Inspiration in the Bottom of a Pumpkin!

Jared and I were home the weekend before Halloween and had a rare Saturday night at home. We made what I am sure was a fantastic dinner although I can't remember what we had, and carved us some pumpkins. Amid the messy gore that resulted we decided to roast our own pumpkin seeds. Photos happened and all of a sudden I was inspired to start blogging about food again.

It's not that I haven't been cooking in the 5 months that I last posted. I have cooked dinners for friends and brunches for family that were 100% blog worthy! I have even taken photos of some. It's just that on the evenings when I could have been writing about my adventures in the kitchen, I was generally curled up with my Kindle reading away. I have finally found my way out of reading what looks like more than 40 books (according to my Amazon account) and back to my blog.

I am going to boast and tell you how proud I was of our pumpkins. I did the two small ones, and Jared was responsible for the big one. I thought they were all unique and beautiful, however our pumpkin seeds were the perfect combination of crunch and salt and totally out did the pumpkins from which they came.

Making the seeds was easier than I thought. If you can believe it, we actually looked it up online to check. After the slightly painful sorting of the seeds (to remove all the pulpy innards) we boiled them for 10 minutes in some super salty water. I didn't think this was how my Mom used to make them, but the interweb told us to and when has it ever been wrong before?

Once the seeds were boiled, we spread them on a cookie sheet that had been well oiled. They went into the oven at 400 degrees until they started to turn brown. You know that was a nerve wracking 20 minutes. I mean how awful to go through all the pulp sorting to burn the seeds just as you were about to be able to pig out on all their crunchy goodness!!

In any case, we saved them from a burnt ending and then salted to perfection and chowed down. My only warning (besides watching them carefully while they are in the oven) is that pumpkin seeds have more fiber than you would think....

Dreams Really Do Come True

Last April I wrote about a chocolate cake recipe that I was dreaming about. It looked like the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter with a little twist. I promised myself I would make it at some point, and then came to work at HubSpot, the land of masterful bakers, and gave up baking all together because I am not worthy.

I sent DA the chocolate peanut butter crunch cake recipe 10 months ago as soon as I learned he liked to bake. I then asked him about it once a week for 10 months, until he finally consented to make it for me.

Each month we have a HubSpot Dev Team party to celebrate all the great work we are doing. This month was on Cinco De Mayo and was going to be at JO's house. There was also going to be a bake off between the masterful bakers. As soon as I heard that I laid down the gauntlet and told DA he HAD to make the chocolate peanut butter crunch cake, and he did. Of course, I didn't get to go to the party because that morning I rushed off to Pennsylvania to see the newest addition to our family, (insert AWWW here.)


However, DA did not let me down. Not only did he take photos of his creation, he saved a piece just for me!

The cake was fantastic! It was moist and amazing but the kicker was the frosting. He deviated from the recipes there and it was totally worth it. I don't even like frosting most of the time, but I licked the container clean before I gave it back to him.



Recipe

Cake:
1 box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Mix

Frosting:
1 8oz package Plain Cream Cheese
1 stick Unsalted Butter
1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
4 cups Confectioners Sugar
1 cup Cocoa Krispies

Bake the cake in two 9" rounds according to box directions. Cool the cakes for a couple of hours and use a long serrated knife to level them.

Combine the Cream Cheese, butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy. Sift sugar and add to frosting one cup at a time. If frosting is too thick add a little water to loosen it.

Put one cake round cut-side up on a serving dish and add about 1/3 of the frosting. Sprinkle a layer of Cocoa Krispies on top. Add second cake layer cut side down on top of frosting. Use the rest of the frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake. Fill your palm with Cocoa Krispies and gently press them onto the side one handful at a time, working your way around the cake.

The Most Photographed Recipe

Have you ever cooked something and thought it was so beautiful that you had to take a photo? Maybe I am weird, but I photographed "pretty" meals long before I started blogging, and as my last post showed, even when I am not blogging I still take the photos!


There is one meal which I make on a semi-regular basis and pretty much EVERY TIME I make it, I photograph it, and I have NEVER written about it. I went through my photos the other day to see how many I could find, and this is really just a quick sampling.


