this week's menu

Our first winter squash arrived in our CSA on Saturday; it’s a bespeckled carnival. Can't wait to roast it for a gorgeous salad of warm roasted squash, bacon lardons, dandelion greens and pecans from Suzanne Goin's amazing cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques, which I L-O-V-E, love.

Speaking of cookbooks, I've been reading Heidi Swanson's blog, 101 cookbooks, which is very inspiring in an oh-so-good-for-you kind of way. She is a vegetarian, but her food is gorgeous, flavorful and inspiring. Check her out if you haven't ... her book, Super Natural Cooking, is a great primer on whole foods as well.

With that, here's what we're eating this week.

In our CSA box:
Carrots
Carnival Squash
Cauliflower
Dandelion greens
Garlic
Heirloom Tomatoes
Leeks
Poblano Pepper
Purple Beans
Red Onion
Romanesco
Spinach
Sungold Tomatoes
Sweet Red & Orange Frying Peppers
White Globe Radish Yellow Potatoes

Menu: Week of 27 September 2009
Sunday: peperoni e pepperoni pizza – air-cured organic salami with sautéed sweet peppers and onions
Monday: hummus, roasted sungold tomatoes and spinach cacik on grilled naan with roasted yellow potatoes
Tuesday: zucchini ricotta frittata served with white globe radishes on buttered toast
Wednesday: curried cauliflower with brown basmati rice
Thursday: roasted carnival squash salad with lardons, dandelion greens, pecans and manchego cheese
Friday: spicy sautéed romanesco with sesame noodles
Saturday: salad Niçoise with roasted yellow potatoes, purple beans and heirloom tomatoes


Happy eating! -s

this week's menu

Happy first day of autumn!
The rapidly approaching fall was definitely apparent at the Dane County Farmers' market on Saturday. Apples, winter squash, cool-weather-loving greens were in abundance and, boy, does that make me happy.

Our favorite apple stand, Westons' Antique Apple Orchard, has some pretty spectacular heirloom varieties this year, including some gorgeous pears that I will be using in a salad later this week. My new favorite apple is the Pink Pearl, circa1944 from California. It's named for the pink flesh hidden just beneath its celery-green exterior. Quite a color-contrast! Crisp, tart and utterly delicious.

At the market

apples

arugula

basil

broccoli

mustard greens

pears

tomatoes: sungolds, Juliette and heirloom

sweet corn

Menu: week of 20 September 2009

Sunday: what else, but BLT pizza

Monday: it's my birthday, so I get the night off from cooking!

Tuesday: creamy corn soup with chiles and cilantro, served with warm, crusty bread from Madison Sourdough Co.

Wednesday: whole-wheat spaghetti with spicy Italian sausage and mustard greens with a dollop of fresh ricotta

Thursday: warm pear salad with DreamFarm chevre and a toasted-walnut vinaigrette

Friday: yellow potato gratin with salsa verde and nutty local cheese

Happy eating! -s

recipe: flash-in-the-pan chilaquiles

I often reminisce about one of my favorite restaurants from our Milwaukee days, Taqueria Azteca. Before it expanded threefold and lost some of its deliciousness, it was this charming, albeit tiny, tiny restaurant with brightly printed oilcloth tablecloths, little painted chairs hanging from the walls and Mexican wedding flags draped from the ceiling. My entire family was obsessed with this place; with the chalkboard daily specials oohed and aahed over, especially any of chef-owner Frank Sanchez's molés (I could really go for some puerco en pasilla right about now!).

Anyway, Frank's chilaquiles were comfort in a bowl. This classic dish comprised of stale tortillas fried to "revive" them, green or red salsa, eggs (scrambled or fried) and cheese is a Mexican breakfast staple. Whenever they were on the special board I would get them. They varied in ingredients, sometimes with shredded chicken, other times with seasonal vegetables, but they always included a fragrant salsa, queso fresco, crema Mexicana, avocado and copious amounts of cilantro. Yum.

