Green salsa from scratch

While visiting Eastern Washington, I went to a farmer’s market, hoping to find some delicious fresh produce to use in some new recipes. Lo and behold, a basket of serrano chiles for $1 and tomatillos for $1/pound! Perfect for the salsa I had wanted to make.

The tomatillos have a papery loose skin on the outside, and are sticky when the skin is removed. Underneath, they look like green tomatoes. Once cut open, the flesh is much denser and less juicy than a tomato. The tomatillos are cooked in this recipe, which makes them actually become slightly sweet. I was surprised. The green salsa with salty tortilla chips was a perfect combination. I highly recommend trying Juanita’s Tortilla Chips, available at Whole Foods.

Tomatillo Salsa (from Gourmet Magazine, September 2007)

1 pound fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and quartered
1 fresh serrano chile, seeded and chopped
1/2 large white onion, cut into 4 wedges
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Coarsely purée tomatillos, chile, onion, garlic, water, and 1 teaspoon salt in a blender. Transfer to a large heavy skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl and cool to room temperature, then stir in cilantro, lime juice, and salt to taste.

Martha's Banana Walnut Bread

With all the in-season, ripe, juicy fruit available, I decided to make something from nearly-rotten old bananas which you can get any time of year. Don’t ask me why... it just sounded good.

Anyway, I have made banana bread more times than I can count. I have tried every recipe in every cookbook I own and from many websites. Most turn out too dry and are lacking in flavor. After many years of just ok banana bread, I finally looked to the ultimate authority when it comes to recipes, Martha Stewart. Of course she had a delicious banana bread recipe. I should have consulted her sooner! The only recipe I have made that comes close to this is the Cooking Light banana bread that uses yogurt in the batter. The reason I like Martha’s recipe so much is that it uses butter, sour cream, and enough salt to bring out all the flavors. I love the flavor and texture walnuts add to the banana bread, but feel free to leave them out.

Banana Bread (Taken from Martha Stewart Living, August 2004)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla; mix to combine. Stir in nuts, and pour into prepared pan.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Fresh and Easy Chopped Salad

With the warm weather finally here (well, for a weekend at least), salads have been sounding really good. I love chopped salads but have never tried to make one for some reason. Purple Café, a restaurant and wine bar in the area, makes a really good chopped salad, so I attempted to make a similar one. Theirs has garbanzo beans, tomatoes, avocado, and blue cheese among other things. I decided to keep everything, but instead of blue cheese, I used Beecher’s Flagship Cheese (a Seattle sharp cheddar-ish cheese). I also added cucumber, red onion, a little yellow pepper, and basil. I really think the basil made the salad. For dressing, I decided to make a sweet balsamic vinaigrette (sweetened with honey). The salad turned out amazing! I could have just had that for dinner, but we also made fried chicken to serve with it. And my Peach-O-Rama Tart for dessert... what a satisfying dinner!

If you don’t like any of these ingredients, leave them out, or substitute them with something you do like.

Chopped Salad

Serves 6-8 as a side dish or 4-5 as a main dish

1 head romaine lettuce
1 cucumber, seeded
2 tomatoes, seeded
1 can garbanzo beans (or cook your own from dried - see http://anytimegourmet.blogspot.com/2011/08/dont-buy-canned-beans.html)
1 red, yellow, or orange pepper
½ red onion
5-6 basil leaves, julienned
4 ounces blue cheese, sharp cheddar or other cheese that you like (I used Beecher’s Flagship)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Chop all vegetables into roughly the same size. Toss together in a large bowl. In small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together vinegar, honey, oil, salt and pepper. Taste after mixing and add more honey, oil or vinegar to your liking. Dress just before serving. You may not need all of the dressing on the salad, so use about half at first, mix well, then taste to see if it needs more. You can always add more.

Peach-O-Rama Tart

It’s Peach-O-Rama at the Metropolitan Market by my house, meaning they have the best peaches around! I have honestly never had a peach that was so sweet and juicy... they are unbelievable. I had been wanting to make something with these peaches, and I happened upon this recipe in Food and Wine magazine while at the dentist waiting to get a filling. I must have been trying to take my mind off of what was to come. It is called “Creamy Peach Tart with Smoky Almond Crust.” It sounded pretty easy to make and really good, but I was skeptical of the vanilla wafers in the crust. I usually don’t like going out and buying something like vanilla wafers to use in just one recipe, but I thought I’d give it a try.

I decided to make it with non-smoked almonds in the crust because that’s what I had, although the smoked almonds sound interesting. From previous experience of baking with cream cheese, I decided to put lemon zest in the filling. I think it is necessary when using cream cheese to bring a brightness to the rich cheese. I also added a little vanilla extract to the filling. Topped with Peach-O-Rama peaches, this tart was amazing! It is similar to a cheesecake, but what I liked was that the filling wasn’t too thick and you could taste both the crust and the peaches. I think that this tart would be excellent with berries as well.

