eat make read

It was a super lovely weekend here in brooklyn, and like always, I’m sad to see it go. We veered away from our normal routine and headed into the city to visit the Union Square Greenmarket, which is about 3 times the size of our usual market in Brooklyn and full of goodies. I made a list before we left home so I wouldn’t buy every pretty fruit or vegetable I saw… I was pretty good about sticking to it, until I saw the cutest little watermelon. Weird, I know, but it was just a little bigger than my fist, the perfect city-size, plus it was yellow… something new to try.

I brought it home and cut it open for an afternoon snack and it was oh-so-lovely. I wanted to jazz it up with a little something, so I mixed some sugar and fresh mint in my mortar and pestle. The result? Awesomely delicious. You might think that it sounds silly to add sugar to watermelon, but in fact it not only added a touch of sweetness, it also provided a nice textural contrast. It’s a hit my friends, try it out and you will see.

watermelon with sugar and mint

1 Tablespoon sugar
4-5 mint leaves
1 watermelon, cut in little chunks

1
In a mortar and pestle, combine sugar and mint leaves. Crush leaves until mixture becomes greenish and leaves are well integrated into sugar.
2
Cut melon into small, dippable chunks, about and inch square.
3
Dip and eat!

This week’s happy hour is an excellent recommendation from my friend erik. After seeing my post on vanilla sugar earlier this week, he clued me in on a recipe for pomegranate mojitos that’s pretty dang tasty. And I have to say, sometimes I get really frustrated with mixing drinks that seem fancy, but this one was easy and came out tasting delightful. Maybe that’s because I made Aaron use his muscles and muddle the mint, but whatever the case, this is definitely worth trying out.

Cheers! To good friends and and a great weekend!

erik’s fancy pomegranate mojito

2 oz pomegranate juice
2 oz white rum
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
4 oz club soda
6 mint sprigs
cracked ice

1
In a cocktail shaker, combine all ingredients except the mint and shake well.
2
Mull the mint in the bottom of a cocktail glass.
3
Strain the pomegranate mixture into the glass with the muddled mint, and serve.

I kind of fell in love with Lynne Rossetto Kasper on our Midwest trip. If you’re not familiar, visit The Splendid Table or iTunes and subscribe to her podcasts, they’re a great treat. She talks about food in a holistic way, so there are recipes, interviews with chefs and farmers and producers, tips on utensils, restaurant recommendations and lots more.

Lucky for me, now you can not only can you listen to the show, but Lynne and her producer Sally Swift just came out with a book called “How to Eat Supper“. It’s not your ordinary cookbook, oh no. In fact, the description of content reads “Recipes, Stories and Opinions”. I’ve just done my first skim through the book and with every page turn it gets better. The book concentrates on dishes that are easy, use fresh ingredients and are doable after a hard days work. In between recipes, there are interesting stories about how to season a wok or the man who had synesthesia. On top of that, it’s a really beautiful book. The design is well thought out and easy to read with lovely photographs to accompany each recipe.

Basically it’s a dreamy, dreamy book. In fact, I’ve decided to that I’m going to cook a recipe a week from it for the next month, so be on the look out for some tasty dishes coming your way.

Growing up I practically lived on macaroni and cheese. It was one of a handful of foods I actually liked, but then to make matters worse, I only liked the stuff that came in a box. When my mom tried to lure me away with the homemade variety, I’d just turn up my nose and whine about how mushy it was. What a silly child I was.

Now I’ve done a 180. Awhile back ago I was craving the boxed stuff and made it at home. The thing was, I didn’t like it. Nothing about it had changed, it was that my tastebuds had done some growing up. I must say I was a little disappointed, but then when I thought about it a little more, it was exciting to think my palette maturing. Sure it’s a decade late, but hey, I guess I’m a late bloomer. Just because I’m not into the boxed stuff anymore doesn’t mean I don’t still get a craving for some cheesy goodness every now and then.

I picked up a few cheeses from Cato Corner and brought them home to search for the perfect recipe. I found this one that called for panko crumbs over top and it sounded like just the right thing. I divided the recipe in half because the last thing I need is 20 servings of mac and cheese sitting around the house. I kind of loosely followed the recipe by using 3 different cheeses, a gouda style, a manchego and a cheddar, and a different kind of pasta called Cavatappi, which is kind of like a cross between spiral and elbow. The cheese combination made for a delightfully smooth flavor that was cheesy without being overwhelming and the pasta kept a nice firmness yet still grabbed onto the sauce well. And I have to say, I’ve never totally understood the whole breadcrumbs over macaroni thing, but the panko crumbs won me over. They added a perfect, golden crunch to contrast the creamy and rich interior.

