Joy is Cooking

Dreaming of snow

2012-01-12T10:56:00.002-06:00

(photo courtesy of elephant.com)

To say that we had a "nice Christmas" this year would be such an understatement. To quote my older brother who is usually sparse with words and short on emotion, "It was one of the best in a long time." And I would have to agree. I know that a lot of people have mixed feelings about Christmas, and holidays in general, as they tend to bring up memories of family dramas of years past and the stress is sometimes running high. After all, anytime you gather too many family members under one roof, not to mention members of more than one family, things can get goofy at best, unbearable at worst.

But ours was a fun and cheerful time spent with both our families all together, our house serving as the neutral gathering place. We didn't travel to one or the other, or miss seeing one in order to see the other. We made everyone come to us and I have to say, it was perfect. Since everything pretty much revolves around the baby now, it made sense to do this and she had a ball. She really had fun seeing everyone and kept repeating everyone's names after they left, saying "see you." It was so sweet.

Now we are in the middle of January and I miss my family and also --the snow. I realize that after so many winters living in Colorado I equate winter with cold and snow and the beautiful mountain scenery that I miss so much. I can take really cold temperatures, as long as they're dry and mixed with sun. In the south when it's cold, it's often also wet and damp which makes winter a lot less enjoyable. I also miss skiing and hiking in the mountains and the FUN that winter brings in Colorado.
(the photo above is of the Flatirons in Boulder on a typical winter day).

So we try to make the most of it by going to the library or the coffee shops or wherever we can find a good train table (June is obsessed with trains all of a sudden and can't get enough of Thomas the Tank Engine) and we hit the playground on warmer days where she can get some exercise and meet friends.

In my kitchen things are warm and we're roasting a lot of chickens, making beef stew or creamy, indulgent things like this mushroom-leek risotto that I made last night. It was one of those wintry dishes with lots of cream, butter and cheese that you can only really justify when the weather is cold and you've earned it by working outside all day (like Daniel) or worked out at the gym (that would be me).

(image from the NYTimes)

Here's an article I just came across in the NYTimes Dining and Wine section today and it was totally speaking to me. I love vegetable risottos like the beautiful one above this time of year. They really warm the soul and satisfy that craving I have for a real winter. If I can't be in the Rockies or the Alps right now, at least I can cook the way they do in the colder climates. And keep dreaming of snow.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2011-12-16T08:49:00.003-06:00

...Christmas! Are you ready? Here it is only 10 days until Christmas and while it's been a crazy few weeks, I am really looking forward to the holidays this year.

For the first time I've convinced my family to come to Nashville and now we don't have to travel to Las Vegas. It will be a lot less stressful, but on the other hand, I have LOTS to do getting ready for guests and hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners at my house. I can't wait.

To begin with, I've decorated more than usual. It has been fun to pull out things that were my mom's that I've collected over the years but never really used. Like all the pretty goose themed decorations --she had a thing for geese at Christmas that began sometime in the 80s--and her homemade felt ornaments which must be over 40 years old now. I love those. They have a special place on my tree every year. If you knew my mom you know that nobody loved Christmas as much as she did.

And, something I learned from my mom, I've been really frugal too. She was really good at finding great deals and didn't let lack of money deter her enthusiasm. I also didn't want to go out and spend a lot of money on things I use only once a year. So I've been thrift shopping a lot for my holiday gear and to great success. I found garland with lights already attached to go around my front door and on my fireplace mantle (okay so one strand out of three didn't work, but I only paid $2.99 for each), and enough wreaths to hang on all three doors and windows on the front of the house. With the icicle lights too it looks like a little winter wonderland out there.

The inside is cozy and warm and very festive too. We did a little dining room overhaul recently and repainted the walls the same color grey as the front room after Daniel tore down the wall that separated them and trimmed the opening exactly like the rest of our 1930s trim. Now it's a nice, big open space to entertain in. I got a new dining room table with an extra leaf so I can seat 10-12 people now. Four new chairs and gold seat cushions to match the damask curtains I already had and it's like a whole new room! Now everything looks a bit more elegant but still very warm and I love it.

I picked up these odds and ends at the Goodwill and spent next to nothing on them. I love the little tree with lights and the nutcracker and the old-fashioned ornaments look great on my tree. And how about this festive Benetton Fair Isle sweater that which cost only $3?

June had such a good time helping me decorate the tree. She kept trying to put ornaments in the same spot and then changing her mind and taking them back off and saying "ooh, pretty." We kept my mom's tradition of eating cookies and drinking egg nog (June drank soy milk) and listening to Christmas music while we worked. I loved getting to share this with her for the first time.

She also understands a little bit about Christmas and we've been reading books about Santa and all the fun things like angels and reindeer and treats under the tree. She can say "candy cane" and "Santa", "snowman" and "lights" and she's working on the idea that everyone is coming here to spend the holiday with us. I'm not sure she quite gets that part yet but she will soon and it will be so much fun to have everyone here to shower her with love and attention. Her uncles and her 'Papa' are thrilled to see her and both brothers are staying in our little house which should be like a big old slumber party.

In the homemade gift department which is usually what I work on in the weeks leading up to Christmas I have come up short as all of my attention has been on decorating my house and planning the menus for Christmas. But I did pick up these little Italian treats called torrone to give to June's teachers and use as hostess gifts. And the cute owl is one of a few little ornaments I found to give to friends' babies.

I've made only one batch of cookies but plan on making at least three more next week. My brother Greg, fresh from living on a farm in Southwestern France for four months, gets here on Monday and he and I are going to make patés and a roast pork and I'll make my cioppino for Christmas Eve. We plan to do a traditional Italian staple --braciole simmered for a long time in tomato sauce and served with pasta for Christmas day. My aunt Bev will make her delicious bread pudding and she'll be really helpful as well. I'm so glad I will have company in the kitchen.

This weekend is shaping up to be fun and busy --two parties, a night out to listen to a friend's music on Sat., plus helping a friend cook for her holiday staff party and somehow doing some baking of my own. It's a lot of work but, like my mom, I really enjoy the holidays and all the build-up too. As I know was true for her, for me the cooking and preparing and decorating is just the warm-up for the real fun: spending time with family and gathering around the table over delicious food. Let the fun begin!

Slow it down...

2011-11-15T14:17:00.000-06:00

Have you ever felt like you thought you understood the passage of time and then something happens and it all goes out the window? Time, your understanding of it, how much you need, how little you have, how you wish you could stop the clock? Like how I thought it was September and was enjoying the onset of fall and now I look up and what?? It's November?! And it's halfway over! What is happening? People always say time goes by faster when you have children and I never got that. But now I do.

It has been a super fun time with Junebug lately too. She is walking, running, talking a LOT (she has the vocabulary of someone twice her age we think) and is the world's happiest baby. We've done some really fun things with her over the last few months like trips to the Nashville zoo, a road trip to Kentucky to visit her great-aunts, a Dia de los muertos and scarecrow exhibit at Cheekwood, a fun Halloween party and kids' parade, taking her out on Friday nights for dinner and letting her eat everything we're eating (loving this), and lots of stories and puppet shows at the library. She loves books and her dolls and her "nuggy" (a sock puppet owl given to her by her uncle Chris that she takes to bed with her every night). Her teacher at her mom's day out program said she is doing great, she's very smart and also very visual.

She said, unlike a lot of the other children, June actually likes to sit still during story time and look at the book. Imagine that.

And as for the diet and I, well we broke up. But I did do the cleanse pretty strictly for two weeks and felt the effects of all the good it was doing. I should have kept it up but I felt like it was getting to be too hard. And, no excuses--I just didn't have the resolve. I solved one health mystery, though, and I don't think I am gluten-intolerant. And I discovered what can happen when things get out of balance so in the future I know when and with what things I need to tighten the reigns. I also know I can't live without coffee, at least not right now when I have a baby who naps little and likes to get up at 5:30. I know I can live on butternut squash and quinoa, brown rice and veggies and that anything sprinkled with Gomasio tastes a hundred times better. And I quit drinking beer every night and that in itself has made a huge difference.

I still have been trying to cook in a healthier way and to that end have made a lot of things with the produce of fall: squash and cauliflower, brussels sprouts, pumpkin and kale. Like this roasted cauliflower and butternut with bread crumbs; and a brussels sprout and cauliflower pasta recipe from Marc Vetri with toasted bread crumbs and anchovies. It was delicious. Find the recipe here.

Instead of pasta lately we've been eating more brown rice. I love it. It such a deep and nutty flavor that, unlike white rice, I could eat it just on its own or with a fried egg on top, some scallions and a dash of soy. Here is a great primer I just came across in the dining section of the NY Times on the many ways to prepare brown rice including some recipes.

Oh - and I almost forgot to mention one of the few things I baked last month, which was also one of the best things I've ever made: pumpkin whoopie pies from the Baked cookbook. OMG. They were sick. In a good way. No one could believe how moist and yummy and pop-four-in-your-mouth good they were. And pretty cute too, don't you think?

In other news, I applied for a job in a far away place --a place which I love and in which it would be amazing to live for a while. It's a long long long shot for me but I couldn't not apply. I'll be looking for more opportunities like this one in the coming months and, who knows? We could end up doing something really adventurous really soon which would be just what the doctor ordered.

roasted vegetable salad + a restart

2011-10-17T16:39:00.001-05:00

This is a salad I made last week with all the veggies from the vegetable drawer in order to clean out the fridge. It had eggplant, peppers, yellow squash, golden beets and swiss chard, served over brown rice. I roasted the veg at 400 for about 45 min., then sauteed the chard with a little garlic and chicken broth and tossed with the roasted veggies, adding a few drops of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to season. It was easy, healthy and really tasty.

I'm on week three of the cleanse now but really I'm starting over. Let me explain. I started this detox program/elimination diet with every intention of sticking to it for 60 days. That means 60 days of no caffeine, no alcohol, no sugar, no wheat/gluten, no dairy and no junk of any kind. It means eating mostly fruits and vegetables, brown rice and grilled fish, lots of good, clean water and that's about it. Let me tell you, it is hard.

The first week I did great but I felt like crap. I guess it's true that when you clean out your systems, stuff gets eliminated that is toxic and so the effects of that can make you feel sick. I felt tired and grumpy, hungry and like I had a mild cold. I had thoughts like "if this is what it feels like to eat clean, I want to go back to my old ways," and "Life is not worth living without coffee, alcohol, etc." These are exactly the kind of thoughts that I was warned were possible by the doctor* who says this diet is "not for irresolute wimps."

*the doctor is the creator of the program I'm following. I'm not going to recommend him or his site until this thing is over.

I guess I felt sorry for myself because as soon as I started to feel pretty good, about day 5, with more energy and no cold symptoms, I cheated. First it was an innocent little coffee with milk. Then it was a whole lunch at Back to Cuba cafe with my Spanish conversation partner. I reasoned that it was "a special occasion" as I had never been there (!) and my partner would not want to eat alone and after all, I had invited her. I had a cubano (ham and cheese, pickles and mayo sandwiched between two pieces of crusty white bread) and a cafe con leche.

(image courtesy of Meet Me in the Kitchen)

Then this past weekend, we went out of town to Louisville, KY and I confess I went a little crazy. I ate like I would eat on any trip since for me, eating and exploring a city's food scene is one of the reasons I travel and I can't imagine going anywhere and not doing that. And it was so much fun and we had a great time. We ate dinner at the excellent Proof on Main inside the 21c Hotel. The next day we had brunch at a more casual place by the same owner/chef, Garage Bar. Both were great examples of restaurants showcasing local ingredients with lots of style and excellent, creative food--just the kind of places I love.

I'm not even going to get into what I ate. Suffice it to say I broke every rule.

And now, Monday morning, I am sitting here half thinking that I should just throw in the towel and forget about this diet thing. And then I remember that I am doing this for my health. It's not because I want to lose weight (though that wouldn't be the worst thing) or because I enjoy dieting. I am doing it because I have some real concerns about my health and I want to get to the bottom of them and find some balance.

My friend Judy sent me a stern but loving email last week when I told her I'd cheated (she is my "diet buddy" and very knowledgeable about nutrition and health). She reminded me why I was doing this, and said that it takes 7.5 weeks for a person's body to get mellowed out and quit reacting to gluten. So I guess I'm back to day one.

A new season, a new challenge

2011-10-04T12:40:00.002-05:00

Somehow I got through the end of the hottest summer I can remember here in the South and I am finally breathing a sigh of relief. I really have a hard time in the hot and humid climate and every summer I find myself longing for other places, making grandiose plans to pick up and move far, far away. But then the sweltering, pent-up days give way to the cool, dry autumn season that I love and I get outside more, lighten up about moving and my mood has lifted.

I love the fall for all the reasons that are obvious: the cooler temperatures but still mild, sunny days; the anticipation of holidays and celebrations; the balancing act between getting outdoors on beautiful days, and hanging inside on chilly nights with a warm meal and a good movie. And, of course, I love the food: dark leafy greens, colorful squash of all kinds, beets and apples and pears and pumpkins and all of the possibilities and healthy meals that they imply.

Autumn for me also symbolizes new beginnings. Perhaps even more so than the new year, I crave new projects and plans every time September rolls around and I feel somehow like a new school year (without the school) is about to begin. I always loved the start of a new school year when I was young--eagerly looking forward to new teachers, new classes, new students and I still feel that way even now that I am no longer a student or a teacher. It must be ingrained in there for life.

So I have decided that what I need to concentrate on with renewed energy this fall is my health. It feels some days like I am 90 years old, too tired to do the things I love and too young to be feeling this way. Waking up feeling sluggish and running to my next cup of coffee like the savior that it is, grabbing a muffin or a scone along with it has always been my morning routine. I live for coffee--making it, smelling it, enjoying it before I do almost anything else in the morning, especially now that having a baby has forced me to be a morning person. (I used to love sleeping "in" until about 8 or 9. Our day starts around 6:00 am over here and has for over a year now and it doesn't matter what time I went to bed the night before. June is up and ready to roll and I have no choice but to roll along with her, coffee cup in hand.

Coffee isn't a health problem in and of itself, but I think it masks some of the more worrisome ones. I have had digestive issues and back pain for as long as I can remember. Exercise and yoga help but it always feels like a delicate situation ready to erupt. I've been laid up before, unable to walk, and right now I could not afford to be immobile. My little girl needs me to be active, now more than ever. She's walking --running really--and needs all kinds of activity and action. She is a whirlwind of fun and bubbly personality and I absolutely love being with her, but wish sometimes I had more energy. She recently started a two-day a week 'moms' day out' program which is great for both of us and gives me the time to finally focus a little more on myself.

Another wake-up call to finally get clean with my health and diet is that I developed a weird rash about a month ago that won't go away, its cause undetermined. The research I've been doing leads me to believe that it, along with the other symptoms I just listed--sluggishness, digestive problems, muscle and joint pain, like other immune-related disorders, all point to one underlying cause: Candidiasis, an overgrowth of yeast in the body. I am not certain that this is the culprit but I have a hunch that it could be. So I am starting an elimination diet of sorts to try and figure it out. It's a cleanse that will have me giving up almost everything I love: bread, pastries, anything with white flour or wheat, pasta, dairy, sugar (of course) and my two close friends of late, caffeine and alcohol (I've been hitting the beer pretty hard --not so much in quantity (I usually don't have more than one), but with a frequency that is not healthy, like for a while there almost every night. I would put the baby to bed and after a long day, I felt like I had really earned that beer and I enjoyed it.

But I think things have gotten out of balance and even if I don't discover that I have a sensitivity to gluten (please, God, let that be the case) I will at least get my systems cleaned out and take a break from the most obvious toxins if only to be able to eat and drink more moderately again when it's over. Don't worry, I'm not giving up the things I love forever - I could not live that way. But I just need to get back into balance and maybe learn some new ways to enjoy healthy, nutritious food.

So I will try to blog about how this process is going for me, what I am making and how I'm dealing with a whole new way of eating. Actually, it's not that different from how we usually eat, except we will no longer resort to pizza or junk food when we're too tired to cook and I am going to have to find a whole new set of gluten-free options for almost everything. I used to make fun of the whole "gluten-free craze" thinking that mostly those people are just trying to lose weight and this is the new fad of the moment. But I realize that there really are people for whom this is a real dietary issue and I'm thankful that there are so many options out there now for gluten-free diets--everything from cupcakes to pizza dough to cereal and pasta. I may even finally break out the "Babycakes NYC" cookbook I bought a couple of years ago and try some of those complicated recipes from the best gluten-free bakery in the country.

So stick with me and somehow I will get through this new challenge and be feeling better on the other side!In the meantime, it's only day two and I've already caved and had a cup of coffee (which really only made me feel worse) but I have managed to make some really healthy and tasty dishes with all of the beautiful fall produce available in the farmer's markets right now.

fall vegetable sautee with brown rice

kale and beet salad

a bathroom remodel

2011-07-12T13:22:00.000-05:00

This bathroom is everybody's new favorite place to hang out in our house. It is the second bathroom remodel we've undertaken since we moved in. Before the remodel, it consisted of a large room with lots of unused space with a ridiculously narrow closet. Last year, in anticipation of June's arrival, Daniel knocked out a wall and turned the space into a nursery with the bathroom adjoining it. He created beautiful built-in closets along one wall in our bedroom to make up for the lack of a closet. The nursery turned out great and was finished just in time. The bathroom took us a year.

Since my husband does literally all the work himself I have no place to complain about the pace that it gets done. Of course, sometimes I nudge and try to 'project manage' to keep things going, but I realize he has a lot on his plate. And now that we have a baby, the work is even slower, making it all the more gratifying when it finally is done.

I am proud of myself for doing things on a tight budget. Just like our nursery which I decorated all for about $500 using flea market and garage sale finds, this bathroom was done on a similar budget using some items we salvaged from job sites and some we kept from the old bathroom.

I wanted the room to have a light, airy beach feel to it since it is always bathed in sunlight, the brightest room in our house. I went with mostly white --on the bead board as well as on the hard wood floors, the shower tile and the fixtures, and chose a light minty blue-green for the walls.

The great pedestal style bathtub was given to us by a friend in exchange for Daniel's time working on his house. All we had to do was paint it.

The sink was my favorite project. We had a pedestal sink from the old bathroom which could have worked and is usually a better choice for a small bathroom. But then we would have no storage for towels and supplies so the vanity seemed like a better choice. I think most bathroom vanities look bulky and boring so I thought I'd look for a piece of furniture that could be re-purposed. Daniel had brought home a nice oval sink and chrome and brass faucet from a job earlier in the year (people throw so much good stuff away!) and so all I had to do was find the piece.

I found it at the first place I looked - Gaslamp Antique Mall. Man, I love that place. If there is one area in which Nashville never disappoints, it's antiques. I knew it was perfect the moment I saw it and it happened to be on sale that day. It didn't even need painting, having already been given that 'distressed' look with white paint over black. A sturdy Ethan Allen buffet, I knew it could hold the sink with no problem. And the dimensions were just right.

Daniel easily cut a whole in the top for the sink to drop in, then the faucet and cut out the pieces on the side for the plumbing pipes. It was fun to watch it take shape. It took just a little bit of tweaking to make it the perfect vanity. I love how it looks in our little nautical bathroom.

I'm very happy with the way this little bathroom turned out. And it really is the new fun room of the house. Our house guest, Vlad, really likes it and so does June. Her bath time is one of her favorite parts of the day. And, after she goes to bed, I love to relax in my little dreamy white refuge. It may have been a long time in the works, but it was worth the wait.

a bang up holiday weekend

2011-07-05T22:28:00.000-05:00

This weekend was the most fun weekend I've had in a long time. I did something I've never done before (participate in a neighborhood bike parade) and something I have not done in way too long: I went out to see live music and not just any live music, but the U2 concert at Vanderbilt stadium.

On Saturday night 45,000 fans convened on a hot and muggy Nashville night to see and hear a spectacle of greatness, talent and sincerity that left us practically skipping all the way home. For me, it was an extra special concert, as I've been a U2 fan for most of my life. Well, for as long as I remember being able to really love music. The band have been together now for 35 years which makes me feel really old.

I first saw them in concert in high school, though I followed them for long before that. I actually got to meet them when I was 17 and they were on tour and played in Las Vegas, where I am from. Through my dad's friendship with one well-connected man, my friend Erica and I got to deliver tickets for a boxing match, a gift from the concert promoter, to the band at their hotel (!!!). Imagine the excitement. It was a dream come true. Somewhere I have a photo of that meeting - my friend and I sandwiched between Bono and the Edge, looking every bit as nervous and elated as you would imagine two teenage girls meeting the famous rock stars of their dreams would look. I would post that photo if only I could find it.

We had not been planning to go on Sat., but I got a wild hair and decided to look for tickets on craigslist. I found them, we found a babysitter last-minute and off we went!

The concert was wonderful and special and Daniel and I had a really fun time. I loved the opener too: Florence and the Machine, an ethereal and stunning British woman in a long green chiffon costume who sang beautifully and skipped around the stage barefoot. I had heard only one of her songs before and knew she was a fashion icon so it was cool to see her perform live.

