Happy Trails

Inspired

 

It has been a while! Let me catch you up on what's been going on around here...mostly focusing on the weekends, as that is when we have the most fun.

The past few weekends have been really wonderful in a lot of ways. There has been some sleeping in, and coming downstairs to the fire going, with the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the air. (Salmaan always rises before I do).

Two weeks ago on a Saturday morning Salmaan was lounging on the couch with a pile of new cookbooks looking pleased as punch. He treated us to 7 new tomes full of inspiration, and after a nice fluffy omelette full of ham, cheese, and assorted veggies, we cuddled up on the couch and read for hours, taking notes and sharing things that excited us along the way. And you know where we're going from here, yeah?

 

First up, a wonderful new way to use up leftover roast chicken (which we always seem to have a lot of, week after week). These quesadillas quite frankly rocked. We dressed them up with a dollop of sour cream, some ribboned romaine dressed with lime juice, and a bit of salsa. Mmm.

That following Sunday morning I woke up at 4:30, and couldn't get back to sleep, thinking about how much stuff I wanted to make. By 5:30 I gave up, and Salmaan and I made a batch of Curtis Stone's homemade Granola (which was fantastic--just go a little less on the initial baking time).

Homemade chicken soup was finished up and packaged away in the freezer for a day either of us has a cold and needs some comfort, and then we made a delicious brunch, consisting of poached egg inside of a crisped proscuitto cup on top of sauteed spinach and a toasted whole wheat bagel (also from Curtis Stone's cookbook).

It was our first time poaching eggs, and it turned out nicely. If we ever open a B&B, this is going on the breakfast menu for sure. For dinner we made Jamie Oliver's Mushroom Risotto.

Yes, yes, I gave risotto another try! We made this on Halloween night, and the risotto itself was quite delicious. The specialty grilled mushrooms on the top? Surprisingly not delicious. Not sure if it was the total lack of fat (oh butter, how I missed you), or too much citrus (he advises to dress the grilled shrooms with lemon juice and herbs), but it wasn't workin' for me. The base recipe, however, I would definitely make again, and butter up some bellas or shiitakes for the big garnish.

This past weekend both of us were feeling under the weather. In fact, we've both been fighting off a cold for about a week now. Instead of taking the chicken soup out of the freezer, we tried a new recipe--Tyler Florence's chicken tortellini soup. SO GOOD, and just what we needed. 

I pulled this out of the freezer last night, and it hit the spot for a quick and soothing dinner.

We've had a couple of friends over on the weeknights lately, and that has lead us to some new recipes that we will try again. Ina's new book just came out, and I made her turkey meatballs.

Very good. Her new book is a bit repetitive--not a ton of new ideas, really. But I like Ina and her sensibility, so it's fun just to read through it.

The next to last weekend in October, my parents came to visit us. They stayed the weekend, and we had a fantastic time. Saturday we went to the Powhatan Festival of the Grape, and sampled some tasty Virginia Wine.

Despite my ageeb looking face in this photograph, I really was enjoying myself...especially when we visited our favorite virginia winery--Horton.

Love this shot of my parents.

They really helped us with a lot of stuff around the house that weekend, including a raised bed that I'm very excited about:

Dad and Salmaan busted this out in only a few hours. The garden really went to hell this past summer (partly the terribly hot weather/water restrictions, partly my waning interest, partly the fact that the squirrels and chipmunks stole most of my yield), so it was time to scale back. I'm going to be using this solely has an herb garden, and we're going to seed the rest of the garden area with grass seed. We also took out the blackberry bushes, as I think I was only able to get about 15 berries all season, and they honestly weren't very good. Come Christmas-time (and my "extra" paycheck), we're going to sign up for a local CSA. I mean, have you seen the Rooster's blog? I've been inspired, and want to give this a go. 

Dad and Salmaan fixed some of our gates, too.

We may have put them to work, but we fed them well. Salmaan grilled up a beautiful beef tenderloin.

The dogs had a fantastic time, too. They couldn't have enjoyed the extra attention more.

As you can see, JJ is getting bigger every day. It's so cool to see the changes. His fur has gotten longer and CURLY, which is adorable, and his personality is really starting to be apparent--he dotes on River constantly.

