Grandma's Kitchen Table

FFwD: Minted Zucchini Tagliatelle with Cucumbers and Lemon

      The recipe for this week for French Fridays with Dorie from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table cookbook, is Minted Zucchini Tagliatelle with Cucumbers and Lemon, found on page 124.  The recipe is also here as Dorie contributed it to Bon Appetit magazine.

      Ingredient list:  zucchini, cucumber, sweet onion, lemon zest, mint leaves, lemon juice, and pistachio oil.  (I thought this was going to have tagliatelle pasta in it when I first read the title, but the tagliatelle bit refers to the way the zucchini is cut into pasta-like ribbons, which was a whole lot of fun in itself.)

      This time of year we all have access to a lot of zucchini, cucumber, and mint so the recipe makes good use of what's on hand now. It looks innocent enough, doesn't take a lot of preparation, and requires only an hour in the frig to chill. The recipe says it makes 6 servings so I made a third of it, figuring I would taste a little to report on its goodness or not, take a photo as proof I made it, and keep the rest to serve with dinner, but then I kept tasting until all of it was gone. I ate both servings (shown on this plate in its entirety so you won't think I ate half a salad bowl or anything, but I maybe could have), all by myself. 

      What a great little salad! I was scouting around reading some of the other "reports" and people weren't all that excited about it, but I am here to tell you that I loved, loved, loved this salad. It's fresh and light, and the mint and onion add a zing that peps everything up to the next level.  The pistachio oil has that lovely nutty fruitiness.  It just all works so well together.  I will make it again and again.  I will even share it with Mark next time.  It's that good...make it and judge for yourself.

      If you would like to see more recipes from this book, you can click here. Enrollment is open, feel free to follow along officially or unofficially. The group posts weekly on Fridays.

CEiMB: Herbed Chicken Salad

      This week for CEiMB, I made Herbed Chicken Salad (on page 169) from Ellie Krieger's book, Comfort Food Fix. I never get tired of trying new chicken salad recipes.  It's one of my favorite lunches at home and packs up just as easily for carting to work.

      The ingredient list: chicken breast, lemon, salt, pepper, celery, Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, fresh chives, and fresh tarragon. 

      The recipe replaces half of the mayo with a half measure of Greek yogurt which lends a lovely tang to the dressing, lightening it up in taste and calories.  I have ample herbs growing this time of year, chives and tarragon being in that lineup, so the addition of those was key to making it have a different taste to what I am used to, the tarragon being a little bit like licorice but not quite, if you know what I mean.  It was wonderful with the chicken and dressing.  Definitely making this one again. 

      To check out other Ellie recipes. click here.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Pasta e Fagioli (Bean and Pasta Soup)

      This week for the fortieth recipe I've made for Thirty Minute Thursdays, cooking our way through Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta book, I made Pasta e Fagioli (Bean and Pasta Soup) on page 30. 

      The ingredient list:  potato, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, cannellini beans, tomatoes, beef bouillon cube, bay leaf, pasta, parsley, Parmigiano Reggiano, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. 

      There are probably millions of recipes for pasta and bean soup...this is a very nice one.  The flavors are complementary (a nice mix of vegetables), the way the beans and potato gets muddled makes the soup have a creamy texture without adding cream, it all feels very substantial, a small bowl feels like a complete meal.  It makes a huge amount, I know because I made half a batch and that was a huge amount.  I will have soup for lunch for a week from this, which is a good thing as I really liked the soup.  Definitely I would make this variation again.

Wednesday with Donna Hay: Baked Carbonara

      My nineteenth recipe with Wednesday with Donna Hay is Baked Carbonara found in her cookbook Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry, p. 30. 

      I have made carbonara for years...it is one off the boys' favorites and our traditional Wednesday evening meal before Thanksgiving (a rather silly tradition we started about 30 years ago, in the early '80's, in honor of a 1981 New Yorker article written by Calvin Trillin, and if you don't know it, go here). 

      However, I have never had "baked" carbonara before, so when Margaret chose this recipe, I was happy to give it a go, thinking if this works out, I could make it earlier in the day and have it ready to bake for the evening meal. Not that I want it to replace my tried-and-true recipe really, but what a deal that would be to have it ready to go. 

      The ingredient list is pretty much the same as my standard recipe:  fettuccine, eggs, milk, cream, bacon, and Parmigiano Reggiano (mine also has a bit of nutmeg and garlic in it), and though she didn't say to put salt & pepper in it, it was shown in the photo so I included it.