When U2 came on the stage Daniel joked, "Look at them - they're like Gods." And that's how it felt. They looked great too. Time has done nothing to diminish their god-like rock star status. Bono kept talking about how much they loved Nashville and how great it was to be playing here for the first time since 1981. It was also their 100th show on this "360 Tour." He sang a song that he wrote and performed with Johnny Cash called The Wanderer. And they played a lot of old hits as well as newer material. There were about 10 years in there when I was in grad school and not listening to much music and I lost track of them (around the time Zooropa came out). But since then, I've managed to catch one other U2 concert --in 2004 in Denver, in addition to the couple of times I saw them in the 80s-- but none was as great as this show. Maybe it's because, like the band, I am aging and living in a new phase of life, one that is amazing and beautiful, but which contains too few opportunities to rock out. And it was all so nostalgic for me. Hearing them perform "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "I Will Follow" and "In the Name of Love" will always tug at my heartstrings and remind me of my younger days.

Here are some photos from the show, not the best because shot from afar with my phone, but nonetheless they capture the drama and impact of the rocket ship stage framed by hundreds of very sophisticated moving video screens in a 360 degree ring above the stage. From this the concert was projected spliced with cutting edge video graphics and special effects, old footage of the band, and even recorded transmissions from Desmond Tutu and Gabrielle Gifford's astronaut husband from outer space telling us that "It's a Beautiful Day." Pretty cool.

It was all so spontaneous and that added to the fun of the evening. I am so glad I got that wild hair and that it all worked out so perfectly. I was meant to rekindle my love affair with U2 here in Nashville on this 4th of July weekend.

The other thing we did that was super fun was participate in this cute little bike parade that our neighbor Zella, age 6, organized.

I thought her poster was really cute, and the parade was even cuter. The kids all decorated their bikes and wagons and we took June along in the trailer behind my bike. Zella's dad and another neighbor blocked the traffic on our street at each end of the block and we all paraded down and back complete with accompanying drum and saxophone and a live Statue of Liberty. It was really very sweet and reminded me of what a great neighborhood we chose to live and raise our child in.

The Birthday Party

2011-07-01T11:12:00.001-05:00

I wrote about how June's first birthday has made me reflect on the last year and how far we've come. Now for the party that marked that special occasion.

I wanted to throw a party that would be fitting of such an important occasion and although I realize a baby's first birthday is more meaningful to her parents than to her, I still wanted it to be a child's party. We invited about 30 people and as many of our friends with babies or kids that we could think of. There were probably about 10-12 kids crawling and playing at one time in the living room. June was in Heaven.

I found these pretty striped paper plates at Target and matching invitations and that became the color scheme of all the decorations. I added red, white and blue touches with stars which seemed appropriate given that it was the week before the 4th of July. I can see lots of red, white and blue parties and fireworks in her future.

I had lots of fun putting together little party favors using these popcorn boxes I found at Michael's to round out the all-American theme. I found the contents: little plastic sunglasses, rubber balls and wands, candy necklaces and party horns at the Dollar store.

I spent a good deal of time in the days before the party baking. I didn't want a pink princess theme but I did want to make desserts and goodies that were fit for a little princess. I had always wanted to make petit fours, those delicate little cakes that look so pretty and that I recently learned were born out of economy as bakers used up the discarded scraps from a larger cake to make the little bite-sized sweets. I used Martha Stewart's recipe and then threw out her icing and made my own.

The cake (a white cake with almond paste and a layer of jam in between, came out great but the icing was either too thin and didn't coat well, or the second batch was too thick and looked clunky. I decided that my pouring technique could use a little work and next time they will probably come out looking cleaner. But they still looked pretty, decorated with little pink and white sugar flowers or multi-colored sprinkles.

I also made marbled cream cheese brownies that I cut into small squares and madeleines which I always loved making when I worked at Marché.

Then I make these blackberry, mozzarella and basil, and straberry, mozzarella and mint skewers which looked really pretty and were a nice complement to the sweets.

A friend brought a huge fresh fruit platter and my mother-in-law brought chicken salad. And, my friend Heidi brought her delicious cake pops which everybody loved.

And for the birthday girl, I made her a yummy carrot cake, the same one I make for Daniel on his birthday and it is a favorite in our family. She seemed to like it. She loves veggies so I thought it would be a good way to introduce her to cake. I made a little 5-inch round cake for her and decorated it with cream cheese frosting and little frosting carrots with a leaf of parsley for the green.

It was really fun to see all of our friends and family there to celebrate June's first year. And she had a blast! She wore a party dress that belonged to my cousin who is 18 now and it looked so cute on her. It was sentimental for me because my mom bought that dress. And even though it was a little long, it did not stop her from crawling all over the place and walking all over with her 'lion' showing off for everyone.

She really seemed to enjoy the attention and revel in the party atmosphere. A girl after my own heart.

What a fun day! I will always remember June's first birthday and how much fun I had planning and putting together the party. I love throwing a good party and never need much of an excuse to bake, but it was particularly fun to do it for the first time for my little girl. I have a feeling there will be some great parties in our future.

One year ago today...

2011-06-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

My little girl came into the world after a long and frustrating birth. With the help of time, her challenging 24-hour long entry into life becomes less and less emotional and is replaced by the wonder and joy of her birth and some of the happiest moments of my life spent with her and Daniel in those first days and weeks. What a beautiful time.

I look back on the last year and cannot believe how much we've been through together. I think the first birthday of a first child is especially momentous, not least because what you are celebrating is the growth and change in you as a new parent as much as the incredible growth and change in the baby. Making it through the first year virtually unscathed, maybe a little tired, but mostly just grateful for the gift of this beautiful child is enough to celebrate. And then there is this perfect child that you love more than you ever could have imagined and her first birthday becomes something particularly sentimental, emotional and important.

Even though June is now mostly (and finally) sleeping through the night (thank God), I awoke at 5 a.m. this morning and looked at the clock until it said 5:24, the exact time June was born one year ago today. Daniel was at my side in the hospital and we held our baby girl and cried, all three of us overcome with the emotions of that moment of meeting each other for the first time. She was so obviously healthy and robust and strong willed, having chosen exactly the right moment to be born, regardless of the plans and the vision I or anyone else had. She continues to be strong and feisty, intense and funny, and a joyous little girl.

It seems appropriate now to look back and see how far we've come as a family, how June's presence in our lives has changed us and turned us into parents, something I've always thought was one of the toughest jobs there is and that is now confirmed by first-hand experience. When you decide to have a child everyone tells you that "your life will change forever" and that "your life is no longer your own," and all that is true. But it's true on a level that you can't really accept until it happens and how you react to that can be one of the biggest surprises and learning experiences of the whole parenting thing. It determines a lot whether you accept this wholeheartedly, or some part of you resists it.

For example, I remember worrying while I was pregnant with June about how much I would miss my former, childless life and fretted about how I would ever go back to work and "be a productive member of society" (I actually wrote that, as if being a mother is not being productive and contributing to society enough) and when and what would I do "just" taking care of a baby all the time. That all seems like irrelevant and unnecessary worrying to me now.

I don't mean that I don't sometimes have moments when I wish I was free to just go get a haircut and stay out until late and take a bike ride in the morning by myself. What parent of small children doesn't wish for more time to themselves? The last year has been full of sacrifices that I knew I would have to make, but that nothing prepared me for making and nothing surprises me more about myself than how I've made them. I guess being an older mom probably makes me more ready to make these sacrifices than my friends who are younger moms in their 20s and 30s.

I did whatever I wanted for the last 40 years of my life (well at least the last 20), and I had some amazing experiences that I am so glad I had *before* having a baby. I've been to Europe more than a dozen times, I attended conferences all over the world as an academic, studied and lived in Italy for months at a time, taught in some top notch colleges, went to Spain to study flamenco from the masters when I was 25, lived in Seattle, Oregon, Colorado and Rome. I miss those days of traveling unencumbered by anything but how much money I had left in my bank account (which even that hardly ever stopped me). But I don't ever want to go back to that. It would seem so lonely to me now.

Now I look forward to sharing those kinds of experiences with my husband and daughter. I can't wait to take her with us on all kinds of adventures: to Colorado (my birthplace and where I consider home) for the first time; to Italy--my adopted second home and where I feel most comfortable; maybe to Mexico or Argentina, where I long to go and learn more of the language and the cultures; and all over the U.S., most of which I haven't seen myself. We will take those trips, and more. And it will be all the more enjoyable because I have June and Daniel to share it with.

Some of the challenges June and I have faced have brought us so close together. I know how cliché that sounds, but it's so true. Breastfeeding was very difficult for us at first. It was a huge sacrifice until we got the hang of it, probably the most difficult one of all because you are giving your baby everything you have and suffering through it the whole time. It made me cry several times and I did not look forward to it every 2-3 hours all day long. But then, one day, things changed and all of sudden we were doing great and she was gaining weight rapidly and it no longer hurt and I felt a sense of accomplishment that I was feeding my baby with nothing other than my body --something no other accomplishment in my life has compared to.

Sleeping has been another challenge. Just like she entered the world, on her terms, June's sleeping patterns were also going to be on her terms, not mine. She taught me early on that she would decide her schedule and she would take her time becoming a better napper and sleeping through the night.

She took 10 months for the former and a whole year for the latter. But I learned patience and perseverance and I got exhausted and grumpy in the process. But again, I knew it would eventually change and it did. We shared a bed and our sleep became synchronized and that was lovely and worked for a long time. Until it didn't and Daniel and I were being awoken a few too many times and the night nursing (or "snacking") became unbearable. That's when we moved her to her own bed and the transition went surprisingly well. Maybe that's because I didn't listen to everyone who claimed we were "spoiling" her and putting her in danger of never being able to sleep alone, and I listened to my instinct that said she will do it eventually, when she is ready, and then it will go easier for all of us. I am proud of myself for sticking to that and for getting through that sleep-deprived time without losing my mind (though it almost came to that).

There are many other challenges and milestones and things to be proud of about our first year together. And I am sure there will be many more ups and downs and major hurdles as well as monumental joys. It's hard to believe but she is almost walking and "talking" a lot, she's very social and fun-loving and what I am most proud of is that because of all the sacrifices we've made in the last year, she is a sweet, loving, secure and very happy child.

Happy 1st Birthday to my little Junebug!

A Father's Day feast

2011-06-20T11:12:00.002-05:00

It was my husband's first Father's Day and I thought it deserved a special celebration. It's hard to believe our first year as parents is coming to a close (June will be one year old a week from today) and as I plan her first birthday party, I am reliving the memories of a year ago: the pregnancy, the birth, the bliss of our first few days and weeks as new parents. And, most of all, we are really enjoying getting to know her as she grows into the cutest and sweetest little girl, her personality lighting up our lives on a daily basis.

Of course, the year has not been without its challenges, most of all in the sleep department. But June gave her daddy and I the best present of all the other night: she slept through the night (almost) for the first time in her life! Which meant that mom got some rest (finally) and was not a huge grump all day long. It also meant I had the energy and desire to cook a feast for my hubby and his family who came over to spend the day with us.

I wanted to use the grill since that always seems like a Father's Day thing to do, even it means the dads usually end up "manning" it while I'm busy in the kitchen with the other dishes. But I'm not really a huge fan of grilling meat, or fixing meat in general. But I wanted that summer flavor that the grill imparts and also didn't want to have to turn on the stove on a hot summer day.

I found a great recipe in Cook's Illustrated for Grilled Argentine steaks with Chimichurri sauce. Perfect. Has Father's day written all over it. I bought three smallish sirloin steaks from the Turnip Truck. I made the sauce in the morning --a delicious mixture of cilantro, parsley, garlic, red pepper flakes and oil that would make anything taste great. The recipe for grilling the steaks called for a few unusual steps that promised to give the meat that Argentine taste of "churrasco" or wood-infused flavor that comes from grilling over an open fire. Also, it promised to yield a steak that was perfectly charred on the outside, but still moist and juicy on the inside. Let me just say that it delivered on all counts and was probably the best steak I've ever made at home.

(photo courtesy America's Test Kitchen)

Those unusual steps were to sprinkle a mixture of kosher salt and corn starch on the steaks and then put them on a wire rack over a sheet pan and into the freezer for 30 min before grilling. It also called for using wood chunks (preferably oak) on a perforated aluminum pie plate while heating the grill on high for 15 min with the lid down. Then, move the wood to the side but keep it in the grill while cooking the steaks. This is what produces that smoky, delicious and subtle essence of burning wood. Man, were they right. The meat, perfectly grilled by my father-in-law to medium rare, then sliced thinly, the chimichurri sauce passed at the table to pour over it, made for a near perfect steak. And I'm not a steak person.

To go with it, I made veggie skewers with red and green peppers, red onion, mushrooms and zucchini that we threw on the grill while the meat rested. And a French potato salad made with a vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar, parsley and lots of fresh herbs from our garden. Yum.

(the photo is from the magazine since mine didn't look that pretty when served)

And for dessert, I made this peach thingy I saw in Martha Stewart Living, July. An easy summer dessert made of store-bought angel food cake, fresh peaches which are really good right now and whipped cream, layered in a loaf pan and put in the freezer just long enough to set and slice. It was a hit and so very easy!

It was a lovely day and a feast worthy of the best dad in the universe, next to my own, of course.

buffalo wings and baby birds

2011-05-25T10:41:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I catered a graduation party for my friends Ross and Jimmy. Their son was graduating from high school and they threw a backyard party for about 60 people. It was my first catering job post-baby and I was a little unsure of how I'd get all the work done, but somehow I did. It was more intense because I had to pack it all in to just a day and half, but having a baby really does make you budget time more effectively.

Plus, I had a little "helper" encouraging me from the sidelines.

I made "bombay sliders"- little mini turkey burgers with spices like cayenne and cumin and a garlic curry sauce. I made them for a party I had a couple of years ago and they were a hit. I didn't snap a picture of them because I was too busy setting everything up at the party when they finally got put together.

But here is the huge pot of meat I mixed up before rolling it into about 100 mini patties.

The one thing the guest of honor requested were chicken wings, a favorite of the high school aged crowd. I had never made them before and am not a fan of them usually, but I found a recipe that had a lot of good feedback and I was surprised at how good they turned out. I bet people went to town on them at the party. A friend who was there raved about them afterward. They were pretty labor intensive but totally worth it. They tasted just like the kind you get in a bar, only slightly better because mine were baked. Calling them healthy would be a stretch (they are dredged in a flour and spice mixture, then soaked in melted butter and hot sauce before being baked), but still better than deep frying.

In addition to the chicken and burgers I made three salads: herb potato salad (from Ina Garten's recipe), a couscous with roasted zucchini and peppers and a spinach salad with cannellini beans and a nice shallot vinaigrette. Again, too busy to snap photos of the finished products, but here are a few of the prep, with June supervising from her chair.

my other companion in the kitchen

I think my friends were really happy with the food and I am sure it was a great party. Now that my first post-baby catering gig went well, I think I'm ready to dive back in. Bring on the parties! If nothing else, I will be cooking for a crowd again next month for June's first birthday party. And I always want to throw a big party for Daniel's birthday but he almost never wants one, preferring instead to go camping or do something small. Boring.

In other news, my little girl is getting ready to walk!

And our screened porch is almost done! Sadly, not in time to beat the terrible storm we had the other night, but it survived. Just needs the door and we are good to go! I will be so happy to have a little bug-free oasis for me and my girl to hang out on.

And lastly, we spotted this mama bird in her nest steadfastly protecting her babies after a heavy rain exposed their home. After the storm, I saw the empty nest still in the tree outside our porch. I hope they made it safely to another location. It's been a pretty wild Spring in Tennessee.

strawberry pie and other things to kiss goodbye

2011-05-11T11:14:00.000-05:00

like the balloons on our perfect day...

Okay I admit, I am feeling a little down. Maybe it's the unseasonable 90+ degree heat we're having this week, or the fact that my porch is covered in ugly, prehistoric cicadas shedding their skins and flying into the trees in a 13-year swarm. Or maybe it's because it feels like Spring (and our beautiful wedding) are over before they ever really began. It's all over, I think in my more dramatic moments. The Wedding. The party. The Spring. The good weather. The fun. The planning. The waiting. The romance. You get the idea.

this is what I woke up to this morning. yuk.

I am good at complaining about things I can't control--like the weather or the bugs. Both things that make life in the summer in Nashville almost unbearable for me. I love to be outdoors and it is so hard for me to live in a climate that is so inhospitable in the summer. It makes me want to cut and run. Now.

But I'll hang in there and hope it gets better before it gets worse. The weather, that is.

one of my favorite pics of the wedding of june eating her broccoli.

Things that ARE making me happy, on the other hand, lately are my Junebug. She's cuter than ever and happy all the time (unlike me) and very active and vocal. She says Mama, Dada, and Doggie, mostly interchangeably. And she is standing and getting into all sorts of things. It's fun and exhausting and so rewarding all at the same time.

we went to a really fun party on Sun and she crawled all over the backyard.

this is june in yoga class, another thing that always makes me happy, and this green and pink polo romper that I love. I will cry when it no longer fits her.

ad these gorgeous peonies that are growing in my front yard and won't be here for long.

...and this strawberry pie.

I got the strawberries in their prime at the farmer's market last weekend and made this to share with our friends Ellen and Nekos when they came over on Sat. night. I made a simple pasta primavera and this for dessert.

It was supposed to stay together with the glaze I cooked with pectin on the stove and then poured over the mounded strawberries, but it fell apart when I cut it and was a beautiful and tasty mess. I would normally have made my own pie crust but lately I'm lucky if I bake anything at all. I took a shortcut with a graham cracker crust I had in the freezer but it was still good.

On the upside of things, I think we're going to go to a strawberry farm this weekend and pick our own and I'll attempt another jam making session. And today is the first East Nashville farmer's market of the season, to that's something to look forward to. And our bathroom remodel is almost done. That will be my next post. I guess life is still worth living. :-)

My perfect day

2011-04-27T21:32:00.003-05:00

Finally-- the post I've been waiting for months to write, the one where I describe all the things that went right and wrong at our wedding, all the details, the photos, the memories of the day I've been planning and looking forward to for the last 3 months.

And I am happy to say that nothing went wrong. Everything was perfect. Even better than I expected (and if you know me, you know I have some pretty high expectations, especially when it comes to myself). It was so beautiful and so sweet and heartfelt and I can truly say that I enjoyed every minute of it.

The ceremony was my favorite part. As I waited in a bedroom that looked out over the field behind our friends' home where we had the wedding, one of the best things was watching all of our friends and family start filing down to the open field where we had set up hay bales with beautiful quilts on them for people to sit. I loved watching that stream of people walking down to where Daniel and the priest were waiting for me. It was nice to have that perspective that only I had.

I stood with my dad who had already started to cry and we started the long walk down to the hay bales. I think the smile on my face was stretched from one ear to the other. I know it was. It was such a happy moment. I loved the look on Daniel's face who also had started to cry.

Our ceremony was lovely and instead of it being a blur and feeling too emotional to pay attention to anything, I feel like I really absorbed all of it: I listened to every word and felt every emotion coming from Daniel and it was like time stood still. We read our readings to each other and we both teared up out of pure joy and emotion. His was remarkably similar to mine: honest and loving and a pure testament to the commitment we were making to each other.

My favorite parts aside from our vows, were the song that our friends wrote and played for us and the moment when we were pronounced husband and wife and everyone let go of white balloons that floated into the air on a gush of wind that blew just at the right moment. This was a surprise from Connie, a friend who helped us so much that day. The weather was spectacular, the sky blue and everything so green and bright all around us. It was really a picture perfect day, even better than I had hoped.

Here are some of my favorite photos so far. There are so many good ones and we haven't even seen the photographer's yet.

It is bittersweet now that it is all over. I enjoyed the planning so much and the wedding itself was everything I had hoped for, and more. I am filled with happiness to be married to the man I love and have so many wonderful memories of the event we created. But I feel the distance between the loved ones who just left and the fun-filled weekend we just shared and my life here in Tennessee. I can't wait to have an excuse to see them all again. There is nothing like a wedding to bring all the people you love most in life together in the best way. And after all is said and done, I have not just my husband, but my little bundle of joy that is my Junebug to love each day. I am a lucky girl.

Countdown

2011-04-14T20:59:00.000-05:00

It has been wedding central around here lately. It's busy and I have 101 things on my mind, but mostly I am really excited to finally be counting down the days until the wedding I've been thinking about for the last 3 months. Granted, a lot of people start planning their wedding a year or more in advance, but ours was kind of last-minute. We were either going to elope to Hawaii with our little girl or have a small wedding in Nashville with family and a few friends. We chose the latter and ever since I started planning in earnest I have known it was the right decision. Mainly this is because I am really enjoying it this time around (this is my 2nd and last time to ever get married). We are doing most everything ourselves and what we are not doing, friends or neighbors are, so it is really all about us and our little community that we live in. No "wedding industrial complex," no huge venues, bland food choices, bridesmaids and groomsmen, just us saying "I do" in front of our closest and a big, fun party afterwards!

Our house looks like a craft bomb went off in it, and I'm too busy to write much, but here are a few photos of what I've been up to...

I bought this hurricane with candle in it for 99 cents at the thrift store. Perfect.

I am making goodie bags for the few out of town friends to leave at their hotel rooms. Instead of buying the bags, I used ones I had from local Nashville shops and put our sticker on it. They'll have locally made treats inside like Olive and Sinclair chocolate, these little locally made chess pies I found, some nuts and mineral water, along with a thank you note for coming and the program for the weekend.

