{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

The Boy making Ultimate Chocolate Cake for granddad's birthday.

Arroz con pollo

We had some friends over for supper on Saturday. When I was trying to figure out what to cook, I was aiming for something a little bit spicy, relatively straightforward, and warming, since we were supposed to have been sailing all day (which was subsequently cancelled due to crazy high winds).

I found Smitten Kitchen's (who else?) interpretation of a 2007 Gourmet magazine recipe for Arroz con Pollo. I mostly left the recipe the same, except I used red peppers instead of green, and boneless chicken thighs. We also left out the beer, because John was worried that English Beer would make it taste funny.

It was delicious and was very well received. It was also fairly easy - I did all the prep beforehand (and marinated the chicken all day), and then just put it all together as everyone arrived and let it simmer for half an hour.

Can you tell I love any excuse to bring out the Le Creuset?

We served it with salad from the garden and a mustard vinaigrette (which actually went really well with the chicken & rice). Dutch apple pie for dessert. Mmmmm.

Family Dinner!

I've been reading Gluten Free Girl for a few years now. I have no gluten issues (I'm only allergic to eleventy-seven other things), but I love her writing, her photography, her sense of humour, and her recipes. I love that she bakes and cooks by weight, which means that I can use her recipes with "normal" flour.

And I love her love stories. Not just with her husband, who she clearly adores. But with her daughter. With her friends. With her home, Vashon Island. And with her food.

Her new cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl Every Day, comes out in the US today. I'm not sure when the UK release date is, but it's on Amazon.co.uk already. For those of you not in the UK, you can buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or IndieBound.

And to celebrate the release of the new cookbook, she's not doing a blog tour or anything. She has, however, asked us to blog about our experiences with family dinners, as that's what inspired her and her husband to create their new book.

I had family dinners as a kid and as a teenager. They were generally on Saturday or Sunday nights (depending on who was in or out), and frequently featured steak, sauteed mushrooms, and mashed potatoes. Sometimes even Potato Buds (to John's horror). Sorry, Mom, secret's out. There were always tealights (my dad loves tealights), and usually Prairie Home Companion (not my favourite...) in the background on NPR.

Since we only have the stepson every other weekend, and there are only the three of us, there was never any thought of kid-dinner and grownup-dinner. From very shortly after I met him, when he was about 7, he ate what we ate, albeit in smaller portions or without whatever substance was currently deemed "fizzy."

We cook a lot. We like to eat.

We make veggie chili, and the boys eat it with rice while I eat it with cornbread (too American, they say).

We tend to eat meat-light- a lot of our favourite recipes are veggie ones. If we're having steak fajitas, it's one small steak, divided between three. Bacon is a seasoning. Chorizo & kale pasta is one of our faves.

Once, I made toad in the hole.

We make homemade pizza all the time. For whatever reason, the photos aren't cooperating.

We made meatballs in honour of my friend's mom when she passed away, and sparked a global meatball supper on what would have been her birthday. 

And then, there's always Julia. And her mushrooms.

Which go in to the famous and endlessly delicious Boeuf Bourguignon.

We love to cook because we love to eat, but it's more than that. We love to sit down as a family and talk about the food, talk about our days, tell fart jokes (we DO have a teenager, after all), and eat. The only differences now, from 7 years ago? I'm a better cook, which helps. Teenager now gets the biggest portion (and pronounces himself hungry shortly afterwards).

We'll stay with the family dinners, thanks.

Review: Hairy Bikers Tour

We thoroughly enjoy the Hairy Bikers on TV. Funny, engaging, informative, and great recipes.

We went to see them in Ipswich at the Regent Theatre about 2 weeks ago, and I have to say the show was rather odd.

It was a mishmash of video clips (several of which I had seen), cooking demos, audience-participation quizzes, dirty jokes, and a surprising amount of nudity.

They appeared to enjoy themselves, and there were some good recipes and quite a few very funny moments. However, it was NOT a family show (as billed), and there was rather a lot of swearing and raunchy humour.

I think I'll stick to watching you on TV, boys.

And I brought my book for signing but they had pre-signed everything and didn't come out after the show. SAD!

Misshapen-taschen

It's a little late for Purim. But it's perfect for rhubarb season.

I was making Deb's apple cake for work (we raised £800 for Comic Relief on Red Nose day), and flipped to the recipe for Rhubarb Hamantaschen. (Recipe's not on the web...you'll have to buy the book! Her other hamantaschen recipes are here.) I suddenly had a rather overwhelming urge to make some. We used to buy them at Riesterer's Bakery in Garden City, where they were always perfectly shaped with pretty, glassy centres. However, they're traditionally either filled with prunes (blech) or apricots (meh). But Deb says we can make them with rhubarb. I LOVE rhubarb!

Onward, then.

Here they are before being folded:

And here they are fresh from the oven. Apparently my shiksa hamantaschen-crimping skills need work.

