Kids and food

I love this.  Right before I took the shot I said, "close your eyes".  For no reason, really.

Later, they painted.  Homework for Cap.  Their art, like them, bound with simpatico yet distinct.

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A yummy sounding soup popped up over at Orangette a few days ago.  Soup has been on my mind as the temps outside have dropped.  I realized that the seasonal nature of this recipe meant that I had all but one of the ingredients called for (canned coconut milk), which bumped it right up to the top of this week's meal planning because it would cost very little to make.

I haaaaaaaaaate preparing winter squash.  So tedious.  I decided to tackle as many squash as I could at once to get it out of the way.  Three sweet dumpling squash, two acorn squash and one buttercup squash turned out to be my limit.  I roasted the sweet dumpling squash (and finished it in one day) and saved the acorn and buttercup squash for the soup.

Warming and delicious.  I goofed and put in a tablespoon of sriracha rather than a teaspoon.  I added some water to take the edge off the heat.  Note to self: this soup was very straightforward to make having prepped the squash the day before.

We've had some sweet potatoes waiting in the wings in a bowl next to the squash on a shelf in the kitchen.  (I wonder what it's like to have a root cellar?)  I followed this recipe and roasted a few sweet spuds.  My potatoes needed a longer cooking time (I put them back in, raising the temp to 375º for an additional 10-15 minutes).  The kids both enjoyed these, Sag in particular.

I flipped through Gluten-Free Girl's latest cookbook (borrowed from the library) while half-watching the Pats game on Sunday night.  It's a nice looking book, and when I realized I had stuck post-its on nearly two dozen pages about halfway through the book, I laughed, stopped what I was doing, and put it on my Amazon wish list (which is how I keep track of such things).

She had a "recipe" for cooking quinoa which nudged me to make a pot.  Gem has always liked quinoa, but Sag has not.  I wanted to see if this recipe which guaranteed "fluffy" quinoa would do the trick.  I had my quinoa with a dab of Kerrygold and the roasted sweet potatoes.  Sag ate a few bites of his quinoa (with wheat-free tamari).  He didn't love it, but he didn't hate it, either.

I much prefer my quinoa cold, in salads.  Maybe because I don't taste the "nutty" flavor that most people use to describe quinoa, maybe because I find the texture of quinoa so enhanced when it is layered with other textures, but cold quinoa tossed with some veg (in this case: red onion, leftover roasted sweet spuds and "semi-homemade" sweet dill pickle relish), oil and vinegar (in this case: evoo and ume plum vinegar) and seasoning (in this case: garlic powder, salt and pepper) is a game changer for me.  Yum.

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Buzzfeed posts some very entertaining, yet consistently ephemeral, food stuff.  But, this post woke me up.  I have a feeling this recipe will change my chicken roasting/eating life...forever.

Peace and love.

Catching up: the food

sausage-sweet potato frittata.

pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.

Thai nut relish.

Hosted a wee potluck brunch last weekend and served these dishes.  All the recipes are terrific.  A variety of flavors and textures, all satisfying.  The Thai nut relish was a revelation (unsweetened shredded coconut as a base?  genius).  Oh, I also reduced the powdered sugar in the frosting significantly and the texture of the frosting was unchanged.  Win!

pumpkin muffins with raisins and choco chips.

These muffins were fabulous.  Moist and tasty.  If eaten on the first day, also nicely crusty.  Delicious with a schmear of cream cheese or butter, too.  I used coconut crystals and reduced the sugar.

Kyoto cherry rose green tea.

A recent discovery at Terra.  I had it iced on one of the last warm and humid days of the exponential Indian summers we had this year.  I have been enjoying it hot with a spoonful of local honey since turning the heat on last week.

roasted sweet potatoes.

Another gem of a recipe from Martha Stewart's site.  I did not have Old Bay seasoning so subbed with poultry seasoning that I need to get through speedily because of its recent "expiration" date.  This was simple to put together and highlighted the natural goodness of sweet spuds, well (flavor/texture/color).

cornbread stuffing with ground turkey, pecans and raisins.

Making this stuffing was a valuable first step in tinkering my way towards the scrumptiously sublime stuffing of my dreams.  It was much better than the horror of last year's stuffing.

• loved the pecans and raisins.

• if I make cornbread stuffing again, will decrease or eliminate the sugar in the cornbread.

• ground turkey, while nice for the non-red meat eating member of our family, didn't quite cut it, flavor-wise.

• the chicken broth (store bought...Imagine or Pacific Foods) was too one note...bordering on cloying.

