I've been MIA...but here are some scones!

So I am not sure how many people actually read this, but if you do, you may have noticed I've been MIA (again). I am (again) applying to graduate school this year, and the void the blog filled in my life is now filled with going through the mind-numbing application process (did I say "again?") I have still been cooking away, perhaps more than ever. Good food is fueling me through all these applications and essays.

So while I work on my future, I will leave you with this recipe from Smitten Kitchen: Cranberry-Lemon Scones. I don't have a picture of my own of how they turned out, but they were simply divine. We got some nice, fresh cranberries from our CSA and I thought it was time to make a warm, buttery baked something. I froze most of the batch of scones already cut out, and it has become a morning routine to get the coffee brewing and pop some scones in the oven before my shower, so that I emerge from the steam to the scent of fresh roast and homey scones. I recommend it.

Meyer Lemon Fresh Cranberry Scones (Taken directly from Smitten Kitchen)
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons; preferably Meyer)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, if you insist
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream

Accompaniment: creme fraiche or whipped cream

Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.
In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.

In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture.

In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter or rim of a glass dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden.

Serve scones warm with creme fraiche or whipped cream.

Creamy Tomato Soup

At the end of the summer, there was an influx of farmshare tomatoes. I am not the biggest raw tomato fan (unless they are JUST picked from the garden, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and chopped basil, and layered with fresh mozzarella), so I knew I wanted to cook something with these guys. Usually when I am craving tomato soup, I use this Martha Stewart recipe that uses canned tomatoes. This time with enough tomatoes for a fresh soup, I consulted the goddess Barefoot Contessa. Here, I use her very simple and incredibly delicious recipe for cream of fresh tomato soup. Perfect for those chilly early autumn nights!

Lots of fresh chopped tomato

Cream adds richness and depth

Everything simmering with my homemade veggie stock

Ingredients

•                3 tbs good olive oil

•                2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped and1/2 cups chopped red onions (2 onions)

•                1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)

•                4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5 large)

•                1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

•                1 tablespoon tomato paste

•                1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basil leaves, for garnish

•                3 cups vegetable stock

•                1 tablespoon kosher salt

•                2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

•                3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and sauté for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender.

Blend the soup in a blender or food processor until thoroughly combined. Return  the soup to the pot and put low heat. Slowly whisk in cream. Serve with grated cheese if desired.

Served with buttery, crispy toast. Yum!

Eggplant and Tomato Pizzas

Martha Stewart really is one of my favorite food personalities. I think she always focuses on the ingredients and doesn't usually make a recipe so fussy that the star ingredient doesn't shine through. This recipe is one such example.

A good friend of mine was stopping in unexpectedly for dinner, and I didn't have much time to prepare. I had a couple of eggplants and tomatoes from the end of the summer share to use up, and I decided to adapt Martha's Grilled Portobello Pizza recipe for the eggplants and tomatoes. For Valentine's Day this year, Devin got me a stovetop double grill pan, and I am always looking for a chance to use it. Grilling veggies in place of pizza crust is a great way to health-ify pizza without sacrificing flavor!

Veggies grilling away

Ingredients

•                12 cherry tomatoes, quartered (about 1/2 pound)

•                4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

•                2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

•                1 tablespoon Roasted Garlic

•                Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

•                1 eggplant and 2 tomatoes, sliced into ½ slices

•                About ½ of shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (I’ve found that vegetable peelers work great for this)

•                4 very thin slices prosciutto (about 1 ounce)

•                4 tablespoons Rough-Cut Basil Pesto

Directions

1.             Prepare a stove-top griddle or outdoor grill.

2.            Combine the tomatoes, thyme, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, the roasted garlic, and salt and pepper in a small bowl and toss. Set aside.

3.            Brush the top and bottom of each eggplant and tomato slice with the remaining oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill until the veggies are tender, about 4 minutes per side for the eggplant and 2 per side for the tomatoes.

4.            After grilling, arrange an equal amount of the tomato mixture each veggie slice. Top each with a shaving of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

5.            Arrange 1/2 slice of prosciutto on each “pizza” and spread 1 tablespoon of the pesto on top of each prosciutto slice.