Next time you need a little comfort, reach for this recipe to give you a little love.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
adapted from this recipe from epicurious

makes a hefty 9×9 pan

For topping
1/4 stick unsalted butter
1 cup panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs)
1/4 pound coarsely grated Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
For macaroni and sauce
1/2 stick unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups 2% milk
3 cups gouda cheese, shredded
1 cup manchego
1/2 cup cheddar
1/2 pound cavatappi pasta (or spiral or elbow)
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

1: Topping
Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well, set aside.
2: Make sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour.
3
Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes.
4
Stir in cheeses, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat.
5: Make Macaroni:
Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl.
6
Transfer to 9×9 baking dish.
7
Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

Here’s something simple to jazz up your baked goods, vanilla sugar. It’s super simple to make and adds a lovely hint of vanilla to recipes that call for sugar.

Vanilla Sugar
1 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise
2 cups sugar

1
Pour sugar into air-tight jar.
2
Scrape the insides of the vanilla bean into the sugar, then toss the bean in the sugar.
3
Close the lid and give the sugar a good shake.
4
Let the sugar and vanilla sit for a week or two and tada, you’ve got yourself vanilla sugar.

Brooklyn Based just posted a good article on what to do with all those heirloom tomatoes that are showing up at the greenmarket. I’m so glad they did because I go every weekend and want to buy them because they’re so dang beautiful, but I don’t know what to do with them except maybe make tomato sauce, and that just seems a little boring. So here you go, I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.

photo from Brooklyn Based

This weekend I did something super exciting… I pulled out all the fruit I’ve been hoarding over the summer and made jam. And oh did I make jam. Lucky for me my friend Erin came over to join in the undertaking of turning apricots, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and cherries into five different kinds of jam.

A while ago I got super inspired by this article written by Molly Wizenberg in Bon Appetit. The recipe that goes along with the story sounded pretty basic, but still allowed for some experimentation. We went ahead and came up with some of our own fruit combinations, but stuck with her directions on canning since neither of us had done it before. Making the jam is pretty simple, you basically mix the fruit up, add a little sweetner (sugar or honey) and a little citrus and let it sit for a few hours. We ended up with Strawberry, Strawberry & Raspberry, Raspberry with cayenne pepper, Blueberry & Sweet Cherry and Apricot & Raspberry. Whew, that’s a lot of jam. While the fruit was hanging out, we started the sterilization process, which takes a lot of time. I didn’t buy any special equipment for this, I just used my stockpot that has a strainer insert and it worked pretty dang good. There are special canning pots and gadgets that you can pick up, but unless you’re planning on doing a lot of canning, I think my way works pretty well.

Once the cans were sterile, we put the fruit on the stovetop and brought it to a boil. That’s when things started getting good. Scent is one of my favorite aspects of cooking and it came out with a bang when the fruit started boiling. Oh the sweet, sweet smell of fresh strawberries, then came the raspberries and the blueberries… I mean is there anything better? It actually took quite a bit longer than the directions called for to get the fruit to a more jam-like place, but we just rolled with it. After we filled the jam jars, we sealed them by boiling them one last time.

I tried out the strawberry jam Sunday morning and it just made me happy. You can just taste the freshness in it and it’s kind of perfect. There are many more jars to be opened, some of which will go to friends, but some will be saved for those cold winter months when thoughts of fresh fruit can be savored with a little piece of toast with some fresh jam spread over top.

All recipes follow the directions of this recipe for
Mixed Berry Jam

Below are my fruit variations:

Strawberry Jam
4.5 cups fresh strawberries
2 cups sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Strawberry-Raspberry Jam
2.5 cups Strawberries
2 cups Raspberries
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon sugar

Blueberry Cherry
4 cups Blueberries
2 cups Sweet Cherries
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon lime juice
2 Tablespoon honey
1 cup sugar

Spicy Raspberry
4 cups Raspberry
1 Tablespoon Cayenne (we actually used 2 and it was tooooo spicy, but taste to your liking)
2 Tablespoons orange juice

Apricot Raspberry
this one produced more jars due to the extra fruit
8 cups Apricots, cut into 1/4″ pieces
2 cups Raspberry
1 cup sugar
1 cup vanilla sugar (i’ll be posting this recipe later this week, but basically sugar flavored with a vanilla bean)
2 Tablespoons Lemon juice

Things have been a little crazy around here, so busy that i haven’t had time to enjoy a happy hour. That’s just sad. I did collect a few recipes, any of which I would gladly imbibe.