• I forgot to plan for making gravy...gravy likely would have helped this stuffing go down easier.

• I gave most of this stuffing away to gluten-free friends and they loved it.

I have the ingredients for my next effort lined up and ready to go.

shakshouka.

Lovely, lovely breakfast food.  Teaches me patience every time while I wait for the eggs to cook just so.

cabbage head.

1. Wish I had a cleaver.

2. Confession: a cabbage bigger than one's head brings with it a tide of CSA fatigue.

beef-pork meatballs.

Delectable.  I don't think I will ever make beef-only meatballs ever again.  The pork added a fantastic je ne sais quoi to these nuggets of yummy.  I adapted the recipe quite a bit, but found it to provide a solid base.

sweet relish.

Sag and I love sweet relish.  But, of course, sweet relish contains loads of sugar.  It occurred to me this week that I could make sweet relish at home controlling for sugar.  After some Googling, I decided to pick up a jar of Bubbies (the store didn't have the relish so I bought the pickles).  I chopped up half the pickles, added some of the pickle juice and stirred in 2 Tbs local honey.  This relish nearly filled a repurposed salsa jar.

spaghetti carbonara.

I don't remember how I came to start reading Kate Christensen's blog.  I have not read her fiction, but she is a writer who likes food.  I like writerly things/people.  I like food.  She is from Boston and I like Boston.  So, somehow, I found her blog and I like to read it.  She posted a Carbonara recipe last week that entranced me.  I had never made Carbonara at home.  It is a dish that I have adored the occasional times I have had it.  I did not grow up eating it.  It always struck me as an otherworldly combination of crazily indulgent ingredients.

So, I was genuinely struck by the simple and straightforward recipe.  Pasta+bacon+garlic+olive oil+eggs+Parmesan cheese+black pepper.  Really?  Not only could I do that, but I realized that the relatively short list of ingredients was a signal for alchemical magic ahead.

Yum, yum, yum.  This was utterly comforting, nostalgic and perfect.  As I ate, this song came on and folded in a whole other layer of memory.

(I am a believer in every moment being perfection in it of itself...but it's not always easy to read the moment as so.  Eating this for dinner last night, many, many things came together and I became one with perfect.)

Peace and love and happy taste buds.

Absence results in avalanche

I promised myself to post today to not let it go longer than a week since my last post.  And I do hope it won't be as long till my next one.

I was going to pick one photo to save time (which I only wanted to do in order to facilitate the actual happening of writing a post), but looking at my photo stream made me warm and fuzzy and I could not pick just one.

I am delighted by an unexpected turn of events.  This Fall has been defined by a surge in cooking and baking as I have mused about it here in this space.  The development in the last week or so is that I have made some food which has made me go "hmm".  And I find myself very curious and wanting to learn more about the science behind the alchemy of cooking.

I have requested Ratio and Gluten-Free Girl Every Day from the library.  Both authors are proponents of using ratios to develop recipes and deepen one's understanding of how recipes work.  I cannot imagine I will ever be creating my own recipes...but am kind of thrilled to be exploring cooking and baking in a new way.  Maybe I do like it, after all.

And now, the pics...

local intersection.  I had just stepped out of Anthropologie, a store I go into maybe once a year.  I like it every time, but then forget about it until someone or something reminds me and I go in again.

sweet rice flour!  we've started using it, but I have not batched "my" all-purpose flour mix yet.  (I need a snazzy name for it.)

Chinese lump candy (aka rock candy).  the kids, particularly Gem, have been loving it.  some less processed sweet for the stomach system.

pumpkin chocolate chunk bars.  the first of three items I baked in the last week that came out vastly differently than I thought it would.  it tasted good, but the texture was very wet.  it was like a pumpkin pie without the crust.  the recipe poster's photo shows a much cake-ier looking bar so I was disappointed...and wondered what went awry.

we returned upstate for pumpkins.  the kids enjoyed our trip to Gill's Farm last year so we made a day of it with auntie and uncle.

boys on rock in woods.

beautiful birches.

more often than not, lately, all I want for breakfast is a piece of toast with Kerrygold and a big ass mug of black tea (English or Irish Breakfast) with honey.  must be the bits of stardust in me that hail from the British Isles rallying for some recognition.

pumpkin bacon scallion biscuits.  the greatest of expectations dashed upon a cruel and rocky shore.  these were a shocking bust.  and I am fairly certain it was me...and that I can tweak my performance to turn out a better product.  these were soft on the inside, bordering on mushy.  the outside was crusty...but I was seeking a flakey experience throughout.

