triple berry

one of the things
i love about living
in the northeast
is the abundance of
pick your own farms.

chace and i
have done our fair share
of berry picking this summer.

it is a great opportunity
to teach young children
about where our food comes from
and the importance of supporting local farmers.

earlier this month
we picked raspberries.
knowing we were leaving town,
i put them in the freezer.

yesterday we picked blueberries.
again.
loads of them.

growing up my mom used
to make these triple berry muffins.
they were so good.
i started thinking about those muffins yesterday.

i began looking through my cookbooks
and found a recipe
in one of my barefoot contessa books.
i decided to give it a try.

turns out she got the recipe
from a friend of hers
who happened to write
the silver palette cookbook,
which just happens to be the recipe my mom used.

i highly recommend these.
they are delicious.

cooking

it is no secret, or maybe it is, that i like to cook.
but i am not very good at creating my own culinary creations.
i have nightmares that i am on top chef
and tom colicchio is not kind at judge's table,
jolting me awake.
its true.

but there is one dish i make well,
and i happened to create it.
and i make it whenever i have company.
i made it for athena when she came to ny.

today, during one of our text conversations.
she mentioned that she was craving said dish.
this is for you, athena.
crave no more.

greek pasta

shrimp
kalamata olives
capers
diced tomatoes (fresh and canned)
feta cheese
garlic
white beans
penne pasta

1. saute garlic in olive oil until fragrant
2. add shrimp and saute until golden
3. i usually add white wine at this point for added flavor.
4. add canned and fresh tomatoes and simmer until tomatoes have broken down.
5. while tomatoes are simmering, cook pasta.
6. add olives, capers and beans to tomato mixture.
7. add feta and simmer until it melts.
8. pour sauces over the pasta and toss.
9. top with more feta.
10. more your self a glass of wine and enjoy.

what is your go to dish to make?

the inevitable

i knew this day would come. 

it was inevitable.

despite knowing it was looming,

i hoped we would be spared.

not a chance.

bean has woken up the last two nights,

30 minutes after going to sleep.

this is not normal bean behavior.

the first night i thought maybe he was hungry.

so we fed him.

he went to sleep.

last night we had a repeat performance.

we tried to let him work it out.

ph was stronger than i.

but we finally caved and fed him.

he went to sleep.

and slept through the night.

despite sleeping through the night,

i was beginning to see a pattern take shape.

so, i sent out a mom s.o.s this morning,

including a call to the pediatrician's office.

and the response was the same.

he needs to work it out himself. 

even if it takes him two hours.

oh give me strength.

parenthood is not for the faint of heart.

last night i made cookies to distract myself.

i can not do that every night.

perhaps i will start drinking bourbon.

or maybe i will just sew alot.

i need something to distract me.

sunday baking

sour cream sugar cookies, that will change your life, is that the recipe says. well, i was intrigued. i love sugar cookies, in particular cut outs from wegmans with lots of frosting. they are divine. so i thought i would give this recipe a try.

they are good, but they are not life changing good. i will say that i did not frost them, maybe i should have, maybe i will. i ran out of steam, my pregnant body would not let me stand any longer. precious husband said that he liked them fine without frosting. so naked they will remain. maybe its the frosting that makes them life changing, but i will have to wait until i am no longer pregnant to find out.

i did learn one important baking lesson this week. when baking soda loses its power, you end up with flat cookies. precious husband and i were talking about how despite the fact that the cookies i have made over the last few weeks have been good, they have been very flat, which leads to crispy cookies. the only thing that was the same in all the cookies was the baking soda, which led us to believe that it was past its prime. i have this app on my iphone, called still tasty, which tells you the shelf life of stuff. its fantastic. i looked it up and sure enough, baking soda after opened is only good for 6 months. i am quite certain that the baking soda i had been using was older than 6 months. so i bought new baking soda this week, and today's baking adventure produced very fluffy cookies.

who knew?

weekend baking

i had the urge to bake both days this weekend. i am chalking it up to the nesting instincts kicking in, which means that the bean is on his way. well, not at the moment, but in the next 3 weeks. there are a plethora of cooking blogs on the internet, way too many for me to follow. but there are two that i do follow smitten kitchen and rookie cookie. i found the recipes for both of my baking adventures this weekend from these two blogs.

the photo above is rookie cookie's recipe for banana muffins. see, i am trying something other than cookies. i had some bananas that were, well a little too brown for my liking, so i thought i would use them for muffins. these were very easy to make, and taste great. not an overwhelming flavor of banana nor are they too sweet. it does make 24 muffins, great for freezing or company. i told precious husband we should freeze some and his reply was "don't worry, they wont last long." i guess they passed his taste test.

i think there are is no better combination than peanut butter and chocolate, so when i saw the recipe for peanut butter and chocolate cookies, adapted from a recipe from magnolia bakery in nyc, on smitten kitchen, i was well smitten. these are divine! chunky peanut butter, peanut butter chip, and chocolate chips, whats not to love! they are definitely keepers.

precious husband is very focused on getting every last bit of dough out of the bowl, which he then promptly put in his mouth.

sunday baking

for the third sunday in a row i made cookies, seems as if sunday baking has become part of our sunday ritual, along with pancakes( made by precious husband) and walking the dogs. although, i suspect that once the bean is here i wont be baking much, and will need to refrain from cookie eating.