Pickle is in love with any kind of red sauce, be it Mario Batali's classic or my fresh-tomato jam I make for grilled cheese sandwiches, so I thought he may like a toned-down version of chilaquiles.

Now I wanted to make it somewhat healthful and less sodium packed, so I started with spelt tortillas that I did not fry ... I know, I am already straying from the original. And since I was pressed for time after work, I used ancho chile powder (Penzy's carries it) instead of toasting, soaking and pureeing dried ancho chiles. Another cheat, but time is of the essence these days.

I also wanted to get some fresh vegetables in the sauce, so onion, grated zucchini and diced tomatoes were sautéed before the ancho chile powder and a little cumin were added to fragrance the sauce. I used Muir Glen tomato puree for the sauce base, plus a little tap water to thin it. I didn't have crema Mexicana (I wish!) or crème fraîche, but I did have some heavy cream which was added to the whisked egg. I topped it with aged Cedar Grove cheddar, cilantro and voila! Pickle didn't let me down; he scarfed it right up and "signed" for more. Hope you all do the same.

Recipe: Flash-in-the-pan Chilaquiles
Serves 4 hungry bambinos

You can make this carnivorous with the addition of some shredded chicken. Just add it when you stir the tortillas into the sauce.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
Two spelt tortillas cut into 1-inch pieces – corn or white flour ones would work as well
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 medium zucchini, grated
6 Juliette tomatoes, diced
1/2 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
6 oz. tomato puree
4 oz. water
1 extra-large egg
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup minced cilantro
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes, add zucchini and tomatoes and sauté until softened, about 1 minute. Add chile powder and cumin and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomato purée and water and bring to a hard simmer. Stir in the tortillas and cook until they begin to soften, about 3-5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs in a bowl with the heavy cream and season with a pinch of salt and some pepper. When the tortillas have softened, stir in the egg mixture and cook until the egg starts to scramble.

Add the cheese and cilantro and stir to incorporate.

Happy eating, s-

recipe: my banh mi

Anthony Bourdain visited Vietnam on a recent No Reservations and it got me hankering for a banh mi. I love the one at Mermaid Cafe, but they are not open for dinner (but should be!) so I had to come up with my own. It's definitely not what you would get in Vietnam, but it's vaguely reminiscent and sometimes that's just as good.

A traditional banh mi has julienned daikon in its "slaw," but since I’m trying to eat what is seasonal and local, the slaw in my recipe is comprised of carrots and broccoli stalks from our Driftless Organics CSA. The meats, both fresh and cured, vary from region to region and cook to cook, so I use roasted chicken breasts, as Pickle loves them, and took an idea from Gourmet’s recipe and use liverwurst instead of the traditional paté. This sandwich is all about assembly, so have everything prepped and ready to go before you start making the sandwiches. As the French say, "mise en place"… everything in its place!

Banh Mi
Serves 2, easily doubled

Ingredients
For the Slaw
1 small carrot, julienned
1 small broccoli stalk, julienned
Juice from ½ a lime
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon cane sugar

For the chicken
1 whole chicken breast, split – you will have leftovers, which I use for Pickle's dinner the following night, but it also makes great chicken salad.

1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil

For the sandwich
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ tablespoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 jalapeño, thinly sliced on the diagonal
½ cup cilantro leaves and some stems
4 large or 8 small basil leaves, preferably Thai basil
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 ½ inch disk of liverwurst, about 2 oz.
2 tablespoons mayonnaise mixed with one teaspoon Sriracha chile sauce
1 demi baguette or half a full-size baguette

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.

On a foil-lined cookie sheet, place the chicken breast halves. Coat with olive oil and then sprinkle with the 1 teaspoon five-spice powder, salt and pepper. Rub mixture into the skin to help penetrate. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool while prepping the other ingredients. When cool enough to handle, discard skin and shred meat into bite-size pieces and set aside.