I made this box to put our rings in. It's a real bird's nest and a old 'love' charm that I found on the ground. We bought our rings at a local family-owned jewelry store that has been here 80 years. Mine is an antique eternity band from an estate sale, very thin and dainty and his is a simple tungsten band made for durability.

I made this for my hair for the party, after I take my mom's veil off. I've had the flower since high school and I sewed a leftover piece of lace from the dress onto the back and added a ribbon then sewed the whole thing to a hair clip.

And this will be Olive's "outfit"--a heart collar (again from the thrift store) with a new, festive bow. She's going to be running around at the wedding for sure.

And June had to try on her dress and try crawling around, which wasn't easy. I had visions of dirt and grass stains all over the linen, and it turns out, the top of the dress is a little too big. ! New rule: never buy expensive children's clothes too early because you never know what their size is going to be in a month.

Luckily, a good friend, Connie from Memphis was channeling my mom when she called me last week to tell me she had found the perfect dress for June to wear at the wedding. She sent it in a box that arrived at my door yesterday and when I tried it on June she looked like a doll. So I think this is the one. I am a little sad about the other dress because I love it, but it is perhaps not age appropriate as this one is. And, let's face it, she would look cute if she showed up in a diaper so it really is all just icing on the cute cake.

And these are the shoes I finally settled on. I think they are ready to party.

Free-wheeling

2011-04-04T15:13:00.000-05:00

June had two firsts yesterday: she took her first bike ride and she ate her first lime. Both were important and here's why.

First the lime. We were sitting on a friend's porch and those friends where drinking beer with limes in it. Their little one-year-old boy was eating a lime from his mom's cup so June decided she wanted to try that bright green thing too. My friend gave it to her and I fully expected her to spit it out but her face did not even contort like I expected it would upon tasting the sour fruit. Now it could have been the fact that it had been soaked in beer. She made no distasteful face at all, just ate it like it was the best thing she'd ever tasted and would not put it down until after we got home from our bike ride and I pried it out of her little fingers. She held onto it and sucked on it the whole way home.

The friend who gave it to her told me that it was a good sign that she liked the lime because she read somewhere that when a baby likes the taste of sour things it means they have an eclectic palate. I like to think that this is true of my girl. She loves so many different things and lately she has been tasting so many new things and she has yet to spit anything out. I am sure she will one day and it will probably be something I love and I'll try not to take it personally. But until then, I am really enjoying her enjoyment of food. It is so, so gratifying to feed her and watch her eat.

The other day I gave her some polenta we'd cooked for dinner with some freshly grated parmesan cheese and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil on top. She seemed to love it. I secretly want her to love Italian food and I'm pretty confident she will. How could a child of mine not love it? Oh and she tasted a little bit of pork sausage (no reaction) and she loves nibbling on grapes lately too, in addition to her perennial favorite, broccoli.

here she is with our friend Judy about to try some asparagus for the first time.

It was great. She hung it out of her mouth like a cigar.

She has also tried hamburger, salty crackers, baked eggs (frittata), red bell pepper, tuna and almond milk in the last few weeks. She has five little teeth now and chews everything in the front of her mouth. Just wait until she gets those molars in back and can really get down with chewing!

The second big first this week was her first ride on a bike. This was one of the most fun moments I have had so far as a mom. Feeling the weight of her little body behind me as we rode around the neighborhood, glancing back as she giggled with her face in the wind, holding onto me and patting my back...it was pure joy. I am a big lover of bikes (and her dad and I had our first date on a bike ride)and I have four of them (plus a scooter) in various states of disrepair hanging around the house. It has been a while since I've been able to get on my road bike and go for a long ride. But now I feel like I've gained a new freedom: hopping on my cruiser with June on the back and going down to the coffee shop or the grocery store or just tooling around the neighborhood. It sure beats the stroller.

a busy time

2011-04-01T15:25:00.002-05:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks. June turned 9 months old and is very active, crawling all over the place and really into exploring her environment. This stage is so much fun, but also much more intense for me. And this is where I have to wonder if maybe I should have done this whole child thing 10 years ago. I feel like I'm in pretty good shape now, having just now lost all of my pregnancy weight (it really is 9 months to put on, 9 to take it off), but I just don't bounce back like I used to.

I just turned in the last of the stories I was assigned in March for a total of 7 articles I wrote this month. They're all features on Latin artists for BMI, the musician's rights organization. I am really enjoying this new work and it makes me feel productive and like it *is* possible to work from home and be a mom. I hope I can keep it up.

On the wedding front, we went out to the site last weekend which is the home of our friends Salem and Judy who are still settling into their new house in the country. There is a lot to do there, but things are coming together. We ate a meal with our caterer Kindy and tasted some of the items than will be on our menu. We were happy with everything. To go with it, we tried a nice Italian white wine provided by our friend Will at Woodland Wine Merchant. We have been 'forced' try others all week and think we have settled on a crowd-pleasing and light sangiovese from Tuscany for red, and a crisp and light blend from the Veneto for the white. How could we not go with Italian wines?

And I have been busy making these table cards to let people know where they'll be sitting for dinner at the reception. We aren't going to tell them where to sit, just which table. I think we came up with a fun alternative to the usual table numbers. I bought the cards at Michael's and glued pieces of old wrapping paper to them to give them some color.

I found these cool prints on etsy of all different types of bicycles to go with our theme, some with owls on them -- another element from our invitation. We're told by Salem that lots of owls live on the property, plus I just happen to like owls.

We will put the larger prints on each table pinned to the burlap table runners my friend Ellen is making. We shrunk down the bicycle images to fit on the card with the colored paper on it which will also have the person's name and will lead them to the table with the same image. It will be a lot of cutting and pasting when it's all done, but I think they will be cute.

And I am on the hunt for shoes to go with my dress. Who would have thought I would have so much trouble finding an awesome pair of shoes? It's so not like me! But the challenge is finding something dressy, yet fun, yet comfortable enough to wear all night and appropriate for the outdoors.

These are the ones I thought I would buy for sure--they would have been perfect--except for that kitten heel that would go straight into the grass and leave me stuck all night long.

So now I am looking at wedges and espadrilles, which luckily are in style right now and are everywhere. I bought these last weekend and tried them on with the dress and they were not quite right, which is too bad because I'm in love with them:

These are my next attempt:

Oh, did I mention my dress is pink? It is being made by a local designer named Jessica Maros who also makes a line of really cool jewelry that is getting picked up by boutiques all over the country called Sleeveless. She is really talented and sweet and I am so lucky she has time to work on my little dress. It is a combination of lace from my mom's 1966 tea-length wedding dress and a blush pink silk vintage dress I found in a local second hand shop. I think it will be unique and different and my mom would have loved the idea of using her dress in this way. I am also going to wear her veil in my hair, which Jessica hand dyed to match the lace on the dress.

Of course, June has her dress all ready to go. She is going to look like a princess in this ivory linen sundress with a tulle underskirt that I found at this cool new baby store in town called Tweed.

I will pin a pretty pink flower on the waist to match the color of my dress and find her some little pink shoes to go with it. Maybe these:

It's all coming together and we are less than a month away! I am so excited and nervous and just a little bit overwhelmed all at once.

So to relax a little after June had gone to bed last night, I made these little chocolate ganache cupcakes. They were so delicious and Daniel loves anything chocolate. I think he ate 3 in a row. I'm responsible for the half-eaten one here, the result of getting up at 2:00am, unable to sleep with all the excitement.

a weekday jam session and a lesson

2011-03-24T19:33:00.000-05:00

And I don't mean music. Unless you call canning 72 jars of homemade strawberry jam in my little kitchen with two babies in tow, one of them only six weeks old, music. I guess I do. What a fun day! And exasperating and utterly exhausting all at once.

You see, I had a project to get done. I decided that there is no better wedding favor than a homemade one, and seeing how my April wedding will be all about the season, I could think of no better gift than strawberries. But since strawberries will just be coming in at all the local farms at the end of April (and Tennessee has some amazing pick-your-own strawberry farms), I could not wait until then to make the favors. I am crazy but I'm not insane.

So I asked my good friend, former boss and pastry chef extraordinaire Tom, if he could help me source some good strawberries now, a month early. He called his produce guy and lo and behold, he had some beauties just in from Florida. The strawberry season gets under way down in Florida about a month before it does here. On Monday I had two flats of strawberries in the back of my Volvo. That's 16 lbs of strawberries. And his guy wasn't lying: they were beautiful.

I invited my jam-making friend Rachel over to help out. Even though she just gave birth about 6 weeks ago to sweet little Aida, she was game! I knew there was a chance that we'd get nothing done and spend most of the time caring for the babies, but we did it anyway.

Rachel did in fact spend most of the time nursing and rocking her little one and keeping mine out of trouble, but if it weren't for her I couldn't have done it. She also gave me lots of moral support, which I needed because it was my first time trying to make jam in such quantities (I needed about 70 4 oz jars filled). I have made lots of small batches but never a mass production.

There were some failures, some successes and lots of learning along the way.

About two hours into it, I had to call in the reinforcements. Missy is a good friend, a local lady who seems to me to be the most amazing cook and mom in the universe. She can make --or sew or bake-- just about anything. She made the most adorable little knit hat and sweater for June that we love so much we are still squeezing her into despite the fact that she's outgrown them both. She brought the most delicious homemade food to us right after June was born and my family is still talking about her mixed berry bread pudding and tomato sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise. I mean, who does that? Missy does.

Anyway, thank God she showed up when she did because Rachel and the babies and I were ruining the whole operation. There is something about using pectin that has always intimidated me. So I usually stick to jams that don't require it and can set up on their own, like apples, blackberries and pears. But strawberries have very little natural pectin so it seemed necessary.

We used the Sure-jell brand and the recipe that I found on their website. But in my confusion over pectin I didn't realize that it called for the liquid kind and I had bought the powdered. This meant we added it at the wrong time and didn't really follow the recipe, and instead of a jam that gelled into a nice solid consistency, it stayed runny with all of the fruit rising to the top of the pot and a huge amount of liquid underneath.

Even though I knew something was wrong, we were in too deep. I had quadrupled the recipe and used most of the strawberries and sugar on this one huge batch. We filled the jars and processed about half of them before figuring out our mistake. Duh. First lesson of jam making: Do not make more than on batch at a time, especially if it's your first time making it. I tried to make a quadruple batch! I should know better. You can't do that in baking either, without lots of fussing with the recipe and trial and error. We didn't have time (or supplies) for trial and error. So we basically ended up with a runny, almost syrupy jam that looked and tasted beautiful, but would certainly not win any awards at the fair.

You may be asking "but why do you need to make award-winning jam? It's the thought that counts, right?" And my answer would be that I never give things away to people that I don't think are perfect. It's my dumb critical Virgo nature and there is nothing I can do about it. But more on this in a minute.

When our savior Missy arrived bringing with her her own pot with strainer, she showed us how she does it and of course, her one batch came out perfectly. It set up like a dream minutes after making it. We filled the last 12 or 15 jars, processed those and then, after everyone had left, I went about making yet another batch --the right way--just to prove to myself that I could do it!

June was a great help, until she was over it.

June was getting really bored by this time, having only slept about a half hour all day because she didn't want to miss out on all the fun. She literally sat on the floor and screamed for a few minutes while I finished processing the last 6 good jars, cursing my mistake and feeling like a failure and a bad mother. That didn't last very long, I promise. I scooped her up with my sticky hands and soiled apron and took her out to her new swing on the porch and she laughed and forgot about the neglect and I sat there worn out and tired, and only partially satisfied with my more than six hours of labor.

I seriously considered dumping out the 'bad' jars (more than half of them) and going out to buy more strawberries and making them over. But then I came to my senses. What was I thinking? It still tasted delicious, it would be loved by everyone and it will be a gift that came from the heart and will embody the essence of our wedding. I mean, is perfection what I am striving for here? The mega-wedding industry and its over the top-with-cuteness wedding blogs that make every "DIY farm wedding" look like a movie set wherein every person is beautiful and every detail is perfect would have us all believe that perfection is what we need. And it is tempting to go down that road.

(I mean, who wouldn't want this?)

But I am trying really hard to resist that and to keep the urge to desire perfection under control (something that is very difficult for me) while trying to enjoy this process and keep in mind what the day will really be about. It will be about Daniel and I and our little family being loved and supported by our extended families and friends as we take this big step toward our future. It won't matter if the flower arrangements match, the tablecloths are white or brown or the jam is perfect. That won't be what people remember. And hopefully it won't be what we remember either.

So I decided to embrace the runny jam, to give it away with love and to smile on all that effort without beating myself up. How cute is this little package, no matter what is inside?

And now my mind is already on the next project. And my dress. And the caterer. And the lights. And the list goes on and on and on... Stay tuned!

we're having a wedding!

2011-03-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

image from etsy.com

Okay, here I am in a slightly different guise than you've come to expect. I have been struggling of late to blog about food and cooking. This could be because my mind is on so many other things right now like caring for my little Junebug, working on a new job as a freelance writer and planning a wedding. All of those things are pretty time consuming on their own, let alone when trying to combine all three. Needless to say, it has been busy but I am a seasoned multi-tasker. What mom isn't?

So I decided to change gears a little bit and for those of you out there following, I hope this won't be too big a change, but I am going to blog here in the coming weeks about what's keeping me busy: being a new mom and the fun and frustrations of planning a wedding, in addition to food. I still love to cook and bake, though it is not my only obsession at the moment. I'll still blog about what I cooked or the dinner parties I've had, but I look forward to sharing my new joys with you here too. And hopefully 'joy is cooking' will still be on your radar, if with a slightly different perspective.

So here are few of the things that inspire me as far as the wedding goes. It will be an intimate Spring wedding at the end of April, outside of Nashville on a friend's property which sits on 65 acres of countryside.

The open space near the trees is where the ceremony will be and closer to the house on the big flat space in front is where we will set up a tent to dine and dance under. Pretty, isn't it? It will look even better when those trees are green with leaves.

Our invitations were done by a fabulously talented friend, the niece of the above property owner and close family friend. Heather worked with me to create a whimsical invitation that while still classic and beautifully printed on an antique letterpress, is not too formal and perfectly illustrates the vision we have for our celebration. I love how they turned out.

Once the invitations were out, we set about looking to hire a caterer. This is a hard thing to do for someone as obsessed with food as I am. If I could possibly conceive of doing it myself, I would. But that would be ridiculous. I love the idea of friends helping out and I do have many talented food loving friends. But then I would have to ask a lot of the same people who I would want to be there as guests to work hard at the wedding and that didn't seem right either.

I looked into one of the more well-known caterers in town whose food I tried at a friend's wedding and she would have been great I am sure. But it was out of our budget. Then I heard of a local girl named Kindy Girdley who is kind of a newbie, having owned a little cafe and worked in some local restaurants but now is concentrating on her full-time catering business. She lives in my neighborhood, knows some of my friends and has a background in fresh, organic and healthy cooking. I liked her right away. Together we are coming up with a menu that will be all about the season: fresh, seasonal Spring ingredients prepared simply and displayed buffet style in my own serving dishes and platters.

Things like:
herbed roasted pork loin with spring onions and haricots vert

image from Suzanne Goin, Sunday Suppers at Lucques

and
asparagus salad with toasted walnuts and goat cheese

image from foodandwine.com

and of course, my favorite Spring treat, fava beans, as in these smashed fresh pea and fava bean bruschetta

image courtesy of thesatedpalate.com

and beautiful, local strawberries which will be available just in time

image courtesy of oncewed.com

These are just inspirations for the menu we will create. But it has been fun to imagine a perfect Spring dinner celebrating our future together on a beautiful evening with our closest friends and family.

And, when things get stressful and I need a break from wedding nonsense, I look to this this stupidly funny wedding blog and I always end up laughing instead of crying.

Here's to a new focus and a new season. Happy Spring!

homemade baby cereal

2011-03-04T08:29:00.000-06:00

Here is a quick tutorial on making brown rice cereal for your baby. I know it's really easy to buy a box of powdered baby cereal at the grocery store, add a little water, and there you go. But this is really just as easy if you spend any amount of time in the kitchen already, it is definitely less expensive (wait til you see how much it makes!) and I am willing to bet you a night of babysitting that your baby will like it more. Plus, I am sure the fiber content and minerals are higher than than in the processed kind. It a whole food, and what is better than that?

I posted earlier on how I believe the taste and texture of foods is important and how when I tried the powdered stuff with June she spit it out. It was a weird gray color and the consistency was awful AND it tasted bad. No wonder. And while I don't believe in force feeding a baby anything and I am a huge fan of babies feeding themselves, this brown rice cereal is so loaded with nutrients and hard to find minerals that it is the one thing I make that I spoon feed to her. She is old enough now, though, to grab the spoon out of my hand and do it herself, which mostly works and only sometimes ends up all over her. I'm okay with that.

Six months is a good time to start this one because the baby's digestive tract is mature enough to digest the whole grains. Later, at about 9 months, you can make it with other whole grains (millet, oatmeal, barley, quinoa for example) and really increase the nutrients.

I start with organic, short grain brown rice. I like the short grain because it makes the cereal a little thicker and creamier. Depending on how much you want to make, these amounts may vary.

For 1 cup of brown rice use 2 cups of water to cook*

Boil the water and cook the rice for about 45-50 minutes until tender and all water has been absorbed.

Let the rice cool completely then spoon into blender

Add as much water as rice --1 cup of rice = 1 cup of water to blender

Blend until the consistency is like a porridge or oatmeal

Spoon into serving size portions (an ice cube tray is great for this)

Freeze. When frozen, pop out and into a plastic bag and put back into freezer. Take out and thaw in fridge overnight, or in microwave for 15 seconds before serving. *Make sure it is not hot, but just warmed or even room temp when serving. My baby eats it cold too.

*this will make about two ice cube trays of cereal (each cube is one serving)

For about 15 min. of actual work, plus the cooking time, you have at least two weeks of cereal made. How easy is that?

February fun

2011-02-22T19:52:00.000-06:00

Where has the month gone? I usually love cooking in February because I can do a lot of extraneous baking for Valentine's day, birthdays, because the weather is cold, you name it. This month, I can only think of two or three things I baked. One was this cocoa layer cake for a friend's 35th birthday party. I found pictures of the birthday girl and all of the people invited to the party (thanks, facebook), printed them and made little cardboard hearts to decorate the cake with. I saw something similar on Martha Stewart recently, but when I tried to find it on her busy website I couldn't, so I just made up my own version. I think it came out rather cute.

The cake got lots of rave reviews too, but who doesn't love a rich and moist chocolate cake? I didn't think it was one of my best but I did make it twice this month!

I also made this chicken pot pie recently--a comfort staple. But for all its down home simplicity, it is pretty labor intensive for a weeknight meal if you make it from scratch like I did. I had cooked the chicken the day before and used the leftovers in this. I had also made the pie crust who knows when and pulled it out of the freezer. But even still, it seemed like a lot of work. I guess because there are a lot of elements that are cooked separately and then put together before being baked. Ok, but it *was* delicious, especially when heated up for lunch the next day.

The highlight of this month was a trip I took to Iowa City to visit one of my best friends and her little girl who was born a month before mine. They are new b.f.f.s and it was soooo cute to see them interact and get to know each other as well as to reconnect with an old friend. Here are a few shots of the snowy weekend.

Happy February everyone!

a dinner party

2011-02-01T16:03:00.001-06:00

Dinner parties are harder to host now that we have a baby. Unless, as I discovered recently, you invite your friends who also have babies. Last weekend I invited two couples plus their two babies over for dinner. The plan was to have them come about a half hour before they normally put their kids to bed, we'd be ready with pack n' plays and low-lit rooms and we would have a glass of wine, put down the babes and get to partying. It almost worked out perfectly.

I had planned a simple dinner: the focaccia you see above (with carmelized onions, pears and blue cheese, the recipe is here), a winter salad, mushroom and butternut squash risotto and roasted chicken thighs. Oh, and chocolate cake for dessert. All was prepped and ready to go. I was feeling pretty organized and the baby was in a good mood, as if she knew a party was about to start.

About 15 min. before they were supposed to arrive, one of my friends calls with the news that her baby was puking all over the place. These things happen. She was worried and of course, they would not be able to come. I felt bad for her, told her I hoped her little girl would be all right, and went about making a few changes to the menu. One thing I did which turned out great was instead of making a 'real' risotto with arborio rice and standing at the stove for half an hour stirring while everyone else had fun, I put some short-grain brown rice on to boil while we drank wine and ate the focaccia (which was yummy).

I'd already pre-cooked the mushrooms and squash earlier in the day. When we were ready to sit and the chicken was still in the oven, I added some butter and grated parmigiano to the rice and stirred in the veggies. It was not exactly like the risotto I had planned, but pretty close and just as good (*note to self: with baby it is no longer necessary to make a traditional risotto for a dinner party). Even though I've always been a pretty organized cook, doing as much as I can ahead of time so I can enjoy the party, I still am learning new ways to cut corners.

