Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Apple Cider Doughnuts
Source: Food Network Magazine

Ingredients: *****
The stars of this recipe were our freshly picked apples and the locally pressed apple cider. With such fresh, delicious ingredients it’s really hard to go wrong…even with a doughnut.

Preparation: ***
Doughnut making is not for the weak of heart. It requires time to make the applesauce that goes into the dough. Then there is the chilling time, rolling, and cutting. All that is doable. What comes next though can be a little scary: the deep-frying. I went with a relatively narrow saucepan, about 7”-8” across, with tall sides to keep everything well contained. You also need a good thermometer and patience to get the oil heated to the proper temperature. Don’t try to speed this up. My final word of advice in prepping these: don’t crowd the pan. Two to three at a time worked perfectly with my pan size and meant the temperature stayed pretty steady.

Taste: *****
These doughnuts were delicious. They were everything I’d dreamed about and I’d dreamed quite a bit in the week since we went apple picking. Usually I just go for instant gratification and get half a dozen doughnuts at the orchard. However, the orchard we went to this year did not have a single doughnut. Shocking, right? I’m glad they didn’t though. It gave me just the push I needed to try these. And in the end they were better than anything I could have purchased. They were just the right combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and apple. The best part may be what they didn’t have - that heavy in your stomach feeling. So go ahead and sit down with two doughnuts next to your steaming mug of cider. You’ll be happy you did.

Shop SoWa & Brunch at Gaslight

Many, many Sundays ago I found myself as a lonely only. The dudely was away and friends were vacationing or otherwise engaged. I was bored and in need of some entertainment.

I found lots to entertain me at SoWa, Boston’s handmade, antique, and farmer’s markets held outdoors every Sunday spring through fall. The handmade market was fun, especially in the creative way all those talented folks displayed their goodies.

The antiques market was a really nice surprise. Whenever I see the word antiques I start thinking pricey collectibles. What I found, though, was more like a great flea market. My favorite was the tables of vintage jewelry to sort through. I ended up bringing home a fantastic red bead necklace. The woman even gave me an unsolicited $1 off the marked price. Nice, huh?

And isn’t it convenient that just next door is Gaslight? Well, I had to have brunch. I ordered what has become my go-to dish, moules frites. I cannot get enough of this dish. I did shake it up a little though and ordered myself a cocktail to accompany it, the matin martini. It was a delicious end to a morning of shopping.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Pork Chops with Bacon and Cabbage
Source: Everyday Food

Ingredients: *****
Just seven simple ingredients make up this one pot dish. Importantly one of those ingredients is pork chops, something I've been accused of not serving enough of around here.

Preparation: ****
The reason I love one pot dishes is the little bit of hands-on time early in the recipe followed by the walking away time as the dish finishes up. This isn't that kind of one pot dish. Basically you're doing something every few minutes over an hour which means you can't wander far...or get anything else done.

Taste: ****
The dudely is arguing that I should be giving this recipe 5 stars but I just don't buy it. It certainly tasted good but I'm not imagining the next time I can make it, the sure sign of a 5 star recipe. That didn't stop him from shoveling down two big platefuls with hardly a peep. Perhaps I need a his and her ratings scale.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Cannellini and Kale Ragout
Source: Bon Appetit

Ingredients: *****
Kale is abundant this time of year so I’m looking for new ways to prepare it. This recipe fit the bill and includes other favorites like cannellini beans and red pepper flakes. I skipped the Italian bread and used my homemade whole wheat bread. With a recipe as healthy as this it seemed crazy to eat white bread with it!

Preparation: *****
After a long Monday this recipe was just my speed. The hardest thing I did was wash and chop a mountain of kale and mince some garlic. The rest involved a can opener. It really doesn’t get any easier. The only thing I changed about the prep was cutting down on the amount of olive oil used.