And that's pretty much what's been going on at Chez K. A fair amount of knitting has been accomplished as well, but that is for another post. I'm off from work today, hence the time to write--and hopefully posted about some FO's! 

 

Seasonal Eating

There's been a lot of cooking going on at Chez K, but not a lot of consistent and timely image editing, so let me warn you--this is going to be a somewhat prolific photo and food-centric post.

After we got back from vacation, we began to have mad food cravings--we wanted fresh, local, seasonal comfort food, and that's exactly what we've been making the last few weeks. This was the first meal we made once we had a full day at home after traveling: homemade fried chicken, mac 'n' cheese (my go-to Food to Live By recipe) and green beans. It was our first time making fried chicken, and whew. *swoon* it won't be the last.

 Next: Summer Vegetable Gratin--recipe from Thomas Keller's newest cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home.

This is a wonderful cookbook--full of gorgeous photos, delicious recipes, and lots of informative tutorials on everything from jamming and pickling to knife technique. I LOVED this recipe. We made it twice in one week. 

The first go round I used dry breadcrumbs from the canister and left the skin on the eggplant. The second time I peeled the eggplant and used fresh breadcrumbs, layering the tomatoes on top. Next time? I'll partially peel the eggplant--leaving some strips of skin, use dry breadcrumbs, and put the eggplant back on top. The onions and parmigiano reggiano really make this dish--and it's even better the next day reheated in the oven.

Right now, one of my favorite things is in season--soft shelled crabs.

 It has been mentioned before that I am a complete glutton for these, but when something's this good, it bears repeating. Salmaan makes them perfectly, and I enjoyed the leftovers in a sandwich--part of a picnic lunch that we enjoyed at Blenheim Winery and Vineyard a few weekends ago.

Next up: a trio of tarts! I'll start with one I made first, because it's also my favorite--Zucchini and Ricotta Galette--recipe from the Smitten Kitchen.

I have to say I love reading friend's blogs, not only to catch up on their lives and fibery endeavors, but also to see what they're EATING. I have to say, knitters have great food sense, and the Rooster is no exception. I followed her lead on this one, and couldn't have been more thrilled with the result. How to describe this...okay...not to be crass, but if you had just been listening to us eating in the dining room--you might have thought we were doing something else. It was that good. Rich and creamy and light and flaky...*sigh* I thought the dough was a little bit of a pain, but completely and totally worth it. I made the following mods to the recipe: I can't believe it's not butter (for baking) instead of butter--same amount. Reduced fat sour cream, part skim mozarella, reduced fat ricotta, and I stuffed as much zucchini on there as I could. I forgot to add the fresh basil at the end. To DIE for. And that's just the "reduced fat" version!

 Also following the Rooster's example, on Sunday night I made this French Tomato Tart.

 
I also made a few modifications--namely, I didn't use mustard for the base, instead I utilized the rest of the ricotta leftover from the Zucchini galette, and spread it out as a bed for the tomatoes. Delicious. I agree with Amy, I don't think the crust needs nearly as much butter as called for, and next time I will make a bed out of gently sauteed onions and garlic. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, would create a flavor profile remarkably similar to that of Ina's Goat Cheese and Tomato Tarts. Whelp, don't fix it if it ain't broke!

The last tart was a seasonal find out of Fine Cooking magazine (which, by the way, is one of my favorite magazines EVER--we're always so excited when it comes in the mail)--Rustic Fig and Raspberry tart.

What drew my eye to this dish was the fact that it called for raspberries, and of course, I had a bunch of wild raspberries that I had picked over the July 4th weekend, just begging to be used. Also, I had never eaten a fresh fig before, and dang, they're awesome! I expected them to be really hard, but they're super soft, and I could totally see dispatching of at least 20 of them at one time, especially if they were wrapped in prosciuitto. Mmmmm, now there's an idea...;-)

I made these for my Mom to celebrate her birthday. They were savory, and pretty decent in the end. We drove down to visit and were welcomed with an amazing lunch--fresh gazpacho, and grilled cheese on buttered brioche bread. One of the best meals I've had in a while.

