Indian Inspired Pork with Naan

Tonight's dinner was a matter of personal struggle and a small triumph. The Hubs and I spent the weekend running around like crazy-people. We are trying to get a jump on packing up our apartment for the July 1st move, I am hosting a baby-shower in 2 weeks, and my soon-to-be new land lord offered to let me plant some vegetables in his garden (yay!). Plus I wanted to get my herbs into their pots so that they got a few weeks of growth before I started sacrificing them to my cooking. It's also turned out to be a lovely weekend, which means that we just want to be outside. The warm weather also means that turning on the oven, even for the slightest period of time, turns the whole kitchen into a hot-box. All of this meant that my plan to do roast chicken and potatoes quickly went out the window and I was left with a dilema.

The struggle was over the temptation to just order (which won't be as readily available when we move out of the city) or be a responsible human and cook something from the fridge. Luckily (it was touch and go for a while there) my better self won out; we decided to do something quick and not rely on ordering from Dining In (again). It's also supposed to get a little cooler in the next few days so the chicken will still be making its appearance. In order to be a viable compromise tonight's dinner had to be relatively quick and couldn't involve turning on the oven. So I defrosted some ground pork we got in this month's meat csa and sauteed it with some carrots and onions and Indian spices, serving it over naan (not warmed because they wanted me to turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Not going to happen.) with lettuce dressed in a zingy creamy dressing. All in all it took about 15 minutes to make and was much better than what we could have ordered.

Indian Pork with Carrots and Naan

1/2 pounds ground pork (other meats work just as well, especially lamb)
4 large carrots
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp garam masala
2 tbsp red curry powder
1 tbsp dried tarragon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cardamon
salt and pepper
2 pieces whole wheat naan

For the lettuce
1/2 head butter lettuce
2 tbsp low fat mayonaise
1 tbsp cilantro
1 tsp lime juice

Dice the onion and saute in a large skillet over medium heat with the olive oil for about 5 minutes. While the onion softens peel the carrots and slice them on the bias (at a 45 degree angle). Finely mince the garlic . Add the ground pork to the onions, stirring to combine. After the pork and the onions have been cooking for about 3 minutes, add the carrots and the garlic. Mix all the ingredients together and cook another 5 minutes. Then add all of the spices and cook the mixture until the pork is cooked through and the carrots are just barely softened. Season with the salt and pepper to taste and add additional spices as needed.

While the meat mixture cooks, tear the lettuce into salad-sized pieces and add to a large bowl. Finely chop the cilantro. In a smaller bowl whisk together the mayonaise, lime juice and cilantro. Toss the lettuce with the dressing. It will be a thick dressing, but the heat from the meat and carrots will cause it to melt slightly and will add a tangy freshness to the dish. Serve the meat and carrot mixture over a piece of naan and top with the dressed lettuce. If you can't find commercially prepared naan, feel free to substitute brown rice or a whole wheat pita. Bon Appetit!

Serves 2

Mini Pizzas and Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp

Today I went to the farmer's market. And it was fabulous! My trip to the farmer's market made me want to spin around like a lunatic. No more would I have to make semi-sneaky guilt ridden purchases of imported vegetables from the grocery store. No siree, it's farmer's market or bust for me. In fact, I am so full of ideas today that you're getting a two-fer. Yup, mini pizzas and rhubarb-strawberry crisp with more to follow from here on out.



The mini pizzas were a must because it's Pizza Friday and then I found these cute little "pitas" I found in one of the booths. (Although the pitas turned out to be missing the center pocket, which I consider central to the pita's true essence.) The mini pizzas are topped with some sweet Italian lamb sausage I got from our meat farmers. Normally with the monthly meat pick-ups we take what they've put in the shares, but when the farmer's market starts I have the luxury of buying additional meats (which they don't usually bring to the meat pick ups) based on my daily whim. I've also been hoping for some lamb soon and this sausage seemed like a good sign for more lamb to come. The mini pizzas are topped with caramelized spring onions and some basil that must have been forced in a greenhouse (which qualifies as fresh and local in my book). To go with the mini pizzas I made a salad with fresh greens and local goat cheese.


Then it was on to the rhubarb and strawberries. I hadn't planned to buy the strawberries this time, the pints seemed a little skimpy and the price was relatively steep. But then, at the very last booth of the market, I found some wonderful looking rhubarb and I knew that I'd have to go back for the strawberries. So I compromised by buying the two pints that looked the most full. We ate the crisp with left over Ben & Jerry's marzapan ice cream. It was an excellent way to welcome the return of the farmer's market.

Mini Pizzas

1 large link sausage
6 small rolls or pitas
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion
2 tbsp basil
2 cups shredded mozzarella

Turn on the broiler. Cut the pitas in half. Put the pitas, un-cut side up under the broiler and toast them. Cut the onion into half-moons and put it in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and cook the onions until they are softened. When the onions are cooked (about 5 - 7 minutes) pull them from the pan and set them aside. Remove the sausage from the casing and add the sausage to the pan the onions had cooked in. When the sausage is cooked remove it from the pan and set it aside. Brush the cut side of the pitas with olive oil and top with the onions, sausage, basil and mozzarella as you wish. Toast the pitas under the broiler until the cheese is melted and the mini pizzas are heated through.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp

1 1/2 pound rhubarb
2 pints strawberries
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon
1 tsp mint, shredded

For the topping:
3 tbsp butter
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the rhubarb into pieces that are roughly 2". Put the rhubarb, sugar, and water into a sauce pan and bring the water to a boil, stirring to disolve the sugar. Let the rhubarb cook for 5 minutes, until it has softened. While the rhubarb cooks down, remove the hulls on the strawberries and cut them into quarters. When the rhubarb has softened add the berries and the mint and cook another 5 minutes. Check the fruit to make sure it's sweet enough for your taste (it should be a combination of sweet and bitter). The fruit will be soupy, but if it's too runny, add some cornstarch to thicken. While the fruit is cooking, melt the butter and then mix all of the topping ingredients into the butter. It will seem dry, but that's a good counterpoint to the fruit mixture. Spray a 9 x 9 baking with cooking spray. Put the fruit in the glass pan and then spread the topping over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the fruit is bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Let cool slightly and serve with ice cream.
Bon Appetit!

