Feast For the Eyes

It's another crummy Monday...the temps are hovering right above the freezing mark, causing a mixture of ice, rain and lots of accidents on the road.

So, while we wait for tonight's potluck, bundled up in the safety of our home (and turn a blind eye to the water currently pooling up in the basement), I decided to share some much needed pops of color. Over the weekend we checked out the orchid show put on by a local orchid society. Walking around in the flower-packed room, taking in all of the tropical beauty, it was almost enough to forget that earlier that morning we had received over five inches of snow.

Almost.

Feeling warmer yet?

Forcing Springtime

I really do my best to eat in season...meaning that I walk right by the peaches, plums and cherries that are currently at the end cap of the produce section at the big chain grocery store. That means that I get my fill of butternut squash dishes in the fall and wintertime and it means that I usually wait until Spring hits for that first farm-fresh, local asparagus.

But...I failed. I just couldn't do it.

Blame it on the week of school vacation my son had (while my husband continued to go to work as usual).

Blame it on the frigid temps and grey skies.

Or blame it on the snow and ice we just got today.

Around 4PM as cotton ball like snow fell

Regardless of the reason, all willpower was set aside as I grabbed the prettiest bunch of asparagus at the store the other day.

See? Can you blame me? I know it wasn't local or even organic, but it was calling to me. It was reminding me that soon little shoots will be making their way through the frozen ground and the sun will be shining longer and warmer...no matter how impossible that seems now.

I then took that beautiful asparagus and turned it into a meal fit for the Equinox. Using Eating Well's Lemony Asparagus Pasta as a template, I made a dinner rich in flavor that helped to remind me that (hopefully) Spring is right around the corner, no matter what the forecast says.

Ingredients:

1 box penne pasta

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces

3/4 cup milk (I used 1% and it still came out creamy!)

1 teaspoon brown mustard

2 teaspoons flour (oops, forgot to include that in the pix!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

a few grinds of pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest

Juice of 1 medium lemon

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preparation:

Bring a pot of water to boil and add pasta. Cook for 6 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for 3 more minutes. Drain water and set aside.

Pasta & asparagus cooking together harmoniously

In a bowl, whisk together milk, flour, mustard, salt & pepper and set aside.

It helps to have your sous chef on hand

Heat oil in a small saucepan and saute up the garlic until lightly browned. Add in milk mixture, whisking the entire time. Bring to a simmer and continue to stir until it thickens. Add lemon zest, juice and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and stir to combine.

Add sauce to pasta and asparagus, and mix well. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan cheese in, right before serving.

nom.

Lonely Leftovers

February is a tough month. The magic of winter slowly loses it's sparkle and you're faced with cold days, colder nights and dingy grey streets from all the snow and mud. Valentines Day is a nice bright spot (and in fact, we've kept up our Valentines in hopes of spreading the love and cheer throughout the entire month).

Potluck Mondays definitely help as we trudge through February - so close to Spring we can almost smell it (...and then it snows). However, along with moving closer to warmer months, February also brings with it s a host of unavoidable ailments...stomach bugs, croupy coughs, and icky colds.

And so, as Monday progressed, emails started filtering in bringing news of sick kids or parents and slowly but surely everyone had bowed out of potluck for the night. But not before we had roasted an entire chicken, plus a few extra legs/thighs.

While my family dined on chicken, tiny potatoes and some peas, we talked about our missed friends and hopes for future potlucks. Of course, we'll try it all again next Monday in hopes that everyone is healthy and ready to hang out again.

In the meantime I'm left with dirty pans and extra chicken.

And while a bit of elbow grease will help with the pan, I'm not quite as sure what the fate of the leftover chicken will be.

Normally our leftover chicken finds its way into a pot pie or possibly shredded and simmered with BBQ sauce. However, I'm always on the lookout for something new. If you have a favorite recipe that includes leftover chicken, please share! 

Greens, Eggs and...Pudding

While it might not be quite as Dr. Seuss imagined...

...Last night's dinner was certainly inspired by this frequently read book. Since we don't cook/consume pork in our house, this dish was lacking the ham aspect, and the eggs themselves weren't actually green...but the spirit of green eggs and ham was there.

Somewhat.

To be honest, this meal was also based on one of my favorite dishes - heuvos green beanos - from a local restaurant. Regardless of inspiration, this meal was easy, delicious and packed full of nutritious goodness.

"Green Eggs, No Ham"

Start by steaming a bunch of kale. I just tear it up in chunks, add a bit of water to the bottom of the pan, cover, and heat on med-high for 5 minutes.

We went with curly kale

You want the kale to still have texture and color when it's done cooking and not be a soggy mess, so keep an eye on it.

Perfect.

The rest is pretty simple. Heat up some black beans, season with a bit of salt, pepper and a touch of cumin if you're feeling daring. While the beans are heating and the kale is cooking, fry up an over easy egg. This one came out a touch over done, as I usually like them mostly runny, but it was still delicious.

To assemble, layer a helping of kale at the bottom of the plate, sprinkle some shredded cheese on top (we usually go with either cheddar or monteray jack), pile some beans on top (the cheese will melt between the warm kale and beans, providing the perfect ooey gooey cheesy texture) and slide your egg over it. Serve with some tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream, guacamole or any other condiments/sides you like.

Yum!

The best part of this "recipe" is that you can change the flavors up to suit your mood. Sometimes I put a little Asian spin on it, adding soy sauce and a little sesame oil to my kale. Other times I'll heat up my beans directly with the kale, fusing those flavors. Definitely play around with it and make it your own.

Our (somewhat but not really version) of Green Eggs Sans Ham is perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner and has my 4 year old exclaiming, "I LOVE KALE!"

