Good Things - July 2012 Edition

It's time to acknowledge the good things in life...


The Cherry Chomper emerged for the super brief but always delicious cherry season. I may have gone overboard on the cherries.  But he worked fantastically, and I now have a nice bag of pitted frozen cherries awaiting their fate in a cake or a clafoutis.

I can't help but love the Cherry Chomper. It's adorable and actually functional, which never seems to happen with kitchen gadgets. Hooray, Chomper!!!

He just looks so darn happy to pit those cherries!

My best friend married an incredible guy. I'm thrilled for them. And their wedding, which I was lucky enough to be in, was gorgeous.

Any time I attempt an updo, my hair decides to
do its own thing. Thankfully, a professional
sylist can coax my hair into exactly what I
longed for.  She had to use a ton of hair pins
and even more hairspray to do it.

Purple high heels.
This gorgeous bouquet.
Loved it. 

I may not harbor a passionate love of oatmeal like so many people out there, but I enjoy a good bowl or two every week.  I admit I use packets of microwaveable oats (Nature's Path brand has some delicious and nutritious ones I swear by!).  And I admit to adding in many other ingredients to make the oatmeal more appealing. I've had some successes recently (chocolate-raspberry-almond oatmeal), and some semi-successes, like this one below.

Here, I went crazy and cooked oatmeal on the stove in a blend of coconut milk and regular milk.  Since the oats turned to grainy mush in my mouth, I'm guessing I overcooked them.  But the fresh peach and blueberries....those were still very delicious.

Knowing my determination not to be defeated by any recipe, I'll be revisiting this sometime soon. Wish me luck!

 



It apparently is quite bonkers to make a birthday cake for yourself...but I did just that.  And I shared it. Though I kept the extra frosting for myself...it's that good.  I challenge you not to do the same.

Joy the Baker's Red Velvet Marble Cake
with The Best Chocolate Buttercream Icing.
Check back soon for my By the Book post on it.

Eric also took me out for a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, Meadowlark.  They recently moved into a larger building and added a bar area that turns out original and classic cocktails.  I initially ordered their Bubbling Shrub, a raspberry shrub drink, but they were out of the shrub syrup.  So I went for this gem instead:  strawberries and mint muddled with locally produced gin and -- wait for it! -- black pepper syrup.  Unconventional, but delicious.

Though I still prefer the rosemarry gin fizz as my main source of gin consumption...

The black pepper syrup gives a sharp, peppery
(duh) bite that works well against the sweetness
of the strawberries.

I've also been slightly obsessed with my new cookbooks, including Maria Speck's Ancient Grains for Modern Meals.  My whole grain and whole grain flour collections have increased dramatically in just a short time.  Anxious to test them out, I made a salad inspired by both a recipe from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals and a recipe a favorite blog, Running to the Kitchen.  It's wheat berries with oven-roasted grapes, crumbled feta cheese, and toasted pumpkin seeds.  I learned wheat berries have a nice chew to them that I really enjoy.

In fact, this little number has been my default method of using grapes that have turned a bit too soft for me to enjoy eating. Just roast the grapes with a bit of honey and salt, then mix with your favorite grain. Omit the feta and add a squeeze of orange juice to make it a sweeter salad. Or serve with feta over a bed of leafy greens. Versatile, easy, and smart. Bam.

 

Friday Cheer! Peach and Basil Vodka Collins

I've got a new cocktail recipe for you this Friday. It just screams summer. Okay, maybe it doesn't scream, but it does fizz from the seltzer water.  I promise the combination of peach and basil are sophisticated and perfectly summery. 

And as a bonus, you get to eat the vodka-soaked peach pieces after you've finished your drink. It's like polishing off the fruit in an empty pitcher of sangria.  Not that I've done that....  But it's awesome.

Peach and Basil Vodka Collins 

Printable Recipe
Adapted from a recipe from Women's Health magazine 

(get the original recipe, along with several other low-calorie cocktail recipes here )

Ingredients:

1 wedge of lemon (about 1/4 of a lemon)

1/2 a ripe peach, pitted, peeled and roughly chopped

1 oz. basil simple syrup (recipe below)

2 oz. vodka

Seltzer water or club soda to taste

The lineup. Buckeye vodka is locally
produced in Ohio.  That, combined with its clean,
smooth taste make it my personal favorite.