Tofu Stroganoff

Well, it seems as though that brief, yet tantalizing, glimpse of summer we had last weekend is over and we've returned to a much more normal New England spring. le sigh. At least it gave me a good opportunity to try a tofu recipe I found in Deborah Madison's This Can't Be Tofu! Of course, the recipe I am going to share with you is more inspired by than a direct replica of the original that Ms. Madison created. The tofu stroganoff called for a cool day because it's a hearty dish and today was the perfect day for it. Mike is also thrilled to be back to eating tofu after a few weeks off. ha! This is another dinner ideas that is finished by the time the pasta water has come to a boil and the pasta is cooked. We were also very efficient tonight, I did the mise en place and the Hubs cooked the ingredients as they were ready. Overall we found that the tofu was an excellent substitute for the meat traditionally used in stroganoff and the mushrooms gave the dish some serious umami, which is another reason we didn't miss the meat at all.

Tofu Stroganoff

1 carton firm tofu
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
1 10 ounce container sliced crimini mushrooms
1 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock (you can use water or vegetable stock for a vegetarian dish)
1/2 cup light sour cream
2 tbsp fat free half and half
1 tbsp chopped tarragon (dill or chives make good substitutes)
8 ounces egg noodles

Drain the tofu and cut it into 1" pieces. Set the pasta water on to boil and heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the saute pan is hot, add the olive oil and the tofu pieces, arranging them in one layer. Cook the tofu until it is golden on all sides, being sure to season the tofu with salt and pepper. When the tofu is golden, remove it from the pan and set it aside.

Then add the butter to the saute pan, cooking the mushrooms and onions until they are softened and brown, about 8 minutes. When the mushrooms and onions are cooked, add the flour and paprika, tossing the mixture to incorporate the flour and paprika. Add the tofu to the saute pan and then pour in the wine. Let the mixture cook until the wine has reduced and become syrupy. Add the chicken stock (or whatever substitute you've chosen to use) and let it boil until it reduces by about half, approximately 10 minutes. At this point, the water should be boiling, salt it generously and add the pasta, cooking it until al dente.

When the stock is reduced by half, add the sour cream and the half and half, stirring to fully incorporate. Turn the heat to low and keep the mixture warm until the pasta is cooked. Mix the herbs, reserving a little for garnish, and the pasta into the mushroom-tofu sauce. Serve the pasta and mushroom mixture with the fresh herbs sprinkled over the top. If the sauce seems a little dry, feel free to add extra half and half as needed to get the right amount of sauce. Bon Appetit!

Serves 4

Zen and the Art of Gardening

Day Three of the Garden Installation has come and gone and although the garden is officially planted it took longer and was more difficult that I'd anticipated. I've noticed that most things take longer and are more difficult than I think they'll be, but I like to chalk that up to being an optimist, rather than thinking that it's because I have a looser grasp on reality than I should. The garden, in all of its splendor, is quite large and I've been thinking of it as the "Go Big or Get Out" garden in a sort of anti-homage to Earl Butz.

This is the garden after the sod clumps were removed

Just to track the garden's progression, we first had to remove all of the sod clumps and de-dandelion the plot. As I mentioned before, the space where the garden currently is hasn't been used as a garden for many many moons and had reverted back to its original state of mown field grass. After getting the biggest sods clumps removed we had to wait for the old horse manure delivery. Once the dump truck had dropped off the horse manure it had to be spread across the garden.

It took Bob, Mike and I several hours to load up wheelbarrows and truck them across the garden to be spread in an even layer on the entire surface of the garden. (My Dad broke his toe the day before in a Man v. Footstool incident, so he was in charge of sitting with the doggers.) In fact, it was such tiring work for these two soft city-slickers that we left the farthest corner uncovered, figuring that we'd finish up the following evening. That plan didn't work out quite as we'd anticipated, since as we were finishing up dinner on the patio I noticed a farmer on a blue tractor motoring up the road and then turning into the driveway. The local farmer who was going to till the manure into the soil so that we could plant was here. Early. Luckily he'd brought along one of his sons and he pretty much spread the remaining manure single-handedly. I think that we were all privately wondering where he'd been yesterday and what he was doing tomorrow.

Here is the garden, all tilled and ready for planting

The garden was ready. On to the planting. Which is where we hit a snag. You see, Bob had traded hours of labor at a local greenhouse for the space to start her seeds. A brilliant plan. The first seeds she started were the peppers and she was careful to put only one seed into each little plastic container. And then only 1/3 of the peppers sprouted. Determined to avoid this result with her tomatoes she planted multiple seeds in each plastic container. We were faced with 6 flats of tomato seedlings and ended up with five (yes, 5) rows of tomatoes in the center of the garden. Having spent so much time raising those tomato seedlings Bob was reluctant to let them go.

So after getting the tomatoes planted we had to squeeze in all of the other vegetables, including putting a row of carrots between two tomato rows and planting the leeks as a border around the garden because we'd simply run out of room. All in all, we managed to get everything planted including: 5 rows of tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, potatoes (3 varieties), swiss chard, carrots, beans, melons, cucumbers and leeks. Now all we need is for everyone out there to do your best rain dance and pay homage to the plant gods so that every thing actually grows and produces vegetables!

Brownie Pudding

Today was Day Two of the Garden Instillation and we just seem to be getting more and more tired (it also doesn't take us as long to reach the tired phase, but at least we're making progress on the garden). There is something about planting fabulous vegetables that makes you want to eat gooey desserts. Or maybe that's just me. This is Bob's recipe, but she wasn't ready for her bloggy-debut, so I'm writing this up for her. Luckily for me (and my tired planting-fingers) this is a recipe that really speaks for itself. We enjoyed it with mint-cookie ice cream, but (to be perfectly honest, I've yet to find an ice cream flavor that doesn't go well with brownie pudding). The only real trick to this dessert is waiting long enough before eating so that the pudding part turns into pudding. If you can't wait (and this is the voice of experience) it is still perfectly enjoyable.

Brownie Pudding

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and set water on to boil. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cocoa. Add milk, vanilla and butter, mixing together until smooth. Pour the batter into a greased 8 x 10 inch square pan. Mix brown sugar and cocoa and sprinkle over the batter. Pour the hot water over the entire batter (it is going to seem like WAY too much water, but trust me, it isn't).

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes. When cooled, cut and put the brownies into a bowl, pouring the pudding from the bottom of the pan onto the serves brownie. Top with the ice cream flavor of your choice. Bon Appetit!