I made something a couple of weeks ago, it was the oatmeal raisin cookies, and I questioned the use/quality of nutmeg (an ingredient I normally dig, especially in savory dishes).  well, I finally checked the date on the jar and, oops, it was way past expiration.  at the market, they were out of "regular" nutmeg so I decided to get a jar of whole ones.  I enjoyed the "return to a simpler time" aspect of grating the nutmeg...and, not surprisingly, the wonderful aromatherapy.

apple cider donut hole.  making these was a mixed bag.  I guess you could say the hype (in my head and heart) could not quite be lived up to.  the logistical pain of frying donuts for the first time will never be as challenging as it was yesterday and so I can envision myself making these again and having the total experience be a happier one.  the donut "holes" themselves were really good.  I mean, a warm and crispy fried dough ball?  what's not to like?  these were light and pleasing.  they were not cooked well through, though.  next time they need to be smaller.  and I need a working candy thermometer for next time.  I really had no idea what temperature the oil was.  and speaking of oil...Cap is our resident fryer and being a kinesthetic learner, I had to experience frying to understand the ins and outs of how/how much dang oil is used to deep fry.  it's a frakking lot.  and...honestly, it felt like a waste.  so, next time, I guess I'll make more donuts.  but it would have to be for a crowd because, really, they are best still warm from frying.  see?  my complicated mixed feelings.  also disappointing: Cap didn't want one (he wasn't feeling well) and the boys did not like them.  I am usually not invested in the rest of the family loving, or even liking, what I make, but this one made my heart twinge a bit.

pumpkin tea cake with cream cheese frosting.  sometimes, I will change what I call something to reflect a shift in ingredients.  for example, the pumpkin bacon scallion biscuits were called pumpkin bacon chive biscuits in the original recipe.  but, this one, I could not call these pumpkin bars, not with this frosting, which elevated/transformed the final product to more of a cake.  I am now using coconut crystals or honey or maple syrup as substitutes for cane sugar when I bake.  but, for this frosting, I decided to use the powdered sugar called for because the thought of a brown cream cheese frosting made me sad.  this came out wonderfully.  the cake was dense and it had a rustic, hearty quality that paired nicely with the sweet, sticky frosting (which was way too sweet for me...and raised the burning question: how much can you decrease the sugar in a frosting without negatively impacting the texture of it?)  I froze half the cake and plan on serving it at a brunch this weekend.  I am going to make a non-dairy frosting for it using vegan cream cheese and will use less sugar.  I may make a tiny test batch using coconut crystals to see how unsightly the resulting brown is.

celery root, sweet potato and red onion.  I adapted this Martha Stewart recipe to use up the celery root from last week's CSA share.  I thought the apple, even a tart one, would make it sweeter than I wanted...but the celery root had more of a kick to it than I expected and next time, I will put the apple in.  this was pure CSA goodness.  we are very much entering root vegetable season here and I will be making variations of this kind of peel, cube, par boil and skillet fry for weeks and weeks to come.  Martha Stewart's website is becoming a reliable source of recipes for me.  (another thing that makes me go hmm.)

we are in the midst of a delicious and bountiful apple season.  the simple pleasures of gazing upon Mother Earth's color spectrum, inhaling the delicate and unadorned scents and biting into juicy, crunchy, sweet, flavorful apples has been incredibly happy-making.

I have also been amassing tabs in my Google Chrome...of things I wanted to share here...

• homemade mosquito spray.

• coconut white chocolate recipe.  I have ordered the cocoa butter and am stoked to make this!

• apple honey "lemonade" recipe.  "aid digestion and boost immunity"?  yes, please.

• daily rituals of creative minds.  this reinforced things I already strive for and think highly of.

• 8 fascinating facts about anxiety.  5,6 and 8 were the ones that surprised me (both because I recognized myself in them and I never made a connection to these experiences and anxiety).

• re-Sendakify Sendak.  thanks to Lana for this one.  a must for fans of kid lit.

• a lovely poem.

• making lemonade out of lemons.  if by lemonade we mean gorgeous and haunting black and white photos...and by lemons we mean a frightening and destabilizing medical experience.  this one is from Lana's photo blog.

• 15 Peruvian foods you have to try.  I don't want to jinx anything by saying we're going to Peru in a few months, but that is the plan.  one of the things making me anxious about this trip is wondering what Gem is going to eat/how to feed him.  I was pleased to see that apart from the desserts on this list, most seemed gluten- and dairy-free.

• another lovely poem.

• GO: A Kid's Guide To Graphic Design.  looks like a cool book.  Kidd's first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, blew me away.  this one is not a novel, it's about graphic design and aimed for humans 10 and up.