      We loved it.  This is really a good recipe (although the next time, just because we are accustomed to it, I will add a bit of garlic, just a bit, and a whisper of nutmeg.)  And, you can be assured that from now on, I'm "baking" my carbonara, it was that good, that easy, and that convenient.  Note:  a fourth of this recipe nets 4 of these little single-serve dishes, and I baked them in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees to baby the eggs a little more.  I was happy with the result and will do it that way again. 

      Gaye's post on this is here, Margaret's post is here, Chaya's post is here. Next week Chaya's pick: Bok Choy and Noodle Stir Fry, p. 62 in Off the Shelf, if you would like to cook along, send us your link if you post it.

TWD: Baking with Julia: Blueberry-Nectarine Pie

      Since the Tuesdays with Dorie:  Baking with Julia group posts on alternate Tuesdays, I thought maybe I could use the "off Tuesdays" to post rewinds that they have already made and that I missed out on along the way. 

      The recipe I made this week is Blueberry-Nectarine Pie on page 384 of Baking with Julia.  You can also find the recipe on the blogs of the hostesses for this week, Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake, click here for the recipe, and Hilary of Manchego's Kitchen, click here. The recipe was contributed to the book by baker Leslie Mackie. 

      Pies are always a hit around here with Mark, his favorite dessert is pie.  The pie was delicious, I made a half size (7") as one only needs so much pie in a given week as he is basically the only one around here eating it.  This is an excellent recipe for both crust and filling.  I don't usually like to use shortening but it worked out okay in this recipe.  The combination of blueberries and nectarines is delicious...my nectarines sort of disappeared in the cooking process so the predominant taste was blueberry, which is not a bad thing.  Since we precooked the fruit a bit, my filling did get a little loose and juicy, I should have added less lemon juice maybe, but it all firmed up with a stint in the refrigerator overnight.  The taste was really wonderful. Definitely a repeat would be in order. 

      The TWD: BwJ information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Modern Baker: Blackberry Jam Cake

      The 88th recipe I made from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, was the one for Blackberry Jam Cake, on page 233.  (We are not publishing recipes from the book, so if you like what you see, buy the book and bake along with or without us.  It's a great book, full of recipes you will want to use over and over again.)

      The ingredient list:  flour, allspice, cinnamon, baking soda, cocoa powder (I left this out), butter, sugar, egg, raisins, walnuts, buttermilk, and blackberry jam.  

      I made a half recipe in a 6" bundt pan and it fit perfectly.  The recipe goes together quickly and bakes for about 50 minutes for this size pan.  Somewhere between "butter the pan" and "dust with dried bread crumbs, spraying with oil" I lost focus, as in I forgot to do the parts after the "butter the pan," so my bundt cake stuck a bit and when I unmolded it, it completely fell apart...i.e. the top stuck to the pan and what you are seeing is the cake bottom side up, even that was a bit of crumbling mess.  Not the fault of the recipe...the fault of me not following greasing-the-pan directions. 

      Nevertheless, this cake was delicious.  The spices and the blackberry flavor really go well together, I wasn't sure when I set out to make this, but they do.  

      A few years ago my baking buddy Nancy made this recipe and sent me one of the little cakes featured in her post here.  I remembered how lovely that cake tasted, so I was happy to see it in this book and have a chance to make it myself.  Obviously Nancy greased her pans correctly. 

      One does not throw out cake just because it crumbles, so I made a sort of revised trifle with it:  cake + whipped cream + layers = trifle, right?  And that was delicious as well. 

      Here's Phyl's post, here's Margaret's post, here's Renee's post.  If you would like to bake along or be a part of the Modern Baker group, you will find all that, plus a tab to link to the blogs posting, with the blogroll here.

Bread Alone: Cinnamon Roll Popovers

      Last week the TWD BwJ group made Popovers and we were all pretty much asking ourselves why we didn't make these more often as they are easy, quick, delicious, and lend themselves to a variety of fillings and toppings. 

