In the kitchen with Bossygirl

Chicken Bouillabaisse

2010-01-31T17:49:00.005-07:00

I haven’t posted in a while and am feeling a little rusty, but I didn’t want tonight’s dinner to go undocumented because it was absolutely gorgeous, healthy and fantastic. Every Sunday morning over coffee, Ben and I plan all of the meals for the upcoming week. I use a standing grocery list for breakfast and snacking staples, then we plot out every lunch and dinner, Sunday afternoon through Saturday afternoon. Some people think this seems like a lot of (high-maintenance) work, but a) I am not a particularly good pantry cook and b) we definitely eat better and try a lot more new things because we put this work in up front.

We peruse the calendar and, cookbooks in hand, plan around days when one of us won’t be here to help with dinner preparation (usually saving leftovers for those dinners). I’m also a big believer in hot, homemade lunch, so we have to plan for Sunday “secret cooking” for that, too. (Usually this entails making an extra pot of soup on Sunday afternoon for half of the week’s lunches).

Ben will be the first to tell you that he... intensely dislikes the weekly menu planning portion of our life (that one’s for you, Mom!). He knows it’s a crucial part of what makes this whole operation run smoothly, it’s just that he feels that he’s not much help in the process. So, he was thrilled that tonight’s new recipe was not only his choice but was also scrumptious.

Ben is not a shellfish lover (ha... the first two times I read through this I read it as “selfish lover”... ha!), so I’ve never attempted homemade bouillabaisse. But this was surprisingly easy and delicious, even without all of the traditional tasty fish and shellfish. Plus, when I looked this up after dinner, the recipe’s remarkably similar to Julia Child’s seafood bouillabaisse in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

To make this dish, I just created a simple broth of sautéed onion, thyme, saffron (a wee bit pricey, but worth it), long strips of orange peel, diced tomatoes, broth and white wine, then threw in some bone-in, skinless chicken thighs and drumsticks. I stuck it in the oven, covered, for an hour and wow! The whole house was filled with a tantalizing aroma, the chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender and the broth had a remarkably dynamic flavor for so few ingredients.

I served this with baguette slices I’d brushed with olive oil, broiled and then rubbed with halved garlic cloves—Joseph absolutely devoured his toast, and Sophia loved hers so much she cried real tears when I told her she couldn’t have any more! I also roasted organic fingerling potatoes (also great dipped in the broth) and tossed together a salad of organic baby arugula with tomatoes, cucumber and hearts of palm and a red wine and balsamic vinaigrette.

The only reason this is a four-star recipe is that it wants a bit of fennel bulb or a splash of Pernod next time (both recommended in the “Reviews” section of this recipe on epicurious).

This all sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn’t. The recipe calls for you to bake the bouillabaisse for 45 minutes; because I was also putting potatoes in the oven, I baked it for an hour and threw the potatoes (tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper) in the oven at the 30 minute mark. It all came out perfectly cooked!

By the way, the whole time I’ve been working on this, I’ve had Gene Autry’s “Back in the Saddle Again” in my head. Hope that’s true... I’ve missed this!

Breakfast for Dinner

2009-12-03T20:51:00.003-07:00

My people are tired. My people are run-down. My people are at the ends of their proverbial ropes and, frankly, not that much fun to be around. To be fair, I count myself among them. When I headed to the store at 3:45 this afternoon, it was with simple comfort food in mind to maybe soothe the souls of my overworked, buried-in-grading husband, my end-of-the-preschool-week, one-too-many play dates, exhausted daughter and my own anxious self. So, what comfort food did I turn to? Mashers? Soup? Breakfast!

I have a wonderful old friend who works at my neighborhood Vitamin Cottage with whom I always chit-chat when I stop in. She teases me now because on at least two occasions I’ve gone in the store to buys eggs, filled up my basket and gotten home with no eggs. So, every time I see her, she reminds me: “Don’t forget the eggs!”

Eureka! If you can’t cheer people up with breakfast for dinner, I thought, then they just cannot be pleased. So, I whipped up a batch of organic blueberry pancakes (I use the Arrowhead Mills Multigrain mix) with butter and real maple syrup. At the same time, I sautéed some organic baby spinach in a bit of butter, then added beaten eggs, bacon left over from a quiche earlier in the week and diced organic tomato. The kids finished the meal with plain organic goat yogurt—Joseph has discovered he loves this and kept yelling “bipes!” (bites!) at Sophia, who was feeding him. Seriously adorable.

By the end of dinner, we were all grooving to Johnny Mathis Christmas music and in a much better place emotionally. Something to keep in my back pocket for the next time my frazzled family needs an extra touch of culinary comfort.

When Dinner is Just... Awful

2009-09-29T21:53:00.004-06:00

I am so overdue to blog about all of the wonderful things that have happened in my kitchen in the past month, and yet I’m more motivated to write about tonight’s dinner, which was just awful! Terrible! How does this happen?

The menu was so simple, designed to be quick and easy since Ben had to leave at 5:00 for his second job (yes, that means we ate dinner at 4:30... sometimes when we do this, Sophia says “What, are we 80?”).

Here was our menu: organic chicken drumsticks and thighs, to be brushed with a lemon, olive oil and garlic dressing once off the grill, baked sweet potato chips (which were delicious the first time I made them) and sautéed fresh baby spinach. Easy peasy. Very little prep, low-maintenance cooking, quick and easy, right?

The result? Blackened chicken (inexplicably charred beyond recognition by our powerful new grill), oily spinach and overly crispy chips that tasted black as well. I am laughing out loud as I write this, thinking that it doesn’t really matter how easy or challenging a meal is. When you’re on, you’re on, and when you’re off, well, you’re off and dinner is nearly inedible.

Sophia was the only person to clean her plate tonight. I swear, that kid will eat anything.

Overdue postings...

2009-09-08T16:26:00.001-06:00

Overdue postings coming soon on homemade waffles, thumbprint cookies and mmm, mmm, tortilla soup!

Nine Meals a Day?

2009-08-25T20:34:00.009-06:00

I was feeding my beautiful boy a bottle tonight, just grooving in the rocking chair with him, thinking about my day. I did nothing remarkable. In fact, we didn’t even leave the house. The only item on our schedule was one hour of PT for Joseph. That’s it. And yet, I’m pooped. Yes, I know some of this is the parvo talking, but that can’t be all of it. So, as I rocked and grooved and loved on my boy (listening to Sophia read quietly to herself in the other room), I started to mull over the minutia of the day and I made a startling discovery. I served, as I do every day, NINE unique meals. Nine. How in the world is that possible? (And no wonder my hands always look a mess!)

So, here’s what we ate today:

Breakfast for two girls: eggs over easy, sourdough toast, orange juice and blessed coffee for me (coffee courtesy my lovely husband). I don’t mean to brag (as Ben says, Modesty is my middle name), but I’m getting really good at runny eggs.
Breakfast for one small boy: organic prunes (the only jarred food I buy) and organic oatmeal cereal.
Mid-morning snack: messy but delectable organic peach for Sophia. Juice just running down her arm. She looked overjoyed.
Lunch for two girls: tortellini with prosciutto and spinach from the night before. Just as good on day two.
Lunch for the boy: organic homemade sweet potatoes and oatmeal cereal.
Mid-afternoon snack: the most sinfully delicious double cream brie and more sourdough (really, who can get enough sourdough?).
Dinner for everyone, served once to Ben before work and once to two hungry girls: buffalo taco salads with black beans and corn. A successful experiment with buffalo, I believe.
Dinner for Joseph: organic homemade peas and, you guessed it, oatmeal cereal.
Bedtime snack for the girl: organic blueberry yogurt and five M&Ms. What a treat!

Oh, and lest I forget, Joseph’s also had five bottles today (5:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., two of which his daddy gave him). Does that count as three additional meals I served?

This is a good approximation of a typical day for me, cooking-wise. Some things from scratch, some tasty leftovers, lots of snacks, lots of bottles, lots and lots and lots of dishes.

Okay, so, no wonder I’m pooped. But, as I enjoy a well-deserved glass of red wine, at the very least I get to go to bed with the not-insignificant satisfaction that, no matter what else happened around here today, everyone went to bed well-fed.

Tortellini with Prosciutto and Spinach

2009-08-24T20:47:00.002-06:00

How have I missed this recipe in the past six months? I just feel certain I’ve made this before, since it’s once of my easy and healthy quickie dinner recipes from Cooking Light. The first time we had this, I actually think Ben made it, and we now think of it as “his pasta,” even though I’m sure I’ve made it more now than he has. So fast, so flavorful, so little cooking. Gorgeous in a big white bowl.

I make it with frozen tortellini, and use about a pound, rather than use the packaged refrigerator ones—it’s much more cost effective. I also at least double the spinach, and use the really good imported Prosciutto di Parma. Since I’m not using more than three or four ounces for two meals, it’s worth it to splurge on the yummy stuff.

I love that this meal requires very little prep and very little cooking, but nets a meal that is chock-full of a very healthy veggie, is filling for everyone and bursting with flavor. Apparently Sophia ate a HUGE bowl of it last night (I was off getting a massage... yeah me!)

Seriously, how could you possibly go wrong with the three Ps: pine nuts, prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano?

YUM!

Tangy Lentil & Chickpea Soup Recipe

2009-08-24T13:46:00.003-06:00

Apparently everyone loves lentils as much as we do. I’ve had several requests for this recipe, which is featured in the September 2009 issue of O Magazine. For some reason the recipe’s not up on their site yet, so I’ve included it below.

2 tsp. olive oil

¾ cup chopped celery

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

1 large yellow potato, peeled and diced [I didn’t peel it, since so many nutrients are in the skin]

1 tsp. mild curry powder

1 tsp. ground turmeric

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice

1 cup dried and rinsed lentils (preferably red) [I used whatever I had on hand]

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, well-rinsed and drained

1 tsp. salt

juice of 1 lemon

1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional) [skipped this time, will probably do some time]

Place olive oil in large pot over medium heat; sauté celery, onions and potatoes, along with curry powder, turmeric and cinnamon, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add canned tomatoes and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add 8 cups of water and the lentils, chickpeas and salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour (check that there is enough liquid; add 1 extra cup of water if necessary).

Just before serving, add lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and cilantro, if using.

Makes 6 servings.

Recipe courtesy of Catherine S. Katz, PhD, coauthor of Dr. David Katz’s Flavor-Full Diet.

Tangy Lentil & Chickpea Soup

2009-08-18T21:16:00.008-06:00

Seriously, what is it about soup? Soup is one of my absolute favorite healthy lunches, and I just love to prepare it. I’ve been thinking about this for a few days and here’s what I’ve come up with: for me, making homemade soup is the closest I come to starring in my own cooking show.

Here’s what I mean. When I make soup, I do all my mise en place first: chop chop chop, mince mince mince, measure seasonings into little ramekins, open cans, rinse beans, etc. It’s one of the few times I’m not multitasking in the kitchen. Once my mise en place is complete, then I get to just stand at the stove and sauté, stir and savor the beautiful colors, textures and smells. Then, once everything’s in the pot... simmer! Which is when we take a commercial break and walk away from the stove for an hour or so. Buzzer beeps and I have a colorful, nutritious, hearty one-dish meal. Love it! It really is the most satisfying meal to create.

So, this week’s soup I found in O Magazine. I would have been skeptical if I hadn’t already made something else scrumptious from O (banana walnut muffins). I absolutely loved this recipe. Despite turmeric, curry powder and cinnamon, the soup isn’t overly curry-ish. The addition of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar once the soup has simmered gives it a subtle tang, and the combination of garbanzos and lentils lends a hearty texture. I made the recipe as written, but next time I’m adding a carrot or two. What’s a big soup without carrots? This meal was just lovely and delicious. One funny note: the recipe says it makes six servings. For whom? Linebackers? We got eight to 10.

Despite the not-too-curryish nature of the soup, I did serve them with my favorite new discovery: Rotiland brand Roti-Chapati (in the refrigerated section at Costco). Just throw them on a hot griddle (I used a nonstick skillet) for about 30 seconds a side and they’re just wonderful, lightly browned and just a bit puffed up. I often grapple with what to serve when I make Indian food, because I haven’t yet tackled bread making, and the rice, raita and curry components of the meal are already a lot of prep work. These are a great new find to round out those meals.

Oh, and speaking of lentils. I had the most amazing warm lentil salad with tomato and dill last night at the Montessori back-to-preschool picnic. These events seem to bring out the best in home cooks, and last night was no exception. I told Rudi, Jack B.’s mom, that it was so good I just wanted to kiss her! (Do you imagine she found that alarming?) Here’s the recipe. My people should expect to see it in heavy rotation soon!

You call THAT home cooking?

2009-08-18T20:16:00.006-06:00

“Wow, Mom, that looks amazing!” These were Sophia’s exact words when she saw her dinner plate last night. And what amazing dinner elicited such unbridled enthusiasm from such a small diner? Grilled Coleman uncured beef hot dogs (these really are amazing!), grilled corn on the cob (wrapped in foil with butter and salt) and sautéed baby spinach with garlic. And, until I heard her response, I never in a million years would have chosen to blog about this meal, because it would never make the cut.

The cut? When I started this blog, I decided that I would only write about meals cooked “from scratch.” To me, this had a very clear definition: buy a bunch of ingredients, chop them up, cook them up, serve them up. Very little if anything pre-made or packaged. I assumed, too, that this is how the rest of the world would define home cooking. So, last night’s dinner, while delicious, didn’t qualify as homemade to me. Yes, I shucked, buttered and salted corn, minced garlic and sautéed it with baby spinach, but this is unremarkable. In fact, most of the gaps between dates on my blog are either because we’re eating leftovers or because we’re having meals like last night’s (or, if I’m really lucky, we’re out). But Sophia’s enthusiasm, and a recent article in The New York Times, got me to thinking.

Michael Pollan, who wrote In Defense of Food, had a recent piece in the Times inspired by Julie & Julia and the rising popularity of food television. The article is long, and I certainly have no intention of summarizing it, but he did make one interesting point that stuck with me. He has a long conversation with a food-marketing researcher, Harry Belzer, about what people today consider “cooking.” According to Belzer, most people consider any assembling of ingredients to be cooking from scratch. Even just washing a head of lettuce and pouring bottle dressing on it. When Pollan tried to press Belzer on the number of people who still really cook from scratch, he learned that they don’t track that degree of home cooking because so few people actually do it. Ouch!

