Family Dinner

Tonight's post was inspired by the awesome, talented & inspiring Shauna at Gluten Free Girl, who recently encouraged people to share their experiences about family dinner.  Shauna & Danny, her partner in life, love and the kitchen, are celebrating the release of a new cookbook that I cannot wait to get my hands on.  I've been reading Shauna's words for years, swooning over her stories and recipes, always in awe of the way she manages to cut straight to the core of my heart, no matter what kind of tale she is telling.  I'm not gluten free but the recipes she and Danny create are recipes that sing to me.  These two know food, and love food, and love sharing their creations, and that inspires me greatly on so many levels.

So as it turned out, tonight, we had dinner with a few dear friends.  Spontaneous.  Throw some stuff on the grill.  Bring what ya got and we'll combine it with what we've got, and dinner will be born.  And it was lovely and a feast beyond delicious.  Grilled asparagus with roasted red peppers marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Grilled fish & sausages, and two kinds of salads.  One was a slaw with red cabbage, parsley, pickled jalapeños & cider vinegar that I make a lot in the summertime.  Spicy, salty, crunchy, and the perfect accompaniment to anything grilled.  And then, since I had all the ingredients, I made this Barefoot Contessa recipe for celery hearts marinated in an anchovy & lemon vinaigrette, topped with shaved parmesan & fresh parsley.  And whoa and wow!!  It pretty much made everyone stop & re-think everything we may have ever thought about celery as the star of the show.  Or rather, it made everyone think that celery actually *can* be the star of the show. I'm pretty sure I'll be making this salad every chance I get.  It was that good.

But, I kind of digress.  We were talking about family dinner.  My family always had them, and I guess I took them for granted.  And same with the little mister.  Whether you showed up on time or not, in both of our families, family dinner happened.   And it was expected that you would be there and participate, whether that meant helping prep the food, or setting the table, or clearing the table, or just talking about your day.  Even though we ate a lot of delicious and comforting foods at our table, it wasn't so much about what was being served, as about being together at the table.  The showing up at the table was a consistent part of both of our upbringings, and it's a tradition that we have carried into our respective adulthoods and our life together.  And although our family consists of just the two of us and our dogs, we are lucky to have a wide circle of wonderful friends who frequently join us for spontaneous gatherings, showing up with with a little something or other to combine with our little something or other, and together we make our feast.

Tonight was one of those spontaneous dinner nights.  We all sat around the table discussing our upbringings and our experiences of family dinners, and I learned that both the mister and I are very lucky indeed that we had parents who showed up at all, parents who cared enough to feed us and talk to us and wanted to know about our days. I think I always took it for granted that this was just what people did. I know now that every family is different, and I feel lucky for the one that I was born into, that I am still fortunate to be a part of, even though we are scattered all over the place these days.  When we do come together, gathering around the table is still a huge part of our experience, and I am so, so grateful for that.  And when I can't be with the family that I was born into, I feel lucky for the wonderful friends that have become family in their own way.

So three cheers for family dinner, whatever family means to you, and whatever your dinner is like. And three cheers for the new Gluten Free Girl cookbook, which I can hardly wait to dig into!

Testing, 1...2...3...

...is this thing on?

Wait, hang on.  I've got to wipe off the dust.  And the cobwebs.  Yep, it's been awhile. It's been a good, long, while.  A long dark winter.  They say it's officially spring now, but I've barely peeked my head out from under the covers to see if it's true.

There's so much I've wanted to show up here & share with you, like citrus salad with olive oil, feta, tarragon & shallots.  A bright and juicy, salty & sweet addition to brighten up any drab winter day.

And a cold winter trip to Toronto, where, among other things, I got to eat at Momofuku, when I wasn't busy trying to get my nose hairs to unthaw.

And then suddenly it wasn't quite winter anymore, and I found myself driving through the southwest on a solo journey, wearing sundresses & flip flops, stopping at every thrift store along the way, and breathing in the solitude, sunshine, and dust.  Breathing it all in deeply.  Cause sometimes we get so caught up in the white noise of the every day, we forget to breathe at all.  That's about what I've been doing for the last many months.  Holding my breath.