last week, darling alyssa, sent me a link for this rolo cookie recipe. she gave it rave reviews, so i thought i would give it a try. it was a little more time consuming than the past two weeks' recipes, but these cookies are delicious!

inside each little round ball of chocolate dough is a rolo.....

which creates another layer of chocolate and a yummy caramel center when baked. seriously, what's not to love. precious husband and i are trying hard not to eat all the cookies today while watching football.

thoughts on baking

generally speaking, i do not like to bake. i feel like the precise nature of baking stifles my exploration of flavors, i much prefer to cook. i can add and subtract flavors and i do not have to follow a recipe exactly, its more of a guide or road map.

i also do not bake because i do not like having sweets in the house, for the simple fact that i have no self control and am liable to eat all 4 dozen cookies in one afternoon.

however, my precious husband loves sweets. now i need to explain that when we met he did not need or want dessert every night. this changed when i was pregnant with cooper. he began asking every night what was for dessert or if we had anything sweet in the house? ( i don't buy sweets either). his craving for sweets at night has remained.

for the past two sundays i have felt the urge to make cookies, maybe its that nesting urge kicking in or maybe its because it makes precious husband so happy. after all, he has been cooking, doing laundry, and cleaning since he has been off work (ok, he always cleans, but i am very thankful i don't have to). i have stuck with cookie making, last week chocolate peanut chip and this week oatmeal butterscotch chip, nothing too fancy. and they are not all the same size or color. some are a little more crisp than others. but.....i have already eaten way too many cookies for one day.

which do you prefer cooking or baking?

requests

i have gotten some very specific requests this week from readers ( i love it, keep them coming), so i thought i would oblige.

**many of you want to know how precious husband has 12 weeks of paid vaca in the winter. he works for a wholesale plant nursery. we are very blessed that he is paid year round, many who work in the landscape business are not paid during the winter and either snow plow, pick up odd jobs, or go on unemployment. precious husband works hard from the end of march to mid- december, so he deserves a little r and r. and he will be home for about a month when the bean arrives.

** the color of the paint in the bean's room is called sea kiss by valspar and we purchased it at lowe's.

** and the empanada recipe, i found it in the the holiday issue of real simple. they have great recipes, by the way.

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 pound of ground beef

1/3 cup of golden raisins

2 tablespoons of ketchup

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

kosher salt and pepper to taste

2 store bought refrigerated rolled pie crusts

1 large egg beaten

** i added 1 cup of diced sweet potato

**heat oven to 375. heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally until soft, 5-6 minutes. add the beef and cook, breaking it up until no longer pink. stir in the raisins, ketchup, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

**using a 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles from the pie crust. ( i used a bigger circle than called for, it was just easier that way, but it wont make as many or you will need 4 pie crusts) divide the beef mixture among the circles, brush the edges with water, fold in half and press with a fork to seal. transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with the egg. bake until golden, 20-25 minutes.

** enjoy!

cooking adventures

i have this memory from my childhood, of standing around the island in our kitchen and watching my mom cook dinner on a nightly basis. my mom loves to cook and is a very good one. my parents often had dinner parties and the holidays always consisted of friends, family and food.

so it is no surprise to me that i inherited her love of cooking, which goes hand in hand with good food and good wine. oh, how i cant wait to have a big glass of red wine after the bean is born, but i digress. i love read cookbooks and i plan out a dinner menu for precious husband and i each week. i try very hard not to cook the same thing over and over, but we do have some favorites that make it into the rotation every couple of weeks.

saturday night i met up with some of my girlfriends for a night of food, friendship and conversation. we have gathered over meals for a few years now, and while the makeup of the group has shifted over time, the theme is the same: make something you have not made before. i volunteered to make an appetizer and saw a recipe for beef empanadas in the holiday issue of real simple. they looked tasty and seemed easy enough.

so saturday afternoon, i set about the task of empanada making. i followed the recipe for the most part, but did add some chopped up sweet potatoes that i had leftover from the previous night. i had a bit of a size issue, the recipe called for a 2.5 inch round cookie cutter, which i found to be too small and tedious when assembling. so i opted for a larger size, i actually used a large cup as my cookie cutter. once i started making them bigger it was much easier.

the empanadas were a hit at dinner that evening and we had the leftovers yesterday while watching football. i will be making these again in the future. and better yet, i think they looked as good as they tasted.....

made with love

i love to cook, but hate to clean. i made this very clear to my precious husband when we first met. and because we are the most perfect of matches, he cleans the house and in return i cook, really it's a match made in heaven. since cooking is my domain, part of my monday routine for the past two years has been to create a menu for the upcoming week and a corresponding grocery list. i take great pleasure in this task, looking for new recipes and trying to perfect some of my favorites. i had negelcted this task for some time after cooper died and have recently returned to my beloved monday ritual which i must admit feels good.

my precious husband always asks what is on the dinner menu each week and i always respond that he will have to wait and see. so when we remodeled our kitchen, i had the brilliant idea to paint the mustard yellow pocket door with chalkboard paint. a perfect place to post the weekly specials. and now my precious husband doesnt have to ask, but i secretly hoping he still will.