holiday recap

Check out all of the amazing food we ate over the holidays ... how I am not 15 pounds heavier can only be attributed to Pickle and his non-stop energy (and dancing!). We had loads of fun, with many games of cribbage played, many Tom and Jerry's imbibed and a lot of delicious food eaten.

Here are the menus, with links to some of the recipes:

Christmas Eve: my sister Heather cooked up quite the feast that included lasagne bolonese and wild mushroom lasagne (not pictured) and a delicious salad of mixed greens, gorgonzola, cranberries and toasted walnuts.

Christmas Day: my mom made an amazing meal that included herb-crusted beef tenderloin with a creamy horseradish sauce, potato dauphinoise, roasted asparagus, brioche rolls and cranberry sauce.

And every meal ended with a delicious assortment of homemade cookies. Yum.

As you can tell, my whole family is kind of into food. My mom inspired all of her children to get their hands dirty in the kitchen and show their love via the dinner table. It's the best gift we ever received.

Happy eating and entertaining! -s.

ring a ding ding

Chris and I love going out and socializing ... except on New Year's Eve. We've done the parties, the multi-course dinners at restaurants, the pub crawls — all of which are fun — but none of them beat being at home. We splurge on delicious bottles of wine, indulge on delicacies that seem to be made for ringing in the New Year and either play numerous (heated) games of backgammon or watch a movie we missed seeing in the theaters. When the clock strikes midnight, we're usually in bed watching the ball drop in Times Square, thanking our lucky stars we're warm and cozy and not standing with throngs of strangers freezing our tushes off in NYC (which Chris has done and doesn't recommend).

I know, we're boring, but our menu is not. Here's what we'll be noshing on this Thursday.

Menu: New Year's Eve
first course: ceviche of red snapper with freshly fried tortilla chips
second course: potato and parsnip latkes with crème fraîche and smoked salmon or mascarpone and homemade applesauce served with Swiss chard sautéed in butter and garlic.
grand finale: butterscotch budino with caramel sauce
To drink: copious amounts of Prosecco and red wine

I hope your New Year's celebration is as rocking or relaxing, tipsy or tame as you want it to be!
Cheers! Salud! Cin cin! Prost! -s.

best wishes ...

Wishing you a wonderful, peaceful, joyful holiday!

Here's to an inspiring new year filled with delicious food, good wine, special moments and an abundance of happiness.

xoxo, -s.

nuts!

My friend Anne inspired this post. In response to my Tip No. 3: Pasta blog, she shared her favorite go-to, post-work pasta dish:

My favorite quick, after-work pasta: sauté green beans in garlic and olive oil, add cooked whole-wheat penne, toasted walnuts, and crumbled gorgonzola cheese and a bit of pasta water. The heat from the pasta melts the cheese and makes a yummy sauce. Super quick and super good!

Nuts are some of nature's "wonder foods." They pack a punch of protein, antioxidants, fatty acids, monounsaturated fat (good for the ticker!), vitamin E, fiber, magnesium, copper, phosphorous, potassium, folate, and selenium. Wow.

You can cook with them, bake with them, garnish with them ... toast them, roast them, salt them (or not). Great with a cocktail, good on a bowl of oatmeal, perfect for a snack on-the-run.

Walnuts, almonds, pine nuts and pistachios are always in my freezer. Pecans, Brazil nuts and hazelnuts also make regular appearances. I purchase them raw and then toast a whole sheet pan full and freeze them once cooled. Then I have toasted nuts, ready to go whenever I want.

Here's my recipe for walnut paste. It's a multi-purpose condiment, perfect as ... a pizza sauce; slathered on a crostini with a dollop of fresh ricotta; mixed with pasta and sautéed greens; delicious as a garnish for butternut squash or white bean soup. Lasts in the fridge for a week; let it come to room temperature before using. It may need a vigourous whisk to reincorporate.