But this kind of scenery, and time with cherished family & friends helped me to remember to breathe out, and then in again.  And so on.  And so here I am coming up for air, with tales untold, waving hello from an imperfect world.  

The Taste of Home

It only took me 43 and a half years, but I finally did it.  I made the family recipe for sauce & meatballs.  The same recipe that my Dad has been making for as long as I can remember, and my Grandma before him.  How did it take me so long?

It's something I've been meaning to do - in fact, truthfully it was on my list of resolutions for this year under foods I wanted to make.  I am never very big on New Year's resolutions, unless food is involved.  And after watching Dad & my brother-in-law Terry make the sauce last Christmas & taking notes, I filed them away & waited.  And waited.  Waited for the right time.  Maybe I'd do it when the little mister was out of town so he could avoid the meat-fest.  But it didn't quite work out that way.

Just before Thanksgiving, we decided to have a post-Thanksgiving potluck, and I decided it was time to make the sauce.  The mister also made one of his family recipes for fried cardoons.  The kitchen was splattered with oil from the floor to the ceiling.  We spent the better part of a day frying things and simmering sauce.  Huge messes were made, and then cleaned up, and then made again as friends showed up.  Parmesan cheese was grated.  Plates were filled.  The table was loaded up with post-Thanksgiving remnants from other people's feasts, like pie, stuffing, fresh crab, green beans, brussels sprouts.  Bottles of wine arrived and were subsequently passed around and emptied.  Nothing formal, in fact we ate on layers of flimsy paper plates. I barely remembered to take any photos.  But that was ok.  The most important thing to me was that the house was full of friends and I finally was able to recreate the taste of home, the scent of the kitchen I grew up in.  There are few dishes that can summon that experience for me, in fact I can't really think of another one. This dish that I have somehow always taken for granted as being a part of our family fabric, has somehow also remained elusive, something that other people in the family made, but not me.  I don't know why that has been the case in the past, but I'm happy it will not be the case any longer.  Cause I made it, and it was awesome!

So thanks, Dad, and Grandma, and everyone who came before who made the recipe, and the experience of enjoying it, what it is.

Dum Dums for Dumb Dumbs

Dum Dums for Dumb Dumbs

Holy Hell! Fall is here and Halloween is just around the corner.  As in, tomorrow! And you know what that means - fat season is here too!  The gluttony always starts with the little mister's birthday in early October, and it kind of doesn't stop until we wake up in a bloated, sugar free and sober stupor on January 1st, cursing all that sugar and flour and boozy, carb-y good/badness!

Last year, we tried to do just a *little* something to head it off.  We tried to keep from eating all that damn Halloween candy.  And so stupidly, I realize now, we - meaning - I - bought suckers.  Not Blow Pops, not Tootsie Pops, no.  Just, Dum Dums.  I figured, it's candy, right?  It's free candy, what's not to like, you ungrateful little rascals?!  No really.  I seriously just thought that maybe if we bought something we didn't like, then we wouldn't eat it.  And I had no idea that Dum Dum suckers were SO SO LAME.  But, yeah, turns out, Dum Dums are lame.  And even if all 3 kids who showed up last year hadn't said so, all my friends verified:  Dum Dum suckers are LAME.  How did I not know this?  I really just thought that free candy = good candy, but not all candy is created equal.  And if I didn't know it before, I know it now.  When your 40-something friends chastise your idiocy in buying a candy as lame as a plain old SUCKER, well then, you might need to admit that maybe you really are the biggest sucker.  When your friends tell you that you MIGHT AS WELL PASS OUT RAISINS, it kind of makes you just shrivel.  Even if secretly, you really um, sort of like raisins.

Is there a moral to the story?  I don't know - but I guess this year we - and by we I mean I - will be buying something like Butterfingers or Snickers or Godiva Bon Bons or something.  And the little mister and I will just suck it up and try not to eat all 27 of the 30 pieces that don't get eaten by those non-sucker lovers.  Or maybe we'll just pass out 10 candies to each of the 3 trick-or-treaters!  Only time will tell!