Raspberry Limeade Cooler

Summer Fruit Sangria

Citrus Arnold Palmer

I hope you have the best weekend ever. I also hope maude doesn’t sit in gum ever again. It’s kind of a bummer.

Cheers!

This weekend we finally made it to the restaurant James. It got a lot of good press when it first opened about a month or two ago and it immediately went on our list of new restaurants to visit. After eating there, both Aaron and I agreed that the good press was well deserved.

There was a small wait when we arrived around nine on a Saturday, so we took a seat at the bar and perused the drink list. The cocktail list was quite lovely, with about 10 cocktails and they also had a selection of beer and wine. I went with the Ginger Fizz and Aaron chose the James Revenge (which is kind of like a Brooklyn). Both were good stuff.

Our table opened up in about five minutes, so we took our seat beneath their beautiful modern chandelier. The waiter took a while to visit us, but when he did we liked what he had to say. All the specials sounded delicious, but one stood out and I had to have it for dinner. Roast pork served with bacon and pear with a pork jous, I mean come on, how could I not get it. Aaron also picked a pretty dreamy sounding choice, pine nut and rosemary crusted loin of lamb with a summer bean stew. The thing is, just about everything on their menu sounded really, really good. That just doesn’t always happen at a restaurant, especially because, as much as I hate to admit it, I still have a little bit of a picky streak that runs through me.

Our entrees arrived and we were both more than ready to taste them. My pork was super tender and juicy, with tons of flavor. The bacon and pear weren’t quite what I expected because they were cut into small pieces and scarcely scattered around the plate. That being said, when I did get a piece of bacon or pear on my fork, it was so good. I actually couldn’t believe how much flavor a little piece of bacon could have. We switched meals half way through (this is something we almost always do at dinner… super nerdy and a little uncooth, but it adds excitement to every meal) and I couldn’t wait to taste his choice. Oh boy… I was not prepared for the goodness that entered my mouth with that first bite. I guess I hadn’t had that much experience with eating lamb, and it’s not that it tasted like I was eating something out of the ordinary, but it was just so flavorful. It was kind of like flavor squared, it took the normal flavor senses to a new level. Really, the meat had such good, rich flavor and then since it was topped off with rosemary and pine nuts it had a great textural thing going on. Yummmm.

Before we started the meal we decided to skip the small plate and save some room for dessert instead, so once our plates were cleared we were eager to try something sweet. We opted to go for one of the specials, a lemon curd tart topped with fresh blueberries from the market (bonus points) and a berry compote. When it arrived we both had to stop our drooling for a second to admire the beauty of the dish. But then we got over that and stuck our forks in. It was just as good as it looked. The crust was super buttery and delicous and gave a nice contrast to the tart lemon curd. The blueberries and compote brought in a lovely sweetness that topped everything off.

I was expecting good things when we went to James and it really exceeded our expectations. Everything is really fresh and flavorful with a few surprises lurking around to keep things interesting. I highly recommend a trip if you haven’t already been.

Given my new found luck with squash, I thought it was time to try out a new recipe. I found this one for squash and onions with brown sugar on the Kitchn and it sounded like a tasty but safe bet. Brown sugar, carmelized onions… now that’s my kind of dish. I whipped it up with ease the other night and it couldn’t have been simpler. Everything gets deliciously bronzed by the brown sugar and butter just as the texture starts to loosen and become soft.

The verdict: pretty tasty. The onion and brown sugar and a really nice richness but they still allow the flavor of the squash to come through. Definitely a good dish to if you’re just warming up to squash, but even if you’re not, you’ll still enjoy it.

Squash and Onions with Brown Sugar
from thekitchn
serves 21 large yellow squash (or 2 medium)
2 small onions (or one medium)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1
Slice the squash into 1/2-inch rounds, cutting large ones in half. You should end up with roughly 2 cups of cut squash. Cut the onions into similar-sized slices.
2
Add the butter to a wide sauce pan that has a lid and heat over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the onions and cook until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add squash, salt, pepper, and brown sugar. Stir, then cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until squash is very soft.
3
Remove the cover and continue to cook for about 8 minutes, just to give the juices a chance to evaporate slightly. There will be some liquid in the pan, but it should be thicker than water, almost like a glaze. Season with more salt and pepper, if needed, and serve immediately.