Meyer Lemons Available Now!

Meyer lemons are only available for a short time during the winter months, so get some and make these Meyer Lemon Ricotta Cookies now!

Finally.

I have been wanting a Kitchen Aid mixer forever, but just couldn't justify buying one when I already had a mixer that worked perfectly fine.

The old Sunbeam finally died and I had to throw it out. I'm sure that it was over ten years old, so its time had come. I was thrilled!

I got the black. My first color choice would have been yellow, but it would have been $60 more than the black. (I had a coupon that could only be used in the store and my color choices were limited.) I'm good with the black. It looks good in my kitchen.

The first recipe that I made using it was not a hit. I made Giant Bavarian Pretzels from a Rachel Ray magazine. I am normally not a fan of hers, but I was given a copy by a co-worker that had received a duplicate. I love reading cooking magazines! Anyways, the recipe looked really yummy and really easy - I was excited to try them. Craig loves pretzels. And fresh baked from the oven? Mmmmmmm!

All seemed well until trying to roll out a sticky piece of dough 42 inches long. It all went downhill from there. They were heavy and tough and the flavor was not right.

If anyone has a tried and true baked pretzel recipe, please let me know! My Kitchen Aid is ready for action!

This makes me SMILE! and GREAT ravioli!

We've been gone for a while! Sorry! We actually had our kitchen remodeled this summer and did not have a stove to cook on or a sink to wash dishes in for 29 days. We had a refrigerator, but it was in the basement. We ate a lot of take out and microwave dinners. We missed a lot of farmer's markets, missed grilling out and smoking meats. It really seemed like forever, but it was only 29 days. Not bad for a complete gut! We now have skylights! And two islands! And all new appliances! And this drawer! I love this drawer! What is not to love?

We hadn't really gotten back into our regular routine of cooking fabulous meals together on Saturday nights together until last night. We both wanted fresh pasta. Fresh ravioli we decided. We didn't know what kind we were going to make until we went to our local wine and cheese shop, The Wine Shop of Reading, and tasted a Mountain Gorgonzola. It was delicious and we decided that would be the base of our ravioli.

Our search for a ravioli recipe filled with gorgonzola lead us to the most amazing meal that ever came out of our kitchen. We made Gorgonzola Ravioli with Walnut Brown Butter from Emeril. To say it was delicious is such an understatement. It was sooooooo amazing! Homemade pasta is so worth making - even if it is just a mess to make. It really makes for a fun Saturday night.

Raspberry Picking

I was recently visiting my family in Wisconsin and suggested that we go raspberry picking. We made raspberry jam, Hungarian Shortbread (with the raspberry jam that we made), and this Rustic Raspberry Tart. Yummy.

Hog Heaven!

I'll admit to being a lover of hot dogs. In a recent Food and Wine magazine, I read about these artisinal hot dogs served at The Farmers Diner inQueechee, Vermont. When I read that one of the ingredients in the hot dogs was bacon, I knew I had to try one soon. Queechee just happens to be on the drive to Killington, so when we went to our condo for Memorial Day weekend, we planned a lunch there. The special of the day just happened to be "HOG HEAVEN" - two hot dogs, wrapped in bacon, deep-fried, served on a bed of cole slaw on a buttered bun. It was as amazing as it sounds. I can't wait to go back.

The hot dogs are made at a local company called Vermont Smoke and Cure. I was just on their website, and they are temporarily sold out of the hot dogs temporarily due to their sudden fame from the Food and Wine article! Good for them! Over the weekend, we had a sample of the bratwurst when we stopped at the Woodstock Farmer's Market, we bought some of the bacon and had for breakfast one morning, and Craig had a slice of the ham with breakfast at the The Farmer's Diner on the way home. It was all so good. We love supporting small, local companies.

mmmmmmm.........morels are here!

I had been calling my local Whole Foods for several weeks asking about when they would be expecting the first morels of the season. It got to the point where I had to ask Craig to call because I was sure that the produce guy would recognize my voice and think - 'enough already, lady!" Sure enough, Craig calls and they are expecting a shipment the very next day. Time to plan a spring dinner menu for a Saturday night!