Pickle Mania

Lately I've been making a lot of quick refrigerator pickles. So much so, that puckery pickly goodness is the flavor of the month around here.  It's a darn good flavor.  I bet it might still be the flavor of the month next month, even if it will have to share space with stuff like roasted squash, savory stews, and all things baked.  There will still be room in my heart and in my kitchen for puckery, pickly goodness, because A):  it's delicious, and B):  it's versatile.  The pic you see below is what I threw together in about thirty minutes last week, and the results of said thirty minutes are still delivering the goods.

On the left we have yellow beets, followed by carrots and then cauliflower.  All three batches use a simple apple cider vinegar brine, with various seasonings.  My favorite seasoning is dill seed with crushed red pepper and a few cloves of garlic, as featured in the carrot jar.  But I am also fond of a combination of crushed coriander and cumin seeds, which work particularly well with the cauliflower.

I'm super keen on having these around to snack on - particularly as we get our end of the summer blasts of heat here in the bay area, it's been great to have something cold, salty & crunchy to snack on.  But I've also been loving dicing these little guys up and adding them to salads to add a dimension of crunch and bold flavor - they really pack a punch!

One of my favorite warm weather lunches centers around a bed of mixed greens, topped with a salad that varies - last week it was quinoa, kale from the garden, pickled carrots & red onions.

Today it was a bed of arugula & apples, topped with quinoa, pickled carrots, roasted carnival squash, walnuts, feta & croutons.  Summer meets fall in perfect harmony, I tell you.

Anyway - we're pretty lucky here in the bay area that we can get great produce all year 'round, so I expect the pickling craze to continue.  The basic recipe is below, and the pickles last easily for a month or so, except they never do, cause we always go through them before that.  Use the recipe as a starting point, and go wild according to what you have on hand, and what you feel like creating!

Oh - and giving credit where credit is due:  I came up with the ratios in this recipe based on looking at this one, and this one.  Ultimately I decided I don't like much sweetness at all in my pickles, so I consider the sugar to be optional.  And of course you can just go in all sorts of directions with the spices!  Have fun.  Happy crunching, happy puckering, happy end of summer, happy almost fall!

Quick Refrigerator Pickled Veggies

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 T. kosher salt
Sugar - optional - I tend to use about 1 T. but you could use more if you like your pickles sweeter
1 T. spices - dill seed, crushed coriander or cumin, or whatever you fancy
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 to 3 cloves garlic
Slice of lemon
Bay leaves
1 bunch carrots, or about half a head of cauliflower, or several beets sliced thin,  or a medium onion sliced thin, or whatever other vegetable you fancy, cleaned & diced, enough to fit into a 1 quart mason jar.

Pour the vinegar, water, salt, sugar (if using) &  spices into a pot & bring to a boil while you clean & trim your veggies.  Pack the veggies into a jar along with the bay leaf, lemon & garlic.  Once the brine has come to a boil, pour it over the veggies.  Make sure all the veggies are immersed in the brine.  Screw the lid onto the jar and leave at room temperature until cool.  Then refrigerate.  Pickles will be ready anywhere from 1 to 3 days to a week later, depending on how darn pickly you like them.  Even if you start nibbling at them in a few days, the ones you didn't get to yet will keep getting better over time.  Spread the pickles on a plate for an appetizer or snack, or dice them up and add to salads.  Enjoy now, enjoy later, and enjoy often!

Lentils with Roasted Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

Ah, what a wonderful long weekend it's been.  Of course, I haven't achieved a fraction of what I'd hoped to, but I got a little bit done around the house, and did a lot of good eating.  And the weekend's not over yet, so there's still hope!

I'm trying my hand at furniture refinishing, and having quite a lot of fun with spray paint, safety goggles and sand paper.  It's still a work in progress, but if all goes well, I might even post some pics.