      Phyl put out a proposal for making a new Popover recipe this weekend.  Susan has been running Popover Project on her blog since the beginning of the year (please note that the list isn't complete, she's working on it, she has made far more recipes than she has currently linked, so hopefully she will update or you will have time to scroll through her blog entries and check out her other recipes for them).  I saw her first entry for Cinnamon Roll Popovers (click here for the recipe) and figured it would be a nice way to start, and a nice little treat for breakfast on Sunday morning.
      The popovers were delicious!  And, a big plus, they made the house smell divine with all that cinnamon-roll essence wafting throughout the house.  Keep in mind that a Popover is not a Cinnamon Roll, so if you are expecting that yeasty doughy goodness associated with a true cinnamon roll, you might be a bit disappointed.  If you are expecting a lighter version of a dough, with the true cinnamony taste and cream cheese icing aspects, you will enjoy these for what they are and the ease of preparation.  I know we did. 

      I think next we are going with a savory cheese Popover recipe...it's just so much fun to watch these pop up and over the tops of the pans, a little bit of kitchen magic.

Sunday's Snippets

 

Photo: A rather slow week around here for photos, so I thought I would post this one of Matt and Trish, friends for many years, at Kiernan's family's lake house this summer, it's just such a good photo of them both.

READING:  I am still reading this:  The Island at the Center of the World:  The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto.  Here's a link.  Because I don't know very much about Dutch history, and because a lot of this is full of extra information that I want to stop and explore more, this one is going to take me awhile.  I am having a very good time with it, however.  Shorto's writing is wonderful, the background of the documents used for this is interesting in itself.

SWIMMING NEWS:  IU swimmers busy with running and weights and full blown practice in the water starts this week.   

COOKING BYTES:   Really enjoyed this week of cooking/baking from my groups and managed to get something posted each day for them.  It's a good way to keep things interesting in meal planning...left to my own devices I would eat soup and salad every day.  

FAV NEW FIND:  Online banking, who knew it was this simple?  I am entering the 21st Century at an alarming rate.  That was a joke, of course, you are free to laugh heartily.

FAV THIS PAST WEEK:  Reading...I read a whole lot of history this past week.
WEEK IN REVIEW:  The week was rather a bust as I had what we are calling the flu, I guess, as it seems strange to have a flu in August, but it hung around for three days.  I read a lot and not much else as dizziness and nausea do not lend themselves to a great deal of productivity. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO:  At the Eiteljorg...with lovely fall weather coming up, see the Outdoor Sculptures, click here for details.  At the ISO:  The Contours:  50 Years of Motown, click here for details.

Bread Alone: Cheddar Scallion Rolls

      This past Sunday I made these Cheddar Scallion Rolls with Abby and Margaret. (The recipe for these is available if you click here as it is a KAF recipe on their site.)

      This makes a lot of rolls, so I made a quarter of the recipe as I didn't need 48 rolls, little or not.  I made 8 rolls from the quarter recipe to have them just a little larger than the 2 ounce size stated so Mark could take them for sandwiches in his lunch, even then, they were pretty small and he ended up taking two of them for each lunch, which worked just fine.  The recipe worked well using a quarter measurement of everything and the dough was lovely and easy to work with. 

      The rise times on this were very slow...I think I had to double what was stated in the recipe.  Not a problem if you aren't standing by waiting, so just noted that on my recipe.  I used regular cheddar cheese, not the reduced fat, but other than that, followed the ingredients and directions as stated.
      The rolls turned out very good, Mark was happy to have them for his sandwiches this week, and we enjoyed one each with dinner Sunday, very nice. 

      I would make these again, I think that the next time I would use fewer scallions as the taste does overpower a bit, and maybe up the sharp cheddar a bit to give them a more cheesy distinction, although I could taste the cheese in mine just as they were.  (Note: it was suggested that one not use finely grated cheese as the taste totally disappears into the roll, so I grated mine very coarsely, you can see bits of cheese in the photo of the inside of the roll.)  Definitely a repeat. 

French Fridays with Dorie: Peach Melba

      The recipe for this week for French Fridays with Dorie from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table cookbook, is Peach Melba, found on page 477-478.  The recipe is also Here as Dorie herself linked to it on her site.

      Ingredient list:  peaches, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla bean,Chambord (or Creme de Cassis or Creme de Framboise), lemon juice, raspberries, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and toasted almonds (optional, I didn't want to use these as quite frankly, I just didn't want this dessert to crunch). 

      This is more than just peaches tossed in a pretty glass with some ice cream, raspberries, and whipped cream.  (Although you could do that and be a happy camper as well.)  One has to poach, peel, and again poach the peaches, make a syrup for them to rest in, make a raspberry sauce, strain it, add a little of the peach syrup, cool everything down in the frig, and then assemble it. 