Preparation:

Put the peeled and chopped peach and the lemon wedge in the bottom of a tall glass. Muddle (with a muddler or wooden spoon) until peaches are moderately smushed and most of the juice has been extracted from the lemon. 

Add the basil simple syrup and vodka. Stir to combine.  

Then add seltzer water or club soda to taste. I added about 2-4 oz. Stir again, add ice, and enjoy!

To make basil simple syrup:

Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Heat until the sugar is dissolved, stirring often.  Once all the sugar is dissolved, turn off the heat and put a hearty handful of washed and roughly torn basil leaves into the pot.  Cover and let sit for 10-15 minutes.  Remove the basil leaves with a slotted spoon and discard.  Pour the syrup into an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.

A helpful hint - basil simple syrup is also great with melon agua frescas!

Happy Friday!

Confessions of a Cookbook Nerd

At home, my mother and I share our cookbooks.
Probably the most used books on this shelf are Martha Stewart's
Cookies or Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food. Giada gave them
a run for their money for a few months...but, alas, she did not win it all.

I'll willingly admit I am a dork. A nerd. A geek.  For proof, you just have to come with me to work. In a lab.  Where I become inappropriately excited when colored tubes arrive for me to use. Or when my proteins have fun abbreviations like dANK and mRA and TRX. You can't tell me you don't immediately think T-rex and picture a T-rex stomping around  in your head. I know you are. It's impossible not to!

For all that I am a science nerd--just wait for me to excitedly explain how something works (based on the reactions of my typical audience of Eric and Manning, it induces spontaneous eye-rolling and feet twitching to escape)--I am an even greater geek about kitchen stuffs and cooking.  Alton Brown? He's my hero, combining science and cooking in an easily digestible format you're guaranteed to remember.  Harold McGee? Near idol status. (He's wrote On Food and Cooking, the source of much of Alton's fun facts. I asked for it for Christmas. And it's in my casual reading stack.)

On the bookshelf in my apartment.
The most used of these books are The Food You Crave (Ellie Krieger)
and Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.
The Vodka Cookbook is surprisingly good and always a treat.
It's not nearly as kitschy as you'd expect.

So it should come as no surprise that I read cookbooks like novels. For fun. For education. For expanding the horizons of my culinary knowledge.  And--I won't lie!--for the pictures. Though I didn't miss the pictures in Melissa Clark's two cookbooks (nor in Molly Wisenberg's book or David Lebovitz's book), because they offered a story so well told that I had vivid images from their stories. I want to write like that someday.

I'll admit I haven't read every single cookbook I own...yet. It's a newer habit of mine, pouring over each page while curled up on the couch or lying in bed. Each brings a little something different to the table (pun intended, so there!). Alton organizes the recipes by cooking technique and prefaces each new technique with some scientific explanation.  Melissa Clark sorts her recipes by month in one of her books, which has helped me focus on more seasonal ingredients.  Gesine Bullock-Prado separated recipes by the temperature state of the sugar required in the recipe, so I can progress in skill and confidence as I move forward.  But each one makes me want to dash into the kitchen and try out something new.

Another shelf of cookbooks in my apartment,
of my most recent cookbook purchases.
I already have a list of future purchases, awaiting
the next Amazon order.

In fact, I have a tremendous list of "food things I want to make".  Actually, it's beyond reason now. Oops. It's one major reason why I want more hours in a day--so that I can make more of these recipes.  Thank goodness I have coworkers, family, and friends who are willing to devour the finished products!

Random fact: one of my New Year's Resolutions was to cook at least one new recipe each week.  I've been cooking from the hip the last few years, and making the same handful of things repeatedly.  My cookbooks sat on the shelf, collecting dust and longing to be used.  This is my effort to go beyond the usual and learn new ways to prepare both familiar and unfamiliar ingredients.  It seems to be working so far!

At home, another shelf full of shared cookbooks.
My favorites are in a row -- Power Foods, Martha Stewart's Baking
Handbook, Baked Explorations, and Mario Batali's Molto Gusto.

Another random fact: browsing for cookbooks on Amazon is favorite way to pass time. It's led me to some unanticipated finds. And it's saved me from shelling out full price at Anthropologie (which is a surprising great place to find indie cookbooks...but I always flip through the entire book before purchase to make sure it's worth it!).

