping is done, it's time to move on to some fun and exciting new meals for 2012. Any cooking goals this year, Dinner Clubbers?

Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Bacon - Dec, 2011

2012-01-10T09:00:00.001-06:00

The December housekeeping continues with this really fun meal that Nick and I enjoyed a few weeks back. It was fun for a number of reasons, the first being that the Brussels sprouts came in one of our last CSA deliveries of the year. And, they came on their stalks! I was so excited when I first learned how Brussels sprouts grow. It is certainly not clear if you find them as individual bulbs, which is, more often than not, how one finds them. I don't know how I thought Brussels sprouts grew...perhaps like tiny rows of cabbages in the field? Perhaps I didn't much think of Brussels sprouts at all, but regardless, now every time I see them on their stalks it brings a big smile to my face. This is neither here nor there, but it's also fun to know how pineapples grow.

The second reason this meal was fun was because it contained very special bacon. My friend Walter made it. That's right, he cured his own bacon, and then gave me some of it. I have to say, it was the best bacon I've ever had. It came my way in a little unsliced chunk, which meant that I got to cut it up however I wanted. I decided on squat little cubes. They fried up into golden, crispy morsels that melted into puddles of bacon goodness on our tongues. We have good friends.

The recipe came from here, but I traded the tofu for the bacon. I always feel a little guilty doing that to Heidi's lovely vegetarian recipes, but, come on, it was homemade bacon! Incidentally, if you click the recipe link, you'll see a beautiful picture of Brussels sprouts on the stalk. Heidi is a fan too.

Red Lentils with Bacon and Blue Cheese - Dec, 2011

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'm trying hard to remember the details of this meal. It was something that Nick and I made up on the fly one night last month. It turned out quite differently than I had planned, mostly because the lentils turned to mush in their cooking liquid, rather than holding their shape. Undaunted, I decided that we could work with that, and treated it like a polenta, mixing in some of the blue cheese and fresh rosemary for flavor. We put this in bowls and topped with some delicious, crispy bacon, blue cheese crumbles and fresh rosemary. It was quite flavorful, and a dinner that works well for a good, quick, comfort meal.

Black Beans and Rice with Pork and Apple Salsa - Dec, 2011

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

This was another meal prepared on one of the few nights Nick and I stayed in for dinner last month. I found the recipe in the January 2012 issue of Bon Appetit and thought it sounded fun. Of course, I made a few small changes, including swapping the chicken out for pork. My Mom had made a huge batch of slow cooked pork shoulder over the Christmas holiday and was lovely enough to send some home with us. The substitution worked extremely well. I didn't have a Granny Smith apple on hand, so I just used one of the Fireside apples that we bought at our last local farmers' market this fall. And, out of neccessity, I had to omit the cilantro and green pepper. I did, however, add in a bit of avocado, which is always welcome at our house. It was really, really good.

Sweet Potato Wraps - Dec, 2011

2012-01-07T12:00:00.001-06:00

I have just a bit of 2011 housekeeping to do before moving on to a fresh, bright new year. Nick and I did cook a bit in December, despite seeming to go out to eat nearly every night with visiting friends and family. This meal included a mix of brown basmati rice, boiled sweet potatoes, and ground pork, all tossed together with some cheese. Once I had everything mixed together, I wrapped it up into some whole wheat tortillas. It was very flavorful and a nice respite from all the rich, and bad-for-us food we'd been eating lately.

New Year's Eve Dinner - Dec 31, 2011

2012-01-06T16:36:00.000-06:00

While Jaime welcomed 2012 with prime rib, we said good-bye to 2011 with a New Year's Eve dinner of fish. Steelhead trout to be exact. This year's dinner was a group effort, with Nick cooking the fish, along with the parsnip mash topped with caramelized onions, both of which were delicious. I made the wild rice side, which included dried cranberries, toasted hazelnuts, and a mustard vinaigrette. And Kate, who was our lone remaining house guest post-Christmas holiday, made dessert.

This is Devil's Food Cake with Black Pepper Boiled Icing, which is a recipe from Bon Appetit's September 2011 issue. Kate whipped this up from scratch, in an unfamiliar kitchen, with sub-par tools (I am not much of a baker, my friends, and as such, do not have all the equipment needed for this precision craft...like a third cake pan and a high-quality candy thermometer). Of course, the cake was amazing (as is Kate), and I was excited that my little kitchen torch got some use.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful send off to 2011!

New Year's Day Dinner - January 1, 2012

2012-01-03T12:50:00.000-06:00

It has become a Hartman tradition to have a prime rib roast for some holiday each year. The first time was for Thanksgiving, but then we started going up to New York to spend the holiday with family. A couple years we did it on Christmas Eve Eve, before leaving for Florida the next morning... but that meant that the delicious leftovers languished in the fridge for a week and that was a serious shame! So this year it finally occurred to me that it would be appropriate to usher in the new year with a lavish prime rib dinner. Nothing like setting the right tone for the year to come!

This year I went all out, following the full set of directions in the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe (recipe here reprinted on Robert Mondavi Wines website) for making a prime rib roast with au jus and Yorkshire puddings. I failed to take my own picture, but here is the one from that site. Mine looked pretty much exactly like that... right down to the brussel sprouts that I roasted while the puddings were baking.

The only variation I had to make was that I couldn't find oxtails at either of the grocery stores I visited on New Year's Day morning (nothing like a last minute!) and ended up substituting neck bones, based on a suggestion I found via a quick Google on my smartphone.

For dessert I took the bag of frozen peaches from our tree I'd forgotten about and a bag of frozen raspberries I also found languishing in the freezer and turned to one of the cookbooks I asked for this Christmas after seeing it referenced in so many of my favorite cooking blogs, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion Cookbook. A quick perusal of the index and I located a recipe for a Peach-Raspberry Cobbler. Substitute arrowroot starch for the corn starch it called for, and it was perfect!

I also used one of my new toys to make some absolutely delicious corn-free homemade vanilla ice cream. I did remember to snap a very quick picture before it melted into a puddle.

Christmas Baking - Dec 23, 2011

2011-12-23T15:04:00.000-06:00

Cardamom Crescents

Merry Christmas Dinner Clubbers! It seems we all have cookies on our minds around here! I, too, have been doing a spot of baking in preparation for the Christmas holiday. I usually make traditional German Christmas cookies, but this year I decided to try something different. I've already made two batches of the delicious cardamom crescents. The first had me follow the recipe almost exactly, but for a small mistake I made by pulsing the pecans with granulated sugar in the food processor, rather than the powdered sugar called for in the recipe. They actually turned out so well that I repeated that 'mistake' in my second batch. The second batch also saw me adjust the cinnamon to cardamom ratio, since in the first batch the cinnamon seemed to overpower the more delicate cardamom flavor. I love cardamom, so in order for it to shine as the premier flavor, I replaced the cinnamon with more cardamom and simply added a dash of Penzey's Vietnamese Extra Fancy Cinnamon so as not to omit it completely. Both batches are delicious, but I'm a bit more partial to the second.

Rosemary-Lemon Shortbread

Next, I made some rosemary-lemon shortbread. Rosemary and lemon are two of my favorite winter flavors. They remind me of time spent in Northern California visiting Nick's brother and sister-in-law when they lived there. One Christmas, Greg and JJ were living in a house with a giant Meyer Lemon tree in the backyard and they sent a big bag of the happy, yellow fruit home to Minnesota with us. It was my first introduction to this delicious citrus fruit and I've been hooked ever since. They taste like sunshine on a snowy winter day. This recipe is one I've adapted from a Rosemary-Lemon Sandwich Cookie recipe in the February 2008 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. It's a basic shortbread recipe flavored with lemon zest and chopped fresh rosemary leaves. To really bring out the lemon flavor, I've replaced the vanilla with fresh squeezed lemon juice. It works fine to use regular lemons for this, but Meyer lemons give it an extra special flavor. These little guys are so good on their own that I've never felt the need to make the mascarpone cheese filling.

I am also going to make a batch of the Butterfinger truffles from December 2011's Bon Appetit, since Nick is a huge fan of that particular candy bar. Chocolate seems like just the right thing to complete this year's cookie offerings, don't you think?

A very Happy Christmas to you and yours! I hope your holidays are delicious.

Holiday Cookies - December 23, 2011

2011-12-23T10:40:00.000-06:00

Happy Festivus, Dinner Clubbers! Let the airing of grievances commence!

In addition to Festivus, today is "prepare-for-holiday-travels" day in the Hartman house, which included assembling cookie tins to bring our family and friends. I've been baking cookies and treats all December and stashing them in the freezer. I've rather enjoyed playing around in the kitchen and am grateful for the excuse to try out new sweet treats!

Almost every recipe this year was a new one, with the exception of the sugar cookie cutouts and the toffee bars I made on the last minute since I realized there was no chocolate represented among the selection. The sugar cookies and frosting are my sister's recipe and I make them every year without any modification. I'm pretty sure she got the recipe from someone else, but in her binder of recipes it doesn't indicate the source so I'm now going to give her credit. I love how the directions are so streamlined and assume this all pretty much common sense!

Lisa's Traditional Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions
Mix thoroughly, cover and chill for 1 hour. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick, cut into shapes. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 400 degrees.

Lisa's Vanilla Butter Frosting

Ingredients
1/3 cup unsalted butter (soft)
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Directions
Blend butter and sugar. Stir in vanilla and milk. Beat until frosting is smooth. Color as desired.

The other cookie recipes came primarily from two sources: the cookie spread in our Washington Post food section a few weeks ago and the cool cookie Advent calendar on Saveur's website. All were good, some outstanding!

Swiss Raspberry-Filled Sandwich Cookies

Coconut Cookies (modified to use coconut oil instead of butter)

Cherry Pistachio Oatmeal Cookies

Spiced Cranberry-Orange Zingers

White Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Cookies

Cardamom Scented Spritz Cookies (recipe from cookie press manual)

Toffee Bars (recipe from old Betty Crocker Cookbook)

A note for making cookies corn-free: Traditional baking powder and powdered sugar contain corn starch to keep everything from clumping, but corn-free varieties do exist. The organic powdered sugar from Whole Foods uses tapioca starch instead (you can also get some at Trader Joe's, but it is a seasonal item for them). The only baking powder without corn starch on the market is Hain's Featherweight. You can also get that at Whole Foods and other health food stores.

Other ingredients that can be problematic for someone who needs to avoid corn include the vanilla, butter, flour, and even the milk. Vanilla extract contains alcohol, which may or may not be made from corn. There is no way of knowing because they aren't required to list that on the label. To be safe, I make my own vanilla extract by seeping whole vanilla beans in potato vodka. Butter is tricky because some contain "natural flavors" which may or may not be derived from corn and sometimes lactic acid which is commonly derived from corn. I actually haven't had any problem with regular butters, but to be safe I use Trader Joe's (regular, not organic) unsalted butter which is the only one I've found that just has one ingredient: Grade A cream.

For the flour I use King Arthur All-Purpose Unbleached White Flour. I'm told bleached flour can be contaminated, but I never buy that anyway. Some people also have problems with the enrichments that they add to flour and to milk, but I seem to be fine with them. If you do want un-enriched flour and milk, look for organic flour and find a source for raw milk directly from a farm (unfortunately, not an option in Virginia as raw milk is illegal here).

Hope everyone has a very happy holiday, whatever you celebrate, and a happy, healthy, and delicious 2012!

Roast Beef & Gravy - December 17, 2011

2011-12-19T07:08:00.001-06:00

Yet another hearty, comfort food post from Jaime! The weather has finally turned wintry here in the DC area and this felt like the right kind of meal to warm us inside and out.

I seared the beef in my dutch oven, then transferred it to a roasting pan and slow roasted it for about 2 hours at 275 degrees, until it was medium rare. Meanwhile I utilized the fond and drippings in the dutch oven to make a gravy. I browned a "mirepoix" (love using fancy French cooking words!) of onions, carrots, and celery. Then tossed in some chopped garlic and flour and cooked for about a minute, then deglazed the pan with some red wine and added a full carton of beef broth. I let it all simmer for a good 20 minutes, until the gravy was thick, and strained out the solids. This was based roughly on a recipe I saw that included mushrooms before the mirepoix, but didn't have any on hand. Next time I'll try to include them. This was delicious but could definitely have been improved with an earthy counterbalance to the acidity of the wine.