Julienne carrot and broccoli stalk using the julienne blade on a mandolin or by hand. Stir together lime juice, vinegar, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss with vegetables. Let slaw stand, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Then, drain slaw in a colander.

Meanwhile, split the baguette and trim ends if overly bulbous and heat baguette cut-side-down on rack in oven until crusty, about 5 minutes.

Mix together sesame oil, fish sauce, and soy sauce and brush on cut sides of bread. Spread liverwurst on bottom layer of bread and top with chiles, onion, basil and cilantro and lettuce. Spread top layer of bread with chile mayonnaise.

On top of the other fillings, arrange chicken, then slaw. Top with the other half and cut sandwich into two servings.

Happy eating, -s

Happy Birthday, Julia!

Today, Julia Child would have been 97 years old. Celebrate her fabulousness with something buttery or a glass of wine, preferably French. She would have liked that, I think. Thanks Julia for always being an inspiration in the kitchen and in life.

Bon Appetit!

-s

this week's menu

Oh, wow. That's what Pickle has been saying a lot lately: hear that plane? oh, wow! I just unfolded an entire load of already folded laundry. Oh, wow! Or, check out this a hole in the sidewalk - I can stick my finger in it. Oh, wow! And, I'm not going to eat anything except raspberries. Oh, wow!

Oh, no is more like it. Yes, Pickle has finally entered the picky zone. The zone where only one food will do ... for days, a week, maybe even a month. While raspberries are fairly healthful when it comes to obsessions, seeing your beautifully cooked dinner sit, congealing, while your child scarfs down raspberry after raspberry sends me into near convulsions.

Many a day I feel like a short order cook. I make a child-variation of the dinner we're having for Pickle, customizing it to his palate and chewing ability. For instance, he will eat the corn that we're eating with our steak, so I'll saute his corn with a little zucchini and some Sungold tomatoes and serve it with a scoop of fresh ricotta. Whether he eats it or not is totally up in the air, day to day. I was reading some famous pediatrician's article on feeding toddlers and he explained that some days a toddler will eat everything offered to him; the next he will literally eat nothing but a few bites of food, here or there. Just ride with the waves, he said, he'll get what he needs.

Yeah, ride the waves. If only we were swimming! Here's what two of us, and maybe three, are eating this week.

In our CSA/at the market:

Arugula

Beets

Broccoli: regular and Romanesco

Carrots

Cilantro

Edamame

Garlic

Green Beans

Jalepenos

Mustard greens

Red onions

Red lettuce

Sweet peppers

Tomatillos

Tomatoes: Juliettes, heirlooms & Sungolds

Yukon gold potatoes

Watermelon ... haven't found out whether it's red or yellow

Zucchini

Menu: week of 13 September 2009

Sunday: BLT pizza with a beet salad in a red wine/walnut oil-vinaigrette

Monday: Sauteed broccoli with spicy whole-wheat noodles, fried-rice style

Tuesday: Sauteed mustard greens with fresh ricotta bruschetta

Wednesday: Banh mi with spicy pineapple-edamame salad

Thursday: Corn pancakes with tomato crudo and Greek yogurt

Friday: Potato gratin with salsa verde

Saturday: Creamy corn soup

Happy eating. -s

this week's menu

My sister Holley was reading the book, "The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper" when she came upon this quote that pretty much sums up why I'm writing this blog:
"You would never know it by going to a supermarket, but children are supposed to eat the same food as their parents." -Dr Marion Nestle.

So true! I never noticed it until I had Pickle, but there are two main consumer groups to which grocers market: adults and children. Even the placement of food is shocking: the mac and cheese, the sweetened cereals, the juice, cookies, fruit snacks, etc., are all at kiddie height. With that food for thought, here’s what we’re eating this week.