Serves 6

Sausage and Pasta with Asparagus

Today, Day One of the Garden Instillation, we spent the day raking out the garden to remove the large sod clumps and renegade dandelions. The garden is reclaimed lawn which was really just tamed field grass, so it doesn't want to give up easily. Then we planted raspberry bushes and prepped the patches for more asparagus and raspberries. Just before we sat down to dinner an old high school friend's husband brought over a dump truck load of old horse manure to be spread on the garden. The plan is that the farmer down the road (the original sod remover) will come and till the manure into the soil, which means that all of the manure needs to be spread across the garden before tomorrow. This might not sound like too much work, but trust me, it is. (You'd believe me if you could see all of the typos I am making.) By dinner time, we just wanted something quick, tasty and hearty.

We started with a simple salad made with lettuce from the cold frame.

The cold frame is possibly one of the most brilliant inventions; it's basically a small greenhouse and it allows you to start things like lettuces and onions as soon as the ground thaws. Given this head start we are already enjoying fresh lettuce salads. In fact, my Bob said that she hasn't bought lettuce for at least a month. The salad was just fresh lettuce, thinly shaved asiago cheese (I used a vegetable peeler to make the shavings) and my go-to vinaigrette. Then we had the hearty pasta and sausage dish; it was exactly what we were craving for dinner.

Pasta with Sausage and Asparagus

1 lb whole wheat lumache-shaped pasta
4 links sausage
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb asparagus
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup shredded asiago cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Put the pasta water on to boil. Get a large saute pan hot over medium-high heat, adding the olive oil to the pan. While the pan gets hot, dice the onion and the garlic cloves. Saute the onions for 5 - 7 minutes, until they are softened and beginning to turn golden. While the onions are sauteing, remove the sausage from the casing. After the onions are softened, add the garlic and the sausage. By this point the pasta water should be boiling, add a large dash of salt and the pasta. The pasta I used here is called lumache and it really does look like snail shells. It works well for this dish because the sauce and sausage get caught inside the hollow shells. If you don't have (or can't find the lumache) feel free to use and short pasta that seems likely to catch the sauce and sausage.

While the sausage is cooking, trim the tough ends off the asparagus and cut the asparagus into 2 inch sections. When the sausage has cooked for about 5 minutes and is about halfway cooked add the asparagus, the chicken stock and the wine. Stir to combine and put a lid on the pan for approximately 5 minutes, until the asparagus is bright green and the sausage is cooked through. By this point the pasta should be cooked to al dente. Drain the pasta and return it to the pasta pan. Then add the sausage mixture to the pasta, stirring to combine. At this point, stir in the crushed red pepper flakes and the asiago cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with a sprinkling of cheese on top. Bon Appetit!

Serves 4

Pecan Cherry Granola Bars

The Hubs and I are making a Memorial Day trek to my parents' house, far, far from the city. We are loading up our little car with the dogs, enough food to feed them for several days, and a restock of the coffee my dad likes. Given the size of the dogs, the amount of food they eat every day, and the size of our car, there really isn't much room left for the Hubs and I to bring along necessities. That makes bringing along alternatives to the available road-food a little tricky. We don't have the luxury of packing a cooler full of good food. So I thought that I'd give granola bars a try. These seemed like a good blend of sweet with a little savory and they were pretty quick to make (I adapted them from a recipe I found on the Food Network's website).

This winter (ok, really since Thanksgiving) I've been working on my mom (known here and the world at large as Bob) trying to talk her into putting in a vegetable garden. My Bob and dad have a ton of land and my Bob, as a teacher, has the summer to work in a garden. I've been talking to her about the need for local food that is organically and sustainably grown. About the importance of reconnecting with the land (although, for the longest time she maintained that she mowed enough lawn to be really and truly connected). After much talking/cajoling/harassing/encouraging and a little uninvited sending of seed catalogs to her house, Bob agreed. On one condition. I had to put my money where my mouth is. So, the Hubs and I and the doggers are heading to Bob and dad's house this long weekend so that I can help Bob put in her garden and this Labor Day we'll be heading back again to help with the harvesting and processing. It seemed like a fair deal to me.

Pecan Cherry Granola Bars

1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup flake coconut
2/3 cup chopped dried cherries
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup whole wheat white flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a glass 9 x 9 baking pan with cooking spray. Whisk together the egg, egg white, sugar, oil, salt, and spices. Then add the chopped nuts, fruit and coconut. Finally stir in the rolled oats and the flour. When the mixture is thoroughly mixed (it is a pretty wet mixture) transfer it to the baking pan and press it in well. Bake for 30 minutes. Let the bars cool and then cut into serving pieces. Store in an air-tight container. Bon Appetit!

Makes 9

Grilled Pizza with Proscuitto & Basil

Today was a lovely day. I don't want to jinx it by saying the word out loud (after all, this is New England) but I think that season that begins with a "su" is slowly approaching. (Yay!) In honor of the upcoming Memorial Day weekend and that approaching season, the Hubs and I wanted to grill outside, but I'd planned to make pizza tonight, so we thought we'd see why not grill the pizza? It took a little practice to get the timing right (dough over a charcoal grill cooks very quickly) but we managed to sort it out and the grilled pizza was a success. We used a multi-grain dough from Whole Foods (Hubs, the resident Dough Master didn't have time today to make our usual dough recipe) and on the grill it turned into a soft, puffy crust; much like I imagine freshly made naan would be. I recommend that everyone tries it, if only because it means that you won't have to turn your oven all the way up in the middle of warm weather.

Grilled Pizza with Prosciutto, Caramelized Onions and Basil

1 serving of pizza dough
1 medium onion
1/8 prosciutto, thinly sliced
4 tbsp basil, cut into ribbons
2 tbsp all purpose flour
4 tbsp olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 ounce goat cheese

Slice the onion into half-moon shapes. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat, add the onions and cook slowly until the onions are soft and have turned slightly golden, approximately 15 minutes. While the onions are cooking, tear the proscuitto into strips and then tear the strips in half. When the onions are softened and have turned slightly sweet remove them from the heat, taking care to leave the excess oil in the pan, and set them aside. Turn the heat up to medium-high and put the proscuitto strips into the pan you took the onions from. Cook the proscuitto, stirring often, until it has turned crisp and is darker. Remove the proscuitto from the heat and set it aside.

Roll the dough out into two rectangles measuring approximately 6 x 10 inches, brush one side with olive oil and set aside. Get the grill hot. When the coals have cooked down slightly (or the gas grill is hot) put the pizza dough onto the grill, oil side down. Cook the dough until bubbles start to form on the side facing up. While the first side cooks, brush the other side lightly with olive oil. Check the dough frequently because it cooks very quickly (about two minutes). Flip the dough and cook it another two minutes.