If you have gravy, you must also have mashed potatoes which were prepared the standard way using lots of butter and milk.

During the last 30 minutes of roasting, I threw together some brussel sprouts tossed with olive oil and some of the sage and rosemary herb rub I made earlier this fall. I can't believe I used to turn my nose up at brussel sprouts! I adore them now, especially roasted so the outer edges get dark brown and crispy. I need to pick up a few more bags before the holiday season ends and they disappear from the stores.

A Tale of Two Soups - Dec 2011

2011-12-15T09:00:00.000-06:00

I think that I mentioned being sick for the better part of three weeks. It really set me back (perhaps you noticed my lack of blog presence of late). One thing that seems to help sooth my throat and build my strength is homemade soup. I made a couple renditions over the past few weeks. The first, shown above, was a quick cheater chicken noodle soup utilizing my Penzey's chicken stock base, along with some ginger and spices that I broiled in the oven for a few minutes to build the flavor. I added some of our CSA carrots and parsnips, along with some noodles.

The second version was a sausage and white bean soup that utilized the better part of a head of cabbage to help build the flavors of the broth. I used sweet Italian sausage, cannellini beans and carrots in addition to the cabbage, and seasoned with some homemade celery salt. I found the recipe here, but again had to omit fresh rosemary and parsley, which would have added a lot.

I am so happy to be feeling better. It always amazes me how the common cold can really knock me out of commission. It hit at a horrible time, as Nick and I had a bunch of travel plans and meet-ups with friends and family that could not be rescheduled. It was so frustrating not to be able to fully enjoy all the special events on our calendar. And, since we were so busy, I couldn't really take care of myself the way I should have...not getting enough sleep and the like, so I think my sickness really took it's sweet time to clear up. So, my sincere apologies to all our family and friends who had to put up with me not at my best, and to you Dinner Clubbers that put up with a long absence. I'm back now, and excited to start all my holiday cooking.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Pasta - Dec 2011

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

This is another 101 Cookbooks recipe utilizing broccoli and cauliflower. I actually found it when I was searching for the salad I posted about yesterday, and it sounded so good, that I put it on the list for later that same week. I had to swap dried rosemary for the fresh and omit the fresh parsley due to my limited pantry. I also omitted the golden raisins since I don't like the texture of raisins reconstituted in water. Usually I'll replace them with dried currants, which are smaller and don't bother me as much, but it's been so long since I cooked this I can't honestly remember if I did that for this dish. Probably due to these changes, the dish fell a little flat of my expectations. Dried rosemary is a pale comparison to fresh, and the pasta could have used some of the bright green notes that fresh parsley brings. I would make this again, but only if I had all the ingredients on hand.

Broccoli and Apple Salad - Dec 2011

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

This was a delicious broccoli and apple salad that Nick and I enjoyed awhile back. I found the recipe here. The dressing sounded very curious, a combination of ingredients that I would not think to put together, namely garlic, almond butter, lemon juice and honey. But, I trust Heidi completely, and so jumped right into the recipe. As usual, it was delicious, and a big hit with Nick too. I did have to omit the pan-fried shallots, but other than that, stuck to the ingredient list. It's a wonderful, fresh, crunchy fall and winter salad, perfect when you're craving something green and comforting at the same time.

Borscht - Dec 2011

2011-12-12T17:40:00.000-06:00

Isn't borscht the perfect holiday soup? I made this ages ago now, but I remember it fondly. It was a great use of some CSA root vegetables including beets, parsnips, carrots and cabbage (not a root vegetable, I know). I used this recipe, and even made a special trip to the store for sour cream and fresh dill for garnish. It was very worth it. One thing I did, after consulting with Nick, was to puree about half of the soup to make it a smoother consistency. I mixed the pureed soup with the non-pureed for our finished bowls. It was delicious.

Thumbs-Up Turkey - Nov 24, 2011

2011-12-11T12:05:00.000-06:00

Hello Dinner Clubbers! My sincere apologies for my long absence from the blog. Between travel, visitors, sickness, holidays, and one broken refrigerator things have been a bit hectic for Nick and I of late. I will attempt to bring you all up to date on our culinary adventures, starting with Thanksgiving. Nick and I travelled to his parents, where every year Nick's Dad makes his famous "Thumbs-Up Turkey." This year Nick and I had front row seats for a tutorial.

The story of this family tradition begins with the November 1986 Gourmet Magazine article on 'how to de-bone a turkey.' Chip thought that sounded like a fun project and has used this method nearly every year since. The idea is to cut out and remove the rib cage from the body of the bird, leaving the bones in the appendages, and then stitch up the incision made along the spine. This allows you to stuff the bird with dressing, to plump it back up to it's original robust shape, and to carve it directly into cross sections, for a slice of stuffing surrounded by an edge of meat. It also allows you to use the rib cage to make some of the best gravy known to man, which is the real reason that Chip goes through all the work. Every year, with the successful completion of this undertaking, Chip gives us the thumbs-up and we all feast like kings.

Here is Chip putting the final touches on the bird. The meal was delicious, as always, although due to a nasty little virus I contracted the week before, I actually ended up sleeping through the meal this year. Lucky for me, the leftovers are nearly as good!

Bagels - December 10, 2011

2011-12-11T11:45:00.001-06:00

I've been really into baking lately and have wanted to tackle bagels for a while. It all started when I discovered that my corn allergy precluded pretty much all commercially produced baked goods, but now I'm having so much fun testing out new techniques and recipes (and eating the results) that I'm almost grateful for my adult-onset food allergies. Almost.

I've seen several bagel recipes on the internet and in books, and decided that the recipe from my Baking Illustrated cookbook (actual recipe here on someone's blog) seemed to compile the best of all of them and was relatively easy to follow. I believe, as they do, that a good bagel begins and ends with the flour. I followed their advice and ordered high-gluten flour from King Arthur Flour (where would we be without the internet!).

At $6 for a 3 pound bag the per-bagel cost is somewhere between $0.40 - $0.50 each, so this is not really a cost-saving exercise. But worth every penny for taste!

You also need to plan ahead. The bagels need to proof in the refrigerator over night, so mix up the dough the night before the morning you want to eat them. Then the baking process is two-steps... a quick dunk in the boiling water...

Here are my bagels waiting for their turn in the hot tub.

Then, 15 minutes in the oven, a few minutes to cool... and in the belly!!

The only change I needed to make for my corn allergy was to substitute semolina flour for the corn meal.

Moravian Chicken Pie - December 2, 2011

2011-12-09T09:11:00.001-06:00

Wow, it sure has been quiet around here! Guess all the Dinner Clubbers are busy celebrating the holidays and a Badger football Big 10 Championship win! I've started my Christmas cookie baking and will post about that later... for now here is yet another comfort food dinner.

This dish was on the cover of Cook's Country magazine this month and Richie thought it sounded fantastic. "Like the world's best chicken pot pie!" said my non-vegetable eating husband. I thought it sounded bland, but I was willing to give Moravian Chicken Pie a shot.

The final dish was tasty, but a bit on the too-salty side. I think that may have been because I used kosher chicken which is already brined and then seasoned the chicken generously before beginning to brown it. I also didn't love the crust... I thought it was a bit too dense and not very flaky. But the pie kept very well in the refrigerator and made for some great leftovers!

Perfect Roasted Chicken - November 17, 2011

2011-11-18T07:15:00.001-06:00

I have been on a quest for some time to find the perfect roast chicken recipe and I can now say that I have found a winner! It is from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook, which is almost too pretty to cook from (especially when you are as messy as I am in the kitchen!).

I've tried a ton of other techniques, including the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe method that requires you to use a v-rack and rotate the chicken three times and Tom Colicchio's recipe in How To Think Like a Chef that has you sear the skin on the stovetop first. Both produced pretty good chicken, but an annoying amount of tending for what should be a simple stick-in-the-oven-and-mostly-ignore dish. Keller's recipe is not only the tastiest of all, but the easiest too! No brining, searing, rotating, or basting necessary.

The first key is to start with a good small chicken (3-4 pounds). I got mine from Whole Foods last week when they were having a sale on their "free range" whole chickens. I was a little nervous because I've had corn allergic reactions to supermarket chickens in the past and was not certain that this one would be safe, but fortunately I had no problems. I'd like to find a more local and sustainable source that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but for now this is a good and cost effective option.

Keller recommends you unwrap the chicken a day ahead of time and let it sit in the refrigerator uncovered so the skin can get nice and dry. Then, take the chicken out of the refrigerator 1-2 hours before you start cooking it to allow it to come to room temperature. I've never done either of these things before and I think it made a big difference.

The recipe is simple. Generously salt and pepper the cavity, shove a few crushed garlic cloves and thyme sprigs in, and truss the chicken following the directions in the book. He says trussing helps keep the breast from drying out. Then rub canola oil on the outside of the chicken, season it generously, and place a couple pats of butter on the breast before placing in the oven to roast for 25 minutes at 475, then lower to 400 and roast for another 45 minutes. I also roasted carrots, potatoes, and onions in the pan to make it a one dish complete dinner.

The result: An incredibly moist, delicious bird with a beautiful crisp skin!

Pittsburgh! - Nov 5-7, 2011

2011-11-12T09:00:00.003-06:00

"Dahn Tahn" Pittsburgh

Nick and I spent last weekend in Pittsburgh along with my sister and her boyfriend (who grew up there). It was our first time visiting and we were both super impressed! Pittsburgh is an incredibly beautiful city nestled in between rivers and rolling bluffs, which were all decked out in fall colors during our stay.

We stayed in 'the Strip' which is an industrial neighborhood being revitalized by condos, shops and restaurants. We rode the Monongahela Incline up Mt. Washington on the south side of the city and were treated to breathtaking views of the downtown, PNC park, Heinz Field, and some of the 400 plus bridges that span the three rivers within the city (the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio, if you're wondering).

We walked from the Strip across his namesake bridge to see the statue of Roberto Clemente, my favorite baseball player of all time, outside of PNC park, where the Pirates play.

We ate at Primanti Brothers, in the Strip, which is a local landmark. Primanti's is known for it's sandwiches, which are piled high with a meat of your choice (we tried corned beef and jumbo, which is Pittsburghese for fried bologna), french fries, and cole slaw. The sandwiches originated to serve truckers who were making deliveries to factories in the Strip and needed a meal that they could eat using one hand, leaving the other free to drive. On game days, the line spans out the door and down the block.

And, speaking of game days, Nick and I had the privilege of attending a Steelers game at Heinz Field on Sunday night. Prior to the game we went to a tailgate with beer can chicken, and smoked kolbassi sausage along with Yuengling beers. We jumped on a water taxi right outside our tailgate and rode down to Heinz field on the Allegheny taking in the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline at night. It was an exciting game, which the Steelers ultimately lost. But, win or lose, it was an honor to be able to cheer on my favorite NFL team in person. A big thank you to our wonderful hosts, yinz guys are the best!

Baked Macaroni & Cheese - November 11, 2011

2011-11-12T08:02:00.001-06:00

I'm definitely on a comfort food kick these days! Last night it was macaroni and cheese. I'd seen a couple references to Martha Stewart's recipe as the ultimate best mac and cheese ever on some of the food blogs I follow and wanted to try it for myself.

Not wanting to make 12 servings at once and thus eat mac and cheese forever, I made a half recipe. I also used yellow cheddar and pecorino romano since they were already in the refrigerator. Otherwise I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter.

My big complaint about this recipe is that Martha's directions led me to use virtually every pan in the kitchen! Next time I will avoid this by making better use of the microwave and just melt the butter for the breadcrumbs in the bowl you'll toss them in and warm the milk in a glass measure instead of a separate saucepan.

Although the final dish tasted fantastic, I'm not totally pleased with the texture. I think I need to work on my sauce making skills. I tend to be impatient when making bechamel or other sauce from a roux base. I think I poured the milk in too quickly and didn't allow all the flour to get fully incorporated and smooth. Also I was using a flimsy nylon whisk and for this application anyway I think it was pretty worthless.