Another nice part of the visit was the incredible produce that Dad gifted us out of his garden--corn on the cob, peppers, and tomatoes of all shapes and sizes...unbelieveable--not to mention the potatoes and haricot vert! Those items became the inspiration for many of the following dishes:

Green Bean Potato Salad (insert choir of angels singing).

This was flipping awesome. This contained yukon golds, green beans, and pear tomatos, all of out of Dad's garden. I added some scallions, garlic, thyme, and bacon to the mix, using the potato salad formula in the last issue of Fine Cooking magazine, and it was amazing.

This might have been one of my favorite issues in a while. This article was ingenious--you could choose between a creamy dressing or a vinaigrette, then at each step you could choose whatever you liked out of each category to mix into your salad. Being very linear-minded, this was super fun for me to conceptualize and execute! We enjoyed this with some of Salmaan's kick-ass ribs.

Here's a dish that is the essence of simplicity--it's a simple summer pasta made with whole wheat thin spaghetti, tomatoes marinated in olive oil with herbs and zucchini sauteed in oil with garlic. We grated some parmigiana reggianno on top, with some shavings of fresh mozzarella. 

Light and fresh.

The real star may have dropped in by surprise last night. After a long work week, I came home and made homemade marinara with the rest of the romas we had been gifted. I had never peeled tomatoes before, and found it to be a time consuming and messy task--even after having loosened the skins by blanching. By the time Salmaan arrived home with dough from our favorite pizza joint, I was exhausted and starving. It was time for a fast and satisfying meal. I didn't realize how hungry I actually was until i saw this:

I was willing it to bake FASTER. ;-) Here's the finish product:

I brushed the crust with a tablespoon of olive oil that had two minced garlic cloves marinating for about an hour. Topped this bad boy with fresh mozzarella, parmigiana reggiano, regular parmesan, basil and fresh tomatoes. I used to always sub parmesan for parmigiana reggiano--I'm not going to do that anymore. The latter has an intensely savory, nutty flavor that really distinguishes it from its cousin. Good stuff. This was made even more delicious with the addition of a bottle of Walla Walla Washington Cuvee that Mom and Dad picked up on their vacation in the North East a few months ago. 

This morning we enjoyed some french toast (which I rarely make) with some white peaches that I sauteed in just a smidge of butter. 

A nice start to the weekend! I hope you're eating well, and enjoying all that is tasty and seasonal!

 

A Time for Everything

Time is a funny thing. Recently, more than ever, I have become aware of how relative our perception of each passing day can be, and how that perception can affect mood, outlook, and productivity.

 I have no idea where June went.

In an effort to avoid wishing July away in the same mind blowing fashion, we've been filling our days and weekends with tasks and people to look forward to. Motivation to stay in the moment, and enjoy the summer that we'll wish we had embraced more fully once the chill wind of January burns our cheeks again.

We had an amazing Fourth of July weekend. Our wonderful wedding photographer, Fran, invited us to come down with the dogs for a visit. She and Roger live on 30 beautifully rolling acres in the Shenandoah Valley, just outside of Brownsburg, Virginia. Their house sits atop a hill, and through nearly every window, you catch a view of farmland and the Blue Ridge Mountains, their color muted by the hazy heat, but still as comforting as ever. 

We arrived in our own time late Saturday afternoon, enjoying the winding country lanes and the splashes of red from wine berries hanging from overladen branches lining Dutch Hollow Road. Those same wine berries (actually a species of wild asian raspberries) cover Fran and Roger's property, and I spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning picking them to enjoy at a later date.

 
 Saturday evening Fran put out a spread of cheese, crackers, and various other tasty things, and we sat in front of the house while the sun set across the valley, listening to the quiet music of a Rockbridge County evening. 

 She cooked an incredible organic chicken, which we enjoyed with salad and fresh corn on the cob. Afterwards we shared some of the blackberry/blueberry galette that I had made that morning (blackberries from my backyard garden patch--yay!) 

 The wine did flow, and once the sun had set, we took our beverages back out to the yard, watching the stars come out and shoot across a sky that felt like it was only an arms length overhead. We had planned to stay for just one night, but our hosts graciously asked us to spend another, and we were happy to oblige. I think it's probably the only time that my tendency to overpack has actually paid off.