      I highly recommend going this route...the taste is truly wonderful, tossing peaches, raspberries, ice cream, and whipped cream in a pretty glass just can't compare.  At all. Time well spent.  Of course this cannot in good conscience be a daily or weekly thing, but during peach season, I think one can make a case for at least once, maybe twice.  Delicious. Definitely a treat for fresh peach season!

      If you would like to see more recipes from this book, you can click here. Enrollment is open, feel free to follow along officially or unofficially. The group posts weekly on Fridays.

CEiMB: BLT with Avocado Spread

      This week for CEiMB, I made BLT with Avocado Spread (on page 125) from Ellie Krieger's book, Comfort Food Fix. I will also apologize for this less-than-wonderful photo of it all, believe me, BLT sandwiches are not that easy to photograph, if you do better, send me your tips for trying to show the inside ingredients without the outside falling apart into a big mess, I will be eager to hear them.

      The ingredient list: avocado, lemon juice, salt, pepper, bacon, bread, romaine, and tomatoes. 

      This is just your basic Bacon Lettuce Tomato Sandwich with a slight twist:  the avocado spread used in place of mayonnaise.  Of course, Ellie also recommends using whole wheat bread (sorry, the day I made this we had just one Hearty Pepperidge Farm sandwich white loaf in the house) and just 2 slices of nitrate-free bacon for a healthier version. 

      It was a big plus a few years back to learn that avocados were "good" for you, that the fat in them was the "good" fat, etc. because this is an avocado-loving household.  Substituting the good-for-you avocado spread for the not-so-good-for-you mayonnaise seemed liked a fine idea. The spread is easy to make, just mix the avocado, lemon juice, salt, and pepper together and use it as a spread for your sandwich.  One avocado for 4 sandwiches. 

      I am pretty sure I am never going back to mayo on my BLT again...from this day forward: Ellie's Avocado Spread will be my weapon of choice.  It's that good.  Go make one: it's the perfect time of year for it, the tomatoes are glorious.

      To check out other Ellie recipes. click here.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Spaghetti alla Checca (Spaghetti with Raw Tomatoes, Herbs, and Mozzarella)

      This week for the thirty-ninth recipe I've made for Thirty Minute Thursdays, cooking our way through Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta book, I made Spaghetti alla Checca (Spaghetti with Raw Tomatoes, Herbs, and Mozzarella) on page 60. 

      The ingredient list:  fresh tomatoes, salt, spaghetti, olive oil, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh thyme, freshly ground black pepper.  Did you notice all that "fresh" noting in the recipe?  Well, that's why I saved this one for late summer when my tomatoes and herbs were at peak freshness and available for use...and it was well worth the wait as I wouldn't make this one any other way. 

      The only thing cooked is the pasta, the oil is heated, but everything else is put in as is, which makes this recipe incredibly fast and easy.  It makes a delightful lunch but it would also work well as a side for dinner, so I will make it that way again soon to serve with something grilled. 

      It tastes just like you think:  fresh, full of tomato/herb/cheese goodness, and I will be making this again several more times before the fresh tomato and herb season ends. 

     Margaret is busy with other things this week, so no post from her, but I'm sure she'll be back next week whipping up a recipe from this book in her kitchen.  I'm loving this book for the ease, creativity, and delicious recipes, have you picked up a copy yet? It's fun each week to just flip through it and pick out a simple recipe, there are many many pictures.

Wednesday with Donna Hay: Tomato and Garlic Stew with Prawns

      My eighteenth recipe with Wednesday with Donna Hay was chosen by me and is Tomato and Garlic Stew with Prawns found in her cookbook Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry, p. 102, or you can click here for link to the recipe on the DH site. 

      This recipe was easy to assemble, I liked that it is something that you can easily have the ingredients on hand for (tomatoes, broth,, wine {or water if you don't want to use wine}, onions, and garlic in pantry, shrimp in freezer, etc.) and yet tastes fresh and lovely when you pull it all together. 

      The spicing on this is nice, if you like more spicing, jazz it up a bit, but for me this was a good combination with the shrimp, garlic, and onions (I used big cloves of garlic as after all, "garlic" was in the title so I felt entitled), and the parsley is a nice flavoring agent, so don't leave it out, it gives it just a little green kick that goes well with the tomatoes and shrimp. 

