Rhubarb Mocktail

I've had a crazy busy week for the memorial day weekend. I've got an awesome strawberry rhubarb bread pudding to share with you later in the week, but I'm going to keep you in suspense for a few more days. Today is just going to be a real quickie as I share this recipe for a rhubarb and rosemary simple syrup that stirs into seltzer for a refreshing mock-tail! Check it out! Great for my prego buddies Maureen and Kristen!

I'm looking for more great N/A drink recipes for refreshing summer sippers, so if you've got one, shout it out!

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

I spotted this recipe last week when I had zero groceries to my name and found myself rooting through all sorts of dry goods to piece together a meal. I was missing the onion and lemon, but today I had both of those essential ingredients for this vegetarian split pea soup, and it seemed the perfect day to discover if the myth that eating hot food on a hot day was fact or crap.

I halved this recipe and the only other alteration I made was to keep the quantity of lemon juice in tact as my lemon wasn't very juicy. When juicing lemons at home, a basic reamer will do ya, but if you do any more aggressive home juicing, I recommend this nifty gadget. It's perfect for when the mood for fresh agave margaritas strikes!

I always start with the best ingredients I can get, and this goes doubly so for a recipe with such a short ingredient list, so when I saw that the recipe called specifically for smoked paprika and mine was labeled "Spanish" I hit the interwebs to see if there's a difference. Pondering the provenance of your paprika? Hit this link for a little knowledge and use these tips to conduct a spice audit if your seasonings saw the better half of the last decade.

This soup was fast, tasted fresh and was very filling. I'm still sizzling, but that could have to do more with the fact that I'm too cheap to turn my Flintstone's era A/C on.

I've gotta bolt and get a kettle on for a water bath (as long as I'm already sweating!). Tomorrow I'll let you know how my first attempt at bread pudding goes. If you don't see anything, you can assume the answer is bad!

Watermelon Mint Salad

Produce stands mounded with watermelons are a sure sign of summer as are the sweltering temps we're already suffering through as we lead into the Memorial Day holiday. I whipped up this simple watermelon and mint salad for lunch, but it could easily be scaled up in size as an ideal dish to pass at your next holiday picnic. I saw a similar recipe online that also called for some diced jalepeno pepper. If I had one, it would definitely be in the mix!

The ingredient list is basic:
Watermelon
Mint
Flat leaf parsley
Green Onion
Olive Oil
White Wine Vinegar (Champagne or Red wine would work too)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the watermelon into large chunks, toss in finely chopped parley, diced green onion and a chiffonade of mint. Click here for a great video of this technique.

I stole the mint from Jane next door as per usual, and I'm now the proud owner of a mini herb garden of my very own. I picked up some mixed herb pots at Stein's Garden Center for about $6 a pop. Each included three different herbs. I was at the market later and priced out those packaged fresh herbs and they're about $3 each. If you've got a sunny spot in a window and can remember to water your herbs, you'll come out way ahead in the long run and will always have some fresh flavor to add to any meal.

For the dressing mix 2 parts olive oil to one part vinegar and add salt and pepper to taste. Toss with the other ingredients and let it hang out for a few minutes to really soak in the flavor.

Garnish with a few sprigs of the mint, and you're ready to be the toast of the potluck party.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble

I've always had an affinity for baking, and for years I've fallen into the baker's camp versus the cook's camp. I enjoy the precision of the recipes: an exact teaspoon of this added to 3 cups of this folded into two of those and viola, a delicious sweet treat.

While I'm sure my husband would love it if I baked a bit more these days, there's always the danger that I'll turn into Miranda from Sex and the City, you know that episode where she digs the brownies out of the trash so she can finish the pan. Extra classy.

Well last week we had the lovely Sarah Karls over (don't know Sarah, she rocks, visit her at the Mansion Hill Inn in Madison, Wis.) and to celebrate my scrabble win I ended my hiatus from the oven and whipped up this fabulous Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble from page 132 of Bon Appetit's May issue.

The great thing about crumbles and crisps is that even if you haven't had a ton of baking success, they are what many would call "chef's desserts" in that they don't require the precision of pastries. Measurements don't have to be exact for you to get a wonderful result.

I've currently got enough rhubarb to make crisp for all of China, so adding it to this dessert was a no brainer. In fact, the only items I added to Adam's market list were some berries and ice cream. He came home with Hagen-Dazs, this boy know what he's doing!

I didn't have the hazelnuts, but have plenty of others on hand, so I subbed in some pecans.

I also didn't have enough white sugar, so I used brown instead for a portion of it.

The most important flavor enhancer in this recipe is the vanilla bean. Whole beans are a splurge, but I am of the opinion that they are totally worth it. Extract don't even begin to touch the power of the pure vanilla seeds. If you do opt for extract make sure you're getting the real deal and not that McCormick extract.