Some of them turned out quite pretty. We're not really in commercial-bakery-on-Long-Island territory, though.

I can verify that the rhubarb hamantaschen still taste excellent, regardless of shape. In case my New Rochelle Jewish-food credentials were in doubt, I make excellent latkes.

I can also verify that rhubarb appearing at the farm shop also means spring is coming, despite the fact that we had about 3 inches of snow yesterday and today. Blech.

Food Miscellany

We've been making Melissa Clark's roasted cauliflower with cumin for ages, and have recently started adding dal to it (and in this case, curried spinach). Oh, yum. It's a nearly-vegan dinner (except the butter in the dal). 

I was tired of playing the "hmm, what do I think that was and how long has it been in here" game with the freezer. The answer? Blue painter's tape. Contents, date, portion quantity (if it's more than one). Cheap and effective!

How cool is this special-edition Gordon's gin label? I love the shades of green against the green glass bottle.

And last, we had some friends over for lunch a few weeks ago. Boeuf bourguignon (which was amazing, obv, thanks to Julia), and then this Amsterdam-inspired dutch apple pie. Oh my goodness, was it good.

What have you been cooking?

Oatmeal cranberry cookies with dark chocolate chips

I made these back before Christmas. I based the recipe on (what else?) Smitten Kitchen's oatmeal raisin cookies, but instead of raisins and walnuts I put in dried cranberries and dark chocolate chunks.

Oh, hi, red Kitchenaid! Yes, I love you, too.

They were seriously good - not too sweet, and felt vaguely healthy. They were the closest I've come to the cookie that my mom and I bought on the way back from Grandma's funeral last February. I've googled and it looks like we stopped at Kessman Farms, in Pawling, NY. Oatmeal cranberry raisin cookies. If you're passing through, that is. You could just make these instead...

Aw, rats. Now I want to go make some cookies.

Cup Of Jo's Avocado toast

I have to say, I love avocados. But it had never occurred to me to put them on toast until I saw Cup Of Jo's post about the best ever avocado toast.

I had two avocados that we had been planning to make guacamole with (for fajitas), and then our plans changed. I was faced with a lunch and no plans, and two perfectly ripe avocados. 

Result, below. Yumsters.

Comfort food

After admiring Smitten Kitchen's Mushroom Bourguignon for months and months, it suddenly hit me this afternoon that I had to make it tonight. The thought of it was making my mouth water at 3:30 this afternoon.

So, yeah. I picked up some mushrooms on the way home. I bought big cremini, but I think it would have been good with any meaty mushrooms.

Oh, and because we're not vegetarian and we had two sad week-old slices of (English) bacon in the fridge, we used bacon right at the beginning. It was AMAZING and so much quicker than the full boeuf version and I could hear Julia admonishing me NOT to crowd the mushrooms! (Darling, I didn't. I did them in 2 batches. You'd be proud of me.)

SO good that we ate it all and there were no pictures.

Oh, and we put the pearl onions and butter/flour mixture in right after adding the liquid. Other than that, unchanged. And delicious.

Veggie peeps: go make it.

Meat-eating peeps: this is almost boeuf bourguignon and it was on the table in an hour. SHUT UP and go make it.

And as the other part of my quest for comfort food, I made the pumpkin-apple muffins from the Libby's Pumpkin tin on Thursday last week (Thanksgiving, for those of you paying attention). I wanted cream cheese icing, not streusel, so that's what I did.

Libby's recipe is on the inside of the pumpkin labels, and also here. I used Martha's cream cheese frosting recipe, here. YUM.

Pickles!

We have had a glut of friends with a glut of cucumbers. "Please will you take some cucumbers? We can't eat any more!"

Having seen this pickling recipe on TheKitchn, I was relatively confident.

I didn't have any dill (and made a smaller batch), but these pickles were AMAZING.

So I made more! They're seriously crunchy and garlicky, just how I like them. I can't believe it was so easy...and that I hadn't done it before.

Making, to follow

I found this fabric at CallyCo in Cambridge when we were there a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what it's going to be, yet. It's quite large-scale - the seaside tents are about 4 inches tall.

In some unrelated sewing, my mom brought the Lisette Diplomat pattern that I had ordered. I'm going to start with some plain green cotton that I've had in my stash for years, and then see how the fit works before I cut into the bicycles. There was also some very cute navy polka dot cotton at Halfpenny Home a few weeks ago - I need to go back and get it!

And in the tradition of my mom filling her suitcase with Real Simple, here they are. Two issues, along with a Food Network magazine and a Real Simple recipe book. Thanks, MOM!

Brr!

We had a snowstorm. The snow is still here (it's been freezing this week)!

What's a girl to do?

Visit the library.

And then make apple cake. (It's not showing on their website yet but it's from this month's BBC Good Food)

Under the influence of Julia

Ahem. Pardon the epic rant in the last post. I was, apparently, feeling more homesick than I thought. And it came out as anger towards People Who Mean Well And Are Trying To Be Nice. Sorry, People.