The photos go back to 2006, which means I have 3 years of photos of this one meal. The meal hasn't changed all that much. Sometimes I don't have sun-dried tomatoes, or I add green beans instead of snow peas, but the beauty of this meal is it's versatility.


I always have a can of Pillsbury reduced fat crescent rolls in the fridge and some egg beaters in the freezer. So long as there are some vegetables and cheese in the fridge I can pull a Tomato Broccoli Crescent Pie together in 15 minutes. Sometimes it doesn't have tomatoes OR broccoli in it, but the idea is the same and it's always delicious.


Tomato Broccoli Crescent Pie

It's really hard to mess this recipe up. So play with it and see what comes out. It pretty much always looks beautiful and is absolutely always delicious!



Ingredients:

• 4 cups diced vegetables (coarsely chopped broccoli, onions, mushrooms, peppers, green beans, snow peas, asparagus, etc.)
• 1/3 cup julienne sun-dried tomatoes in oil (if you can't find those in oil, you can use the dried ones, just make sure you soak them in HOT water for 30 minutes first)
• black pepper
• garlic
• 1T basil
• 1T oregano
• 3/4 - 1 cup egg beaters (you can use real eggs if you like, it's roughly 3-4 eggs)
• 1-2 cups grated cheese (mozzarella, sharp, muenster, Parmesan, mix it up)
• 1 8oz. can refrigerator crescent rolls

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Open crescent rolls, unroll and press into pie plate to create crust.
• Chop vegetables and stir-fry for about 3 minutes in olive oil over high heat, just to soften.
• Add sun-dried tomatoes and spices to veggies. Remove from heat.
• In a separate bowl, mix egg beaters and cheese together. Add vegetables ad stir together. The mixture should be gooey and cheesy but not too runny. You really can't mess this one up, so just go with your gut.
• Pour into the pie crust and then throw in the oven. It generally bakes for 30-40 minutes, depending on how thick it is. Just pay attention to it and take it out when it's firm in the middle.
• Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes. This might be why I have so many photos of this recipes, it's something to do during the 10 minute wait (which honestly is generally more like 2 minutes in my house.)
  

Homemade Pasta in Boston!

I lived in New York for 4 years and during that time I became a bonafide New York food snob. While I might not have written it explicitly, when I moved to Boston there was part of me thinking, “Oh my god, I am never again going to be able to eat in a decent restaurant or have fresh foods again!” You would have thought I was moving to a remote village in South America! Instead, I am happy to report that Boston has stood up again it’s big sister to the south west remarkably well.

While we do eat at home more here in Boston, it’s not for lack of great restaurants. I have been blown away by some such as O Ya and L’Espalier (a dinner I sadly regret never having written about). More recently I fell in love with Drink, down by the water front, for their amazing service and even more amazing cocktails. With that said, when leaving each of these places, in the back of my mind I thought, “In Boston, really? Who knew!”

What has really been amazing to learn is that I can get out of this world ingredients here in Boston that the New York food snob in me would have assumed were only in New York. In fact there are things I couldn’t get easily in New York which haven’t been a problem here at all. For example, sulfite free wine (the only kind I can drink) was impossible to find in New York and seems to be everywhere here in Boston!

The most recent amazement from this great city has been Dave’s Fresh Pasta. It’s a small specialty grocery on my walk from the T to our new home with some of the most amazing foods. Honestly, it blows Whole Foods out of the water with its cheeses, pastas, sandwiches and sauces, and while I am sure similar stores can be found in New York, I never lived next to one!


Some days I stop on the way home to pick up a pound of fresh rosemary pasta and have them cut it to linguine or angle hair depending on my mood. (Yes, they keep it in sheets and cut it to a size of your choosing while you watch!) Other nights, I’ll just grab a stinky blue cheese or a loaf of fresh foccacia. Yesterday, I picked up their Sun-dried tomato pesto, turkey, arugula and caramelized onion sandwich for dinner and a bottle of wine. It was amazing!

Every time I stop in I find something new and amazing. When I was talking to the sandwich man yesterday he told me they are expanding and taking over the two stores next door. Instead of adding seating, they are going to add more amazing groceries and foods (possibly even fresh fish!) I couldn’t be more excited and I didn't have anything close to Dave's in New York.