I also really like how this recipe had you use your hands to make the topping, it was a lot more effective than the food processor technique that leaves the topping too uniform in texture.

I plan on whipping up another crumble tonight. I've got an apple in the fridge so it might make the cut. Use whatever fruits and berries you've got on hand. This same topping would be wonderful over a combo of pears and apples with raspberries or maybe a blueberry/blackberry duo would do it. Use what's in season, what you've got and what you love and it's sure to be delish!

Garbanzo and Walnut Pasta

So today didn't entirely go to plan. I hopped in the car to head to the DMV to get a replacement title, and the sucker died right on my street. (I think the old gal was worried I was selling her. Don't worry babe, come home and I'll drive you straight into the ground.)

Any who, I am stranded at home and our supplies are running incredibly thin. There's no onions, no fresh herbs, and the carrots and celery are looking a little on the sad side.

So as fashion expert Tim Gunn would say, I hit a make it work moment.

Yesterday's lovely salad left a good 3/4 quarters of a cup of garbanzos in a Tupperware in my fridge, so I put them to good use. I simmered a couple teaspoons of olive oil, added two cloves of crushed garlic and let it do it's thing for about a minute. Then I added the garbanzos, about 1 cup of chicken stock, salt, pepper, red pepper flake and a heaping teaspoon of Wild Tree's Spaghetti Sauce Blend. I took that to a boil and let it simmer covered for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile I toasted a healthy handful of walnuts and got my pasta cooking. I used Cavatelli because we had it on hand. What the heck is Cavatelli? If you don't know you should. It's got great bite, coats well and is wonderful in soups. See this pasta primer for a glossary of shapes.

Once toasted, I threw the nuts in the food processor (the best kitchen tool in the world!) and hit pulse a few times.

I removed the nuts, and threw the bean blend in until it reached a velvety consistency.

I tossed the nuts, bean blend and pasta in my skillet for a sec and plated it up, topped with a healthy dose of parm. There's plenty for another serving, which is good, as I won't have any way to get supplies for lunch tomorrow!

This was a hearty comfort meal and while I don't have the caloric count, it can't be terrible for you. A bit of fresh parsley chopped in with the nuts and a squeeze of lemon juice in the final toss would have made this even better, but I made it work and am looking forward to my leftovers.

Best part, I didn't drop $20 on a so so pizza delivery.

Asparagus Salad with Garbanzo Beans, Mint and Sweet Onions

A can of garbanzo beans has been staring at me in the cupboard for weeks, and I finally decided to crack it open, but what to do with garbanzos? Who bought these things anyway?

I still had a few stalks of asparagus in the veg bin, so I let Google do the work and paired the two ingredients together in my search bar and came up with this wonderful fresh salad at Chow.com. You can see the recipe here.

The only thing I didn't have on hand was the cheese it called for, and I simply swapped in parm.

The sweet onions, fresh mint swiped from Jane's garden (thanks Jane), a healthy squeeze of lemon and my wonderful olive oil (from the man who wondered where our men were in Provence) made this salad a pure delight.

This would be an easy one to take to the office. Just keep the cheese separate from the marinating salad until you're ready to eat. Delish!

Lightened Up Chicken Fried Rice

My lips are still tingling from this tasty chicken fried rice I whipped up for lunch today, the best part? It's a modified eatingwell.com recipe, so it's a heck of a lot lighter than the Chinese takeout version, and you don't have to worry about that pesky MSG (what the heck is MSG anyway?) . Don't worry - if you aren't a big fan of heat, simply omit the drizzle of hot sauce.

Full disclosure, this is the first time I've ever made fried rice. I honestly can't believe I haven't before. It was an excellent way to work my way through the veggie bin (you could really sub in any veggies you've got on hand) and to use up small leftover bits of white rice and baked chicken (brown rice, pork, you know use what you've got!).

Plus, I got to use the delish fresh eggs I picked up at the farmers market Saturday. Not sure if you farm-fresh eggs are still fresh? Use this trick to test eggs for freshness and ignore that arbitrary date stamped on the package.

Ingredients:
4 stalks asparagus cut into one inch pieces
1 carrot cut into one inch pieces
2 stalks celery cut into one inch pieces
2 scallions diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (need some help decoding specific cutting instructions, check out this helpful video from Home Cooking New York)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 cups cooked rice
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped cooked chicken breast
2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil (Why grapeseed? See the facts at Wild Tree)
4 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Hot sauce to taste, I prefer Sriracha!

Scramble eggs until set, transfer to a bowl

Heat grapeseed oil over medium high heat in a wok it you've got it, a skillet works great too. Add asparagus and carrots and cook for two minutes, stirring. Add rest of the veg as well as garlic and ginger, cook for another two minutes. Add chicken, rice, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame seeds, cook until rice absorbs the liquid. Fold in the eggs. Remove from heat. Stir in sesame oil. Throw in your favorite bowl, top with hot sauce to your limit, add chop sticks, insert in mouth.

