Farmer's Markets 2010

Craig and I were able to go to the Farmer's Market in Union Square, Sommerville this Saturday. I saw a sign that said the market would be open through October 30th. It didn't hit me until later that afternoon how SOON October is!

These beautiful butternut squash were what really struck my fancy as something to work with for our Saturday evening meal. We had discussed having pasta earlier in the

week, so these squash were used for Emeril's Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli with a Sage Brown Butter Sauce. I have to admit that I haven't used too many of Emeril's recipes before, but his two ravioli recipes that I have used (see this post) have both rocked!

Craig is the ravioli maker of the house now - he's become quite the expert. He made the filling and the brown butter sauce for the meal, too. I was in charge of the caesar salad and the stuffed mushroom caps.

We have a whole squash leftover - I really had no idea how much we would need, so I bought two just in case. We'll have to figure out what to do with it for next week.

Farmer's Markets 2010

The farmer's market in Central Square, Cambridge was the first of the several that I go to to open for the summer. I also frequently go to the one in Union Square, Cambridge, and one in Winchester.

I have been eating these juicy treats for weeks now. I've made strawberry sorbet, strawberry sauce for ice cream and Strawberries with Vanilla Syrup from Martha Stewart. Don't let the black pepper fool you - it is delicious!!

Mostly though, I have been eating these strawberries just plain. They are such a treat for only a short period of time, I just want to savor their freshness.

Other finds at the farmer's market this week: raspberries, rhubarb, kohlorabi, garlic scapes, collard greens, escarole, radishes, beets, zucchini, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli. Enjoy!

Valentine's Dinner 2010

Trying to decide what to cook for a special dinner like Valentine's is always difficult for us. We threw around dozens of ideas - crab legs? osso bucco? rabbit? red snapper?

We finally decided to do a tapas night. We traveled to Barcelona two years ago and absolutely loved the food. I also recently received a Spanish cookbook as a gift (thanks Pam!) so this was a perfect idea. We started out with poblano peppers sauteed in olive oil until a little blackened and then finished with sea salt.

Our next dish was these beautiful shrimp with lots of garlic and lots of olive oil. If you have ever been to Barcelona, you will know that they LOVE their olive oil.

We then made these oysters and potatoes. The oysters were topped with spinach sauteed in garlic, lemon juice, and a saffron hollandaise sauce and then broiled. The potatoes were boiled and then cooled, tossed with olive oil (again with the olive oil!), and then baked. There were served with a tomato jam and a homemade aioli (made with olive oil!) We were able to find Spanish smoked paprika at Whole Foods and that really made a difference in the flavor of the jam - yummy!

We finished the meal with individual chocolate cakes with a raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. Sounded like a perfect dessert for Valentine's but it was actually a bit disappointing (and did not photograph well!)

Happy Valentine's everyone!

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!

Homemade Marshmallows

Who knew that making homemade marshmallows was so simple...or even possible? When I first read the article, I knew that it would be a great project for a chilly fall or winter day. Last weekend was the perfect opportunity, so I set out to make them!













The first step was boiling the corn syrup, water, and sugar mixture to 240 degrees. Easy enough.
The next step was to add the hot mixture to the gelatin and water mixture that was ready in a mixing bowl.
Magic happens! It start to actually look like marshmallow goop in just a few minutes.
After adding vanilla, you pour the mixture into a baking pan and let set for four hours to firm up.
Cutting the marshmallows make be the trickiest part as they are pretty sticky! Once they are cut, you dust them with a mixture of powdered sugar and potato flour so that they don't stick together.
Chocolate fondue for dessert! What a great way to spend a Saturday in Vermont. It was really very simple to do and they of course tasted so much better than store bought marshmallows. I will definitely be making these again. Can't wait to try them in hot chocolate or s'mores!