Even though we missed the couple with the puking baby, our dinner was fun and we enjoyed getting to know the other couple. The two babies went to bed without much fuss and never made a peep until it was time for them to leave. (*Another note to self: it's possible to have a dinner party while your baby sleeps as long as the other baby is as good as yours).

Oh, the chocolate cake was delicious and we ate it for two days, although I have no photo of it. It was rich and moist, a typical buttermilk-cocoa powder 3-layer cake with chocolate frosting. That's the only good thing about the friends not being able to make it: the leftovers.

If you're reading E, we missed you guys!

Baby eats, part II

2011-01-25T15:04:00.015-06:00

I've been wanting to get around to this post for a while now and sorry for the delay. I have been busy with all kinds of things...a teething baby (who got her first two front teeth for Xmas this year as evidenced in the pic below), finishing some much-needed freelance work, and a wedding to plan. That last one is quite the time drain but I am sure it will be worth it!

The photo at the top of the post is of one of my favorite shower gifts. It came from a friend who also happens to be a French teacher (thanks Lisa!) I love the little drawings and French words so June can learn to speak another language while she eats. :-) If she ever gets around to using plates or utensils. I hadn't thought about the baby-led weaning kind of feeding before I had the baby, so of course I just wanted the French dish set because it was cute. The way it works around here is I put the food in front of her on her high chair tray, strap a bib on her (I do that first) and let her go to town. A plate would only get in the way.

So here is a typical meal for her, placed on the cute dish for the photo.

She usually goes for the broccoli first, picking up by the stem (smart girl) and sucking the floret like a lollipop, then the sweet potato, then the carrot. All are steamed so they are soft enough for her (softer than I would eat my veggies, so no crunch is left in them). The size, as I said in my previous post, is important so she has something to grab onto. If food is cut to bite-size, ironically, that's too small for her because she won't be able to get to it once she wraps her hand around it.

If she acts like she wants more, I give her more, but that is usually enough for one sitting in the afternoon or around dinner time. I try not to plan it or have a schedule with her eating times just yet. We just do it when it seems like she's in a good mood and would enjoy it and also when she's in between nursings. If she is too hungry and I let her try to eat solids, she may get frustrated. That is what I'm trying to avoid.

Other good first foods to try are steamed (or lightly boiled) green beans, baby corn, cauliflower florets, potato, pumpkin and zucchini. We've been mainly going with the above three because that is what I have on hand (the sweet potatoes are still left over from our Fall-Winter CSA).

In the mornings I give her some banana, left whole, and just about a quarter of one banana. She loves it. Then, if I have it, I give her homemade brown rice cereal because I know it is nutritious (unlike the processed commercial variety) and is a good source of fiber. I cook the rice ahead of time, then add equal parts cooked rice and water and process or blend it until it is the consistency of cream of wheat or grits.

To make this a more efficient process, I make about two cups of rice cereal at a time, then portion it into an ice cube tray, freeze it, then remove the frozen cubes and put them into a freezer bag to be taken out one at a time right before I need them. I just put one into a little bowl, add a teaspoon of water and microwave it for 10-15 seconds until it is soft. This is the one thing I am spoon feeding her, but she usually grabs the spoon right out of my hand and feeds herself so it's not too much trouble and she seems to enjoy it. I could, however, just give her well-cooked brown rice because it's sticky enough for her to smash together and pick up and there's no spoon involved.

frozen brown rice cereal cubes

I just picked up these little BPA-free plastic bowls at essex (my new favorite store) for $4.99 and they will be perfect for heating up or storing, or even taking small amounts of food on the go.

What else? Oh, the cup-- for water only for now. I'm sure there are many variations of the 'sippy cup', but I got this one (BPA free)at Target. The brand is Nuk and it's called a learner's cup. She holds it herself and has to suck to get any water out and tilt her head back. It's pretty cute to watch her and see how proud she is after she's successfully taken a drink from her cup.

And, last but not least, we have a good high chair that makes her sit up straight and has a very large tray with a removable plastic cover for easy clean-up. I love ours because it looks less like a plastic kid's high chair and more like a piece of furniture. It is by Graaco. It is important for the baby to feel independent while feeding herself and if you have to hold her in your lap to do it, not only is it potentially unsafe, it is no fun for you or her. **On this note, before starting to feed solids to a baby, make sure she is old enough physically and developmentally. She should be able to sit up on her own and reach out to grab things and take them to her mouth. Whether she has any teeth yet or not is irrelevant. This is usually about 6 months for an at term baby.

And, most of all, have fun with this! June will attest to the fact that meal time at our house is all about the fun. The months pass by so quickly, and I guess it won't always be the case that watching my child eat is something I really enjoy doing.

june looking like an old pro

a happy baby

cider vinegar-braised chicken

2011-01-17T13:53:00.005-06:00

I have been inspired by my brother lately who is cooking in a newly re-opened restaurant inside the oldest building in Manhattan. Fraunces Tavern once hosted George Washington for dinner. That's how old it is. And the unique pub fare promises to be just as traditional but with a twist. Smoked lamb ribs, bangers and mash and house-made Irish bacon are a few of the items my bro has been working on.

Anyway, it sounds like a pretty meat-heavy menu, as it should be, and the preparations are all time-tested and old world (think American Revolution). Like boiling your meat until it's fork tender. Braising I guess would be the more modern way to look at it, but as long as the piece of meat is submerged in water or other cooking liquid (wine, stock, vermouth, beer) it qualifies. I like this cooking method because it's easy. It involves browning briefly on the stovetop, then adding elements that will then be part of a sauce such as garlic, carrots, fresh herbs, bacon, whatever really. Then adding the preferred liquid, bringing to a boil, and then popping the whole thing in the oven at a low temperature: 300 or 325 to simmer slowly for at least an hour. It produces some really juicy and tender meat, that's for sure.

speaking of meat, this is the huge prime rib my brother made for Christmas Eve. It wasn't braised but it was delicious

Because we eat only grass-fed and high quality meat in my house and I don't live near a real butcher, beef is only seldom on the menu. But we do eat a lot of good, free-range chicken from Springer Mt. farms. I used only the leg quarters in this dish, but any bone-in chicken pieces will do.

Start by browning some bacon or pancetta, then remove. Add the chicken pieces and brown well on each side. Then throw in a couple cloves of garlic, some carrots if desired and any herbs that make sense. I had rosemary and sage so I used them. At this point, you could make a little roux with some butter and flour just to thicken the mixture, but it's not necessary. Then add the liquid--in this case I used cider vinegar and chicken stock, about 3-4 cups worth. Let the whole thing come to a boil, and then off the heat and throw it in the oven (because you've used your oven-proof skillet, or cast iron dutch oven of course). Keep the temp low and cook for about an hour.

Pull it out, plate the chicken, turn up the heat on the remaining liquid and reduce until you have a couple of cups. This is then poured over the meat and served nice and rustically, straight from the pot. Serve with some boiled potatoes or buttered egg noodles or Winter root veggies for a very simple, hearty meal.

Baby eats

2011-01-07T08:53:00.009-06:00

Ok, I struggled with whether I wanted to do this or not: blog about my baby's eating. I mean, who really cares about that but me? And I care probably more than many moms, being who I am. But, I decided that because this blog is about "all things culinary" that what I feed her is a legitimate topic. Also, I decided to do it because I have a lot of new friends who are moms who might get something out of it and sharing information is one of the best ways that new moms figure things out.

So here goes. It won't surprise you to know that I'm making my own baby food. And before you stop reading because you think I'm crazy or have too much time on my hands, hold on. I am not talking about spending hours in the kitchen. I am talking about multi-tasking and making your baby's food while you make your own, buying the same ingredients you would buy for yourself and your partner and cooking pretty much the same way you cook for yourselves.

Now that I'm a mom and my baby has reached the age where she wants to and can eat solid food (she's 6 months old), I really am surprised that more people don't make their baby's food. I mean, before commercial baby food was available what did moms do? They gave their baby what they were eating! with a few modifications of course. You wouldn't give your child an excessively spicy chili, for example, but you would throw an extra carrot, a potato and some bell pepper slices in a pot to steam and you could give her that.

Also, have you ever tasted baby food? It lacks all flavor, even the natural flavors of the food in its pure state. And about those commercial baby cereals that everyone is told by their pediatrician to start with (often way too early in my opinion) --they taste like I imagine drywall mud tastes. The one time I tried feeding some of the organic powdered cereal that you mix with water or breastmilk or formula, June spit it out and made a terrible face. So I tasted it. No wonder. It was not a pleasant experience.

The main point is this: I love eating and cooking and think it is one of life's greatest pleasures. Why would I not want to introduce it that way to my baby who is embarking on this whole new world of eating for the first time? I want her to enjoy eating right off the bat. I don't want to spoon feed her a tasteless gruel and have her associate eating with something unpleasant.

So here is what I am doing. Keep in mind, I did not make this up. There are plenty of books and blogs on the subject of feeding real food to babies and I will provide of list of those that helped me at the end of this post.

Here it goes: I give baby real, unadulterated whole food. Mostly veggies and some fruits, no meat yet, but she'll try it soon, a small amount of plain, organic yogurt, and a little water to wash it down. (I'm talking a teaspoon here, given to her in a learner's cup or a bottle so that the new solid food her little body is handling can have an easier time going down. This is how we avoid painful constipation which I've heard can be a problem for babies starting solids). I don't purée anything or mash anything up. In fact, give her chunks of food that are a safe size (more on that later) that she then picks up and puts in her mouth. Sure, sometimes she misses and sometimes she holds her fist tightly closed and sucks it out. But that's part of the learning process and as she develops her hand to mouth coordination (one of the most important aspects of this way of feeding is that it does this), she will become a pro at feeding herself which is what we want after all. Who wants to stand there spoon-feeding baby when you could be doing other things, like feed yourself!

With this method I'm giving June the power to feed herself, which I am sure impacts how she feels about eating. I know my child already at 6 months has a mind of her own. She wants to touch things, put them in her mouth (that's how they explore objects) and mostly, she wants to imitate what we do. She doesn't, it seems clear to me, want to be spoon-fed things she doesn't have any control over and probably doesn't like the taste of anyway. Would you want to eat that way?

And she is still breastfeeding for most of her nutrients. This is important: the solid food right now is more for play and experimentation than anything else --it's so she can taste and feel and touch food and practice the skills involved in feeding herself. It is NOT a replacement for formula or breast milk just yet. It is a supplement. And I've found that eating is something my baby really enjoys so far. She smiles and laughs when I place her in her high chair and put on her bib, excitedly awaiting the new tastes and textures she's about to enjoy.

Two important notes: make sure everything is soft enough to be gummed and maybe chewed with tiny new teeth --or none at all. Even though they don't have teeth, they can still 'chew', mixing the food with saliva so that it is easier to digest for them, another reason why it is better for them to eat food in it's original form rather than as a purée. I think steaming is best as it preserves most of the nutrients in food and is very fast. Of course, some things are perfect first food that require no cooking at all: bananas, avocado, mango, soft ripe pears. And secondly, make sure the food is cut into large, finger-sized --about 2 inches or longer--sticks or wedges, for tiny hands that are still not that coordinated to pick up. But you'd be surprised at how much they can do with their hands at 6 months old. After all, they start grabbing everything and putting it in their mouths at a really young age. So why wouldn't they be able to do it with food, the most important thing we ever put in our mouths?

Ok, I've gone on long enough. Here is a list of books that helped me and that I consult often. And I'll do another post on specific ideas for meals as well as how to store and organize the work so it is super efficient and you can do a week's worth of meals at one time. I can feel a new project coming on here, maybe even a new business enterprise? Stay tuned...

Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck (she's a food writer, activist farmer's market founder, farmer whose book first inspired me)

Baby-led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett (this is an essential guide, maybe the most helpful of all and the first you should read if you go this route)

Super Baby Food, by Ruth Yaron (she doesn't talk about skipping purèes, but her DIY philosophy is all about making your own baby food, how to store and keep it safe, with lots of good tips and recipes)

spice cake with citrus filling

2011-01-02T09:40:00.003-06:00

This cake was a great first cake of the new year to bake. Actually, I baked it a few days before the year ended and took it to a party, but who's counting? Everyone loved it. It is the first recipe I think I've ever made from Southern Living magazine. Usually, that one is not high on my list of mags for inspiration, but this cake for some reason called out to me. It's from the December issue, but I thought it was a perfect cake for a post-Christmas dinner party with friends.

It consists of two white cake layers, alternating with two spice cake layers (great idea) and in between each is a filling made with lemon curd, orange zest, fresh o.j. and flaked coconut. With all that sweetness going on, I wish I would have made a different, less sweet, frosting, but the recipe called for a straight egg-white-based, meringue frosting that tasted like marshmallows. Everyone liked it, but I thought it was over the top sweet. It looked great, though--like peaks of snow.

My friend Jimmy, our host along with his partner, Ross, made a delicious vegetable, kale and bean soup and a shrimp diavolo-inspired dish that were both great. Rachel made the walnut and gorgonzola salad. We drank red wine and then switched to a dry Riesling with the cake. Superb coffees from Jimmy's amazing Rancilio home machine made with local Drew's Brews espresso followed. All around it was a perfect meal with good friends. June even made it to 8:00pm at her first dinner party away from home!

a DIY Christmas

2010-12-16T20:52:00.007-06:00

Homemade gifts are my favorite kind. I love giving them and I love receiving them. I've been making gifts to give to friends and family almost every year since high school when I used to bake my mom's sugar cookies for my girlfriends who looked forward to them every year. There were some cute button boxes that I gave to all my female relatives one year. And the batik teddy bears that I made another year. And of course many people have received my baked goods over the years. A couple of years ago we collected the walnuts that had fallen all over our neighborhood and made walnut liqueur which I poured into pretty glass bottles and gave to friends and family.

It seems things have been tight financially for as long as I can remember, which is always a good reason not to go crazy with the Christmas consumerism. But financial woes notwithstanding, I still think I would give homemade gifts even if money were not an issue for me. I just enjoy the process of making things and the feeling of giving something that was made with love.

I had fantasies of making artisan chocolates this year. D's mom gave me a silicone chocolate mold for Christmas last year and I have been dying to use it. But tempering chocolate so that it reaches just the right temperature to harden after melting can be tricky and I just didn't have the time this year to experiment.

So I settled on making jams. All you need is some fruit, some sugar and a little bit of time. I made about 14 jars to give away of three different kinds: grapefruit marmelade (from a recipe by Nigella Lawson, it's made with brown sugar and molasses); cranberry-blackberry which is sweet and tart; and pear jam with just the right amount of vanilla bean to give it some depth of flavor.

I had fun deciding what to make and cooking and jarring the jams, but what I really enjoy is decorating the jars with cute labels, festive ribbons and unique tags. I downloaded the labels for free from 100layercake, a cool DIY wedding blog and then printed them on avery labels. Get them here.

I set up a craft table in my dining room and stocked it with all the wrapping paper scraps, recycled ribbon, scissors, glue, gift tags and inspiring magazines I could find. I spent very little money, had tons of fun and now have all my Christmas gifts done. It sure beats going to the mall!

Oh- and today was baking day. I made several dozen cookies with my friend Rachel to give away and take home to my family next week. We made gingerbread boys, linzer cookies and pizzelles... but that's another post. Happy Holidays!

sweet potatoes + pie = rainy day fun

2010-11-30T12:26:00.011-06:00

We woke up to a very dark, rainy day today with the temperature dropping into the 40s as the day goes on. I love the winter because it makes me feel like staying home and nesting, decorating the tree like I did yesterday, or cooking a few things that can be frozen for later --to give as gifts or serve up for an easy weeknight dinner.

root veggie dauphinois

I have a lot of root veggies in my pantry right now, all beauties from our CSA: potatoes, sweet potatoes, gigantic pink turnips, parsnips and radishes. I love root veggies because they seem so daunting and a lot of recipes for them are really boring and uninspired. So they present a challenge which inspires me to make something great out of them.

My friend Ellen posted this wonderful recipe on her blog, which she found on design sponge last week. It's for a gratin daupihois (just a cheesy, creamy potato dish) made with turnips and sweet potatoes as well as regular potatoes. The recipe actually comes from the beautiful blog la tartine gourmande.

I loved the photos of those beautiful pink turnips next to the orange sweet potatoes, all of it enveloped in the cheesy, golden brown crust that is the marking of a great gratin. I happened to have everything I needed in the house and more. I actually made two of them, one to eat tonight and one to freeze and give to my friend who will have a baby soon.

coconut-sweet potato pie with spiced crust

I still had sweet potatoes staring at me from the counter. Then, I remembered I had seen this beauty on the nytimes last week as an alternative to the traditional thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Oh, don't make me make this, I said. And with the delicious sweet potatoes from the farmer! I didn't actually make the spiced crust (which sounded amazing) because I had a purchased (!) graham cracker crust in the fridge and wanted to save time.

I should serve this tonight for dessert but I don't think I'm going to make it that far. It is sitting on the counter now, filling my kitchen with the most fragrant sweet potato, spices and coconut smell. How can I resist having a warm slice with my coffee this afternoon?

Who said rainy days had to be boring?

surprisingly good green tomato soup

2010-11-22T14:47:00.005-06:00

I continue to be amazed at how time is passing by without letting up. My little girl is almost 5 mos. old and changing everyday and here we are already the week of Thanksgiving and I'm still posting about tomatoes! But, alas, life is moving way too quickly and I am trying to enjoy it in the present and not worry about the rest. Time is relative as long as you are happy in the moment. And I'm happiest in my kitchen with my little Junebug watching me cook.

I recently had an overabundance of green tomatoes on my hands and did not know what to do with them. I made fried green tomato sandwiches once and they were tasty, but once the novelty wears off, they are not as exciting as they sound.

So I found this-- a recipe for Green Tomato Soup with bacon and brioche croutons. I see it is from last year which means I must have saved it and never got around to making it until now. But am I glad I did! It was an unexpectedly great soup that was both easy to make and very yummy. Not the usual random-dish-I-made-to-use-up whatever ingredient.

The bacon is a nice smoky counterpart to the tartness of the green apples. And the croutons --any kind will do--offer a good textural bite that complements the soup. This would go really well as a first course for dinner, or as a perfect lunch alongside some grilled cheese sandwiches.

Next year when my tomato plants over-produce at the END of the summer and into the Fall when it's too cold for them to ripen (arrgggh) I will at least know what to do with them.

spaghetti and meatballs

2010-10-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

(photo courtesy of bonappetit.com)

In my half Italian-American family we always ate spaghetti and meatballs on Sundays. It was my dad's favorite and my mom learned hers from her Italian relatives, of course. They hailed from the South of Italy so it was similar to this recipe- a smooth and velvety red sauce that drenches the pasta and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. It's not super complicated, it's not fussy, and it might not even be considered real Italian by some, but rather the kind of hybrid dish synonymous with Italian immigrants in America and served all over in "Italian" restaurants. But those are usually not that good. This one, I can attest, is really, really good.

It's not often that I lift a recipe, word for word, from a magazine and make it in my kitchen and then post about it. Granted, I read food magazines a lot and like to try out new recipes all the time. I usually like to tweak them, however, to fit my tastes, or combine several recipes, or sometimes just use something I see for inspiration and create something totally new.

But this one was so good and so perfect just the way it is, I had no need to change it and really just wanted to share it with everyone. You need to make this spaghetti and meatballs recipe. Now. I don't care if you've been making the same 'gravy' and meatballs your mom or your nonna have made for the last 40 years. I don't care if you make a sauce that simmers all day on the stove because you think that makes it taste better. And I don't care how many pasta sauces you've perfected over the last twenty years of traveling to Italy (that last one was for me).

This sauce and these meatballs are perfection on a Sunday afternoon in the fall when you have other things to do besides slave over the stove. It's quick, it's easy and it is so deliciously satisfying. Serve it to your family, to your neighbors, make it for your dinner share or your kid's birthday. This recipe is so family-friendly (I can't believe I'm writing that, but hey, I'm starting to think that way now, I can't help it). Besides, it's Molly Wizenberg's from her "Cooking Life" column, which I love, and she knows a thing or two about comfort food.

And for me to go all Italian-American on you like this is really unheard of. So take advantage of my light-hearted and forgiving mood and get over to bonappetit.com --or even better, buy this month's magazine so you can have it forever-- and MAKE THIS RECIPE!

two end-of-summer salads and a dessert

2010-09-17T14:09:00.008-05:00

This summer seems to have blown right by me. Granted, being pregnant and then having a baby at the beginning of it could possibly be the reason. But still, life seems to be just getting back to some sort of new normal and the season is about to change. I've missed out on some cooking! I have to say, though, that the record heat and humidity we've had in the South makes me long for the cool evenings and brisk morning temperatures of Fall, which is just around the corner.

On the other hand, I am still loving the tastes of late summer, like fresh farmer's market peaches and juicy watermelon. I recently made two delicious salads and a last-minute easy dessert that were some of the best things we've eaten lately.

The first salad is a black-eyed pea and butter bean salad, inspired by one I saw in the September issue of Food and Wine which is devoted to Southern food. I live in the South and I have experimented with black-eyed peas only one other time and that was for the traditional Hoppin' John New Years dish. It was okay, but I still didn't love them. This salad, however, made me a convert.