      I would definitely make this again, just the sort of thing I like for lunch on a cool day.  DH suggested serving it with crusty bread but I had these rolls on hand that I made earlier in the week, and let me just say, these were excellent with this stew. 

      Gaye's post on this is here, Margaret's post is here, and Chaya's post is here. Next week we are making Margaret's pick: Baked Carbonara, on p. 30 of Off the Shelf, if you would like to cook along, send us your link if you post it, we'd love to see and read about it.

TWD: Baking with Julia: Popovers

      The recipe for this week forTuesdays with Dorie:  Baking with Julia is Popovers on page 213 of Baking with Julia.  You can also find the recipe on the blogs of the hostesses for this week, Paula of Vintage Kitchen Notes here, or Amy of Bake with Amy, here. The recipe was contributed to the book by baker Marion Cunningham. 

     Popovers are so easy to make, why don't we make them more often?  A few ingredients tossed into the blender, poured into a pan, baked, and done!  They also lend themselves to lots of different add-ins.  I made them as stated, no add-ins so I could see how much I liked this particular recipe, and I did like it very much, making a half batch which fit into 4 wells of my popover pan perfectly.
      These are just such fun to make.  I served them with a little apricot jam because one cannot have near enough excuses to serve things with apricot jam in life.  Tasty and delicious, just what one is looking for in a recipe.

        Next assignment:  September 4 - Nectarine Upside-Down Chiffon Cake, pages 241-243.    The TWD: BwJ information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Modern Baker: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

      The 87th recipe I made from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, was the one for Sour Cream Coffee Cake, on page 232.  (We are not publishing recipes from the book, so if you like what you see, buy the book and bake along with or without us.  It's a great book, full of recipes you will want to use over and over again.)

      The ingredient list:  brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, butter, eggs, and sour cream.

      Okay, I made a drizzle with a vanilla glaze because it looked lonely without something on the top to be friends with those nuts, cinnamon, and brown sugar, even though NM said it was fine the way it was and didn't need a single other thing.
      I made a half recipe in a 6" bundt pan and it fit perfectly.  The recipe goes together quickly and bakes for less than an hour (mine was done at 45 minutes and even then I wish I had checked on it 5-10 minutes sooner...that might be because of the half recipe rather than the full, note to self in book on that for when I make it again), and the best part is that the entire house smelled like a bakery while it was baking...lovely fragrance. 

      The flavors are warm and nice, cinnamon, sugar, butter, pecans, what's not to love about all of that? Definitely a something I will make again, it works for snacking, dessert, or breakfast. Here's a photo of it without it's dress-up icing, and it does look fine just as it is, doesn't it?

      Here's Phyl's post.  If you would like to bake along or be a part of the Modern Baker group, you will find all that, plus a tab to link to the blogs posting, with the blogroll here.

Sunday's Snippets

 

READING:  I found a nice little book for this week:  The Island at the Center of the World:  The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto.  Here's a link.

SWIMMING NEWS:  IU swimmers start back up this week with weights and such, I think they have some of the week out of the water yet but they are gearing up for the coming season.  The new freshmen are loaded onto the roster and this year's swim meet schedule here for the men and here for the women, a couple of friends/fellow CSC swimmers of Matt's have joined the ranks so that will be a little extra fun for us to see some familiar faces from the past at the meets. IU hosts the Big Ten Men's Championships this year and also the NCAA Championships are at the Nat in Indy, so travel meets for us are few and we are looking forward to being close to home for most of the meets...well, not that Austin, TX one, but the others are fairly close. 

     Photo to the right is Nik, Matt, and Harrison (sitting)...the old CSC pals came to visit Matt in B-town this past weekend before they head back to BU and Princeton, each guy swimming for his college and everyone between seasons of swimming, so time for a little getting together for some fun before classes begin.

COOKING BYTES:   Felt good to be back home and cooking/baking in my own kitchen.  I'm always a little nervous eating out...I never know who has been touching my food and what they are doing to it.  Be warned, I have found the KAF bread/rolls recipe site and there's going to be a lot of new bread/rolls featured here...all with links to the recipe, what a deal!