Why can't I blog?

I am not sure why I haven’t been able to write a decent blog post recently. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking and eating and enjoying it more than I should. It’s more than when I sit down at my computer I come up with 12 other things to do! I have photos, I have recipes, I want to share and yet I still don't. Until today!

This morning I was finally, for the first time in almost 2 months, inspired. It’s really only because it would be a shame to keep this to myself. I have no idea what to call it, because I didn’t create it. I had it for the first time at Dizzy’s more than a year ago. The first time I tasted it, it was on their specials menu and I gushed to the waitress and extracted a promise that they would serve it the following weekend.

So the following weekend I went back, and sure enough, there it was again and I was in heaven. It’s so simple and yet, so amazing. Basically they took some fresh focaccia bread and cubed it. They then tossed it with a drizzle of olive oil, basil, fresh grated Parmesan and fresh ground pepper. They then poached two eggs and threw them on top. See, I told you it was simple, and yet the yolk blends with the bread, the cheese adds just enough salt and the basil just gives it the wow factor. I think I ate it 3 or 4 weekends in a row.

Then we moved, and I haven’t had it since!

So this morning I realized I had made some fresh par baked bread last night and had enough left to try and pull this off. I was worried about the eggs, which is probably what has kept me from trying this for over a year, but decided to be a woman and grow up! I went to a post on Smitten Kitchen on how to poach and egg and read up. It was so much easier than expected.

When I pulled it all together, it was so beautiful I had to stop for a photo and it was there I knew I was going to write another blog post.


Go try this one, I promise, it’s well worth it. If you decide to loose faith in me as a blogger, that's fine because not only did I skip Thanksgiving AND Christmas, I forgot my 1 year anniversary of blogging. What's not fine is not treating yourself to this as soon as you can. This morning, I didn’t even share one single bite with JR and I think I am going to make it again tomorrow, just for me!

Lobsters, Lobsters Everywhere!

Did you know that lobster prices have gone down 25% since last year? Neither did I! Then my friend, JW, visited the office the other day and told me she has been eating nothing but lobster for weeks because it's so cheap. A quick google search revealed that not only was she right, but that I was way late to the lobster party!


Back in September, the New York Times covered the falling lobster prices. They explained that this has happened because lobster is a luxury item and in times of financial duress (ie. major world wide financial crisis) people just don't eat lobster. They also mentioned that "lobster fishermen are hauling in larger catches than ever" which means we have tons of lobster that need eating!


JR is completely and totally responsible for introducing me to lobster. I hadn't cracked a lobster shell until July 4th, 2004 when I spent my first weekend away with JR's whole family. The weekend before, he and I were hanging out in Ashford, and I mentioned I had never eaten lobster before. JR took this as permission to call his parents (who I had met MAYBE 4 times) and say "Karen wants lobster for the 4th of July, can we have it?" I was horrified!

I learned later that lobster on the 4th was a tradition and this wasn't really a big deal, but boy was I mad at him! In any case, over the course of the last few years I have watched numerous lobster dinners come together in New Hampshire. Occasionally, if we are lucky, JR's dad makes his famous baked stuffed lobster, but for the most part we have straight up steamed lobster which is nothing to cry about.


Seeing all these amazing dinners come together gave me the confidence to make a lobster dinner while on our honeymoon last summer. You know what? It really wasn't that big of a deal, it's a lot easier than I expected. So if you have been intimidated by the price of lobster in the past, now is the time to give it shot, because it's cheap!

Baked stuffed lobster is a beast all on it's own, if you are a first time lobster cooker, I recommend just steaming it. The first step to making lobster is making friends with your lobsters. They are really amazing creatures, so when you get home from buying them at the store, make sure you take some time to play with them and take photos of them. Then put them in the fridge until you are ready to start cooking.


When it's time to begin, get the biggest pot you can and a steamer basket. We are lucky because JR's parents actually have a lobster pot, but I am sure any very large pot will do. Add some water to the bottom and bring it to a boil and then place the lobsters in the steamer and lower them into the pot and cover it up. They don't scream or do anything horrible, they just take a nice steam bath. (I say that, but it's NEVER my job to put them in the pot.)