Quick Snacks

Today's plans to bake went down the tubes, and I ended up eating a less than satisfying cup of chicken dumpling soup out on the town before being schooled at chess by an 11-year-old. (I think Kaitlyn's been taking smug winner lessons from my dad!)

I found myself still looking for a bit of a snack when I got home, and the goodie drawer was bone dry.

Luckily, being the resourceful little snacker that I am, I came up with a tasty five-minute treat that I would be proud to serve at the poshest cocktail affair.

Major Grey's Mozz. Turkey Bites

Ingredients:
Crackers with large surface area
Jarred major grey's chutney
Shredded Mozz.
Chopped deli turkey
Chives

Turn broiler to high

Spread chutney on crackers, add turkey and cover with mozz.

Broil until cheese is melted. Now is not a good time to check your email or let the dogs out. Just ask Adam about the time I set the smores brownies on fire because I left the broiler unattended for just a sec...

Once your treats come out you can garnish them with a few snips of chives or green onions - whichever you've got on hand or can swipe from your neighbors kitchen garden!

This was way better than a bag of microwave popcorn, and didn't take any more time.

Smarter Pop

If you are a popcorn lover, my lovely neighbor Jane taught me a great trick. Just buy regular popcorn seeds and put about 1/4 cup in a paper lunch sack. Roll the top of the bag down and hit your microwaves popcorn button. Listen for the popping to slow, just like Orville recommends. Top with salt and real melted butter. This way you can control the levels of salt and fat and pass on all the preservatives that the pre-packaged "smart pop" throws in. Plus, this method will save you tons of green in the long run, talk about smart!

Sweet Potato Hash with Baked Eggs & Hollandaise

Given that May has taken to masquerading as March, today I craved something substantial and hearty for dinner. I had a sweet potato in my veg bin, so I hit the interwebs looking for inspiration. My meal is a scaled down version of this gorgeous hash, with some changes to make it my own.

Ingredients:
Hollandaise (see recipe below)
Two eggs, plus reserved white
Dash paprika
2 Tablespoons shredded cheese
1/2 yellow onion, sliced and caramelized
Sweet Potato chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
Olive Oil
3 dashes Wostershire Sauce
S&P to taste
Chives


To begin, make a 1/2 portion of this simple hollandaise recipe, reserving the egg white in a greased oven-ready ramekin and adding a dash of paprika to the finished sauce.

Preheat your over to 375.

Add two eggs to reserved white in the ramekin. Break yolks with a fork, but do not scramble. Sprinkle with S&P to taste and add a dash of paprika. Cover with shredded cheese, I happened to have parm and some smoked gouda on hand, so I used both. Use enough cheese to cover the eggs in a thin layer.

Put ramekin on a cookie sheet and bake for approx. 20 minutes until eggs achieve a custard-like consistency. The whites won't totally set, but if it's still super-jiggly, keep cooking!

Now is a good time to get that onion caramelized. (Now would also be a good time to turn on the fan, I manage to forget and occasionally get the whole house good and stinky!)

Next coat the bottom of your skillet with olive oil and get it good and hot. Add your sweet potato and fry until your eggs are done. Pull the eggs out and set aside to cool. Seriously if you had your onions and potatoes cut in advance, the timing should be perfect - your potatoes should be golden brown and soft. Add the onions to reheat for about 1 minute with your dashes of wostershire.

Plate your hash first, add S&P to taste and drizzle with the hollandaise. If you properly coated your ramekin (which I didn't!) your eggs should just slide out to nest on top of your meal, and it'll look even better than mine. I made up for my broken eggs by snipping some of my neighbor Jane's chives over the top for color. They aren't essential, but sure add to this meal's appeal.

While this looks like a massive amount of food, I found it to be a perfect portion. I use smaller plates like the salad plate I used in the photo (which is available at Pier 1). It's amazing how much we eat with our eyes. Small touche, like perfectly proportioned dining wear and a touch of color can add enormously to the enjoyment of any meal, no matter how simple.

Spring Veggie Fettuccine

Unlike my better half, I lean heavily on recipes for inspiration, but sometimes that's all they need to be. So many people get caught up in precise measurements and cooking times - me included. If you're making something savory, Adam's taught me two valuable lessons:

1. How much? Until it tastes good.
2. How long? Until it's done.

After a careful analysis of our veggie bin and a cursory glance at our meat drawer, I decided I had enough of the ingredients on hand to make the spring vegetable carbonara from page 212 of May's Cooking Light. I prepped my asparagus and decided that I had enough to substitute for the missing red pepper, I mean really am I going to drive to the market for one veggie, I don't think so!