FAV NEW FIND:  I have new running shoes. Blue and Gray. Very spiffy.  These are not the shoes I had in mind, but Mark was shopping and I had asked him to pick up a new pair of inexpensive White Walking Shoes just for me to wear around in the house.  White. Walking. Shoes. lol...he came home with electric blue and gray running shoes and proceeded to tell me how great these were going to be and how much I would love them and that all the kids at GCHS were going to think I was so cool with these shoes (like I would ever wear these shoes to GCHS...lol).  Anyway, turns out, I do love the shoes...and they are staying right here at home with me.

FAV THIS PAST WEEK:  Being home...I am a home body, no doubt about it...there is no place I would rather be in the evenings!
WEEK IN REVIEW:  We had a nice quiet week getting back into the swing of things around here.  The lawn grass was really high...Vash was a little nervous he would get lost in it, so that took a bit of catching up with mowing.  Mark and I watched a couple of movies...Unknown was his pick, and we both enjoyed it, Firelight was my pick, and I loved it, but since it is definitely a sort of period piece chick flick, Mark wasn't offering any high praises but he did not make any discouraging comments about it either (which earns him great marks in the husband department).  Matt, who is working very hard with college classes and swimming schedule, for some reason decided he wanted a job for some extra cash to spend however he wanted, so he got a job...I kid you not...he has a full load of classes, 5 hours of swimming a day, swim meets on weekends a couple times a month, mandatory study tables for athletes at IU, and he figures he can fit in 8 hours of being a bus boy at one of the sorority houses at IU...okay, probably figures it's a good way to meet some nice girls, as well!  One of the other swimmers has done this for the past few years and an opening came up and he told Matt about it, Matt applied, and today was his first day on the job.  He works Friday and Sunday night dinner service and Sunday brunch service.  No moss grows under that kid's feet, that's for sure. 

Vash on The Prairie, i.e. our overgrown backyard when we returned from vacation.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:   At the Eiteljorg, Northwest Coast Art: Contemporary Expression and Traditional Influence, click here for details.  At the ISO:  Diamond Rio, click here for details.

Bread Alone: Ciabatta Rolls

      Several of my baking friends on Twitter gather every now and again to bake bread together.  One of us will have a recipe and others join in and while we bake we compare notes and in the end blog or show photos of our results.  There's sharing back and forth about how we might change the recipe or decrease or increase amounts or size, substitute different ingredients, etc., and all in all, it's a very informative process. 

      This recipe for Ciabatta Rolls was one Di selected (and if you click here you can find the King Arthur Flour recipe on their site).
      These rolls don't take long to make, although the timing in the recipe seems long as you take a couple of minutes to make a starter, let it sit for 15 hours, and then you make the dough the next day, so plan ahead. 

      I made it all by hand, not using the mixer or bread machine.  The dough was lovely to work with and the process was relaxing and enjoyable, making the little dimples in the bread is just a whole lot of fun as well.  I didn't get the rise on mine that I thought I wanted, but that turned out to be a good thing as the sandwiches were much easier to eat with a bun that did not rise to a greater height.  I hope it turns out that way again the next time I make them, which should be soon as the flavor was delicious, fresh, and yeasty with a nice medium chew to it...just what I like in a ciabatta roll, something that will stand up to sandwich ingredients and enhance them.  Definitely a repeat. 

      Here's Abby's post on the rolls.

French Fridays with Dorie: Cafe-Style Grated Carrot Salad

      The recipe for this week for French Fridays with Dorie (I am tentatively saying that I am hoping to be back cooking somewhat regularly with this group each week for the recipes that fit in here with us) from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table cookbook, is Cafe-Style Grated Carrot Salad  found on page 107. 

      I had most of the ingredients out for making Dorie's Bill's Big Carrot Cake from her Baking From My Home to Yours book and remembered that I had seen this recipe on one of my many search and seek recipe jaunts through the book, so decided that the time was right for making it today.  

      Ingredient list:  carrots, Dijon, honey, cider vinegar, canola oil, salt, pepper, raisins, and walnuts. 

      This is a great tasting little salad.  While it had many of the same ingredients as the carrot cake, the carrot cake combines them in a totally sweet way while this salad had a nice sour/sweet tang going on with the combination of the raisins/honey and the Dijon/cider vinegar. 

      It all comes together very quickly and can be made and parked several hours before serving, always a good deal.  Definitely a repeat for this carrot-loving family.

      You can find the recipe for this posted here.  If you would like to see more recipes from this book, you can click here. Enrollment is open, feel free to follow along officially or unofficially. The group posts weekly on Fridays.