 The kids also had a wonderful time. Fran and Roger have 5 four legged children of their own--3 of them dogs. While Sophie and Evie weren't really up for a ton of socializing, the newest addition to their pack, Mojo, became fast friends with Jayden about five minutes after we got there. 

 They rolled around and played pretty much constantly all weekend. It was also a big event because this was the first time we had EVER let the dogs off-lead in an unenclosed environment. We were super anxious about it at first, but after the first few hours, we realized that River loved us enough to come back from her wanderings to check in every 20 minutes or so, and Jayden was so enamored with Mojo he wasn't going to leave her side. River chased two deer, got stained and sticky with wine berries, and was a magnet for pretty much every thorn and burr on the property, but she couldn't have been happier.

 
 Jayden is growing so fast, we can barely keep up. 

 While is face is still as silky as the finest cashmere, his body hair is starting to get longer and coarser--something I don't recall happening to River until she was much older. He is such a sweet, sweet little gentleman. Always close, and always ready to cuddle.

 

 

Fran maintains a lovely garden around the house, and Sunday after berry picking I walked around the property with my camera, attempting to capture as much of the serenity of the day as I could. 

This was the only sunflower in the garden, and in this photo I feel like it has its own personality. I half expect it to say aloud, "whatchoo lookin' at?"

 

There were a ton of butterfly bushes, and I used the telephoto lens to get in as close as I could, with exciting results.

 

 

While I'm not usually one for buzzing bees, I couldn't seem to stop trying to capture these little guys as they hummed around me. Their wings are exquisite.

These moth-like guys were also quite abundant. 

Sunday night we sat outside again with hors d'oeuvres and beverages, and watched the sun set across the valley. 

 
After a delicious dinner, I rode with Fran down the road to pick up Evie at a neighbor's house. Evie is good friends with the dogs down there, and Fran and her neighbor have quite the unique arrangement--Evie gets dropped off in the mornings (if she doesn't wander down there on her own) when Fran leaves for work, and she picks Evie up to bring her home at the end of the day. They call it Evie's "second family". It was cool out and on the way back up the long winding driveway with the windows down, I heard a loud *ping!* against my glass of wine. I didn't think anything of it until I was back out on the dark porch, and took a sip of grasshopper. Even the bugs were into having a laid back weekend. ;-)

 
 Monday morning we headed back home, sad to leave, but also feeling rejuvenated from the change of pace and hospitality we enjoyed there. Not to mention the fact that the dogs have pretty much slept the last two days straight. We will always think back fondly of the time we spent there, until the next visit! Thank you Fran and Roger!!!

Back in the Kitchen

We're on Day #3 of three blissful days off, and I spent much of the last two back in the kitchen. The last few months I've not been cooking very much--and every week as I create the meal plan, I've regretted the absence of the excitement that comes with going out on a limb and cooking something different. These two meals weren't the most adventurous, but I had never made either before, and was completely floored by how delicious they turned out to be.

Saturday (and Sunday, as it were) lunch: Chicken Parmesan Subs:

Sounds simple, right? Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult to make, and I was pretty intimidated to give this a go. Given that we're relatively health-conscious cooks, I knew I wouldn't be able to fry the chicken, but I thought baking it wouldn't give it the nice crispy crust that would make this sub delicious and authentic. So, I split the baby.

We pounded out the chicken so it was JUST a bit flatter than before. I coated them in flour, then an egg wash, then plain bread crumbs seasoned with italian seasonings, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. Into the frying pan they went with 1 Tbs I can't believe it's not butter, and 1 Tbs olive oil (to keep the butter from burning). Gave it about 2 minutes, each side, then popped all of the breasts into a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. The result? A beautiful crisp breast of chicken that was incredibly juicy and flavorful. We topped them off with some Emeril's Marinara (my favorite--it's a little sweet), parmesan and mozarella cheese, made all brown and bubbly under the broiler. Like a little piece of heaven.

Next up was Giada's Vegetarian Lasagna from her cookbook, Everyday Italian. 

 We had planned to have our two favorite vegetarians over for dinner on Friday night, but Salmaan woke up with a terrible cold on Friday, so we had to cancel our plans and had soup instead. Saturday he was feeling better, and I had all the ingredients for this meal, so I still wanted to make it. 