Taste: *****
I loved this recipe. There seemed to be just the right amount of everything. From the initial bite right through the little bit of heat as you swallowed it was perfection. Going with whole wheat bread was also a great choice. The tiny bit of sweetness from the molasses in the recipe was a good foil for the heat of the pepper flakes. Add in a little glass of red wine and it made Monday night feel a little more special than most.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Chicken al Mattone
Source: Bon Appetit

Ingredients: *****
Simple ingredients make up this recipe. Even better, most of those simple ingredients can usually be found in my fridge, freezer, or pantry. That makes it easy to whip up a roast chicken. I find that very appealing as the fall weather makes its presence known in New England.

Preparation: ****
I’ve never cut the backbone out of a chicken before and it made me a bit nervous. With knife and scissors in hand I soon found out it’s really no big deal. From there you smear on a marinade and let it sit overnight. The cooking is equally hands-off: some browning on the stovetop and slide it in the oven with a brick, or, as in my case, a cast iron skillet on top.

Taste: ***
I had really high hopes for this dish and it let me down. The chicken was good but I was really hoping for great. Despite marinating the chicken overnight it didn’t take on any of the flavors of lemon, garlic, and rosemary. If I were to make this again I think I’d rub the marinade under the skin rather than on top as the recipe suggests. But would I make it again? Maybe. The crispy, beautifully browned skin just might make it worth a repeat.

BONUS RECIPE! Now if you're looking for something that will really knock your socks off I suggest trying the corn bread salad I served alongside the chicken. Amazing. I'm still looking for my socks. If you hurry you just might be able to squeeze this in before all the fresh tomatoes are gone for another year.

Have Dinner at No. 9 Park

One day last month the dudely picked me up from work for a date night. Our destination? No. 9 Park! No. 9 Park has been on my must dine list since I moved to the Boston area nine years ago. This was the year I was determined to make that a reality and with the help of Restaurant Week’s great 3 course dinner bargains we did just that.

With time to spare before our 7:30 reservation we found ourselves at the much recommended Silvertone Bar + Grill for a cocktail….or two. My friend Val promised they made the best classic cocktails and she was right. Our dirty gin martinis were cold and crisp with giant olives floating around. It was the perfect way to start our night on the town. Truth be told, they were followed by equally good gin & tonics.

From there it was a short stroll on a gorgeous summer night to No. 9 Park. We were seated promptly and it was then I realized how small the place really is. We were so lucky to have been able to secure Restaurant Week reservations. I just finished expressing that when over popped the bubbliest waiter I’ve ever encountered in Boston. But enough about that; let’s get to the food.

For the first course the dudely and I both chose the smoked bluefish pate with potato salad and pickled wax beans. AMAZING. If it hadn’t been such a swanky place I may have swiped my fingers repeatedly across the plate to get every last bit. But it was kind of swanky so I got myself firmly under control and behaved like I belonged. (That also explains the lack of pictures of the food. Nobody else was whipping out their digital camera so I wasn’t either.)

For the main course I chose the roasted striped bass with mussels and saffron while the dudely went with the glazed pork belly with corn pudding and tomato jam. They were both done to perfection and I really loved my fish. But, when I tasted the dudely’s pork belly I was instantly filled with jealousy. That pork was like butter. I’ve never tasted pork that was so tender, so rich, so delicious. I’m still salivating.

For dessert we again went our own ways with the dudely choosing the yogurt panna cotta with berries and me choosing the coffee caramel parfait. They were very good but a little underwhelming. That review only comes after how fantastic the first and second courses were. Don’t get me wrong. I still recommend ordering dessert just don’t expect more fireworks.

Definitely make this a stop if you’re in Boston. If you happen to be here during the next Restaurant Week then that is even better. You’ll save half-off the regular menu prices but get all that fantastic food at full flavor. That makes it possible to enjoy all those cocktails before hand. Ahem.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Butter Pecan Ice Cream
Source: Gourmet

Ingredients: *****
How can you possibly argue with a recipe that is chock full of toasted pecans? You can’t. You simply can’t. Having them mixed with lots of creamy milk and eggs doesn’t hurt either. I did make a few minor swaps though. I used 2% milk instead of whole milk because that’s what was in the fridge. I also only had dark brown sugar in my cabinet so I used 1 cup of dark brown sugar with ½ cup of granulated sugar.

