Don't call it a comeback + Pistachio-Rosewater Cake redux (aka happy birthday to me)

It's hard to start writing something to explain why you've disappeared for nearly 19 months. (Ok, I didn't really disappear, as evidenced by this.)

Life's a lot different now, as many of you know. Gone are the days of getting home from work at 7:30, leisurely making dinner, photographing it just so, and then sharing it within a day or two. 

Now, dinner is often a race against the clock (may I refer you to this, this, this, and this). I've gotten really good about cooking on Sundays and one weeknight a week after the little one is in bed so that all we need to do is reheat a few things to have dinner on the table in under 10 minutes. Yes, I'll cook a meal from scratch one weeknight per week (and in the weekends), but anything that takes more than 30 minutes to make is absolutely not an option on weeknights unless I already have something prepared for the little guy and we adults decide to eat after he goes to bed. Still, I'll admit that neither of us always have the energy, will, or time for a really long dinner like that. I will not deny that many bowls of cereal have been eaten on those instances. There are always clothes to be folded, more work to be done, floors to be swept, finances to handle. And sometimes the newspaper just needs to be read. 

Blackberry-Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day (do I really need to list the reasons why?), but this year I felt compelled to celebrate, even if in just some small way.  Perhaps it's because there was a third person this year (who is technically not here yet) and my emotions got the better of me and convinced me that Valentine's Day is in fact important.  The end result was a simple baking project, so it's not as if I went all out, but it definitely meant more to me this year than it has in years past.

The Village Voice's Sixth Annual Choice Eats

Is it already time for Choice Eats? In just a few weeks, 50+ restaurants will be serving a plethora of food in the massive 69th Armory.

I was totally overwhelmed the first year I attended - and I didn't even eat about half of the offerings - and last year was no different.  This year's event is the sixth annual and is taking place on Tuesday, March 19, at 6:30 pm.

CSA Week 24

Vegetables: 2 pounds turnips, 1 bunch baby fennel, 1 bunch scallions, 1 head red leaf lettuce, 2 pounds sweet potatoes, 2 pounds carrots, 1 bunch tatsoi
Fruit: 8 pounds mixed apples

Here's what I'm making:

• Moroccan chickpea, turnip, sweet potato, and carrot stew with preserved lemons, green olives, and harissa
• Smoked crispy sweet potatoes, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches (a riff on Van Horn's Sweet PLT)
• Sweet potato, walnut, sage, and parmesan pizza
• Spicy turnip fries
• Fennel-apple slaw
• Tatsoi-apple-ginger juice (because I am really entirely over bok choy and all related vegetables
• Mini apple pies
• Brown sugar apple upside down cake with apple cider caramel and spiced walnuts
• Spiced apple cider

CSA Week 23

No share last week because of Hurricane Sandy, so this week's share and subsequent ones will be a little bigger.

Vegetables: 1 bunch leeks, 1 head radicchio, 1 large bunch mustard greens, 1/2 pound green string beans, 1 head red leaf lettuce, 2 pounds green peppers, 2 pounds sweet potatoes, 1 large butternut squash (about 2 pounds)
Fruit: 7 pounds apples

Here's what I'm making:

• Sweet potato, red lentil, and quinoa sliders with lettuce, tomato, and harissa and roasted garlic mayo
• Linguine with leeks, radicchio, and walnut pesto (based on this recipe)
• Penne with pesto, potatoes, and green beans (I put up a few jars of pesto at the end of the summer using basil from my mom's garden)
• Salad of lettuce, roasted butternut squash, French lentils, dried cranberries, maple-sage walnuts, pecorino, and fresh-pressed apple cider dressing
• Garam masala butternut squash seeds
• Waffles with apples and maple syrup
• Caramel apple mini pies (5" little ones!)
• Spiced apple cider

CSA Week 21

Vegetables: 1 bunch scallions, 1 bunch red bok choy, 1/2 pound yellow string beans, 1 head red leaf lettuce, 1 pound Japanese eggplant, 1 pound green peppers, 2 pounds sweet potatoes
Fruit: 7 pounds apples

Here's what I made:

• Green beans, green pepers, and onions with panang curry paste
• Bok choy with ginger, garlic, black pepper, and silken tofu
• Steamed eggplant with garlic, red chile, and black soy sauce
• Salad of lettuce, roasted sweet potatoes, French lentils, dried cherries, toasted pecans, and pomegranate molasses vinaigrette
• Waffles with apples and maple syrup

CSA Week 20

Another small share like last week, but the upcoming weeks promise a bit more.