Let me say this: I have a hard time cooking vegetarian food. It's a mental thing. For example, we cook and eat vegetarian all the time! We truly do, but it isn't until I go into the kitchen, piles of cookbooks in hand, LOOKING for what I can deem in my own mind to be a TRULY vegetarian meal, that I get stuck. Additionally, my attitude is always slated against the truly vegetarian meal working out, as it is destined to taste like mushrooms and squash. Always the same flavor profile! All I can seem to find to fit into this very narrow mental category are recipes that actually have the word "Vegetarian" in the title. It's terribly silly, really, and I realized this when I was meal planning this week--spinach/feta dinner spanakopitas, goat cheese tart, spring things risotto, summer bounty pasta....LAURA!?!??!?! ALL OF THIS IS VEGETARIAN! And I was actually EXCITED about all of those meals...

I experienced this mental block last week, hence settling on Giada's Vegetarian Lasagna, despite my numerous reservations about this recipe. First of all, it called for 20 oz. of FROZEN spinach. Blugh. I'm not a spinach girl, folks. Popeye may have it goin' on, but I'll pass on the putrid greens, thank you very much. It isn't that I don't LIKE spinach, per se. I truly adore the IDEA of spinach. I like knowing that it's in a meal...I like being able to see it....I just don't particularly enjoy tasting it. Certainly not 20 friggin' frozen oz. of it. So, I already had it in my mind to make some sort of mod there. 

The recipe also calls for a can of white beans. Really, I thought? White beans, with pasta? That's weird. But, whatever--I'm all for fiber across all spectrums of my life, so I let that one go. Lastly, asparagus. 

This one really threw me. Asparagus is one of my favorite veggies, for sure, but it's very...asparagus. It's got a big personality, and I didn't see it melding particularly well with the squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, and the aforementioned spinach and white beans. Hrm.

I rarely modify a recipe before I try it "by the book" at least once. But, given that this dish was going to require the better part of my precious Saturday afternoon, I wasn't in the mood to have attempt #1 be a flop, so I went to the internets. The reviews were pretty consistent in a couple of respects: 1) it's too dry 2) the spinach tastes horrible and 3) there's not enough cheese and sauce. It was already a given in my mind that I wasn't going to make this dish into six individual serving dishes as Giada instructs--can we say unnecessarily fussy?

So, here's what I did:

I made the Marinara recipe that Giada recommends in her own book. However, I didn't have two 32 oz cans of crushed tomatoes, so I used two 28 oz. cans, and one 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes. I think that turned out really well, as the large chunks of tomatoes lent a great texture to the sauce. I probably used 4 cups of sauce total, in comparison to the cup and a half called for.

I only used one 10 oz. package of frozen spinach. I drained the heck out of it after it thawed, and combined it with about 12 oz of part-skim ricotta that I had in the fridge. I mixed that up very well with some salt, pepper, and 1 egg. 

We couldn't find fresh lasagna noodles, and they didn't have any of the regular dry noodles in the pasta aisle when Salmaan went to the grocery store. He got the no cook ones, and I soaked them for about 5 minutes in a large casserole dish before layering them into the lasagna.

I diced an extra summer squash into the veggie mixture to make up for the lack of spinach.

One thing I would do differently next time: the recipe instructs you to saute the onions first, then the carrots, then the squash/zucchini and the asparagus last. I would switch up those last two ingredients. The asparagus definitely needs to go in before the squash/zucchini--it takes longer to cook.

 As it turned out, even though my asparagus was cut into small pieces, by the time it was as tender as I wanted, the squash/zucchini had begun to disintegrate a bit, which was a bummer. 

However, that was pretty much the only bummer of the dish--to my surprise, this tasted really, really delicious. I layered it like so: sauce, noodles, ricotta/spinach mixture, white beans, sauce, noodles, veggie mixture, cheese, sauce, noodles, ricotta/spinach mixture, sauce, cheese. There are more of these in the freezer, and I can't wait to pull them out on a night when all we want is a glass of wine and a good meal.

Who said vegetarian has to suck? Ummmm...you did, Laura. Ah. Yes. Consider yourself schooled.