I was fascinated to find that my definition of home cooking was a) in line with Pollans and b) a less and less common activity. It validated for me my original intention in starting this blog, to capture the details of real homemade meals, and to celebrate the outcome of my sometimes considerable efforts to feed my family well.

But now, Sophia has me thinking. Hot dogs, corn, sautéed spinach. Does this a home-cooked meal make?

Tomato & Grilled Bread Salad & Julie & Julia

2009-08-16T21:46:00.008-06:00

I made this for Ben (with another buffalo New York strip steak, to which I will be addicted exactly as long as Whole Foods has them on sale) to celebrate his last official night of vacation. I could not have chosen a better menu—this dish perfectly captures the many flavors of summer. Incidentally, it’s also an ideal use for day-old bread.

We grilled up some sourdough slices, then cubed them and tossed them with tomatoes, basil, cucumber and red wine vinaigrette. The salad is just beautiful to look at, so colorful, and is a great starch/veggie combo to round out the meal. What’s so odd about this dish is that it tastes as though the toasts were rubbed with a garlic clove before being added to the salad... it has a delicious garlic-y tang. Yet, no garlic. It’s almost like bruschetta salad... oooh, Kalamata olives would be excellent in it. Yes, I’ll add those next time. Good idea (she said modestly to herself).

The only reason this is a four-star dish instead of five stars is because it seems almost impossible to not over-grill the bread, which leaves it a little crispy. Otherwise, it couldn’t be simpler or yummier (except, perhaps, with the aforementioned olives).

We had forgotten about this dish somehow, which is sort of sad, since it’s so easy and lovely and scrumptious. Not sure what sparked my memory... perhaps a discussion of gazpachos and other uses of stale bread? Regardless, even though summer is coming to a close, I say better late than never.

p.s. I saw Julie & Julia Saturday afternoon with Alison, then savored the most delicious French feast, al fresco, at À Côté, the bar attached to Z Cuisine Parisian Bistro in Denver. The movie was so inspiring it brought tears to my eyes and made me long for a calling. The food was so gorgeous and delicious that I will be returning there again. Soon. Very soon.

Baby Arugula Salad & Sourdough Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

2009-08-14T14:27:00.002-06:00

Friday afternoon lunch and just sinfully delicious. We’re nearing the end of our summer vacation (Ben goes back Monday morning), so this was one of the last of our “beer lunches”—tasty homemade lunches good enough to enjoy with a cold Colorado microbrew (this week it’s New Belgium’s Skinny Dip).

First, I made grilled cheese sandwiches that were just delectable. I started with slices of sourdough Parisienne from Whole Foods (which I’ve been buying to have with runny eggs, a new household favorite), buttered it lightly and filled it with Tillamook medium cheddar slices. Grilled to perfection and served with my new best salad (even better than Benji’s salad!) of baby arugula topped with hearts of palm, quartered cherry tomatoes and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano.

I made a similar arugula salad earlier in the week and experimented with a vinaigrette made from a blend of cider and white wine vinegars. Unfortunately, the vinegars just weren’t flavorful enough to compete with the strong peppery taste of baby arugula. It tasted like argula coated in olive oil... there was no vinegar taste to speak of. Yuck.

In rethinking the salad, I remembered having an incredible microgreen salad at Radda in Boulder that had a lemon vinaigrette. Actually, if I remember correctly, the Radda salad was so good that I finished my first one and immediately ordered a second. So, I cruised over to epicurious and checked out a variety of lemon vinaigrettes. This recipe seemed the simplest and didn’t require anything I didn’t have on hand and was truly a perfect complement to the arugula salad. Yummo!

I really enjoy making big salads for lunch because a) they feel so good for you, b) we can get a few veggie servings in midday and c) there are so many steps of salad making that Sophia can help with. She filled the salad bowl with greens, rinsed the tomatoes, helped to prepare the vinaigrette, shaved the cheese with a vegetable peeler, and, of course, generously offered to sample all of the toppings for me. Such a helpful kid! I finally bought myself a simple, beautiful salad bowl several months ago at Crate & Barrel, and I really do believe that salad presentation significantly improves salad enjoyment, particularly at home.

Aunt Susan was teasing me the other day for serving complicated lunches that, in other homes, would qualify as dinners. That, to me, has been one of the greatest joys of this tail end of our summer vacation. We’ve really been enjoying the opportunity to savor three creative, healthy meals a day together at the table. I’m sad that this part of our routine has to end, at least for a few months... Sophia, Joseph and I will of course continue to sup together, but we’ll be missing our Benji at breakfast and lunch.

Buffalo New York Strip Steak

2009-08-12T21:30:00.001-06:00

One buffalo New York strip steak. Salt and pepper. Grilled to medium rare. Served with a two forks, two knives and two glasses of red wine. Savored by husband and wife after the kids are blissfully asleep. Perfection!

Almond-Peach Crisp

2009-08-10T22:08:00.002-06:00

Summer vacation is rapidly drawing to a close. This has been the most wonderful summer of my life, including the summer Becky Selzer’s parents went on vacation and let us stay at their house, so that’s really saying something! I’m feeling a little blue about it coming to an end and find myself drawn to homey comfort foods.

However, despite my autumnal cravings, the warm summer-y weather persists, so I’ve been searching high and low for nourishing comfort foods that feature summer produce. Thus the magnificent almond-peach crisp.

I found this recipe in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Jenn, gave me: The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook (which, incidentally, came with a one-year Bon Appétit subscription, which I’m also loving despite the radical rebranding since I last subscribed... why does everyone in the photojournalistic, party-at-home pics have a tattoo?). Everything I’ve read about in this book has seemed like a quick and healthy twist on an old favorite. My only complaint, frankly, is that it’s a hefty tome and is almost too much to slog through. Oh, and there’s a dearth of inspiring photography. Regardless, this crisp recipe was everything I was looking for.

In many ways it’s a traditional crisp—fresh fruit topped with a blend of butter, oats, brown sugar and flour. However, this crisp is subtly yet vastly improved with the addition of a hint of almond extract with the fruit and chopped toasted almonds in the topping. Delightful. Another thing I loved about this recipe is that it only calls for one pound of fruit (just two or three peaches), making two servings, but is easily scalable. I tripled the recipe and baked it in an eight-inch square Pyrex dish and it was perfect.

Unfortunately, crisp just doesn't keep very well. It’s best right out of the oven... subsequent servings found the crisp, well, not-so-crispy. Next time I’ll either scale back the number of servings or, better yet, invite more people!

Italian Sausage-Stuffed Globe Zucchinis

2009-08-07T19:33:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite finds from the Longmont Farmers’ Market is the globe zucchini. I only learned about these a few years ago, and they’re now a summertime staple. They make a scrumptious, healthy and perfectly self-contained entrée, and they are just beautiful to look at.

My recipe for stuffed zucchini is adapted from a recipe I got years ago from Alison. Her recipe was for stuffed bell peppers, but ever since pregnancy #1 I really can’t digest peppers at all (except for the occasional roasted red pepper). I can’t even recall where I got the idea, but for years now we’ve been stuffing these beautiful summer squash and serving them with tomato sauce.

First, I scoop out the innards of each zucchini with a melon baller (after lopping off the top like a pumpkin) then blanch them in boiling water. Next, I make the stuffing—I sauté onions, garlic and a bit of the zucchini innards (but not too much or it’s too watery), then add Boulder Italian sausage and brown. I combine this sautéed mixture with already-cooked jasmine rice, beaten egg, pine nuts and grated Parmiagiano-Reggiano cheese. Fill each zucchini with the stuffing and cover with Muir Glen tomato sauce, cover with foil and bake.

I wish I’d taken a picture of these when they came out of the oven, or, better yet, Sophia’s empty plate after devouring an entire zucchini by herself!

I made these Friday afternoon before a pool party, and felt such a glow of satisfaction that I had whipped up such a beautiful dinner for my family before our evening adventure. I’ve cooked from scratch several times this week, which is a vast improvement over the past weeks and months. While it’s murder on my arthritic feet, it's wonderful for my soul.

Fried Green Tomato BLTs

2009-08-04T19:48:00.002-06:00

These sandwiches are exactly as delicious but not nearly as sinful as they sound, and a favorite dish to originate from the Longmont Farmers’ Market.

I have the most powerful memories of Dad’s fried green tomatoes and fried eggplant on Crooked Road. I discovered this recipe in the most unlikely of places, Cooking Light, a few years ago, and we have gradually perfected it.

As per the recipe, I cook Coleman natural bacon (although I do it in the oven, Alison’s way, rather than on the stove top—too messy!) and dredge the green tomato slices with corn meal and parmesan cheese before frying them in a bit of bacon grease and some olive oil. We use red leaf lettuce and whole wheat bread, which we toast. I wonder if toasted BLTs are a regional thing, or just an us thing?

Most importantly, however, we DO NOT put mayonnaise on our sandwiches. Why? Because, to put it bluntly, mayonnaise is revolting. Disgusting. An abomination. Yes, I know it’s made from eggs and oil, but I just can’t stomach it. Ergo, I always miss out on people’s “world famous” potato salad (why is everyone’s potato salad recipe a point of pride?), and will only gag down a deviled egg under the most crucial of social situations. Actually, the first time my mom saw my sister, Becki, and I both eat a deviled egg was when they were made by my soon-to-be aunt, Eloise. We so wanted her to like us that we both choked down a deviled egg. Now that is love!

Anyway... in lieu of mayonnaise, I make yogurt cheese by straining Brown Cow plain yogurt in cheese cloth for a few hours. The texture is delightfully creamy and the flavor sufficiently tangy. Yum. And mayo free!

These BLTs scream to be devoured with a cold beer and perhaps some grilled corn on the cob. They are remarkably light, fabulously tasty and bring together a satisfying blend of textures. Simply put, they’re the essence of summer. On toast.

Benji & Sophia’s Salad

2009-08-01T12:26:00.006-06:00

This has been christened Benji’s Salad, because it was Ben who came up with the combination of toppings. However, Sophia is insisting it be called Benji & Sophia’s salad, because she loves it so much she eats third! It has been given a five-star rating all around, which is fabulous, since I don’t consider salads to be my forte. In my experience, salad is always best if it’s made by someone else... my versions are never as good as those served to me by friends or restaurants. So, I’m tickled pink to have everyone in our house raving.

The salad is really fairly simple: organic baby spinach topped with garbanzo beans, hearts of palm and Kalamata olives. I’ve made this three times, and the third time was the best, improved with the addition of grilled chicken breast, marinated for a few hours in lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

I’ve also created a delicious vinaigrette for this salad inspired in part by recipes on epicurious and in part by wonderful salads I’ve had at Alison’s—one parts vinegar (half balsamic vinegar, half white wine vinegar), three parts olive oil, bit of salt and pepper and a hint of local wildflower honey. Yum!

I bought Ben a new grill about a month ago. Only half of our old grill worked, and the ignitors had been broken for years. We absolutely love our new purchase, and it has made pulling together healthy, speedy dinners a breeze. This was the least expensive grill that got a recommendation on Consumer Reports, and it has been really inspiring.

Shopping

2009-07-30T19:11:00.004-06:00

I bought myself a rolling pin today! Sophia and I stopped at Brown’s Shoe Fit in downtown Longmont to buy her some new tennis shoes and decided to bop across the street to check out the new local cooking shop, Cayenne Kitchen. I’m not a big impulse shopper (frankly, I’m not a shopper at all), but we’d found a fabulous new pair of sneakers for Sophia on sale for $15 (with laces... soooo exciting!), so I was feeling lucky. I thought I might run across a paella pan, which I’m sure I don’t need to make paella, but they’re so coppery and gorgeous.

Alas, no paella pan, but Sophia did spot the rolling pins. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been using Sophia’s four-inch toy cooking set rolling pin. Sad. So, with her encouragement, I bought myself a brand-spanking-new, 12-inch, genuine Vermont maple rolling pin.

Surely this is a sign of the tides a’turning?

Parvo & Paella

2009-07-28T22:44:00.005-06:00

I want to make homemade artisanal bread. And paella. And something, anything, with caramelized onions. I want to savor culinary triumphs and laugh uproariously at culinary failures. But I can’t. Or don’t. What has happened?

I’m exhausted. It’s not summer vacation, or depression, or even having a baby who still gets up to eat twice a night. It’s parvovirus, and I feel like it’s slowly sucking the life out of my life.

In kids, parvovirus manifests as Fifth’s Disease, which is an ominous name of an innocuous childhood illness. But in the few adults who contract it as parvovirus (those of us unlucky enough to escape it in childhood), it can be much more debilitating and it can linger. And linger. For up to six months.

My symptoms? Pseudo-arthritis, pseudo-Chronic Fatigue, with daily migraines as the proverbial cherry on top. How am I coping? Ben’s picking up so much of my slack it’s ridiculous... thank goodness he’s on summer vacation. He’s doing most of the night feedings—I make the bottles and fling myself back into bed.

The answer for all of this? Time. I’m having more blood work this week to look for possible short-term treatment ideas. For now we just wait. I’m trying so hard to grin and bear it, to find the joys and energy in every day where I can. I still laugh every day, love every day, cook every day. But I haven’t found time for much else extra. So I have let my blog languish. What was such a tremendous source of motivation and energy for me has become a guilt-inducing drain. I tell myself I’m merely on summer hiatus, much like my beloved Liz Lemon. But I’m fooling myself.

I’m just too tired to brag to myself about my culinary exploits. And I have made some marvelous things... soba salad with soy-wasabi vinaigrette with soy-marinated chicken thighs, gorgeous homemade baby food like organic nectarines and butternut squash, Nestle Tollhouse cookies vastly improved with Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips.

I’m hoping that somehow, by purging some of this self-inflicted guilt (is there any other kind?) that I can get back to doing what I loved—experimenting and laughing with my family in my kitchen, sampling new flavors and recording my adventures for posterity. Oh and a book deal. I’d love a book deal.

Here’s wishing the parvo good riddance. I’m on to bigger and better things.

Anyone have a paella pan they’re looking to unload?