I had been given a mixed bag of butter beans and black-eyed peas last year by a sweet old neighbor friend. She often comes over unannounced bearing gifts from her garden which she knows I appreciate. This, however, was one that I threw into the freezer, not knowing what to do with these two staples of the Southern pantry but too embarrassed to tell her. A few weeks ago, I pulled them out and made this salad.

black-eyed pea salad

It was created by Atlanta chef Kevin Gillespie in a feature on meatless dishes. Here is the recipe. I pretty much stuck to it and it was delicious. Initially, I didn't want to take the time to cook the ingredients in the salad first, like roasting the peppers and sauteeing the onions and celery. It seemed like too much work for a salad. But the flavors of cooked vegetables are so much more interesting and really deepen the notes in this dish that ended up being more like a main than a salad.

peach-watermelon salad

The second salad I just made up and it was so yummy, on its own for lunch, or alongside grilled chicken or steak for dinner. It combines the sweet and salty flavors of peaches, watermelon, mozzarella and herbs. In addition to the fruit, I added a little lime juice, some fresh herbs like parsley and basil, a little olive oil and some honey drizzled over the top. I may have also added some heat in the form of one diced jalapeno at the last minute. YUM. I will make this one again to bring to an outdoor party or cook-out. It was so easy but also satisfying and complex.

individual peach cobblers

And lastly, this is something I came up with in a last-minute dessert craving after some meal I don't even remember. I had two peaches lying around so I peeled, cored and sliced them and tossed them in a bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, a tablespoon of cornstarch, some sugar, the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt. Can you see where I'm going with this? I then pulled out some little frozen tea biscuits that someone else had purchased because I always make my own (ha ha), spooned the peach mixture into 3 ramekins, placed two biscuits on top of each and sprinkled raw sugar on top. Baked in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes, they came out looking fabulous and, with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, tasted even better.

Rustic Peach Cake

2010-08-31T13:24:00.007-05:00

When you have a newborn in the house, finding the time to cook, much less bake, takes on a whole new meaning. You basically have to seize the free time whenever you can while the baby's sleeping or being entertained by her dad. Those moments are precious and other things like taking a shower often take precedence. But recently, I used my free hour to bake a beautiful rustic summer cake.

This recipe is one I found in Cook's Illustrated 'American Classics' which is on newsstands now. I was immediately drawn to it for two reasons: peaches are at their peak right now and who doesn't love peaches? And, because it is really, really easy.

This rustic peach cake, like many sweets that I see in Italy, is just the kind of cake I love: not too sweet, not fussy, made with simple ingredients, like fresh fruit, that can be eaten anytime of day. My personal favorite is in the morning with a homemade cappuccino made with local roaster Drew's Brews Zappia family espresso. Or, as a late-night snack with a glass of Hatcher family dairy whole milk. Yum. I plan to save this recipe and use it all year long, replacing the peaches with whatever is in season. It would be great with apples (like this torta di mele), pears, plums or dried fruit in the winter.

This cake is so good and so un-sweet, therefore not too guilt-inducing (there's only a 1/2 cup of sugar in the recipe) that this is all that was left 24 hours after I made it.

Rustic Peach Cake, from C.I., American Classics

Combine:
1 cup a.p. flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Mix until light:
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
8 T unsalted butter, softened

Add:
2 large eggs
2 T sour cream (or whole milk)
1 t vanilla extract

Then add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix on low until just combined. Pour into greased and floured cake pan.

For peaches:
peel, pit and slice 2 medium peaches and toss with 1/4 c sugar and 1/2 t cinnamon then arrange in a circular pattern around the edge and in the middle of cake.
(*Tip: scattering some chopped, dried apricots or peaches over the batter before arranging the fresh peaches on top will soak up the excess peach juice and eliminate a soggy cake top, but this is kind of fancy and is optional.)

Bake @ 350 for about 35-40 min. I used a 9-in cake pan, but you could use a springform or any kind of cake pan for this.

Sweet corn pesto pasta

2010-08-05T19:38:00.004-05:00

It is a delight to be back in the kitchen at the same time as my CSA basket is overflowing with the abundant produce of summer. We have more corn, summer squash, basil and fresh herbs than we know what to do with. Tomatoes are still at a premium and we've lost 100% of ours to the squirrels in the backyard, but I've managed to get my hands on a few heirlooms here and there.

Because of the generosity of so many of our friends and family, we enjoyed many great meals dropped off at our house in the weeks following June's birth. Now, though, I am craving some of my mainstay dishes, like pasta with fresh summer veggies.

As we've had more than 50 consecutive days of 90+ degree weather this summer, cooking has of necessity become quick sauteeing, blanching or cold, fresh ingredients only. This pasta dish was a perfect example. I made a batch of pesto first, then sauteed fresh corn in a little olive oil and added red onion and a bunch of herbs from my garden: thyme, basil, oregano. After combining the corn and the pesto and adding a little of the pasta cooking water to thin it out, I added some fresh tomatoes to give it color and grated fresh pecorino cheese on top.

Simple, summery and delicious served with a cucumber salad on the side and a big glass of cold white wine.

Junebug arrives!

2010-07-25T15:26:00.003-05:00

So here is what I've been cooking... a little Junebug. June Marilyn was born on June 27th and took her time in coming. She came a week late, and not without much difficulty, proving that good things come to those who wait.

I made her a birthday cake on the day before I went into labor. I didn't know she would be a girl, but I made a girlie kind of cake anyway (mother's instinct): a "Pan di Spagna" traditional Italian spongecake with pastry cream filling and lemon scented whipped cream. We ate it and toasted her birth with friends in the hospital room.

It's been four weeks since her birth and I'm slowly getting back into cooking. I made a peach-blueberry cobbler with local peaches a friend brought. And yesterday I made a beautiful '3 beet salad' with chioggia, red and yellow beets from our farm CSA. Dotted with Kentucky sheep's cheese and shreds of basil and drizzled with olive oil, it was the perfect lunch on a really hot day.

So while adjusting to life with baby, bear with me if the posts don't roll in as quickly. I'm still getting my 'kitchen legs' back. But the bounty of summer awaits. And so do many meals prepared lovingly with my little Junebug in one arm. Thanks for waiting for us!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

2010-05-27T08:05:00.005-05:00

I know it has been a looooong time since I posted here. The excuse is one that I've been using a lot lately--at the grocery store when I need help out with my bags, in the parking lot when I park in the closest space that's not really a space, at night when I can't reach the remote control that's 6 inches away, and basically any time I need a break. I'm pregnant!! and it works. People are so accommodating and nice to you. So, while I don't think I've abused it, I have been getting extra special treatment lately because there is no denying based on my huge watermelon-shaped belly that I am a very expectant woman. Indeed, this baby could come any day now!

So that's not to say that I have not been cooking and eating and entertaining a little bit. It's just that a lot of our meals have not been blog-worthy and a lot of times, I just can't be bothered with the extra step of taking blog-worthy photos or of sitting down to write. But things are picking up and the blog is going to soon undergo some major changes and I look forward to getting back into it as my life allows.

In the meantime, here's a quick recipe for one of my recent favorite go-to desserts: strawberry rhubarb crumble. I've brought it to several parties lately, made it for us for no special occasion (it's one of my man's favorite things) and it is always so good, served warm out of the oven with or without a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's such a forgivable recipe, too, that even non-bakers cannot go wrong with this one.

Although strawberries and rhubarb have already hit their peak and given way to other seasonal fruits, any of the fruits of summer like peaches, blueberries, blackberries and plums are perfect for this cobbler. Use whatever you have and whatever is in season--in any combination that suits your taste buds-- and it will be delicious. A crumble (also known as a crisp or a cobbler) is pretty open to interpretation and I have many recipes, but this one just happens to be my most recent version. I love the addition of toasted hazelnuts (almonds or walnuts would work equally well) to the crumb topping. It gives it a nice crunchy and nutty flavor that most flour-sugar-butter toppings lack.

Strawberry and rhubarb crumble (adapted from Bon Appetit May 2010)

Ingredients

* 3/4 cup all purpose flour
* 2/3 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
* Large pinch of salt
* 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
* 1/2 cup husked hazelnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped
* 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
* 1 pound strawberries, hulled, halved (about 4 cups)
* 12 ounces rhubarb (preferably bright red), ends trimmed, stalks cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces
* Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preparation

*Combine flour, 2/3 cup sugar, and salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend. Add butter. Rub in with fingertips until mixture sticks together in clumps. Mix in oats and nuts. DO AHEAD Topping can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
*Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Place 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; whisk to blend well. Add strawberries and rhubarb to sugar in bowl; toss to coat well. Scrape fruit filling into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle oat topping evenly over filling.
*Bake crumble until filling bubbles thickly and topping is crisp, about 45 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Spoon warm crumble into bowls. Serve with ice cream if desired.

Soupe au pistou

2010-04-15T09:57:00.008-05:00

Here I am again! It really has proven difficult lately to get inspired in the kitchen. I'm still baking a lot, but how many cakes do you really want to see? It's not that I'm not cooking either, but we are doing things more simply around here. Not as much entertaining (I can barely stay up past 9:30) and just doing the nesting thing as we prepare for the arrival of baby in June. :-)

But that doesn't change the fact that glorious Spring --long awaited here in Nashville this year--has finally arrived. All of a sudden everything is green, flowering, beautiful and warm. My garden is just getting started. I have strawberries in pots and garlic that I planted in the Fall sprouting up at the edge of the garden.

And, of course, the hearty, meaty stews of Winter have given way to lighter fare using the bounty of Spring vegetables available now. This soup is one of my favorite Spring staples. I look forward to making it every year at this time. It is so nutritious and satisfying, not to mention beautiful to look at.

Soupe au pistou is a Provencal tradition, its roots seem very rustic French to me: green beans, potatoes and pasta are all part of the mix. It could also include white beans. The 'pistou' refers to the pesto that is drizzled on each bowl of soup before serving. Just look at the bounty: I counted 8 different veggies in mine! Swiss chard, carrots, celery, garlic, leeks, zucchini, green, beans and potatoes.

Because everything is so fresh, it takes a bit prepping and it can be done ahead of time, but this soup doesn't need to cook very long --just long enough to soften the vegetables and cook the pasta al dente, but not so much that the veggies lose their vibrant green color. So it really is easy to make. We did it on a weeknight when we were out and didn't start dinner until almost 8:00. I had, however, done the work of chopping the veggies earlier, which is key.

Soupe au pistou (adapted from an old Gourmet recipe, but Ina Garten has a good one too, or make up your own!)

1 large leek, washed and thinly sliced
1 celery rib, cut into 1/2 in pieces
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2 in pieces
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large thyme sprig (if it's in your garden)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb potatoes (Yukon gold are great), cut into 1/2 in pcs.
1/2 lb swiss chard, stems cut small and leaves roughly chopped
8 cups water
1/2 lb zucchini, cut into 1 in pcs.
1/4 lb green beans, cut into 1 in pcs.
3/4 c small pasta shells, whole wheat if you prefer

For pistou:
use your favorite pesto, one that you made last summer, or:
1 small tomato
1 cup packed basil leaves
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 T e.v.o.o.
1 cup of parmigiano, pecorino or gruyere cheese

(Throw everything but the oil and cheese in a food processor and blend, then stir in the oil and cheese by hand).

After washing and chopping all the veg, start by cooking the leek, carrot, celery and garlic in the oil with salt and pepper in a big, heavy pot, stirring occasionally, until veg brown and stick to the bottom of the pot, about 10-15 min.

Add potatoes and chard stems with 1/2 t salt and cook about 5 min, or until beginning to soften. Add water and bring to a boil, stir in zucchini, green beans, chard leaves, pasta and more salt and simmer, uncovered, until pasta is al dente and veggies are tender, about 10 min.

Discard thyme sprig, remove from heat, stir in half the pistou and salt and pepper to taste. Serve soup with remaining pistou and crusty baguette slices brushed with olive oil.

I promise this soup is Spring in a bowl! Enjoy.

three healthy (veggie) dishes

2010-03-16T14:27:00.007-05:00

From English trifle to... brussells sprouts? Not as far-fetched as you think. After all, being pregnant means you crave all kinds of weird things but most of all, it's important to eat a healthy diet and wide variety of things. So lately, my sweet man has been looking up healthy recipes and stepping up his weeknight cooking and I couldn't be happier. If it were up to me some nights, I'd eat pickles and ice cream and throw in some popcorn for good measure. Not my usual fare, I know, but like I said, your relationship with food takes on a whole new meaning when you've got a bun in the oven.

So, here are three really good dishes we tried recently, one of which is an old standby of mine, and two were newly found recipes.

The first one comes from one of our favorite cookbooks: The Silver Spoon, Italy's version of the Joy of Cooking. It's 1200-page tome that will make your head spin but it's also organized extremely well by ingredient and color coded with each recipe only a few lines long. Very simple and very user-friendly (read: perfect for baby daddys-in-training). It was easy, very healthy and very tasty.

garbanzo bean and spinach soup (adapted from The Silver Spoon)

5 cups veg., meat or chicken stock (pref homemade, but low-sodium if not)
2 T olive oil plus extra for drizzling
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 cups spinach, chopped
1 cup canned or dried and cooked garbanzo beans
1 cup whole wheat soup pasta (elbows or other small pasta)
salt and pepper

Bring the stock to boil in a pan. Heat oil in another pan, add the onion, carrot and celery and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until softened. Add the spinach, season with salt and cook for a few minutes more. Add the garbanzo beans and stock and simmer for 20-30 min. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Season with pepper, drizzle with olive oil and serve. (Also great sprinkled with fresh grated parmigiano before serving).

The second recipe is my version of Italian style brussells sprouts. The only thing that makes them Italian is the parmesan cheese, which could be left out if you prefer. I love brussells sprouts and they happen to have protein, folic acid, lots of Vitamin D and A and are just plain good for you. So we cooked them up to go along with the garbanzo bean and spinach soup and they were a deliciously crunchy side dish alongside the steamy soup.

Brussells sprouts my way

1 lb of brussells sprouts
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
fresh-grated parmigiano cheese
salt and pepper

Prepare a pound of brussells sprouts by washing and cutting them in half lengthwise. Then heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet. (you could make these healthier by omitting the butter, but the butter really is what makes them so delicious). Place the b.s. cut side down in the hot butter-oil mixture, turn up the heat and let them get nice and brown, for about 5-7 min. When they are brown on one side, add a splash of water to the pan just to steam them through, put the lid on the pan and cook gently until tender, but not soft, when pierced with a fork. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and freshly grated parmigiano and serve them while piping hot.

stir fried tofu with red cabbage and butternut squash

The final healthy dish we loved was from Martha Rose Shulman's "Recipes for Health" series in the New York Times. My midwife said I should be getting more protein since I don't eat a lot of meat. So we looked for protein-rich foods and found this recipe in the Fitness and Nutrition section of the Times (a great resource for simple, healthy recipes). This is definitely a dish we'll return to and it could be modified in lots of ways. The recipe says to serve with grains or noodles and we chose red quinoa for it's protein-richness and nutty taste.

But the next day I ate some leftovers served over soba noodles and it was equally tasty. A bright and colorful dish that packs a lot of nutrients and tastes great. What more could you need? The recipe? Here it is.

a proper English trifle

2010-03-02T09:54:00.011-06:00

I've always wanted to make one. It's a dessert that appeals to both my fondness for culturally specific foods, and my love of all things creamy. Desserts that combine fruit, cake, custard and whipped cream cannot be anything but delicious, now can they?

I started ogling big glass trifle bowls a couple of years ago, wondering if I should splurge for the perfect one at Williams-Sonoma not too long ago. But then I decided it was foolish to buy a bowl that really only served one purpose. A proper trifle bowl apparently has straight sides instead of round and has a platform base, the better to see the beautiful layers in this rich dessert.

I wanted to make one for a dinner party so I did what I usually do when I need something but don't want to spend lots of money: I headed to my local thrift store. Lo and behold, there was a perfect big glass bowl for only $3.99. I would finally get to make my English trifle!

Besides doing it ahead of time so it has time to chill overnight, it's pretty easy to make. There are millions of trifle recipes out there but I found one for cherry trifle in Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. I love her easy-going, laid back approach to things. She recommends using any kind of bowl large enough to hold it, and either store-bought ladyfingers or "any stale cake lying around."

I happened to have a 6-in round almond cake in the freezer that was left from the wedding cake testing. Perfect. I bought some mixed berry jam and some strawberries and already had the morello cherries in the fridge. All I need to make were the custard and the whipped cream topping.

Cherry Trifle (adapted from Nigella Lawson)

Ingredients

* 1 pound cake or 8 store-bought ladyfingers
* 1/2 cup cherry or other berry jam
* 1/2 cup cherry brandy plus 1 split vanilla bean
* 2 cups drained bottled cherries (recommended: Morello)
* 1 cup strawberries (if desired)

Custard:

* 1 1/3 cups whole milk
* 1 1/3 cups heavy cream
* 8 egg yolks
* 1/4 cup sugar

Topping:

* 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
* 1 T cherry jam
* juice of 1/2 lemon
* 3 T slivered almonds
* 1 T water

Directions

Make the brandy-vanilla infusion by bring 4 T brandy to a boil with split vanilla bean, then boil for 2 min until thickened. Remove from heat and set aside.

Slice the pound cake and make jam sandwiches with the cherry jam, and layer the bottom of a large wide trifle bowl. Pour over the vanilla brandy so that the cake soaks it up, and then top with the drained cherries (and strawberries). Cover with cling wrap and leave to macerate while you make the custard.

In a saucepan warm the milk and cream. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Pour the warm milk and cream into the bowl whisking it into the yolks and sugar mixture, and pour the custard back into the saucepan. Cook over a medium heat until the custard thickens, stirring all the time. Make sure it doesn't boil, as it will split and curdle. Keep a sink full of cold water so that if you get scared you can plunge the bottom of the custard pan into the cold water and whisk like mad, which will avert possible crisis.

Once it is ready, pour into a bowl to cool and cover the top of the custard with cling wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

When the custard is cold, pour and spread it over the fruit and cake layer in the trifle bowl, and leave in the refrigerator to set, covered in cling wrap overnight, or for at least 12 hours.

When you are ready to decorate, softly whip the cream for the topping and spread it gently over the layer of custard. Then toast almonds for a few minutes and make syrup by heating and stirring the cherry jam, lemon juice and water over medium heat until thickened. Let cool slightly. Drizzle cherry syrup over whipped cream and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Serves about 10 people, or makes lots of leftovers!

Bring to the table in a flourish of oohs and ahhs and dig in. People will definitely have seconds of this delicious dessert. Cheers!

Sweet and spicy penne with cauliflower

2010-02-16T09:40:00.005-06:00

I found this recipe on a really cute blog called Pink of Perfection. I love her tagline: "A thrifty girl's guide to the good life." I admit I have had to be much more thrifty than usual lately. So much so that my dinner parties have almost ceased to exist. But I got the idea from her to do a dinner for 8 people for $50. That's right. $50. Tips she shared and implemented were not going too heavy on the apps and asking guests to bring the beverages. And it worked! I threw a birthday dinner for my friend and 8 others (okay, so I went a little over with the guests) and spent around $60 total. I made spaghetti with meatballs, a big spinach salad and two kinds of cupcakes for dessert. People could not have been happier. So, thanks, Pink, for the inspiration and the tips on how to scale it down. After all, comfort food is always a winner and so is keeping things simple.

Thus my new favorite pasta dish, also from Pink of Perfection by way of How to Cook Everything. If you don't mind linking away (but not yet!) you'll find the recipe here.

I've made it twice and not only is it really economical (a $5 dish), it's really tasty too. There is nothing better in winter than the spicy zing of red chili flakes, garlic and oil, combined with mashed anchovies, cauliflower and golden raisins thrown in for a little sweetness. These flavors really do something to lift the mood in winter, while showcasing a great (and under-appreciated) winter vegetable like cauliflower. Recently I've been seeing this curious yellow cauliflower in the grocery store and I'm hoping it didn't get that way because of some weird genetic engineering. I like the way it adds color to an otherwise boring palette and the taste is somehow milder than regular cauliflower.

I've made this dish once with whole wheat pasta (originally called for in the recipe) and once with regular pasta. We preferred the regular pasta but the whole wheat made us feel more virtuous. I figure, with the amount of pasta that we eat in my house, it wouldn't hurt us every once in while to switch to a whole wheat version. But the only kind I like and buy is Barilla brand. In my limited experience with "healthy" pastas, I like theirs the best.

Feel free to kick up the dish even more and add more anchovies, more chili flakes and lots of fresh-grated parmigiano at the end. And, for another recipe using this combination of garlic, oil, chili and anchovies (and cauliflower too!), see my "orecchiette from Puglia" post. There's nothing like Southern Italian flavors to spice up the middle of winter.

Birthday Cakes

2010-02-04T11:24:00.006-06:00

I recently was asked by a friend to bake three different birthday cakes for a party she was hosting. Three different people, three different ages and three different tastes.

If you have been reading my blog you know that I love to bake. I bake a lot. And I even sometimes sell what I bake! It is a funny thing to take something that is a hobby that you love doing for yourself and your loved ones and turn it into a business, however small that business may be. I enjoy the process of baking, but even more I think enjoy making things for people that I know will make them happy. So I put a lot of work into these cakes. And I think they were really appreciated. My friend emailed me the next day to tell me they were a big hit at the party and a great conversation piece.