Creamy Peach Tart

Serves 8

2 cups vanilla wafer cookies (5 ounces)
½ cup almonds (I used raw almonds, but smoked would be good too)
5 tablespoons sugar, divided
4 tablespoons butter
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sour cream
1 egg
Zest of one lemon (about 1 teaspoon)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 firm, ripe medium peaches, peeled and cut into thin wedges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine vanilla wafers, almonds, and 1 tablespoon sugar in food processor and process until fine. Add melted butter and pulse until evenly moistened.

Press crumbs into a 9-inch springform pan. Use a measuring cup to flatten out the bottom and press filling against the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, until set.

Wipe out food processor and add cream cheese, sour cream, egg, lemon zest, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons sugar and process until smooth.

Pour the custard into the crust and bake for 15 minutes until set. Let cool slightly and transfer to the freezer to chill, about 15 minutes. If you have more time, transfer to the refrigerator to cool.

In a bowl, toss the peaches with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Arrange the peaches on the top of the custard. Remove the ring of the springform pan, cut into wedges, and serve.

An easy furniture update





My father-in-law’s job is one in which he occasionally has to dispose of perfectly good pieces of furniture. Instead of throwing them away, often times he gives them to us. This was one of those pieces. I knew it would be the perfect storage solution for our second bedroom (up to this point we’ve been storing things in boxes). It had shiny brass knobs and gold trim around the top, which just didn’t go with the décor in the room. I decided to paint the gold trim gray. It started out too light, so I mixed in some black and ended up with more of a charcoal color.

It took me at least a week to decide on knobs. There were two issues – I’m indecisive and knobs can be expensive. After buying seven different knobs at Home Depot and taking all of them back, I ended up getting some square oil-rubbed bronze knobs from Target. It was between these and some clear acrylic knobs. I wanted something dark to go with the dark trim and the other furniture in the room.

Before

Getting the old knobs off was actually very difficult. After using a drill, wrench, pliers, and a screwdriver, Reed managed to remove them. Even though not much labor went into recreating this piece, I think it was quite a transformation. If I could only make decisions more quickly, it would have been done a week ago!

After

The best mac & cheese doesn’t come in a box.

My husband Reed has always loved cooking and eating macaroni and cheese, but not with macaroni noodles. He insists that the small shell noodles are the best. Either way, he does make excellent mac & cheese! If I don't make dinner, I can almost guarantee that he will make mac & cheese. He eats it probably once a week!
The keys, according to him, are the Lawry’s seasoned salt and using lots of cheddar cheese. This time we happened to have cream cheese in the fridge as well, so he added it. I don’t think it’s necessary, but he thinks it tastes much better and richer. After making your own mac & cheese, you’ll never go back to the box again!

Reed’s Shells and Cheese

Serves 6

1 pound small shell pasta (but really, any small pasta will work)
6 cups shredded cheddar cheese
5 ounces cream cheese (optional)
3 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
3 tablespoons butter
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

Boil a large pot of water with about 1 tablespoon of salt. Add pasta and cook until very soft. Drain pasta.

Return pot to the stove over medium-low heat and add butter, cream cheese and cream or milk. Stir and cook until cream cheese is softened.

Add pasta back to the pot, stir to coat the noodles, then add grated cheddar cheese. Cook, stirring frequently, until the cheese is melted. Stir in about 1/8 teaspoon seasoned salt.

Once plated, dust the top of each serving with seasoned salt as well.

Yogurt and granola, please

I absolutely love yogurt, granola and fruit for breakfast, lunch, or just a snack. Something about the combination of the slightly tangy, slightly sweet yogurt with the sweet and crunchy granola just can’t be matched. I have made granola many times before, usually following Ina Garten’s recipe, but this time I decided to make up my own. I had walnuts from making banana walnut bread, and I thought they might be good in granola. I think pecans would have been better than walnuts, but the walnuts weren't bad. The fun part about making your own granola is that you can put exactly what you want in it. I wanted to make a recipe similar to the Martha Stewart recipe, but a little healthier (hers uses a stick of butter!).  I had never used wheat germ in granola before, but I know that it’s good for you, so I gave it a try. I used a ½ cup in my recipe, but the flavor was a little too strong, so I would recommend ¼ cup, which is the amount the Martha Stewart recipe calls for. I don’t like a lot of spices in mine, so I just used a little bit of cinnamon. Nutmeg might be good as well. For the dried fruit, I used tart cherries in mine, but blueberries or apricots would be delicious as well.

Here’s what I came up with:

Homemade Granola

4 cups rolled oats
½ cup chopped walnuts (I would use pecans next time)
½ cup almonds, sliced, chopped or slivered
¼ cup wheat germ (optional)
½ cup honey
½ cup vegetable oil
½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
½ - ¾ cup dried fruit (apricots, cherries, cranberries, blueberries, raisins, etc.)
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together oats, nuts, wheat germ, spices and a pinch of salt in a large bowl.

In a liquid measuring cup, measure the oil first (and vanilla if using), then the honey (this prevents the honey from sticking to the cup!). Add the oil and honey mixture to the oat mixture. Stir until all the oats are coated.