Work-Shirking, Anti-Feminist Spiced Banana Walnut Muffins

2009-06-29T15:22:00.006-06:00

Of course, my title is ridiculous, but I was so taken with a recent article in O, “Muffin Manifesto” by Suzan Colón, that I had to repeat that line. The gist of her article is that, as the economy turned sour and she became self-employed, she turned to baking as aroma-therapy. While for her baking was simply a happy, mind- and body-occupying pursuit of pleasure, her friends acted as if she were “setting feminism back 30 years.” Fascinating.

I relate so much to the idea of her interest in cooking for her family being misinterpreted by her peers. I, too, have been taken aback when people view my blog as some kind of statement about their own relationship with food and cooking. As I always say, we all have the same number of hours in the day. While I spend more of them cooking from scratch than most of my peers, I then choose not to do scads of other things: garden, clean, sew, build, shop, watch TV, etc., let alone work full-time. Cooking (and blogging about cooking) is a very personal pursuit that brings me a kind of joy and peace that I find in few other corners of my life. When faced with others who seem to have taken the frequency and fervor with which I cook personally, I want to reply, “But it’s not about you!”

So, the muffins... at the end of the article is the author’s recipe for her favorite muffins, adapted to be healthier than typical muffin recipes. I was drawn to this because a) my people love a good muffin and b) I had a bunch of overripe bananas taking up counter space.

The finished product has finally been sampled by all and I would say it earned five stars all around. Made with applesauce, vegetable oil, egg and a few mashed bananas, these muffins are incredibly moist, even 24 hours after they were baked. And with the addition of cardamom and orange zest to the to-be-expected cinnamon, they have a wonderful, dynamic flavor. This recipe also gave me a chance to use my brand-new microplane rasp grater (thank you Aunt Eloise), which I love, love, love!

The only change I made to the recipe was to omit the nutmeg. I hate nutmeg (sorry Mom... I dislike it intensely). Otherwise, we got eight tasty, relatively healthy muffins from a recipe for six and everyone had a nourishing snack this afternoon before cleaning out the sandbox. Three cheers for summer vacation and overripe bananas!

Pasta with Chopping-Board Pistachio Pesto

2009-06-28T21:10:00.002-06:00

This dish was a huge surprise in its short journey from cutting board to tabletop to fork. I was drawn to this because, as the authors point out in the recipe introduction, “You do it all with your trusty knife and one pot.” That’s an appealing proposition in and of itself, and then I looked at the ingredient list and was definitely in: you literally just chop up the pesto on the cutting board, mixing salt and pepper, garlic, scallion tops (or chives), basil, red onion and pistachios. Easy as can be. You even stir in the olive oil right there on the cutting board. I don’t know why, but this seemed somehow radical... no Cuisinart required? Cook some linguine (I used whole grain by Barilla for added nutritional punch) and stir in some pasta water and Asiago with the pesto and dinner is done. Probably took 30 minutes, tops.

So, where was the surprise? Once the pasta cooked, I sautéed a bit of red onion and then heated the pesto before tossing with the noodles and cheese. The pesto smelled phenomenal on the cutting board and was a beautiful, almost technicolor green. However, it seemed scant when tossed in with a pound of pasta, even after adding pasta water. As I carried it from the countertop to the table, and as I dished up plates, I was already rewriting the recipe for next time—double the pesto and stir in the Asiago gradually, so it doesn’t clump (I would actually do this next time). As I twirled, there was very little pesto clinging to the noodles, and I feared a mostly bland dinner.

First bite... wow! Huge flavor! It tastes as if each strand is gently coated in the essence of the pesto, with the occasional bite loaded with herbs and pistachio and cheese for greater intensity. Looks were very deceiving, and the dish was just wonderful, bursting with flavor despite the pesto to pasta ratio.

Next time, I’ll cut the garlic by half. Since the garlic is never cooked, it leaves that raw garlic taste in the mouth, which I can do without. Ben and I both thought it would be even better served with a little protein like roasted salmon or grilled chicken and shrimp. The pesto would actually make an incredible topping for roasted salmon.

I loved being so surprised by this dish, loved being wrong about how it would taste. This is a wonderful, inventive dinner that comes together quickly and easily, doesn't make a huge mess in the kitchen and would pair nicely with a range of simple proteins. This is definitely my new favorite cookbook!

Pesky Baby!

2009-06-27T19:44:00.003-06:00

So, I was all ready to blog about how incensed I was that Joseph was not devouring my beautiful, delicious, nourishing homemade organic baby food. So far, I’ve only made him peas and sweet potatoes because we were traveling, and, when we got home, he had no interest in these first two foods. I really wanted him to develop a test for veggies before introducing sweet fruits, so we were in a bit of a holding pattern. I even had a title for my blog, which I hardly ever write in advance: “Frankly, I’m Offended.” I had writing time set aside for Thursday night and was looking forward to venting my proverbial spleen because, well, I can’t exactly complain to him about it, can I? Well, wouldn’t you just know it? I offered him sweet potatoes Thursday night with dinner and, lo and behold, he gobbled them up. I thought he might just be showing off for his Eryc, whom he adores, but no, the next morning he ate all of his peas. While I’m of course thrilled that he’s eating the gorgeous baby food I’m making, I’m a little peeved that he ruined a perfectly good blog post. So, there you go... Joseph’s finally taken to homemade baby food. Next on the agenda—butternut squash!

The Blog as Self-Portrait

2009-06-25T14:23:00.003-06:00

Next Monday, June 29, I’ll be participating in a panel discussion for the Mizel Museum on blogging as self-portraiture. I feel very honored to join four other fascinating bloggers:

Eric Elkins: The Dating Dad

Eryc Eyl: Mile High Makeout for Denver’s Westword

John Common: Hit Record and Play

Naomi Zeveloff: The Lady Finger

The panel is part of Mizel Museum’s current exhibition, “My Self: Original Self Portraits."

Details:

When: Monday, June 29, 8:00 p.m.

Where: Forest Room 5 Restaurant, Denver, CO

Cost: $5

Interested? RSVP online on Facebook.

Creamy Orzo II—Don’t Buy Cheap Tomatoes!

2009-06-22T19:15:00.006-06:00

Quick note: always buy the good tomatoes! It wasn’t until I read The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper that I realized that the brand of canned tomatoes I bought even mattered. Since reading their wise words, I’ve generally been buying Muir Glen or Hunt’s Organic. Well, tonight I skimped and bought generic diced tomatoes and learned a valuable lesson. Not only was the flavor of the store-brand tomatoes less dynamic, but the cheap tomatoes were also poorly packaged. When I made this recipe the first time, I used Muir Glen diced tomatoes. The recipe says to drain them, and when I drained the Muir Glen, I was left with lovely little chunks of tomato. Period. When I tried to drain the cheap tomatoes, I realized they were packaged not in water, but in a thick purée, which was impossible to separate from the chunks. Ergo, my sauce was too runny. Yuck. Alas, lesson learned. The good tomatoes are worth it. Every time. Even for Monday night pasta.

Raspberry Honey Almond Tart

2009-06-20T21:39:00.002-06:00

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I am completely befuddled by pie crusts. Can’t make them. Even with Mrs. Janes’s Never-Fail Pie Crust recipe, which, sadly, fails me every time. I fantasize that some day some nice pastry chef will take me under his or her wing and show me the way. Until then, I rely on tarts when I need a special dessert that wows. This is my absolute favorite from one of my favorite cookbooks. It was given to me 12 or so years ago by my dear high school and college friend, Kim, and I have used this recipe so many times that the pages have long ago fallen out and are jammed in the back of the book.

I have made this recipe as originally written with baked apricots or plums countless times, and it is phenomenal. You make a simple tart crust flavored with almond and vanilla extracts, then sprinkle the crust with ground almonds and top it with a cream, also flavored with almond and vanilla, as well as wildflower honey. Whenever I’ve made it in the past, I’ve always added halved apricots or Colorado plums, which bake up beautifully with the cream.

For Father’s Day, Ben requested some kind of fresh berry dessert. I was mulling pound cake or similar when I remembered that there is a side note variation for this tart if you want to use fresh berries. You bake the crust, top with almonds and cream and bake again. After cooling completely, you just top the baked tart and cream with fresh raspberries.

Frankly, I was skeptical, because I wasn’t sure how well the dish would come together. It was just incredible, and, honestly, tastier and more refreshing than the baked fruit versions. Everything about the apricot tart is rich... the buttery crust, the creamy topping, the deeply-flavored baked fruit. With the fresh berries, there’s a delicious contrast between the richness of the underlying tart and the lightness of fresh, cool raspberries. Even more amazing to me, this tart was even better cold after sitting in the fridge overnight (for breakfast with chilaquiles, coffee and mimosas!)

This recipe alone is reason enough to buy this beautiful, inspiring book. The only negative about this recipe is that, when it’s all gone, you’re left with plain-old Grape Nuts for breakfast.

Made-up Chilaquiles

2009-06-20T11:10:00.002-06:00

I must confess, I do not enjoy making breakfast. I love to cook dinner and dessert, am fine with putting together lunches, but I really have no love for making eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc. A nice strata (that goes in the fridge the night before) is fine, but getting up and cooking right away is not my thing. That said, I make breakfast all the time, particularly on the weekends, and I’m always looking for ways to mix it up a bit. Well, this week’s experiment was a huge hit... so great, in fact, that we made it two days in a row!

For whatever reason, when I woke up Saturday morning it occurred to me that I might be able to whip up some facsimile of chilaquiles with my leftover bean tostada ingredients. This is where the internet is my best friend. I Googled chilaquiles recipes, looked at about eight, pulled some stuff out of the fridge and started cooking. SO DELICIOUS!

Here were my made-up chilaquiles: I crisped strips of corn tortilla (which go stale almost immediately in the fridge) in some canola oil. I definitely used less oil than most recipes called for, but they crisped very nicely. Once the strips looked like chips, I lowered the heat and added a few beaten eggs and shredded some cheddar cheese on top. Once the eggs were about done (a few minutes), I threw in some spoonfuls of Aunt Jenn’s salsa (I should post her recipe... so easy, so garlic-y, so yum). Done.

Ben and Sophia and I just devoured these. They were so good, in fact, that Benji and I had them again for Father’s Day brunch, with leftover raspberry tart, coffee and pineapple orange juice mimosas! (I'll write more about the fabulous tart later today.)

I rarely experiment like this in the kitchen, and am really thrilled to have a new, crowd-pleasing, satisfying breakfast that turned out well the first time and uses up leftovers. Yeah for me!

Bean Tostadas

2009-06-18T19:05:00.003-06:00

Honestly, I was reluctant to blog about this dinner because, well, it involved very little cooking and lots of assembling. After mulling it for a day or so I realized that if I don’t write about assembled meals, I’ll have nothing to write about all summer! In our house, and probably in the homes of many, summer meals are often cobbled together from what is fresh and in-season at the local farmer’s market and what is affordable and beautiful at King Soopers. And what involves very little stove- and oven-time. Thus, the bean tostadas. Honestly, there’s nothing particularly summer-y about this dish other than the fact that it doesn’t require a lot of standing over the stove.

Simply, here are our bean tostadas: corn tortillas brushed with canola oil and crisped in a hot oven, a blend of vegetarian refried and pinto beans heated in the microwave, diced vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped black olives, chopped organic iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese and sliced avocado. All topped with Aunt Jenn’s homemade salsa, which is garlic-y goodness.

That’s it. Easy peasy. Not remotely authentic but devoured by all. Certainly unremarkable but very tasty and takes about 15 minutes in all to pull together.

Cooking on the Road: Creamy Orzo

2009-06-08T20:26:00.004-06:00

I am woefully behind in posting because Ben and I took Joseph and Sophia on “vacation” for two weeks to Chicago and Indianapolis. Why the quotation marks? For the uninitiated, traveling with two children under five is in no way relaxing, which I think the term vacation implies. Not that there weren’t delightful pockets of fun, but we came home spent and are slowly recharging our batteries. However, one of the more relaxing evenings we did have on the trip was spent cooking in a foreign kitchen after a trip to a foreign Whole Foods Market. The result—four-star, soon to be five-star, creamy orzo from Giada.

After eating delicious wedding food and our body weight in stuffed Chicago-style pizza (Art of Pizza!), we were in serious need of basic, homemade dinner. So, we Google-mapped the nearest Whole Foods to Nick and Leslie’s gorgeous West Loop condo (with well-stocked kitchen) and experimented with a new recipe from one of Leslie’s Giada De Laurenttis cookbooks. It’s always more fun to cook in someone else’s kitchen... I love rummaging through cabinets and drawers for cheese graters, paring knives and hot pads (never could find these).

The resultant dinner, Creamy Orzo, was perfect for my overtired, short-on-veggies family. It’s a simple dish with a sauce made from shallots, diced tomatoes (will double next time), cream and peas (we tripled). I’ve never cooked with orzo before, and I feared it wouldn’t feel filling because it’s so wee, but it was lovely, with a very nice texture, and perfectly satisfying. We will definitely make this again, and I think it will be a five-star dinner once we double the tomatoes. Thank you to Nick and Leslie for the beautiful kitchen-away-from-home!

Peas!

2009-05-31T18:43:00.004-06:00

Our adventures in homemade baby food have officially begun! I made all of Sophia’s food when she was a baby using the most amazing kit my mom bought me from Fresh Baby, and I really loved every step of the process. Of course, I already had a Cuisinart (also from my mom), which made everything so simple.

Joseph started early on solids because he is so ginormous, so he has been eating organic oat cereal since May 10. Even though he was only 18 weeks old at the time, he took to solids very quickly and was really enjoying bites his second meal. At nearly five months, he already likes to grab the spoon away and feed himself, and really practices his chewing, and he’s generally eating four to five tablespoons of dry cereal, plus formula to mix, three times a day. This is a lot!

I had planned on introducing other foods after our marathon trip to Chicago and Indianapolis, mostly to save myself the hassle of buying and/or making organic food on the road. However, we realized that if we waited it would be another three weeks, so last night we introduced organic peas.

We’re very lucky that everywhere we’re staying on the trip we’ll have a nice kitchen and access to a microwave, so it seemed feasible to make food while away. Yesterday afternoon I bought a Kid Co. food mill, which I like okay but don’t love, but which will certain suffice while we travel. It’s a bit cumbersome to assemble and use, and doesn’t puree foods as smoothly as I’d like, but it’s compact and will work anywhere. As soon as the trip is over it’s back to the Cuisinart and the Fresh Baby food trays for me!