Pork Chops and Sauteed Kale - Oct 31, 2011

2011-11-11T13:47:00.000-06:00

This spooky looking dish was our Halloween meal this year. Nick and I picked up the pork chops from the Farmers' Market and I cooked them up following the directions in our 'How to Cook Everything' cookbook. For some reason they turned out a little tough and dry. I must have cooked them for too long. Usually Nick makes the pork chops, and they are always super delicious and tender. I must not have his magic touch. The side dish was made up of some of our red kale tops, which I roughly chopped and sauteed with some onions, apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. It was very good, and the color was perfect for the holiday.

Rosemary Lemon Fried Chicken - November 10, 2011

2011-11-11T10:46:00.001-06:00

I have been craving fried chicken pretty much since the moment I realized that my corn allergy made all trashy fast food fried chicken off limits. I knew it could be made at home, but had never attempted it myself and so was a bit nervous about the idea, especially after the tater tot incident where I nearly burned the house down.

But I got an enameled dutch oven and a proper thermometer and Michael Ruhlman's section on "frying" in Ruhlman's Twenty reassured me that deep frying wasn't really scary if I used both of them to control the temperature.

Plus his recipe for fried chicken that was first brined in a rosemary, lemon, garlic, and onion solution sounded so delicious I decided to go for it!

The recipe was a two day process. First I created the brine and let the chicken soak for 24 hours, then removed from the brine on the morning of the second day and allowed it to dry uncovered in the refrigerator for about 8 hours. In the evening I breaded the chicken, following Ruhlman's recipe exactly - including paprika, black pepper, and cayenne pepper in the flour and using organic fat free buttermilk. The result was incredibly delicious. The breading was reminiscent of a much less greasy and better tasting Popeye's chicken and the chicken itself had amazing notes of rosemary.

The only problem I ran into was that my chicken's breading seemed to be done long before I thought the chicken inside was actually cooked through. Ruhlman's directions said to fry "until the chicken was cooked through, about 12-15 minutes depending on the size of the piece." But how do you know when the chicken is cooked through? My breading was turning an alarming dark brown just 6 or 7 minutes in to the cooking and I ended up pulling everything at the 12 minute end of that range or earlier. If it had stayed in for a full 15 minutes it would have been burnt to a crisp.

That aside, I've been loving Ruhlman's book and highly recommend it for both accomplished and new cooks. Whether you are just starting out or looking to refine your skills, you'll find things in here to love.

Jaime's Pizza, second attempt - November 4, 2011

2011-11-09T07:30:00.000-06:00

This time I decided to forget about creating a cracker like crust reminiscent of the frozen pizzas of my childhood and instead focus on just creating a really good crust, period. This meant planning ahead, making the dough the day before and allowing it to rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight. I used the recipe from Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food, except that I didn't have the 1/4 cup of rye flour she called for and instead just did all regular all-purpose white flour.

I made the sauce from Pomi strained tomatoes (the only brand I've been able to find that doesn't have citric acid added) and added in some of the basil and oregano I grew on our patio and dried as an experiment. It tasted very good! The cheese is organic mozzarella from Organic Valley (again, one of the only truly corn-free brands available) and I made the sausage myself. It is ground pork from our local Springfield Butcher, seasoned with salt, pepper, dried sage from our herb garden, a bit of nutmeg, and a pinch of cayenne. The next day I turned the rest of the sausage into some amazing tasting southern style sausage gravy and ate it over biscuits as an indulgent breakfast treat!

Overall, the pizza was pretty good and came pretty close to satisfying my craving for good pizza. The crust could have been a bit crisper, but I needed to get it out of the oven before the cheese burned. Next time I'll try one of the methods that has you either start or end the pizza on the stove top to help address this issue. I also picked up some rye flour at the store and will give that a shot to see if it adds anything.

Spinach-Ricotta Ravioli - Oct 30, 2011

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Nick and I had several sheets of the fresh egg pasta from our lasagna meal leftover, as well as some ricotta (which we insist on pronouncing ri-coh-ta, rather than ri-cah-ta, despite being corrected by cheese vendors from the market...we're so snobby I can't stand it) and a big bunch of spinach from the CSA box. The meal pretty much makes itself with that list of ingredients. I consulted our handy 'How to Cook Everything' and found a recipe that fit our needs exactly, but for some quantity modification.

Our filling consisted of ricotta, Pecorino-Romano, wilted spinach, an egg, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

This got folded into little pasta pillows while I simmered a hastily concocted tomato sauce, consisting of canned tomatoes, a chopped onion, and some dried Italian spices, on the stove. We boiled our ravioli in water for two or three minutes before placing them in bowls and topping with olive oil and tomato sauce. Mark Bittman's directions call to boil the ravioli until they float to the top, but ours floated from the start due to some air trapped inside, along with the cheese filling. We only had one bust at the seams, which I think is pretty good since our 'fresh' pasta was a week old and starting to dry out a bit. This was a really fun meal to prepare and surprisingly filling, as well as delicious.

Honeynut Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing - Oct 29, 2011

2011-11-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

This meal was inspired by my entree at L'Etoile for the Dinner Club 'renion' meal. Their version was much more involved, including a sweet potato crepe and roasted seasonal vegetables, but the meat of it, so to speak, was a Jack-be-little pumpkin filled with a wild rice and mushroom mix. Unfortunately, when my meal arrived at the restaurant, I was so full from my first course, plus nibbling on everyone else's first courses, that I could not eat as much of it as I would have liked. My solution was to try to recreate it at home utilizing some of the tiny Honeynut squash that came in our CSA box.

I had to capture the vivid orange of this squash's flesh, since it's one of my favorite colors. Everything about this variety of winter squash delights me. It's about the size of a large potato, and perfect for a single serving. I have a strong and inexplicable attraction to things that look just like their normal-sized counterparts, but are actually much smaller or larger, and this Honeynut squash fits nicely into that category. I baked it just like I would have a normal butternut squash, drizzling with olive oil, salt, and a dash of Chinese five spice powder.

While it was baking, I reconstituted some dried mushrooms and cooked my rice. I mixed the rice, mushrooms, some dried cranberries, cashews, salt, pepper and a little drizzle of toasted sesame oil together for my stuffing. This little mixture got piled into the baked Honeynut squash.

The Honeynut squash is billed as sweeter than average, and once roasted, you can see the beautiful caramelization of those sugars on the surface. This meal was delicious, and this time I was able to clean my plate. The only thing missing was the company of our Dinner Club friends...and a wine flight. Thanks to L'Etoile for the inspiration.

Lasagna for Two - Oct 27, 2011

2011-10-31T11:02:00.000-05:00

At one of the last Fulton Farmers' Markets of the season, Nick and I made some fun purchases, including a package of fresh egg pasta sheets from the Broder's booth. Since a pasta maker is one of the few kitchen items that we haven't collected (and I think it will stay that way, as I loathe those single purpose tools that take up valuable cupboard space, and I have a sneaking suspicion that we would make pasta once every 27 months), this seemed like a fun way to have fresh pasta without any extra effort. We decided that lasagna would be an excellent use for our market bounty.

I consulted my trusty recipe binder (it's like an old-timey epicurious) and found family recipes from both of our Moms. Hmm...which one to pick? Both are much loved versions from our respective childhoods. I settled on a combination of the two, utilizing ingredients that I had on hand. I'm nothing if not diplomatic. Now for my next dilemma...lasagna recipes are designed to feed a crowd and Nick and I are just two people with limited freezer space. Luckily, I found a third recipe in my binder. One for 'single serving' lasagnas from a cooking class I had volunteered at years ago. This recipe was a basic outline, including proper ingredient ratios, for lasagna made in a small loaf pan.

Now that I had a workable plan, consisting of a mash-up of three assorted lasagna recipes, I was set to start cooking. Our finished version included ground beef (my mom), ricotta (Nick's mom), and a tomato and herb sauce that I made up on the fly. I topped it with shredded mozzarella and baked according to some version of the directions. This came out of the oven right as Nick arrived home from work and the two of us managed to eat about two thirds of this in one sitting, making the amount just about right...perfect if you enjoy having one or two servings of leftovers.

Potato Leek and Celery Root Soup with Sausage - Oct 20, 2011

2011-10-25T09:00:00.002-05:00

Once we received our new CSA delivery last week, I needed to use up a few items from the previous delivery to make a little room in the fridge. One of those items was the celery root in my crisper drawer. I decided to combine it with some of our potato stash, and a couple leeks that had been hanging out for the past two weeks, in a rendition of one of my favorite simple winter soups; Potato Leek. To create this soup, I simply chopped up my celery root, 5 medium potatoes, and 3 leeks and tossed them all in my Dutch oven with a healthy pat of butter. Once the leeks were soft and silky, I added 3-4 cups of water and some of my Penzey's chicken stock base. I let this simmer until the celery root and potatoes were soft, about 30 minutes. Next, I blended everything with my immersion blender until I got it to the consistency I like. Nick and I topped our bowls with some sausage slices, a drizzle of olive oil and some freshly ground pepper.

Dinner Club Renion - Oct 14-16, 2011

2011-10-24T13:43:00.000-05:00

All six of the original Madison Dinner Club members, plus spouses, significant others and friends from all across the Country met up in our founding city recently for our official Ten Year Reunion (or Renion, as it will now forever be known). This meet-up serendipitously correlated with homecoming weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, our beloved Alma Mater.

Weekend activities included, but were not limited to, polka dancing, beer drinking, farmers' market going, Badger football game attending, Memorial Union Terrace visiting, and eating a delicious meal together at L'Etoile, complete with personalized menus! While the weekend obviously lent itself to revelling in blissful nostalgia (and we took part in plenty of that, complete with belly laughs from long forgotten stories of people we used to know and experiences we had), my favorite part was looking at how we've all evolved over the past ten years to the people we are today, enjoying the new faces that have been added in to the group, and realizing that no matter how much time passes and how many changes occur during that time, that we will all still be able to come together and thoroughly enjoy one another's company around a dinner table full of good food.

Dinner Club Forever!

I love you guys.

Cauliflower Leek Gratin - Oct 13, 2011

2011-10-24T12:52:00.000-05:00

This delicious gratin included cauliflower florets, leeks and chopped potatoes as it's base. I sauteed these all briefly together along with some butter and salt until the leeks were soft. Then, I mixed the vegetables with a basic bechamel sauce, which I made using whole milk, butter, flour and shredded baby Swiss cheese, with just a smidgen of nutmeg to season. After placing this mixture in my baking dish, I topped it with fresh whole wheat bread crumbs mixed with grated Pecorino-Romano and coarsely ground pepper. I baked this until the top got golden and toasty. I used this recipe as a guide and was quite happy with the results I achieved with my additions and substitutions. This is definitely the start to cold weather cooking in my kitchen.

"Frozen" Pizza - October 22, 2011

2011-10-24T07:48:00.000-05:00

I grew up in a frozen tundra bereft of good pizzerias but awash in local and national frozen pizza distributers. My favorite frozen pizza of all is good old Tombstone, which is today owned by a mega-corporation but was born in the 1970s in northern Wisconsin. Hmmm.... who else could that describe? Oh yeah, ME!

Despite its ubiquity, frozen pizza was something we only ate on "special occasions" in my family. It meant it was somebody's birthday, or we had a babysitter, or my mom had made the error of taking us with her to the grocery store and they were giving out samples and then we begged and pleaded and somehow a pizza or two ended up in our cart! All the more reason that the perfect combination of cardboard thin and crispy crust, non-descript mellow sauce, and stringy greasy cheese is something I crave today.

I've been wanting to figure out how to recreate the crisp crust of a good frozen pizza (without the additives and preservatives of a real one) and thought maybe this recipe from Cook's Country for St. Louis style pizza would do the trick. Alas, it was a disappointment. The crust was not "cracker crisp" - perhaps because I couldn't use corn starch and instead substituted arrow root starch. I rather liked the sauce though and appreciated its simplicity, so I may hold onto that. I also just used regular mozzarella since that was what I had on hand.

The quest continues!

Periodic Fish #10: Some Kind of Trout

2011-10-22T14:18:00.002-05:00

It's been so long since my last weekly fish post, that I hereby declare this series to be "Periodic Fish."

So long, also, that I can't remember exactly how I prepared this trout, or even specifically what kind of trout it was.