We started out the meal with a fava bean crostini. I had seen the fresh fava beans at the store for the past few weeks and had been wanting to try them. I never had before. This was a great recipe to try and I will be adding this recipe to my list of 'vegetarian friendly' appetizers. I splurged and bought a pretty decent bottle of olive oil for this dish as it was drizzled over the top of the pecorino, and I really could taste the difference.

For our main course, we had Fresh Pasta with Morel Mushroom sauce. OMG!!! Delicious!! This was the first time that we had made fresh pasta - other than a few failed appempts at ravioli. We received the pasta maker from my sister and family for our wedding (almost six years ago!) It was really easy (reading the directions helps - right, Craig?), and the pasta was sooo good. The morel sauce was just yummy. I would make this dish every Saturday night until the morels are gone for the season if I could.

With the pasta, we had this Grilled Romaine salad. Grilled Romaine is pretty hot right now, as is halloumi cheese. I had been wanting to try both. It was really good. It was a bit heavy to go with the pasta. I think that it would be a great summer lunch all on its own. I highly recommend trying grilling romaine!

Dessert was simple vanilla ice cream with a strawberry rhubarb sauce that I've been making the past few weeks. More spring favorites! Enjoy the spring produce that is available in your area while you can!

Feeds 4 to 6 people - (or maybe two)

The recipe says that it feeds four to six people. I don't know who they have testing this statements, but they are way off. Craig and I polished this entire Dutch Baby with Lemon Sugar off in a matter of minutes. It was incredible. Craig had his doubts initially, as I didn't serve it with whipped cream, maple syrup, or butter, but he loved it! I tried a little raspberry jam on my serving, Craig had his straight up with plenty of lemon sugar. Try it! But ignore the comments that the recipe could use less sugar or less butter...that's what makes it is so good!

Winter CSA

When I saw these Tuscan Kale Chips in my February issue of Bon Appetite, I was intrigued because of the cool way that they were served in a pyrex glass and because it recommends serving them with cocktails. I'm always searching for a new recipe for a 'nibbly' course, but I'm not really a fan of kale at all, so I passed the recipe by.

But then last week, when our winter CSA arrived, tuscan kale was included. I admit that I might not have known exactly what it was if I hadn't recently seen picutres and read about it. I went back to the recipe for the chips and made these this Saturday night, and then again on Sunday. They are absolutely addictive! We loved them! I am now a fan of kale, as long as it is crispy and salty.

A Perfect Ending.......

...to our Valentine's dinner at home. I was a waitress for long enough to know that eating at a restaurant on Valentine's Day can be a nightmare. We decided to stay at home and make something special together. I didn't have any idea what I was going to make for dessert until I stopped by Whole Foods and saw these really tasty looking blackberries on sale. I searched epicurious.com and found a recipe for Lemon Mousse with Fresh Berries. It turned out to be an absolutely delishous recipe! It was very simple, too. I served the mousse in these oversized martini glasses, so it was a really fun presentation. I will be making this mousse again for sure.

We really splurged on the main course of our meal, although it was much less expensive than going out. I picked up two Kobe steaks, one a sirloin and one a bone-in ribeye from Savenor's, which is the place to go for meat in the Boston area. Craig did a fabulous job cooking them in a cast-iron skillet and they came out great. The rest of the meal was baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, steamed artichokes with a lemon vinaigrette for dipping, and one of my favorite mushroom recipes, Mushrooms with Garlic Butter. We topped the meal off with a bottle of 1995 wine that we had brought home with us from France. We really enjoyed being home and being together and eating great food for Valentine's. It was truly a special night.

We couldn't stop eating it!

I can't take credit for the picture, but I wanted to share this recipe for Quick Omega-3 Granola. I made a batch of it on Sunday night and now, less than four days later, the entire batch is gone! I'm planning on making another batch of it this weekend and probably every weekend for the rest of the winter. It is so yummy!