Then move the dough to the side of the grill (to indirect heat) and put half of the goat cheese and the mozzarella on it. Put the cover on the grill and let it sit for another 2 minutes (or so) until the cheese is melted. Pull the dough from the grill and top it with the onions, proscuitto and basil. Then repeat the process with the other piece of dought. Cut into 6 pieces and serve when slightly cooled. Bon Appetit!

Serves 2 (with left overs for lunch)

Maple Pecan Scones

This morning was one of those gray, rainy Sunday mornings that just seem to demand fresh baked goods. I've been thinking of trying a scone that substitutes maple syrup and brown sugar for granulated sugar and uses chopped pecans instead of the dried fruit traditionally used in scones. Today seemed like just the day to give it a whirl. These scones are quick to make and bake up in only 30 minutes, so it's possible to whip them out on a Sunday without too much effort. This is a pretty wet batter, so I did "drop scones" instead of rolling them out and cutting them into wedges. Turns out, the scones taste just the same regardless of their shape and the "drop" version saves several steps.

Maple Pecan Scones

2 cups whole wheat white flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk, as needed
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In food processor, add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Drop in the butter chunks and pulse until the butter is incorporated in pea-sized pieces. Add the vanilla extract and the maple syrup. Drizzle in the milk, watching to see when there is no loose flour on the bottom and all of the liquid has been absorbed. Again, this will be a wet dough and you might not end up needing to use all of the milk. Be careful not to over work the dough. I took two large spoons and sprayed each with a little cooking spray and then dropped the dough onto a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat, leaving about an inch between each of the scones. If you don't have a Silpat then lightly spray the cookie sheet with cooking spray. Put the cookie sheet into the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 350. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Let cool on a rack and serve while still warm (although the left-overs, if there are any, are good at room temperature too). Bon Appetit!

Makes 8

Curried Scallops

The original version of this recipe is from Modern Spice, by Monica Bhide, although the recipe I am about to share has deviated somewhat from the original version. I do have a hard time not making modifications to a recipe. And in the case of the Modern Spice version it called for some ingredients that I couldn't easily find (such as fresh curry leaves), which made me feel free to alter the recipe to my heart's content. My mother is often wonders why I even bother to buy cookbooks when I don't follow their recipes. I don't really have a good answer for that, I just like buying them. "Just because" still works for a valid response, doesn't it?

The beauty of this recipe is that it (again) doesn't take very long to cook, especially when you use the pre-cooked Trader Joe's brown rice. It would also be really great with some naan, but if you don't have naan, the rice is an excellent substitute. I used frozen scallops which worked wonderfully in this dish. You could also substitute tofu for the scallops, giving them the same curry rub and satueeing them in the pan before adding them to the curry sauce. Another great addition would be pre-cooked potato cubes.

Curried Scallops

1 pound sea scallops
4 tbsp canola oil
2 -3 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp garram masalla
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 medium red onion minced
3 - 4 carrots peeled and sliced into rounds
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 14 z can light coconut milk
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice per serving

Rub the scallops with 1 tbsp curry powder, salt and pepper. Set aside for approximately 10 minutes. In a large skillet heat 2 tbsp canola oil until hot, turn the heat down to medium and add the onions and garlic, sauteeing until they soften. Then add the carrots and sautee them for about 10 minutes, until they are just fork tender. Add the peas, the remaining curry powder and the other spices. Saute for 2 minutes, then add the coconut milk (making sure to shake the can well before opening it), turning the heat to medium-low to simmer for 5 minutes, being careful to stir the curry sauce regularly. Then heat another medium sized skillet with the remaining 2 tbsp of canola oil. When the oil is shimmering hot, add the scallops, putting them down in one layer. Leave the scallops untouched for two minutes, flip them over and leave them for another 1 - 2 minutes (depending on the size. Pull the scallops and set them aside while the curry sauce finishes. Serve with the sauce over rice and the scallops on top. Bon Appetit!

Jelly Filled Cupcakes

After my whirlwind work trip to Connecticut it was hard to settle back into a normal routine. Tonight, neither the Hubs nor I were really feeling like eating dinner, although our late (and huge) lunch at Rein's NY Style Deli (check back for the post on Rein's) on the way home may or may not have had something to do with that. I also have really been having a hankering for cupcakes (what's with all of the food hankerings of late?) so I thought that cupcakes for dinner would be an excellent choice.

To make myself feel a little better about the cupcakes-for-dinner plan (and to justify the constant purchasing of new cookbooks) I decided to check Veganomicon (by the ever-so-talented Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero) to see if there might, just maybe, by a cupcake recipe. There turned out to be several (who knew). As with the last time I baked something that was meant to be vegan, these cupcakes ended up being only mostly-vegan because again I didn't have soy milk in the house (unless you count hazelnut soy creamer). So I substituted the last of my buttermilk and used mostly white wheat white flour (we were nearly out of all purpose flour - these are the things that happen when cooks try to bake). The lovely ladies who initially created this recipe suggested that you let the cupcakes sit out for about 24 hours to let the tops harden so that they taste more like jelly donuts. They have clearly never met the Hubs and I, but if you can wait the recommended 24 hours then more power to you!

I am typing this up as the cupcakes bake and the Hubs just turned to me to unsuspectingly ask, "Is the oven on?" He then asked me what I was making and when I told him that it was jelly-filled cupcakes he got really excited. Apparently the Hubs is a definite fan of the cupcakes-for-dinner plan (which is why he's such a keeper). That too makes me feel better about my decision.

Jelly-Filled Donuts

1 cup soy or rice milk (I used buttermilk)
1 tsp apple cider vingear (only if using soy or rice milk)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I did 1 cup whole wheat white and 1/2 cup all purpose)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/ 2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
raspberry preserves (or any other jam lurking in your fridge that suits your fancy)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you are using soy (or rice) milk add the vinegar and the corn starch to the soy (rice) milk in a measuring cup and set aside. The recipe suggests that you line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners, but I don't have paper liners and only have a 6-cup muffin tin (isn't bigger always better when it comes to baked goods?) so I sprayed my muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl sift together (or dump unceremoniously) the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt (if you went the buttermilk route, add in the cornstarch too). Mix together the dry ingredients and create a well in the center for the wet ingredients. Stir in the milk (of whatever variety), oil, sugar and vanilla. Stir until all of the ingredients are well combined.

Fill the muffin cups about three-quarters full with batter. Place a heaping teaspoonfull of jam in the center of each cupcake. You don't need to press down the jam or do anything else; the baking will take care of all of that and it will sink in.