We started with peas because I firmly believe that you should cultivate your baby’s taste for green things before introducing sweeter first foods like apples and bananas. Babies naturally prefer sweet tastes, so I think it makes sense to broaden their palate from the get-go. Our family doctor also prefers this approach, progressing from green to orange to yellow foods, and I feel it was successful with Sophia. She truly is the most omnivorous person I know, and I think this is at least in small part due to the fact that I always encouraged her to eat veggies, and that I fed her from the table from the beginning.

As soon as she started solids we all ate meals together, and we’ve always tried to model healthy eating habits and prepare beautiful, nutritious and dynamic meals. (I abhor the idea of kids’ menus at restaurants—who says kids don’t like what grownups like!) I also read a phenomenal book about kids and food, called Child of Mine by Ellyn Satter, and the author’s attitudes informed most or all of my choices in terms of food. I cannot recommend this book enough. (It’s also the only book I read that gives as much guidance about thoughtfully bottle feeding as it does about breast feeding.)

Anyway, on to peas. I think Joseph would give homemade organic peas three stars right now. He’s had them twice and spit most of them out last night and ate about half of his serving tonight. He made the most hilarious face after the first taste, which seemed to say something along the lines of, “what in the world!” I think we’ll continue to offer them once or twice a day until he learns to love them. Benji and I both tasted them and they’re really very sweet and delicious.

Such an awesome responsibility, introducing a small person to the world of food. And I just love every minute of it! A wonderful adventure for all of us.

Cold, Lonely Kitchen

2009-05-26T21:15:00.003-06:00

Quick update, mostly for posterity so I don’t wonder down the road where May went. Parvovirus + migraines + gastroenteritis = zero appetite and zero interest in cooking. I did make a lovely risotto last night with sweet petite peas, sautéed mushrooms and lemon zest, but only because if I didn’t there would be no dinner last night or tonight. Other than that I have pretty much subsisted on graham crackers, popsicles and peanut butter toast, when I’ve eaten at all. I am REALLY looking forward to June and reacquainting myself with the kitchen. I’ve been under the weather for 11 days now and that’s just waaaayyy too long.

Joseph, on the other hand, has discovered solid food and is eating with a vengeance. I can’t believe he’s taken to it so beautifully, considering how young he is (we started when he was just four months/18 weeks old). All he’s had is organic oaties with formula, but I just love the way he hums and grunts at me to HURRY UP with the spoon, lady! He gets so excited! He has even grabbed the spoon, shoved it toward his mouth, scraped off the cereal and crammed it in his mouth himself. Hilarious!

We’re waiting to introduce other homemade organic foods until after our marathon Chicago/Indy trip, so it’s easier to travel with him, and I can’t wait to start blogging about our adventures together in the kitchen. A whole new chapter for him, and a really beloved part of motherhood for me. I made all of Sophia’s food and just loved the whole process. She is a truly omnivorous little person, and I can only hope that I can teach Joseph to love all kinds of flavors as well.

And, on a note completely unrelated to cooking, Sophia is really READING now, and I am loving it. She read Joseph three Sandra Boynton books today all by herself... really read them, and I was just bursting with pride. Such a big girl at four and a third! I know this has nothing to do with cooking, but what’s a mother to do?

Update: Homemade Pizza & Pizza Gear

2009-05-19T21:25:00.003-06:00

While I try not to write more than once about things I make time and again, I do want to quickly revisit homemade pizza, since it was such a revelation for me and since we’ve made some interesting discoveries about ingredients and gear.

First of all, I’m still neutral on the whole Kitchenaid stand mixer issue, at least as far as pizza is concerned. I’ve learned to really enjoy kneading by hand. However, I do avoid making more than a single recipe (three 12-inch pizzas) if I’m cooking alone; we do make a double batch if Ben and I can both do one at the same time. Since I’ve learned how easy and delicious (and cheap!) homemade pizza is, well... we’re eating a lot more pizza! A stand mixer would probably encourage me to make multiple batches at the same time, which would be nice. But, that said, making crust by hand certainly hasn’t slowed down our consumption. We probably make this now once a week. Extra crust freezes wonderfully—we just thaw it on the counter the morning we want to make pizza and the results are great!

I’m still loving homemade sauce, using Hunt’s Organic crushed tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil. As a saucy pizza lover, I’ve had to learn not to over-sauce my crust, which I think is what led to the so-so results when my mom was here.

The biggest discovery, which was, frankly, kind of disappointing from a “foodie” perspective, is that while margherita-style pizza with fresh mozzarella is wonderful, we all prefer our pizza topped with regular-old, Kroger-brand, pre-shredded part-skim mozzarella. I used it the first time simply out of frugality, because I was making three pizzas, and fresh mozzarella is $8/lb. at the local cheese importers, and I seem to have some innate cheese spending limit. However, we all ultimately admitted that the part-skim shredded stuff was more satisfying and provided better all-over coverage without being too cheesy. We’ll definitely still make margherita-style pizza from time to time, particularly when we have basil in our garden this summer, but for day-to-day, the cheap generic stuff it is!

In terms of toppings, we’ve tried: canned mushrooms (a throwback to my old K.C. favorite, Original Pizza!), Kalamata olives (a favorite), fresh basil (always excellent), Volpi sausage (good but pricey), Hormel “natural,” nitrite-free pepperoni (fine) and fresh spinach (disappointing, because you expect it to taste like basil!). I try to always serve our pizza with a veggie-filled salad, so the meal’s more well-rounded.

In terms of gear, I’m starting to despise my 12-inch round pizza stone. It’s fairly impossible to get my amoeba-like 12-inch pizza centered on the stone without some of it dribbling over the edge. Next time I go shopping (which is never), I’m getting myself a larger, rectangular pizza stone. They’re about $40 and will be well worth it!

All in all, I will say that this one recipe has changed the way we eat more than any others during the past few years. No more Friday night happy hours at Proto’s, no more ordering in Nicolo’s delivery, and certainly no more $7 Amy’s frozen pizzas.

Oh, and one last thing. I STILL don’t have a real rolling pin. I used to have one of those French rolling pins (with no handles), but it gradually warped over time and no longer makes meaningful and consistent contact with whatever I’m trying to roll. So (this is so sad), every time we make pizza, which as I mentioned is weekly, I have to dig out Sophia’s kid cooking set rolling pin, which she uses to play with Playdoh, scrub it down and let it air dry. Seriously, how hard would it be to just bop over to Target and buy myself a simple, grown-up rolling pin with handles? But no, I’m still using the four-inch kiddie rolling pin, which makes rolling the dough... challenging. If there is a culinary gear god out there somewhere, please remind me to get myself a rolling pin next time I’m at Target. The current state of affairs is just plain pathetic!

Easy Pot Roast with Rich Tomato Gravy

2009-05-15T21:06:00.006-06:00

When Sophia was an infant, my mom bought me a Crock-Pot, knowing as all moms know that the easiest time of day to get anything done in the kitchen is mid-morning, particularly once your baby graduates from the sleeping-around-the-clock stage. Joseph is four months old now, so it seems a fitting time to dust off the old slow cooker. And, because Ben swears he doesn’t like beef, I decided to start with a wonderful pot roast recipe. Call me a sadist, but I secretly love serving him beef dishes I know he’ll enjoy.

Here’s what I love about this recipe: the meat gets fall-apart tender, the gravy is delicious, and, if you leave the carrots and celery in large enough chunks, they're still intact and scrumptious after hours in the slow cooker. It probably took 20 minutes to prep this recipe in the morning, and it filled the house with the most tempting, savory, homey smell.

Here’s where I went wrong: when given several options at the butcher, I foolishly chose the leanest pot roast they had, with really no marbling to speak of. Ergo, the roast was still a little... stringy, kind of like pulled pork. Next time I’ll pick something in the middle of the lean-to-fatty range, because I know my pot roast has been more tender in the past.

I served this with roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and a mixed green salad with Mom’s celery seed dressing. Perfect! The crispy little potato cubes are delicious dipped in the rich tomato gravy. Sophia wants mashed potatoes with it next time, but I’m not so sure. There’s something so divine about the juxtaposition of the rich, creamy sauce, the tender meat and veggies and the crispy little potato bites.

On the “not eating beef” front, Ben happily ate plates of this, so it was sufficiently delicious to push him beyond his objections. Wonderful, soothing comfort food for the end of a hectic, stressful week!

A Perfect Meal, or How I’m Getting My Groove Back

2009-05-12T10:25:00.003-06:00

I have been absent from this personal space for far too long, because, frankly, I have been in a funk. I have felt fried and maxed out and wholly uninterested in anything but the day-to-day basics. I felt this way when Sophia was four-months-old, too, so it must have something to do with the rhythms of new motherhood. I’ve been trying to make sense of why I am where I am, and wonder if there’s some burnout zone between the adrenaline-rush sprint that is caring for an infant and the long-haul marathon of raising a little person. Regardless, while we’ve still been eating well, my cookbooks have been growing lonely on the shelf and it is time I turn this around. This project is for me, and I’m hoping my return to this corner of my life helps me to commit a bit more each day to personal renewal. On that note, on to this perfect meal...

My expectations for Mother’s Day are fairly realistic. We have a busy four-year-old and a needy four-month-old and Ben only has two hands to do all of this tending. With that in mind, I helped plan three beautiful meals for Mother’s Day, which I happily shopped for (while Ben hung out with Joseph) and which I happily helped prepare. For breakfast, Ben and Sophia made waffles with fresh berries and whipped cream (yum) and, for lunch, we girls made homemade pizza with Kalamata olives, fresh spinach and Volpi sausage. Also yum.

But dinner. Oh, dinner! On Saturday, Sophia and I went to the Longmont Farmers’ Market and bought the most beautiful organic baby arugula from Ollin Farms here in town. Gorgeous, tender little leaves fresh from the garden. We also bought some spectacular cranberry walnut bread from the Styria Bakery, which we paired with Haystack Mountain’s Haystack Peak, a “creamy fresh-ripened goat cheese [with a] creamy interior enhanced by a bloom-rind surface that gives it character and complexity.” On Sunday, Ben made a simple vinaigrette of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and we topped the organic arugula with Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings and toasted pine nuts. To finish off this beautiful meal, a perfectly-grilled, medium-rare New York strip steak.

This meal was so simple, so divine, such an unbelievably perfect combination of fresh, seasonal flavors. It was truly perfect, and really reminded me of why I love spending time in the kitchen, enough so that I even love helping out with a little bit of cooking on Mother’s Day.

And for dessert? Well, dessert could not have been more special, and was my favorite moment of the whole day. At Montessori preschool, students made Mother’s Day cards and inside was a single peach tea bag. Preparing and serving tea with a friend is one of Sophia’s favorite works at school. So, at the end of our beautiful day together, Sophia and I got out my lovely little porcelain tea pot, filled it with hot water, and she made us tea to have with our walnut brownies. She steeped, stirred and served, just like a grown-up hostess, and we sat together, we two girls, and had our own little tea party.

A beautiful moment, right here in my own kitchen, and one I hope will continue to inspire me as I work to reclaim my culinary groove.

Cooking (Minestrone) as Love

2009-05-03T20:19:00.004-06:00

What do you do to help when there’s really nothing you can do? If you’re me, you cook. And cook and cook and cook. On Friday morning, my father-in-law, Bill, had emergency quadruple bypass surgery here in Longmont. As I know from personal experience, there is nothing more terrifying than seeing your parent so vulnerable and knowing there is not much you can do to ease their burden. As an in-law (and, really, an “ex” in-law at that), I felt hopeless to help Eryc and his family, and particularly Bill himself, as they struggled through these days of diagnosis, planning, surgery and recovery. The one thing I felt I could do was to feed everyone, and feed everyone I did.

With a mind on easy-to-transport, easy-to-reheat and heart-healthy meals, I made a huge batch of my homemade minestrone, adapted over the years from The New Moosewood Cookbook, an Earth mama classic. I love this cookbook, and this is my absolute favorite soup. Not to be too arrogant, but over the years I have modified it to make it really the perfect soup. I don’t make it as often as I should because it feels time-consuming, although I’m not sure it really does take that much longer than other soups. Just lots of chopping.

My version is chockfull of veggies—carrots, celery, tomatoes, zucchini—plus garbanzo and kidney beans and a bit of organic whole wheat rotini. I’ve also started adding the leftover rinds I’ve been saving from my Parmigiano-Reggiano for a bit of added flavor. The soup is gorgeous (all of the veggies maintain their beautiful bright colors), delicious and incredibly healthy. The vegetables still have a nice crisp-tender texture, and the pasta and beans add some needed weight. It’s pretty fabulous soup, and feels entirely nourishing for body and soul, which I suppose was my real intention.

In a frenzy of cooking born entirely out of love, I also made homemade blueberry muffins, macaroni and cheese with Swiss chard, salad with mom’s celery seed dressing, dark chocolate brownies with walnuts (thank you Ghiradelli), dinner rolls to have with the soup (thank you Rhodes), homemade pizza with homemade sauce, dark chocolate chip cookies (Tollhouse recipe with Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips), Boar’s Head natural turkey and ham sandwiches, apples, assorted snacks and, for dinner tonight, tortellini with prosciutto and spinach (which I’ll write about later).

Bill’s surgery was a huge success, and he is recovering wonderfully. Everyone at the hospital is amazed at his progress. Eryc and his family seem to be gradually emerging from a state of shock and breathing that first, deep sigh of relief. Me, I feel happy to have played a peripheral part in what has been an exhausting, but positive, weekend.

A Personal Epiphany, Made in the Kitchen

2009-04-27T19:50:00.004-06:00

I recently wrote about my (mis)adventures in the kitchen while cooking for my mom about a week ago. Perhaps I lack a certain kind of self-awareness, but it has continued to truly puzzle me why everything seemed just so-so when it had been so delicious the first (and second) time I made these recipes.

Last night, I hosted my dear friend and culinary mentor, Alison, for dinner. I very purposely kept the menu very simple and only made dishes I’d made multiple times. Should have been a piece of cake. AGAIN, everything was good but not great. I found it less upsetting overall because, well, she’s not my mom, and I guess I care (slightly) less about impressing her.