One of them was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It's a great recipe from my baker/partner Tom and it has walnuts and spices and comes out very dense and moist. The frosting is the best part: loaded with cream cheese and butter and flecked throughout with orange zest to give it a little color.

I colored some of the frosting with some edible orange decorating powder and piped some little carrots. For the leaves I used parsley and for the numbers, I had some fruit jelly candies on hand left over from Christmas and I cut an orange one into strips to form the number 35. I loved the bright orange color and I'm sure they tasted good too!

For the next cake, for my friend's husband, she requested his favorite kind of cake: vanilla with mocha buttercream frosting. I had never made a buttercream frosting but thought I could just add a little bit of espresso and some chocolate to plain buttercream and it would do the trick. Not only did the color seem great but it tasted so good. Yes, I licked the bowl.

I kept the decorations simple and masculine for him, piping chocolate ganache dots and just the numbers. I may have added a few squiggly lines here and there at the last minute after I took the photo, but left it pretty sparse. She said he loved it.

The last cake was requested as well: red velvet with cream cheese frosting. I'm not gonna lie, this one was decorated by Tom who is an excellent cake decorator and helps me out from time to time, thus the more frilly piping and perfectly executed borders. But it turned out that this cake was for a girl who likes frilly things so it all worked out in the end.

While this was a paid assignment, I enjoyed it as much as if I were making a cake for my family or my best friend. I think that's the key to making quality products that people will love. If you'd make something with love for your favorite person or yourself, why would you make it any differently for a customer?

I'm making a cake and some cupcakes for a dinner party this weekend for my friend's birthday. I know she'll love whatever I make for her, but I'll enjoy the process just as much. I'm thinking coconut-vanilla cupcakes or chocolate-buttermilk cake with raspberry filling.... mmmm

Soups for the Winter blahs

2010-01-21T12:08:00.012-06:00

Unless you live in Brisbane, Australia like my good friends Zala and Mark who are enjoying 90 degree beach weather right now (jealous)...

it's the dead of winter in most places. Arguably, this is the most depressing week of the year. The cold, the lack of adequate sunshine and the short days of January combine to make it a pretty dreary month. This must be why so many people look forward to the Superbowl. And after that, at least this year we have the Winter Olympics, my personal favorite t.v. event.

Televised sporting events aside, I have my own ways of brightening up the long winter days in my house. I just heard the local weather lady say we have "a wintry mess" coming up in Nashville over the next few days. This means two things: that schools will close and people will freak out over an inch of snow; and I need to get busy making soups and stews.

All month I've been experimenting with my usual soup recipes. Some of my old standbys include turkey chili, spicy lentil soup and a hearty beef stew. Every time I make one of them, I add or subtract something or do something slightly different.

For example, I used to make a vegetarian lentil soup, which I love. But this year I saw a recipe for lentil soup with spicy sausage and thought I'd give it a try. The hot Italian sausage was the perfect complement to the tomatoes and vegetables. The recipe I used is from this month's bon appetit.

It was a well balanced soup and very healthy (lentils are a great source of fiber, not to mention a fortuitous food-- they are traditionally eaten in Italy on New Year's Day for good luck). I really liked the addition of spinach at the end too, just wilted enough to offer another texture to the soup and a good balance of flavors.

My first beef stew of the winter started off with a nice 3 lb chuck roast that I purchased from Whole Foods. I used a recipe from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food as a guide and made a few changes. She calls for using bacon as an added flavor enhancer, but I didn't have any and thought the smokiness might be unnecessary. I was going for a straight-forward carrot, onion and red wine kind of stew.

The aromatics were put into the pot after browning the meat and removing it. I then added herbs such as parsley and thyme, bay leaf, a couple of whole cloves stuck into the onions, and a few whole peppercorns. After softening the veggies, I added the cubed beef back into the pot, raised the heat and added the wine, reducing it while scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

I then added a small can of whole tomatoes with their juice, a thin strip of orange zest and two cups of beef stock (the orange and cloves were a nice touch). I let this simmer in my dutch oven, covered, on the stovetop for 2-3 hours. After adjusting for salt and pepper, I served it right out of the pot and it was yummy and spicy, but a little on the thin side. But still, a proper beef stew is hard to beat.

The next time I tried a different recipe, this one from my Jan-Feb Cook's Illustrated. They called it "The Best Beef Stew" so I had to try it. Again, I used a 2-3 lb grass-fed beef chuck roast I bought at W.F. I cut it into small 1-in. pieces before browning it on the stovetop. A curious thing about this recipe is that it called for a tomato paste, 2 cloves of garlic and four anchovies that I mashed up ahead of time and added to the beef instead of the canned tomatoes. It also called for 1/4 cup of flour for thickening. These two steps really made a difference in the final product: a rich, thick and very flavorful stew. It also used red wine and chicken stock as cooking liquids, onions and carrots, and yukon gold potatoes thrown in at the end, as well as a cup of frozen peas, added in the last 10 minutes of cooking.

The stew was cooked in a 300 degree oven for about 2 hours, then finished on the stove. The meat was done just right , the potatoes kept their shape and texture and the carrots and peas stayed in tact. I loved how all of the elements kept their integrity, including the meat which was tender, but didn't fall apart. This is because the stew cooks more evenly in the oven as opposed to the stovetop which can make some soups mushy. I'll definitely make this stew again. It was delicious the next day for lunch with a warm tortilla on the side.

So next time you find yourself in the midst of the winter doldrums, I suggest trading in the blues for the stews.

New year and BIG news

2010-01-07T18:09:00.010-06:00

Another year, another blog post-- finally. Wow, it has been way too long since I visited you here and for that I apologize. But you should forgive me once you hear my excuses.

December was quite a month! Even before that, November ended on a busy note. I did my first wedding cake which turned out beautifully. It was made for some friends, new to town, who had a lovely and intimate Fall wedding at their home. People came from as far away as New Zealand and Ireland and a good time was had by all. The cake was really special: a dense almond cake with a almond dacquoise layer and a layer of apricot glaze and almond buttercream frosting. We decorated it with handmade marzipan fruits, acorns and berries and finished it with two woodsy animals on top. The couple loved it!

Then, there were the December parties: like the staff holiday cooking party with my friends at Crema at which we made homemade pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with butter and sage, among other things.

I also catered a party for my friends Ross and Jimmy and did a barrage of Italian antipasti like bruschetta with prosciutto and figs, wild mushrooms and fontina, a bagna cauda with crudités,and little meatballs with spicy tomato sauce. I was so busy that night I didn't take one photo.

And then came the usual December baking frenzy. I made so many dozens of holiday cookies I couldn't even find time to make any for my family! They were not amused. But I did make a lovely orange chiffon cake for Christmas Eve dinner. And I cooked with my brother on Christmas Eve which was fun. We managed to make a fabulous 3-course dinner for 16 people including homemade ricotta and spinach ravioli with tomato cream sauce, a spectacular 14-lb salted and spiced pork roast from Heritage Farms, and the most amazing potato and celery root gratin which my brother makes at Minetta Tavern in New York.

The whole meal was wonderful and the time spent with my family the most important thing.

And then there was the surprise... (actually two surprises)

Which I humbly present to you here by way of apology for my extended absence.

I'm pregnant!

And, I'm engaged!

So 2010 is going to be a big year for me. It's all very exciting news and we are over the moon. Happy New Year everyone.

Next post: my New Year's Day lentil and spicy sausage soup. Can't wait to get back in the kitchen!

old school italian favorites

2009-11-16T17:21:00.008-06:00

Lately, you could not pay me to eat sweets! I guess because I am baking so much now I almost never want to eat the stuff. This is probably a good thing. A sweet tooth has plagued me all my life, until now. I can totally leave it and I crave savory dishes full of flavor and texture.

So I've been cooking from a new Cook's Illustrated special edition called Italian Favorites. I would link to their website, but they just make you pay for looking at their recipes and that's annoying. You might as well subscribe to the magazine and have something to keep --or better yet, just buy one every once in a while when it looks appealing like I do.

I have a love-hate relationship with the magazine. I love the in-depth recipe testing and they always get everything right. But sometimes making a simple dinner from the magazine makes me feel like I'm doing research on a dissertation (all over again) and I need to read every single word of the two-page single-spaced essay. And that's no way to enjoy yourself in the kitchen.

But the Italian favorites issue is a keeper. My aunt, who is also an avid cook, came to visit me recently and then went on a wild goose chase looking for a back issue because she wanted to make everything in it. I called up the magazine and had it sent to her house. It really is a good one. Some of the 'Italian favorites' I've tried are the above 'Chicken Marsala'. I veered from tradition and made it with Cinzano instead of Marsala, but it was close enough and very good. I also made the Spaghetti Puttanesca, which I make all the time but this one was different. It added anchovies to the usual olives, capers and tomatoes which I thought worked well.

I also made the 'pork chops with vinegar and peppers' and it was surprisingly good. It, like all of the recipes in this issue, reminded me of things I ate in my childhood. My mom made pork chops just like that and the chicken Marsala was probably served in all of the old hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurants we ate in growing up in Las Vegas. There are recipes for Fettuccine Alfredo and Chicken Piccata, Penne alla Vodka and Shrimp Fra Diavolo. It doesn't get any more old-school Italian-American than that!

One dish I am definitely going to make as soon as I find the time is 'braciole': Italian stuffed steak --a Southern Italian classic. My aunt nearly lost it when she saw that. She told me stories of all the wonderful Italian dishes my grandmother (who died when I was 5) used to make when she was young and dating my mom's brother. She told me of nights when she would come to dinner and just watch her cook and then eat the most delicious things. We went through old boxes of my mom's and grandma's recipes while she was here, stopping after each one so she could tell me a story about how they made it.

old italian women (not my relatives) courtesy of kitchenmischief.wordpress.com.

While I may not be able to re-create those family recipes exactly as they were, at least I can attempt some old Italian favorites in my own home and pretend that I was there. Thanks, Cook's Illustrated. You're not so bad after all.

baking my brains out

2009-11-01T20:13:00.006-06:00

I don't know where the month of October went. It seems like I blinked and all of a sudden the days are shorter, the air is colder and orange, red and yellow leaves blanket my yard in all directions. I have local Tennessee pumpkins and home-grown butternuts on the counter, waiting to get roasted, and most of my time has been taken up with baking.

Ever since I started this great new partnership baking over at dose coffee and tea, it seems my little baking business has kicked into high gear. That may be why I have less time to blog about what's going on in my home kitchen. I now have a commercial kitchen to play in where I'm creating lots of new seasonal treats and having fun testing the market.

The guys at dose really know coffee and have great things planned so I appreciate the chance to work with them. As the holidays approach and my baking heats up even more, I thought I'd share a few of the things I've been up to lately:

For the first Edgehill Village Artisan Fair

marmellata thumbprints, apple spice cakes with cream cheese frosting and (local) pumpkin spice cakes with maple glaze

cinnamon plum coffee cake (now being made with Bartlett pears)

For East Nashville's Walden Artisan Market

lemony semolina cookies

...and apple tort (a family tradition)

For a Fall Fest fundraiser for East Academy

Halloween sugar cookies

It has been a busy, creative Fall and I am enjoying the changes. I have a baby shower and a wedding cake to do in November and then...Holiday baking for special orders and parties. I like this kind of busy when, after hours of work in the kitchen, I can take stock of all I've made, see the tangible results on the counter and feel good about my progress.

Cranberry bean salad with butternut squash

2009-10-17T12:06:00.006-05:00

There is no bad way to eat butternut squash. Its warm Fall flavor is slightly sweet and when its full flavor comes out through roasting or sauteeing, it compliments so many other ingredients. I just have never met a butternut I didn't like. I know I should expand my squash repertoire and move into some other winter squashes, but I find that there is something so comforting about the butternut that keeps me coming back. It could be the pale salmon color and how great they look on the outside, compared to that eye-popping orange on the inside. (Orange happens to be my favorite color).

So another quest for butternut recipes this week led me to this wonderful side dish that would allow me to use the last of my borlotti beans from Italy. Borlotti are the beautiful red spotted beans called cranberry beans here. The color is wonderful and they look really cool when fresh and still in their pods. They have a color and a crunch that makes them the perfect compliment to softly sautéed squash and little bit of bitter greens.

I'd seen a salad like this before in one of my cookbooks, but found this recipe on Marthastewart.com. As usual, I altered it to meet my needs. The recipe calls for bacon but I didn't have any and wanted to keep it vegetarian as I was serving it alongside a classic pot roast for dinner. The salad was also delicious cold the next day for lunch. Martha's recipe also called for broccoli rabe, which I love, but it is not yet available in my local market so I substituted kale from our farmers.

(the pot roast was a simple braised beef roast that I cooked low and slow in the oven with fresh herbs, garlic, red wine and beef broth and added chopped carrots and potatoes toward the end of the cooking time. So delicious. The perfect comfort dish.)

Cranberry bean salad with butternut squash (from marthastewart.com)

1. Beans (2 lbs) should be soaked overnight and then cooked with one onion, 1 bay leaf and sevel black peppercorns, with enough water to cover beans. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until cooked through about 25 min.

2. Drain beans, reserving a little cooking water. In a medium bowl, toss beans with 1 T each olive oil and cooking liquidl season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

3. Peel and cube 1 small butternut squash. Working in batches if necessary, sautee in olive oil until lightly browned and cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl.

4. Heat 2 T olive oil and add 3 garlic cloves, minced. Sautee until golden brown. Add kale or other leafy green, saute until wilted and heated through, about 5 min. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add beans and squash to skillet and cook just until heated through and combined. Drizzle with olive oil before serving.

Butternut squash and roasted red pepper soup

2009-10-08T09:15:00.011-05:00

Fall is definitely in the air and I love it. Ever since I moved to the South, I am happiest when the weather turns from hot and muggy Summer to crisp, clear and beautiful Fall. I really appreciate the change in seasons in the Southeast, not least because I get to cook new things!

Now is the time for winter squash: butternuts, pumpkins, acorns and kabochas. I love them because they look and taste like Fall. Before I cooked so much, I used to buy them at farmer's markets and leave them on the counter or on a table on the porch and enjoy looking at them. But now that I try to cook and eat seasonally, I look forward to the arrival of squash and all the new ways I find each year to cook and enjoy them.

I remember being in Italy last Fall and being excited that the same winter squash that we have were found in all the markets (and the menus) over there. It was late September and we visited an organic farm in Tuscany where they had a storage room full of butternuts. I could think of nothing more than putting them to good use for torellini di zucca with sage butter sauce, perhaps my all-time favorite pasta dish.

(look at all those butternuts!)

Butternut is my favorite. This week I had three on the counter from the farmer and one big one growing in my garden, so I thought I should get creative. I threw one in the oven, sliced in half, to roast while I thought about ways to use it for that night's dinner. Just then, Ben Frank posted a link on facebook to his blog with a recipe for a creamy winter squash soup. The photo was so beautiful I couldn't help but click over.

There are a million recipes for butternut squash soup, but this one struck me as very unique. It combined the sweet flavors of roasted butternut, apple juice, roasted red peppers and the heat of cayenne peppers. In addition, it started with bacon! What could be better than that? So I immediately decided this was the soup for my roasting squash. I still had a few red peppers from the farmer and a neighbor had given me a handful of cayenne peppers from her garden last week. I threw the red peppers into the oven to roast along with the squash.

I followed Ben's recipe exactly, except I substituted a cup of chicken stock for the cranberry juice. But I did use apple juice for the rest of the liquid as he calls for. At first I thought that would be a weird addition for an already sweet soup, but because of the spiciness of the peppers, the apple juice was a welcome sweetness and of course, the flavor of apples and bacon cannot be beat.

I raved about this soup for a while after dinner. I liked it so much I even brought some in a small container to my neighbors across the street to share. I thought the combination of squash and peppers, roasted until all their juicy Fall sweetness comes through, and the heat of the cayenne and other spices such as nutmeg and allspice made for a really complex flavor combination that you don't get too often in chunky Fall soups. I will return to this recipe again, I'm sure.

And, taking Ben's cue that there's no better accompaniment to soup than a grilled cheese sandwich, I served the soup with grilled camembert, provolone and fig sandwiches that were deliciously rich. All together, a perfect Fall meal.

Apple-plum pie

2009-09-29T11:52:00.007-05:00

As the weather turns cooler and the days get shorter, I welcome my favorite season and crave being in the kitchen with the stove on. I love baking even more than usual when the fruits of late summer-early Fall beckon me to create gorgeous fruit-filled pies, cakes and tarts. Now plums are on their way out, and apples and pears are just starting to appear at the farmer's markets.

Fortunately for me, there seems to always be an excuse to bake something. Like the backyard party we went to recently to which I took two homemade apple-plum pies.

I am always trying new recipes, especially for pie crust. This one is from Dorie Greenspan, a true expert on all things baked. Hers is for an old-fashioned mixed-apple pie. I tweaked it to include the plums and and left out a couple of things hers included in the filling, like tapioca and raisins, mainly because I didn't have them.
I think the 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening in the crust is what makes it "old-fashioned." You could leave it out, but it really does give an extra flakiness to the pie crust.

Everyone loved it at the party. It was a great complement to the end of summer fare the hosts provided for the last BBQ of the season, things like corn and bean salad, hot dogs and burgers, potato salad and beer.

I would serve this pie just as it is, with a small dollop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

Apple-plum pie (adapted from Dorie Greenspan, in bon appetit, Oct. 2009)

Crust
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup solid veg. shortening, chilled (optional)
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
1 1/4 lbs of apples (peeled, cored and cut into wedges)
1 lb plums, sliced into wedges
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup golden or dark raisins (optional)
21/2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 tblsp. raw (turbinado) sugar (optional- for sprinkling on top)

Make dough using the food processor method (dries first, then add butter + shortening by cutting in and pulsing until it looks like cornmeal; then add ice water and blend until moist clumps form, adding more ice water if dough is dry). Gather dough into ball and divide in half. Flatten each disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Butter 9-in pie dish. Roll out dough onto floured surface to 12-in round. Transfer to pie dish pressing down on sides and bottom, allowing overhang to extend over sides. Roll out second piece (for top) and chill both on baking sheet while preparing filling.

Preheat oven to 425. Combine apple and plums wedges, 1/3 cup sugar, raisins, tapioca, lemon peel, salt and nutmeg in bowl. Toss to coat fruit and let stand about 15 min.
Transfer filling to crust, mounding slightly in center. Dot filling with butter cubes. Brush edges lightly with water. Transfer second dough round atop filling; trim overhang, press edges together, then fold under. Using tines of fork, press on crust edge around rim of dish to seal. Cut some 1-inch slits with a sharp knife in top crust to allow steam to escape. Brush top lightly with milk or water and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake pie 15 min at 425. Reduce oven to 375 and continue to bake until crust is golden, apples are tender and juices are bubbling over, about 50 min. longer. Let cool to lukewarm or room temperature and serve.

For more fall recipes, see this pretty apple cake, or this post with some of my Fall favorites: chard gratin, moroccan sweet potatoes and farro with chickpeas and butternut squash.

N.Y.C.

2009-09-23T09:55:00.017-05:00

Why is it that there is something about every place I've ever lived (and that is a pretty long list now) that just leaves me wanting in some way. There's something lacking that's elusive and I can never explain to anyone what it is exactly, but I know it's just not there. I've lived in Rome, Florence, Boulder, CO., Oregon, Seattle, Las Vegas and now Nashville, TN. But none of them can compare to New York.

You know I'm not talking about quality of life, or beauty, or weather, community or the cost of living. All of those things can be found in other places and the places I've lived have New York beat on all of those fronts. But what matters to me most--the deal breaker of all deal breakers-- is the FOOD. And for this, New York must be the best city in the world.

I've been many times before and have always had great food, but no other trip was as packed with fantastic dining experiences as this one. We had four days and four nights of amazing meals, all of them a tribute to this gastronomically great city, and all of them a result of my brother's uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time. It was his 40th birthday that occasioned this weekend in NYC with the whole family. And it was perfect that we spent it with him in his world, eating in his favorite places (all places where he's worked) and meeting the people who have influenced him on his new path of culinary discovery. I couldn't be happier for him.

So it was that the first night started out with one of the simplest and best meals of the weekend. Greg worked at Vinegar Hill House in Brooklyn when it first opened, less than a year ago. His friend, the chef and co-owner, Jean Adamson was the chef at Freeman's where he bartended for a couple of years and where he first started to love food. Jean played a big part in that.

She is the kind of chef I would like to be if I had those professional ambitions. She's competent, super skilled, understands seasonal food and classic preparations and is at once sweet and modest, capable and confident. A strong woman in a man's world.

Vinegar Hill House
I will let the real food critics' reviews do the talking, (Frank Bruni wrote about Vinegar Hill in August) and I'll just tell you briefly what we ate and enjoyed. There is a lot of great food to talk about here, so get ready.

A plate of farmstead cheese and salami with homemade crackers and pickled quail eggs was brought to the table first. It was perfect in every way. Then we had some salads: shaved market vegetables, little Japanese eggplants that were so simple and good, a watermelon salad with feta, olives and mint, a roasted corn salad and a simple plate of some of the freshest lettuce I've ever tasted. It was all beautiful and the ingredients really stood out as farm fresh and local. Indeed, we ran into Jean the next day at the Union Square Farmer's Market buying produce for that evening's menu.