Based on this photo, I seemed to have cooked it directly on the grill, along with some tomatoes, onions and squash.

I'm sure it was awesome!

Coconut Chocolate Blondies - October 19, 2011

2011-10-20T14:26:00.000-05:00

These are an adaptation of the famous Smitten Kitchen blondies. I'm trying to eat more coconut and coconut oil, since learning that the saturated fat contained in it is primarily in the form of medium-chain triglycerides, which are healthy fats that my short bowel can digest and absorb. I followed the basic recipe, but substituted melted coconut oil for the butter and added in about 1/2 a cup of organic chocolate chips and about a quarter cup of unsweetened coconut flakes. Delicious! So good, that less than 24 hours later they are already gone!

My only change next time will be to remove them from the pan before they are completely cooled. The last few had to be pried from the baking pan and that took annoyingly too much time and effort when I was anxious to eat them!

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #13 - Oct 20, 2011

2011-10-20T13:04:00.000-05:00

A new delivery arrived today. I know I haven't really put up anything that we made with our last delivery, but I have been cooking. Mostly it's been old favorites which I've blogged about before, see here. I do have one new meal to post, but things have been a little busy around here of late due to a much anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed Dinner Club Reunion (post to come soon)!

Now, on to the task at hand. Please allow me to introduce you to our latest farm delivery. Starting in the top left we have some absolutely darling Honeynut butternut squash. Each one of these can fit easily in my hand and are the perfect single serving squash; next is sugar dumpling squash; baby beets; leeks, bottoms and tops; spinach; cheddar cauliflower; broccoli; carrots; and red kale tops. Vegetables not pictured include sweet potatoes; onions; salad mix; and Italian garlic.

Thank you Harmony Valley Farm! This box gets me really excited for fall cooking.

Frisee Salad - Oct 5, 2011

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't been to the grocery store in way too long, Nick and I have been scrounging around the pantry trying to be creative with what we have on hand. A trip to restock is in order today, methinks. I had originally wanted to make bean burritos, as I've been craving protein like mad lately, but we were out of cheddar cheese and that idea had to be scratched. What we did have was a beautiful head of frisee lettuce from our CSA farm, some thick cut bacon in the freezer, and some fresh eggs. With that, I made up these little salads, full of flavor and protein. In addition to the bacon and poached eggs, I added toasted walnuts and shredded Pecorino-Romano cheese. Protein all around. These were delicious and took care of my cravings.

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #12 - Oct 6, 2011

2011-10-06T19:00:00.000-05:00

Our latest batch of vegetables has arrived. Some of the highlights are pictured above, including radishes from the choice box; winter squash of assorted varieties including kabocha and sugar dumpling; green top celeriac; leeks; Hong Vit radish greens; French fingerling potatoes; one incredibly shaped tomato (along with other, normal looking tomatoes...all delicious, I'm sure); and cauliflower. Veggies not pictured include spinach; salad mix; red and green romaine lettuce; peppers; and onions.

Many of these ingredients seem fitting for warm, silky fall soups (celeriac, cauliflower, leeks and potatoes, I'm looking at you), but I'm so happy that we still have some summer vegetables in the mix. It seems only fitting as we're in a beautiful patch of Indian Summer here in Minnesota. Temperatures are in the 80's, fall colors are at their peak, and a warm breeze is blowing through the window as I'm writing this.

Thank you, as always, to our dear friends at Harmony Valley Farm. We can't wait to get started creating delicious meals with the bounty with which you've provided us!.

Brats with Sheboygan-style Buns - October 5, 2011

2011-10-06T10:20:00.001-05:00

My latest homemade project came about because I found some all-natural corn-free brats at our local Whole Foods last week and also some naturally fermented vinegar-less and preservative-free sauerkraut. Actually, it started with the sauerkraut. When I purged the house of items containing corn derivatives last month, I was so sad to toss the nearly full jar of imported from Germany sauerkraut I'd recently purchased at the Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe in Arlington. I figured the only way I'd be able to eat sauerkraut again was to make my own, so I was thrilled to discover Cortland Valley organic sauerkraut in the grocery store! Extra bonus: It is from the Wisconsin-based GLK Foods, Inc.

The next hurdle between me and a taste of the homeland was the brat bun. I just don't trust any commercial bakeries right now and no one here really makes a proper brat bun anyway. Feeling emboldened by my recent successes at making homemade Tater Tots, I thought I could tackle the brat bun next.

There were no recipes in any of my cookbooks, so I did a little Googling and quickly found The Bratwurst Pages: Wisconsin's Soul Food where they explain the many nuances of brat culture and lore, including the German translation of "bratwurst" as "fry-sausage." That means that a "brat fry" is not only an entirely inaccurate term (although brats can be pan fried, a "brat fry" in Wisconsin is typically an event where brats are cooked outdoors on a charcoal or gas grill), but a redundant phrase meaning "fry fry"! They also helpfully provide a recipe for classic Wisconsin brat sides, including potato salad and semmel rolls.

The rolls were actually quite easy to make and only took a couple hours from start to finish. I didn't have any rye flour for dusting so used some semolina instead. I ended up baking them only for about 20 minutes and thought that might have even been a touch too long, or the 450 degrees was a little too hot in my oven. I'd advise watching them carefully and perhaps err on the side of removing them earlier and then returning to the oven for a finally heating and crisping right before serving.

The end result was quite good! A good bun with a serious bite that could hold up to my liberal dosing of sauerkraut and mustard. Will definitely be making these again (after I've consumed the remaining half dozen currently hanging out in the freezer, that is.)

I need to keep searching for brats though... these were pre-cooked and just didn't have the bite or juiciness of good Wisconsin brats.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - Oct 4, 2011

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

I don't really have a lot to say about these. I was craving cookies and so I made these in the middle of the afternoon. They're amazing. I used the Foster's Market Cookbook recipe and omitted the cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins in exchange for chocolate 'chips' that I made from smashing my Trader Joe's pound plus chocolate bar with a hammer. Don't worry, I didn't use the whole pound, just a quarter of it. This is a fun way to do chocolate chips and I think it makes the cookies more interesting since the pieces are not uniform. I baked them just long enough for a chewy cookie, which is the texture I prefer. Actually, I like a chewy center surrounded by crispy golden edges, but I haven't mastered that combination yet, so chewy is my default texture. I baked 2 dozen and used my handy tablespoon scoop to portion out 18 more, which I put in the freezer for a rainy day. These would be good with some chai... Now I just have to make sure to save some for Nick.

Hot Chai Latte - Oct 4, 2011

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

I found a recipe for a homemade chai tea concentrate online and decided to give it a whirl. It sounded so warm and cozy. I'm starting to embrace all those comfort foods and beverages that are so good in the fall. And, if you happen to be experiencing a bit of an autumnal heat wave, as we are here in Minnesota, you can also serve this up over ice.

Those of you that know me might be aware of the ridiculous amount of assorted teas that I have collected. It's not all my fault. Some of them have been gifts. But really, it's over the top. We have way too much tea on hand. That being said, I had a hell of a time finding plain black tea to use for this recipe. I ended up dipping into a precious little container that a good friend brought to us from China. I'm not sure that it is black tea since it is labeled in Chinese characters, but I decided it was close enough. I also added two random bags of decaf chai that I found hanging out in a box all by themselves (that cleared out a little room in the tea cupboard) as well as two bags of Earl Grey (which is the name of my cat-nephew), that I threw in for the bergamot oil since I didn't have any orange zest on hand.

Other than that, I followed the recipe as written. I now have a large bottle of chai concentrate in the fridge in which to indulge as I please. My first taste was the little latte I made using equal parts chai concentrate and 2% milk, plus a little frothy goodness on top. It was delicious.

Spaghetti Squash and Roasted Tomatoes - Oct 3, 2011

2011-10-04T17:12:00.000-05:00

Spaghetti squash is cool. It really stands apart in the squash world. When you first slice it open, you might not notice anything unusual. It seems to be much like any other of it's winter squash brethren, a mass of seeds and unappetizing mush surrounded by solid squash flesh. It's uniqueness only becomes apparent upon roasting in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.

That solid squash flesh has been transformed to golden vermicelli. It's really a fun party trick. The flavor of this squash is much less 'squashy' than some of it's counterparts, so, as it's name suggests, it works well as a pasta substitute without slapping you in the face with squash flavor.

For our meal, Nick and I chose to mix our spaghetti squash with oven roasted tomatoes, fresh oregano leaves, toasted pine nuts, and a healthy portion of grated pecorino-Romano cheese. Other fun combinations might involve fresh parsley and hazelnuts, a la Martha Stewart, or sage and brown butter sauce, which is what I like on sweet potato gnocchi. Perhaps one could even experiment with Asian flavors...think glass noodle salad. Really, the possibilities are endless.

Homemade Tater Tots - October 1, 2011

2011-10-03T11:24:00.000-05:00

One reality of my newly-discovered food allergy is that virtually all convenience and processed foods are off-limits. Even if they don't contain obvious corny ingredients like corn starch, corn oil, corn flour, or corn syrup, they could be problematic if they contain one of many ingredients that are probably derived from corn or created using corn as part of the processing. This list is daunting and overwhelming and includes things that you see on all kinds of food ingredient lists: dextrose, vinegar (white vinegar is derived from cereal grains and if they don't tell you which kind it is fair to assume it is corn since that is the cheapest), citric acid, ascorbic acid, maltodextrin, xanthum gum, and much more. If you are curious, check out this list... it seriously made me cry the first time I looked at it.

For the most part, eliminating convenience foods is not that big a deal for me. I prefer healthy whole foods anyway and enjoy cooking from scratch. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that a part of me was really bummed to think that I'd never have some of my favorite trashy comfort foods ever again, like Tombstone pizza, or McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, or Tater Tots.... Yummm, Tater Tots... Tater Tots rock, don't they?

Imagine my happiness when the latest issue of Cook's Country magazine arrived in the mail and I saw that the fine folks there applied their America's Test Kitchen expertise to developing the perfect recipe for homemade crispy potato tots! The preparation took several hours and I nearly burned the house down when I let my oil get too hot, but they were delicious and I will definitely make them again some time. Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as the store-bought version or the ones in their photographs, but the taste was spot on. At least one comfort food is back in my life! Now I just need to figure out how to make some homemade condensed cream-of-mushroom and I'll be eating tater tot hot dish this winter!

Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Chowder - Sept 25, 2011

2011-10-03T09:00:00.007-05:00

I made this chowder for an impromptu happy hour gathering with friends that Nick and I hosted. It's the perfect soup to bridge that tricky transition from summer to fall. It's made up of the ingredients and flavors of summer, but it has a warmth and heartiness that one starts to crave on cool fall evenings. This is a recipe from my decade old Foster's Market Cookbook. It's a wonderful resource for fresh and healthy comfort food. The soup section is particularly good, as is the dessert section, but that's a story for another day.

I followed the recipe as closely as I was able. I had to omit the celery and leeks and replaced them with extra onions, potatoes, and peppers. Oh, and bacon. I added some bacon too. I mean, why not, right? The corn was deliciously sweet and the roasted red peppers added a not-insignificant kick of heat, which the heavy cream did little to temper. Nevertheless, the heat was welcomed on a chilly night. The sweet and spicy flavors were balanced perfectly by the addition of fresh thyme leaves from the backyard. I forget how much I like that herb.

Here's another picture showcasing my recent thrift store acquisitions. I had to fight back an involuntary squeal when my eyes fell upon this little Catherine Holm pot on the cluttered shelves. I grabbed the matching sauce pan too. And by grabbed, I mean my arm reflexively reached out and snatched it almost before I saw it. Isn't it cute on that red and white potholder? Love.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread - Sept 24, 2011

2011-10-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

Fall is here, Dinner Clubbers. At least it's here in my Minneapolis kitchen. How do I know? Because I had a craving for pumpkin chocolate chip bread that was so great I had to go out on a Saturday afternoon to pick up canned pumpkin to make this. Being a 'pantry cook,' I prefer to cook with what I have on hand, making substitutions when I don't have all the ingredients in a recipe, and never, ever making an extra trip to a busy store for one measly ingredient. But this time, no substitutions would do.