Spread on a greased baking sheet (I used a Silpat). Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes.

Cool completely, then stir in dried fruit. Store in an airtight container.

Save your leftovers!

Yesterday I ate blackened salmon for dinner at a delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurant (Mongos in Clearview, WA www.eatatmongos.com) and today, I made a salmon omelet for lunch. I don’t usually take fish leftovers from a restaurant, but this salmon was so fresh, I knew it would be great the next day. I had chives and sour cream as well, so I decided to make an omelet. The key to keep it from drying out is to use butter and to cook it low. Don’t reheat the salmon – just add it to the eggs and it will heat up just enough without cooking any more. I topped mine with sour cream, but crème fraiche would be delicious too!

Salmon Omelet

2 eggs
1-2 teaspoons salted butter
Cooked salmon
Cheddar cheese
Chives, chopped
Sour cream or crème fraiche
Salt and pepper

Whisk together two eggs in a small bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat.  Add butter to the pan. Once the butter has melted, add the eggs to the pan. If they are setting up quickly, turn down the heat.

Use the spatula to lift the edges of the egg off the pan so they don’t get stuck and the omelet can be folded in half later. Once the eggs just start setting up, add the toppings to half the eggs– salmon and chives (and cheddar cheese if you’d like).

Let cook just a little bit longer, then carefully fold the half without the toppings over the other half. Make sure to slide the spatula under the eggs a few times to loosen them up before folding it over.

Carefully remove from pan. Top with chives and a dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche. Serve immediately.

From the sea to the table

My family took a trip to the Hood Canal (about 1 hour west of Seattle) last weekend to spend a few days relaxing by the water, kayaking, playing games, and eating seafood. The weather wasn’t very nice, but that didn’t stop us from digging for clams and mussels, and collecting oysters. I say “collecting” because there are literally hundreds of oysters and oyster shells lying on the top of the rocks (no sandy beaches here) right on the beach and in the shallow water. I learned a lot about oysters this weekend. For example, this gathering of oysters is called an oyster bed, and after you eat the oysters, it’s best to let the shells dry out and put them back into the bed. Read all about it here: http://blueoceannotes.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/shell-game-recycling-oyster-shells-to-restore-oyster-beds/ .

Anyway, our priority was eating, of course! We mainly cooked oysters since they were the easiest to gather. The clams and mussels required digging into the rocky sand while looking out for sharp oyster shells. We found a good number of clams and mussels too, which were delicious cooked in a white wine broth served alongside French bread.

Back to the oysters… they first had to be cracked open, not an easy task (see below for pictures), then it was time to cook.

Before putting them on the grill, I melted some butter in a small saucepan and added lemon juice, white wine and salt. I cooked it for a few minutes, then put the oysters on the grill, their shells acting as little pots for them to cook in. I poured a little into each oyster shell as they were cooking. After about 5 minutes, they were done. That was about the freshest seafood I'd ever consumed!  Even if you don't have the opportunity to collect them yourself, you could always get oysters at a good fish market and try this simple way of cooking them. Enjoy!

Made from scratch ricotta cheese + lemon zest and herbs = a surprisingly quick and delicious appetizer

Who knew you could make ricotta cheese in a matter of minutes? I saw it first on Barefoot Contessa and had to try it. What begins as cream, milk, salt, and vinegar ends up as a creamy, smooth, light (tasting, not necessarily good for you) cheese. It is not only fascinating to make your own cheese, but it is so delicious! I had never thought of serving a ricotta spread at a party, but it was the hit of the night. Adding lemon zest, herbs and scallions makes it taste really fresh. Serve with really good artisan bread. (Ble Bakery is my favorite – available only at Whole Foods in Redmond, WA on Friday-Sunday and at the Sammamish Wednesday and Bellevue Saturday Markets.)

Homemade Ricotta (Taken from Ina Garten’s How Easy is That?, copyright 2010)

Makes about 2 cups

4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons good white wine vinegar

Set a large sieve over a deep bowl. Dampen 2 layers of cheesecloth with water and line the sieve with the cheesecloth.

Pour the milk and cream into a stainless-steel or enameled pot such as Le Creuset. Stir in the salt. Bring to a full boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar. Allow the mixture to stand for 1 minute until it curdles. It will separate into thick parts (the curds) and milky parts (the whey).

Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth-lined sieve and allow it to drain into the bowl at room temperature for 20 to 25 minutes, occasionally discarding the liquid that collects in the bowl. The longer you let the mixture drain, the thicker the ricotta. (I tend to like mine on the thicker side, but some prefer it moister.)

I didn't have cheesecloth, so I used two layers of paper towels

Transfer the ricotta to a bowl, discarding the cheesecloth and any remaining whey. Use immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The ricotta will keep refrigerated for 4 to 5 days.

Herbed Ricotta Spread

2 cups ricotta
2 scallions, minced
3 tablespoons chopped dill
2 tablespoons chopped chives
Zest of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve alongside grilled artisan bread.