Preparation: *****
Custard making is not for the impatient. I reminded myself of this over and over again as I stirred my milk mixture over gentle heat and every so slowly added it to my beaten eggs and sugar. Praying you don’t end up with scrambled eggs also helps. However, if the powers that be fail you, straining through a fine mesh sieve is a lifesaver. The only thing I would have done differently in the whole process is to let the custard chill overnight. It really does save the ice cream maker a lot of work.

Taste: *****
I’m in love! Everything about this ice cream is right. It’s rich, creamy, and packed with buttery, salty pecans. I have no idea how I, a butter pecan lover, have made it this far into my adult life without making my own butter pecan ice cream. Now, if you’ll excuse I have to get back to the freezer. All this talk has reminded my I haven’t had ANY today. I would say I’d share if you were here, but I just know that isn’t true. You’re better off making your own.

Florist-in-Training

I love super market bouquets. They are unassuming, budget friendly, and, best of all, they last. Care to take a look at my latest example?

This bouquet started out as four individual bunches of flowers: alstroemeria, billy buttons, daisies, and sedum. With half an hour of playing and cutting I coaxed them into a little bit of loveliness. Not bad for $11.98, right?

Go on a Picnic

About three weeks ago summer finally arrived in Boston. Before it got the idea that it should move right along to fall I needed to attend to no. 11 on my list of 32 Things: Go on a picnic.

To go on a picnic you need food, good food, lots of good food! And of course, you need some fabulous company. Our fabulous company came in the form of our friends Val & Jim and a sea of strangers who had also staked out a little piece of Boston Common to watch Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors.

Val and I split up the food making with me taking sandwiches and dessert while she took sides and a beverage. I couldn’t decide on just one sandwich recipe so I made two: prosciutto and brie sandwiches with rosemary fig confit and roast beef sandwiches with lemon-basil mayonnaise and roasted red onions. They went perfectly with Val’s tomato-cantaloupe salad and red potato-two bean salad topped with herbs fresh from her garden. To wash it all down, Val brought a sparkling lemonade that may have gotten its sparkle from champagne. After all that yumminess, we had just enough room left in our bellies to fit in my dessert, blueberry crumb bars.

It was a perfect summer night. The air was the perfect temperature, the play was fantastically done, the company great, and the food was out of this world. It was with a happy sigh that I crossed the picnic off my list.

Many Recipes of the Week

Wow. I’m way behind on telling you about the recipes I’ve been trying lately. How about a quick little recap as a way to catch up?

Sweet Potato and Poblano Salad with Honey and Rosemary
This should become your go-to potato salad this grilling season. I was sad when it was gone. In fact, there was a little fight over the remaining serving. To save from any fights breaking out perhaps you should make double.

Vanilla Ice Cream
I’d never made a custard base for ice cream before thinking it was too much effort. How much difference could it make? Well, I’m here to tell you it makes all the difference in the world. This was amazing. It was rich, creamy, silky, deliciousness on a spoon. Or I should say on the beater. I could be found licking the ice cream machine beater over the sink making completely inappropriate noises.

Hot Fudge Sauce
You knew this was coming, right? How can you top out of this world ice cream with store-bought hot fudge? This recipe requires caution. It is bittersweet, fudgy, and rich. If you’re firmly in the milk chocolate camp then you probably won’t love this. The next time I make this I will probably increase the sugar a bit and/or use semi-sweet chocolate to appeal to the milk chocolate and dark chocolate crowds.

Meze Platter with Hummus, Shrimp Salad, and Cucumber Salad
This recipe is actually three in one. It is also a major crowd pleaser. Four of us sat around grazing, I mean eating, from the tray and there was barely a bite of anything remaining. I did serve it with a selection of cheeses, salami, olives, and marinated eggplant and there was barely a bite of those left either. (Did I just make us sound like gluttonous pigs?) It really made a perfect tapas-like evening, complete with Spanish wine. If you’re planning to host a little get together I think you need look no further than this menu.