Still, a day doesn't feel quite complete if I don't get to stop and spend at least a little bit of time in the kitchen.  And yesterday's adventure with lentils was SO DAMN GOOD that I just had to stop & share.  This recipe, modified a bit, is another winner from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.  I've tried several recipes from that book now and have liked them all (even though several of them are a bit too labor intensive for me), but this one might be my favorite.  I especially like this because I cook lentils a lot.  They're a staple in my pantry and in my diet, and yet, it's not often that I feel SUPER EXCITED about the ways in which I use them!  Although I do have a few stand out recipes, it's often hit-or-miss.  That reminds me that my friend Sabine suggested that I compile my favorite lentil recipes, and I may just have to do that soon!

Onward to the recipe. The original recipe calls for using gorgonzola instead of goat cheese, but everyone who ate this thought the goat cheese worked beautifully.  It also calls for Castelluccio lentils, which I've never even seen around here, so I used french green lentils. Instead of adding some diced raw garlic to the final mix, I cooked the lentils with a couple of cloves of garlic, which I then removed and diced fine and added to the salad, for a more subtle flavor.  And lastly, Yotam's recipe uses a combination of herbs including parsley, chives and dill, but I just used what I had in the house, which was parsley, tarragon and basil.  I think you could almost always improvise with your choice of herbs.  Take this dish to your next barbecue or potluck and it's guaranteed to be a hit!  I think I'm going to make it again very soon.

Lentils with Roasted Tomatoes & Goat Cheese - adapted from Yotam Ottolenghii's Plenty

Oven-roasted tomatoes
5 plum tomatoes, or whatever tomatoes you like - I used a combination of cherry tomatoes from our garden, sliced in half, and beefsteak tomatoes, cut into slices.
8 thyme sprigs
Splash of olive oil
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Salt

1 small red onion, sliced thin
1 T. red wine vinegar
1 t. kosher salt, or if you're feeling fancy, you could use smoked Maldon sea salt, like I did
1 1/3 c. french green lentils
2 small cloves garlic, peeled & lightly smashed
3 T. olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper
3 - 4 T. fresh herbs - I used parsley, basil and tarragon
3 - 4 T. soft goat cheese

To roast the tomatoes, preheat the oven or toaster oven to 275.  Depending on the size of your tomatoes, dice or halve or quarter them, and place them skin side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Don't worry if you've got larger tomatoes cut into slices and find it hard to place them skin side down, it'll still work out just fine.  Drizzle lightly with the olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with salt.  Place the thyme sprigs on top, and put into the oven to let it work its magic for roughly 1 1/2 hours.  Check after 1 hour, as I found mine were nicely roasted already by that point, and the additional half hour wasn't needed.  Take out of the oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, place the red onion slices in a medium bowl, pour over the red wine vinegar and sprinkle with the salt and toss.  Let the onions marinate while you move onto the lentils.

Bring a pot of water to boil (enough water to amply cover the lentils - 3 to 4 cups should be good), and add the lentils, the garlic and a bit of salt.  Lower head and simmer until tender but still a bit firm, about 20 - 25 minutes. Drain well, and remove the garlic and dice it fine.  Add it to the bowl of onions.

While the lentils are still warm, add them to the bowl of onions & garlic, and also add the olive oil, fresh ground pepper, and herbs.  Stir gently and taste, adjusting seasonings if necessary.

To serve, spread a layer of lentils onto a platter, and scatter some of the tomatoes over, along with dollops of the goat cheese.  Add another layer of lentils and do the same thing until all the lentils and tomatoes and goat cheese are happily scattered over the platter.  If there are any juices left in the pan from the tomatoes, drizzle over the top, and then be prepared for the entire platter to disappear very, very quickly!

On the Dressing of Salads

For a person who eats, on average, about one or more salads per day, nearly every day, you would think that the perfect dressing would not be so elusive.   But somehow, it is one of those things that I've found baffling and have been unable to pull together on instinct - until recently, that is.