Vegetables: 1 head romaine lettuce, 1 pint grape tomatoes, 2 pounds sweet potatoes, 1/2 pound edamame, 1 large bunch senposai

Fruit: 7 pounds apples (honeycrisp, golden delicious, and gala)

Here's what I made:

• Salads with apples, blue cheese, and walnuts
• Boiled edamame with shichimi togarashi
• Semolina gnocchi with braised senposai, black pepper, and pecorino
• Sweet potato fries (to go with some homemade black bean burgers)
• Steel-cut oats and quinoa with apples, honey, and sunflower seeds (gluten-free and vegan!)
• Mini apple pies

Cardamom Madeleines

It seems like madeleines are all the rage right now. I’ve been sitting on this recipe for months and of course when I come back to post it, I see recipes for madeleines everywhere!



If you’re not familiar with them, madeleines are French cookies that are really more like little cakes. Best served warm from the oven, they have a lightly crisp exterior that gives way to a light, spongy, interior that is redolent of butter and should be barely sweet, just so to make them the perfect companion for afternoon tea.  

CSA Week 19

Vegetables: 1 head lettuce, 1 bunch leeks, 1/2 pound green beans, 2 pounds small tomatoes, 1 bunch bok choy.  This is a very small share so hopefully next week we'll get a little more.
Fruit: 2.5 pounds of a mix of Mutsu and Golden Delicious apples, 2 pounds Honeycrisp apples

Here's what I'm making:

• Leek bread pudding (I've had my eye on the recipe in Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home for a long time so it's about time I do something about it)
• Leek, mushroom, and mozzarella pizza
• Dry-fried green beans
• Grilled bok choy with silken tofu and miso sauce
• Salads with apples, blue cheese, candied walnuts, and apple cider dressing
• Oven-dried tomatoes

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I went to a bridal shower for a friend who is getting married in Miami in a few weeks (her fiance is from there), so the theme of the shower, logically, was Miami.

I was asked to bring dessert and the first thing I thought of was Key lime pie.  But not everyone is into Key lime pie (although I think everyone likes Steve's Key Lime Pie, especially the Swingles), so I decided to bring, yes, cupcakes.

Brooklyn Pour: Beers in the Bank

This Saturday, October 6, the Village Voice is presenting its second annual Brooklyn Pour craft beer festival at Skylight One Hanson in Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.

I went last year and loved it.  Because what's not to love?  

CSA Week 18

Vegetables: 1 large head lettuce, 1 bunch arugula, 1/2 pound romano beans, 1 bunch tatsoi, 1 1/2 pounds globe zucchini, 1 large celery root (at least a half pound), 1 pint cherry tomatoes
Fruit: 2 pounds honeycrisp apples, 2.5 pounds macoun and jonagold apples

Here's what I'm making:

• Buffalo tofu salad - lettuce, grape tomatoes, carrots, celery, blue cheese dressing, and buffalo tofu (cubes of tofu marinated in hot sauce and pan-fried) - this is one of my new favorite things! 
• Celery root, apple, and parsley salad (this recipe minus the fennel)
• Miso-glazed tatsoi with silken tofu
• South Indian green beans (Matt loves this dish)
• Quinoa-stuffed globe zucchini (and this one, too)
• Linguini with arugula, lemon, capers, and pecorino
• Steel cut oats with apples

CSA Week 17

Vegetables: 1 bunch mizuna, 1 pound eggplant, 1 bunch carrots, 1/2 pound soybeans (edamame), 2.5 pounds tomatoes, 1.5 pounds zucchini
Fruit: 2.5 pounds apples, 1.5 pounds concord grapes

Here's what I'm making:

• Baingan bhartha
• Edamame with shichimi togarashi (that I picked up in Japan)
• Mizuna salad with apples, blue cheese, and candied walnuts
• Zucchini fritters with parsley-yogurt sauce
• Slow-roasted tomatoes (which are now in jars)
• Concord grape jam (to eventually make peanut butter and concord grape jam tartlets)
• The apples got eaten pretty quickly...we have only 3 left and I'm sure they'll be gone by the weekend.

The Dirt Candy Cookbook! And a Giveaway!

It's no secret that Dirt Candy is my favorite restaurant in this city. Not only is the food outstanding - each dish is executed with a level of thought and skill that you'd find in four-star restaurant kitchens - but when we're there, it's like being at an old friend's place.  So needless to say I was pretty excited when I learned that the very talented chef/owner of Dirt Candy, Amanda Cohen, was working on a cookbook.  And that cookbook, which was a long time in the making, is finally out (it was released in late August).

But it's not like any other cookbook you've read (or, probably more accurately, used, because let's be honest, most cookbooks don't get read from front to back, much less in one sitting).  This one is, to the best of my knowledge, the first graphic novel cookbook.  It's funny, offbeat, wacky, snarky, sentimental, and above all, informative.  I read every word on every page of this book (and yes, in one sitting), which is something I can't say for any other cookbooks on my large and overstuffed bookshelf - and I loved every page of it.  Amanda's distinct voice comes through so clearly and if you don't laugh at least a few times, then you have no sense of humor, and if you don't learn anything about cooking, well, then you should go back and read it more carefully.

