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!