Walnut Paste
makes roughly 1 cup

Ingredients
1 cup toasted walnuts (cooled)
1/3 cup walnut or olive oil
a teeny tiny clove of garlic or a small chunk from a normal size one
1 teaspoon lemon zest
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
In the bowl of a food processor with machine running, add garlic through feed tube to mince. Stop the machine and add walnuts, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper. Pulse until coarsely ground. With machine running, slowly add oil until a smooth sauce is produced. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed, adding more salt, pepper or lemon juice.

Happy eating, -s.

super cool gadget

Looking for a last-minute gift idea for the foodie in your life? Check out this super cool product: The Herb-Savor (love the play on spelling). I found it in the December issue of Real Simple. It's $30, but reviews are rave and since you pay about $4.00 for herbs at the store in the middle of winter, it pays for itself in six or seven uses ... not bad and you don't have slimy cilantro anymore (even better!). Oh, and it looks cool, too. You can get it and it's sister, the Herb-Savor Pod, at Macy's.

Happy (last-minute) shopping, -s.

cookie extravaganza

My book club's third annual cookie and gift exchange was last night and by the size of the headache I have, I would say it was a very fun evening (more coffee please!). The cookies crafted by everyone were pretty amazing too – check out the photos above!

Some of the cookies were family favorites passed down from generation to generation — peanut butter balls (or Buckeyes as my family calls them), cookies adorned with Hershey kisses, powder-sugar-coated pecan crescents; others were new ones found in magazines or on the Internet. My friend Cecilia made these amazing, traditional Swedish “toffees” from her homeland that were meltingly good and were made with beet syrup — a fun new ingredient to check out! Whether a new recipe or a tried-and-true heirloom, last night proved that the act of baking and sharing with loved ones continues on; that it will always be “in style”; that something our grandmothers and mothers and aunts did, we too can do — but in our own way.

Thanks ladies for another fabulous year! Can’t wait for the next.

xo,
Sarah

baby, it's cold outside! this week's menu and other things

Brrr. Jack Frost and his gang of ne’er-do-wells gave Madison quite the sugar-coating of snow, ice and frigid temps this past week. Pickle has been in high heaven "helping" Chris shovel the snow. He would be outside all day if we let him, but it's been too cold to stay out for more than a few minutes.

I've been baking a lot — which is not the norm in our house (I'm a cook, not a baker) — but the holidays scream for homemade treats, don't you think? All this baking has left very little time for cooking, so our menus have been taking a more simplistic slant the last couple of weeks and probably will continue to do so until Christmas is over.

I thought I would share with you some quick tips and tricks to have on hand during the holidays that will help you avoid running to the grocery store every day! These will provide instant platforms on which to build hors d'oeuvres, desserts, potluck fare, etc.

In the freezer:

Puff pastry – this is my go-to staple for many things and there is nothing better to have on hand to elevate a dish than buttery, crisp puff pastry. I use Pepperidge farm or Trader Joe’s most of the time. You've seen my tarts, which would be great cut into strips for a passed hors d'oeuvre. For dessert, make some pastry cream and spread that on a sheet of puff pastry (leave a 1/2-inch border), bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees until golden and when cool, top with raspberries and dust with powder sugar for a perfect, easy and festive dessert.

Filo cups – These gorgeous little cups need just a brushing of butter and a filling of grated cheese (Pleasant Ridge Reserve, gruyere, sharp white cheddar), some caramelized onions and either some chopped prosciutto or cooked, crumbled bacon to make the most divine little mouthful. Just bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and golden brown. Serve hot.

In the fridge:

Cream cheese – set out at room temperature and slather with one of the following: chutney, salty, toasted pecans and apricot preserves, jalapeño jam, or gorgeous lump crab and cocktail sauce (a retro classic). Serve with crackers, crudités and/or crunchy crostini.

Smoked salmon (lox-style)– topped with lemon-zest scented crème fraîche and placed on a pumpernickel crostini; add it to a simple frittata for a perfect addition to a buffet; or showcase it on a tray with cornichon, capers, wafer-thin slices of red onion and cream cheese. Serve it with homemade or store-bought bagel chips and water crackers – perfect for brunch or a cocktail party (screams for Champagne!)