Bake for 21 to 23 minutes. You can't really test the doneness with a toothpick because of the jam in the center of the cupcakes, but the tops of the cupcakes will be firm and golden. Once the cupcakes are cooled you can set them aside for up to 24 hours and then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar before serving. Or (and this is a completely viable option) enjoy them as soon as they are cool enough to no longer burn your mouth. Bon Appetit!

P.S. - The Voice Of Experience would like me to tell you that (a) the paper lining thingys turned out to be a good idea after; (2) there is a big difference between "heaping" and "overfilling;" and (d) don't try to take the cupcakes out of the muffin tin before they are cool (or use paper liners, see "a").

Makes 6

On the Road Again

I am travelling for work again this week, but since it's a trip within driving distance Mike decided to ride along with me. We put the crazy-dogs in a "doggy-care" and headed out, only to hit traffic on the road the divides New York City from Connecticut. Of course that traffic doesn't hold a candle to Massachusett's insane traffic, but it did mean that we got here much later than we'd planned and we were STARVING. And (such bad news) it turned out that the hotel's restuarant was mid-construction (something the hotel definitely should have admitted to on its website), so we had to rely on the front desk's restaurant recommendations. (Danger Will Robinson, Danger!)

Among the restaurants recommended by the front desk was Blue Lemon; we flipped a coin and decided to give it a whirl. Calling the Blue Lemon for a reservation (does it count as a reservation when you are already in the car on the way to the restaurant?) revealed that there was only patio seating. The sun was shining, so patio seating didn't seem to be such a bad idea and heck, we were already outside the restaurant. To get to the patio seating from the restaurant's front door you have to walk through Blue Lemon's dining room, which was full of senior citizens. We walked out to the patio and I quickly realized that I'd freeze on the patio (I'm ALWAYS cold) so we had to walk back through the dining room to the bar where there was a free table, squeezed in among the senior citizens who also populated the bar. Every time we walked though the dining room the conversations stopped, highlighting just how out of place we really were.

This left is wondering, how did the restaurant end up with only senior citizens as patrons? Was there a secret sign that we'd missed? Was it the town we were in? (The houses did seem to be senior old money.) Was it the time of day? (It was 6pm on a Wednesday, was that too early) Perhaps the food at the Blue Hair Lemon? Or the word-of-mouth phenomenon? Maybe the first people who ate at the Blue Lemon were senior citizens and they then told their senior citizen friends who filled up the place, making non-senior citizens like Mike and I feel out of place when we showed up looking for food. We did notice that the staff seemed really keen to have us stay for dinner despite the full restaurant and we received VERY attentive service all night. Unfortunately for the Blue Lemon, but fun for us, the bar where were we sitting was located right next to the door and each person who walked in confirmed our conclusion that we were not the target market.

The Blue Lemon's saving grace (and its raison d'etre) was the good food and the wine recommendations. We started with the "taste of Spain" which was Serrano ham and manchego cheese with a lovely fruity olive oil drizzled over the top. Mike and I both got gnocchi with duck ragu and asparagus (we generally try to get two different dishes, but the gnocchi seemed too good to pass up) for our entree. It was excellent gnocchi, not too heavy, and the duck was nicely balanced by the freshness of the asparagus. Mike got a flour-less chocolate cake that was way too chocolate-y for me (but Mike thought it was great) and I had apple crisp (if it's dessert with fruit, I want it).

The best part about Blue Hair Lemon was that Mike and I got the chance to see what we'd be doing in 40 years. Luckily, there are worse things (shuffleboard anyone?) that we could be doing in our senior years. Of course the trick will be remembering which restaurant it was that had the good gnocci and people our age.

Fried Chicken!!

I've been having a hankering for fried chicken for quite a while, but figured that I needed to find an alternative to the traditional fried chicken the South is so famous for. Now that's not to say that I am opposed to fried chicken; in fact, I firmly believe that a diet that doesn't allow the occasional fried chicken is not a liveable diet. On the other hand, if I had fried food every time I had a hankering for it I would (a) have to start wearing mumus and (2) would have to start another blog. Add to the fried chicken hankering the ever-present question of what to do with skinless, boneless chicken breast, a question that entire cookbooks are devoted to answering, and you'll get to this recipe for "fried" chicken.

This recipe, besides being a healthier alternative to the traditional favorite is the kind of recipe that I really like making. All of the prep work is done ahead of time and then everything is put into the oven to roast. While the food roasts I can clean up the kitchen (bonus) and enjoy a glass of wine. I served the "fried" chicken with roasted asparagus spears and matchstick sweet potatoes. The Hubs pronounced the chicken "wicked good" and said that it was the best chicken he's ever had. Yes, I know that he has a vested interest in telling me that I make good food, but it's always nice to hear.

"Fried" Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups lowfat buttermilk (approximately)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg white (from a large egg)
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp red curry powder
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper

In the morning liberally sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Put the chicken breasts into a glass container and pour the buttermilk over them, rolling the chicken breasts until the are coated and nearly covered with the buttermilk. Cover the container with plastic wrap and refridgerate. That evening, take the chicken breasts out of the fridge when you start dinner to allow them to warm up slightly. Preheat the oven to 425. Put a cooling rack inside a cookie sheet.

Set out three shallow bowls (I use pie pans) to bread the chicken. In the first bowl add the all purpose flour, salt and pepper the flour and add 1 tbsp of both paprika and curry powder. In the second bowl put the egg white and the dijon mustard, mixing both together. The third bowl gets the bread crumbs with salt, pepper and the remaining paprika and curry powder. Move the chicken breast from the buttermilk to the flour, making sure to cover the chicken completely with the flour. Then into the egg mixture, also coating the chicken well, and finally into the bread crumbs. Cover the chicken breasts completely with the bread crumbs.

When the chicken is throughly breaded, move the chicken onto the cooling rack inside the cookie sheet. Bake the chicken and asparagus in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes, checking the chicken after 20 minutes. When the chicken is 165 degrees remove the chicken and set it aside to cool slightly. Bon Appetit!

Makes 2

Local Organic Food for All: The Solution

To continue the discussion of providing local, organic foods to everyone, I will now explore what can be done to address this problem. How can we ensure that all Americans have access to affordable, healthful food?

The food industry is definitely not providing healthful food and the organic, local food chain often does not provide food that is widely-affordable. Closing the Food Gap, describes a multifaceted solution, using community gardens, CSA memberships (community supported agriculture) and farmer's markets. Community gardens take advantage of the thousands of plots of unused land found in each city, giving the residents of each community the ability to take control of their own food production and reviving many nearly-lost cultural-agricultural ties.