So, the menu: I served two phenomenal cheeses with sliced baguette. Frankly, I think we both would have been satisfied with just wine and these cheeses: Pierre Robert, an incredibly rich, flavorful triple-crème cow’s milk cheese from France and Truffle Tremor, a ripened goat’s milk cheese laced with bits of truffle and made by Cypress Grove in California. I chose well! Next, we had my favorite and easy roasted salmon with lemon relish from Great Food Fast. I’ve made this at least three other times for guests. Lastly, I whipped up some dark chocolate fondue and served it with pound cake cubes (from Whole Foods), pretzels, organic strawberries, bananas and graham crackers.

So, how could things possibly go awry? My salmon was overcooked and dry, I inexplicably didn’t have enough relish to go around and, hours later, found the toasted pine nuts for the salmon still sitting in the toaster oven.

Now, I certainly wasn’t agonizing about these things. But I did go to bed wondering, “why?”—and, suddenly, an epiphany.

I cook to be quiet, to feel calm, to be alone. In the Myers-Briggs personality test, I am almost entirely “E,” as in extroverted. I love to chit chat, hate to be alone, and am, to be honest, wildly uncomfortable with an idle mind. In fact (and this is a little secret), I am incapable of just being still even for the five minutes it takes Ben to get ready for bed before we go to sleep. I have to read or do puzzles. I’m not sure quite why, but I am really, really uneasy with stillness and quiet. Not a Zen bone in my body. Or so I thought.

What I realized last night is that, while I love to plan meals, choose special foods that I know will please my guests, set the table with fresh linens and flowers, I really don’t like to entertain. Actually, that’s not it at all. I love to have people over, love to sit and talk for hours over wine. It’s just that what I love about cooking, and, what I probably don’t find in other aspects of my life, is lost when I’m cooking for others.

Of course, every day I’m cooking for two (and soon three) others. But, when we met, Ben ate two things: spaghetti and turkey burgers. And, while she has a phenomenal palate, Sophia is still a four-year-old. And Joseph? Well, he still thinks that his fingers are the tastiest treat. While they are, technically, an audience, I feel no pressure cooking for my family. I figure they’ll be happy with whatever I make.

A lot of why I like to cook, and why I put so much time and energy into it, is that when I’m alone in the kitchen, my mind is still while my body is at work. I like to just follow the directions and groove on the process (I’m very process-oriented). I’m sure that, while I was making dinner for Alison last night, we were gabbing a mile a minute and I forgot to pay attention to timing, quantities, garnishes.

Of course, I’m not going to stop entertaining the people I love, and I’m surely going to continue to feel distracted when I have a favorite guest sitting at the counter while I cook. I suppose, then, that I will have to make peace with the fact that, ironically, my best cooking will be my that which I do just for myself.

Most Amazing Macaroni & Cheese

2009-04-22T19:28:00.002-06:00

I am not a mac and cheese kind of gal... kind of boring and usually too greasy. This new recipe caught my eye in my new Bon Appétit mostly a) because it looked like it would make dinner plus lunch leftovers (true), b) because it constitutes a one-dish dinner, which theoretically should make dinner easier (not necessarily true) and c) because it had veggies in the center, and veggies are always a hit in my house (definitely true). It is OMG so delicious and completely changed my thoughts about mac and cheese forever.

I made this for Earth Day and liked that it was vegetarian and green in the middle, and I made it with as many organic ingredients as I had on hand.

I also (of course) changed several things in the recipe, mostly out of frugality. First, the original calls for a blend of two cheeses: aged gouda and edam. Now, while I am a huge fan of these two wonderful Dutch cheeses, having been introduced to them as a kid by my dad, another cheese lover, I am not a fan of $12 macaroni and cheese. I also had a big loaf of Tillamook medium cheddar on hand. So, I instead used a blend of mostly cheddar with a bit of organic Parmigiano-Reggiano added in, and it was scrumptious.

Other changes: I used the full one-pound box of noodles instead of the 12 oz. the author called for (perfectly fine change), and I probably used closer to two pounds of chard instead of 1½. Chard bunches were only 99 cents, were fresh and beautiful and I knew my crowd would appreciate extra green. It certainly didn’t seem like too much, and I’d maintain all of these changes next time. I’ll probably continue to play with the cheese combination... the possibilities are endless and surely all tasty. How can you go wrong with cheese?

The only flaw, if you can call it that, is that it felt like this recipe dirtied every pot and utensil in the kitchen—Cuisinart to shred cheeses, bowls for mixing, Pyrex cups for measuring, several pans for cooking, strainers, spoons, whisks. What a mess!

As I put the dish in the oven to bake, I wasn’t sure it was worth all the trouble. One bite... DEFINITELY worth all the trouble! A huge hit all around!

Creamy Pasta with Cremini, Asparagus & Walnuts

2009-04-21T21:39:00.000-06:00

Giada is the master of the no-sauce pasta, and this recipe is no exception. Not remarkable, but simple and full of veggies, this is a great weeknight dinner. I also like that it’s easy to switch out the green veggie based on what’s affordable and in season. Theoretically asparagus is in season right now, but it was $3 a pound and very thick yesterday, so I opted instead for frozen petite peas, which are sweet, bright green and absolutely delicious! If you have not discovered these yet, rush right out and buy a bag. They’re fabulous in pasta or risotto, very affordable, and one of those veggies that doesn’t need to be organic.

I also used whole wheat rotini instead of farfalle, because I think whole wheat pasta makes better leftovers... it just holds up nicely. The biggest problem with this recipe is that it lacks depth of flavor and it doesn’t reheat well. I don’t really like black pepper at all, except as a flavoring in soups, but even I sprinkled this with a little pepper to add some punch. And the mascarpone that you toss in to make the “sauce” gets lost in reheating.

I’ve made this before and I’ll continue to make it, even thought it’s a three-star recipe. It only takes about 20 minutes to prep and cook, I love the combination of walnuts, green veggie and sautéed mushrooms and it makes a lot of food, providing an extra lunch or dinner for later in the week.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-04-21T21:23:00.000-06:00

As you may have gathered from previous posts, I try to provide snack for Sophia’s preschool class once a month. In the Montessori world, snack is actually a “work”—students serve themselves that day’s snack on glass plates, pour themselves juice or water into little glasses, join their friends at a table to eat, then clean up their dishes. It’s adorable.

For whatever reason, and probably because of where we live and my own attitudes about food, I feel self-imposed pressure for snack to be creative, delicious and healthy. It’s a huge Earth Mama no-no to bring sweets... no cupcakes, chocolate, etc. In fact, when students have their birthday celebrations at school, those snacks are supposed to be healthy, too (read: not too sugary).

Sophia is enamored with mini-muffins, so I finally broke down and bought two mini-muffin pans. The beauty of the mini-muffin, I’ve discovered, is that a single recipe for 12 regular muffins makes 48 minis, perfect for little hands.

We girls have been experimenting with muffin recipes all year, and, for those of you who bake (I am a super-novice), you’ll relate to our dilemma. Every recipe to date is either too buttery and greasy, but moist, or not buttery enough and dry. Since we had such amazing luck with the Irish-American soda bread recipe from the King Arthur Flour recipe site, I thought I’d give their blueberry muffins a try.

The result: delicious but not too sweet muffins that are moist but not too buttery. Pretty perfect! The main reason they get a four-star rating is because mini-muffins are always a bit dry compared to regular-sized muffins, and because I forgot (as I always do) to sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar. Next time we’ll try a bit of turbinado and cinnamon on top, and I bet they’ll be perfect.

Kiddos are having this snack for Earth Day, and I look forward to a report on their reception. Honestly, though, what kid doesn’t like blueberry muffins? Sophia’s also sharing organic carrot sticks, because you have to have something “healthy” with every snack. Seriously, I’m not sure how I did it, but even if she’s having a cookie or a bit of dark chocolate for bedtime snack, she’ll insist on something healthy to accompany it. Not that I mind, but is anyone else’s kid like this? Love it!

Misadventures, or, Cooking for Mom

2009-04-20T19:41:00.003-06:00

Why, when you have an eager guest at the table, do things not turn out as you’d hoped? My mom just left today after a weekend visit, and I was so excited for the opportunity to make some of my new favorites for her. Yet, somehow, nothing I made was as I’d hoped, and I ended the weekend elated by my Mom time, but bummed about my culinary (mis)adventures.

First, let me say that my mom is an eager, supportive audience. At no level did I fear criticism or even pickiness. In fact, Mom lived with us last year for six months while she recuperated from a nasty compound ankle fracture. Not once during those six months did I feel paralyzed by her presence at my table. In fact, I found the challenge of cooking for someone on the path to recovery energizing, and successfully experimented much more than I normally would. I think it’s safe to say that my Mom was always appreciative, and left feeling well-nourished and healed.

So, what went wrong? Technically, nothing. However, everything I prepared was the weakest version I’d ever made, and these were all my new favorites: cheese-gilded linguine with smoky tomatoes, homemade pizza, even rustic jam shortbread tart. I need to state, emphatically, that at no point did my mom express anything but pleasure—lots of yums and “love it!” However, I felt that everything fell flat... the pasta was just a bit too salty, the pizza was too saucy and, subsequently, not crispy enough in the center, the tart crust didn’t quite hold together, and I found myself wishing I’d used a different flavor of jam.

Jam flavors? Why was I worrying about jam flavors? Aside from our six months of cohabitation, which went swimmingly and forever cemented the real love between my husband, Ben, and my Mom, as well as my daughter’s unswerving devotion to her Grandma, I generally see my mom four times a year. Three months is about as long as I can go between visits. Why worry about the food when there was all that good gabbing to do?

I’ve thought about it a lot over the weekend, and what I’ve come to is that this project of recording my experiences in the kitchen has changed my sense of self, at least in part. I see myself differently because of this self-selected focus on cooking, and I wanted things to be just perfect for Mom, probably because she’s the one who taught me to love time spent in the kitchen, to read cookbooks like novels and to focus on fresh, seasonal food.

I don’t think I’ll ever completely understand why things consistently went awry. However, I do know that my culinary confidence is just a tiny bit shaken. This means, I believe, that it’s time to crack open new books, discover new chefs and rebuild my kitchen ego one new adventure at a time.

Oh, and I’m having my friend Alison for dinner Sunday night. This gives me five days to plan a terrific dinner and another chance to entertain a dear guest. And eat chocolate. And drink wine. And plan the next great meal together.

Black Bean Enchiladas à la The New York Times

2009-04-10T21:30:00.002-06:00

Again, big debate on star rating. Ben, Eryc, Sophia and I landed on four stars, but it’s soon to be a five with a few modifications. I got this recipe from the “Recipes for Health” series on The New York Times. It caught my eye because you make your own black beans, which I’ve always wanted to learn to do, then make the enchiladas the next day. While there are several steps to putting this dish together, requiring at least 24 hours of advance planning, no step is very time-consuming and the end result was delicious. In fact, the only reason this wasn’t a five-star recipe right away is because we would all tweak it slightly.

After soaking the beans overnight, I cooked them with onion, garlic, cilantro and salt for a few hours to make a flavorful, thick bean sauce. I finished the simmered black beans in the morning, then put together the enchiladas around 3:30 for 5:00 dinner after dying Easter eggs.

To make the enchiladas, I puréed the beans a bit, them simmered them with some whole cumin seeds and chili powder (used my immersion blender, so puréeing was a breeze). While the beans thickened, I was supposed to soften my corn tortillas in a delicious homemade enchilada sauce of tomato sauce, olive oil, more cumin and more chili powder. Well, my corn tortillas were extremely fresh, probably 30 minutes old and still warm from the neighborhood tortilleria. The first one I put in the simmering sauce disintegrated in about 10 seconds. So, I simply dipped the tortillas in warm sauce on a plate to coat lightly, filled them with black beans and white cheddar and rolled them up.

To finish, I topped them with extra black bean sauce, extra cheese and, strangely, chopped walnuts. These seemed odd, but they were actually delicious and added nice crunch. After baking, I added a bit of chopped cilantro for color and served with slices of fresh avocado, Aunt Jennifer’s homemade salsa (which we’d made the night before... so garlicky good) and Pacificos (thank you, Eryc!).

The enchiladas were delicious, to be sure, but could have been a bit more dynamic. After dinner, as we ate the pieces of the first saucy, disintegrated tortilla, we decided that next time we’d quadruple the sauce recipe and, instead of topping the rolled enchiladas with more beans, we’d pour the extra sauce over the top and then sprinkle with cheese and walnuts. I’m eager to try these changes, because I think the result will be scrumptious. Look for another enchilada post soon.

Roasted Salmon with Lemon Relish

2009-04-09T22:06:00.003-06:00

In a wonderful twist of irony, I’ve been too busy cooking to blog about my cooking! Love it! So, sorry to my few faithful readers who wonder what’s been going on in our kitchen. Now on to the salmon... this is the most delicious, speedy dinner I believe I’ve ever made. Martha estimates 25 minutes to put this dish together, but I would say it only takes about 15. I serve it with couscous, which takes eight minutes tops, making it the perfect healthy and quick dinner. I started this as groceries were being put away after a late-afternoon grocery run and had it on the table within 20 minutes.

While salmon filets are roasting (10 minutes), you zest a lemon and combine it with raisins to soak in boiling water for a few minutes. Drain the zest and raisins and add olive oil, chopped fresh parsley and toasted pine nuts. To serve, simply lay each roasted salmon filet on a bed of organic baby spinach (washed, bagged and ready to use) and top with the relish with couscous on the side. It’s so incredibly flavorful, bright and tart, a perfect accompaniment to the salmon, and the couscous soaks up the extra lemon-y sauce. Delicious, fast and healthy... what more could you ask for? I can’t recommend this enough.

Oh, and this recipe is great for entertaining, because it looks beautiful, comes together in a snap and leaves caloric room for an indulgent dessert. We had angel food cake with organic strawberries and whipped cream! Perfect!

Bacon, Broccoli, Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Emmenthaler Crustless Quiche

2009-04-07T19:35:00.002-06:00

My first repeat, which I first made on February 24. This evening’s version had leftover bacon (of course) and steamed broccoli, with the new addition of roasted red bell pepper (yum) and Emmenthaler (honestly, because it’s cheaper than Gruyère... note to self: not as flavorful). I made this at 2:00 because everyone was happily sleeping, or at least quiet in his or her room, and it seemed like my best window. Does anyone else make dinner that early? Important survival tactic, I think, if you want homemade dinner every night and are surrounded by needy small people. Made early or on time, still tasty and very satisfying.