Random fact #3:  My wonderful aunt and uncle are tremendous foodies and have endlessly encouraged me in the culinary arena.  They also have a fabulous habit of gifting me or my mother with autographed cookbooks.  I love each one!

Yet another shelf of cookbooks (and other books) at home.
The prize here?  Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking. It's intense
but its awesome. I plan to start it (for bedtime reading) after
I finish Ruhlman's Twenty.
Also check out the three books on perfume on the left...
They're all hilarious and brilliant. 

Look for "By the Book" posts in the future, as I try recipes from my library of cookbooks.  I promise it will be full of adventures!

Focaccia with Grapes and Walnuts

When someone says foccacia, I immediately picture a flattish golden bread flecked with herbs and oozing olive oil. Nothing else, really. But I've always been intrigued by the combinations of bread + fruit or vegetable present in the endless varieties of flatbreads.  When I saw a recipe online calling for grapes and walnuts in focaccia, the wheels in my brain started turning...albeit reluctantly.

It was only after I roasted grapes in the oven for the first time that I decided I needed to make the focaccia.  Because roasted grapes were damn good.


Foccacia with Grapes and Walnuts
From Williams & Sonoma's website (get the original recipe here )

Fresh rosemary. From a package.
Oops.
What can I say? I kill all my herbs at my apartment.
Plus I think it was winter. Don't judge.

Lightly toasting walnuts in olive oil.

Whole anise seeds.

I admit I wasn't excited about adding anise. It's not my favorite flavor. I almost skipped it entirely.  But trust me on this - add the anise. Even if it's just a little bit. It's flavor is subtle and perfect with the grapes and walnuts.

Making the bread dough.

Yeast is proofed for 20 minutes, and the toasted walnuts and anise seeds are added to the dough.

Making the bread dough.

Flour is added to the yeast - walnut - anise mixture and kneaded before resting the dough.

Making the dough.

The walnut and anise seed studded dough is rested and allowed to for an hour before baking.  When ready to bake, the dough is rolled/spread out on a pizza stone or baking sheet. Use your thumb to make indentations for the grapes...and fill each dent with a grape. Then bake. Your home will smell delicious.

The finished focaccia.

The grapes roast in the oven, intensifying their flavor and sweetness. The bread has a golden crispy crust and fluffy interior.  The walnuts add a mild crunch, and the anise flavor subtly enhances the sweetness of the grapes and nutty flavor of the walnuts.

It makes a lot of bread, so enjoy a large piece with salad or eat it for the next few days.  It's best when reheated in the oven at a low temperature.   It gets chewy when you use the microwave.  Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Friday Cheer! Tropical Gin Sunrise (a la We Are Not Martha)

After a poorly made martini in college, I never thought I'd love to drink gin. College was not the glory days of my cocktail making skills.  There's a memorable concoction of Coke and cherry brandy (kirschwasser) - memorable strictly for how absolutely terrible it smelled and tasted.  Oof. 

Because of my repeated failure to make a drinkable cocktail throughout college, my cocktail crafting skills lay dormant for years. Six years, in fact. Though I did learn to make a mean Dark and Stormy in that time, I just didn't have any interest in cocktails.

Then I started reading food blogs. And was inspired to try my hand at making cocktails once again.  My first foray into the field was Sassy Radish's Rosemary-Gin Fizz.  I tackled two fears in one fell swoop - my distaste of gin and my inability to make a mixed drink.  I came away successful. Cocktail crafted, drink (or three) consumed. Repeatedly. I may have finished my roommates bottle of gin.  Oops. Thankfully she was glad I polished it off.  

In an effort to try new drinks involving gin, I made We Are Not Martha's Tropical Gin Sunrise.

Tropical Gin Sunrise

From We Are Not Martha (link to their recipe here)

I have Tanqueray on hand because its herbal notes work
so wonderfully for my favorite gin cocktail (more on that later).
You can substitute your favorite gin, though
I'd be wary of too strong of a flavor. Stick with herbal
or floral notes if possible.
Or swap in some rum or tequila. How's that for an idea?

Ingredients for 2 Drinks:

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup gin

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

4 tbsp. Framboise (raspberry) Lambic

Preparation:

Mix pineapple juice, gin, and lemon juice together.

