In the Kitchen

Maybe it's all the new kitchen gadgets we received as wedding gifts, or maybe it's just the new found feeling of being a wife, but something has inspired me to want to cook, like all the time. Don't get me wrong, I know my way around the kitchen but since Mike and I have been together, I've sort of let him take over that part of our lives. I basically make the ice water every night for dinner, with the occasional baking session every now and then. Now Mike is starting school (he's going to be a teacher ladies and gentleman, I'm so happy and proud of him for taking this path!) which means that I am taking over the responsibility of cooking and I am really excited about it. In fact, maybe a little too excited. In addition to preparing my yearly goals and resolutions (to be shared at a later date) I have prepared a list of things I want to cook/bake this year (I know, I'm a nerd). So here goes...

- homemade nutella (we have the huge advantage of having German family who bring us over jars of German nutella and yes it's different than the stuff you get here, not full of partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, since we are down to 1 jar of the good stuff, I have resolved to make it myself.)
- french bread/baguette (my hubby got me a bread maker for Christmas and I have already been using it but I want to try to make a really good baguette, like the kind you would find over in Paris)
- cinnamon rolls (another thing I'd like to try in the bread maker)
- homemade crackers
- graham crackers
- granola (I have about 100 recipes for granola, I am determined to find a really good one!)
- Foccacia (do you see a pattern here, that breadmaker is really going to come in handy)
- perfect mac and cheese (my roux always comes out grainy, I think I know how to fix this, but I need to test it out)
- perfect pizza dough (this is something we always struggle with, it's either too dense, or too chewy, etc.)
- savory galette (already made this on Monday night, good but needed tweeking)
- scrambled egg muffins (I saw something like this in Southern Living, thought it would make a good brunch item)
- macarons (the French kind, not the coconut ones, although those are delicious too)
- mayonnaise (we also received a food processor for Christmas and I am dying to try to make the real thing)
- olive oil cake
- plantains (we tried to make plantains over the summer and the result was disastrous, I'm determined to be successful because I love plantains)
- butter (I've read like 5 articles about making homemade butter, it sounds easy, we'll see)
- cheese (we've tried making homemade mozzarella, there were many factors involved in why it may not have turned out perfectly, I want to try again)
- mustard (I've kind of been obsessed with the idea of making my own mustard since I saw this recipe a few years ago.)
- nut butters (again, another food processor thing)
- Indian curries (specifically nilgiri korma from my favorite Indian restaurant in NYC
- naan
- Zaytoon's style pizza (my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in Brooklyn makes this awesome flat bread pizza with herbs and feta cheese and since we no longer live in the city, I have a huge desire to re-create some of my NYC favorites)
- really good birthday cake from scratch
- puff pastry (I'm baffled by the fact that so many recipes call for this and yet so few people make it from scratch. We received Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas and of course, Julia has a recipe for puff pastry, I must try to make it since the store bought stuff is full of chemicals.)
- gnocchi (love it, never tried to make it before, dying to try Jamie Oliver's recipe for it.)

So that's it! I have a lot of work to do by next year and I'm sure this list will continue to grow. We'll see if I can even get through half of it, but it's still January and I am feeling optimistic!

Saturday Morning in the Kitchen

Delicious Pancake Treats

Is it weird that I want to register for this?  For some reason I have always thought these were the coolest thing and have wanted to try making them, but of course never had the pan.  Then I read an article about them in one of my magazines which really peaked my interest.  Oh what the hell, I'm registering for it!

Photo: Williams-Sonoma

Apple Pancakes

Ok, so I know I've been on a major apple kick lately, apple cookies, apple picking totes and now apple pancakes (it is Fall after all!)

Last night I made apple pancakes, they were delicious...I got the idea from Not Martha. The pancake recipe came from here. They were delicious and a great way to use up the rest of the apples from our CSA. I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on the top but I think if I made them again I would put more spices in the batter, maybe nutmeg and cloves and drizzle warm honey over the top, mmmm.....

A weekend of food...

Wow! Where do I start...Mike and I did so much cooking over the weekend. I made homemade bread and some delicious herb egg salad, homemade semolina pasta, honey ice cream, and bison burgers. We went to the farmers market in Union Square to pick up some honey for the ice cream and see what other local goodies we could find. We came across a farmer who sold bison so we thought we would give it a try...I was not a fan. It had a very "meaty" taste which I don't like. I thought it might be a good alternative to red meat and it is supposed to be much better for you. The only thing I realized from eating it is that I can live without red meat or any variation of it! Aside from some nasty downpours on Saturday the weekend was beautiful...it seems as if Summer is here to stay!




P.S. Doesn't the new camera take great pictures?!

Cookbooking

In preparation for our first CSA delivery next week, I've started buying cook books..lots of cook books! Since Mike and I have become "part-time" vegetarians (for lack of a better term!) it has opened up a whole new world of cooking to us!

I'm a sucker for beautiful books. I can't help myself! So how could I say no to a cover as fabulous as this one



As stated on the back cover, Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes is "a contemporary version of field-to-table cooking." There are over 150 recipes in this book, created by Jeanne Kelley, a contributor for Bon Apetit Magazine for over 20 years. The photography is amazing, it makes you want to get into the kitchen and start cooking right away! I can't wait to try some of the recipes which include things like Black Beans with Orange and Chipotle and Oven Roasted Frites with Herbes de Provence...yum!

Food wise

Mike and I finally found a CSA to join for the season. We were lucky to get one with a pick up location in our neighborhood. Some of the other ones we found were on the Upper West Side (we're talking 125th St!) which is just way to far to trek to once a week, even from my office in midtown. It starts on June 3rd. We are super excited to try out some veggies we've never eaten before. We are hoping that we can eat just from the shares we receive each week, they estimate each weekly share to be about 14 pounds of vegetables, that seems like a lot!