I don't even know how I stumbled across this simple combination, but I think it may have started with escarole.  I've been using that as my main salad green lately.  It's extremely sturdy, and a bit bitter, and just not something I've used a lot in salads, until recently when I had such great success using it as a base for a seared tuna salad.   Ever since then, I've been buying it every week and eating salad after salad after salad using it as a base.  Usually, I've been mixing it with a bit of arugula, and dressing simply with a squeeze of lemon, a liberal sprinkling of salt, and enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the leaves after giving everything a thorough toss.   Turns out that's a pretty good formula to dress any kind of salad, and I've been enjoying some variation of it practically daily.

Today, I shoved any notion of vegetarianism aside, and had lunch at Phil's Sliders.  It was an awesome indulgence featuring the highest quality ingredients, including Marin Sun Farms Grass Fed Beef, and I savored every bite.

But then, I knew it had to be salad for dinner.  And damn, what a salad it was.  Tonight's salad was the kind of salad that I make quite a lot, but I fancied it up a bit by adding some kale from the garden to the mix of escarole & arugula, plus shaved carrots, fennel & red onions.  Topped it off with roasted kabocha squash, toasted pecans & chives dressed in Green Goddess dressing, and grated parmesan.  The perfect antidote to lunch.

The basic recipe follows, but in honor of my dear Dad's birthday, which is today, I wanted to mention that I've always envied how Dad can just dress a salad in the bowl.  He uses the classic combo of red wine vinegar and olive oil, which I love. And when we get together for any kind of family gathering, sometimes he tries to be humble and allow someone else to dress the salad. But I for one can never pull it off as well as he does, and I don't know if anyone else can either. When I try to dress the salad in the bowl, occasionally it works perfectly, and other times I find myself making so many adjustments that the greens become a soggy mess.  I have no idea why my using lemon juice instead lately of vinegar is showing better results, but I'm just going with it.

So, the points of the day are as follows:

1.  Happy Birthday, Dad!  I wish I could have made dinner for you tonight!

2.  If you're going to have burgers for lunch, it's good to have salad for dinner.

3.   Sometimes winging it with salad dressing works beautifully, and it's also great to have a couple in your arsenal to draw from when you don't feel like winging it.  I have at least one in this case, and it's a proven winner, good enough to slather over all sorts of things!

4.  If you're looking for a sturdy salad for your lunch or dinner, maybe you'll want to add this one to your arsenal.  And if you do, I hope you'll love it!

Kale, Escarole and Arugula Salad with Roasted Kabocha Squash

This is more of a guide than a recipe.  I was flying solo tonight so I just portioned out enough greens that looked like a good amount for my dinner:  a handful each of torn kale and escarole, a smaller handful of arugula, and a sprinkling of thinly sliced red onion, fennel and shaved carrot.  Put it all in a bowl and set aside to chill in the fridge.

Meanwhile, I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees and cut a small kabocha squash in half & scooped out the seeds, and cut into slices about 1 inch thick.  Sprinkled with salt, tossed with olive oil, and into the oven it went, to roast for about 10 minutes before turning over and then roasting for another couple of minutes.   It's good to roast till it's nicely tender but not mushy.  The rind on kabocha is completely edible and quite delicious, but if this doesn't appeal to you, feel free to cut it off before cutting the kabocha into cubes.

Next up:  put the cubed squash into a bowl, and add whatever makes you happy.  Tonight I used what I had in the house which was kalamata & nicoise olives, diced tiny, and fresh chives, and toasted pecans.  All of that would have been a reason enough for feeling content!  But, I had just made a batch of the Green Goddess dressing, so I added a couple of plops, and grated parmesan all over it.  And suddenly my night got a whole lot better!

Next, it was time to dress the greens, hoping to be graced with a bit of Dad's mojo.  And it worked - a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkling of salt, and a nice coating of olive oil.  Onto the plate went the greens and their friends.  And then the squash salad was mixed in, and a few Semi-Freddi's Super Garlic Croutons were added, and life was pretty much complete.  Dad, the only thing that could have made it better would have been if you and I could have shared this together!

Happy Birthday Dad, and happy salad dressing to one and all!