As for the CSAs, they can reach the poor and the hungry, by relying both on support from non-profit organizations such as food banks and those in the community who can afford to pay more for their CSA subscriptions. The premium paid by those who can, allows the farms to offer CSA memberships to lower-income members at a discount. Often farms will also offer CSA memberships in exchange for a period of work done on the farm by the member. This too reestablishes peoples' ties to their food, its production, and to the land.

Finally, farmer's markets are a means to get high quality, local and organic foods to low income individuals while still supporting the farmers. Farmer's markets that are opened in lower-income communities brings the high quality food directly to those who wouldn't have access to it otherwise and a federal program, Farmer's Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), allows the farmer's to receive a higher price for their goods that would have been received had the produce been sold into the industrial food-stream. The FMNP is a program that is available to those who participate in the WIC (women, infants and children) food stamps program and has a counterpart for senior citizens. Under the FMNP, state and local government agencies receive cash grants from the federal government and distribute coupons to the FMNP recipients who use those coupons to shop at farmer's markets. The farmers then redeem the coupons with the state or local agency for cash. This allows the farmers to keep their prices lower and still reach a wide audience.

As this post as, hopefully, illustrated, it is possible to provide organic, local food to all Americans, but it is going to take concerted effort on our part to ensure that it happens. Just as we can not fall back into the complacency born of Earl Butz and his food subsidies, we can not allow the local, organic food movement to leave lower-income individuals behind. We need to work with our local and state governments to ensure that vacant lots are turned into community gardens, that we do what we can to support those CSAs that offer lower prices shares, and to keep Federal interest alive in the FMNP so that farmer's markets are accessible to all.

Black Bean Patties

Amino acids play crucial parts in metabolism and they are the building blocks for proteins. There are 20 amino acids, 8 of which are considered "essential" because the human body cannot synthesize them from other sources and must obtain them directly from food. Beans, like all legumes, have several, but not all, of the essential amino acids. When legumes are combined with a carbohydrate, which has complimentary essential amino acids, they form a complete protein; providing all 8 of the essential amino acids. This is why beans and rice, lentils and rice, or pasta and chick peas are staple meals in many ethnic cuisines. It is also why the bean burger is a very common veggie patty.

I ate a commercial version of these black bean patties while I was on the road last week and thought that there must be a way to make them at home, without having to partake in prepared foods. The version I came up with for dinner tonight was very good, but the Hubs pointed out that I shouldn't be calling them burgers. He said that calling something a burger brings to mind burgers of the beefy variety and these just aren't them same (they weren't hoping to be). The Hubs thought that it was much more accurate to call them patties.

Whatever we call them, they are very quick, made from canned goods (Sandra Lee would be so proud), were high in fiber and low in fat. These patties are also very versatile; they can handle a wide variety of different beans and spices. I chose to use Mexican spices, but they would also be good with spices from India or Provence. We ate the patties with caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and broccolini.

Black Bean Patties

15 oz can black beans, drained
15 oz can refried beans
4 oz can diced green chilies, drained
15 oz can corn, drained
7 oz can chipolte salsa (1/2 the can or so, according to taste)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
salt & pepper
1 1/2 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

6 whole wheat hamburger buns.

Dump the drained black beans into a large bowl and use a fork to slightly mash the beans against the side of the bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients, in the order listed, and stir to mix. The chipolte salsa adds a smoky flavor and heat to the patties, but add it slowly, tasting as you go because it can over power the other flavors. Add the bread crumbs last, mixing them into the ingredients a third at a time. The patty mixture should be fairly dry and should easily pull away from the bowl, but it will also be rather sticky. Form the mixture into a patty just slightly larger than your hamburger buns (if you are serving them as burgers) and saute them over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side, until the patties are crispy on the outsides and warmed through. Serve on hamburger buns with the toppings of choice. Bon Appetit!

Makes 6 large patties.

Local Organic Food for All: The Problem

I am back from a whirlwind business trip, into which I managed to cram as many meetings as possible. That didn't leave any time for posting on this blog, but it did include a fair amount of time spent waiting (for things such as airplanes and car services) and in transit, which allowed me to read, in its entirety, Mark Winne's book Closing the Food Gap. Mark Winne spent much of his professional career as an advocate for the poor and hungry seeking to establish community food system projects that would address poverty and hunger. I read Closing the Food Gap in the hopes that it would provide some answers, or at least insight, into the question of whether it is possible to feed all Americans using a locally-based organic food system.

The prevailing notion is that it is impossible to feed all Americans with an organic, local food system; an idea that began with Earl Butz, President Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture, and the man who was instrumental in radically changing the face of the American food industry with his farm subsidy programs and his notion of "go big or get out". In fact, Earl Butz was credited with having said that "without the modern inputs of chemicals, pesticides, antibiotics, herbicides we simply could not do the job of feeding America. Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry." This idea was adopted wholesale by the food industry which uses it as a means to justify not only its existence, but its methods of production.

The food industry is loudly proclaiming that Earl Butz's industrial farming methods are the only way in which we can feed all Americans, but hey aren't the only ones who seem to have taken up this call. Michael Pollan, a well-known advocate for local and organic food systems, seem to be inadvertantly reinforcing the food industry's claims. In his January 28, 2007 article Unhappy Meals, Michael Pollan encouraged Americans to pay more for their food, remarking that better food, from both a taste and nutritional standpoint, costs more because it has been produced less intensively and with more attention. He goes on to state "not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation."

I do agree that those of us who can afford to purchase local, organic food, even if it is more costly, should be doing so. We need to use our dollars to vote for healthier food that is better for the planet and supports local farmers, but where does that leave those who don't have the option to spend a premium purchasing local, organic food?

In 2006, there were approximately 26.3 million Americans enrolled in the Federal Food Stamp Program with $32.8 billion spent on food stamps. This works out to an average per person allotment of $94.04 per month and, assuming 3 meals a day for 30 days, gives the average food stamp recipient $1.05 per meal. As we repeatedly hear, the rates of obesity in America are increasing at an alarming rate, bringing with it increased incidents of high-blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Much of this, as we know, is due to the "American Diet", but it also linked to hunger and poverty in America. The problem, as Closing the Food Gap points out, is that poor communities, both urban and rural ones, are under served when it comes to supermarkets and other sources of affordable, nutritious food. Instead, fast-food venues are moving in to these communities and filling the gap in available food.

Stay tuned to this blog for part two of this discussion, providing some potential solutions...