Mike and I are down to eating meat about once a week now. After watching this video I would really prefer to avoid it all together. I tell Mike all the time that I want to raise animals on our farm to eat but I just don't know if I could do that. I feel like I would get too attached to them! I just watched an interesting show on Sundance about a family who is trying to sustain themselves on their farm in England and they raised two pigs and slaughtered them on the farm to ensure that they were treated humanely during the slaughtering process. The wife had a really hard time with it. Pigs are so cute too, I just don't know if I could! I guess it's about knowing that you gave them a better life then they would have had if they had been raised on a feed lot and having a responsibility to take part in how and where you food comes from.

Baking and famous people

I was hoping for a shop update today but unfortunately I wasn't able to get everything done this weekend, Saturday was so beautiful that Mike and I spent most of the day outside. We were given free tickets to Taste of Tribeca and while we were there we met Spike from Top Chef!! Afterwards we were walking to meet some friends in the West Village and we spotted Giselle! The paparazzi were following her like crazy!





I did quite a bit of baking this weekend as well. Mike and I have had this amazing bread book for a few months now and the only thing we have managed to make from it is pizza dough. Since I have scared myself silly by watching all these documentaries about food I am trying to avoid eating processed foods so I wanted to make some sandwich bread. I referred to the book and found a recipe for Buttermilk Bread and since I had some buttermilk left over from the scones I made last weekend I decided to give it a try. Wow! It was delicious, the recipe made two loaves so I made one into a cinnamon raisin bread (another recipe in the book) which Mike and I ate for breakfast and the other one I am going to use for sandwiches this week. If you like bread, you have to get this book. It is incredible! The next recipe we are going to try from the book is soft pretzels...yum! I also made some amazing buttermilk cookies which I found the recipe for at Orangette's blog. The recipe called for lemon zest but we only had a lime on hand so I used that. It was a tiny lime and didn't give it much flavor but the green flecks in the cookies looked pretty! The cookies really didn't even need the zest, they were so good without that added flavor. Mike and I devoured them, I'm embarrassed to say I made them not even 24 hours ago and they are all gone!!! I am now going to have to walk on the treadmill for 6 miles to burn off all the carbs I consumed this weekend!!

Hoping for a shop update by the end of this week so stay tuned!

Baking

Mike got me this Kitchenaid Mixer for my birthday, isn't he the best?!?



He gave it to me last week before we went out of town and I was too sick to use it so now I am gearing myself up for a weekend of baking! I am going to make oatmeal cookies that I have a recipe for and these scones that I found today. My mom got me the pasta maker attachment so I might even make some fresh pasta too.

Orange Breakfast Biscuit Recipe

I couldn't find the recipe on Martha Stewart's site so here it is. Enjoy!!

Orange Breakfast Biscuits

Makes 1 dozen

1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus for dusting
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Put 1/3 cup sugar and the zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until combined, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and remaining tablespoon sugar in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or two knives, blend in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk, stir with a wooden spoon just until a sticky dough forms.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat dough together, and press into an 8 x 11 x 1 inch rectangle. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar mixture on top. Using a bench scraper or spatula to lift dough, fold rectangle into thirds (as you would a letter).

Give dough a quarter turn. Roll out into an 8 x 11 x 1 inch rectangle. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar mixture on top. Fold into thirds. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured parchment paper lined baking sheet. Tightly cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Return dough to lightly floured work surface. Roll out again, into an 8 x 11 x 1 inch rectangle. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar mixture on top. Fold into thirds. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a 2 1/2 inch biscuit or cookie cutter, cut rounds from dough (still folded); transfer to a baking sheet. Tightly cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Bake until biscuits are just browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Thank you Martha...

It is sort of a tradition for Mike and I, on the weekends, to make a brunch with all the things left over from the previous week's meals. Sometimes we will fry up left over pasta noodles with some egg and sausage and whatever veggies we have left over or we will make a good salsa and just kind of throw whatever we have left in the fridge into the bowl. It's a lot of fun and one of my favorite things about the weekend. This past weekend there were slim pickins in the fridge. We had done a fantastic job at finishing everything up during the week so there wasn't a whole lot to eat and we were both hungry so I pulled out "The Binders" and went searching for breakfast! I found these Orange Buttermilk Biscuits from Martha Stewart that looked good so I ran down to the market to buy the few ingredients we didn't have on had. The biscuits were amazing! I was sort of expecting them to be like those Pillsbury Orange rolls you can get at the grocery but these were even better! We made a glaze to go on top with powdered sugar and juice from the leftover zested orange. The next day we heated them up in the oven and had them with tea, they were delicious!





Update: After writing this post I went online to try and find the recipe and can't! I will post the recipe later for all those who are interested!

Pita and pillows

Mike made some yummy pita bread this weekend. It was delicious and fairly easy to make. He got the recipe here. He switched a portion of the all purpose flour for whole wheat. Much better than the store bought stuff! While he made pita I made some pillows for the couch. I picked up the fabric last weekend when Melissa was here. It's from Amy Butler's new line, Midwest Modern. I worked on them for a few hours and then got really frustrated because I had to re-do one and I could not get the slip stitch right. I had three of my sewing books laid out, all of which had slightly different instructions for how to do a slip stitch and none of them made any sense! I went back to it last night and finished them, I think I finally got the hang of how to properly sew a slip stitch and they turned out really well. It was dark when I finished so I wasn't able to get a photo but here are some pics of the fabric. My next project is pot holders and an oven mitt.