Shop Brimfield

Elise and I first shopped Brimfield together five years ago. It was a Saturday in May. It was hot, with temperatures well over 90. And it was packed both with people and things.

Our experience this past May could not have been more different. The temperature was more in line with what you’d expect for May. So where were the people and where were the things? Once we got past the vendors lined up directly along the road we found that field after field was empty, of both shoppers and vendors. It was kind of sad to see it so sparse.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t manage to find a few small treasures. Check out my cool vintage tin! The bottom is stamped with Made in Holland. Its previous owner was using it to store hummingbird food, or so said the piece of paper taped to the outside. It will now either find work in my kitchen or den making boring storage more interesting.

My other little treasure is a sterling silver serving piece. In my book it’s a pie server but I don’t if that is technically correct. When I first found this beauty it was tarnished and sad, sitting in a wooden drawer of other neglected things. It cleaned up beautifully and is now ready for a summer of fruit pies.

What did I pay for these finds, you’re asking? A grand total of $7. They were originally marked at a total of $9, but I drove a hard bargain.

A weekend at the beach in Maine

This is what a long weekend at the beach in Maine looks like. What the camera doesn't capture is how time seemed to slow. It didn't rush by unrembered like so many minutes of the work week. There was space in those minutes to sit and just be. Maine and its beaches are truly magical. Get there if you can because their motto really does sum it up: The Way Life Should Be.

Strawberry Fields

Saturday was the most perfect of late spring mornings. After a week of gray, dreary days we awoke to bright sun, blue skies, and warm temperatures. It was the perfect day for picking strawberries! It took some prodding to get the dudely to agree that strawberry picking so early in the morning (before 9am, gasp!) was a good idea, but he eventually agreed.

We ended up at Tougas Family Farm where we were greeted with the nicest staff of people. It was so well organized. We ended up with our own row to pick from, a bucket for rotten berries, our picking tray, and a flag to indicate where we’d stopped.

The picking was easy! After so much rain the berries were begging to be picked. We only went about 6 feet in our row and ended up with 17 pounds of berries in a mere 30minutes. I’d gone with the hope of gathering 10 pounds of berries and was shocked when we arrived at the scale with nearly double that amount.

What to do with all those berries? Freezer jam. It was the sole driver in my wanting to go strawberry picking. I remember my mom making it years ago when we were kids and I loved it. I had to try my hand at it. It was so easy; I just followed the directions inside the box of Sure-Jell. I ended up with 8 – 16 ounce jars of jam. It’s about all the space I could afford to give up in my little freezer. But believe me I could have kept going because there were many, many strawberries left.

They didn’t last long though. We munched through about 2 pounds of fresh berries, froze a bunch of whole berries for later, made a fresh strawberry pie, imbibed in fresh strawberry daiquiris, and made strawberry cheesecake ice cream. And now they are gone and I’m wondering if it would be gluttony to go back and pick more.

Recipe of the (Last) Week

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Peperonata with Lime and Mint Dressing
Source: Bon Appetit

Ingredients: ****
Very basic ingredients but ingredients I love and sometimes those make the best dishes. I did leave out the mint. I may have spoken of my weird feelings about mint in the past.

Preparation: *****
There was really very little work involved in making this dish. All that had to be done was sauteing the chicken, sauteing the veggies, and mixing together the dressing. It all took less than thirty minutes, start to finish. That time even included making the polenta I served it over. (Leave it creamy, rather than allowing it to set-up.)

Taste: ***
Spicy? I don't think so. Maybe it was my poblano, but this dish completely lacked heat. What could have been a delish dish ending up tasting like fajitas served over polenta. Not exactly what I'd hoped for. My go-to polenta recipe came through though. In the end, the polenta was the only thing I had a second helping of. Doesn't that just sum it up?