Farmer's Market Find #3 - fresh eggs

Beautiful blue, pale pink, and brown farm fresh eggs. I finally was able to get Craig to the farmer's market early enough to get some before they sold out. I had just read an article this morning about the glorious taste and the beautiful color of the yolk of a farm fresh egg in the most recent issue of Saveur. It was an issue devoted entirely to breakfast...mmm. Just in time for me to plan a Sunday morning brunch.

I had been wanting to make this Ricotta and Roasted Pepper Frittata for a while (actually, I wanted to make homemade ricotta and then make the fritatta, but there wasn't really time for that today), so I made that along with some scones with butter and strawberry jam and had a nice brunch.

Farmer's Market Find #2 - Zucchini Blossoms

I had literally been looking for these gorgeous blossoms for years and all of a sudden, there they were at the farmer's market on a Saturday morning in early July. I had read about them, seen pictures of them, had recipes for them, but had never actually seen them available to purchase. I don't know what intrigued me so about them, I just knew that I had been craving them.

I knew that I would prepare them battered and deep fried, but then I had the brilliant idea to stuff them with Boursin. They were amazing and worth the years of waiting.

Boursin Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

zucchini blossoms

Boursin

2/3 cup flour

3/4 cup beer

canola oil

Mix the beer and the flour. Set aside. Place a small wedge of cheese inside each blossom and gently press together. Fry the blossoms in hot oil (375degrees.) Drain on paper towels and season with salt. Enjoy!!

Farmer's Market Find #1 - Swiss Chard

On Saturday mornings, we like to head in to the farmer's market in Union Square in Somerville. We plan our meals for the weekend based on what we find fresh that day. Last weekend we bought radishes, sugar snap peas, swiss chard, Tazo chocolate, zucchini, and some pickling cukes. Neither of us had ever had swiss chard before and we used it in a Swiss Chard and Salami Frittata. I left out the salami, but added some shredded zucchini that I had leftover from making Amy's Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. It was really quite tasty!

Smolak Farms Strawberry Festival

I had been wanting to go strawberry picking sometime this summer and was excited to find out that a strawberry festival was going on at a local farm on the day I had been planning on going! Smolak Farms is only about a 20 minute drive from where we live, but it was the first time we had ever been there.


By the time we got into the strawberry field to start picking, we found that almost all of the strawberries were already gone! There were a lot of people in the field and a lot of empty baskets. Craig decided to head to a corner of the field that was a little unkempt and weedy, but where no one else was picking. That was where we hit the jackpot! We were whispering and trying not to appear too excited so that no one else would notice what we had found. We went home with over six pounds of strawberries!




I made strawberry jam for the first time in my adult life. I have made it hundreds of times before, but not since I was about twelve years old and not without my mother! I ended up with a little over three pints.












I also made this Strawberry Lemon Curd Tart to go with our first smokin' party of the summer. It was supposed to have a different crust than the one pictured here, but I somehow didn't inherit my moms skill of making pie crusts. The original crust ended up in the garbage and I substituted a simple graham cracker crust.

We started out the meal with Dates with Goat Cheese Wrapped in Prosciutto. We had experimented with these the night before and ended up substituting boursin for the goat cheese and putting them on the grill instead of under the broiler. Craig smoked three racks of ribs. Our friends Gordon and Jill brought over homemade cornbread and an Asian-style slaw (that was really yummy!) We rounded out the meal with some corn on the cob and baked beans that Craig put in the smoker with some bacon that he also smoked. Craig's ribs were his best yet!

My First Soufflé...

...turned out perfectly! It didn't fall, it wasn't fussy, it was actually very easy! I made the Grits, Cheese, and Onion Soufflé for our breakfast this morning. Craig loved it, but thought that adding bacon would make it even better (isn't that true about just about everything???) I'm going to be trying out more soufflés...they are so much lighter than the omeletes that I usually make when we have eggs for breakfast.

Bread? Or pizza?

This Georgian Cheese Bread, a bread known as khachapuri in the Republic of Georgia, is the best of both worlds. It is doughy and yeasty like a bread and cheesy and greasy and crusty like a pizza. It is so unbelievably easy to make..you just have to be patient while the dough rises...try it this weekend!