Cook The Books: Jerusalem

I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

This month I cooked from Jerusalem: a cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.  It was the perfect choice for September as it is chock full of tomato and eggplant recipes. It also just happens thatI was trying to perfect homemade hummus and the recipe in this book really helped me do that.  Jerusalem is well written, has beautiful pictures, and good recipes.  I might have drooled a bit over the challah pictures in this book.  

Here is what I made: no recipes given secondary to copyright.  Go to your local library and check out the book. 

Hummus pg 114 (no pic)

Mejadra pg 120 (no picture but just think rice and lentil salad)

Musabaha (warm chickpeas with hummus) and toasted pita pg 119

Burekas pg 254

Red pepper and baked egg galettes pg 243

I didn't make any substitutions in these recipes and enjoyed them how they were written.  The musabaha would be a wonderful dip to serve at a party. We tried to eat it as a main course for dinner but it was a bit much.  The burekas  and red pepper galettes were my favorite and they were probably the easiest.  They are basically different versions of filled puff pastry.  Yum yum yum!!!!

I am looking forward to going back over all of these months and cooking the best recipes again. Maybe my project for winter 

I wish you enough (chickpeas and cumin)!!!!

Cook the Books July: Gran Cocina Latina

I love love love Gran Cocina Latina!  This book is huge, no literally it is enormous, and has 912 pages.  The author, Maricel Presilla, did some wonderful research and really did a great job with this book.  There are lots of recipes in each section that are very interesting and fairly simple.  The recipes are easy to follow and most ingredients are easily found at my local grocery store and mercado.  I liked that the foods were fairly colorful and interesting.  I use canned tomatoes when it's not tomato season at the farm so in most cases I just substituted with them and things turned out great.

So glad I cooked the book this month...!

I made:

Coconut Chicken from Artenga

As you can see I made this on the grill in a cast iron pan.  I can't believe there would be a tastier way to make this dish.  And now I'm super excited about cooking everything this way all summer!!!!

Mango and Hearts of Palm Salad

Different and delicious and super easy to make. Followed the recipe exactly. 

Avocado Watercress Pineapple Salad

This is the time of year I could find watercress but my garden was full of spinach and arugula. I substituted these and it was fantastic.  Personal preference I would have liked more avocado.  This would be a wonderful side to take to a BBQ. 

Chicken Fricassee

Yum yum yum!  I've actually said that about all these dishes.  So far this cookbook is super yummy.  I liked this and used Viognier wine instead of beer.

Sorry I don't have pictures but I had a dinner party and made the mexican rice and coconut shrimp.  For the rice I used canned diced tomatoes with their juice and just threw everything in a rice cooker.  The coconut shrimp was cooked outside on the grill in my huge cast iron pan.  The garden isn't being super generous with tomatoes yet so I again used a can of diced tomatoes with their juice rather than tomato sauce, and fresh tomatoes.  I'm sure it's better with freshies so that will give me an excuse to try it again.  This dinner was probably my ** favorite** of all the recipes I tried.

Have I said I love this book.  This is one of my favorites so far!  Right down my alley. Oy!!!!!

** Public Library Plug:  I am a big proponent of public libraries and so far in Baltimore County they have either had these books or have purchased them after I requested them.  The great thing is that I don't have to store them and can get them whenever I want.  

I wish you enough!

10 minute Wood Initial Makeover

I've had this white wooden K for a long time and it needed a makeover. 

I was cleaning out "the craft bin" the other day and found some patterned duct tape that little miss and I bought at target. You know, in that $1 section when you enter...they get me every time. So I put it on the letter to see how it would look: 

And cut out the shape with my paper scissors:

I think it's adorable!  Now for where to hang it.  I'm in picture limbo right now because I have 4 frames to hang and it always takes me a while to decide where they should go.  That's the fun part!

I wish you enough!

Farm Tour

The garden at the farm is coming along and growing well.  The recent downpours were helpful for some plants and not so for others.  The potatoes look like they've seen better days.  

Popcorn 

Tomatoes and Peppers

Potatoes and newly planted sweet potatoes

Cabbage

Onions and Shallots

Beets and Kale

Melons and Cucumbers

Savoy Cabbage

And a very cool find in the woods... A bottle from the early 1900's with a natural growing terrarium.  A great gift from Mother Nature. 

I think that's all for now... I am also growing food in my front yard. Lettuce, spinach, peppers, cabbage, basil, dill, thyme, eggplant, zucchini. I love growing my own food and having my kids go outside and pick plants...there's just something about it. 

Oh yea!!!!  The hardy kiwis are to the top of the trellis now. Yippee.  I'll have pics soon!

I wish you enough!