CEiMB: Apple and Spinach-Stuffed Pork Chops with Mustard Wine Sauce

      This week for CEiMB, I made Apple and Spinach-Stuffed Pork Chops with Mustard Wine Sauce (on page 157) from Ellie Krieger's book, Comfort Food Fix. 

     The ingredient list:  onion, apple, garlic, spinach, sauerkraut, pork chops, salt, pepper, flour, turmeric, caraway, Dijon, white wine, and chicken broth. 

     This was delicious, easy to prepare, full of flavor, and that sauce alone is worth the price of the book.  I have made the sauce to use on flank steak, chicken, fish, and the pork chops.  A win every single time.  This entire recipe is packed with flavor and excellent.  Definitely a repeat, I'm not a big pork chop lover, but Mark is, and I have to say, I really did like these very much. (This was a really large pork chop and served 2 people.)

     To check out other Ellie recipes. click here.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Tagliolini i Brodo (Tagliolini in Broth)

      This week for the thirty-eighth recipe I've made for Thirty Minute Thursdays, cooking our way through Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta book, I made Tagliolini i Brodo (Tagliolini in Broth) on page 38. 

      The ingredient list:  beef broth, tagliolini, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. 

      We returned home from vacation with a reduced pantry and groceries on hand but I wanted something for lunch that was just simple, quick, easy, and comforting that I could make with what I had on hand .  Soup.  I turned to my book looking for something that might fit my needs and found this recipe.  There are actually 9 soup recipes in this book, almost all of them requiring an onion.  For the first time in ever, I was out of onions. 

      I made the soup, curled up with it in a cup and read through the mail over lunch...perfect. It had a nice beefy taste from the broth and a nutty taste from the melted Parm, sort of a like a French Onion Soup wannabe. Simple, easy, satisfying, and I can check off one more recipe that I have made from the 100 in this book.  Here's what Margaret made from the book this week.

Wednesday with Donna Hay: Chilli Cashew Chicken Noodles

      My seventeenth recipe with Wednesday with Donna Hay  was chosen by Gaye and is Chilli Cashew Chicken Noodles found in her cookbook Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry, p. 58, or you can click here for link to the recipe on the DH site. 

     This was so good...works for a nice little lunch or dinner, also am thinking this would be wonderful in my school lunch bag. 

      I used a medium thick Japanese noodle (you can see some of the noodles peeking out from underneath the chicken mixture in the photo), used salted cashews rather than unsalted ones, as that was all I had on hand, and skipped the cilantro because it tastes like soap to me, but other than that I made the recipe as stated. 

      The spicing is really nice, an oriental flavor with the nutty flavor of the cashews, and the heat of the chili peppers...all good, an excellent combination.  Feel-good food definitely.  Definitely a repeat.

      Gaye's post on this is here and Chaya's post is here and Margaret's post is here. Next week we are making my pick: Tomato and Garlic Stew with Prawns, click here for the recipe and to accompany it, the Parmesan Crispbread from the recipe found here.  If you would like to cook along, send us your link if you post it, no commitment necessary, we would love to have you join us.

Sunday's Snippets

 

View from the deck of the vacation beach cottage...lovely, quiet, relaxing, restful.

READING:  I loaded up my book bag for vacation and threw in books, magazines, pieces of things I printed off or hoarded away, etc., and it was full...I returned with the library books, all the rest I had read and disposed of in one way or another. Whew, that feels good to be caught up with the bits and pieces of things I had around.  I did not get to the 1493 book, so that is up next.

SWIMMING NEWS:  IU swimmers have a small break this week so they can get settled and prepared for classes, etc. for the upcoming year.  I think they are adding some mid-distance into Matt's lineup, along with his sprinter events, so that will be interesting as Matt has always been a sprinter...the swim joke being that Matt would need a lane counter for a 400.  If you aren't a swimmer, you won't understand this, just know that Matt's usual events for the past 13 years are 50, 100, 200 distances.  That said, this year they have worked on changing his physique a bit...he did weights for the first time this year, running, etc. and as you can see in the photo right...it has added a bit more in strength, kind of a goofy photo, but it shows you what I am talking about with changing his physique. 