Fettuccine with Smashed Peas, Sausage & Ricotta Cheese

2009-04-06T21:00:00.003-06:00

This is our first “tag team” blog entry. I had a massage at 5:00 Monday evening (ahhh!), so I prepped all of the ingredients for Ben to put this dish together, which he managed to do while wrangling a four year old and a three month old... no small feat!

To me, this is a perfect example of a recipe that looks amazing on paper and is ho-hum in reality. Nothing wrong with it, necessarily, except perhaps a lack of cohesion. Ben and I both had problems articulating what was wrong aside from the fact that the flavors never meshed.

We had to laugh, because before this blog project, we would have given this recipe a four or five. Now, our standards seem permanently elevated and a perfectly fine dinner gets an average rating. Kind of puts the pressure on for years to come, no? We’ve decided, also, that we need to standardize the rating system a bit, so look for that in a future post. Can’t live without a rubric! I guess once a teacher, always a teacher.

For the sauce, you sauté garlic and Italian sausage, then add peas and smash them with the back of your spoon or with a potato masher. One note: the recipe calls for hot Italian sausage, but I used Boulder Sausage’s mild Italian sausage in lieu of hot in the interest of Sophia’s and my palates. I’m not convinced that the added heat would have added much to improve the dish.

You then stir in ricotta cheese and chopped fresh basil and some Pecorino Romano and toss with the pasta and some pasta water. Easy enough, and certainly very flavorful. The smashed peas and basil give the pasta a rather lovely springy green color and flavor, and the sausage is yummy in its own right. But, somehow, none of it goes together. Our feeling is that it’s a good basic recipe, but that we might play around a bit with the meat and might add a bit of grated lemon zest to complement the peas and basil.

Fine, but not too exciting. Of course, it had peas, sausage and basil, three of Sophia’s favorites, so she gave it five stars. We’re saying three. I think we’ll move on to some of Giada’s other offerings another time, but likely won’t return to this, at least as written.

TKO! Homemade Pizza

2009-04-04T11:38:00.007-06:00

No KitchenAid... no Cuisinart... nothing but elbow grease, and we made outstanding homemade pizza! This experience doesn’t push me either direction in terms of whether or not I want a stand mixer, but it certainly makes me feel foolish for eating pizza out or having it delivered for years. Seriously, what was I waiting for?

The recipe for the pizza crust, from the Patricia Wells’ Trattoria cookbook, was recommended to me by my culinary mentor and inspiration, Alison. Not only is she the most accomplished home cook you’ll ever meet, but she’s also been a personal chef and caterer. Dinner and a bottle of wine in her gorgeous kitchen (which they renovated themselves, down to custom-designed, home-built cabinetry) is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures. No restaurant experience can compare.

Until I started this blog, I always thought I was a somewhat lazy, mediocre cook because the benchmark against which I measured myself was Alison. Now I realize that I’m pretty good and log a decent amount of hours in the kitchen, and that she’s amazing and cooks constantly!

This is an overnight dough, which gives the yeast a chance to ferment and the crust more flavor. It was very easy, if not a little dry, and only required five minutes of kneading. Ben and I took turns and made a double batch (which netted enough dough for six 12-inch pizzas), and it was not too tricky. It rises overnight in the fridge, then rolls and stretches out easily. Sophia and I put the pizzas together, so we didn’t try too hard to achieve any kind of symmetry, but they were beautiful in a rustic, amoeba-shaped sort of way. They slid beautifully off the cornmeal-covered pizza peel onto the preheated pizza stone and were perfectly crisp in 10 minutes.

For sauce, I found a recipe from Gourmet magazine on epicurious—you just simmer crushed tomatoes and olive oil for about 20 minutes. Easy as can be and remarkably flavorful. As for toppings, we chose pitted Kalamata olives, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and a spicy Italian salami, called calabrese, made by Volpi on The Hill in St. Louis. The result was perfect, perfect, perfect! In fact, after just one bite, Sophia turned to me and yelled: “Five stars! Five stars? Definitely five stars!”

We often go to a fabulous local restaurant, Proto’s Pizza, on Friday nights for their happy hour specials on Neapolitan-style pizza. This is no cheesy pizzeria, but high-end thin-crust pizza made with the highest-quality ingredients. There are countless reasons to continue to go there—the affordable happy hour wine, the delicious salads, the big glass window where the kids can stand and watch the pizza guys at work. Not to be too arrogant on my first attempt, but our pizza was just as memorable and satisfying as the pizza at Proto’s, at about an 80% discount! In fact, our most expensive ingredient was the fresh basil, and that problem will be rectified once we’re past our last hard frost and can get some organic basil growing on the back deck.

I froze all of our leftover dough and am going to try thawing some on the counter tomorrow to make another batch tomorrow night. Alison swears by making a quadruple batch (in her KitchenAid Professional 600 stand mixer, of course) and freezing the bulk of it for future dinners. While it takes a bit more advance planning than picking up the phone and ordering in 40 minutes before you want to eat, the result was so superior to any delivery available here, and so affordable, that I think the local pizzerias have lost our business for good!

As a testament to our commitment, the pizza peel, previously relegated to a hook in the storage room, was rehung this morning in a place of prominence on the dining room wall. A sign of more good things to come!

Michelle vs. the Stand Mixer, Round One

2009-04-02T22:26:00.005-06:00

I would describe myself as frugal. Some in my life would call me downright cheap. I hate to spend money on “stuff” and am sort of anti-technology, but only in weird ways. For example, I love love love this MacBook, but had to be dragged kicking and screaming from my crummy old Dell. Now, I would never go back. I also love my Cuisinart, which was a gift from my mom over ten years ago, and I now consider it an indispensable tool. I expect to put it to daily use soon enough when Joseph’s ready for baby food.

Today, I am grappling with my desire for a high-powered stand mixer versus my disgust at the $350 price tag. How many loaves of bread and pizzas do you have to make before you start to break even? I spent the day researching on the Cook’s Illustrated web site (the Cuisinart 5.5 quart barely beat the KitchenAid Professional 600), reading customer reviews on Amazon and fondling them at Williams-Sonoma.

End of round one: frugality has won out over my desire for a shiny new kitchen toy. The result? I just spent an hour making homemade pizza dough by hand and am pooped from all of the kneading! And covered in flour. Stay tuned for round two, when I attempt to make homemade artisan bread by hand. If you have a Cuisinart or KitchenAid stand mixer that you love or hate, let me know! Oh, and if the pizza is a disaster, there may be no round two.

Chicken Curry with Gentle Spices, Moghlai Spinach with Browned Shallots & Cucumber Mint Raita

2009-04-01T21:29:00.004-06:00

Picture me, gently punching myself in the arm with pride à la Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club. I rarely wow myself in the kitchen, and do it even more rarely after several nights of poor sleep, but tonight’s dinner was impressive, delicious and remarkably easy, considering how many dishes I made. Actually, I should say considering how many dishes we made, because Sophia actually helped to prepare almost all of this meal.

After quickly re-shelving Alice Waters, I went back to The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. I’ve wanted to try their chicken curry since I got the book last year, but was intimidated for no reason other than the fact that it’s curry. The ingredient list isn’t unreasonably long and the recipe doesn’t involve a lot of steps. This week our family is on spring break, so Ben’s been doing most of the hands-on baby stuff while Sophia and I have adventures. This leaves extra time for tackling new recipes, so tackle we did.

For this recipe, you make your own curry paste in the Cuisinart, then sauté it for about 10 minutes before adding whole milk yogurt and reducing it further. I’ve never made curry paste before, and the process was incredibly simple. Just throw in big chunks of onion, garlic, fresh ginger, spices, tomatoes and jalapeño, puree, and you’ve got curry paste!

I was a little worried about how hot it would be as the curry paste sautéed, because the steam wafting above my Le Creuset smelled spicy, mostly of jalapeño. However, the process of really reducing the paste down with yogurt resulted in a curry sauce that was thick and rich with a warm, well-rounded flavor without being hot. Once the sauce had been reduced, I added more yogurt and organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs. The only change I made to the recipe was to add a few cubed, cooked Yukon gold potatoes right at the end. I used slightly less chicken than the recipe called for, and the potatoes stretched the dish quite a bit and were a wonderful vehicle for the curry sauce.

Because the curry doesn’t really have any vegetables in it, I also made Moghlai spinach with browned shallots, from Madhur Jaffrey’s Simple Indian Cookery. Indian is absolutely one of my favorite types of cuisine, particularly in restaurants, but always seems expensive for essentially comfort food. (I have fond memories of watching Sophia devour saag paneer before she was one).

In making this recipe, I omitted the hot dried red chilies and used prewashed baby spinach, significantly cutting down on the labor. The browned shallots and garam masala add so much flavor to the wilted spinach, and four tablespoons of cream at the end make the dish rich without being heavy. A perfect accompaniment.

Lastly, we made cucumber mint raita, also from Simple Indian Cookery. Oddly, I abhor yogurt but love raita. Jaffrey’s raita comes together in less than 10 minutes and provides a nice balance to the medium spice of the curry. All of this was served over fragrant jasmine rice (because I didn’t have basmati on hand).

A last-minute call to Eryc, who was joining us for dinner, and we also got to enjoy an Indian lager called Kingfisher with our meal. I didn’t realize there was such a thing, and certainly not available in Longmont! We must really be coming into our own here.

Everyone (Sophia included) had seconds, and this definitely goes down as my most successful attempt at homemade Indian food. Next time, if I’m feeling extremely brave, we may try to add parathas, a cumin-flavored Indian flatbread.

Baking Powder Drop Biscuits

2009-03-30T10:50:00.000-06:00

I whipped these together this morning for breakfast for Benji and me, and took the leftovers to Eryc and Sophia for afternoon snack. This is a classic recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which my mother bought me years ago. However, I have used this page so many times that it has fallen out and is gone forever, so I’m forced to find it online at epicurious.

I don’t have the patience to roll out biscuit dough, so I make the drop biscuit variation, which are wonderfully easy and tasty. They have a light, fluffy texture and a hint of sweetness. We topped them with the last few drops of a delicious floral honey that Alison brought me from Provence seven or eight years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what kind of honey it was because Ben scorched the label in the microwave, so now all we can read is “miel” and “fleurs.”

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute butter (yum) for shortening (yuck). What a great way to start spring break!

Rustic Jam Shortbread Tart

2009-03-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

Last night, we delivered dinner to our dear friends, Nicole and Alex, to help celebrate the recent birth of their beautiful daughter, Madison. When our son, Joseph, was born, they did the same for us, and really threw down the gauntlet by making homemade Chicago-style deep dish pizza, salad and dessert. Of course, dinner is not a competition unless you aspire to be the next Food Network star chef, but I certainly wanted to reciprocate with something equally delicious.

This recipe is another simple yet elegant discovery from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. It’s a buttery shortbread crust, flavored with lemon zest and almond extract, that you make entirely in the Cuisinart and press into a tart pan. I am notoriously horrible (horrible!) at making pie crust, so a tart crust is my ideal... easy, delicious and no-stress. You bake the crust until it begins to brown, then top it with some sort of interesting jam and bake it again until the jam starts to bubble. Cool on a rack and serve. Yum!

I chose Bon Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves, perfect because they were flavorful but not too sugary sweet and the most beautiful rich color. Seconds were had by most and the recipe received 5 stars all around. I will absolutely make this again—it came together quickly, looked spectacular and was a crowd-pleaser.

In case you’re interested in the overall menu, I also made a salad of organic baby romaine with dried cranberries, cherry tomatoes and toasted walnuts, with a red wine vinegar and balsamic vinaigrette, cheese-gilded linguine with smoky tomatoes and garlic bread. Not quite as spectacular as homemade Chicago-style pizza, but a good showing nonetheless.

Classic Herb-Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato Oven Fries & Lemony Steamed Asparagus

2009-03-26T21:10:00.005-06:00

Here is the test of a truly perfect roasted chicken: Picture everyone in the family standing around the carved chicken carcass, gleefully devouring pieces of crispy brown skin. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks, by Linda Carucci. The herb-roasted chicken is absolutely scrumptious and fills the house with the most intoxicating aroma.

In the summer, when my herb garden is happily growing in the warm Colorado sunshine, I make this recipe exactly as written, rubbing the skin with oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and slipping fresh thyme sprigs under the skin. This technique imbues the moist chicken breasts with the most wonderful flavor. In the winter, I instead rub the skin with garlic powder and herbes de Provence, a delicious blend that includes rosemary, marjoram, thyme, sage, and, most interestingly, lavender.

There is no buttering or basting required, and I’m even too lazy to do the optional trussing. The real secret to the irresistibly crispy skin is cooking the chicken briefly at 425°, then lowering the temperature to 350° to roast for about an hour. The chicken is always moist and flavorful, and, a true testament to its perfection, there are never any leftovers. Sophia, who is only four and quite petite, usually eats one or two legs and a thigh. I eat about half of a split breast and Ben polishes off the rest.

To round out this yummy weeknight dinner, I made sweet potato oven fries, which I roasted right alongside the chicken, and steamed asparagus, topped with a bit of melted butter and fresh lemon juice. A perfectly satisfying, healthy and delicious meal.

Steamed Artichokes & Abuelita

2009-03-26T16:22:00.006-06:00

Yes, this is as weird as it sounds, but it’s a food moment in my life that I can’t let pass by without capturing. We’re having a snow day here in Colorado, so I made a tasty grownup lunch for Ben and myself while Sophia napped—sourdough (because I couldn’t find French bread), brie, steamed artichokes and red wine. I made an extra artichoke for Sophia to have after nap time.

As soon as she got up from her nap, Sophia bundled up and went out to try her new snowshoes with Ben. While they tromped in the snow, I made them Abuelita, the delicious cinnamon-y Mexican hot chocolate I got hooked on years ago in the Riviera Maya.

They came in, unbundled, and I served them each a steaming mug of cocoa. Sophia spied her artichoke and asked if she could have it with her Abuelita. Who am I to deny her midday veggies?

Ben and I watched in wonder as her cocoa was abandoned and grew cold, eschewed for a steamed artichoke.

Simply amazing!