Simple Mango and Hearts of Palm Salad

So this is a super easy yummy salad that has wonderful summer flavors.  I adapted the recipe from the Gran Cocina Latina cookbook.

2 Mangoes cut into chunks

14 oz Hearts of palm, cut into chunks

2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

1/4 cup lime juice

3 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Here's the best part.... add it all together and chill.  Eat and enjoy.

Grilled Arugula Gorgonzola Pizza

Yum. Yum. Yum.  I have to start with Yum. With summer coming, or here depending on where you live, it's time to get that grill going for all sorts of food.  Why only use it for the occasional BBQ?  I once spent a year without a formal kitchen during a remodel and I learned how to cook pretty much anything on the grill or in a rice cooker. 

This week I've cooked Latin coconut chicken, arugula lasagna, and now pizza on my grill. When it's hot outside that means its hot inside my no AC house....ugh. So I cook outside a lot. 

I make this dough only about an hour before making pizza so I consider it a quick dough.  Also, I double the recipe so I have plenty of dough for the week or to freeze.  

Pizza Dough aka $30 Pizza

1tsp. Active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp kosher salt 

1 sprig oregano or 1 tsp dried

2-3 sprigs thyme or 1tsp dried

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 Tbsp olive oil + 1 tsp for bowl

Add yeast and warm water to large bowl and let sit 5 minutes.  In the meantime mix the remaining ingredients, except olive oil, in a bowl.  After 5 minutes add flour and olive oil to yeast mixture and stir until combined.  Not sure if it matters but I stir with a wooden spoon.  I feel weird stirring this with metal and deep down I remember something about stirring yeasty things with metal might make them not rise.  I think I remember that from my sourdough days...  Anyway, once it is mixed add the remaining olive oil to bowl and turn dough to coat. Cover and let sit in warm location for 1 hour.  

When you're ready just punch the dough down and either use the whole thing or break off the amount you want.  

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and roll out or stretch to desired thickness.  The cooked dough will be about 1 1/2 times the original thickness. 

Grilling:  super duper easy.  Heat up your grill to 400 degrees, grease the rack and place your dough right on the rack.  You have two choices here. 

1. Cook one side about 4 minutes checking so you don't burn it. Then flip over and quickly add toppings and cook another 4-6 minutes. 

2.  Cook one side 4 minutes, flip and cook 2 minutes. Remove dough from grill and top the most cooked side at your leisure then place it back on the grill when ready for 4-5 minutes.  

I like option 2 because we make several small pizzas so everyone can customize their own. 

Your grill might be different than mine so make sure to check the dough every now and then so it doesn't get burned.  Also if you see it poofing up just poke it with a fork. 

I am currently in love with arugula so tonight I made an arugula sweet potato Gorgonzola pizza and it was delicious. 

Topped it with bottled pizza sauce, quick sautéed arugula and spinach, dollops of mashed sweet potato from the fridge sweet orange peppers, basil, cheddar cheese, and Gorgonzola.  

Pureed Quinoa: Baby food

I'll have pictures soon but just wanted to let you know how excited I am that I successfully pureed quinoa!!!  And the baby LOVES it.

I boiled water and soaked the quinoa in it for an hour, then I cooked it according to the package directions with 1/4 cup extra water.

Then I put it in my wonderful blender (Thanks JK) with about 1/4 cup water and turned out wonderfully smooth and yummy.

The baby will pretty much eat anything if there is a bit of banana in it so I added a bit of spinach and banana puree to the quinoa.  She ate it up like a champ.

I am aiming to do a big post about making baby food so stay tuned.

Name Posters

I go through cycles of creativity.  Right now I'm in full force and have changed a bunch of pictures in my frames, added pizzaz to frames, bought new curtains, and made these wonderful name posters for my girls rooms.

I bought a wonderful book of scrapbook paper and went to work picking papers and patterns.  I had these poster frames around the house and repurposed them for this project.  

I measured and decided the size of my letters then cut out a template so they'd all be the same size.

Then I drew my letters on the wrong side of the paper, making sure to draw them backwards.  

You could use the computer to make fancy letters and use them as a template but I just chose to draw them out in block letters. 

Measure twice, cut once, and glue onto your background. I used 11x14 frames, so I bought that size poster board to glue the name plate on.

 Fun to do and quick.  I finished one each night and now have a wonderful picture for their rooms.

 I wish you enough (color)!

Frame Improvements

I've been working on a cute project for my daughters' rooms and have some wonderful paper at my disposal.  I've been looking at this picture for a while and thought it could use more umph...

SO, I took the frame apart, measured it and cut out a piece of fun paper.

Then put the paper behind the picture and voila'!  More umph!!!

A super easy, fast project to add more color to a room.  Stay tuned for the other project I'm working on.

I wish you enough!