"You are SO not under the influence of Julia right now." - Julie & Julia

I've made no secret. I LOVE that movie. And then Vivren made the famous Boeuf Bourguignon, and blogged about it. Which made me hungry.

I decided after reading Viv's post that I had to make my own B.B. And after her warning that it takes forever (and is better the next day), I straw-polled the fam and got approval to cook it for Christmas lunch.

As you can see, Christmas Eve was spent, chopping, browning, sauteeing, simmering, and otherwise cooking. The house (and the beef) smelled amazing.

Mmm...bacon. And, in a circular "I'm in the movie" moment, I had Julia's recipe printed out and held up by the wedding gift given to us by the actress who played Julia's idol in the movie.

[Space-time continuum collapses.]

Oh, you're all still there? Well, that's good. Since we have BACON!

And browned beef-y goodness!

And onions and carrots ("Oh, hi, Le Creuset from the John Lewis vouchers! Yes, we love you, too.")

And all mixed together, ready for the oven:

Julia's non-crowded butter-doused Mushrooms. These aren't mushrooms, they're MUSHROOMS. If you make nothing else from this page (but you should make the boeuf bourguignon), make these. 

Seriously. Can you resist? And yes, they tasted as good as they looked

Now the onions:

And all mixed together after three hours in the oven.

A few things.

1. This was not as intimidating hard as I thought it would be. (It's still intimidating.)
2. I've had this before - my grandma used to make it. I remembered as soon as I smelled it.
3. The "serves 6" actually gave us 4 servings on Christmas day, 3 supper leftovers on Boxing Day, and 3 lunches the following day (with pasta). The beef dried out slightly over the 4 days but the flavours just got better.
4. My excellent husband suggested that we watch Julie & Julia a few days before I made this. I was rockin' the J & J mojo when I made this (and had mini J & J sitting on my shoulders, yelling "Dry the beef!" "Don't crowd the mushrooms!").

LOVE. Go make it.

Christmas Latkes

I was feeling a bit homesick last week.

We interrupt this blog post for a Public Service Announcement.

If you know an expat and it's a big holiday that is traditionally associated with family or their home nation, don't ask them if they miss it. They miss it. And you asking them is not helpful. Yes, they left. Yes, they left on purpose. But no, they did not completely finish their life wherever they were before, and yes, they miss it.

Thank you. This post will now resume.

Right. So, homesick. And it was not-quite-Christmas. But Hannukah had started, as had the Facebook posts from my Jewish friends. And I really wanted some latkes.

There was a recipe posted last week in the New York Times for Apple-Potato Latkes, which we followed. I didn't bother with the cinnamon sour-cream - we ate them with creme fraiche and homemade applesauce (also known as 3 peeled apples, cooked while the latkes were being assembled).

John was an expert potato-, onion- and apple-grater.

Applesauce-in-progress:

The complete mixture, ready for frying:

WOOHOO! They look like latkes!

They were delicious - crispy, moist, slightly appley, and tasting resoundingly of New Yawk. Thanks, NYTimes!

I am Ingrid (well, not really)

It was time for some new glasses. Because, well, it was.

I had been admiring Joanna Goddard's glasses, as pictured here, and Ingrid Michaelson's glasses, here.

So I went to Specsavers (I know!) and got these. LOVE them. Also, feeling very pleased with myself because they were the cheapest pair in the store. £25 frames, £40 for the lenses. I think that might be my karma from the 2-pairs-ago expensive disaster coming back around.

Speaking of Ms. Ingrid, I can also play The Chain on my new guitar (no, it's not a hard song, and no, I'm not a good guitarist) while singing along. Oh clever me.

Other favorite thing of the moment: nectarines, halved, with a little bit of butter and a sprinkling of sugar, under the broiler for 5 minutes, with ice cream. Do we maybe think this is why my skinny pants didn't fit this morning? Umm...

Cheesecake

Last week, I had a hankering for cheesecake. John didn't eat cheesecake for years (mostly because of the whole lactose-intolerant thing), but since we found Lactofree cream cheese, there's nothing between us and amazing cheesecake.

I saw the recipe for Berry Shortbread Cheesecake in the August Good Food, and had to make it. My only quibble is that they made it in a loaf tin, rather than in a loose-bottomed pie pan. I have NO idea how they got it out of the loaf tin looking like it does on the website. Mine came out, er, in a blob. Looks lovely with raspberries on the top and tasted delicious, but a 0/10 for presentation. Did I miss something? I lined the tin with parchment paper and everything...

The fruit at the supermarket (and from our back yard, thank you, raspberries) has been delicious. I love the "ripen at home" peaches and nectarines. YUM. With blueberries. And icing sugar. Because John accidentally topped up the sugar bowl with icing sugar, so now it's a silly half-and-half mix that we need to use up before we can start over. Poor me.