Nick's mom, Nan, sent me this recipe after I tried it at her house and could not stop raving about it...or eating it. It's delicious! The recipe makes two loaves, which is good because that's one for me and one for Nick. Just kidding. Kind of. And, not to leave any moms out of the credits, that cute loaf pan is compliments of my mom. She knows my weakness for vintage thrifted kitchen ware and indulges me every once in awhile. So, thanks Moms! You made my day.

Another Min-nicoise-ta Salad - Sept 24, 2011

2011-10-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

How did the entire summer escape me before we made our annual Nicoise salad? The haricots vert that I found hiding in the crisper drawer from the CSA delivery two weeks ago (I know, I was ashamed of myself) were the impetus for this meal. I blanched those and then set them aside while I boiled potatoes and eggs. The rest of the plate is compiled of fresh, or preserved veggies, including some lovely red romaine lettuce, frisee, tomato wedges, olives and a pickle. Nick and I decided to omit the traditional anchovies and tuna in favor our beloved smoked trout. I whipped up a little red wine vinegar/olive oil/Dijon vinaigrette to drizzle over everything and we were in business.

Cheese and Basil Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Roasted Tomatoes and Potatoes - September 28, 2011

2011-09-30T11:04:00.000-05:00

After several weeks of travel (mostly for business but also for pleasure... more on that in another post), it was so nice to be home and back in the kitchen. I far prefer to eat my own cooking than anything in most restaurants and after some disappointing meals that featured tomatoes and another that tried to pass off some al dente fingerling potatoes as "roasted," I was craving something that utilized those ingredients positively. We also had an abundance of basil growing on the patio and some certified corn-free mozzarella in the refrigerator, so this dish seemed perfect.

Not sure exactly where I got the original idea for this simplified technique for stuffed chicken. Basically I take two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut a small slit in the thick part, then use my fingers to enlarge it to carefully make a pocket for the stuffing, which was in this case was a mixture of shredded mozzarella, garlic, and chopped basil. Then I stitch them closed with a wooden skewer, plop the breasts in a baking dish, and brush them with a bit of mayonaise and press on the crumb topping (made from fresh white bread, basil, garlic, and a bit of olive oil in the food processor).

To add a tomato flavor, I took about half a pint of cherry tomatoes and cut them in half, tossed them with olive oil and salt and scattered them around the breasts. The whole thing goes in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Since I always like to make the oven multi-task, I also threw in some red potatoes to roast in another dish.

Tomato Basil Soup and Grilled Cheese - Sept 22, 2011

2011-09-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is a difficult meal to photograph, but despite the lack of visual appeal above, it hit the spot. After a spell of unseasonably cool and cloudy fall weather here in Minneapolis, I was craving soup. Since, however, we're just barely into fall we still have lots of fresh tomatoes to use up. The ones for this soup happen to be from Nick's cousin, Kirsten, who seems to be a much more talented gardener than either of us. I used an old and trusted recipe from Dinner Club days (which closely approximates this one but for fresh tomatoes and basil) for the soup and whipped up some quick and dirty toasted cheese sandwiches to serve alongside.

Chicken and Waffles - Sept 19, 2011

2011-09-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

The latest Bon Appetit has a spread on soul food and this recipe was included. As a Yankee, this combination always seems a bit strange to me, but Nick doesn't let that get in his way. Perhaps it's due to the formative years he spent in the Mid-Atlantic, just south of the Mason-Dixon line. Nick actually butchered this whole chicken in preparation for this meal. And, when I say 'butchered,' I mean that he cut apart a whole chicken that we had purchased at the co-op, which was already dead and cleaned. I don't want my above statement to mislead anyone into thinking that we did more work than we actually did.

Meanwhile, I mixed up the buttermilk marinade and we soaked the bird for significantly fewer hours than recommended in the recipe. It seemed to turn out okay despite our poor direction following. When we were ready, we fried this up in coconut oil, which made everything that much more decadent, and was our measly attempt at celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I'm certain that pirates would use coconut oil when frying a chicken. (Avast, me hearties, we also mixed up some Dark 'n Stormy's after dinner to complete our Pirate themed celebrations).

Instead of making the sweet potato waffles from scratch as laid out in the magazine, we totally cheated and just used up some Trader Joe's pumpkin pancake and waffle mix for our waffles. I did use buttermilk instead of water to mix up the batter, which made them extra fluffy.

This was fun and tasty, but I think my plate needed some creamed collard greens or something. And, I still think this is a strange combination, which, bless my heart, probably means that I'll never overcome my Northern roots.

Hummus Wraps - Sept 13, 2011

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

A simple and fresh meal is always a great addition to your repertoire. It's hard to get any simpler than this. I made a big batch of hummus in preparation for some house guests Nick and I were hosting this past weekend. I like to have easy snacks to pull out whenever needed for company. Hummus works great for this purpose. Pull out some pretzels, crackers and assorted vegetables for dipping and you have great little spread to serve at an impromptu happy hour. I like to make mine without tahini as I find it to be a bit too rich for me. My hummus is simply cooked garbanzo beans, a few cloves of garlic, fresh lemon juice, and enough olive oil drizzled in while the food processor is on to get it to the consistency that I like, which is quite a bit thicker than your average purchased hummus. I season the finished product with salt and pepper, and sometimes smoked Spanish paprika.

Since I had it prepared, we decided to use it, along with some romaine lettuce, chopped cucumbers, tomatoes and red peppers to make up some wraps for dinner. It's always a good idea to taste test foods you're planning on serving to guests. As my friend Sarah likes to say, "Quality control is important."

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Warm Brassica Salad - Sept 12, 2011

2011-09-27T09:00:00.001-05:00

As you may have noticed, I have quite a few meals that I am behind on posting. The Sept 12 date is a best guess for this meal, since I have a vague memory of eating this on the couch while watching Antiques Roadshow (that's a little sneak peak into the glamorous lifestyle of Nick and Jess). The chicken is a simple grilled affair. The salad is something that I made up and have forgotten most of the details by now. I know it used up the broccoli and the spigariello from our CSA delivery #10. I also threw in some pine nuts, which I remember because they are visible in the photo. I think I tossed everything with some olive oil and sauteed until the greens were wilted. Other details may or may not involve some lemon juice/zest along with salt and pepper to taste. I do remember that it was good.

Homemade Celery Salt - Sept 11, 2011

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

A few CSA deliveries ago, Nick and I got a beautiful bunch of celery, complete with lots of leaves. I had seen a post over on Heidi Swanson's inspirational blog, 101 Cookbooks, months back, which I mentally bookmarked, about making one's own celery salt. The Harmony Valley newsletter reminded me of this particular post. It was time to give it a try.

I diligently followed the directions, washing and drying the celery leaves and roasting them in the oven. I actually ended up roasting them a bit longer than Heidi recommended, as when I first pulled them out of the oven they weren't crispy enough. I'm sure the time varies depending on numerous factors.

I ended up with a little jar of delightful looking celery salt. We used this for Bloody Marys at a brunch we hosted last weekend for some family and friends who were in town. It was a fun experiment and I am looking forward to trying it out in some of the other dishes that Heidi recommends.

Cowboy Breakfast - Sept 11, 2011

2011-09-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

I adore leftover Mexican rice because we get to reincarnate it as breakfast. This was incredibly good. In addition to the rice, Nick and I fried up some potatoes using olive oil, salt, pepper, and a dash of smoked Spanish paprika until the edges were all golden and crispy. We topped our starches with a fried egg, grated cheddar and chopped tomatoes. We added our favorite "pepper toast" on the side. I would happily eat this for any meal of the day.

Bean Burritos with all the Fixins' - Sept 10, 2011

2011-09-24T09:00:00.005-05:00

Yum. This is hands-down one of our favorite meals around here. Nick and I make burritos quite often, although I don't always go through all the extra effort to make Mexican rice and re-fried beans. We've posted this all before, so I won't go into much detail other than to say we shredded some of our CSA cabbage and cut up one of our tomatoes to accompany everything. What you see on the plate is what's wrapped up inside the foil-wrapped tortilla. It was delicious, and we had leftover rice...

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #11 - Sept 22, 2011

2011-09-23T15:09:00.000-05:00

It's already time for another vegetable delivery! Where do the weeks go? This go around we got potatoes; frisee; a varied assortment of tomatoes; green-top carrots; a fun collection of peppers; a tomatillo salsa pack; onions and shallots; broccoli; red romaine lettuce; and garlic. Veggies not pictured include our first winter squash of the season, spaghetti squash!

Thank you Harmony Valley!

Potato Salad with Smoked Trout - Sept 6, 2011

2011-09-14T09:46:00.000-05:00

Here is what Nick and I did with the leftover potato salad from our labor day cookout. It was a big hit, so we didn't have all that much left over, but we supplemented with smoked trout (the original recipe calls for smoked salmon, which we left out for the cookout). Here is the recipe, which is from a ten year old Martha Stewart Living Magazine that I had ripped out. My modifications include substituting Dijon mustard for the horseradish in addition to the Dijon.

Crab Cakes - September 12, 2011

2011-09-13T17:40:00.003-05:00

Last month Richie brought me some amazing crab cakes from a hidden out-of-the-way place in the Baltimore area. I have been craving them ever since. Unfortunately, since corn is an ingredient in most crab cakes by way of the bread crumbs and mayonnaise I knew that I would probably need to make my own in order to revisit that taste. To my great surprise, these crab cakes were not only tasty but easy!

I referred to a recipe in the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe to get me started and then modified for taste and allergies. First, I made sure to use Whole Foods 365 brand breadcrumbs and substituted Vegannaise for the mayonnaise. Then I tweaked the seasonings. Old Bay Seasoning contains celery which I'm still avoiding, so I used Penzey's 4/S Seasoned Salt. I used fresh dill as well as four green onions from the patio garden and added in a bit of a green pepper from our plant that broke off in the hurricane.

Finally, I needed some kind of sauce. I adore tartar sauce, but didn't have corn-free pickles on hand to make it. Instead, I mixed some more Vegannaise with some fresh parsley and thyme - also from the patio garden - and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Voila! Delicious, corn and celery free crab cakes! Definitely a dish I will make again.

Labor Day Sangria - Sept 5, 2011

2011-09-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Nick and I celebrated Labor Day this year at a cookout at our good friends'. We were on board to bring a potato salad and some sangria. This is the sangria:

1 bottle dry white wine
1 bottle sweet white wine (we used a local Minnesota plum honey wine)
1/2 cup blackberry brandy
1/4 cup amaretto
1 cup fresh raspberries
2 sprigs Thai basil
2 dashes of cherry bark vanilla bitters
1 liter club soda for serving

I let everything but the soda macerate overnight to give the flavors all sorts of time to mingle and get to know one another. Right before serving, I mixed in a one liter bottle of club soda. This was a delicious patio pounder served over ice. Our only problem was a malfunctioning Coleman thermos spigot (which we later discovered was due to the lid being on too tightly...had we just unscrewed it the balance would have been restored and the sangria free-flowing). Oh well, that meant lots of leftover sangria for Nick and I to consume at home, which we did.

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #10 - Sept 8, 2011

2011-09-08T16:40:00.000-05:00

Our latest delivery has arrived and some of the highlights are pictured above. Starting in the top left corner we have some spigariello from the brassica family; cabbage; peppers; cucumbers and zucchini; watermelon; broccoli; lemongrass; and baby romaine lettuce. Vegetables not pictured include: edamame; petite French green beans; onions; Italian garlic; a French breakfast melon; and a tomato. I am quite excited about the lemongrass. It delights me that this northerly climate supports growing this tropical grass. I'm probably going to use some of it to infuse some simple syrup in combination with ginger root. The peppers are delightful as well and will probably be used in some grilled kebabs along with the onions and zucchini. That's all I have planned so far, but I'm sure everything will find it's way into delicious meals.

Thank you, Harmony Valley Farm!

Labor Day Weekend Brunch - Sept 4, 2011

2011-09-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Long weekends are fabulous for a number of reasons, but especially because they allow for an extra morning to enjoy brunch. Anna's mom made a delicious quiche for us all a few weekends ago when Anna was in town and it was my muse for the quiche pictured above. I made up some pie crust and let it chill while I prepped the remainder of the ingredients. I used vitamin greens, which were in our last CSA delivery, onions, eggs, half and half, and Pecorino-Romano cheese. I looked up a general quiche recipe in one of our cookbooks and roughly based my ratios on it. I must have done something wrong though, because, although delicious, mine lacked the fluffiness of Gloria's. Fluffiness is quite integral to a quiche, in my opinion. Note to self: get Gloria's recipe.