 

Proud

Today started off nicely, with a tasty breakfast, and multiple cups of coffee.

 Whenever I fry eggs, I always think about my Dad telling me how Granny would say, "Ya gotta wait for the chickens to start clucking!" That's the only way to know when it's just the right time to flip the eggs--when the edges start to pucker up and "cluck". When I woke up Salmaan was outside shoveling the driveway, so I figured he wouldn't mind the smell of bacon when he walked in from the cold. 

After breakfast, I sat down at my wheel with 4.5 oz. of BFL combed top in the Agamemnon colorway (purchased last week from Sheepish Creations). 

With the snow the last few weekends, I haven't been able to get out to Powhatan to return the wheel I've been renting, so I've been spinning on and off the last few weeks. I've never touched virgin BFL before, and had no idea how it would spin up. It was DELIGHTFUL--it felt like butter sliding through my fingers, and I adore the color transitions! After a couple of hours, this is what I ended up with.

I have to say, I'm really proud of this. I think the plying was a lot more consistent than my last few attempts, and it isn't underspun, OR overspun. This time I was determined to figure out how much yardage I achieved (because now it's important to think about cost of oz of roving=how much yarn in what gauge). Putting two chair backs together, I determined that one wrap was 55 inches. 83 wraps later, and I have 127 yards of handspun 2 -ply, in a DK to worsted weight! I soaked it and then hung it up to dry to set the twist.

With a good chunk of spinning completed, I'll sit down now with the little sweater I'm knitting for Anna Grace. I'm hoping to get beyond the divide for the sleeves today! I don't think that the Liisu is showing the ribbing particularly well, but the color and texture more than makes up for that. 

Happy Sunday!
 

Sunday

Today is a lazy day, of sorts. Not to say that things aren't getting done, but the pace is slow and relaxed, the fireplace is on, and jazz is drifting through the air, softly mingling with the scent of baking banana bread. A nice way to end the weekend. River has no complaints.

 Yesterday we went a bit errand-crazy, and took our first trip to buy-in-bulk heaven (or hell, depending on your perspective), Costco. We've had a membership for over a year now, but have never gone to take advantage of it, mainly due to the fact that we knew we would have to make a pretty hefty initial investment to begin shopping there. We finally decided to just suck it up and take the plunge, and 4 hours and a stuffed pantry and extra closet later, we were finished. I have to say, it's pretty daunting to walk into a warehouse like that, but it was fun, as well. The prices are fantastic, and while buying in bulk is intimidating and feels glutenous, I think we'll end up saving a lot of mullah. We saved over $65 in coupons alone! Not too shabby. 

All that hard work earned us this for lunch today.

Ham, asparagus, and onion quiche, just another permutation of Julia Child's standard quiche recipe from Joy of Cooking. This was the best quiche I've ever made--and I must say, the sound of Salmaan saying, "Mmmm, MMMM!!!!" about every 5 seconds never got old. We enjoyed it with a hefty serving of gorgeous raspberries (Costco find) and some white wine. Delicious.

I'm working on a few small projects around the house right now, but I did take some time out to focus on a new found passion. Dare I share just a peak?

More to come on that later, but for now, it's a glass of red wine and the last DVD of season two of Dead Like Me--thus ends the series! *sniff*

Snow

 Lots, and LOTS of snow. So far I'd say we've gotten about 8-9 inches, which is a big deal for here. It took us almost two hours to shovel the monster driveway, (which, by the way, I'm REALLY feeling today) and therefore we felt totally justified in scarfing down this delicious soup and grilled cheese for lunch.

I love this soup. It's made an appearance here numerous times, and I've pretty much come up with my own version of it:

Tuscan Soup: (adapted from Food to Live By)

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• as many carrots as you like, peeled and diced (I normally do 4 large)
• about 3-4 ribs of celery, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 sliced of reduced fat bacon, diced
• about 2 Tbs garlic, minced
• 2 cups dried great northern beans, picked over and rinsed
• 6 cups reduced fat chicken stock
• about 6-8 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 Tbs fresh diced rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp good balsamic vinegar

heat up the olive oil, and throw in the onion, celery, and carrots. Allow the mirepoix to sautee until soft and slightly browned. Then, throw in the bacon for 2-4 minutes, until the fat begins to render and brown. Toss in the garlic for about two minutes, before adding the stock, beans, tomatoes, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover for 2-3 hours (time depends on how long it takes the beans to soften up--older ones will take longer. You can reduce the time by soaking the beans in water overnight the night before). When it's done, season to taste and add the teaspoon of balsamic, and serve. 