CSA Week 16

This week's share is just begging to be turned into a Mexican meal!

Vegetables: 1 bunch scallions, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 1 butternut squash (approx 1.5 pounds), 1 bunch cilantro, 1 bunch rainbow chard, 1 hot pepper (not sure what kind it is), 1 pound purple and green tomatillos, 1 pound summer squash
Fruit: 2.5 pounds apples, 1.5 pounds concord grapes

Here's what I'm making:

• Spicy tomatillo salsa (with the tomatillos, hot pepper, cilantro, and some of the scallions)
• Pico de gallo (with the cherry tomatoes and cilantro)
• Swiss chard tacos (based on a recipe from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday, which we love)
• Zucchini risotto with pecorino and basil
• Grilled scallions and leeks (from last week) with romesco
• Concord grape and fennel soda syrup

The apples are too good to cook with - they're perfectly crisp and just the right amount of sweet and I can't stop eating them!

Smashed Cucumbers with Sesame, Chile, and Garlic

In case you missed my last post, I've got a bit of an obsession with a certain new restaurant in NYC.  

It's really not feasible (or cost-effective) to eat there all the time, so I was struck one evening with the idea to attempt to recreate some of their dishes at home.

CSA Week 15

Vegetables: 1 head of Boston lettuce, 2 pounds sweet peppers, 1/2 pound summer squash (I think this may be the last week of it!), 2 pounds tomatoes, 1 bunch beets, 1 bunch basil,
Fruit: 3 pounds nectarines, 2 pounds pink lady apples

Most of this is getting eaten raw in salads or out of hand (the fruit), but I'm roasting the beets for these sandwiches and the basil is getting turned into another batch of pesto.  Oh, and the summer squash is getting grated and turned into zucchini bread.

Spicy Stir Fried Spring Onions and Peppers

Ever since we ate there in San Francisco last summer, I've been in love with Mission Chinese.  I'll spare you the glowing praise that pretty much every single review has bestowed upon it, but they really do make outstanding food.  Even better, there are so many vegetarian options, nearly every single one of which is delicious.  And the new branch in Manhattan, to which we've already been several times, is just as good.

I don't think it's reasonable to eat there once a week (although I think there are plenty of people in this city who eat out on such a regular basis that doing so wouldn't be considered out of the ordinary), so last weekend, when I was craving their fiery, fantastic, food, I decided to make a dent in our CSA share and make some Mission Chinese-inspired dishes at home.

CSA Week 14

We're back from Japan!  We had an amazing time and had some (mis)adventures in eating, including a meal at a Zen temple, a dinner at a completely non-English speaking tofu restaurants, and lots of yogurt and rice balls from convenience stores.  

Last week's share (week 13) ended up in the able hands of my friend Elise.

This week we got the following:



Vegetables: 1 bunch leeks, 1 pint grape tomatoes, 1 large (about 1 pound) eggplant, 2 pounds zucchini/summer squash, 1 pound string beans, 1 pound sweet peppers
Fruit: 4 pounds peaches
Flowers: zinnias

Here's what I'm making:

• Baingan bhartha
• Peppers stuffed with rice, black beans, zucchini, and pepper jack cheese with chipotle salsa
• Roasted pepper and zucchini tacos with tomatillo salsa and pickled radishes
• Spicy zucchini pecorino bread
• Penne with pesto, potatoes, and green beans
• Peach-raspberry jam
• Waffles with bourbon peaches
• The tomatoes got eaten as snacks by me and maybe Oscar (don't tell Matt)

CSA Week 12

Matt and I are off to Japan tomorrow (!!!!!!!!) so I had to cook/preserve/otherwise use everything in this week's share right away. A little planning and a couple of hours in the kitchen made that plan a not-so-painful reality.

   

Vegetables: sorrel, 1 lb orange and yellow peppers, romaine lettuce, 2 lbs zucchini, 1 large cucumber, 1 pint grape tomatoes, 1 eggplant (about 1 lb)
Fruit: 1 pint raspberries, 2 lbs nectarines
Flowers: zinnias

Here's what I did with all of it:

• Baingan bhartha (a north Indian roasted eggplant dish - I used this week's eggplant, last week's plum tomatoes, spring onions from a few weeks ago, and green chile peppers from my mom's garden) - this went into the freezer for when we come back and I'll be too lazy to cook.
• Lettuce, sorrel, and apple juice - it was actually good and not sour from the sorrel as I had anticipated it to be.
• Roasted peppers
• Roasted zucchini (1 lb) - for pasta or grain dishes
• Shredded zucchini - for zucchini bread in the fall
• The grape tomatoes and cucumber were added to a salad for lunch today (and I may or may not have given a few tomatoes to Oscar as treats)
• The nectarines and raspberries were eaten as is; any remaining nectarines will get sliced and frozen.