I beat the eggs in advance and added the cheese, going down my prep list to make sure I had all my trips to the fridge covered. Once oil hits the pan and I fire up the induction, I have learned that all of my prep needs to be done! My last prep work was to slice the pancetta I subbed in for the bacon, and this is where my well-crafted dinner hit the skids. My meat was green, and not the cutesy green eggs and ham kind of green; I could have cultured some antibiotics if I had the inclination or any sort of scientific know-how.

Carbonara is crap without bacon fat, so I went back to the drawing board. I flipped through the mag a bit more and hit on this Spring Linguine with Basil on page 170. It looked tasty too, but it was missing something, the stack of asparagus that would get wasted if I didn't throw it in my dish. So I stashed the eggs and cheese in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast (ok, I actually threw them down the drain and as I did thought, crap, those would have made a great scramble), and threw together this menu that was bright, flavorful and ideal for spring.

Please note, all of my measurements are total guesses and are for one person. Want a better idea? Check out the recipes in the links above for their portion suggestions.

Ingredients:
3 oz. uncooked fettuccine
1/4 frozen green peas (fresh is better if you've got 'em)
1/4 bunch of green onions thinly sliced
4 stalks of asparagus trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp. garlic, more if you like it. We cheat and buy the garlic in a jar. Don't judge me.
1 pat of butter, however you define and depending on your current weight-loss goals
An equal amount olive oil, not waste your fancy stuff here, no need for the extra virgin
A good squeeze of lemon
salt and pepper to taste
A dash or dried basil, way better if you've got fresh, but this was all I had!
Fresh grated parm to taste.

Cook pasta per package directions, and while Cooking Light always tells you to skip the salt, I add it. The pasta needs the flavor, and you need to add way more salt later that a dash in your water will give you now. So add that salt! Drain, reserving a few tablespoons of the water to bind the dish.

Meanwhile... heat the butter and olive oil over medium high heat. Add asparagus and cook for 3 minutes. Add peas (still frozen), onions and garlic, cook for an additional 3 minutes. Add the reserved pasta water and the pasta as well as the lemon juice, S&P and dried basil if you have to resort to that. Mix it up, or if you're really brave give it a flip. Seriously, no one is watching, use your wrist and flip it!

Once everything is combined throw it in a nice low wide bowl and top with the parm and fresh basil if you've got it.

Sit at table. Consume.

A note on parm. That Kraft crap in a can is not cheese. Don't use it! As a general rule if the word "product" follows the word "cheese", or if it can sit on a shelf and never expires, don't eat it!

My Personal Chef?

When I tell people that I'm the wife of a chef they invariable tell me how lucky I am. They are right - I am incredibly lucky to be hitched to Adam, but their notions that I have a 24/7 personal chef couldn't be further from the truth.
While the Food Network and the producers over at Top Chef edit crews of knife-kit wielding white-coat donned food-flingers as our generation's rock stars, the reality of the restaurant life is anything but glamorous.
Five days a week my guy peels himself out of bed, hits the Caribou Coffee drive-thru for his daily Mocha (they recognize his voice and cue up his order) and is running through his prep list by 10 am. Sounds late to you corporate types? Sure, but he doesn't punch out until 10 pm on a good night. He comes home, wakes me up for a smooch and hits the showers. On the sixth day rest? Think again. That sixth day is Sunday: Adam's dreaded clopening shift (close Sat, open Sun). He's in by 9 at the latest and works a shorty, home by 3 or 4.
This is when his personal chef resume building starts, and I relish our Sunday market trips and the culinary education I receive as I watch him chop, saute, flip, plate and garnish our meals with a well-practiced hand and no sign of a recipe.
Monday is his day off, and after he gets home from the restaurant (yep, at work on his day off. Orders, you know), he generally offers an encore performance, and I learn the finer points of pressing 12-inch high mounds of focccia, peppers, unholy stacks of beef and I'd wager more than my fair share of swiss into near-dainty proportions.
Satiated and leftover laden, my personal chef punches out for the week, and I'm left to fend for myself for the week to come.
While excellent fodder for a break room microwave line, even gourmet leftovers can only take you so far, and by as early as Tuesday night, I'm nosing through the fridge attempting to find something to nosh on. What I find aren't ready-to-micro nibbles. What I've got is ingredients, and I love to play, what can I make with the goodies Adam's culinary ministrations have left behind.

That's where my personal chef story comes to an end for now and where the story of this blog begins. When I post my news of my experimental kitchen successes on facebook, I'm always shocked at the level of response I get - I'm just a lady with a sorta dull chef's knife throwing some veggies in a skillet, and if I can do it, so can you. So if you've got some ingredients and a decent pantry, I hope I can inspire you to skip the drive-thru and the Lean Cuisine and cook something for yourself tonight.