This was our brunch beverage, and it was not lacking in any of the integral categories, which I deem to be fruitiness, tartness, sweetness, and effervescence. I dug out some grapefruit juice that had been in the fridge for awhile and combined it with our omnipresent ginger simple syrup and some charged water. The lime garnish was the perfect finishing touch. In the glass above, I used 1 shot of ginger syrup, 2 shots grapefruit juice, 2-3 ice cubes, and I topped it off with bubble water, although this could just as easily been sparkling wine had we needed a little hair of the dog. It was very reminiscent of this, but a good substitute when fresh grapefruits are not in season.

Late Summer Pasta - Sept 2, 2011

2011-09-07T17:05:00.000-05:00

Nick and I made this colorful summer pasta last week, using up a bunch of our CSA stash. This dish fell together as I rummaged through the fridge pulling out bags of vegetables. Summer squash, onions, edamame, Thai basil, and tomatoes all found their way into the dinner bowl. I chopped and sauteed the summer squash and onions, then set them aside. I shelled our edamame and blanched them briefly in boiling water, putting them with the squash and onions. Next, I halved the little tomatoes and tossed them with the rest. Finally, I added the pasta, the herbs, and some Pecorino-Romano cheese, along with salt and pepper to taste. It was quite pleasing to the palate, simple and fresh, and very colorful.

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce - September 4, 2011

2011-09-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

There is good news and bad news on the allergy front. The good news is that I cooked and ate this dish with tomatoes and had no ill effects! I'm also successfully eating potatoes again, which is awesome.

The bad news is that I appear to be truly allergic to corn. I tried reintroducing it the week before last and was quickly in absolute agony. Then this weekend I had a smaller but similar reaction to some commercially processed chicken that was probably cleaned or processed with one of many corn derivative products, so I appear to be fairly sensitive, despite the mild reaction I had on the skin test. As I read more about food allergies, I am learning that this is not uncommon.

So... I'm off corn completely. And feeling so much better finally! It is going to be a big challenge since corn is in so many things these days. It isn't just the obvious stuff either. I have to be suspicious of pretty much anything that is processed or packaged, which is going to make travel a big challenge.

Fortunately, I have some cooking skills and as long as I prepare food from scratch myself, I should be OK! I'm not a religious person or one who believes in a great cosmic plan, but sometimes I do think that perhaps certain things in my past happened to help prepare me for the future. And right now I'm so grateful for the people who helped me learn those cooking skills, including my mother and my Dinner Club friends who gave me the basics and introduced me to so much more that has helped me become self sufficient in the kitchen. Thank you!

Zucchini Fritters with Cucumber Tomato Raita - Aug 2011

2011-09-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

These are so good. They are so good that it is worth having your home smell like fried food for the following two days. It's a small price to pay, really, for such deliciousness. That being said, my actual goal for shredding all this zucchini was to make my favorite chocolate zucchini bundt cake. But, I had plenty extra to make these for dinner (which is similar to what happened the last time I made these). I based these on a spinach and onion pakora recipe from the Dinner Club days, but actually made so many modifications I am going to post them here so I can look them up the next time I make these.

2 cups shredded zucchini
2 large onions cut into crescents
juice of one lemon
1 1/2 t salt
pinch cayenne
1 T ground cumin (or to taste)
1 - 1 1/2 C chickpea flour

Mix everything but the flour in a large bowl and let sit for 30 -60 minutes. Mix in the flour. Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet until very hot. Drop in small handfuls of the zucchini mixture and fry, turning once, until crisp and browned. Drain on paper towels. Repeat until all the mix has been used.

For the raita, I simply mixed some bite-sized tomato and cucumber pieces into some plain yogurt and added salt and cumin to taste.

Green Meatballs and Pasta - September 4, 2011

2011-09-04T18:51:00.003-05:00

(This is not my picture, though my dish looked very similar. I was so excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture first! This picture is from the Serious Eats post by Blake Royer where I found this recipe.)

Our herb garden is going crazy and so this Mark Bittman recipe for "Pasta with Green Meatballs and Herb Sauce" seemed like a perfect way to put some of them to good use and make a tasty simple dish that tasted like summer. I made only a couple changes, mainly to use some dried breadcrumbs rather than the piece of sandwich bread with milk, and I halved the amount of pasta but kept everything else the same. I liked the ratio of sauce to noodles but Richie made a good point that a broader noodle than spaghetti might have been better because the pesto-like herb sauce could stick to it better.

Jaime's CSA Delivery #9 - September 1, 2011

2011-09-03T12:01:00.003-05:00

This is the final share of the summer season and I elected not to participate in the fall season, so this will be my last CSA post for now. After these are eaten up, I'm going to start making an extra effort to get to our local farmer's markets on a regular basis... we have one that is a super convenient location (the parking lot of the Kingstowne shopping center, just about a mile from our house) but at an inconvenient time (4-7 on Fridays); and another that is harder to get to (in Old Town Alexandria) but at a better time (Saturday mornings). I'm also investigating buying meat from a local farm because various new health concerns have led me to be even more aware of and conscious of what I put in my body. It is costly, which pains me because I have become very frugal in my middle age, but may just be worth the expense. I'll write more about that later...

This final share contains some things I was excited to see. The peaches are delicious, and since our early season peaches are long finished I'm happy to have more of them in my house. Especially in a manageable quantity! The share also included more free range eggs (yay for cooler weather and happy chickens!) and some really tasty honey crisp apples. Richie likes the green bell peppers, and I never mind seeing basil even though we have a ton of it growing on our deck. The eggplant is a challenge as neither of us like it very much and I'm still having allergy issues with the tomatoes, summer squash, and butternut squash but will try experimenting with them in a little bit.

Grilled Vegetable Panini - Aug 2011

2011-09-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sandwiches are my lazy summer meal of choice. This one was particularly good. Nick and I received our first peppers of the season from our CSA and decided to toss them with some onions and olive oil, plus a little balsamic vinegar. We took this little mixture and sauteed it until the veggies were just starting to soften and the edges beginning to brown. We piled this onto some whole wheat bread with sunflower seeds and added sliced tomatoes and sharp cheddar cheese (we've done another version of this with homemade hummus too, and it was delicious). Since we don't have a panini press, I simply heated our trusty cast iron grill pan and toasted the sandwiches on it, flipping once and weighting things down with something I had handy. It worked great and I am happy not to feel the need to own yet another kitchen appliance.

Chicken Salad with Melon - Aug 2011

2011-09-01T15:12:00.000-05:00

This meal is perfect for a day like today (over 90 degrees and high humidity in Minneapolis), although Nick and I actually had this a couple weeks ago already. This was our second chicken salad of the summer and this go around I added lots of fresh celery grown on our Farm. This celery tasted different than the kind you find in all the grocery stores year round. This was celery, amplified by 10! It made it's store bought counterpart seem pale and watered down. That refreshing green flavor was the stand-out in the dish, with the other ingredients (chicken, slivered almonds, onion, dried cranberries, Dijon and mayonnaise) playing wonderful supportive roles. We served the salad cold alongside chilled, sweet melon. It was fantastic. I wish I had more to eat tonight.

August Favorites - 2011

2011-08-30T09:23:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to catch up with my blogging, I thought I'd combine two meals today. More than likely you've seen these both pop up here before, but they're so good they're worth revisiting. The first is fresh sweet corn salad. This is a recipe I have scribbled down on a loose piece of paper, written while my sister verbally recounted it to me. It involves three ears of fresh sweet corn, boiled very briefly (1-2 minutes...you could probably omit this step if you knew your corn was picked within the last 12 hours), kernels cut off the cob. A tomato, chopped; half a red onion, diced; a handful of fresh parsley, chopped; 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar; a dash of olive oil; salt and pepper to taste. The recipe also calls for a dash of hot sauce, but I usually omit this. Stir everything together and you have yourself a beautiful and bright bowl of summer. Actually you have two bowls, or four if it's used as a side. Double up for larger groups.

Another bowl full of summer is my favorite, gazpacho. I've blogged about this ad nauseum before, so check it out here if you're interested. It's so unbelievably delicious, and it always makes me think of the very first time I made gazpacho, for a high school Spanish class project. Back then, the idea of a cold soup seemed so strange and exotic. I fell in love at first bite and have never looked back.

Mmmm...enjoy these fleeting days of summer, my friends!

County Fair - Aug 13, 2011

2011-08-29T19:14:00.000-05:00

Check out that pork shoulder!

August in Minnesota means it's Fair time. Now, most people opt to go to the Minnesota State Fair with it's fancy foods on sticks, princesses carved out of butter, and massive, massive crowds. I'm not knocking it, but I do prefer the simple charm of my home town fair. I grew up in Austin, Minnesota which is the county seat of Mower County. That means once a year, the fair comes to town. I haven't been in years, but this year Nick and I planned a visit home to see my parents that happened to fall over fair weekend. We went and checked it out. Admission was free! How do you beat that?

Highlights included Reggie, Minnesota's largest boar, weighing in at 1540 pounds. I don't think Reggie does much standing, and seems to quite enjoy his recumbent position. The people are there for scale.

We also shared a bag of Tom Thumb mini donuts, one of my childhood favorites. No one was in line, I just walked right up to the window, paid $4, and walked away with a bag full of hot, donut goodness. I love small towns.

We walked through all the livestock barns (the poultry was the best by far, who knew people were raising such beautiful and diverse birds in that little corner of Southern Minnesota? Sadly, no pictures...I didn't want to startle the already skittish fowl). I thoroughly enjoyed busting out my dairy cattle judging knowledge while in the cattle barn (gleaned while working the 'night line' at the World Dairy Expo in Madison during my undergrad days. Yes, it's a real thing.). We also checked out the prize winning vegetables, crafts, and flowers. I was particularly fond of the colors of the produce in the display above.

Such an enjoyable, nostalgic outing!

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #9 - Aug 25, 2011

2011-08-29T18:34:00.001-05:00

Oh wow, sorry for the long absence Dinner Clubbers! August has been hectic...the good kind of hectic where you try and squeeze everything into a waning summer. I feel terrible that this post is so delinquent. Let's just dive right in, shall we? Last Thursday I picked up our ninth box of veggies. It was HEAVY. I'm guessing it was over 30 pounds, and could have easily been 40, of fresh, green goodness. The biggest contributor to that weight was a beautiful, ripe and sweet watermelon, pictured in the top left corner. Right after taking these pictures I cut it open to find bright, cool, yellow flesh that was almost devoid of seeds. It was so sweet and juicy that I think I ate nearly half of it while cutting it up to put in the fridge. Moving on down the line, we also received green and yellow beans; vitamin greens; some charming goose-necked yellow summer squash; edamame; another melon, this one much smaller; tomatoes; onions; peppers; and cucumbers. Not pictured, but also a big contributor to building up my biceps carrying this box to the car, were six ears of sweet corn; potatoes; and Thai basil (the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back?).

Now, lest you be thinking, '30 pounds! What's this wuss complaining about?,' I should mention that I also had 25 pounds of Roma tomatoes to pick up, as I purchased one of the produce plus options offered by our amazing CSA. Yeah, and I made one trip, one, with nearly 60 pounds of awkward produce, to my car parked two blocks away. I almost didn't make it. It wasn't my finest moment, but all's well that ends well.

And look, look what I did with those tomatoes!

It's my first tomato canning experience. Even though I've wanted to put up tomatoes for the last three summers, I've never made the time until now. Twenty-five pounds of Romas gave me 12 quarts of tomatoes, with about five tomatoes left over. This should hold us through the entire Minnesota winter. I've had a very self-satisfied feeling, bordering on smugness, for the past several days now.

A huge thank you, a bit delayed but no less sincere, to all the good folks at Harmony Valley Farm! You've truly outdone yourselves this week.