For mains, we had housemade pappardelle with pork sugo, an amazing cast iron chicken, and what is arguably their most popular dish, the Red Wattle pork chop (above) that melted in your mouth. I think there was a fish on the table too but I don't even remember it. I do remember the desserts, however. A specialty of the house: rich chocolate Guinness cake and my favorite, an almond cherry crostata that was the perfect homespun ending to that meal. And that was just the first night!

Day two was spent walking around in Chinatown and Little Italy, where I visited DiPalo's Market and the historic Alleva Cheeses. Then we made our way uptown and strolled through the Union Square Greenmarket where the produce was practically jumping out of the stalls it was so attractive. It didn't hurt that it was a picture perfect Fall day in New York. We had lunch at a little walk-up pizza place where they served beer in 32-oz styrofoam cups and you sat on the sidewalk with loads of others lining up for a slice of their namesake artichoke and spinach pie.

Roberta's
Dinner was a treat of the sort that's hard to duplicate anywhere else except at Roberta's in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Carlo Mirarchi, the chef, and his partners own this club-house for foodies where a wood-fired oven brought from Italy fires out pizzas day and night, and a continuously evolving roster of meats --lamb, pork (heavy on the pork), beef, duck and chicken vie for space on the picnic table in a lively, young atmosphere. Wine is poured by knowledgeable servers into little mason jars and out back the shipping container used to ship the oven now holds a studio where the Heritage Radio Network presents webcasts on all things food and farming, and an organic garden sits on top.

I blogged about Roberta's when I visited my brother last November. I thought it was great back then and it's only gotten better. This place could not be anywhere else but in an industrial area of Brooklyn where creative people with heartfelt ambitions get together and roast a pig for fun or, with help from a donation from Alice Waters, fund a greenhouse on top of a shipping container in the back of the restaurant, soon to expand to more gardens that will supply all of the produce for the restaurant. Talk about local. It's is such a cool and inspiring place.

Oh, and the food. Read more about it here, but let's just say we rolled out of there happy and stuffed and well taken care of. Carlo brought us a salumi and cheese plate first, followed by apples with bacon and walnuts, then a delicious testa (pig's head) ravioli, and then a remarkably good tripe in a spicy ragu that was as good as any I've had in Italy.

We thought that would be it, but the formidable chef Carlo wanted to do something special for my brother who used to work beside him in the kitchen when they first opened, and brought out the largest pork shoulder I've ever seen. Slow cooked all day, it was perfectly charred on the outside, soft and juicy and falling apart on the inside and served with dark greens and tiny fingerling potatoes. An awesome dish.

[Writing this, I can barely handle this blog post and its litany of incredible food (imagine how much fun it was!) and I am so grateful for my brother's guiding us around the city's current culinary hot spots. I felt like a famous food writer or critic and I enjoyed every minute of it (and every pound I put on afterward). It is no coincidence that passion for cooking and love of good food runs in our family.]

Minetta Tavern
And now, for the grand finale: My brother's birthday dinner at Minetta Tavern. To say that we are lucky, again, is an understatement. This place was reviewed and given 3 stars by Frank Bruni recently, who says they are "serving the best steaks in the city" right now. (Listen to his own words and see the pics here, since I was too enthralled and the lighting to dark to take any).

this photo courtesy of the NYTimes.

It is impossible to get a reservation at this West Village hot spot and the celebs and big shots flock in to experience the latest in the Keith McNally empire of NY restaurants. A Paris bistro meets old timey New York steakhouse where the ingredients and execution are near perfection and the atmosphere is infinitely more fun than a stuffy white tablecloth dining room. We started with a glass of bubbly and a dozen Long Island oysters. Appetizers included an heirloom tomato salad that was superb in its simplicity, squid stuffed with salt cod, peppers, olives and preserved lemon, eggplant salad, steak, veal and lamb tartare and oxtail and fois gras terrine.

We could have stopped there and it still would have been one of the best meals I've ever had. But what came next exceeded all my expectations for what steak should taste like. First they brought out their famous Black Label burger with carmelized onions and pomme frites. We cut it into five pieces and raved. Then, the piece de resistance: a Dry Aged Cote du Boeuf with roasted marrow bones that they presented to the table whole and then returned with it sliced. And did I mention the tender New York Strip that accompanied that? It was more meat than I've ever seen, much less eaten. I've never tasted beef so melt-in-your-mouth good. They are justly famous for this and it is the way steak should be prepared, cooked, presented and enjoyed. Perfection.

I won't go into the chocolate soufflé or the pistachio gelato or the chocolate, coffee and vanilla pots de cremes.

To say this was one of the better meals of my life would not be an exaggeration. I felt like it was MY birthday! I know my brother enjoyed it too. It's always fun to be on the other side of the house pretending to be a customer in the place where you toil for hours sight unseen. I am so proud of him for being a cook at Minetta and working in a kitchen of that caliber. I met his chef, Riad Nasr, earlier in the day when we ran into him on the street. He seemed too nice to be such a killer chef. But that must be what makes it all so successful: there is so much heart in the food and pride in the place. An all-around superb dining experience.

Whew. I'm too tired and this is too long to go on about the other places that we visited during the day: Babycakes and Orchard 88 coffee, Ninth Street Espresso, The Donut Plant, La Esquina and Prune for lunch. What a culinary tour of delights. After all that, my stomach may need a break, but my heart is still in New York.

Melanzane

2009-09-16T09:57:00.006-05:00

I'm still in produce surplus mode. Gearing up for a trip to NYC this weekend and knowing I won't be able to use all the beautiful veggies that arrived in my market basket this week and feeling strapped for time. This shining purple eggplant really tugged at my heart strings, though. "Do something with me, please! Don't let me go to the compost heap!"

So I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen yesterday afternoon. The time spent putting up produce for later in the year when we will be needing a burst of summer is time well spent, even if it means that after 3 hours in the kitchen I still have to make dinner. But I have these beauties to look forward to:

Eggplant and peppers in garlic oil. Oh how I look forward to cracking one of these open some cold day in January and spreading it over bruschetta with goat cheese, or layered onto a homemade pizza margherita. Or just offered up alone on a dish as an antipasto for guests.

I have a book called "Preserving the Harvest" that has been my go-to tome for learning about canning and freezing the summer's bounty. I have made strawberry-rhubarb jam, pickled peppers and shallots, and now this. All have been wonderful canning recipes and great ways to use the produce that's lingering around in late summer.

I roasted the sliced, unpeeled eggplant under the broiler for about 20 min. Then I did the same with the peppers until they browned nicely and softened.

The peppers were beautiful to begin with, most of them from our farmer and a few stragglers from our garden. but coming out of the oven with their skins blackened and smelling sweet they were even better. I let them cool in a brown paper bag, then peeled and quartered them.

While they cooled, I heated a cup of olive oil, 3/4 cup of vinegar of any kind, 3 garlic cloves, chopped, and a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Simmer that for about 5 minutes. Then, in 3 clean mason jars, I layered the eggplant and the peppers with large basil leaves in between.

Then I poured the hot garlic oil over each jar until it comes up over the veggies but leaving about an inch of headspace. I did not process these jars because I only made three and will give one away to a neighbor. They will last unopened in the fridge for a while and I don't think we'll be able to wait much longer than that. If I had wanted to store them long-term, I could have processed them in a hot water bath canner for 20 minutes.

On another occasion, I might have made this with my eggplant, like I did a few weeks ago. Melanzane alla parmigiana is one of the best ways I know to eat this late summer veg. I learned mine from Carla the Tuscan cook last Fall and it is particularly cheesy and delicious, a typical Sicilian dish made with several types of cheese, not necessarily parmigiano. I happened to have mozzarella and pecorino on hand and they blended well. The key is using your own homemade tomato sauce and I don't bread or fry the eggplant first. I slice and roast it in the oven on 400 until it's soft and lightly browned. Then, layer the eggplant slices with the tomato sauce and cheeses, add some fresh basil for color, and bake until bubbling and delicious-looking.

Too much of a good thing? *

2009-09-08T10:34:00.013-05:00

If you're like me, you enjoy using different recipes for the same thing and never making the same dinner twice. I make a different pie crust almost every time I make a pie - which is pretty often. I also always seem to try totally new (and sometimes) challenging things when I've invited people for dinner. So it's never dull in my kitchen.

But sometimes when the summer nears the end and the veggies just keep on coming, I find myself getting tired of always coming up with new ways to use that yellow squash that never stops. This post is about some of the more successful ways I've used the surplus of produce this summer--dishes that I may just have to repeat next year.

1. Squash

yellow squash soup with shrimp, basil and creme fraiche

This soup was light and easy to make. It starts with sautéeing onions and yellow squash with thyme until soft, then adding vegetable broth, puréeing it, and adding a dollop of heavy cream at the end to give it balance. I sautéed the shrimp separately in olive oil and chile flakes just until done and added them to the soup with fresh basil and a drizzle of sour cream or creme fraiche before serving. Super easy and super fresh.

2. Corn

tomato and corn salad

I got tired this summer of eating corn on the cob so I started grilling or boiling it and and adding it to salads and slaws for extra crunch and sweetness. In this particular salad, I cut the corn off first and sautéed it in butter for just a few minutes before adding it to the tomatoes. A revelation. Corn does not have to be boiled! It was the perfect complement to this sausage and pepper sandwich. For another great summer salad recipe with corn, see my "farmer's salad" from an earlier post.

3. Potatoes

tortilla española

This is by far my favorite way to use potatoes in the summer. I learned how to make it while traveling in Spain when the gardener at the house where we stayed would bring potatoes and huge yellow onions in from the garden each day expecting us to know what to do with them. I learned quickly that this is the classic combination of these two ingredients and I never got tired of eating it. It's just a fritatta really, but the key is slicing the onions and the potatoes thinly and frying them first before adding the lightly beaten eggs. If you use a large skillet it can be inverted onto a plate pretty easily and then cut into pie-like wedges. In Spain they serve it cold or room temperature, drizzled with a good olive oil or dolloped with a dill sour cream. Serve alongside a simple green salad for the perfect summer lunch.

4. Peppers

pickled peppers with shallots and thyme

I found this recipe by Molly Wizenberg in bon appetit and loved the sound of it. I had a bunch of different kinds of peppers that made it really colorful. I really got into the canning this year and 'put up' 4 jars of of these peppers as well as a couple of jars of sweet pickles. I haven't tried these peppers yet, but I look forward to opening them up in the middle of winter for a fresh taste of summer veg!

**If you have a garden or joined a CSA this year, what are some of your favorite ways to use extra produce?

* This is my 101st post! (too much of a good thing?)

Italian green beans

2009-09-02T09:18:00.006-05:00

As much as I love vegetables and enjoy eating seasonally and learning what grows where and when, I don't remember ever thinking this way when I was young. I didn't grow up on or even near a farm and come to think of it, neither did my parents. We just didn't have that context to draw from when thinking about food. But my mother was Italian and her family did preserve many traditions surrounding food that informed her cooking in an interesting way.

For example, these green beans that were one of my favorites. Whether we ate them in winter or summer, they were readily available like most produce. But now that I know they are a staple of late summer, I look forward to preparing them in my own kitchen as soon as I see them in the market. They almost have a Fall-ish taste to me now too. Maybe that is because they combine the produce of late summer--tomatoes and green beans-- and for me, somehow mark the transition from one season to the next.

There are many different varieties of green beans --some of them not even green, but yellow and purple, though they taste exactly the same. I prefer the ones sometimes called 'Italian green beans' or Romano beans --the long, skinny green ones--for this recipe. But I did find out recently that the purple ones turn green when you cook them anyway, so if you have these now in your CSA basket like we do, go ahead and use them for this recipe.

They need to be cooked only briefly so they retain their snap. My mom may have been guilty of cooking some vegetables overly long, as was the style in her day. But these green beans she cooked just perfectly and used just the right amount of chunky tomatoes and onions. She sometimes served them along with Italian sausage and that is what I was trying to emulate in this dinner. I love the way our taste memory can take us back to some earlier time when we enjoyed something in exactly the same way. When I took the first bite of this dish, all of those flavors combined in a way that transported me back to when I was young and first discovered how good a fresh green bean can taste.

Italian green beans

1 lb fresh green beans, washed
3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped, or 1 can whole-peeled
1 yellow onion
green or yellow peppers, chopped (optional)
1 lb sweet or spicy cooked Italian sausage (optional)
1-2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper

Start by sauteeing garlic and onion in olive oil. If adding peppers, add them now and let cook another 5 min. When softened, add the chopped tomatoes and cook for about 5 min.
Add the green beans to the tomatoes and onions and cover skillet with a lid. Let them cook until still al dente and mixed well with the other ingredients, about 7 min.
In another pan or on the grill, heat sausage and brown for a few minutes.

Season green beans with salt and pepper to taste. For a perfect meal, serve with sausage and some good crusty Tuscan bread on the side.

my tribute to Julia

2009-08-24T10:00:00.011-05:00

I am not a French cook and I don't rely heavily on Julia Child's recipes in my own kitchen. But the 'Julia hype' was all over the blogs, the magazines and the airwaves this month and for good reason. When I got to thinking about how she influenced me just by who she was and what she did, I realized I, too, just had to pay tribute.

After all, she didn't start to learn to cook until she was 37 years old and when I read this in her memoir two years ago, it is one of the things that motivated me to start this blog and devote so many hours to learning and cooking and experimenting over the last two years in my own kitchen. That summer I also read Julie Powell's book, Julie and Julia, and loved it. She seemed like a girl after my own heart.

Julia's birthday was on Aug. 15, coinciding nicely with the release of the new film Julie and Julia, based on these two books. I went to see the movie on the afternoon of its opening day. I took myself as a treat and sat there in the overly-air-conditioned movie theater on a hot summer day, smiling and crying and thoroughly enjoying myself. I loved the scenes shot in Paris in the markets and Meryl Streep's impersonation was almost as good as watching old footage of Julia Child's early TV program, The French Chef. I watched those, too, last week on PBS, experiencing her for the first time in the original format and fell in love with her all over again.

So, I decided since I was having people over for dinner one night last week, why not combine our dinner party with one of Julia's menus for a celebration in her honor. I used the recent bon appetit article from the August issue as my inspiration (with links to those recipes here). Even though I have Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I seem to read it more like a textbook than actually cooking from it. There is something about it that is so technical but also so accessible and I can see why it was such a seminal cookbook that enjoyed 47 editions!

This menu started out with this beautiful, flaky tart, a pissaladière nicoise. It really was a delicious crust and the salty anchovies, black olives and sautéed onions were a classic combination. It was a basic pate brisèe tart crust, but in addition to the butter, there were 2 tablespoons of chilled vegetable shortening--not my usual fare, but it really did make for a flaky and beautiful tart crust.

The main course was poulet sautè aux herbes de Provence. In true Julia form, I bought a whole organic chicken from the market and cut it up into eight pieces myself. I was proud of myself for doing that, as if it were some major accomplishment. But really, growing up in the age of ready-made and plastic-wrapped everything, it makes me feel self-sufficient and somehow cool to be able to save money by buying a nice chicken and cutting it up myself. It came out great. As you can probably guess, the distinguishing factor of this preparation is the use of traditional herbs like thyme, basil and fennel seeds, plus garlic, and sautèeing the chicken pieces in a whole stick of butter. It was delicious, subtle in flavor, moist and had good color due to the browning in butter.

The sauce was a little too French for my tastes, combining egg yolks whisked with wine and lemon juice over low heat while adding the reserved pan juices a little at a time. It tasted and looked heavy to me and I ended up serving it on the side instead of pouring it over the chicken. But everyone loved it.

(photo courtesy bon appetit, because mine didn't look that pretty)

I also made Julia's Ratatouille recipe (above), which involves more steps than the one I usually make, but it was nice and fragrant and more of a stew than usual. I liked it, but it was no big revelation. The season is right for it though, and I just happened to have a large purple eggplant, peppers and tomatoes from the garden and I used yellow squash instead of the zucchini the recipe called for. I don't think it would have made a big difference.

I served a simple green salad with vinaigrette and a basket of crusty French bread on the side. We drank a lovely French chardonnay and I served a sample of locally made artisan chocolate from the new Olive and Sinclair chocolate company for dessert.

It was a simple and fun meal, one that I am not likely to make again soon, but a fitting tribute to a woman who certainly inspired me and who, almost fifty years later, continues to inspire so many cooks around the world. Thank you, Julia!

Tomato Time, Memphis, TN

2009-08-14T09:59:00.016-05:00

There is something to be said for keeping traditions alive, even when times are tough. For example, the East Nashville Tomato Art Fest went off without a hitch and was the most well-attended in their 6 year history, despite the beastly temperatures on August 8th.

And, although it's mid August and we should be deep into tomatoes by now, many (including mine except for a few early ones) are languishing on the vine, refusing to ripen. Our farmer who supplies our CSA says he lost over 600 tomato plants this year due to a 'blight' - the same one perhaps that seems to have affected the crops all over the Northeast. One of the perils of organic farming is that refusing to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers can also mean losing an entire crop.

But all of this was not enough to stop Connie Adams of Memphis, TN. My good friend Galloway's mother, Connie was one of the first people I met when I arrived in the South four years ago, on my move from Colorado to Nashville. She welcomed me into her home and what a home it was. It was August then too and her kitchen was filled with women of all ages, suited up in aprons and deep into Tomato Time, the traditional canning party that takes place at Connie's every year at this time. It's been going on for more than 20 years now and every August family members--children, nieces, grandmothers, aunts and cousins-- and friends old and new get together to put up hundreds of jars of tomatoes over four days in what has to be one of the best food traditions in the South.

After that first time I told myself I had to come back and learn from these women. So this year, when Connie invited me to come, I didn't hesitate to accept her invitation. Now that food and its preparation is becoming more and more an integral part of my life, I was more excited than ever to learn how to can tomatoes from these professionals.

And what I learned was valuable in more ways than one. I learned that you can't stuff the jars too tight or they may break in the boiling water. I learned that having the proper equipment is very important. And I learned that the more hands you have, the more fun-- and efficient-- the work is. Canning is definitely not a one or two person job.

I remember stories about my great Aunt Kate and Uncle Les who canned everything in their basement in Colorado, just the two of them. Every year for Christmas they'd bring my mom beautiful jars of tomatoes, peaches, pears, pickles and anything else they had that year. While I knew that my family was always delighted to empty out their contents, I never understood the amount of work that went into those jars until now.

We worked hard over those days, all the while talking --about books, about friendships, about family and kids. Mostly I listened, just soaking up the history that was in that room, happy to be cutting, peeling, stuffing or boiling tomatoes in the company of others--of all ages--who were all so happy to be there.

And orchestrating it all from her perch at the stove, running circles around us and making extra trips to the farmer's market each day for fresh tomatoes, checking each and every jar for air bubbles and making us re-do them if she found them, was Connie. She is the master of the ceremony, the Tomato Queen of Memphis.

(this is Connie here making salsa for us after the first long day of work...the lady never stops, which is why this is the only photo I managed to get of her.)

And now, looking at the fruits of our labor, I understand why she does it: almost 400 jars of tomatoes in 4 days, each one more perfect than the next, a lasting memory of time spent together in the kitchen. What better kind of tradition is there?

August = Tomatoes!

2009-08-03T10:44:00.014-05:00

August is always a mixed bag for me. This is because it brings all kinds of contradictory emotions wrapped up in one month. Maybe because I have spent the better part of my life until recently working in the academic world, and as soon as August rolls around the dread of going back to school creeps in and makes me realize that summer is almost over. On the other hand, I was always a very eager student who actually looked forward to going back to school and couldn't wait to show off her new school clothes and meet her new teachers. (I know, geek alert).

Now that the academic calendar no longer rules my life, I still have remnants of the mixed desire/dread that plagued me for so many years. It's like a learned reaction that I can't quite kick. I dread that summer is almost over and I feel like I haven't done enough canning, preserving, traveling, swimming, biking, etc. And pretty soon it will be winter. I mean, it's almost Christmas! (can you see where this is headed?) On the other hand, I love the month of August for its mixture of carefree summer days and the promise and potential of new beginnings that lie just around the corner.

Oh, and what would August be without those beautiful, shiny, irregular homegrown tomatoes? I am lucky to live in a place that not only prides itself on its tomato crop, with many different heirloom varieties in all of the farmer's markets right now, but it seems that every single person in my neighborhood has a few tomato plants in the backyard. One cute elderly woman even sells hers on a folding table in her front yard. The sign reads "homegrown tomatoes for sale." Even if there is no garden to speak of, there are a few tomato plants in everyone's backyard off in a sunny corner, promising a tasty month of homegrown goodness.

We even have our very own Tomato Festival in East Nashville -- the premiere neighborhood event of the year. It's next weekend and I can't wait!

So what do I do with my tomatoes? I posted about the soup last time, but usually I do something much simpler that involves no cooking. A simple caprese salad if I can find fresh mozzarella, because together with the tomatoes, I have basil coming out of my ears right now.