***

As for dessert, we wanted to do something a little special that deviated from the usual Friday night cake or cookies, and opted for chocolate pudding! This recipe was surprisingly easy and was adapted from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.

Ingredients

Start by whisking together 3 eggs with 2.5 cups of half and half. I actually substituted a little milk for a portion of the half and half and the result was still a super creamy pudding.

It helps if you have a little sous chef in the kitchen to crack your eggs while you're busy getting dinner ready.

Meanwhile, melt 2 ounces of chocolate in a pan on low heat. Next time we'll probably use 4 ounces, as the pudding could have used a stronger chocolatey kick.

mmm...

In a pan, mix 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of cornstarch together. Add the egg/dairy mixture to this, and heat over medium heat, whisking the entire time.

The whisking is important. I stirred for a long time, wondering when it would thicken, and all of a sudden, at around 7 minutes in...BAM! And then I had to constantly whisk for fear of dreaded lumps.

After about 10 minutes of mixing, the pudding had finally formed, so I poured a teaspoon of vanilla and the melted chocolate in, stirring to combine.

Once thoroughly mixed, pour into little dishes and chill.

My son preferred to eat this still a touch warm (aka right away after dinner) while the rest of us enjoyed the pudding a couple of hours later, perfectly chilled.

Valentine's Day Shortbreads

Once upon a time I had a culinary dream: To make every single one of the cookies featured in Martha Stewart's Cookies. 

 

Granted, as far as culinary dreams go, this one isn't as lofty as say, the Julie/Julia Project or Cooking With My Kid, but as somebody who really likes cookies, I thought it had some merit. 

However, my dream was quickly dashed after attempting a handful of various cookie recipes all in the same weekend. The amount of sugar and butter that I used absolutely was a little ridiculous, and I just couldn't see myself being that indulgent so frequently. 

That doesn't mean that I gave up on my dream entirely. Oh, no. In fact, we frequently make many of the cookies from this cookbook. I just don't make a different cookie every single day. 

Special occasions, however, definitely call for cookies and Valentine's Day is no exception. I flipped through the book, trying to decide just which cookie got to be our special Valentine cookie. I went past some of my favorites (Grammy's Chocolate Cookie, PB&J Bars, Homemade Thin Mints) until finally settling on the Cranberry Shortbread Hearts. Martha must have had Valentine's Day in mind when she created these. The red flecks of dried cranberries and the heart shaped cookies definitely help you feel the love. 

I followed the recipe almost exactly, with one small exception (which I'll note in red). 

INGREDIENTS

- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

- 3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries or cherries

Directions:

Heat oven to 325 degrees with a rack in the center. Combine butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, flour & salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries

(Here is where I went off script. I decided to use my trusty Kitchen Aid to mix all these ingredients in lieu of a wooden spoon. Martha would be shocked, but I was pleased...it was super easy, came out like it's described in the cookbook and I didn't even break a sweat!)

Pat dough evenly into an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.

 

Bake until just  beginning to turn golden, about 20 minutes (the time in my cookbook says 30, the time on her website says 20. I baked 33 minutes!).

 

Place pan on cooling rack until cool enough to touch, about 20 minutes. Run knife around edges, remove shortbread and transfer, right side up to work surface. Use 1 1/2 to 2-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out cookies.

Use a paring knife to trim stray bits of cranberry from edges. Cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature in an airtight container.

(Read more at Marthastewart.com: Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts - Martha Stewart Recipes) 

Love.

Carrot Cupcakes

I've been a bit blogger fail this past week. I made challah with my son Friday and fully intended to share the experience on the blog, only to have completely spaced when it came to that all important part of taking pictures. 

I'm hoping that Friday challah baking becomes a weekly habit, so hopefully there will be multiple opportunities to make up for this past week's oversight. In the meantime, I made certain to overcompensate with lots of photos of this morning's adventures in carrot cupcakes. I took a well loved carrot cake recipe and did a little of this...and a little of that...and voila: deliciously moist carrot cupcakes.

Carrot cupcakes in a bag: We were visiting my folks, so I brought all the ingredients I needed with me!

 The recipe itself is pretty simple and straightforward. It came from a friend of my mother's and it's my go to carrot cake recipe.

Ingredients

2.5 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp baking soda

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for 2 cups, but I never use that much)

1.5 cups vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple sauce

4 eggs

2 cups grated carrots (I only used that 1 large carrot and it yielded just over two cups! yay for local veg!)
8.5 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup raisins (I used more like 1 full cup)
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
(You can also add in chopped nuts, cranberries, figs, etc...this recipe is very change-it-up friendly like that!)

I mixed all the dry ingredients ahead of time at my house - easy peasy!

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour 2 trays of cupcake tins (this recipe yields 24 cupcakes) or line them with paper cups. 

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together and set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat together sugar, eggs, oil and applesauce until well blended. 

Add carrots, pineapple, raisins, ginger (and whatever other "add ins" you're using). 

All from one large carrot! 

Spicy-sweet goodness. 

I didn't have crushed pineapple, so I just chopped up a can of pineapple rings. 

 Gradually add flour mixture, stirring until *just* combined. Then pour into prepared cupcake tins.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out from the center clean.

 Now...you can totally eat these as is. They really are quite delicious plain, without any added frosting, but then - where's the fun in that? I decided to whip up a special maple cream cheese frosting for these.

I love that my parents still put their syrup in an old honey bear.

I went with my usual cream cheese frosting mixture of one stick softened butter mixed with one package of softened cream cheese. I add a couple of tablespoons of milk and 1 lb of powdered sugar. Instead of vanilla, however, this time I added a couple tablespoons of grade A maple syrup. The flavor complimented the carrot cupcakes perfectly.

Yum.