Fresh baked bread - August 20, 2011

2011-08-20T16:11:00.004-05:00

This summer has been so brutal that I am starting to get anxious for fall and for cooler weather. Thankfully we seem to have exited the 100s and are now only hitting highs in the 90s, but the famous DC humidity remains brutally swampy. I don't fault the politicians one bit for getting the heck out of this place in August! I can't even imagine what it must have been like in the days before air conditioning...

Since we do live in 2011 and have central air, I'm able to pretend it isn't as bad as it is just by staying inside! I'm craving fall cooking season... looking forward to warming up the house with baked bread, roasts, and stews. So much so that I decided not to wait any longer. Richie's reminder that I needed to pick up sandwich bread at the grocery store inspired the inner homemaker in me to see if I could make a passable home made loaf. I used the very first recipe in The Bread Bible for "Mountain white bread." The recipe makes two sandwich loafs or two round loafs. Since I only have one loaf pan, I made one of each!

I thought it turned out deliciously and look forward to toast and sandwiches made from it all week. Richie said it was good too, but not for sandwiches. He'd prefer to stick with Wonder Bread. Oh well! You can't please them all of the time! Just throwing a loaf of Wonder Bread in my cart is a heckuva lot easier than making my own bread (and probably not much more expensive), so that just means I'll save bread baking for special treats for myself.

Jaime's CSA Delivery #8 - August 18, 2011

2011-08-18T14:16:00.005-05:00

Today's bag was really heavy! The note from the farm said that the harsh weather this summer (very hot, not much rain) has been tough on the crops, but that they are pleased with the harvest so far. Clockwise from lower left: watermelon, basil, four different kinds of tomatoes, okra, peaches, sweet corn, and yukon gold potatoes.

I finished my three week allergy elimination trial last week and am now adding back in the suspect foods one by one. So far, I am unconvinced. The symptoms got somewhat but not completely better while I was avoiding all of them, which makes me suspect that it has nothing to do with food but is just coincidence. I'm seeking a second opinion and have an appointment scheduled next month. In the mean time, I'm continuing on the plan and keeping track of what happens. This past week I started eating potatoes again and am going to start corn this weekend. It will be at least another week before I start tomatoes, so I offered these beauties to a neighbor who I know will appreciate them.

Beef Stroganoff - August 16, 2011

2011-08-17T15:48:00.004-05:00

This meal is a crowd pleaser at our house, but I usually reserve it for chilly winter days when you crave some stick-to-your-ribs comfort food, but a tremendous deal on white mushrooms at the grocery store last week inspired me to make it on this August day.

I have played with this recipe quite a bit, using several sources as the base, and now feel like I can call this my own version. I uploaded it to Food52 for all to see and look forward to eventually submitting it for a contest when I see one that is right (your best retro meals, perhaps?).

Potato Flatbreat with Olives and Feta - Aug 14, 2011

2011-08-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've always said that I could eat pizza every day and not get bored. Well, that's not quite true, as after this I think I'm ready to be done with pizza for awhile. This does not reflect on the recipe in any way. We've just been having our fair share of pizza around here, and I'm ready for something different. This is another recipe from that handy-dandy back section of Sept 2011's Food & Wine magazine. I told you I had a bunch dog-eared.

Nick and I had some potatoes from the CSA to use up, along with feta and a small jar of olives. I have to say that I didn't really use the recipe other than for topping inspiration. When I make pizza at home I just kind of go on auto pilot, which in this case almost caused a big problem. I had to pull off the potato slices from the first pizza I had made up on the peel in order to cook them first. This step is clearly laid out in the recipe, by the way. I just wasn't paying attention. I ended up sauteing the potatoes in some olive oil for a couple minutes per side rather than baking them, since I had my broiler on, warming up to accommodate for the skillet pizza method we like to use. This worked out fine, but was a lot of extra work for not a lot of flavor. All in all, I guess I'm not much of a potato pizza fan.

Nectarine-Buttermilk Pops - Aug 11, 2011

2011-08-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

I have a friend* that, like me, enjoys thrifting. She, of course, finds amazing things like a set of four fiberglass shell Eames chairs in aqua blue for $100 and mint condition mid-century modern credenzas in beautiful walnut. I, on the other hand, find things like this:

A $1.69 popsicle mold set.

Oh well, when life gives you vintage kitchen ware, you should make nectarine-buttermilk pops. Or something like that. This thrifty find is actually quite fortuitous, as Sept 2011's Food & Wine has a delicious recipe for said pops. While Nick and I do own another popsicle mold set and could have made these in it, I so prefer the style of this mold compared to the rocket ship shape of the other, for this particular recipe anyway.

The pops turned out really well and they are so sweet and delicious. I especially like the buttermilk layer. I did make some minor changes to the recipe, most notably using my homemade ginger syrup in place of the ginger liqueur called for in the recipe. After this one small modification, I thought I was ready to go, but then remembered that alcohol changes the freezing point of liquids and thought I'd better add a bit to make sure these turned out right (hooray for chemistry!). I ended up adding vodka in the amounts specified for the ginger liqueur. I think it was a good decision, as these pops, while frozen solid, still have a nice slushy consistency to them. In fact, the nectarine bit reminds me ever so much of the peach brandy slush my Grandma used to make (and that my Grandpa would make sure our little 16 year old selves had glasses full of) at the holidays. Ahh, nostalgia. That's what thrifting's all about, right?

* You know who you are ;) Hope you don't mind the shout out!

Grilled Zucchini-Prosciutto Kababs - Aug 8, 2011

2011-08-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

The September 2011 issue of Food & Wine magazine arrived at our doorstep this week and it has a great spread on the 'Art of Summer Cooking.' Many of the recipes sound interesting and delicious, and use produce that is at it's peak right now. The recipes are all nicely organized in the back of the magazine to be contained wholly on one page with picture included, which is a layout I would like to see more of in monthly food publications as it's so much more user friendly than having to flip back and forth when one half the recipe is on page 57 and the other is continued on page 163. I have a few of the recipes dogeared, but the first one Nick and I tried was 'Grilled Squash Ribbons and Prosciutto with Mint Dressing.' It was terrific and quite flavorful.

I used a grill pan rather than outdoor grill, as these are pretty delicate. Our mandoline got to see some action in order to get the slices of summer squash as thin as possible. The lime and mint dressing really makes the dish pop, and I got to use homegrown mint and garlic. No homegrown zucchini though. I think some kind of insect has bored into my zucchini stems and perhaps ruined them completely. That is a typical result for my gardening attempts, so I was pleased as punch that my garlic made it.

Three whole heads of garlic survived my decidedly amateur attempt at cultivation. That's a 100% success rate as I planted three cloves in the ground last fall. They triumphed over a miserably cold and wet spring, a dreadfully hot and humid summer, and several attempts to be eaten by backyard rabbits. I did learn after speaking with a very helpful woman at a farmers' market this summer, that I should have cut off the scapes to allow more energy to go into producing the bulb. Oh well, now I know what to do next year. Since this little experiment worked out so well I am planning on planting a lot more garlic this fall.

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #8 - Aug 11, 2011

2011-08-11T17:02:00.000-05:00

Our first tomatoes and melons are here! I'm quite excited as it seems like tomatoes this year have been a long time coming. That's not all, though. We got quite an assortment in our box this week. Starting in the top left we have onions; celery; sweet corn; one of the melons...I think this one is a 'mini musketeer,' but I guess I won't know until we cut into it; little sungold tomatoes; Sweet Sarah cantaloupe; large tomatoes, including a golden slicing tomato and perhaps some Japanese Pink or Black Velvet varieties; Italian garlic; little yellow cucumbers; summer squash; gold potatoes; and raspberries.

Not pictured are the Thai basil and arugula.

Thank you, as always, to the hard workers at Harmony Valley Farm, and at the delivery sites, who make all of this bounty possible.

Door County 'Maraschino' Cherries - Aug 8, 2011

2011-08-11T09:00:00.001-05:00

Nick and I made our last visit to Madison for the summer this past weekend. I know, I'm choked up about it too. It's a good thing that we have our Madison Dinner Club reunion to look forward to in October or I'd be in a deep state of depression. Among the many pleasantly unexpected things that happened over the weekend, including bumping into fellow Madison Dinner Club alumni Matt and Nikki at Memorial Union (I squealed in delight!), we happened to luck out and find local Door County cherries at the Dane County Farmers' Market. Vendors were selling both the sweet and tart varieties and so I loaded up on a pint of each. The sweet cherries were consumed while sitting in a lovely patch of shade on the Capitol Square, watching our fellow market goers pass by, and revelling in summer time in Madison. The tart cherries travelled home with us and on Monday I made up a batch of Maraschino cherries for use in future Old Fashioneds.

Except, I didn't actually use Maraschino liqueur. I substituted amaretto, which we've had around for ages (I only bought it because I loved the colorful tin that it came in). Despite my love of all things almond, I am not a big amaretto drinker, and neither, it turns out, is Nick. I toyed around with using brandy, but ultimately the amaretto won out because I really wanted to find a use for it.

I haven't yet tried these, as they are still curing in our refrigerator, but I believe Old Fashioneds are in order for the weekend, so I'll have a report for you all soon.

Pizza with Greens and Bacon Jam - Aug 6, 2011

2011-08-10T09:00:00.003-05:00

You forgot about the bacon jam, didn't you Dinner Clubbers? Well, Nick and I didn't, and we've been looking for an excuse to use some. Since I had a whole bunch of pizza dough made up and in the freezer from our last pizza night, this was a really quick meal. Truth be told, we almost ordered out this particular night (one of our bad habits), but since ordering delivery involves either Chinese, which was nixed because we'd had it not too long ago, or pizza, I decided I could actually make our second option and it would be ready faster than it would get to our doorstep anyway. Then I remembered the bacon jam and that was all it took for me to hop up off the couch and get to work. So, it seems to be pizza week here at Madison Dinner Club and here's another skillet pizza, this time with saute greens, basil, and bacon jam. It was delicious.

Eggplant Pizza - August 9, 2011

2011-08-09T18:05:00.003-05:00

Inspired by Nick and Jess's basil, onion, and feta pizza, I decided to try my hand at pizza making this week. I had several small eggplants of miscellaneous varieties hanging out in the refrigerator that I wasn't sure what to do with and this seemed like a good way to turn them into something delicious. I consulted several recipes on the web and ended up mostly following this one, with a few variations.

I do have a pizza stone but don't have a peel and am totally intimidated by the whole transferring to the stone bit, so I just made my pizza on a cookie sheet and just put the pan on top of the stone. I figure it still has the intended effect of transferring heat up so the crust gets a nice crisp. Worked like a charm.

I also cut back the amount of red pepper flakes to maybe 1/4 teaspoon and would probably eliminate them altogether if I were to make this again. I didn't succeed in spreading them out evenly so a couple bites had a very heavy dose of pepper, which wasn't pleasant at all.

Otherwise, my first at-home pizza was a success! And it was a great way to dispatch with a veggie that isn't one of my favorites.

Flank Steak Burritos - Aug 5, 2011

2011-08-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is our second meal utilizing that flank steak I wrote about yesterday. We had some white rice in our fridge, leftover from a recent Chinese food delivery (I know, sometimes we're naughty, but sesame chicken is sooo good). I mixed the rice with salsa and lime juice from a sad and shrivelled partial lime that I scrounged up, it's better half having been used previously as garnish for gin and tonics, and reheated the mixture in the microwave. There you have it Dinner Clubbers, 'cheaters' Mexican rice,' almost as good as the real thing and ready in a fraction of the time. I also shredded some sharp cheddar and some Napa cabbage, cut up an avocado, and grilled some onions. All of this got piled onto flour tortillas with the reheated flank steak. The tortillas were, in turn, wrapped up and everything ended up happily in our bellies. Even though this meal involved leftovers almost exclusively, it was still my favorite of the two flank steak meals. I love a burrito!

Parmesan Risotto with Shrimp and Green Beans - August 8, 2011

2011-08-08T17:23:00.006-05:00

For once, Richie is traveling for work this week while I'm home alone... usually it is the reverse! That means that you will see me preparing dishes with ingredients that I love, but my picky eater love does not! Tonight that is shrimp.

I've been wanting to try to make risotto for a while. I don't know a lot about it really, except that people are always getting sent home from Top Chef for making a bad risotto. Just the other night one of the contestants on the Next Food Network Star (yes, I am a food-related-reality-TV junkie!) was embarrassed by having none other than Wolfgang Puck take her to task for making a poor risotto and gave her an on the spot lesson.