COOKING BYTES:   Usually this refers to what's been cooking around here, and this past week it would be "not much" as we were on vacation and while I did rustle up some pancakes for breakfast and salads for lunch, we ate dinners out...lots of seafood, great shrimp, etc.  On every menu they had the seafood listed with "blackened, grilled, fried, broiled or boiled" as the choices...you can get seafood about any way you want it in the Gulf Shores area.  You can also get anything you want FRIED in the Gulf Shores area...I had no idea there was that much fried food available. Yikes. I'm not the biggest fan of fried food...the occasional french fry or fried chicken a few times a year about sums that up for me...but I did try these Fried Pickles (pictured below) as they were everywhere and pickles happen to be one of my favorite foods...so we shared these and I have to say, I could eat a few fried pickle chips throughout the year, better than french fries any day! 

FAV NEW FIND:  Well, it isn't what you think probably...as we were returning home from Gulf Shores,  and somewhere south of Louisville, Kentucky we got a call from Mark's brother saying that their mother was out of the hospital but feeling really ill and wanted her children to come home to visit with her...a bit of a scare since she is not one to request this ever.  So we hurried home and when we arrived she was feeling a bit better after a blood transfusion.  Whew.  Scary moments there for a bit.  Anyway, since all the siblings were home, I snapped a quick shot for the scrapbook...goofy smiles on each and every one of them.  So fav new find was that all was well and we had a chance to see all the sibs. 

Back row:  Al, Phil, Mark  Front row:  Nancy, Luke, and Brian.

FAV THIS PAST WEEK:  Mark, Matt and I went to Gulf Shores...10 days of vacation...and it was all wonderful.  We hadn't been on a family vacation of any sort together for the past 7 years...life got busy, most of our travel and vacation time is spent with following swim meets, so this was fantastic just going somewhere to relax and do nothing much and not be at any sort of swimming competition.  Not that we don't love going to swim meets, because we do...it's just nice that for once Matt didn't have to "work" and could just enjoy the time at the beach...doing what? Swimming, of course...lol. Photo at right:  Had to have the corny photo of Matt with the Big Fish at the Tacky Jack's.
WEEK IN REVIEW:  We vacationed at Gulf Shores, Alabama...had a lovely "beach cottage" right on the Gulf, the view from the cottage was wonderful (photos below), the beach was private so no crowds, Matt enjoyed swimming in the Gulf (within the first 5 minutes 5 Auburn 20 year old girls had "picked him up"...they were staying with one of the girls' parents down the beach a mile so he had a tour of the area from the girls who had all been coming there for years), there were movies, dinners, site-seeing adventures, beach walks, star-gazing with Night Skies ap, and Matt even worked a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with me, despite it's "sewing" theme.  We read a lot...all of us were curling up with books all week...so nice to just have the time together.  That said, I am sure you are all saying...what is wrong with this picture? I'm not a beach person (although it was a killer view from the cottage day and night, I quickly tire of just seeing water everywhere, sand, and heat)...I was happy to come home, that was a perfect amount of time to be gone, another week and I would have been stir crazy ready to head north to my green lawns and trees, etc.  If truth be told, I always think of our home as a vacation destination...I love being in it and our yard/pool/etc. is very pretty and I never tire of it.  So, all in all, a great time because I was with my guys and we enjoyed just not having any commitments for that time, but I am happy to be back in the swing of things here.  I hope we can find a time in the swim schedule next year to do it again...different location, but just to have the time away together and relax  would be lovely.  I don't do beach relaxing well, because I like to go and do things like museums and such and time on a beach over 5 minutes bores me to tears (but I was more than happy to go there because my guys loved, loved, loved it), so maybe somewhere museumish with a beach...let's see...where would that be do you suppose? 
Each day Matt would be the first to head out to the beach and set up camp. 
Mark would walk Vash out to visit Matt...Vash didn't want anything to do with that water, however, Tibbies are not swimmers...but Vash did like the little beach friend he made and they would romp around having a good time...photo:  Mark, Matt, Vash, Vash's doggie friend, Owner of the doggie friend...this guy was very interesting as he had been coming to this area since after WWII and had build a house to live in year round two doors down from the one we were in, he said nothing was in Gulf Shores back then, just the beach and the water. 
Puzzles are a great thing to do with your family...just sitting down together for prolonged periods brings out a lot of fun and information you wouldn't necessarily hear about otherwise. The guys even let me pick out the puzzle. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO:   At the IMA, Musha (Warrior Prints) (Japanese), click here for details.  At the ISO:  Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to the Beatles, click here for details.