After about 15 minutes, peak in. You know they are done when they turn BRIGHT red. If you can believe it, when they are alive they are kind of a dull dark red, but when cooked they are almost fluorescent. Then comes the part where we are never sure exactly what to do. You have to cut them open. So get the biggest knife you have, and cut them straight down the belly.


I choose to clean out any gunk that is still in there, but some (like my uncle, MD) swear that is the best part. All that left is to grab some lobster (or nut) crackers and start breaking out that meat. Don't forget a plate for all the broken shells and some butter to dip the meat in, then go to town and enjoy!

Bottom line, lobsters are cheap right now. If you have stayed away because you are scared of them or think they are to expense, you don't have any excuses. Go out an get a couple of these beauties and give them a shot!

Homecoming Meals & Thanksgiving Tryouts

My girl KF moved to Alaska not long after we finished college. She and her husband were supposed to be there 1 year and it has been much longer than that! Which means when she comes to CT to visit, it's a special occasion that I mark on my calendar and nothing gets between me and heading home to see her.


KF and I stumbled through our first cooking-to-live experiences together when we were living in Germany during our junior year of college. It's a stretch to say we were great cooks, in fact, I think we bordered on awful. At the time I blamed it on bad kitchen gear (we were using a shared dorm kitchen) and unfamiliar grocery stores, but the fact of the matter was, we had no idea what we were doing.

We did survive, mostly on pasta with frozen vegetables, salads, cereal and an occasional burger, but I think it's fair to say my cooking has improved since then. So when KF came to visit last weekend for the first time since my wedding (more than a year ago) I decided to cook her some favorites and show her how much I have improved.


Since the dinner was at my parents house, Mom and I collaborated on the menu. We planned balsamic braised cipolline onions, steaks, potato fries, salad and crunchy baked fennel. Both the cipolline onions and the fennel casserole are Food & Wine Thanksgiving specials that we were testing for Thanksgiving this year.


Jared and I headed down Saturday afternoon and Mom and I got to cooking. I haven't cooked a lot with fennel, but I like the taste of it and want to start cooking more with it, so I was excited about the experiment. The end result was good, I should have listened to the instructions and used 10 fennel bulbs (I used 6 - it looked like so much) but the flavor and crunchiness was perfect. It's a definite yes for Turkey Day.


The onions, which I had made a couple of times before, were like candy. Each tiny little onion is pillow of bliss for your to bite into. It's creamy and sweet and just melts in your mouth. They went with the steak perfectly, but they did not make the Thanksgiving day menu purely because of the time and effort it takes to peel each little onion. If you are having a small dinner, these would be a perfect addition, but for group of more than 6, this recipe is a daunting task.


As always getting to spend time with KF made me realize how much I miss her. I am constantly coming up with schemes to convince her to move back here. (For example, we are going to move our husbands to Vermont to start up a goat cheese farm just as soon as they move home.) In the mean time, I'll continue to save my weekends in Ashford to spend with her when she visits, and hope to persuade her with my much improved cooking.

If you need an additional vegetable dish for a crowd, here is the Crunchy Fennel Casserole Recipe.

If you are looking for something decadent for a smaller group, here is the recipe for the

Balsamic Braised Cipolline Onions

Ingredients:

2lbs cipolline onions (these are the small red and white ones, small boiling onions work as well)
1 1/2 cups fat-free low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1t brown sugar
3T heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or fresh pomegranate seeds if you are feeling decadent)
salt
olive oil

Directions:

Fill your large soup pot half with water and put over high heat. Once boiling, blanch the onions in the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove them from the boiling water and immediately submerge them in cold water.

Cut off the two ends of each onion, and peel them leaving the core intact. This should be really easy because you have blanched them already.

Heat a dollop of oil in the same pot you blanched them in, and add the onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sauté until brown on both sides.

Add chicken broth, red wine, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn up the heat and increase the boil until the onions are soft and the liquid is thickened, stirring frequently.

Add the heavy whipping cream and dried cranberries, simmer until the sauce coats the onions. (If you are using pomegranate seeds, add them right after you have turned the heat off.)