I'm not sure what Chef Puck would have thought of my risotto, but my inexperienced palate thought it was tasty. I kept it very simple, basically following the recipe in The New Best Recipe book, but cut the portion in half since I was the only one eating it tonight. The ingredients were chicken broth, butter, onions, rice, white wine, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. I can see how people would screw it up as it requires lots of attention. Just one second seemed to elapse between it having plenty of liquid and being boiled dry.

To complete my meal, I pan seared some shrimp with salt and pepper, and threw in a few steamed green beans from the CSA for color and crunch. Simple, delicious!

Even though I cut the recipe in half, I still have some leftover. Considering experimenting with making arancini... Stay tuned!

Beef and Cucumber Salad - Aug 4, 2011

2011-08-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

Nick and I hardly ever prepare beef at home, and when we do it's almost always hamburgers. For a special treat, I picked up a 100% grass-fed flank steak at the co-op last week. I choose a small one, but we still got two meals out of it. The first you see above. To prepare the steak, I rubbed it with salt and pepper and threw it on a hot cast-iron grill pan. I could have done it on an actual grill, but was lazy and decided that I didn't want to pull the whole thing out for one little flank steak. I cooked, flipping once, until the meat was medium rare (that was a lucky guess, but it turned out perfectly). While the steak was 'resting,' I made up a little salad dressing using tamari, lemon juice (only because we were fresh out of limes), and a little stir-fry oil, which is a combination of toasted sesame, peanut, and soy oils infused with green onion, ginger and garlic. This I tossed over some of our saute greens. I thinly sliced the steak, placed it on the bed of greens and threw some chopped cucumber on top to finish our salad bowls. I didn't come up with all this by myself, but loosely followed the preparation instructions for a similar salad recipe in How to Cook Everything. It turned out quite well, although I wish we would have had limes. I'll post our second flank steak meal tomorrow.

Pork Chops with Apple Shallot Reduction & Quinoa with Cranberries - August 6, 2011

2011-08-06T20:42:00.005-05:00

The apple tree in the back yard is not nearly as prolific as the peach or the pear tree (though no less tasty). This year we have harvested two apples so far, with two more still to come! I decided to use the first two in dinner tonight and made a apple and shallot reduction to put on some broiled pork chops. No recipe, just one big shallot cut into slivers and sauteed for about 5-6 minutes with butter, then I added the two apples, peeled and sliced, along with some water (would have done broth, but don't have any on hand that is allergy-free) and about a quarter cup of brandy. Cooked for another 5-6 minutes or so and then set aside until the pork chops were cooked.

On the side we had some tossed salad with cucumbers from our patio garden and a fresh herb and lemon vinaigrette. I also cooked up some quinoa, cooked with cinnamon sticks and dried cranberries. The leftover quinoa will make delicious breakfast this coming week.

It was a pretty good meal... the pork and apples flavor is a classic combination, though I thought these apples could have used some acid... perhaps a dash of apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon.

Jaime's CSA Delivery #7 - August 4, 2011

2011-08-05T06:11:00.003-05:00

This week was a little blip in the CSA schedule where we had back-to-back deliveries, probably because the summer produce is coming in at a fast and furious rate. This week's delivery included the following: sugar pears, cucumbers, sungold tomatoes, heirloom and early girl tomatoes, several different colors of eggplant, an ambrosia melon, snap beans, and peaches. No more eggs for a while... apparently chickens are like the rest of us and get rather lazy when the hot weather hits!

I'm still not eating tomatoes and our neighbors who took last week's share are out of town, so I'm not sure what I'll do with these. I wish modern technology had perfected e-food delivery and I could just shoot them across the internet to share with my fellow dinner clubbers!

We have just two more shares in the summer subscription and I have decided that I will not sign up for the fall subscription. One reason is that the delivery is going to be far less convenient as my yoga studio is not participating as a pick up location, but the main reason is that the experiment just didn't work very well for us. On top of the potential food allergies, I was recently diagnosed with a kidney stone and may be restricted on what I can eat even further. I think I'll be better off just making a point of buying what I can eat from the farmer's markets on a week-by-week basis. This would bum me out more, but I also haven't been terribly impressed with the freshness or quality of many of the CSA items. The peaches in this week's share, for example, aren't nearly as flavorful as the ones we grew in our back yard. I'm still glad to have done the experiment though and think that perhaps, if we are living somewhere else and life has settled down for us again, I will try a CSA again.

Fresh Basil, Onion and Feta Pizza - Aug 3, 2011

2011-08-03T09:00:00.001-05:00

Friday night was pizza night here at Chez Jess and Nick. Since I had grabbed some fresh basil out of the choice box at our CSA delivery site, I thought I would put it to good use. I made up a batch of pizza dough and we decided to use onions and feta in addition to the basil to top our pie. It was simple but quite tasty. We used our favorite cast iron skillet method, which involves heating an empty cast iron skillet on the stove for 10 minutes, sliding the pizza in it, and then popping the whole thing under the broiler for about 2 minutes. It turns out great every time.

Pickled Radish Seed Pods - Aug 2, 2011

2011-08-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Remember those radish seed pods Nick and I received in CSA delivery #6? After adding a few of them fresh to salads and enjoying their spicy crunch, I decided to pickle the rest. I found a recipe for pickled peppers in August 2011's Bon Appetit and simply substituted the radish seed pods for the peppers. They turned out great and were delicious on some all-grass-fed-beef franks that we grilled awhile back. These are just refrigerator pickles and we'll need to eat them within one month (similar to when we pickle ramps in the spring), but it's still nice to preserve things to last a bit longer.

Blueberries - Aug 1, 2011

2011-08-01T17:03:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I made a little day trip just north of the Twin Cities to pick some blueberries. My sister had been sending me taunting pictures of the 25 pounds she had picked the weekend before out in Oregon. I spend two hours in unpleasant heat and humidity and got just 1/5th of that amount. Five pounds, however, was enough for me to make a half batch of blueberry jam, freeze enough for two future pies, and to keep a little jar of fresh berries out for Nick and I to eat at our leisure over the weekend.

Blueberry and Strawberry-Rose Jam

In addition to the quick batch of blueberry that I made up on Thursday, I also made some strawberry jam, using berries that I had frozen when my stove was on the fritz, on Monday. I know you're not supposed to mess around with jam recipes because they are scientifically formulated and all, but I couldn't help myself from adding a teaspoon of rose flower water in with the strawberries because that sounded like a great flavor combination. The jam did indeed set, so the rose flower water did not interfere with the chemistry, but I haven't opened any yet, so I don't know how it will taste. I'll get back to you.

Strawberry Cake - July 29, 2011

2011-08-01T09:34:00.003-05:00

Richie bought a 4-pound case of strawberries at Costco, so I felt compelled to turn some of them into a baked treat. I didn't feel like strawberry shortcake or a typical strawberry pie - plus these strawberries weren't the most flavorful so I thought they would probably come out better in a baked application that added lots of sugar and butter! That led me to the internet where I found yet another Martha Stewart recipe, this one for a simple strawberry cake made in a pie pan.

This is a nice recipe to hold onto for strawberry season when you are looking for one more way to use those delicious berries.

Jaime's CSA Delivery #6 & Okra Fritters - July 28, 2011

2011-08-01T09:16:00.004-05:00

I failed to take a picture of the 6th bag of delicious produce, in part because I was pressed for time but also because I was totally bummed that I couldn't eat some of the yummiest looking stuff in it, due to my possible food allergies. Just 12 more days (no, I'm not counting!) on the total elimination diet and then I can start adding back in the potential offenders and see what happens. So far, the jury is out. I seem to have had fewer incidences of swelling and the ones I have had have gone away more quickly, though that could be because I'm being more agressive about treating them immediately with ice and rest when possible. Anyway, I'm keeping an open mind!

The things I couldn't eat this week were: three kinds of tomatoes (which I shared with the appreciative neighbors), sugar dot sweet corn (Richie ate one ear, the rest I cut off the cob and froze), and a couple kinds of summer squash (I'm saving these for the add-in phase of the elimination diet).

We also got okra, bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, an Italian zebra eggplant, and some scary looking black radishes. Our own patio garden is also producing cucumbers at a fast and furious rate. I foresee more refrigerator pickles and cucumber drinks in our future!

I'm not a huge fan of okra and I struggled to find an application for it that didn't use tomatoes or corn. I eventually settled on an okra fritter recipe from Martha Stewart.

These were OK, but I'm still not an okra fan.

Weekly Fish #9: Grilled Scallops with Mexican Corn Salad

2011-07-30T18:57:00.002-05:00

For a while now, I've wanted to try elote, that mayo- and spice-laden grilled corn on the cob that is iconic of Mexican street food. I imagine that it's a great combination of sweet (grilled corn), spicy (ancho chili powder), and sour (lime), but fear that the mayo could dominate all. That fear was somewhat realized with this week's fish.

Scallops grilled surprisingly well, at least in appearance. The grill marks are right out of a food maazine. But can't say that I prefer scallops this way; the texture was a great combination of firm and silky, but the taste was ... bland. Any other preparation of scallops I've had involved pan frying and/or broiling, and I think that letting the scallops cook in a sauce this way, rather than in the relative open air, makes for better scallops.

The corn salad is basically a dissembled elote: grilled corn on the cob (just rubbed with oil left directly on the grill for 10 minutes, then cut off the cob), lime juice, chili powder, red onion, garlic, cheese (should be cotija, but I substituted ricotta salata), and, yes, mayo. In the background, the flavors were just what I had imagine elote to be, but all played the chorus to the lead mayo.

Neither of us was a fan of the dish. I will still give elote a try someday, but with lowered expectations.

Jess & Nick's CSA Delivery #7 - July 28, 2011

2011-07-28T15:32:00.001-05:00

Our new veggies are here! This week's delivery includes carrots; our first potatoes of the year; beet roots and greens; onions; sweet corn (Nick and I cheated and bought some at the Farmers' Market last weekend so we've already had our first sweet corn of the summer); summer squash...I have almost enough to make chocolate zucchini cake; more callaloo (I really can't bring myself to call these beautiful magenta leaves amaranth greens anymore, so I'm adopting their Jamaican name); fennel; and broccoli.

Not pictured are saute greens; cucumbers, which thanks to Jaime's cucumber mint cooler post I've been using in smoothies; Italian basil from the choice box; and garlic.

In addition to the chocolate zucchini cake, I'm thinking about making a grilled corn and bacon salad, as well as some kind of potato salad over the next couple weeks. So far, that's all that's come to mind, but I'm sure that all these beautiful vegetables will inspire all kinds of delicious meals in the days to come.

As always, our heartiest thanks go out to all the hard working people at Harmony Valley Farm.

Cherries Part II: Pie - July 22, 2011

2011-07-25T14:09:00.000-05:00

Jaime's delicious looking peach pie inspired me to bake my own on Friday. I had just exactly enough cherries harvested from our front yard tree to make a pie. For about 30 minutes I was paralyzed with indecision, as this would use up all of this year's cherries. Should I find a way to stretch them out? Make jam to enjoy them longer? In the end I decided to put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. It was a good decision.

My crust turned out perfectly. As usual, I used my Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book recipe for a double pie crust, but instead of shortening, I used a combination of lard and butter in equal quantities. The butter adds delicious flavor and the lard is hard to beat for flakiness (my Grandma knew what she was doing). I was especially thrilled with how my scalloped edges turned out this time around. They finally look like an adult made this pie versus a four year old (my normal results).

The cherries were amazing...so deliciously tart. I've never enjoyed a pie more than this little cherry number. Some of you may know that I am learning to like pie late in life, as traditionally I have been firmly on Team Cake. This pie has me rethinking my allegiance.

When Nick arrived home Friday evening he was pleased that I had decided to observe 'Pi(e) Approximation Day' by baking his favorite kind. Yes, Dinner Clubbers, now you don't have to wait until March 14th (3.14) to celebrate Pi Day, you can double up the festivities by enjoying pie on 7/22 as well, because 7 divided by 22 comes darn close to 3.14. Just a little something special for all you pie loving math nerds out there. You're welcome.