due bambini

I've been MIA for quite some time, sorry about that! On August 25, 2011, our Hungry Bambino got a brother, James Willem. Now we have due bambini and things are doubly crazy as they used to be.

I'm just getting back in the swing of things and heading back to work full time. Future posts will mostly be focused on what dinners can be made in the 15-minute window I now have between work and dinner. This will probably entail a lot of pre-planning, shopping on the weekends, and the cooking one protein for multiple dinners. If you have any dinner challenges of your own that you would like me to tackle, let me know. It may inspire something great on the dinner plate!

My mom asked me to bring a little nibble for our pre-thanksgiving dinner noshing and I wanted to do something that wasn't too heavy and was a bit more kid-friendly as we are slowly becoming outnumbered by the little ones at the holidays. I ended up bringing two things: rosemary and cayenne caramalized nuts and coconut-oil-popped popcorn. Both were a big hit, as I manned the Whirly Pop for 4 batches of popcorn and both jars of nuts were decimated by Friday evening.

The nuts were my take on a favorite: the Union Square Cafe's bar nuts. I love them so, but I always find them a little greasy and the best parts -- the sugar, salt, rosemary and cayenne -- always end up on the bottom of the bowl. In my recipe, I nixed the butter and pan-toasted the nuts before adding the sugar to start the caramel bath that slowly enveloped the cashews, almonds and pecans. Once the sugar was in liquid form, I added the minced fresh rosemary, salt and cayenne. Once they were thoroughly coated and the sugar was a nice dark amber, the nuts were layed out to cool on Silpats. When they were cool enough to handle, I broke them apart and placed in jars -- a perfect food gift for holidays.

Rosemary-Scented Bar Nuts
serves many at cocktail time

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of each: roasted, unsalted cashews, raw pecan halves and blanched, slivered almonds
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leave, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Equipment: a heavy-duty 12-inch skillet, silpats or parchment paper, heat-resistent rubber spatula.

Directions:
Over medium heat, add nuts to 12-inch skillet and toast until frangrant. Add sugar and let sit, untouched for 2 minutes. Start stirring the nuts with the melting sugar until all the sugar has turned to a liquid. Add the rosemary, salt and cayenne and stir to coat and distribute evenly over the nuts. Cook the mixture until the sugar is a dark amber -- be careful not to burn the sugar or the nuts.


What we're eating this week:
Sunday: pizza margarita with apple, celery, raisin and toasted almond salad
Monday: pork bulgogi with snow peas from marthastewart.com
Tuesday: ham and salami heros with quick pickled onion vinaigrette and carrot sticks
Wednesday: turkey meatloaf with buttermilk mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach
Thursday: red beans and rice
Friday: ???
Saturday: Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and Holley's cranberry relish

Happy eating, -s.

hot stuff

I will never complain about the heat while living in Wisconsin. Our summers are so short in comparison to our winters, that I will take the heat, the humidity, the severe weather and the bugs. But, I must say, this week is going to be hot; damn hot. Every day, all-day, 90+ degrees hot. The perfect remedy is my refreshing watermelon-lime slushy.

My younger brother and his wife were in town last week and Chris did the grocery shopping, as he was barbequing a 9-lb pork shoulder for the occassion. Back from Costco (where we typically don't get food items besides cooking olive oil and nuts), came a 3-pound container of sour cream (holy s%#$) and a huge-ass watermelon.

I'm still working my way through the sour cream (I tackled a sour-cream coffee cake for Sunday morning breakfast; I may be churning some sour cream ice cream to top a raspberry crisp ... or maybe some corn muffins with green onions and sour cream to accompany barbequed chicken ... any other ideas are welcomed!).

With the huge-ass watermelon, besides slices accompanying every meal, I've been whipping up watermelon slushies, which are in no way related to the artifically flavored/dyed 7-11 slushy. These are the essense of watermelon, with a kick of lime zest and juice. The perfect remedy to a hot day. Adults can add a jigger or two of rum or vodka, if they must.

Watermelon-Lime Slushies

serves 4 thirsty bambinos or adults

Ingredients

2-3 large wedges of watermelon, rinds removed

1/2 cup cold water or limeade, if you have it.

juice and zest of two limes

1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups ice

Directions

In a blender, add the water and watermelon wedges. Blend until foamy, pink and smooth. Add lime juice, zest and sugar and blend until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more watermelon, lime juice/zest. I wouldn't add anymore sugar, but that's just me.