Recipes to Drool Over

I have a couple foodie blogs that I love. I am frequently drooling over their recipes and photos, wishing I could cook as beautifully and that I could take such amazing photos. Last week I came across this recipe for Seasonal Stuffed Peppers on Straight from the Farm. I think I save every other recipe she posts, but this one spurred me to action and I made it the very next day.

However, since I do try to be semi-unique on my blog and not just re-write all the recipes other bloggers post, I am not posting this recipe, but I still highly recommend it. Since I save at least one recipe a day to try later, I thought it would be fun to add one of HubSpot's latest tools - a web voter - to Gormandizing and let all my faithful readers vote on what sounds the best.

You can check out the recipes I am reading and loving in the new Recipes to Drool Over section! Click the up arrow to let me know you think something sounds good, add a comment if you want me to make it when you come over, or push something down if you don't like the sound. I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Still River Cafe - Eastford, Connecticut

The other day I was chatting with a couple other foodies at work and I was trying to tell them about this amazing restaurant near my parents house. I was explaining that it would be the perfect fall Sunday get-a-way and trying to do the food justice in my explanation. My glowing recommendation missed a little, when they asked, "What's it called?" and I blanked on the name.

Boston Magazine (and my father for sending the article to me) came to the rescue this week, clearly thinking along the same lines. Their article about various Foodie Road Trips in New England has the Still River Cafe in Eastford CT as the #1 recommendation!


I agree 100%. If you are looking for something to do on a beautiful fall weekend before the cold sets in, I highly recommend heading down to Eastford. The only thing they forgot to mention is that you MUST have reservations to get into one of their 3 seatings a week, but trust me the drive is worth it.

Now I am going to try and convince JR to start taking me to the other places on the list!

Coffee - Nectar of the Gods

Have you ever stopped to think about how wonderful coffee is?

I recently had a "come-to-Jesus" moment with regards to coffee and I don't think my life will ever be the same. You see, I never liked coffee. I didn't like it's bitter taste, I didn't like the smell and I HATED coffee breath. Then everything changed.


It started with Tiramisu when I was young. Since I discovered it, at about the age of 12, I have loved Tiramisu. I made it last year, and as with most things, it's even better homemade. It took about 10 years for me to graduate from Tiramisu to Coffee ice cream, but I suppose it was eventual. I have to credit the White Mountain Creamery in Wellesley MA for their coffee flavored hard yogurt and my father-in-law for introducing it to me. Add some heath bar crunch topping and you have heaven on a cone.

I supposed my passion for coffee then followed a normal course. From super foofoo drinks like Peppermint White Mocha Frappuccinos to lattes and then on to cappuccinos. Finally one day, I was at work and exhausted and really not in the mood for a Diet Coke, and a light bulb went off, "What if coffee with cream and sugar tastes just like coffee ice cream?" And you know what? When I tried it, it did!


From there it has been a slippery slope to coffee addiction, but I think I have been smart about it. I only drink decaf (unless the caffeine is necessary) and I always keep gum on hand because coffee breath is still a major turn off. In case you haven't realized yet that coffee is officially the nectar of the Gods, here are 5 reasons why you should love it too.

1. There is a coffee to suit every tongue and personality! Bitter, sweet, creamy, foamy, part skim, full fat, hazelnut, Colombian, Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks - anyone who likes coffee has a way they like it best. All you have to do to like coffee is find out how you like it and where they serve it that way.

2. It kills hunger. I never knew this, and I am amazed that the coffee industry hasn't used it as a marketing campaign, but drinking coffee makes you less hungry. It only took a couple of weeks of drinking it regularly for me to realize that if I had coffee in the morning, I didn't eat as much. It is your instant, cheap and easy-at-the-office, diet drink!

3. It comes hi-test or low-test. At first I wondered about drinking all the caffeine in coffee, just because it tastes like a warm cup of ice cream. It didn't seem like fair trade off. Then I realized decaf coffee comes in all the great flavors of regular coffee without the extra JUICE! Amazing!