• gorgeous and stunning nature photography.

• headspace.  a meditation app I am thinking about trying.

• pumpkin muffins on my to do list.

• pumpkin truffles on my to do list.

• raw almond butter cups on my to do list.

• my latest percolating obsession: stuffing.  of the 25 on this list, I'm going to try the Kitchn one first.  (gluten-free, of course.)

• I am wanting meat less these days and was delighted to see this come across my virtual desk this morning: 37 vegetarian dishes for Thanksgiving.

Phew.  Okay, that was a lot.

Peace, my loves. 

Yesterday

Got the time wrong and had an extra half hour to myself sipping on a chai latte before an hour spent catching up with Silke who I had not seen since her return from Germany.

I do love a good mise en place.  The CSA veg called for another shakshouka base.  I used summer squash and boxed crush toms for this one.

I also used red bell peppers because that's what I had.  Love, love, the color.

I love having something to put turmeric in.  I recently learned that it has anti-inflammatory qualities.  The smell of it doesn't call to me, but the color sure does.

Last night was Taco Tuesday.  The protein was ground Mangalitsa pork.  Good thing I'd caramelized these peppers and leeks because the boys decimated the pork (they did wonder out loud whether I was planning on having any pork in mine and I reassured them I was happy to enjoy vegetarian ones).

Dancing autumn shadows captured in a still.

The kids' new slippers and boots arrived.  Whoa.  Just, whoa.

This is one of our biggest bowls piled high with the week's share of fruit.  'Tis the season...

The kids and I watched the premiere of Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. last night.  It was mostly sweet having them be old enough to watch a Joss Whedon work with me, but I was also deeply wistful remembering days of yore watching Buffy with Cap and good friends in our apartment in Cambridge.  

Sag was pleasantly surprised by how much comedy was on display.  It was interesting to see the nearly invisible line that separated the kids' capacities to follow the action and dialogue.  Sag needed significant "hit pause and explain" break.  They both woke up in the middle of the night and Gem stayed up to read because he was scared (he doesn't remember why this morning)...I wonder whether the content/imagery may have been too much.  (We watched the trailer for Gravity which may have stirred some things up in their unconscious, too.)

We saw a shorter version...but the below will give you an idea...bad mommy...

Signs of the season

I spent the morning recovering from a late night watching the Emmys (which I very rarely do, I am a Golden Globes girl), the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad and the series finale of Dexter.  Oh, and I slept on the floor of the kids' room.  I am crossing my fingers that after a week or so of this sleeping arrangement, that a certain someone will stop waking up in the middle of the night needing to check in with me to make sure I am still of this world.

I called upon my trusty shopping pals and we drove over to the mall so I could return/exchange some Fall stuff for myself and also stop into the Apple store to inquire about our options in dealing with a cracked screen on the iPad.

This afternoon, inspired by the many apples remaining in the fruit bowl (tomorrow we receive our next share), and, the shift to much crisper weather, I asked the kids to give me a hand in making some apple sauce.  I ran out to the store to pick up some pork chops and baby spinach, and there is corn bread leftover from last night.  A good dinner will be had.

I am determined to read some books in the next few months.  It has been a spare reading year thus far.  I just finished Questlove's memoir , which I really enjoyed, and am ready for something new.  An embarrassment of riches line my shelves...what to choose, what to choose.

Also, Cap and I have recommitted to watching a movie together every week, alternating turns to pick.  So far, we have watched Adrift In Tokyo, My Man Godfrey, and I Wish.  The Awful Truth is on deck for this weekend.  I've decided to go with a "classics" theme and am choosing movies released before I was born (except one, To Sir, With Love, which I have long wanted to see and was released the year of my birth).  I solicited suggestions on Facebook and have a robust list of movies going, many of which I had never heard of.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all three movies we've seen so far and recommend all of them.  Adrift In Tokyo and I Wish are Japanese movies with subtitles.  Let me know if you have any recommendations for movies or books!

Peace and love.

More from the kitchen

I felt so crappy when I woke up that I am surprised I am feeling so much better now.  The kids are both better than they were yesterday, though they are still resting, for the most part.

I have been trying to cook down about a dozen bananas.  I spaced and bought more when we already had some.  A couple went into the banana bread, a few have gone into the freezer, and this morning I used a couple to make vegan, gluten-free banana pancakes from Blissful Bites.

It was not a triumphant return to making pancakes.  The above was the best looking one I could muster and the pat of Kerrygold is hiding a hole.  I really liked how crispy the pancake was all around the edges and on the outside.  This pancake had a decidedly rice-y feel and taste to it and leans savory unless doused with maple syrup.