YUM.

Today, like yesterday, will be spent clearing the driveway, knitting, and cooking. Perhaps I'll be able to work in some catch-up posts, as well. It's been too long, friends. Oh, and speaking of friends, check out this gorgeous gift from the barefoot rooster!

The chronicle of its creation (and better photos as well) can be found here and here. It is being turned into the Milkweed Shawl, so far I'm through Chart A, and hope to get even further today to share some pictures--it's gorgeous!

Mais Oui!

I am 1/4 French Canadian. (I know, I know, not necessarily something to brag about (I'm also Polish--doh!)...but it's a true statement, and is relevant to today's featured cuisine). When it comes to French cooking, especially quiches, I really love to dig in and go all out. There's no doot aboot it! That's why, when I saw this recipe, my mouth began to water, and it went on the list of things that had to be created this weekend. Voila!

Now, it must be noted, despite how easy Deb makes it sound on her site, this recipe is NOT for the faint of heart. It took a really long time. The onions take 40 minutes to caramelize, the crust has to chill for 30 minutes, and the bake time noted in the recipe is a joke--it took this bad boy an hour to bake and firm up, and even then, I think we pulled it out to soon. But, by that time, we were HUNGRY, dude! I would recommend upping the oven temp to 375.

T'was absolutely delicious. The crust was an interesting venture--I've never made pastry before. I did in the food processor, which was super easy, but I had a hard time rolling it out--it didn't really want to stay together. I think my egg was on the smaller side, which likely had something to do with it. Tasted great, though.

Oh, and since it's been a million years since there was some knitting content on this blog 'o' mine, here's a progress shot of my GYC. I'm hoping to get beyond the waist shaping today, and I think this rainy weather and Harry Potter will help me do just that!

There's also an FO post on its way, just as soon as we get some weather nice enough to take a few shots of it...Happy Sunday! 

Ghoulishly Good

This was our first Halloween in the new neighborhood, and both of us were feeling pretty festive. I decided there were a few pumpkin recipes that I needed to try out, and I'm glad I did. First up? Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. After checking this out over at Cosmicpluto, we had to give them a go.

I have not enjoyed something this tasty (dessert-wise) in a long, long time. They are light, fluffy, cakey, and delicious. Initially we were going to hand them out to parents as an adult treat, but after taste testing one of the smaller ones, Salmaan begged to keep them just for us. I didn't tell him at the time, but I felt the same way. You HAVE to make these. About five seconds after we tasted them, we each locked eyes and said, our mouths full, "We've GOT to make these for Thanksgiving."

Next up we baked these Pumpkin Muffins. They made the house smell amazing, and we gave away half a dozen to our neighbors who very kindly helped us dispatch the fallen tree. 

I'm waiting to try these tomorrow morning with a steaming cup of coffee. 

While I was inside baking, Salmaan decorated the outside with some lights we had leftover from our pumpkin carving party a few years ago.

We were the only house illuminated to the hilt, and I think it was fun for the kids to approach for candy. 

Dinner this evening was a fast affair, I basically wolfed it down in one gulp, only to discover afterwards that I'm not sure I even liked it that much. We made Black Bean Pumpkin Soup--a recipe that I got off of the Smitten Kitchen. 

A few notes on this soup--it wasn't at ALL orange (the photos on Deb's site are electric), and I didn't taste the pumpkin. Not even a little bit. Not even at all. Additionally, I found the overall flavor to be a bit sour, and I think that was due in large part to the sherry wine the recipe called for--I think it could have done without that entirely, and instead of finishing it off with sherry vinegar, I believe a bit of red wine vinegar would have done the trick. It did, however, introduce us to one of the most wonderful ingredients--pre-cooked ham. It came in this huge chunk, and was smokey and delicious. I plan to use it in a quiche tomorrow, and probably make a club salad later this week complete with beets and other numerous accoutrement. There might even be a ham salad sandwich in our future. (This is a big deal. I very rarely do any sort of meat salad. They tend to make me barf. But, this ham has non-barfing saladish potential. Very cool.)