4. Coffee is a natural conversation starter. The coffee machine (you know the new Keurig Machines that make individual cups of coffee - brilliant!) is the new water cooler and a place to chit chat at work. Coffee is also the end to a good meal and a reason to linger at the dinner table and keep the conversation going.

5. Coffee is also a good choice when you need to stay awake. Let me tell you, as someone who didn't drink coffee until she was 26, when you are driving at 2AM a Diet Coke just isn't what you are craving. The warmth of a cup of joe is just so much more satisfying.


Blog Post Credits
- The inspiration for the post is entirely due to my good friend JS who realized the beauty of coffee when we worked together in NY. I thought he was crazy at the time, but now I know he was just a couple years ahead of me.
- Photos can be credited to Google Images. It's impressive enough that I felt inspired to write a freaking post, taking photos was more that I could manage.

Ice Cream GALORE!

This weekend we went over to dinner at our friend BC's parent's house. S&BC live out in Wellesley and for 4 years I have been hearing about their freezer.

Apparently they love ice cream and there is never a shortage. Everyone always talks about how many flavors of Ben & Jerry's they have and I always thought "of course, EVERYONE loves ice cream!" Boy was I wrong, no one loves ice cream as much as S&BC!

Here is a quick glimpse inside their freezer,


That's right, you can see 9 flavors of Ben & Jerry's alone, not to mention 2 sorbets. What you can't see is the 3 other half gallon tubs on the bottom shelf! BC also assured me that they are about 8 flavors short right now!

I haven't told JR yet, but I am considering moving in with them just to be closer to their freezer....

Wildflowers, Lobsters & Tomatoes

Last week JR and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We were lucky to be able take a long weekend and head to New Hampshire where we spent our honeymoon. New Hampshire in August is breath taking. There are wildflowers and butterflies everywhere, and the mornings are cool enough for a sweater, but the days are long and georgeous.


As can be expected, I crafted our honeymoon around food. Since we were staying in a house with a great kitchen, we used the week to gormandize. This weekend was not different, we made glorious feasts each night, and then headed to town to gorge ourselves on desert.

Friday we headed down to the local farm stand and picked up corn, tomatoes, fresh peas and cucumbers. We then went down to the nearest grocery store (a half hour away) to stock up for dinner and the weekend. We decided on our honeymoon to start a Lobster dinner tradition and continue it each year, and so the required lobsters had to be picked out.


This year we went for 3 soft shell lobsters. They have less meat than their larger hard shell brothers, but the meat is supposed to be sweeter and easier to get to. They are also a little smaller, and last year we had tons of left over lobster. As always we played with them for a little while, and I was happy to see they had some spunk.



Making lobsters couldn't be easier, we threw them in the lobster pot, steamed them for 12 minutes, and presto, beautiful red lobsters. We had them with a some corn and of course the required butter. We ended the night biking down into town for ice cream.


The next night we dinned on grilled steak, mushrooms and onions, but the star of the evening were the slow roasted tomatoes. I had been catching up on my blog reading earlier in the day and had seen this recipe for slow roasted tomatoes. I had some amazing cherry tomatoes from the farm stand and I knew instantly what I was going to do with them. We chowed down on them as appetizers, popping them in to our mouths like cherries, while we made the rest of dinner. That night we ate out on the porch and followed up dinner with drinks and desert down at the local hang out. It was a perfect weekend.

Swedish Cucumbers - Summer in a Bowl

My mother's family is Swedish, and as can be expected, I relate most to my heritage through the food. I love good Swedish mustard, I would kill for real Swedish meatballs and every summer I crave Swedish Cucumbers.

The best family functions always include both Swedish meatballs and cucumbers, and they accompany each other perfectly. However, my understand is that Swedish meatballs are HARD to make (having never made them myself) - so today, I stuck with just the cucumbers. This may sound like I wimped out, but I assure you, the cucumbers have taunted and teased me for a couple years.


Come July and August, I can't get enough of the fresh cucumbers that are at the farmers markets, yet I have never made Swedish cucumbers! Mostly it's a result of the whole mandolin issue, but it's also because my mom could never tell me more about the recipe than "put some cucumbers with vinegar, water and sugar." It seemed like too much work to risk a massive failure.