Asparagus, Pea & Pesto Pasta

Today in the NY Times Dining & Wine section there was a very funny article. The article's author had a clever idea for making a Top Chef spin-off called, Top Chef: Home Cooks. The idea for the show is that it would feature ordinary people, in their ordinary kitchens, trying to squeeze in a healthful dinner among all of the other demands of their lives. Some of the challenges the author proposed for Top Chef: Home Cooks were: Sunday pancakes for 8 with only three eggs, or boneless, skinless chicken - 5 ways. Part of what made this article so funny was it's underlying truth, these challenges are ones that we all face each day.

Many of my recipes try to address the challenge of feeding ourselves when we aren't professional cooks and don't have 4 hours in which to prepare a meal; and none more so that tonight's dinner. Tonight, after a looong day at work, Mike and I had a zillion errands to do and didn't even starting thinking about food until it was pretty late for dinner. Ordering out for a pizza is always an option, but I wanted to make use of some things in the fridge that wouldn't last too much longer. Part of what made this recipe such a quickie was that I had done a fair amount of the prep-work ahead of time. The nice thing about doing the work before hand is that you can arrange the tasks to fit into your schedule. For example, last summer when the basil was going crazy I made tons of pesto and froze it so that all I needed to make a sauce for the pasta was defrost the pesto in the microwave. I'd also frozen the peas last year in an attempt to make the local vegetable season last longer and we used the Hubs's grilled chicken that was waiting in the fridge.

Because I know you are wondering, I'm going to start with a quick discussion of how to make the pesto. There are lots of formal pesto recipes out there and they generally recommend that if you are going to freeze your pesto you freeze it in a glass jar with a layer of olive oil on the top. That is the general recommendation, but I didn't want to take up the freezer space with the glass jars and I didn't want to use that much olive oil in the pesto. So I came up with this version that uses less olive oil and freezer bags.

Quick Freezer Pesto

2 - 3 large bunches of basil
2 - 3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 handful grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil

Coarsely tear the basil and put it into the bowl of a food processor. Roughly chop the garlic, toss in the pine nuts, salt and Parmesan. The various ingredient amounts can be adjusted according to taste (and availability), you can also mix everything together, stop and taste, and add more as needed. Turn on the food processor and slowly pour the olive oil into the processor's feed tube, stopping just after a paste forms. Divide the pesto evenly (I did 1 cup servings) and put it into small freezer bags, being careful to squeeze all of the air out of the bag. Then lay flat to freeze. I imagine this pesto would last at least a year in the freezer, but it hasn't ever lasted in my freezer that long, so I can't confirm.

Makes about 3 cups

Asparagus, Pea & Pesto Pasta

1/2 large bunch asparagus, cut into 2" pieces
2 cups frozen peas
4 cups pulled chicken breast
10 ounces whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water is coming up to a boil, start shredding the chicken. When the water is boiling add the pasta and hang the asparagus above the pasta in a steamer basket. Once the pasta and the asparagus have been cooking for about 5 minutes add the peas to the asparagus in the steamer. Then put the pesto in the microwave to defrost. After the pasta is cooked (the asparagus may cook more quickly than the pasta, depending on the thickness of the stalks, so keep an eye on the vegetables and pull them if necessary). Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot, adding the vegetables, the shredded chicken, the pesto and the vinegar (the acidity is an important balance to this dish). I served this with some shreds of our Vermont cheese on top just to add a little richness to the dish, but it's entirely optional. If for some reason you don't have Vermont sheep's cheese, Parmesan, goat cheese or manchego would all be good substitutes. If you wanted to make this dish vegetarian, toast about 1/2 - 3/4 cup roughly chopped pecans in a dry pan until they smell warm (watch the nuts closely, they will burn) or substitute a can of cannellini beans for the chicken. Bon Appetit!

Makes 4 servings

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

Yesterday I discovered that I'd gotten my very first blog award (thank you Magpie!) for being creative. Magpie Musings was kind enough to bestow this award on me because I took a shot at modernizing the Eggs in Hiding recipe she found. Although now, of course, I am under pressure to continue being a Kreativ Blogger (but not, it seems, obliged to use proper spelling, which is definitely a relief).

Mike, who admittedly doesn't get this whole blogging thing, wanted to know more about this Kreativ Blogger award I'd won. I told him that it wasn't for us to question these things, but being the analytical, critically-thinking guy he is, Mike wanted to know more. Where did this award come from? What were the criteria for winning it? What did I have to do now that I was a winner? Could I pass it along to others? My not knowing ANY of the answers made Mike begin to suspect that it was a made-up award. That made me wonder if it was possible to create an award of my own? I will admit that the idea of making up a blog award is very appealing (must be all of that kreativitie I have).

In order to make up a blog award, it seemed important that I understand the origins of the award I'd received (if there were any). After a bit of googling (I'd ask how we lived without google, but in the pre-google days there weren't blog awards to look up, so I imagine it worked out just fine) I discovered that the Kreativ Blogger award is an actual award that has been given to many other blogs (great blogs, I'm in good company). The fact that the Kreative Blogger award has a rich history has not lessened my interested in making up an award of my own. So now, (in the spirit of kreativ bloggers everywhere) I present the Morning Coffee Award, for those blogs that go so well with a good cup of coffee (and for the bloggers with whom I would enjoy chatting over coffee), to Extranjera and VEG. May you go forth and share this Morning Coffee Award with others.

Cheeeeeese Please!

Conventional wisdom holds that sliced bread, flush toilets, and electricity are among man's greatest inventions and, yes, I do throughly enjoy all of those things, but I would like to submit that cheese should be at the top of the Great Inventions List.  That's right, cheeeeese!  Today, in celebration of cheese, Mike and I went up to Vermont, where some clever Vermonters have concocted a genius tourist-trap/marketing plan.  They created the Vermont Cheese Trail, which is much like the wine trails of Napa and Sonoma, but dedicated to all things cheese.  

Mike and I plotted out our visit to the Cheese Trail Farms, based on what cheeses they offered, how reasonably close to each other they were, and whether or not they would be open.  Then we grabbed our GPS system (Emily) and set off.  It turns out that rural Vermont is a little beyond Emily's scope, for she sent us down several (yes, several) dirt roads, the first of which turned out to be someone's driveway.  Ooops!  