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Nectarine-Blackberry Crisp
Source: Bon Appetit

Ingredients: ***
I’m being a little harsh on the ingredient list on this recipe. It’s pushing it a bit to find good ripe nectarines and blackberries at the end of May in my neck of the woods. But Bon Appetit lured me in with this recipe from their June issue and I had to make it! Now! I’m not one for patience. However, if the growing season and the release of this recipe were better timed (or I had more patience to wait) I’d have to rate the ingredient list at five stars. It is lots of fruit turned into my favorite course, dessert! Now, that’s what I call health conscious.

Preparation: *****
Measure, mix, chop, dump, pour and crumble. Easy peasy! I did make a few small changes. I peeled my nectarines. I think this is a personal choice. You’d be fine either way. I also doubled the amount of sugar in the fruit since the nectarines needed a bit of help.

Taste: ***(**)
This tasting result comes from a much larger sample size than most weeks: me and the dudely, my mom, my sister, and Little Miss Lou. The topping was really well received by the entire group earning it 5 stars. In fact there were hands found picking at the crumb topping long after their bowl of dessert was finished. That’s very poor dessert etiquette; I really should try to control myself. I think the secret to this topping’s success lies in the lemon zest. It’s a lovely addition I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

Now to the fruit filling and its three stars. I think it mostly comes down to the lack of really good fruit. On top of that the custard was just there, suspended on top of the layer of fruit. Perhaps if the fruit had released more juice the custard would have been creamier. So really the three star rating may be a bit unfair at this point. I think I’ll have to revisit this recipe later this summer when really good peaches or nectarines find their way to me. As my sister pointed out this dessert has real potential. It is sweet but not too sweet and that crumb topping deserves to be paired with perfect fruit. It sounds like an experiment I’m willing to take on. I wonder if I can get them to fly to me for the next tasting?

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Chicken Tikka Masala
Source: All Recipes

Ingredients: ***
Beware the amount of salt listed in this ingredients! I doubled this recipe and still only used 1 teaspoon of salt in the marinade and only added salt to taste after the chicken and sauce were simmered together at the end. For the entire recipe I may have used 1.5 teaspoons of salt.

Preparation: ****
It’s all really very easy: measuring, mixing, chopping, waiting, “grilling”, and simmering. Living in a condo I have a cute little plug-in grill that dreams of someday being a big stainless steel grill, but until then I improvise. Seeing as I had 6 chopped chicken breasts marinating I decided to avoid all the batches of “grilling” I’d have to do on my baby grill. Instead I broiled all the chicken at once on a big sheet pan. It worked very nicely.

Taste: *****
So delicious! I knew today was going to be a really long day so I made this yesterday afternoon and stored it in a big Pyrex baking dish. All the dudely had to do was slide it in the oven and make some rice for himself and couscous for me. It made for a very elegant end to a long, long day. All that wonderful spice even perked me up enough to walk the very short distance to my sewing machine. That’s got to say something when a delicious dinner energizes you instead of sacks you out on the couch for the rest of the night, right?

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Fluffy Coconut Frosting
Source: Epicurious

Ingredients: *****
I realize that dried coconut is not for everyone but I just love it, especially when it gets together with coconut milk, chocolate and almonds to form a beautiful cupcake. The recipe is overly generous in the amount of coconut called for though. I found one 14-ounce bag to be plenty. (But imagine what could be done with the leftovers! How about coconut cream mini-pies or a gluten-free coconut layer cake? )

Preparation: *****
Baking takes time and this recipe proved no different. It is time well spent though and is mostly unattended baking and cooling time. I did make one change to the preparation. Rather than making twelve jumbo cupcakes I made 30 standard sized cupcakes. That’s a lot of cupcakes even for someone like me who is more than a little cupcake obsessed right now.