Cook the Books: Asian Dumplings

I am participating in an online cook book club called Cook the Books and I completely missed February.  The book was Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen.  My local library bought them and I was waiting for it to arrive.  I just got it the other day and have decided to skip this month mostly due to time constraints.

The book looks wonderful and one day I'll make dumplings.... maybe when my girls are old enough to help me fill them up.   So give it another 3 years....

Anyway I'm starting the March book, Good Fish, as soon as it arrives in the mail and I'm super excited about this one so you will definitely see some recipes and new posts soon.  Speaking of fish recipes check out my adaptation of Salmon Rillettes.

I think tonight we'll have a sweet potato cauliflower mash, with broccoli and salmon.  Yum.


Have a great weekend.

Black Bean Edamame

Last summer we grew and froze about 20 quart size bags of edamame.  They are one of my favorite things from the garden and every now and then I like to spice them up.  Although they are super yummy with just a bit of salt too...

This recipe was inspired from a much more difficult recipe on Food 52, but I changed it a bit to make it simple and quick.  I gave it a 9/10 for flavor but 5/10 for presentation.  I think next time I will only do this with shelled beans because it is a little hard to eat this way.  Oh well, licking the sauce off my fingers was fun too.

Ingredients:
1 pound edamame, shelled or not
3 tsp black bean garlic sauce, from the Asian food section at my local grocery store
3 green onions
pinch ground ginger
2 Tbsp OJ
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
zest of one orange

 Steam your edamame for a couple minutes in salted water.  Then drain and let dry about 5 minutes.
While draining combine the black bean sauce, onions diced, and ginger in a small bowl and stir.  In another small bowl combine the rest of the ingredients.

Heat a wok on med high heat and toss in your edamame.  When they start to blister toss in the black bean sauce mix and stir for 1 minute.  Add in your liquid ingredients and stir until a glaze has formed and there is little juice left in the pan.

Enjoy with a napkin.


I wish you enough.

Salmon Rillettes

This month I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

January's book is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I am usually hesitant to look at french cook books because there are always hard to find ingredients and the techniques take to long for me right now.  This book is wonderful.  Ms. Greenspan includes recipes and stories that are simple, tasty and quick.  I made a pumpkin flan, and plan to make pissaladiere (onion anchovy pizza), salmon rillettes, tuna confit with black olive tapenade, and possible a fresh orange pork loin.  Stay tuned... I won't post these recipes to honor copyrights but if you're interested you should totally check the book out at your local library.


This morning I hosted a brunch and served this and....

What can I say besides super delicious!?! This spread made with wine poached salmon, smoked salmon, butter, lemon and spices was a total hit and will definitely be made again.  It literally took me 10 minutes to make.  I substituted the red chile pepper with a dash of cayenne in the poaching liquid and a diced red bell pepper in the spread.

The adapted recipe:

1 lb salmon steak, skinned and cubed

4 oz smoked salmon

pinch of cayenne

1/2 c. dry white wine

1/2 c water

small piece of lemon peel

zest and juice of one lemon

5 coriander seeds

diced red bell pepper

2 Tbsp butter, room temp

dash of pepper

salt

1.  Boil wine, water, piece of lemon peel, coriander, and cayenne for 5 minutes, covered.  Drop cubed salmon into liquid and poach for one minute.  Drain and remove lemon peel and coriander seeds. 

2.  Place poached salmon in a bowl and lightly mash.  Then add smoked salmon, bell pepper, and butter and stir to combine.  Once combined add lemon zest and half of the lemon juice.  

3. Decide whether or not to add rest of lemon juice based on flavor and season with salt and pepper as needed.  

4.  Pack rillettes into a jar or a bowl making sure to press down firmly.  This should be kind of thick once it's done.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to overnight.  It won't last once you take it out of the fridge but just in case I would eat it within 3 days.

At the brunch we feasted on this salmon dish on top of toasted english muffins.

I wish you enough!

Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan

This month I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

January's book is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I am usually hesitant to look at french cook books because there are always hard to find ingredients and the techniques take to long for me right now.  This book is wonderful.  Ms. Greenspan includes recipes and stories that are simple, tasty and quick.  I made a pumpkin flan, and plan to make pissaladiere (onion anchovy pizza), salmon rillettes, tuna confit with black olive tapenade, and possible a fresh orange pork loin.  Stay tuned.....

I started with a Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan (pg 146):

The recipe is simple: mix some eggs, cream and pumpkin together.  Season and top with Gorgonzola Cheese and bake in a water bath.  I didn't have a can of pumpkin and was not going back to the store.  But I just happen to have a butternut squash in the basement from the garden this year.  So I roasted and pureed it first.  I think this would only take about 8 minutes to make if you used canned pumpkin, but the butternut was also super yummy.