6.            Enjoy!

Super quick and healthy dinner

French courtesy of Devin

Devin surprised me the other day by planning a menu, going grocery shopping and making dinner for me--all by himself! People who know me well know that while I do enjoy some assistance in the kitchen from time to time, for the most part I prefer to do thing by myself. I find cooking to be a sort of therapy--it is methodical and relaxing. You can put on some soothing music, sip a glass of wine, and generally just unwind. 

However, I had been having a particularly tough week, and I think Devin could just sense that I needed some taking care of. He generally sticks to baking, but I was thrilled at this amazing menu he put together. It was just the thing to pick me up after a hard week.

• Filet of Beef au Poivre (Ina Garten)
• Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise (Ina Garten)
• Garlic mashed potatoes
• Profiteroles (Ina Garten)

Just yum.

Dessert!

The next morning for breakfast he indulged me yet again by using leftovers from the previous night to prepare a decadent breakfast of poached eggs with asparagus and hollandaise sauce with grilled mashed potatoes. 

Pumpkin Party Potluck

This Sunday, Devin and I are hosting a pumpkin party potluck. I decided to have this sometime last month when the first chill of fall was in the air, and I decided rather than lament autumn's coming, to celebrate it. With the help of our friends, here is the plan for the event:

Beverages
Pumpkin martini
Pumpkin beer

Menu
Pumpkin soup
Fall harvest salad with pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin ravioli with hazelnuts and sage brown butter
Pumpkin bread
Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin cookies
Pumpkin chocolate chip squares

Activities
Pumpkin carving
Pumpkin seed roasting

I am dying to do this for the beers (see below), via Martha Stewart...pictures and a recap to come!

Best beer cooler ever!

Best-Ever Stuffed Peppers

Let me just start by saying, PLEASE MAKE THIS. It is so delicious that I've made it every week since I first tried it. And the best part is you can make a double batch of the filling and freeze it--then all you have to do for dinner is thaw (the night before in the fridge), add filling to the peppers, and shred cheese. It is the ultimate easy dinner.

Onto the peppers...

At the end of the summer Enterprise Farm (the provider of our CSA) began to unload bell peppers on us. I love peppers--in salads, omelets, stirfries, you name it. But there was a slight chill in the air, some dry polenta in the cupboard, and several ears of corn in the fridge. Goey, warm, stuffed peppers sounded like the perfect semi-healthy comfort food I was craving. I googled "bell peppers, polenta and corn" and of course my dear friend Martha had an idea!

I adapted Martha Stewart's polenta and corn stuffed peppers. I love that Martha, but some of her recipes are surprisingly bland. Here is my adaptation of her recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion (or 4 shallots) and 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3-4 ears corns sliced off the cob
• 1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
• 4 bell peppers, halved lengthwise through stem, ribs and seeds removed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high. Cook onion or shallots and garlic, stirring often, until lightly browned, 5 minutes. Add spices and combine. Add 3 cups water, 1 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; bring to a boil.
3. Whisking constantly, gradually add cornmeal, whisking until incorporated before adding more. Reduce to a simmer; cook, whisking frequently, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in corn, remaining 3 tablespoons butter, and half the cheese until melted.
4. Place peppers in a large baking dish; fill with polenta mixture. Add about a 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover tightly with foil; bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
5. Return to oven; bake, uncovered, until cheese is golden and peppers are very tender, about 30 minutes more. Garnish with a sprinkling of smoked paprika. Serve immediately.

Ingredients (notice the chopped red pepper--I used that as a garnish but decided it didn't look good)



Farmshare peppers!



Melty, cheesy, pepper goodness.

Tomatillo Guacamole

We got tomatillos in our share earlier this summer. I had actually never had one before, and I had to look them up to see what they were and what to do with them.


Wikipedia told me: The tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) is a plant of the tomato family, related to the cape gooseberry, bearing small, spherical and green or green-purple fruit of the same name. Tomatillos, referred to as green tomato (Spanish: tomate verde) in Mexico, are a staple in Mexican cuisine. Tomatillos are grown throughout the Western Hemisphere."


Sounded like I should put it in some kind of salsa or guacamole, and I figured my usual mix of veggie, spices, herbs and oil should do the trick.  I served it with blue corn tortilla chips, and the resulting recipe was tart, tangy, and had a delightful mix of textures. A must-try if you have tomatillos on hand for some reason.

Ingredients

Tomatillo guac!