All in all, the evening was a bit anticlimactic. We met a few neighbors that we hadn't seen before, so that was nice, but all in all, only SIX children darkened out door to trick or treat. One of them had so many food allergies that his parents went by to every house beforehand to drop off a gift to give him instead of candy. I threw in a glow stick for him as well. Not like the kid who is allergic to everything under the sun needs to glow in the dark, but hey, they're cool!

When Gluten Kid and his family were walking away, the kids asked the parents, "Hey, can we go trick or treat at that house over there?" [referencing our neighbors that live across the street] The mother promptly responded, "No, their porch light is out, see? That's the universal sign to stay away. That family never comes out. Not even for Christmas. That's why we call them the Vampire Family." I. Laughed. My. Ass. Off. And then I thought it was kind of inappropriate that they said that within earshot of us, which of course, theoretically meant they were in earshot of the Vampire Family. Suburbia? You are FASCINATING.

In any event, Happy Halloween, everyone! And if you find yourself with a sweet tooth this evening, come on by. We have about $30 left of unclaimed candy. 

Soup's On!

There has been a lot of this going on here at Chez K. the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago on Columbus day, I made homemade Chicken Soup for the first time (using the FANTASTIC recipe out of Food to Live By) and it changed my life. While I have made many a batch of potato leek soup over the years, I've never been a big homemade soup fan. I always thought it took too long, and was a lot of work for something that never ended up being very satisfying. I have been converted.

All in all, it took about 4.5 hours from start to finish, and the house smelled tremendously good. The aroma brought back memories for me: late mornings on Saturday; Dad would be sitting at the kitchen table with his notebook--wearing jeans and a ratty old sweatshirt. His curly hair would be wiry and tousled, not having showered yet that day. He would watch cooking shows for hours, taking notes and writing out recipes (this was YEARS before the internet, food network, etc.). Meanwhile, a homemade soup would be simmering on the stove, with a lemony bunch of parsley from the garden sitting on the wooden cutting board, ready to be thrown in at the very end. I never really appreciated the hard work of it all until this month--or the quick comfort that can be achieved from a savory spoonful. That was one memory, and the other, my Granny. Nothing specific...just a home filled with earthy slow-cooked goodness. That was my Granny. Good things.

Last weekend I made up a batch of Mexican Albondigas soup (again, another recipe out of Food to Live By). I had made this previously last year (albondigas are mexican meatballs), but had used ground turkey. This go round I substituted ground sirloin, and the difference was marked. From now on, I'm going beef all the way with this soup. 

We shared this meal with a co-worker who stopped by to haul away that tree that busted our deck. Turns out, it made him very happy to have free firewood. The next day, we tried a new recipe out of Fine Cooking--French Onion Soup. It was time-consuming to caramelize the onions (and honestly, they could have steamed a bit longer), but the time and watery eyes were WELL worth the wait. Gorgeous.

Next up was Parker's Beef Stew out of one of Ina's cookbooks. Salmaan took the lead on this one, as he normally does whenever wine, beef, and potatoes are involved. This was an incredibly hearty stew, and although many of the same components were present, I felt it was totally different from the bourguignon we made a few weeks ago. The presence of the potatoes and peas were wonderful, and there was a richness to this dish that was completely different from the other.

And last, but definitely not least, we enjoyed this wonderful concoction this evening. Amy is often posting about dishes she's tried from Smitten Kitchen, and so I finally visited and checked it out. I will be back again, and again...and...well, you get the idea. This soup was excellent, and truly fit the bill for what was in the pantry. We used the acorn squash we purchased at the orchard a few weeks ago, and surprisingly, had just about everything else on hand. It's strange how your staples as a cook change as you evolve. Lately, mine have been butter, cream, french baguette, gruyere, and chicken stock. Perhaps this new trend would account for the extra pounds I have been carrying around the last few months. ;-)

At any rate, grab a great recipe, and get to simmering. It does a body (and soul) good. Soup's on!