Yay Bev!

This week we have 2 reasons to give Miss Beverly a big giant round of applause:
1) (and this is really the way smaller reason) she was kind enough to give us her weekly produce haul from her CSA because she was going to be out of town to kick butt
2) She totally kicked butt at IronMan Canada yesterday. YAY Bev! We are SO SO proud of you for conquering the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 run. You, my dear, ROCK

And just to make us both feel a little better this is how I used your fantastic produce.

Heirloom tomatoes: stuffed with cheese and italian seasoned breadcrumbs (and grilled because we were having a freak power failure- WTF?!)
Romanescu cauliflower: tossed with EVOO S&P and roasted
Leeks: 1 used to make veggie stock, 2 browned in butter and braised with a little veggie stock
Cutting Celery: in the veggie stock
Beets: bottoms Roasted on the grill and tossed with some orange slices from the tree in the yard and a little lemon juice and salt.
Swiss chard: sauteed with some EVOO, garlic and the beet greens

Still to come the beautiful sweet peppers which I think will become fajitas tomorrow. We shall see.

Thanks Bev and congrats- you put in more hours of training than I can possibly imagine and
YOU ARE AN IRON(wo) MAN!!!

Donna's Fab Birthday Potluck

My lovely bud (and my husband's long time- and totally kick ass I might add- running buddy) had a little birthday fiesta recently. It was a bit of a pot luck extravaganza featuring some of Betty's gorgeous signature cupcakes, and small bites galore. I did some savory tarts and since, as we know, I am pastry challenged I used my favorite standby- the pepperidge farm frozen puff pastry. A surprisingly good product and totally easy to work with, even for people like me who can't seem to roll out and construct anything....


In the main part of the image is a tart filled with goat cheese and roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes, garlic, thyme and shallots. In the corner is another tart with caramelized onions, crisped pancetta and creme fraiche.
The directions couldnt be easier. Pre-heat oven to 400. Defrost dough. Roll out a little bit to soften the creases in the dough. Lay the dough in a pan or on cookie sheet. Top with whatever your little heart desires. Fold dough over the edges so the deliciousness doesn't spill out and bake until golden.

Now if only we could have kept Scott from making Salami Chocolate Fondue.... sad but true :)

Pizza Par-tay

Our dear friend B was coming over for dinner and I decided to make one of her favorites- Pizza.
I had picked up some beautiful heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market this weekend- and what better way to enjoy them than in a little Pizza Margarita. Combine those with some Trader Joes pizza dough, fresh mozzarella a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of fresh basil and you have yourself some very happy dinner guests.
The keys to success-
*make sure the crust is very very thin
*use a pizza stone
*preheat your oven and the stone to 450
*put the dough on the stone and then add your toppings to minimize losing your toppers on the floor on the way to the oven.

The other pizza of the evening was with mushrooms, mozzarella and truffle oil.
To prepare the mushrooms: sautee thinly sliced mushrooms on a pretty high heat with a little olive oil until browned. Then add salt and pepper, a little fresh thyme. Liquid will come out of the mushrooms and then evaporate, then add a little cream or half and half and reduce until thick. Spoon this over your pizza crust, top with mozzarella and bake. After pulling out of the oven drizzle a little truffle oil on top. Enjoy!

The (politically incorrect) splurge

I have a confession to make. I think veal is delicious- and although some may deem it a bit politically incorrect I couldn't resist today. I grew up in a very Italian neighborhood and veal scallopini was a pretty common menu item. When I wandered into the italian market today and saw some gorgeous little veal cutlets in the counter I could not resist. A little pricey but worth it every once in a while. Here you have Veal Marsala with garlicy wilted spinach and creamy polenta.
The Recipe:
Veal Marsala
Dust the cutlets with a little flour, salt and pepper. Sear them in a hot fry pan with some butter and olive oil. Take out of the pan and set aside. In the pan add some chopped shallots, garlic, mushrooms and get a little color on them. Add some marsala wine and a little chicken stock. Put the veal back in the pan for a few minutes. The sauce will thicken a bit from the flour on the veal.

Weekend yumminess

For the first time in a few weeks I made it to the farmers market and managed to drag J along. He is usually game for the free samples and today he bonded with one of the fruit vendors that had some amazing stone fruits. We picked up some white nectarines, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, white corn, beets, heirloom tomatoes, and baby bok choi.
For dinner tonight I decided to revisit the korean BBQ from the birthday festivities since my ravenous friends left me with only a little taste. We had that with sesame seed studded sushi rice, steamed baby bok choi, spicy pickled cucumbers, and grilled scallions. Yum. I think that this dinner will make it into the regular rotation- for the weekend at least. Although the actual cook time was about 30 minutes it did require a few hours of marinade for the meat and pickles.

Old Faithful

I'm sure we all have one of these. The dish that you can whip up with ease- and do- just about every week. Mine is pasta with sausage and some sort of veggie. Tonight the sausage was chicken italian and the veg was broccolini and spinach. I had a moment of panic when I realized that I didn't have a full box of pasta in the pantry (shocking for me since I am a huge italian food fan) but I managed to dig this half box of rotini out of the recesses of the cabinet to save the day.

The recipe:
Pasta
Green veggie of your choosing
Sausage of your choosing
Garlic ( a few cloves thinly sliced)
Shallot (also thinly sliced)
White wine (you could substitute chicken stock)
Olive oil

Fill a big pot of water and set to boil. In another pan put a generous swirl of olive oil and put on medium high heat. Brown the sausage. Pull out of the pan and slice into 1/3 inch slices. Put shallots and then garlic into the oil. Put green veg into pan. Salt the boiling pasta water and throw pasta into water. Back to the other pan add about 1 glass worth of wine. Add sausage back to the pan and sautee. Pour another glass of wine for yourself and drink. Once the pasta is done, drain and add to veg and sausage mixture. Combine and cook for another minute and then grate parmesean cheese over the top. Enjoy. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes and you even have an excuse to have a glass of wine while making it.

Birthday Fiesta

This year for my birthday we chilled in the backyard and fired up the grill for some friends. I was stumped about what to do initially and finally settled on a fusion feast of sorts.
Thanks to epicurious.com for saving my life yet again... here's the menu.
Korean BBQ beef lettuce wraps I did them with flank steak instead of rib eye and they were fabulous. The sauce was pretty yummy too- I did add about a tsp of honey to it because it was a little too sharp for my liking. I also served these with asian style pickled cucumbers -I substituted serrano chiles for the red pepper flakes for a little more heat. And on the side an asian style cole slaw. The sauce for the slaw was SO delicious I think I may use it again over noodles.


For those that weren't down with the asian inspired menu I also had a taco bar set up. I got carne asada and chicken already marinated from a local mexican market (thanks to the spectacular translation assistance from my girl B-Fresh). To serve with this I had some typical toppers like finely diced raw onion, cilantro and salsa. I also made a corn, black bean and jicama salad which was also delicious.


For those not feeling particularly adventurous we also had some sausages and hot dogs and a potato salad. Ordinarily I don't like anything with mayo in it but the herbs and lemon really cut right through that.
All in all we had a nice chill day and everybody loved the food. A lot of it even could be prepared in advance which is always a bonus. I did have a minor mishap and got my finger doing some last minute chopping but all is well 2 days later with that. Thanks to epicurious once again for some fabulous party food, and our friends for leaving us with no leftovers.