Add the ice and blitz until smooth and slushy.

Drink quickly with requisite straws.

At the Market

sugar snap peas

green beans

Dreamfarm goat cheese

baby zucchini

rainbow swiss chard

golden beets with greens

Italian paste tomatoes

carrots

red onions

Menu: week of 16 July 2011

Saturday: Key West shrimp salad sandwiches with green beans vinaigrette

Sunday: crunchy tacos with refried beans, sauteed beet greens and fresh goat cheese

Monday: sauteed baby zucchini and Italian sausage with oriecchiette and opal basil

Tuesday: pork and green bean stir-fry with cashews and steamed jasmine rice

Wednesday: chicken cutlets Milanese with oven-roasted paste tomatoes

Thursday: ricotta frittata with swiss chard and red onions

Friday: carryout

Happy eating, -s.

pantry raid

asparagus soup that started our easter dinner

When we first moved into our new house in December, there was a very large, blank wall in our kitchen that was just screaming to be used. Our kitchen cabinets are on the old side and they're fine for storing dishes and appliances, but I am not a big fan of storing food in cupboards. I think it’s because I have been SUPER spoiled in my post-college abodes, which have always had a separate pantry, including one apartment that had a huge butler's pantry ... with a window! Heaven. I really like being able to see what I have on hand. It makes be more organized, prevents me from buying things I already have and keeps me from buying naughty (Oreos, chips, etc.) foods items since they are on full display for everyone to see!
As you can see, it utilizes the entire space from floor to ceiling and from side to side. I even have a whole shelf for my most-used cookbooks, which is so nice. Each shelf houses a theme — cereal grains and baking; pasta, grains, legumes and canned good; spices, snacks, condiments and cereal, with the higher shelves relegated to onion and potato storage and baskets holding non-essentials, like paper bags, blades to my food processer and lunch sacks. The only downside is that Pickle can access his "snacks" easily; something he has just started doing. Cheddar Bunnies at 7 a.m. is not my idea of a balances breakfast!

So, if you have some unused real estate in your kitchen, all you need is a sturdy wire shelf and some baskets and bins for an instant pantry.

At the market:
Mustard greens
Arugula
English hothouse cucumber
Dreamfarm eggs and 'rosebud' goat cheese

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday: sausage and arugula pizza with a grape-tomato salad
Monday: spicy pork and mustard green stir fry
Tuesday: Greek salad with cucumber, grape-tomatoes and feta, whole-grain pitas and hummus on the side
Wednesday: skirt steak tacos with avocado, onions and cilantro; grape-tomato and chickpea salad
Thursday: cacio e pepe
Friday: something on the grill ... maybe sausages?

Happy eating, -s.

Onion and bacon: best of friends

Our Christmas dinner was German-themed: roasted pork, potato dumplings, pickled vegetable salad and braised cabbage and apples – a pretty amazing meal that was kicked off with an afternoon noshing of flammkuchen that my sister Holley made. Flammkuchen is the German equivalent of pizza that is topped with quark or crème fraiçhe, onions and bacon/speck (see photo above of ours from Christmas). The crust is more cracker-like than chewy pizza crust – mainly due to the miniscule amount of yeast in the dough. It reminded me a lot of a lighter version of Suzanne Goin’s bacon and young onion tart with cantal cheese from her cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques, of which I make a “lighter” version with just sautéed onions and the ricotta-crème fraiçhe base that tops flaky puff pastry.

In cooking, as in life, there are perfect pairs; onion and bacon are one of them. There is nothing better than sautéing onions in bacon fat to start a pot of clam chowder. Spaghetti carbonara and bucatini all’amatriciana are both sublime with the silky onions and pancetta that make up the base of their sauces; one creamy and unctuous; the other piquant. Onion and bacon can play multiple roles in the kitchen, as a flavor base, as the star of the show, or as a side note in a steaming bowl of pasta – a perfect pair indeed.

Here’s a link to a yummy recipe of flammkuchen from the very yummy blog, Delicious Days.

Up next: pork three ways: braised pork with polenta, shredded pork and avocado tacos and fragrant pork with jasmine rice and julienned cucumber.

Happy eating, -s.