Into a glass, put 2 tbsp. lambic, then pour half of the gin-and-juice (ha!) mixture over it. Enjoy!

I was too excited and mixed the lambic with the other
ingredients.  Alas, I missed the sunrise portion of the drink
but I still enjoyed its sweet, tart, and potent kick.

The drink is on the sweet side because of the pineapple juice and lambic, so I wasn't as big of a fan of it as my roommate was. She loved it, especially with some extra lambic in there.  I enjoyed the extra lambic sans cocktail. Oops. 

Happy Friday!

How I Came to Love Parsnips

Confession:  I didn't really like vegetables until a few years ago.

Sure, I'd forced down peas, green beans, and broccoli in every possible iteration throughout childhood. But I didn't really like it. And I didn't try other veggies. I hated anything raw. Healthy food just didn't taste good.

At the end of college, with my athletic career wrapping up and my metabolism slowing (dang!), I wanted to establish healthy living habits for my entire life -- exercise, eat right, keep my mind sharp, give back to others.  Lofty goals, I know, but it took this complete change in my mindset to make me want to give vegetables (and lots of other healthy foods) a chance.

My mainstay was steamed broccoli or green beans tossed with butter or lemon juice.  More recently, I've begun to explore new produce.  Kale--made into crispy, light-as-air chips.  Carrots--roasted in pomegranate molasses (a la Melissa Clark).  Broccolini--tossed with butter (some things shouldn't be messed with). Steamed snap peas--with an Asian dipping sauce I could drink out of the bowl. And parsnips--roasted to bring out their inherent sweetness.

This is the recipe I tried that made me love parsnips, that humble and often overlooked root vegetable that deserves some love.


Roasted Parsnips with Orange, Cumin, and Honey
From Sassy Radish (get the original recipe here)

Parsnips look like white carrots without the green top.
I typically find them in a bin in the refrigerated produce section,
next to the loose carrots and rutabagas.

Peeled and cut into roughly the same size pieces.

After roasting, the parsnips luxuriate in their sauce,
tender, juicy, sweet, and spicy.

And if sweetly golden roasted parsnips weren't enough, this delectable parsnip cake from A Plum By Any Other Name will get you started. The cake itself is a bit unusual -- olive oil takes the place of canola or vegetable oil, giving a lovely mildly grassy flavor to the cake.  And please don't omit the cointreau-soaked figs. They're juicy pockets of deliciousness scattered throughout the moist spice cake.

Parsnip Cake with Rum-Cream Cheese Frosting

From A Plum by Any Other Name (get the original recipe here)

Two layers of parsnip cake, fresh out of the oven.

Adding dark rum to the cream cheese frosting offered
a subtle spicy note that made the frosting
different from the usual incarnation.

A healthy slice of parsnip cake, studded with
walnuts, orange zest, and Cointreau-soaked figs.

Oatmeal of a Different Color

I had pink oatmeal today.  Pink, because the raspberries tinted the almond milk a pale and lovely pink. Don't worry, there was chocolate and coconut in there too. I made it for breakfast. All I can say is...incredible! It'll make you finish the entire bowl of oatmeal, which is not typical for me.

Oatmeal of A Different Color

Ingredients:
1 package of instant oatmeal (I prefer Nature's Path brand)
Almond milk (add enough to get the consistency of oatmeal you love)
Handful of raspberries
1 tbsp. walnuts, broken into pieces
1 tbsp. chia seeds
1 1/2 tsp. cocoa nibs
1 tbsp. shredded coconut
1 tbsp. semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:
Combine oatmeal packet and almond milk in a bowl. Microwave as the packet instructs.

Add remaining ingredients and stir well, so the chocolate chips begin to melt into the oatmeal.

*I like to use frozen raspberries, because they're always in season and because I enjoy the texture and chill of a frozen raspberry.  If you use frozen raspberries, microwave the oatmeal for half the time listed on the packet...then add in the raspberries and microwave for the remaining time. The frozen raspberry will be thawed just enough to enjoy while still providing a chilled and firm texture.