Whole-Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta & Lemon

2009-03-25T21:01:00.001-06:00

As we shared this dish, Eryc, Ben, Sophia and I vigorously debated what rating to give it (my blog has become a family endeavor!) This is a tricky recipe to rate, because it was fundamentally good, but, at the same time, everyone had lots of ideas for improvement. Add crumbled bacon, crisped pancetta, toasted pine nuts, etc. Ultimately, the dish’s imperfections dropped it from a 4 to a 3. That said, it was simple and tasty, creamy without feeling at all heavy and made great use of crisp-tender fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes.

My mom, Diana, brought me this cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen, this winter, and I love the simplicity of her recipes, her use of flavorful but easy-to-find ingredients, and, to be honest, the beautiful photographs of Giada. Truly, she’s spectacular!

Anyway... Sophia and I have been reading through this book, looking at pictures and talking about the things that are new to her, like yellow heirloom tomatoes and rasp graters (we have a weird household). I picked this because I like the idea of a creamy pasta without a lot of fat—it uses part-skim ricotta. Also, I have fallen in love with the texture of whole-wheat pasta, and have found that it holds up better as leftovers.

All in all, this was colorful, tasty and quick. I do think it needs the added dimension of pine nuts or pancetta, or perhaps a little warmth from red pepper flakes, and I might use a bit more green beans and tomatoes, since everyone here really loves their veggies.

New-Style Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pudding

2009-03-24T19:04:00.010-06:00

I’m not sure I can explain the sudden interest in pudding. To be perfectly frank, I don’t even like pudding that much... too creamy and smooth, like yogurt and ice cream. These things need chunks to be good. In our house, we describe this feeling about a particular food as, “I like it, but it’s not my favorite.” This is Sophia’s verbiage, which we all seem to have adopted. Amazingly, I have never heard her say that she just flat-out doesn’t like something. I will have messed up lots of things, but food I’ve done well!

Regardless of my feelings about smooth foods, we all seem to have a mighty sweet tooth this winter (sweet teeth?), and the ingredients in pudding are largely pantry items. Ergo, my second attempt this month at homemade pudding.

Today’s pudding recipe is courtesy Bon Appétit magazine and is a low-fat, healthy version of traditional chocolate pudding. Thus the “new-style” I suppose. First, a few ingredient notes: I used 2% organic milk, instead of 1%, because that’s what we had on hand, and I used Droste Dutch-processed cocoa.

I made this for afternoon snack for Ben and Sophia, and they both gave it four stars. We ate it warm out of the pan, and Ben contends it will be five-star pudding later cold out of the fridge.

My feeling is four stars either way. The texture is wonderfully silky and smooth, and it was very simple and easy. Foolproof, you might say. However, the flavor smacks too much of cocoa powder and not enough of chocolate. Surely you’ve had the experience of mixing up a cup of hot cocoa using cocoa powder, Hershey’s or otherwise, and finding it insufficiently chocolate-y. I think I’d prefer the splurge of real dark chocolate. However, this was an easy and light treat, so I’m sure it will make its way back into circulation one day.

Cashew Tofu

2009-03-23T21:26:00.000-06:00

This is another delicious recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Great Food Fast. I make this dish about once a month with jasmine rice, and I have gradually made a number of changes to improve it (sorry Martha!).

The first change, which I made the first time I prepared it, was to add a few small sliced zucchinis. As is, the recipe doesn’t contain a green veggie, and, well, you can’t have that! The zucchini was an instant hit, and I’ve always added it.

The next time I made it, we decided that the sweetness of the hoisin sauce needed something to balance it. So, I doubled the amount of rice wine vinegar and steeped ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes in the vinegar, draining them off just before adding the vinegar to the dish. The red pepper flakes don’t really make the dish spicy, but the little bit of heat does balance out the cloying sweetness of the sauce.

Lastly, and, to me, most importantly, I got rid of the chicken. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of chicken, and I absolutely hate the way it tastes when reheated. (I feel I read somewhere recently that chicken is weirdly altered in the microwave... if I remember the source I’ll post it.) So, I’ve replaced the 1½ lb. chicken breast the recipe calls for with 2 lb. firm organic tofu, which I press for a few hours under my Le Creuset and 20 lb. of dumbbells for a wonderfully firm texture.

Not only is the tofu much less expensive than chicken, especially comparing organic to organic, but it gets nice and crispy, takes on the flavor of the sauce and reheats much better.

Now, the dish is pretty perfect! One last note: it’s worth shopping around for hoisin sauce and experimenting a bit. The range of what you can get in the conventional grocery store is limited, and some are better than others. Soon, I vow to make it to Boulder to the Asian Market and try sauces from there. I imagine I’ll be hooked!

Pasta Frittata with Broccoli, Roasted Red Bell Peppers & Gruyère

2009-03-22T21:45:00.001-06:00

This dish falls into the new category in our house called “fancy leftovers.” I am not a pantry shopper, but instead sit down each Sunday morning and plan lunches and dinners for the entire week. I use a grocery list template to help me to remember staples, like coffee, eggs, milk and yogurt, then add on the specific items that I’ll need for the week’s menus. This is a time-consuming process, but it does inspire me to cook more interesting foods from recipes, and I also waste a lot less food.

On Sunday morning, I also glance through the fridge and determine what “dibs and dabs” I need to use up. This week, I found a small crown of organic broccoli and about 1/2 lb. cooked whole wheat pasta. I remembered years ago seeing a recipe for a frittata that used leftover pasta in lieu of potatoes. I poked around epicurious and found a recipe for Pasta Frittata with Broccoli Rabe and Sun-Dried Tomatoes.

Broccoli rabe is difficult to find, so I subbed out my crown of broccoli, steaming it lightly before adding it to the pan. I subbed roasted red bell peppers for sun-dried tomatoes, and Gruyère for Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The result was delicious. It baked up beautifully in 20 minutes and was a creative and scrumptious use of leftovers. The pasta, because it was whole wheat, kept its al dente texture, and the veggies and cheese made a colorful and flavorful combination. We often have leftover pasta, so I imagine this will become a Sunday night favorite.

Risotto

2009-03-21T21:55:00.005-06:00

Frankly, I can’t believe this is my first risotto posting. I would imagine that most dedicated home cooks have one or two signature dishes, recipes that they gradually hone over time and in which they take great pride. Risotto is absolutely my signature dish. It’s my go-to comfort food as well as a favorite stand-by when entertaining.

What makes risotto so glorious? In my world, the basic ingredients in risotto—olive oil, arborio rice, yellow onion, white wine, chicken broth and Parmigiano-Reggiano—are everyday pantry staples. All I need to do, then, is add flavorful seasonal ingredients for a fresh take on an old favorite. I love the toothy feel of arborio rice, the creamy texture without heavy ingredients, the smell of the white wine cooking off the sautéed onions and rice.

I also love the physical process of making risotto. If you’ve never made it before, risotto requires about 30 minutes of constant stirring as you gradually incorporate the chicken broth into the rice. Ergo, you have to do all of your mise en place, or ingredient prep, before you start cooking. Once onions and veggies are chopped, broth is simmering and cheese is grated, you’re free to stand at the stovetop, slowly ladling and stirring and drinking a glass of white wine or champagne, which is required for truly tasty risotto. I absolutely adore being “stuck” at the stove for 30 minutes, watching this satisfying dish come together.

My first risotto, which served as the basis of my own recipe now, was with fresh tomatoes and basil from 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes, a beautiful gift from my Aunt Bev. Today, I prefer risotto with something green like sweet petite peas or asparagus, or sautéed mushrooms and lemon zest, and always Parmigiano-Reggiano. It’s even wonderful without any embellishment save a tablespoon or two of cream, and I make a dairy-free version when anyone here has the flu and needs something bland and simple yet appetizing.

Risotto is that magical combination of nourishing and healthy yet rich tasting and sumptuous. One of my all-time absolute favorites. Yum! Oh, and it’s even good cold, eaten straight from the container standing in front of the fridge. Or so I’ve been told...

A Note on Alice Waters & Chez Panisse

2009-03-19T14:40:00.005-06:00

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I’ve been keeping a cookbook out that I want to explore further and start cooking from. This is one step in my efforts to splatter up my cookbooks more. Lately, we’ve been working through The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. Since we’ve made a few delicious things from this book already, I thought I should broaden my horizons and move a new book to the table.

Of the 50+ cookbooks I own, three are by Alice Waters, the chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. While I’ve not been there yet, I’ve read a great deal about Alice Waters and her unparalleled influence on American cuisine.

But, to be perfectly frank, I am wildly intimidated by her cookbooks. The techniques are complex and the ingredient lists are exotic. Today, I got out one of her books, the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. As Sophia and I ate lunch (U.S. Senate bean soup and crunchy organic peanut butter sandwiches), I flipped through the book, growing less and less confident.

Smoky Garlic Sausage with Kale? Sounds good. Oh, wait, you make your own sausage! No.

Pigeon Salad with White Bean Toasts. Longmont has plenty of pigeons, but no.

King Salmon in Fig Leaves. Where will I get fig leaves? Or nasturtium blossoms? No.

Artichoke, Cardoon and Endive Salad. I love artichokes, but what in the world are cardoons? Alice says cardoons resemble “giant gray-green heads of celery.”

Sadly, I believe Alice is headed back to the shelf.

Flash Chicken Sauté with Cider and Almonds, Brussels Sprouts & Yukon Gold Potatoes

2009-03-18T18:42:00.007-06:00

To encourage myself to introduce more variety into our meals, I’ve been keeping one cookbook I want to cook from more on the dining room table (along with the food dictionary, which is crucial for the inevitable food questions that arise, like what exactly is a tangelo?).

If you know me at all, you’ll understand that this is a huge personal challenge for me, because I like everything in its place, and books don’t live on the dining room table. Anyway... during meals, I flip through the chosen book as we chit chat, and together Sophia and I choose something new we’d like to try.

This is the most recent recipe selected by Sophia from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. I suspect she picked it because in the picture, the chicken is featured with fresh green beans. Green beans aren’t in season yet, so I instead served roasted Brussels sprouts (don’t knock ’em if you haven’t tried ’em) and roasted Yukon gold potatoes, which were delightfully crispy and perfect for soaking up extra pan sauce.

The recipe called for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but out of frugality I instead used organic boneless skinless thighs. This substitution necessitated additional cooking time, but otherwise the flavor was still excellent. The pan sauce, which you make from reduced chicken broth, cider vinegar and butter was simple yet delicious, and the final product was topped with a sprinkling of coarse chopped roasted, salted almonds. Yum! I declared after dinner that I now want everything with cider pan sauce and almonds! Actually, come to think of it, this is the second recipe I’ve written about featuring cider pan sauce. Perhaps this is becoming a thing?

The only reason the dish didn’t get five stars is that the sauce is still very thin, even after reduction. Next time, I'll either reduce the chicken broth more up front or let the finished sauce reduce further before adding the butter. Otherwise, this was flavorful, with a rich yet lively sauce. Seems kind of “fancy” for a weeknight dinner, but was actually quick and easy.

Grandma Guglietta’s Marinara with Turkey Meatballs

2009-03-16T18:51:00.004-06:00

Two hours and 1,000 sauce splatters later, we just sat down to Grandma Guglietta’s marinara (this is Eryc’s Italian grandmother, Sophia’s great-grandmother) with turkey meatballs from Joy of Cooking.

This used to be my absolute favorite sauce, and it is wonderful for thick, rick gravy, especially over Lorraine’s crepe-like manicotti. However, we’ve recently become accustomed to the sharp, bright flavors of The Splenid Table’s smoky tomato sauce, and now this sauce disappoints in its just-what-you’d expect-edness (no, this is not a word... what word am I looking for?).

The turkey meatballs were also good, fine, but not nearly as good as they were when my mom made them for us December 21, 2006. Of course, we were snowed in with Grandma Lee after a record 36 inches, so everything may have tasted better then!

I will say that the meal was yummy in a comfort food sort of way, but not a good use of two hours of my life and not worth the sauce splattered kitchen.

Oatmeal and Raisins, the Grandma Lee Way

2009-03-14T21:00:00.003-06:00

Of course, you can always follow the instructions on the Quaker Oatmeal canister for perfectly acceptable oatmeal. However, in our family, we prefer our oatmeal the Grandma Lee way, which I suppose now is the Great-Grandma Lee way. My Grandma Lee taught my parents, they taught me, and I have already taught Sophia... yes, she’s only four but she loves to cook! In fact, making oatmeal before school is one of her favorite treats.

First, a quick note on old-fashioned oat brands: I am generally frugal about all things, and have very few brand loyalties aside from organics. However, I recently skimped and bought Kroger-brand oats. Big mistake. The texture of the oatmeal is mushy, unlike Quaker oats, which retain a little toothsomeness after cooking. What’s funny is that I usually buy Quaker oats, frugality aside, because I adore the oatmeal cookie recipe on the inside of the Quaker lid. See what I get for abandoning my cookie recipe?

So, the Grandma Lee way. Combine one part old-fashioned Quaker oats, one part milk and one part water. Add plenty of raisins (yum) and a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and boil, stirring constantly, for one minute. Cover your oatmeal, remove from the heat and let stand five minutes. The result... oatmeal that is much creamier than the Quaker way.

In my years of serving Grandma Lee oatmeal, I’ve realized that there are as many ways to eat oatmeal as there are kind of people. I imagine this is a family tradition, passed down like recipes through the generations. Our people put a small ring of cold milk around the mound of oatmeal once it’s ladled and topped. My mom leaves the ring intact, gradually incorporating the milk and using it to cool each bite as she goes. Sophia and I stir in our rings of milk right away. We have yet to bring Ben over to our side, so his is milk-free. As for toppings, Ben, Mom and Sophia prefer a sprinkling of brown sugar, and I have recently discovered turbinado sugar, which I have left over from my adventures in Irish-American soda bread.

Like the wonderful women before me, I look forwarding to being Grandma Lee some day, and passing this recipe down, milk ring and all. If you eschew the Quaker recipe for ours, I simply ask that Grandma Lee gets credit where credit is due. Enjoy!

Creamy Fettuccine with Asparagus

2009-03-11T19:12:00.004-06:00

Ah... spring! Time to get our fill of asparagus, artichokes and fresh berries. This dish, while perfect on paper, resulted in pasta that was fine, but uninspiring. As mentioned in a previous post, Great Food Fast is my go-to cookbook for weeknight inspiration, and for a weeknight dinner this was certain tasty enough. However, the dish lacks interest.

The one change I’ve made is to omit the fresh dill, which I don’t like in anything but pickles and vinegar-based potato salads. I also doubled the pine nuts, because I had extra and because Sophia loves, loves, loves them.