Pancakes are one of the few things that have come along in my life that I have not been able to intuit.  And, for some reason, I become nearly enraged when I make pancakes and they fall apart, get stuck in the pan, have a wet, raw spot in the center, etc.  The language of pancakes remains, after all these years, utterly foreign to me.  And, apparently, this is a sore spot.

Gem did not care for these, Sag liked them well enough.  I was inspired enough by making these that I will pursue a grain-free pancake recipe.  Cap and I have long desired to get off the teat of Arrowhead Mills' gluten-free pancake mix.  The quest continues...

After breakfast, I moved on to peach jam and shakshouka.  They both required much stirring while bubbling.  I thinked a lot of thinks while standing at the stove.  For the first time in a long time I thought about the fact that I am not doing something for a community beyond my family.  Nothing that feels significant, anyway.

Here is the shakshouka in its reduced beauty.  (All the veg from our CSA: garlic, onion, bell peppers, tomatoes!)  I will have some for dinner, poaching a couple of eggs right into a pan of sauce.  Yum.

Finally, here are the Japanese-style pickled salad turnips.  These are salty and fresh.  Love the bits of green young leaves.

Peace.

Lots of kitchen time

Both kids now have colds.  I can feel my body fighting the cold off big time, especially at the beginning and end of the day.  In the meantime, I am cooking, cooking, cooking.  (And wondering how I would hold everything together if I had to work outside the home, too.  As it is, I can barely do more than superficial cleaning.  The apartment is feeling a bit feral these days.)

Yesterday, I tried a new-to-me banana bread recipe.  It is much softer than the usual recipe.  Sag prefers it, Gem does not.

I came across a recipe for blueberry buckle at the same site (I follow her blog, she posts a ton of recipes that are kid-friendly, simple and comforting) and felt a thrill.  I'd only recently learned about buckles and find them appealing.  Cap and Sag and I like this.  Gem has not tried it yet.  I used partially thawed frozen blueberries (local and organic acquired through our CSA at the start of the summer) and there was the expected leaking of purple liquid, but it was not as bad as I thought it might be.  The cake-y parts are, for the most part, a pleasant tan, likely due to the use of coconut sugar which is very brown.

It brings me joy to be reminded of how close these two are.

I didn't remember the CSA email mentioning okra so I was surprised to see these beauties come out of the bags.  They were so pretty, in fact, that I wasn't absolutely sure they were okra.  I posted the pic to Facebook and had it confirmed.  Lana mentioned they were yummy dredged in cornmeal and fried.

After getting the CSA share organized (this was yesterday), I set about prepping for Taco Tuesday (which Sag is really hoping will stick).  I made a two-avocado simple guacamole: avocado mashed with garlic powder, salt, pepper and a splash of lemon juice.

It's a labor intensive set up, but is seriously worth it.  We are fans of the soft taco.  In addition to the guac, I served a new-to-me rice and beans dish (used pinto instead of black beans, added two cubes of vegetable bouillon, added half a small can of green chiles, used a few cloves of garlic instead of the shallot, and used olive oil instead of the butter), ribeye steak, lettuce from the farm, cilantro from the farm, salsa and whole fat Greek yogurt.  I melted cheddar onto Sag and my corn tortillas.  Gem opted not to have any tortillas last night.  He stuck to steak and lettuce.

Sag enjoying a big bon appétit bite!

Today I focused on some of the CSA share.  I googled around for a fried okra recipe and decided to use this one.  (I used palm shortening.)  It was straightforward and simple and the results were delicious.  Salty, so many satisfying textures, the goodness of local in-season produce.  A win, win, win.

There was kale so I whipped up one of my favorite recipes.  I didn't have orange or lemon to zest so I added a splash of orange juice to the dressing.

One of the best things to emerge from this CSA season has been getting to know green beans.  I finally figured out that it is essential to cook up green beans as soon as possible.  Snapping off the ends is tedious...so tedious, but once that's done, I just steam the beans for about seven minutes and they are good to go.  Maybe it has been a particularly good year for green beans, but, wow, they have been wonderful.  So pleasing to the eye, teeth and tongue.

I made Japanese-style pickles with the salad turnips and used David Lebovitz's recipe to pickle some radishes (photographed).  As I washed, spun dry and put away the lettuce, I felt a pang of summer's coming to an end.  Each season has its pleasures, certainly, but there is something special about having access to fresh, in-season produce that I love and will miss as the crops finish up and the fields goes to bed for winter.

Peace and love.