Taste: *****
This is a public service announcement. Should you make these, and you should, prepare to eat an alarming number in a very short period of time. Luckily, there were two of us sneaking into the kitchen at various times to have just one more so I have no idea of the actual number consumed by me. And even if I did know, I’d lie. Could they be that good you ask? Oh, yes! They were perfect in every way. They were moist and chocolate-y. They were sweet but not too sweet. They were gorgeous. Do I need to go on? I didn’t think so. Now get in that kitchen and bake.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Gin, Tea, and Lemon Fizz
Source: Bon Appetit

Ingredients: *****
In our house all the ingredients are easy to come by. There is always a rather large selection of loose leaf black teas to choose from. I chose to use Golden Monkey, my favorite black tea from Tealuxe. And gin? Well, we are gin martini people so there is rarely a time when there isn’t gin in the cupboard. Lemonade concentrate? Always a can in the freezer once it’s obvious warm weather is here to stay. Sparkling water? It’s a necessary pantry item in my opinion.

Preparation: *****
If you can repeatedly measure 1 teaspoon or 1 cup, you can make this recipe.

Taste: *****
Oh, my! This drink is deliciously dangerous. Because I have yet to develop a fondness for bourbon it was the perfect cocktail to sip while watching the Kentucky Derby. We know absolutely nothing about horse racing but each year we’re sitting in front of the TV watching this race. I’m a sucker for the stories behind the stories and always pick the sentimental favorite. (This year it was General Quarters.) I’m never right but who cares. It’s an afternoon spent relaxing with good snacks and great cocktails. Isn’t that what the weekend is all about?

On the road again

I bring you the fourth and final installment of my San Francisco travel diary.

It was hard to believe as we awoke that our last full day had really arrived. But there was no time to sit and reflect on the bittersweet. We had a lot to see and do, but first we needed some fuel.

We started with breakfast at Blue Bottle Coffee Café. Tucked away in a square Blue Bottle is full of light, minimal décor so that you can focus on the chemistry lab they have assembled for perfect coffee prep. This is for serious coffee connoisseurs but I’m a coffee wimp who instead opted for a beautiful latte to go alongside my poached eggs. The dudely followed suit and ordered similarly.

Perfectly caffeinated and pleasingly full we walked a few blocks to pick up the cable car. We didn’t feel we could leave San Francisco without a ride on this landmark. At the end of the line was Fisherman’s Wharf where we picked up tickets for Alcatraz. With those in hand we found ourselves with a few sunny hours to fill.

We walked over to Ghirardelli Square where the dudely insisted that we enjoy Ghirardelli’s famous hot fudge sundaes. Who was I to argue with such a brilliant suggestion? They were certainly good but almost too rich. They left me in need of something to cut all that sweet. Conveniently, Crown and Crumpet was a few short steps away so we picked up some nice cups of tea for the road.

The road we were heading for was Lombard Street, the crookedest street around. It was completely amusing to see cars zig and zag their way down this tiny stretch of narrow road surrounded by hedges. It was quite like a maze, but where you know how to get in and out.

As we made our way back to the boat for the ride to Alcatraz we stopped to see the sea lions. What a lazy bunch they were. They just napped and sunned themselves, completely unaware of the gawkers snapping photos.

Alcatraz was unlike anything we’d expected. They had an amazing audio tour of the cell house that put several years of history into a perfectly presented 45 minute tour. As we made our way through the cell house we learned of various escape attempts, the most violent being the Battle of Alcatraz. The most clever escape attempt used fake walls and heads to fool guards. This proved to be the only successful break. But there is a lot more to Alcatraz than just its prison history. Look into it sometime. It’s a remarkable story.

For our last dinner in San Francisco we chose B44, a Spanish restaurant. Cold and starving after our Alcatraz trip we showed up almost an hour early for our reservation but they graciously showed us our table. We started with cocktails, of course, and followed that with appetizers. I had the most perfect salad while the more adventurous dudely chose grilled local sardines. The appetizers were delivered with a galvanized bucket of bread and the best olive oil/anchovy/olive dipping sauce. For the main courses the dudely went traditional with paella while I had steak chimichurri. Believe it not but we ended up having to share dessert. I guess our stomachs do eventually reach their limit.

From here it was back to the hotel to pack and get a good night’s sleep. And we slept like babies, dreaming of our next trip to this fabulous city.