At the Market:
Baby purple, yellow and red bell peppers
Baby Yukon gold potatoes
Basil
Fountain Prairie Farm skirt steak
Eggplant
Italian flat-leaf parsley
Maple syrup
Mustard greens
Red and White onions
Red bell peppers
Sweet Corn
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!
Tomatillos

Menu: week of 6 September 2009
Sunday: grilled Fountain Prairie Farm skirt steak and Juliette tomatoes with roasted red potato salad in an herbed yogurt dressing
Monday: BLTs with juicy, juicy muskmelon
Tuesday: fresh ricotta bruschetta with sautéed mustard greens
Wednesday: fresh corn pancakes with a salad of greens (recipe coming soon!)
Thursday: sautéed zucchini and aged cheddar enchiladas bathed in roasted salsa verde
Friday: sausage and peppers with roasted eggplant

Happy eating!

rain drops on roses? a list of my tried-and-true favorite things

I am often asked what brand I use for such and such. Or when I say salt and pepper in a recipe, what kind do I use? To answer all these types of questions in one go, here's a list of my favorite things ... one caveat, I typically try to buy organic, local or both.

In my pantry:

Muir Glen canned tomatoes: whole and plum tomatoes

Organic canned beans: chickpea, black, great northern are my favorites

Grains/legumes: Whole-wheat couscous, quinoa, lentils (brown and red), wheatberries, farro, bulgur wheat

De Cecco pasta: whole-wheat and traditional

Rice: sticky, jasmine, brown and white basmati, brown long-grain, arborio

Honey: we use local Gentle Breeze honey

Vinegars: champagne, red and balsamic; my favorite brand is O from Petaluma, CA.
Oils: grape seed, canola, truffle, porcini-infused olive oil

Seasonings/spices: Kosher salt, fleur de sel, black peppercorns, cumin, coriander, cayenne, Madras curry powder, dry mustard, allspice, cinnamon, dried chiles, ancho chile powder

Flours: King Arthur whole-wheat unbleached and all-purpose unbleached flour; Bob's Red Mill spelt, masa harina, buckwheat and chickpea flour

In my freezer:

Pepperidge Farm or Trader Joe's puff pastry

Pizza dough: I make double batches of Marc Bittman's Basic Pizza Dough from How to Cook Everything

Pastry dough: I make batches the food processor and freeze in disks; great for pies, crostatas, empanadas, Cornish pasties, quiche, etc. I use Cook's Illustrated pastry dough recipe from Best Recipes

Raw nuts and seeds: almonds, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts; pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower seeds
Fruits and vegetables: store-bought: peas; in-season: corn, raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, green beans, black beans, rhubarb

Meats: Fraboni's bulk Italian sausage, pancetta, Wellshire Farms uncured, nitrate-free bacon (that's 40% leaner than traditional bacon)

In my refrigerator:

Greek yogurt: whole-milk and 2% Fage

Cheese: current stand-bys include Cedar Grove Sharp Cheddar and Mozzarella; Marieke Gouda; DreamFarm chevre

Breads: Sprouted-grains tortillas, whole-grain/flaxseed flatbreads, Nature's Bakery Co-op six-grain sandwich bread, El Rey corn tortillas

Pacific Natural Foods low-sodium chicken broth

Yuppie Hill Farms extra-large eggs: a woman-owned, local farm

Organic Valley unsalted butter

Walnut and sesame oils

Sauces and condiments: Frontera Grill salsa, Hellman's mayonnaise, stone-ground mustard, Dijon mustard, local maple syrup, ketchup, soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha chile sauce, red and green curry paste, mango chutney, olives, roasted bell peppers, capers, anchovy paste

Kitchen tools I cannot live without:

Cuisinart food processor: this is the workhorse in my kitchen; I couldn't make most things without this machine.

Oxo tongs

Wustoff chef's knife

Boos butcher-block island: more space to chop and dice

All-clad pots and pans

KitchenAid Mixer

Microplane graters: love these ingenious, former wood-working tools

What can't you live without in your kitchen?