Next time I have two pounds of fresh asparagus, I’m making risotto or serving it steamed with soft scrambled eggs (divine!). And there are certainly better uses of a perfectly yummy log of Haystack Mountain goat cheese. Crusty bread alone would put it to better use.

Irish-American Soda Bread

2009-03-09T19:44:00.005-06:00

Foolishly, I signed up to provide snacks for Sophia’s Montessori preschool class on St. Patrick’s Day. My initial thought was to bring something green and easy... zucchini bread, cucumber spears, grapes.

However, Sophia recently reminded me that her teacher, Bridget and Bridget’s mother, Gertie (the afternoon preschool teacher), are actually Irish and have been teaching them Irish dancing at school. In fact, Bridget is a first-generation Irish-American.

Now, the pressure is on! I realized I have to make some sort of quasi-authentic Irish snack for school next week.

So, in preparation, I started experimenting with Irish soda bread. Tonight’s recipe, from the King Arthur Flour Web site, is an Americanized version, calling for raisins, caraway seeds and plenty of sugar, including a milk and sugar glaze. The only change I made to the original recipe is the omission of caraway seeds. Sophia would love them, like everything else, but I doubt they’d have broad appeal among her pickier peers.

The bread is absolutely delicious... sweet, fluffy and moist. My pan was a bit too small (8.5" x 4.5" vs. 9" x 5"), so it overflowed a bit into the oven. I’ll need to buy a few new pans in order to make enough for next Tuesday, but otherwise it was a scrumptious success.

Lentil Soup

2009-03-08T22:03:00.005-06:00

Tonight I did a bit of the “secret cooking” I mentioned in a previous post. To get ready for a great week, and to use up some leftover ingredients from last week’s menus, I made this most wonderful lentil soup.

If you do not own Great Food Fast: 250 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Meals All Year Long, by Martha Stewart Living Magazine, I highly recommend you rush out and buy it tomorrow. Why? Simply put, this is the perfect cookbook! Perfect? Yes, perfect.

First, it’s organized by season, encouraging you to cook with what is fresh, flavorful and affordable. Next, it features a full-page color photograph for every single recipe. Amazing! I love to see what a dish is supposed to look like, and I’ve found I’m much more likely to experiment with a new recipe if I can see what the final product looks like. If that wasn’t enough, for each recipe you get hands-on prep time, total cooking time, and, in the back of the book, complete nutritional information. Lastly, every recipe is intended to be simple and fast, making it the ideal cookbook for everyday meal planning.

Great Food Fast was also a gift from my mother-in-law, Lorraine, and it has made a huge impact on how I cook on a day-to-day basis. It has encouraged me to get out of the rut of making the same five or six weeknight meals without forcing me to spend too much extra time in the kitchen. I have given this to almost everyone I’m close with because I think it’s so wonderful. Buy one now! (No, I do not work for Martha Stewart).

So, the soup. I started making this because a) lentils are an inexpensive protein for lunches and b) it’s a great use of just a little bit of leftover bacon. I’ve modified the recipe only slightly, adding a 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes when adding the chicken broth, water and lentils, for additional veggie oomph and flavor. Also, if you decide to make this, spring for the imported tomato paste that comes in a toothpaste-like tube... much more intense flavor (Sophia likes to sample it every time I make this) and it doesn’t require you to deal with the inevitable leftovers from the little can.

The soup has wonderful, smoky flavor, is hearty enough to satisfy Benji and makes a generous enough pot for lunch twice during the week for all three of us. An instant favorite!

Homemade Butterscotch Pudding

2009-03-05T21:00:00.003-07:00

This afternoon Sophia and I were reading a children’s magazine, and there was a picture of a little girl with her kitten, named Butterscotch. This, of course, got us to talking about food, and we realized that a) we had no idea what butterscotch was and b) Sophia had never had butterscotch pudding.

Fast forward several hours... the kids are in bed and I’m casually looking up butterscotch pudding on epicurious, curious myself about its key components. Faster than you can say J-E-L-L-O, Ben’s out on a late-night grocery run for heavy cream and whole milk. [Full disclosure: this “late-night” run was at 7:00 PM... remember, we’re tired new parents!]

The resultant pudding was absolutely sinfully delicious! Nothing like boxed butterscotch pudding, the flavor was much more subtle and yet rich. It was remarkably easy, and I thought tasted like the very best things about cookie dough... brown sugar, butter and vanilla! We couldn’t even wait for the pudding to cool, but ate it immediately while it was still warm (yum!).

I have to say, this is only my second time making pudding from scratch, but it’s so easy, I wonder at the popularity of boxed mixes. It took all of 10 minutes (not including the grocery run!).

And, yes, there is plenty leftover in the fridge for Sophia to sample Friday.

Grandma Lee’s Meatloaf with Mom’s Salad

2009-03-04T18:09:00.009-07:00

Apparently this week’s theme is All-American cuisine. Tonight, I made several family favorites, recipes from the Grandmas Lee: my Grandma Lee, named Virginia Lois Lee, and Sophia and Joseph’s Grandma Lee, and my mom, Diana Kay Lee.

I got the original meatloaf recipe from my mom on the phone yesterday. The recipe card reads: “Maw Lee’s Meatloaf” and it’s dated 1967, the year my parents got married. It’s so simple but remarkably delicious, and one of my favorite weekly meals growing up. There are probably as many meatloaf variations as there are families. Our people surround the meatloaf with potato and yellow onion wedges and carrot pieces and add some water to the bottom of the pan. Yum.

This is the first time I’ve made traditional meatloaf. My only other foray into meatloaf was a pancetta-covered turkey meatloaf of Giada's, which is amazing, but not “real” meatloaf. I think tonight’s meatloaf had great flavor, but was perhaps a bit too dry.

I also made a simple salad with organic mixed greens, English cucumber, grape tomatoes and Mom’s most delicious celery seed dressing. It’s salad dressing like you’ve never tasted before—very Midwestern. What makes it taste Midwestern? Sugar and cider vinegar. Just the smell of it makes me nostalgic.

A very homespun meal and a loving tribute to the wonderful Grandmas Lee.

U.S. Senate Bean Soup

2009-03-03T21:08:00.005-07:00

I am a huge fan of the St. Vrain Historical Society’s annual Pumpkin Pie Days. In fact, I have been known to insist that it’s my favorite holiday. Yes, I know it’s not actually a holiday, and no, it’s not really my absolute favorite, but it definitely ranks.

What is Pumpkin Pie Days? During Pumpkin Pie Days weekend, the Boulder County Fairgrounds main building is filled with dozens of stalls crammed with antiques, and the fine women and men (mostly cute grandmas and grandpas) of the St. Vrain Historical Society serve a wonderful meal of vegetable and bean soup, buttered rolls and pumpkin pie with whipped cream (Ben, you’ll be pleased to know that I rewrote this sentence just to avoid the Oxford comma!). The meal is fabulous, and I wait all year for this most favorite of Longmont public events.

In an effort to approximate the wholesome soup of PPDs, I turned to my favorite resource for classic all-American recipes—The Joy of Cooking. The closest recipe I found is U.S. Senate Bean Soup. Why the funny name? This soup has been on the menu of the U.S. Senate every day for over 100 years!

Of course, I modify the recipe to make it as close as possible to the PPDs soup. First, instead of using a ham hock, which usually yields very little meat, I save the end of a spiral cut ham in the freezer. To make the soup, I thaw the ham, cube as much meat as can be removed and use the remaining hock to make the broth. Much better ham flavor and more satisfying pieces of ham. I also add carrots, use more water than recommended for a thinner soup, leave the peels on my potato and leave the beans intact when the soup is done (as opposed to mashing as recommended in the recipe).

The batch I made this evening is for lunches this week. I feel like we need hot, homemade food for lunch at least every other day, so I try to make some kind of soup each week, often on Sunday—for some reason, we call this practice of cooking on Sunday for the upcoming week “secret cooking.” (The other days we have sandwiches and veggies, leftovers or, on really special days, Elia’s burritos!)

The soup is so delicious, so hearty and wholesome and so reminiscent of my wonderful Pumpkin Pie Days! Now, where’s my pie?

Black Beans & Rice

2009-03-03T20:58:00.006-07:00

There are very few things that I make without a recipe... I’m just more comfortable and have more fun in the kitchen without the pressure of having to be inventive. This is one of the few things I just whipped up one night and continue to make with whatever I have around.

For this dish, I prepare jasmine rice, then add chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice while the rice is still warm. I serve the rice with canned black beans that I’ve rinsed and seasoned with cumin, garlic powder and salt. Tonight, I had some extra pieces of smoked ham, so I added those to the beans.

We usually have some mild picante sauce on top, and I served the beans and rice with steamed broccoli. A staple dish that is simple, inexpensive and full of fresh flavors.

Pork Chops, Fingerlings & Artichokes

2009-03-01T20:32:00.006-07:00

After a luxurious Saturday evening out at Terroir in Longmont with new friends, I felt we needed a delicious but simple dinner tonight while we prepare for a new week. Even though I work from home, I’m still prone to the Sunday night blues, and a healthy, home-cooked dinner is a good way to turn my mood around.

I sautéed center-cut boneless Coleman pork chops in butter and olive oil (from Joy of Cooking), then simmered them quickly in a pan sauce I had in the freezer. For side dishes, I roasted organic Colorado fingerling potatoes in olive oil and kosher salt and steamed artichokes.

I don’t remember the source of the pan sauce... it was leftover from a dinner in early January. I need to find it soon because it was delicious!

[Pan sauce mystery solved! Mom made it with a pork tenderloin when she was here taking care of us right after Joseph was born. The recipe for pork tenderloin with apple dijon pan sauce is from About.com. Thanks, Mom!]

A simple but beautiful meal and a perfect end to a wonderful three-day weekend.

Banana Bread

2009-02-27T17:19:00.006-07:00

Home from a weirdly grueling morning and early afternoon at the Museum of Nature & Science with the Davises... this seemed like the perfect comfort food snack going into the weekend. It’s also the best use of sad looking, overripe bananas.

I love this recipe for its simplicity--all you need are 2 eggs, 3 bananas, 2 cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda. Done. If you have walnuts, lovely. If not, lovely. Sophia and I make this once or twice a month (we alternate with Fannie Farmer’s Pumpkin Bread). It’s so simple that she can do nearly every step by herself.

I love The Fannie Farmer Cookbook for old-fashioned basics like this. My mom originally bought the book for me for the French toast recipe, and I’ve used it so much that the pages are falling out. In fact, the book automatically opens to the banana bread page and has to be held together by a rubber band!

As a side note, I read a fascinating book in January 2002 about the birth of the home economics movement and how it “ruined” home cooking for decades. Fanny Farmer herself is complicit in this modernization of American cooking. Interested? Check out Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro. A fascinating book for anyone interested in American food culture.

As I sit typing this and listening to Joseph snore, the house is filled with the most wonderful homey smell. Yum!

Bacon, Broccoli & Gruyère Crustless Quiche

2009-02-24T16:07:00.006-07:00

This is a perennial favorite in our household. I probably make this once a month, usually as a vehicle for leftover bacon. (How we manage to have leftover bacon is a mystery!).

I’ve adapted this over time from the original recipe in the 1997 Joy of Cooking, my favorite resource cookbook (a controversial rewrite of the original Joy). I make the bacon Alison’s way (15-20 minutes at 400 degrees on a foil-lined baking sheet) and steam the broccoli for three minutes some time mid-afternoon so that the dish can come together quickly for an easy dinner.

Authentic Gruyère is essential. I’ve finally learned that it’s always worth the money to spring for “real” cheeses... they impart so much more flavor and you subsequently need less of it.

This dish is tasty comfort food and never fails to satisfy. It's also at least somewhat healthier than quiche with the (yummy) crust.

Rotini with Spinach Sauce

2009-02-22T18:18:00.008-07:00

This is a quick, simple recipe by Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis. I’ve made this once before but forget to make notes on it, so made it again tonight to use leftover baby spinach.

I appreciate how quickly this dish comes together, and the sauce is a beautiful bright green... very appetizing looking. I doubled the sauce ingredients and skipped the addition of pasta water. My only complaint is that the raw garlic (which I halved) is too strong--it gives the dish a “hot” feeling on the tongue (and gives the diner horrible breath!). If I make this again, I'll use roasted garlic or skip it all together and add pine nuts or some other flavorful ingredient.

Otherwise, this is simple and lovely.

Oh, and the dish called for penne, but I can’t stand the texture of hollow pasta, so I used organic whole wheat rotini instead.

Fresh Berries with Vanilla Mint Yogurt Sauce

2009-02-22T18:09:00.007-07:00

Yummo! I made this sauce from epicurious to serve with fresh strawberries and blueberries for Bill’s birthday brunch. It took about two minutes to make and was absolutely delicious. I considered skipping the mint, thinking it was a) costly and b) superfluous, but it was a fabulous addition and absolutely necessary.

Jenn added GF coffeecake to to the meal and Lorraine made egg casserole with Boulder sausage, red bell peppers, zucchini and hash browns. Oh, and Eryc made mimosas with pineapple orange juice. A lovely breakfast!

Cheese-gilded Linguine with Smoky Tomatoes & Spinach Sautéed with Garlic

2009-02-20T19:40:00.011-07:00

This is the first recipe I’ve made from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio’s Award Winning Food Show (thank you Lorraine). I served it with baby spinach and slivered garlic sautéed in olive oil.

I used several of the authors’ tricks while making this recipe. First, I heavily salted the pasta water... the authors explain that pasta doesn’t absorb salt once it’s cooked. Your pasta water should actually taste like the sea (and then you need less salt in your sauce).

I also sprang for organic Muir Glen whole tomatoes, which they recommend earlier in the book, and which gave the sauce a more dynamic flavor. And, of course, we used real Parmigiano-Reggiano—crucial to the dish’s success.

The pasta bordered on phenomenal and is definitely company-worthy—very flavorful without being heavy and a refreshing change of pace from “regular-old” marinara (of which I’m not a huge fan, unless it accompanies Lorraine’s manicotti).

Overall assessment: easy, unique and doesn’t require a lot of (expensive) ingredients. Definitely make again, next time with Ben’s homemade pasta! Sophia wanted me to be sure and note that she really liked it (and she ate all of it!).