Or, I boil some water, throw in some thin spaghetti and toss the hot pasta with roughly chopped fresh tomatoes, basil, two cloves of minced garlic, some capers and a few black olives if I have them, a splash of balsamic vinegar and the best olive oil I can find. It's my man's favorite use of tomatoes. I have to agree.

I can honestly say that if it weren't for Tennessee tomatoes, I would be rather blue this month. There is something missing in my life and that may be the student/teacher in me speaking. But, if I can't go back to school, I can at least get into the fun that August always brings and be grateful for the celebration of a perfect fruit.

So...tell us. What do you do with your tomatoes?

Roasted tomato and garlic soup

2009-07-27T17:02:00.006-05:00

I had a dinner party this weekend and I wanted to keep things simple. I also wanted to feature some of the beautiful vegetables I have right now-- from my own garden, from our farmer's CSA and to round things out, from our local farmer's market. My farm share comes on Monday and I hit the market on Saturday. These tomatoes were from my garden, left on the counter to ripen in this cool bamboo screened basket a friend gave me...

This year I have Brandywines, Cherokee Purples and an heirloom called Mortgage Lifter in my garden, all shown here in their various shades of purple, red and green.

I wasn't sure if I should cook these, they were so beautiful, so I bought a few more local tomatoes at the farmer's market in case I decided to keep my heirlooms for eating raw. It's hard to beat the taste of a homegrown tomato sprinkled with salt and a drizzle of olive oil. In addition to the soup, I also served little cheese puffs (gougéres), Sicilian zucchini "alla povera"- with chili pepper and mint- and a light summer pasta with cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, hot peppers, celery and tomato purée.

zucchini 'alla povera'

In thinking about tomatoes and how to best feature them, I thought about ways to cook them that would enhance their raw flavor, and what better way to do that than to roast them, which makes them intensely sweet and tangy. This soup had a depth of flavor like no other tomato soup I've ever tasted. It didn't taste acidic at all, like the kind I think of in winter accompanied by grilled cheese sandwiches. I have never made my own tomato soup, but sometimes buy a can of Annie's all natural soups when I want a quick weeknight winter meal.

But this is a tomato soup for summer using the juiciest tomatoes when they're in their prime. It has a delicately nuanced flavor that makes it work in hot weather. And, even though it has a bit of heavy cream swirled in at the end, it's actually quite light. I took my inspiration from the August Gourmet recipe for "Roasted tomato soup with parmesan wafers" and even though I have no evidence of the wafers in the photo, I did make them and they were unbelievably good--and easy!

Roasted garlic and tomato soup

4 lb tomatoes, halved
6 garlic cloves, left unpeeled
3 T olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 t dried oregano
2 t sugar
2 T unsalted butter
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream

Arrange tomatoes on baking sheet cut side up, then drizzle with some olive oil, salt and pepper them, and place the garlic cloves on the sheet around them. Roast in 350 degree oven for one hour. Let cool.

In a pot on stove, cook onion, oregano and sugar in butter over med heat until softened, about 5 min. Peel garlic and add along with tomatoes, stock and simmer, covered, 20 min. Puree soup with immersion blender or in batches in blender, stir in cream and salt and pepper to taste, heating for 2 min. Can be made ahead and reaheated before serving. Serve with parmesan wafers* floating in each bowl.

Parmesan wafers

1.5 cups parmesan or pecorino cheese, roughly grated
1 T flour

Mix cheese and flour in bowl, then scoop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread each round into a flat circle, trying not to leave any holes. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 10 min. Let cool completely before delicately scraping off with spatula.

farmer's salad

2009-07-19T14:43:00.009-05:00

This is a salad I will crave forever and ever. It was so delicious and fresh and very aptly named because every ingredient (almost) came from our farmer's basket.

I cannot begin to explain the crunch and the freshness in every bite or the clean taste of each part which made up the delectable whole. Thankfully, I just upgraded my camera so that at least the photo is helpful in getting it across. While I didn't get a fancy new expensive 'profesh' kind of new camera (not the time for that kind of spending), it was a major upgrade, having gone from 4 megapixels to 10! And I think it shows.

I got the inspiration for this salad from something I saw in August issue of bon appétit. It was a chicken, green bean, corn and farro salad with goat cheese. I didn't have any goat cheese or farro (unfortunately, my supply from Italy had run out) so I substituted pearl barley and left out the cheese completely. It was not necessary at all and kept the salad crisp and healthy.

I had beautiful green onions and dark green celery from the farmers as well as gorgeous romano beans. The corn is not being harvested just yet at Long Hungry Creek Farm, so I found some local corn at the market from Delvin Farms. It was super sweet and creamy, the perfect accompaniment to all the greens. The barley added that extra depth of nutty flavor to the veggies and the chicken lifted it from a side to a main dish. It's important to only make this salad if you can use fresh, organic produce. It's summer, after all!

Farmer's salad

1/2 cup pearl barley, spelt berries or farro
8 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breast
12 oz. green beans, cut into small pieces
2 cups fresh yellow corn
3/4 cup green onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
fresh herbs: marjoram, thyme, basil

for dressing:
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T minced shallots (or red onion)
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 t coarse salt
fresh ground pepper

All of the elements are cooked separately - Sautée the chicken in some olive oil in a skillet while boiling the corn, then blanche the green beans to al dente and cook the barley or farro in a pot of boiling, salted water. Drain and let everything cool to room temperature before mixing with the green onion, celery, fresh herbs and the dressing. Toss to coat evenly and serve with a crisp white wine like Viognier or Grüner Veltliner.

This will definitely be a my new farmer-fresh summer salad for parties, potlucks or just a weeknight dinner in one dish. Enjoy! And, remember to thank your farmers!

Slow Bake Sale

2009-07-14T15:18:00.010-05:00

Our "Great American Bake Sale" sponsored by Slow Food Nashville and held last Saturday at the Nashville Farmer's Market was a sweet success! We raised almost $900 for Share Our Strength's campaign to fight childhood hunger.

Thanks to all of our local bakers and pastry chefs for contributing their delicious baked treats to our sale. So many beautiful items graced our checkered tablecloth, arriving throughout the day at the market for folks to drool over. And drool they did. But they also threw down and spent money, some even donating money on top of their purchase, giving me hope that people do care. And they also love sweets.

Who wouldn't love baked goods made by professionals using mostly local ingredients? Who wouldn't love these...

peach-almond tarts made by Tom Huber for Marmellata

fresh fruit tarts made by Bacon and Caviar Catering

peach danishes made by Provence

peach cupcakes with blackberries made by Martha Stamps

'chocolate sin cake' made by Zola, pecan tarts by Bacon and Caviar and buttercream cupcake by Sweet Honey

And so much more... coffee cake from F. Scott's, a local harvest cake and vegan beet muffins from Fido, beautiful little linzer cookies and chocolate-ginger cookies by Rebekah Turshen of the Union Station Hotel, cheesecakes by Nashville Cheescake, brioche from Patterson House, and 'crostata di marmellata' and peach-blackberry cobbler made by yours truly.

Thanks again to all who baked, helped and ate. I'm proud of our Slow Food Chapter, our local chefs and our community.

easy summer cooking

2009-07-08T10:53:00.010-05:00

It's July and around here that means the summer produce is just starting to kick into high gear. This year, in addition to our weekly farm share with The Barefoot Farmer, we also have our own little veggie garden that is starting to show lots of promise. We've picked our first cucumbers-- all 3 of them over 16 inches long!

...and a beautiful green bell pepper, and the tomatoes that I've been able to save from the birds are just starting to ripen in all of their pink, luscious glory. We've eaten one so far and while my organic heirloom tomato plants bought from Eaton's Creek are producing fewer tomatoes than probably most conventional plants you can buy at Home Depot, each one is worth its weight in gold.

So fixing something for dinner in the summer months becomes a sort of game that most days I enjoy playing. What can I do with all of this produce so fresh it needs to be enjoyed NOW, like the lettuce we get from the farmer, or the gigantic basil leaves that are taking over the garden.

The cucumbers got eaten sliced thinly and sprinkled with salt on a piece of toast spread with goat cheese. I could think of no better way to enjoy the freshly picked monster cukes. I shared some with neighbors to show off my gardening skills. But for the most part, my garden is not about huge quantities, but the quality is outstanding. And my herbs are doing amazingly well. The one thing I always include in every meal in the summer are fresh herbs from the garden: rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, chives and Italian parsley.

I made pizza dough one night and we ate margherita pizzas hot out of the oven with fresh mozzarella, my quick tomato sauce and basil from the garden.

And one night I made a lasagne with what I had on hand: local shitake mushrooms from Delvin Farms, my basil again, and summer squash and leeks from the farmers. It was a light summer version of my usual lasagne bolognese. It also made a great lunch cold the next day.

And, then there was this version of a ratatouille--100% local, even the garlic--with everything I had gotten from the farm share that week thrown in: onions, garlic, baby carrots, dark green celery, summer squash, fresh thyme, basil and a couple of tomatoes thrown in at the end. Eaten as is, or scooped onto a piece of crusty Tuscan bread and drizzled with olive oil, it was like summer in one pot.

And it's so simple. Just coarsely chop everything and lightly sautée each veggie on its own, aromatics first, then the squash or zucchini, cook with the lid on for only about 15 min. as veggies this fresh don't need much cooking time, then throw in the chopped tomatoes, cook 5 min. more, and finally, the herbs and give it one stir. It's one of the best ways I know to enjoy the bounty of summer in the simplest preparation possible. Easy summer cooking doesn't get any better than this!

Crostata di marmellata

2009-06-20T09:13:00.007-05:00

There is something so simple about Italian desserts. If I come across a new "Italian" dessert cookbook and the recipes call for multi-stage cake baking or lots of hard-to-find ingredients I know it's not really Italian. Because in my experience, the Italians are fans of homemade, rustic desserts. The ones your nonna used to make. And those are the same ones that Italians repeat over and over at home, as well as the ones you will find in a good Italian pasticceria.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are regions in Italy where pastry is a tradition involving skill, artistry and technique, rivaling that of the French pastry tradition. These are mostly in the South - cities like Naples, Palermo and Siracusa in Sicily.

like this beautiful Sicilian cassata (image from www.on_sicily.com)

But in the rest of Italy, pastry is not an elevated tradition, but more a tradition of simplicity and seasonality.

crostata di marmellata and torta della nonna in a pastry shop window

pan di spagna (chocolate cream cake) made by Carla, my Tuscan friend/cook

That is why this 'torta di marmellata' speaks volumes to me about Italian desserts. It's not overly sweet, nor is it ostentations or decorative. If this were art history, it would be Medieval rather than Baroque. It says "anyone can make this," or "just use whatever fruit is growing in your backyard," or "give me an espresso and a piece of crostata and I will give you perfection.

getting a little fancier but still rustic crostate

So I first learned of the crostata (Italy's version of pie you could say) while hosting my good friend Betty Bottoni (yes, that's Betty Buttons) on her first visit to the U.S. to see me. We met in 1997 in Urbino where she was studying journalism and I was passing through after helping direct a study abroad program in Perugia. We became fast friends and she invited me and a few other straggling foreigners to her apartment for dinner that night where her mother, visiting from her town in Lazio near Rome, cooked what was probably a fabulous meal in the tiniest kitchen imaginable. Betty's mom is a wonderful Italian home cook. I have learned a lot from her over the years.

In fact, I am sure that Betty's crostata probably hails from her mother's kitchen, one in which there is always a jar or two of homemade jam left from the previous summer. (Right now I have a jar of grape-strawberry in the fridge and my favorite, fichi-cacao (chocolate fig) in my cupboard from the last visit to Rome. Betty's mother always sends me home with marmellata and various other jars of homemade goodies.

You get the idea. The real Italian sweets, the kind your mom makes, are made with whatever you have on hand, which is why so many of them involve seasonal fruit. And always, a short crust, or 'pasta frolla'- heavy on the butter, light on the sugar.

There are as many recipes for the pastry as there are for pie crust, varying only slightly, so go with what works in your kitchen. But here is one I return to again and again, given to me by Betty so many years ago. It's still written in Italian so forgive the estimations on equivalents. Like I said, it's not so much about precision as it is presentation. Take this to a party and people will think you're an expert baker.

La crostata di Betty

pastry:

1 1/2 sticks (12 T) chilled unsalted butter
1/4 c sugar
1 egg and 1 yolk
2 cups a.p. flour
pinch of salt
2 T cold water

filling:
1 1/2 cups jam (or fresh fruit if available)
1 t finely grated lemon peel
1/2 t almond extract
powdered sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

Mix as you would pie crust, divide in half, wrap in plastic and chill at least one hour, up to one day. Roll dough out on floured surface, transfer to 9-in tart pan, or whatever you have, and press into sides. Stir jam or (cooked fruit), lemon and almond extract in bowl to blend. Spoon filling into crust in pan. Roll out remaining dough and cut into strips. Arrange them on top any way you like. Seal strips to crust and trim edges. Bake tart at 350 until golden, about 50 min. Can be made a day ahead. Cover and serve at room temp.

Paella Party

2009-06-11T11:14:00.016-05:00

It is not every day that I get to throw a backyard party for my man's birthday (a milestone one this year, but I'm not saying how old --or young!) I thought the occasion merited an all-out grand celebration in the tradition of the Spanish who, in my opinion, are some first-rate party people.

My man also loves paella. He loves anything that combines shellfish, chicken and pork. And this was no ordinary paella. I took my inspiration from the parties I'd seen on the beach in Spain where men cooked paella in pans 5-feet wide on an open fire and served it up right on the beach. I decided I would make the most authentic paella that has probably ever been seen in Nashville, or at least in my backyard.

We have one of those old BBQ pits made of bricks, now crumbling with the weight of time and neglect. Who knows how long it's been there. You don't see them too often anymore. When we moved in, we cleaned out all the vegetation that had grown around it, cleared out the snakes and slugs from inside, and I vowed one day to turn it into a pizza oven. But this seemed like the perfect reason to fire it up and see what it could do.

Originally from Valencia, though now cooked all over Spain, paella is traditionally cooked on an open fire in a wide, shallow pan that is the namesake of the dish ('paella' means skillet in Spanish). That time I saw it being made on the beach in Andalucia was almost 15 years ago. I got a recipe then, bought a paella pan, and made my boyfriend at the time cart it all over Spain with us, tied to his backpack. It made it all the way home and through several moves, but alas, I had to give it up a few years ago when rust and lack of use made it impossible to clean.

Enter the age of Internet shopping. Three days before the party I had a 22-inch traditional paella pan on my doorstep. So big it could only be used on a fire outdoors, it promised a night of exciting food preparation and just a little bit of intimidation, since I'd only ever cooked paella inside on the stove. But I'm always up for a culinary challenge.

We filled the bathtub (the one waiting in our backyard to go into our newly renovated bathroom) with ice and beer, a great use for a bathtub. I also made a huge jar of sangria with my dad's secret recipe from his restaurant days when he tried to bring tapas to Las Vegas about 20 years too soon. For apps I made little chile corn custard cakes topped with sour cream and salsa (they went too fast for a photo), and a refreshing gazpacho served in little painted espresso cups (again, this is an after photo. It really is hard to take pictures and host at the same time, but thanks to Robin for getting the job done!)

Then the show began. Lucky for me, a good friend was invited who also happens to be a great cook and a take-charge kind of guy. He and some other guys got the fire started with wood and then built it to a roaring flame. With everything in place, including 2 lbs of arborio rice, 12 cups of chicken stock I had made the day before, 24 pieces of chicken I had baked earlier in the day, and the seafood: 2 lbs each of prawns from the Gulf, newly arrived little neck clams and mussels, plus 2 lbs of hot Italian sausage, sliced red peppers, onions and garlic, and the essential saffron threads, we were ready to start cooking.

(Note: when undertaking something like making paella for 25 people, the key is early preparation. Had I not done all of the prep earlier that day and the day before, there is no way I would have been able to pull it off.)

First, we browned the sausage in the hot pan with olive oil, then added the peppers to soften, before removing them both to a plate and adding the aromatics, onion and garlic.

Then a few chopped tomatoes were added, before the rice went in dry at first to lightly toast it. Then the broth that had been boiling on the stove inside was brought out and added little by little to the rice along with the saffron and seasonings, and allowed to simmer at a slow boil. It took a little while and some major heat to cook that much rice but it's essential to let it cook and not stir it much. Rotating the pan from time to time makes it cook evenly.

When it was almost done, that's when everything started to happen: we threw in the shrimp, then the clams and mussels, the chicken and sausage spread out on top, and the peppers sprinkled throughout. It really was beautiful and exciting to make.

People lined up at the paella with plates in hand and I dished it up with lemons on the side and french bread to soak it up. It had just the right combination of flavors and the saffron was not too strong. The fire definitely gave it a smoky flavor that you just don't get doing it on the stove.

Everyone raved about it and went back for seconds and thirds. It really was an authentic paella. I think he was happy.

Of course, there was a homemade birthday cake to top it off. A carrot cake with orange-flecked cream cheese frosting that could feed an army- and did! It was just the thing to end a perfect backyard paella party.

I'm back!

2009-05-26T15:11:00.016-05:00

I just couldn't keep these babies to myself. Beautiful strawberries from Delvin Farms purchased at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago. They were just gorgeous and the first of the season.

Hi everybody! I know I've been gone for a while and it seems like forever since I wrote but the hiatus was good for me. And now I'm ready to roll again with the blog... and share what I've been up to, food and otherwise. I'd love to hear from anyone out there who may still be reading. (And come back often because I have something big in the works that I hope to announce soon. Sorry for the teaser; I couldn't resist).

So the strawberries were used in the mini strawberry shortcakes I made for the 2nd annual Slow Food Hot Dog day at I Dream of Weenie a few weeks ago. We had a great turnout again this year despite the rainy weather and lots of wonderful add-ons made by local chefs using local products. I think the condiments even outshone the dogs this year.

And the dessert, well, who wouldn't love a mini shortcake biscuit with fresh local strawberries and whipped cream? They went so fast I didn't have a chance to snap a shot of a finished one.

.................
In April I took a lovely trip to see my friends in Boulder. Good friends + good food + bad weather = lots of eating and drinking! It was a great trip. First stop, a new stylish little noodle bar in Denver called Bones where my friend Kiki and I indulged ourselves with escargot dumplings and noodles washed down with local beer and soft-serve ice cream for dessert (made with *real* ingredients, not the powdered stuff!) A great way to start our food-centric weekend.

Then, in Boulder, it was girls' night out beginning at Frasca where, five years after opening around the corner from my apartment, my friends are accomplishing amazing things at their little neighborhood restaurant.

Here are some pics of a beautiful lunch at one of my favorite hangouts, The Kitchen, after a day of shopping on Pearl Street.

flatbread with gioia burrata and La Quercia prosciutto

two lovely salads...

And, the main event, our home-cooked dinner at Kiki's house the last night, where all of us got in the kitchen and pulled out all the stops. Kiki opened a special bottle of Slovenian bubbly she'd been saving that required a very complicated opening procedure involving strange tools, a water bath and an upside down uncorking.

The menu included Suzanne Goin's herb-roasted pork loin with haricots verts and spring onions, bruschetta with garlic and swiss chard, a warm spinach salad with shrimp and cannellini beans, roasted beets, and a mixed berry cobbler. Whoa. We cooked, we ate, we conquered. And then we cleaned up her tiny little kitchen. But not until the next day.

there is a pork loin under there, before going into the oven.

beautiful spring onions

the bruschetta

the salad

And, this month, my dad came to visit and I made all kinds of yummy things that didn't get documented like a slow-cooked pork loin with green beans and roasted potatoes, a local beef shoulder from Walnut Hill Farms braised with wine and veggies that we made the best tacos with, and my dad's favorite- a mixed berry tiramisu with lime curd that was incredible. This is just the prep; the main event was devoured by all.

And, lastly, we've been remodeling. First the pink bathroom, then a new closet for me, then... the kitchen. Help. I will die, surely, when that happens. But until then, I have also been gardening like a madwoman. And the results are so rewarding. Looking good so far. I can't wait to pick my first radishes, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and peppers.

We've had lots of rain here in Tennessee and everything is green and lush. I am excited to go into Summer with so much on the horizon. I will be highlighting it all for you here. Just don't expect a comeback album. I'll leave that to Green Day.

changes underway

2009-03-24T15:56:00.008-05:00

I am going to possibly pull a Ryan Adams and call this my last blog post about food ever... only to come back to food blogging a month later. Not really. But I am announcing that my heart is no longer in it in this way. It's not that I am not still inspired everyday about food and cooking and ingredients and traveling and Italy. Not at all, and I still do most of those things.

It's just that the format of the food blog no longer inspires me and I believe I have much more to give in terms of verbally expressing myself. I have interests and opinions that go beyond the parameters and limitations (and dare I say, solipsism?) of writing about and photographing the food I make. It's time I start to explore those other venues. I hope it will produce a much more meaningful outpouring of ideas, one that I enjoy writing as much as someone may enjoy reading. There are plenty of other food bloggers out there to tow the line, some of them actually good.

But for now, the changes are coming and I hope they will be posted soon. So please do check back and thanks for reading this amateur experiment I've entertained for the last year and some change.

This chick is out searching for more passion and is looking forward to seeing what will hatch. Happy Spring!