Then my Aunt PC came to the rescue a couple of weeks ago and sent me the recipe as well as a tip for skipping the mandolin. Apparently my Great Grandma, who immigrated to the US from Sweden with she 18 and who just turned 105, (WOW!) used to make these super thin cucumber slices with just her vegetable peeler. Since I have a wonderful Cutco peeler, and have been beaten by my mandolin, I decided this was the approach for me.

So today, I stopped by a farm stand and picked up some beautiful cucumbers. I went at them with the peeler and viola! I had beautiful Swedish cucumber slices within 10 minutes. It wasn't nearly as difficult or as painful as I expected. I threw together the vinegar, water and sugar, added some salt, pepper and parsley and was in summer-time bliss. It took a lot of will power to not eat the whole bowl before dinner, but I managed and even shared some with JR.

Pickled Swedish Cucumbers
2 cucumbers
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 cup water
Dash of salt and a couple grinds of black pepper
Chopped parsley or dill

1. Dissolve the sugar in the liquid ingredients.
2. Slice up the cucumbers making sure they are paper thin. Use a mandolin if you are brave or a vegetable peeper to peel off thin round.
3. Pour the vinegar mix over the cucumbers and add salt, pepper and herbs.

Babies and Banana Bread

This weekend I was in charge of the food for sister-in-law NS’s baby shower. There were going to be 13 ladies present and I was nervous as anything about doing it. I get all worked up about entertaining for large numbers and I am not very good at cooking in other peoples kitchens and the party was at my sister-in-laws place. As a result I went for a simple menu that allowed me to do most of the prep at home and didn’t involve a lot of cooking.


Bagels with lox, fresh tomatoes and red onions
Fruit Salad (provided by my mother-in-law)
Green salad with bok choy and tomatoes
Nana’s Banana Bread


My Nana’s banana bread is sacred in our household. When bananas get brown, I peel them and throw them in a zip lock bag in the freezer. Then when I get three, I’ll pull together a loaf for JR and it keeps him remembering why he married me – my Nana’s banana bread. It’s not something I can describe, just think of the best banana bread you have ever had and here is the recipe.


Nana’s Banana Bread

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 crushed bananas
2 cups bread flour
1 t baking soda
¼ t salt
¼ cup walnuts (optional)

Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, flour, baking soda, nuts.
- Mash bananas in a separate bowl and add last, mixing until they are just mixed in.
- Bake 1 hour in a well greased bread pan (or half hour in muffin tins)

Life Changing Turkey Burgers

I have always been a burger purest. In my world there wasn't room for turkey burgers, or veggie burgers or lamb burgers - they were all just cheap imitations of the real deal. Then my sister and brother-in-law gave me this recipe for Southwest Turkey Burgers that has completely changed my mind.

I believe my brother-in-law, JF, made up this recipe. He is the opposite kind of cook from me, he doesn't work from recipes and instead stands in his kitchen and pulls together amazing meals just by adding a little of this and a little of that. He is nice enough to write down the recipes so I can follow along.


The beauty of this recipe is that it's flexible. If I don't have one ingredient, I can add another or just a little extra of something else. It's easy to pull together on a week night and makes 4 burgers, so JR and I get left overs for lunch the next day. It's also healthy! You can use the 98% fat free ground turkey and whole wheat rolls and not feel guilty about shoving a quarter pounder in your face. Additionally these burgers can be made on a grill or in a fry pan, so if you don't have a grill this is still a recipe for you.


These are also the burgers that introduced me to Sweet Pepper Relish which I now cannot live without. I generally do them up with vidaliah onions, my BBQ sauce and some of this sweet relish. The burgers are tender and spicy and it's the perfect summer meal.


P.S. There is no photo of a perfectly made beautiful burger because, um, well...I ate it!

