Hen with Garlic Sage Sauce - May 8, 2013 (and a puppy birthday party)

It's no secret that the Hartmans are pretty big food TV junkies. Richie in particular has become a bit of a Top Chef addict and has even purchased seasons 1-5 on iTunes to watch whenever he needs a fix! Therefore we couldn't help but be drawn in when we saw season 5's Italian star, Fabio Viviani, staring back at us from the book display at Costco. Even though we have a plethora of Italian cookbooks at home, he charmed his way into our cart anyway and I'm glad he did as the first dish we made from it was definitely a winner.

This is his recipe for "hen with garlic sage sauce" and my only quibble is that his directions were a bit imprecise. I'm pretty comfortable in the kitchen, so "cook until done" was OK with me but I would imagine it might not work for less seasoned cooks. The end result was absolutely delicious and a great use of some of our abundant herb garden growth.

I also made a grain free focaccia bread and ate the dish with steamed green beans. Richie had his over angel hair pasta.

In other news, Lily is no longer a puppy! She turned one on May 2 so of course we had a party. I made four kinds of cupcakes (vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, grain free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, grain free toasted coconut, and peanut butter pumpkin for the dogs) and we invited all her two and four legged friends to a little gathering in the common space next to our house. 

Here is a picture of Lily with two of her four-legged friends. She's the one in the middle.

Homemade Graham Crackers & Marshmallows - July 7, 2012

Our 4th of July travels took us to the Wisconsin Northwoods, where I wanted to be able to eat corn-free S'Mores around the campfire. Since all three of the typical elements of a S'More (Honey Maid graham crackers, Jet Puff marshmallows, and Hershey's milk chocolate) all contain one corn derivative or another, I knew I had to get creative. The bonus outcome was that my substitutes were either ultra gourmet or homemade and created the most delicious ooey-gooey creation you could ever imagine. Not "as good as the original," but much better!

I got the recipe for both the graham crackers and the marshmallows from one of my latest cookbook purchases, The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila. The graham crackers (pictured above) include both whole wheat flour and rye flour, in addition to all purpose flour, resulting in a heartier cracker than the store bought version. She also dusts them lightly with cinnamon sugar, which I think is really necessary because they are otherwise a bit light on the sweetness.

Chernila's marshmallow recipe is a miracle to behold. The alchemy of the whole transformation in the mixer bowl is simply amazing. I've never been very excited about traditional marshmallows. I'll eat them once or twice a year when toasted over a campfire, but that is pretty much it. These are a totally different story. Flavorful, luscious, smooth, and pillowy... yum! I also elected to toss them in toasted coconut so they wouldn't stick together in the transport to Wisconsin and it was a delightful addition both for eating them alone and in the S'More. Instead of corn syrup, her recipe uses the British import Lyle's Golden Syrup, so it is totally safe for me to eat without any modification.

For chocolate, I used the organic dark chocolate truffle bar from Trader Joe's. For S'Mores I would prefer to use milk chocolate, but that seems impossible to find in a corn-free version.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the marshmallows and it was pitch dark outside when we actually consumed the assembled S'Mores so no photo of that either. I do, however, have a gorgeous photo of the view of the sun rising over Two Sister's Lake in northern Wisconsin. This was taken from the dock at my parents' lake house on our last morning there.

Pickled Asparagus - May 19, 2012

My second home canning effort! A few of the stands at the Alexandria farmer's market yesterday still had asparagus and I decided it would be fun to try out the recipe for pickled asparagus I'd just read about in The Preservation Kitchen, a new cookbook I decided to buy based solely on Amazon's recommendation due to my recent purchase of a canner and assorted canning accessories.

This is the first recipe I've tried (and I haven't tasted it yet!) so I can't do a full review yet, but it is very fun to look at and read. When I bought it I didn't realize his restaurant was in Chicago, so it was a delight to read about him sourcing local ingredients from Wisconsin and Illinois. Makes me really miss the midwest!

I ended up halving the recipe that called for four pounds of asparagus and would make about 4 quarts, primarily out of concern for my budget. Half pound bunches of asparagus were $4 each, so the two pounds I did buy cost me $16. Plus, I had to buy two bottles of white wine vinegar (the recipe called for champagne vinegar but I decided that was just too expensive and white wine would have to do) at $4 a piece. The dill is growing on my patio, so that was essentially free. Adding in a few cents for salt and garlic, the we are approaching $12 a quart! Yikes! I sure hope that when I actually bust into these preserves this winter, I decide they were worth the expense!

Book Review: "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" - April 3, 2012

Hello, my name is Jaime and I am a cookbook addict. I have never been able to resist the lure of a new cookbook, especially one that has such a compelling premise as Jennifer Reese's Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. After unexpectedly losing her job, she started filling her free time with recipe experiments in order to determine what you should and should not cook from scratch. I enjoyed reading about her chronicles, while privately seething in jealousy of her California yard large enough to accomodate a variety of farm animals and the financial security that apparently allowed her to become a full time blogger/homemaker. I fantasize about being able to chuck it all, strap on apron, and step out my backdoor with a bucket full of chicken feed. Then reality hits and I wake up in our DC-area townhouse to the sound of the nearby Metro train and head off on another business trip... with one of my "back-to-the-land" library books for reading on the airplane (above photo taken aboard one such plane...).

Reese's narrative and concept are excellent, but unfortunately I found some of her recipes to be a bit too imprecise. For example, in her directions for making ricotta she says to just bring the milk to "near boiling." I'd previously used Smitten Kitchen's technique, which calls for an exact 190 degrees. I figured Reese probably knew what she was talking about, so I left the thermometer in the drawer. The result was utter disaster. The milk never got nearly hot enough and only a few little curds formed. Rather than throw out one entire gallon of organic whole milk, I pulled the thermometer out and started over. 

Ricotta, made by bring the milk to 190 degrees, then adding acid and letting it sit for 30 minutes before draining.

Whey draining from the ricotta cheese.

I also didn't care for her English muffin recipe. I've experimented with a few different recipes and found that the only ones that come close to the factory-produced ideal of nooks and crannies are the batter-type recipes that you "bake" like a pancake. I've been particularly pleased with Michael Ruhlman's version, which I prefer to the Alton Brown recipe just because I'd rather use real milk than the powdered stuff which I don't trust to be corn-free.

In the end, I'm glad I read the book (borrowed from the library - the only way I can keep my cookbook addiction from breaking the bank) and plan to try some of the other recipes in it eventually (cream cheese, Canadian bacon, to name a couple). But my chicken and goat raising will have to remain just a fantasy.