But Everyone Else Is Doing It

If you're like me, you spend an ungodly amount of time each day reading posts from various food blogs. Reading is quickly followed by printing a few new recipes. And even more rapidly followed by awe and envy at people's skill and creativity in the kitchen, behind the camera, and on the computer.

If you've looked at many food blogs in the past few months, you'll probably see at least one post about kale and quinoa cakes. I swear, everyone is doing it.

Including me.  Oops. Sorry to be a sellout. But I promise these are deliciously worth the effort.

Kale and Quinoa Patties

from Joy the Baker

originally adapted from Heidi Swanson (her blog is 101 Cookbooks - check it out!) 

I did have to adjust Joy the Baker's recipe...

1) She says to moisten the quinoa mixture with water until they can be formed into and hold a patty shape. I added a lot of water...and the mixture still wouldn't hold shape. So I added an extra egg and an egg white (leftover from another recipe), and things seemed to work like they should.

2) I needed to add a new drizzle of oil each time I placed the patties in the pan. After the first rather sad-looking batch, I also drizzled a little oil atop the patty before flipping it (to cook the second side).  Without enough oil, the patties didn't brown and crisp oh-so-nicely.

I dipped my patties in Greek yogurt with sriarcha....delicious!

I hoped to make my own aioli with capers to use as a dipping sauce...but, alas, that never happened.  Perhaps next time.

I suspect that Joy the Baker's suggestion to eat these atop a salad would be spot on too.

Everyone else is doing it. So you probably should too. You'll be happy you did.

Friday Cheer! Abita Strawberry Lager

It's Friday. It's summer. It's oppressively hot out there, at least in my part of Ohio. 

This calls for a refreshing beer.

What's this? Abita Strawberry Lager? 

Why, yes, I'll have one of those. Please.

Abita's Strawberry Lager is a crisp golden lager with strawberry juice added after filtration.  It doesn't have a strong, distinct taste of sweet, juicy strawberries, but there is a pleasant sweetness added to the lager's taste and aroma.  Happily, this brew remains well-balanced between sweet and dry despite the addition of the strawberry juice.  Because it's real juice, there isn't any of that odd artificial fruit flavor that I've noticed in some other fruit beers. Thank goodness, because at 4.2% alcohol by volume, this lager is perfect on a hot summer's day.

On my to-do list with Abita's Strawberry Lager are two recipes from my favorite inspiration for cooking with beer, The Beeroness.  I think this berry flavored brew would be perfect for her Beer Popsicles, and, though it's a bit more of a stretch to use lager in it, her Strawberry Beer Lemonade.  I'll report back with my take on these treats...if I don't run out of Abita first. It's that hot here.

Happy Friday!

Cheer for the Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope you're relaxing with family and friends, grilling out, and enjoying an ice-cold beverage.  More importantly, I hope you're wearing red, white, and blue. And I sincerely hope you get to see some fireworks tonight.

If, like me, you were inappropriately ridiculously excited to don the colors of the Stars and Stripes (blue running shorts, red tshirt from a Fourth of July 5k, and blue headband), you may also be excited to drink American.

There's the option to drink red or blue...

Shiner Ruby Redbird - a summer seasonal made with Texas
Rio Red Grapefruit Juice, ginger, and other flavors
Kennebunk Brewing Company Blueberry Wheat Ale - a wheat ale with
a distinct blueberry flavor

Rivertown Brewing Company Blueberry Lager - a pale golden
lager with noteable blueberry flavor

Or there's the option to drink a classic American brew, wearing patriotic colors...

Pabst Blue Ribbon - from a bottle or a can,
this is an all-American lager. Perfect for a swealteringly
hot day, like it is in Ohio

There's also some newer American brews, from 21st Amendment Brewery in California. One (Brew Free or Die IPA) is particularly patriotic...

Brew Free or Die IPA - A well-balanced IPA to go with your
burger or hot dog. It's one of the few IPA's I crave
Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer - A wheat beer with
watermelon. Pretty self-explanatory, but incredibly delicious and
refreshing. My favorite summer beer. Your first sip may be
super sweet, but keep drinking and you'll see why it
deserves your love

While there a plenty of cocktail variants with red, white, and blue, I've already done that to celebrate the Fourth. It's beer's turn this year.

So relax and celebrate. C'mon, go already!

See, the Fonz is relaxing with her squirrel.
Good job, Fonz.