Champagne or Prosecco – nothing says “party” like a bottle of bubbly. Have a few bottles on hand for hostess gifts or to crack open when the tree is decorated, the presents are wrapped or the guests have gone home!

Menu: week of 13 December 2009:

Sunday: whole-wheat panko-crusted chicken cutlets with a fennel, apple & walnut salad in a sherry-maple vinaigrette

Monday: potato, rosemary and garlic pizza

Tuesday: salmon cakes with mixed greens vinaigrette (applesauce for Pickle)

Wednesday: turkey kofte with a side of whole-wheat sesame noodles with broccoli

Thursday: stewed white beans with tomatoes and thyme served on top of bruschetta

Friday: carry out and a movie

Saturday: holiday dinner group

Happy eating, -s.

this week's menu

The snowing has been flying in Madison the last couple of days and the forecast calls for a blizzard starting later today — 12 inches of the white stuff, to be exact. One part of me loves snow; the other part of me — the one that commutes in it — loathes it with every fiber of my being. Pickle has been utterly fascinated by it; he wants to touch it and taste it and play in it. It's so cool to watch him experience things for the first time ... makes the loathing part of me flee quite quickly.

Anyway, we've been busy bees of late. We trekked out in the wood to cut down a Christmas tree; I got sicker than a dog — as my Dad has been known to say — late Saturday night (yuck), and we had another house showing yesterday (third time for this potential buyer; crossing fingers and toes this is the one!), which means that I did little-to-no cooking this weekend. Boo hoo.

I did manage to make a big batch of macaroni and cheese with puréed squash folded into the rich and delicious Mornay sauce. I used conchiglie (shells) for the pasta and whole wheat bread for the bread crumbs and it turned out pretty well.

With this rapidly approaching winter wonderland, I am hoping to bake some cookies. Here's what I think I'll make this year for sharing and eating (it's a very choco-centric list):
Whole-wheat shortbread dipped in dark chocolate
Dark-chocolate Scottish oat biscuits
Dark chocolate and pistachio crisps
Coconut brittle

And here's our menu for the week:

Menu: week of 6 December 2009
Sunday: Roasted squash macaroni and cheese with mixed greens vinaigrette
Monday: out to dinner at Cafe Porta Alba (if you haven't been there, go now!)
Tuesday: Italian sausage, kale and cannelini bean stew
Wednesday: Curried beef pie
Thursday: Carrot soup with toasted almonds
Friday: Turkish eggs with yogurt in a spicy sage butter

Happy eating, baking, cooking, shoveling, snowman-building and frolicking in the snow! -s.

all I want for christmas ...

My very talented friend Katie is owner and curator of artwallonline.com. Recently, she's been blogging about great holiday gift ideas in easy-on-the-wallet price ranges. She inspired me to put together a list of my own ... with a decided slant toward kitchen and dining accoutrement. So, here's a sampling of things that would make your kitchen or dining room a special spot.

1951 Argentina Seltzer Bottle from Three Potato Four — one of my favorite websites! Would look fabulous on a bar table.

1934 dining chair from Sundance catalog — eight would be great!

Porcelain Mason Jar by Pigeon Toe Ceramics at Reform School — another favorite site.

Rancho Gordo heirloom beans — a must for the foodie in your life.

Handcrafted Dotted Bowls from Orange Lola — this stack looks just about right … for ice cream, soup, dips, lemons …

Diamond pillow cover from Stitch in Dye — perfect backrest for the 1934 dining chair? Yes!

Fair Trade Burlap Buckets by Maya*Made — I want one of these for tossing dirty towels and cloth napkins into before they head to the wash!

Wisconsin Artisan Cheeses and Companions gift box from Fromagination — yum! One of my favorite local shops … ships everywhere!

Yummy, yummy, yummy! Tea towel from Mr. PS etsy shop — so fun!

Milk jug from Keith Brymer Jones @ Horne

Piggy Lunch Bag from Hero Bags — Must. Have. This.

Spouted bowls from Gleena’s etsy shop — elegant and useful.

Happy shopping, -s!