Southwest Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:
1 lbs ground turkey (preferably as free of fat as you can get)
2 cloves of garlic (garlic scapes work really well here too)
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 small bell pepper, finely chopped
1 serrano or jalapeno pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
1 tsp. thyme
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. grill seasoning (McCormick's, any flavor will do)
couple drops Tabasco
Olive oil
Pepper jack cheese
Whole wheat buns
Condiments

Instructions:
1. Chop garlic, onion, peppers and cilantro or parsley and throw into a bowl with the ground turkey. Add the spices and mix well.
2. Form into 4 equally sized patties. I find that the turkey meat can be a little sticky when it doesn't have a lot of fat it in. Drizzle your hands with a little bit of olive oil while you are forming the patties and they come together much more easily.
3. Cook the burgers in a skillet or on the grill. Be careful not to over cook! They are best when they are still moist and tender.
4. Add the cheese for the last few minutes so it melts and toast your buns.
5. Build a perfect burger!

A Perfect Sandwich

I don't know what makes a perfect sandwich. I guess it depends a lot on the quality and proportion of the ingredients, but I know that 9 times out of 10 when I make sandwiches, I am not satisfied. Generally they have too much turkey, or not enough jelly, or the bread is too crunchy and hurts the roof of my mouth. In any case, sandwiches have gotten a bad reputation in my kitchen and I tend to not make them very often. Until recently.

The other evening I wasn't feeling top notch and was just hanging out at home reading and catching up on some relaxing. For dinner, all I could think about was a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. By perfect, I mean the kind of grilled cheese where the outside is a little crunchy and very buttery and the inside is warm gooey cheesy goodness. I headed over to the Whole Foods and picked up some German style whole wheat bread, a hunk of gruyere (a nice nutty cheese that is AMAZING for sandwiches) and a beautiful tomato.


I put that panini maker to work and within minutes had a gorgeous sandwich for dinner. It was so amazing. I had it with some fresh fruit, a pickle and some of this fantastic Mild Yellow Swedish mustard that JB brought me a couple weeks ago. The stuff is like no other mustard you have ever had and I want to drink it from a spoon.

I am also searching for a killer egg sandwich. I try something new at least once a week, but generally it includes good bread, two fried eggs, some kind of special cheese, fresh herbs and a spread (pesto, mustard, cranberry sauce, olive oil, the list goes on.) The desire for this sandwich comes from a couple places.

First, the movie Spanglish featured Thomas Keller's BLT Fried Egg and Cheese Sandwich which rewound to watch Adam Sandler make 3 or 4 times while I drooled. It was written up in Food & Wine about a year ago and I tried to make it one night while Jared was away. It was not all I had hoped for, although the F&W photo still makes me drool, and thus I started on the search for the perfect egg sandwich.


The second inspiration is the Jerusalem Egg Sandwich from the Andala Coffee House just up the street from us. A couple months after we moved here, I started going to Andala every Wednesday morning for a networking event. My first or second time, someone ordered this sandwich, and I have been in love with it ever since. It's a scintillating combination of eggs, parsley and tomatoes wrapped in a toasted Mediterranean pita that I would recommend to anyone.


My egg sandwiches are good, but this one has me coming back week after week and nothing I have made has accomplished that yet. I'll keep trying but if you have a great sandwich recipe that you want to share, please send it along.

The Way to a Girl's Heart is Through Her Stomach

JR and I met during the last couple months of college. On our graduation day, I told my mother I wasn't sure where the relationship was going to go, then Lobster Bowl 2004 happened and I was hooked.

Lobster Bowl is a golf tournament that JR's father plays in each year. It's actually called the Adams Bowl, but I have officially renamed it, because at the end of each tournament they serve the most amazing feast. I went that first summer back in 2004 and I was sold, I knew right then I had to marry JR so that I could come to the Lobster Bowl each and every year and eat enough lobster and shrimp to stuff me full. I am not exaggerating when I say it's tables full of lobster, shrimp and oysters and other amazing goodies.



After showing me this wealthy of goodness, JR didn't bring me back for 3 whole summers! I thought I had been cheated, until today when he finally returned me to the Lobster Bowl, and it was all I remembered.

I stuck to the seafood for plate number 1, and was not disappointed.


I branched out for plate number 2 and included some meat. When I brought this back to the table, my MIL (mother-in-law) said "You go girl!"


When I brought back plate number three, she said "Oh, I think I need to visit the desert table...."


It was amazing, and I am so lucky that my wonderful in-laws were willing to share the lobster and bring me back to the Lobster Bowl.