After a few harrowing trips up (and back down) the dirt roads, we made it to the Vermont Shepherd, our first stop.  We sent our car creeping down the dirt (again) driveway and pulled up in front of this little yellow house advertising cheese for sale and telling us to serve ourselves.  Mike and I are such cityslickers that we sat in the car for a minute, trying to puzzle out what, exactly, that meant.  Mike kept saying that the couldn't mean, just go in a take what you want, leaving the correct amount of money, no one would be that trusting.  And I kept pointing to the purple sign right next to the car that said "Help Yourself."  We decided maybe they did mean it and got out of the car, thinking that if the door was unlocked, they did in fact mean what they'd said.  The door was unlocked!  So we went in and helped ourselves.  The only drawbacks to the help-yourself-system were: (a) no means of tasting the cheese before purchasing; (2) no means of making change when all you have is $20's; and (d) having to calculate the tax yourself.  But we did manage to procure three skeins of yarn (project as yet undetermined, but I'm thinking, sweater) from the sheep grazing outside (the first photo) and some cheese that turned out to be really good, once we got home and tasted it. 

On our way to the next farm (which turned out to be our second and last) we stopped in Putney, VT, mainly because on the way into town was a sign that read "Best Small Town in the Country," and heck, a claim like that needs to be verified (or at least investigated).  We didn't get a chance to explore the entire town (and so can't confirm the claim), but we did go into two shops that had Things We Couldn't Live Without (including a Mother's Day gift for my Bob). And there was one random shop that had those clay faces on its exterior.  There was no explanation for the clay faces, but I thought that they were fabulous and any town that sported such clay faces definitely had to at least in the running for Best Small Town.  

The second (and last) farm we visited turned out to be more of a Cheese Emporium than a small farm stand and it had a petting zoo that boasted several goats, a small herd of donkeys and this white pony.  Or as my 20-month old niece would say "ponyponypony"!

Inside the Cheese Emporium (otherwise known as Grafton Village Cheese) they were offering a multitude of cheeses to taste AND they had a small staff there to assist you.  (Novel approach.) So Mike and I willingly indulged the nice people at Grafton Village and tasted ALL of their cheeses.  To make up for our pigginess, we also bought two different kinds of cheese, some fabulous mustard (never thought you'd see those two words in a row, eh?), some fresh bread, and wine.  The plan was to make the wine, bread, and cheeses into our late lunch, but then we couldn't find a place to sit, so we thought we'd save the wine and just have the cheese and bread in the car.  Cheese and bread are two things not easily eaten while driving.  To make up for this we stopped in another small Vermont town and had lunch and some of their wine.  By the time we were done with that, it was getting late and we were sure that the dogs would be standing in front of the door with their legs crossed.  We decided to call it a day and leave the rest of the cheese to be tasted another time. 

Deconstructed Niciose Salad

Tonight we officially kicked off the summer's grilling with a honking piece of sirloin and it was wonderful. There is something about the smell of charcoal that just screams summer and the Hubs is the Grill Master. Of course the problem with a charcoal grill is that it's hard to control the amount of fire generated and this time there was so much extra fire that I had to find more meat to feed to the grill. Luckily a quick search of the fridge yielded up two chicken breasts that had no intended purpose and will now make great grilled chicken salads tomorrow.

That huge piece of sirloin (I didn't even know that they made sirloin that big) needed some quality vegetables (and a few potatoes) to balance it out, so I made up a deconstructed Nicoise salad. I suppose that technically I should be calling this a "constructed" Niciose salad since traditionally these are composed salads with the ingredients in separate groupings on the plate (and I toss them all together in a bowl). The real key to this salad is to pouring the dressing over the potatoes while they are still warm so that they absorb the dressing (and it's flavor). Nicoise salads usually call for tuna and olives in addition to the ingredients listed below, but all you really need to get the general flavors is the potatoes, the green beans, and the tomatoes.

Deconstructed Niciose Salad

For the Salad:
1 five pound bag baby potatoes
1/2 pound green beans
2 cups cherry tomatoes
4 hard boiled eggs
Salt & Pepper

For the Dressing:
1/4 cup whole grain mustard
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp tarragon, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. While the water is heating, cut the potatoes into roughly 2" pieces and the green beans into 2" long sections. Add the potatoes to the water and boil for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes has passed, hang the green beans in a steaming basket over the boiling potatoes and cook the potatoes and green beans for another 10 minutes. While the potatoes and beans cook, cut the tomatoes in half, removing the seeds and put them in a large bowl. Then peel the eggs and cut them into quarters, adding them to the bowl with the tomatoes. Mix up the dressing (using the shaking method) so that it's ready when the potatoes are cooked. After the potatoes have cooked for 15 minutes, place the green beans in the bowl with the tomatoes and eggs and check to potatoes to make sure that they are fork tender. Once the potatoes are cooked through, add them to the other vegetables, pouring the dressing over the potatoes. Salt and pepper the vegetables to taste. Toss the salad until the vegetables are coated in the dressing and then set the salad aside for about 10 minutes, until the dressing has been absorbed. Serve the salad garnished with a sprinkle of chopped tarragon. Bon Appetit!

Serves 6

They Say It's Your Birthday, It's My Birthday Too, Yeah!

That's right, today is my birthday. In fact, it's my 3rd 29th birthday today (hey look, I just admitted to my "real" age). When 29 began to loom on the horizon I decided to count 29th birthdays instead of adding a year as one traditionally does. Then yesterday (on the eve of my 3rd 29th birthday no less) Mike told me that I'm limited to 6 29th birthdays; after that I'm going to have to turn 30. The good news is that I will then get 6 30th birthdays, I mean heck, one can't be 29 forever, right? Today I am not (a) working or (2) cooking. So I thought that I would record of some of the things that others have cooked for me today.



For breakfast we went to Paramount, a regular haunt from my single-girl days. Paramount does breakfast all day long (which is particularly handy on the weekends) and they have a cool system for seating people (also handy on the weekends). At Paramount customers don't queue for seating, instead, you can't sit down until you have your food. That way you spend your time standing in line waiting to order and by the time you have your food there will be an empty table. It doesn't sound as though it would work, and I've spent much time watching for a failure in the system, but it does and the system has yet to break down.

Breakfast was was rather late and our dinner reservations are rather early (at the aptly named Ten Tables you take the reservation they give you), so we decided to skip lunch completely. But then the cake in the kitchen started to call my name and if you can't snack on cake on your birthday, when can you? So I decide to just test out the cake, candles and all. Turned out to be some good cake! I can't wait eat it again for breakfast tomorrow!





Well, it's almost time to get ready for dinner and it just doesn't seem right (despite the desire to add photos from the restaurant to this post) to bring my camera with me tonight. So I'll leave you with these photos from the day (so far). Tomorrow we are heading to Vermont for their Cheese Trail (so that I can turn my birthday into a two-day event). Those clever Vermonters have created their own version of a wine-tasting trail, but this one is centered around cheese! How smart is that?!?