Flavors – Page 7 – Growing Up Savvy

Published May 12, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: To Have or Not To Have … Popcorn

Whew… and what a busy and delicious weekend it was. I guess we missed being home over the weekend having been gone for the past two and so we both rushed home from work with bags full of groceries and had every plan to stay, relax and cook. The weather has been beautiful and that has influenced both our time outdoors and our menu.

Before I tell you about the menu and all the fun things we did, I cannot in good faith hold back the fact that Evan has officially indoctrinated Sophia into the club of Popcorn Connoisseurs.

As you can see, she is deliberating on whether she should have yet another perfectly popped corn morsel. Not just any popcorn, but Evan’s special, home-made popcorn too. It was a huge hit and I am glad that they have yet another thing they can share. In fact, I am not sure who was more excited about the popcorn, Evan or Sophia. In the end, I am sure her love of this snack was always a foregone conclusion. She is so much like him, it was only a matter of time!

As for what we did the rest of the time? There was fun at the big playground with a castle, a pirate’s boat and an adventure course. There was also a trip to the nursery to get some tomato, pepper and herb plants which was followed first by fervent planting and then serious groans from some sore backs (actually, just mine, but for good reason!). This year, Sophia has really embraced gardening and was so very happy to plant each and every lettuce and snap peas.

While not planting or running around the playgrounds, we stayed home, watched Cinderella and cooked. There were Evan’s obligatory asian-style, barely cooked snow peas,

and an old-fashioned burger that we made by grinding the meat ourselves (yes, it does make a difference) … with some oven fries.

They were chased by homemade rhubarb and raspberry frozen yogurt

and … because I already had the ice cream machine plugged in, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to add a little variety; I made a Mango cardamom frozen yogurt, too.

That is topped with basil flowers, of course!

These are farmer’s cheese shortbread cookies that I used to love as a child. I had these vivid memories of my mom making them and since this weekend we celebrate Mothers, I thought it appropriate to make something that brings me such warm memories of my own mom.

Are you with me? Oh yes, moving on from sweet and Russian-themed to spicy and Mexican to Breakfast Burritos we made for lunch …

… and finishing off with these amazing chicken fajitas…

topped with roasted peppers and onions and garlicky, cilantro dressing, sour cream and guacamole.

This weekend was absolutely splendid and oh-so-delicious. I just we didn’t live so far away from our families and could share the spread with them.

Cookery Dessert Flavors Gardening Hubby Cooks Life Mom's Cooking

Published April 14, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Milestones and Change

I need a weekend to recover from this weekend. We seemed to have gotten into the spirit of spring cleaning and checked quite a few items off of our lists. There was that leaky faucet to replace in the kitchen and of course my garden needed to be plowed and readied for planting in a few days. Then, we continued celebrating my birthday from last Monday — now that Evan had un-mired himself from work. There was cooking to be done and I couldn’t keep my hands off of Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem book so most of the things we made were from my new cooking volume. Last, but not least, there was a room make-over for Sophia and… more cake. Let’s start with what matters most to everyone — dessert. The cake was a strawberries and cream cake from an old Cooks Illustrated recipe. I must admit, that I had to make the cake twice having forgotten to put butter in the first one and accidentally making it a Russian Biskvit. The cake itself wasn’t very tall and I impressed myself by managing to split it into three layers. The assembly is deceptively simple needing only strawberries, sugar, cream cheese and cream to finish. That is what it looked like when it was assembled and before it was devoured. The strawberries are halved and arranged with the hull sides out on the perimeter of each layer. Inside are chopped macerated strawberries with a reduced strawberry syrup. All that is topped with a cream cheese and whipped cream frosting and the very top is just frosted. Okay, okay, I am sure you need to see the inside shot as well… Mmm… it was good. Good thing too because it was a dessert that followed a meal of Middle Eastern-spiced cod cakes in minty tomato sauce. They were a cinch to make if you don’t mind a bit of herb chopping. In fact, I knew they were going to be pretty amazing because what dish that has a whole bunch of cilantro and parsley isn’t good? The dish was the epitome of spring, summer and healthy, too. Since the cod cakes required a bit of chopping, we decided to make the rest of the weekend’s meals a little easier. I had chicken stock making in the slow cooker which, by definition, cooks itself and an amazing roasted chicken leg recipe. This one is also from Yottam Ottolenghi and just absolutely gorgeous. It is easy to make provided you’re motivated to marinade a day or two in advance. All you need to do is toss some olives, capers, caper juice, red wine vinegar, dates, bay leaves, olive oil and well… chicken legs together and let sit in your fridge for a bit. Then roast and serve with plain cous cous. I had never cooked anything savory with dates before and was very surprised how their intense sweetness balanced the brininess of the olives and capers. Mmmmm… there may have been oregano too, but truthfully, Evan marinated this one so I am not quite sure. A meal such as this one was just what was necessary to satisfy at the end of a very busy weekend where in addition to cooking up a storm and fixing leaky kitchen fixtures, we also transitioned Sophia to a big girl room. She’s outgrown her crib and we thought it was time she got a big-girl bed what with her being a big girl now. Shh, but don’t tell her that she’s a big girl. According to her, she’s apparently not ready to be one. We managed to turn over a new room between breakfast and lunch on Sunday which required a plan of action and fast execution. After cleaning out the closet to ready it for her clothes, I can honestly say that I shall never become a hoarder… ever, ever, ever. Here she is in her new digs. As you can see, I did splurge for three photo prints from the animal shop but framed them myself with some neon colored frames from Michaels that I got on a great sale. I also framed a Sophia original in a metallic blue frame and that is hanging to the right of the lamp. The basket housing Minnie is one that Grammie (my mother-in-law) made for us as a gift for my bridal shower. Perhaps the most unique aspects of the new big girl bed are Sophia’s pillows; I selected two pillows stuffed with buckwheat hulls that are typical in Japan and are supposed to be much more breathable and comfortable for your neck and back. They are definitely unique and we’ll see if they will work out. Lastly, there was of course plenty of fun and play going on at our house… and we did enjoy the great outdoors in the evenings. Whew… when’s next weekend again?

Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors General Hubby Cooks Life

Published April 9, 2014 by Nadya

Another Year, Another Feast

Monday was my birthday and because Evan was mired nose-deep in work, I resurrected a much beloved tradition of getting the day to myself. The tradition has evolved and changed over the years, but I like keeping it and even a very rainy birthday couldn’t keep me away from a date with … myself. I don’t remember the last time I had time for myself, to wander about, do what I fancy and be left alone with my own thoughts for any prolonged period of time. I am not complaining because in effect, the lack of time had made Monday that much more special.

I treated myself to a very large cup of coffee, my e-reader firmly in my lap and a bit of people watching. I headed to a few of my favorite shopping haunts eyeing beautiful pieces and decided that by lunchtime, I was refreshed and sated, ready to celebrate and spend time with my family. Of course celebrating usually involves some cooking and prepping and who wants to do any of that on their birthday?! Not I! Coincidentally, April 7th is National No Housework Day 🙂 and having recently uncovered this very fact, I made sure to cook this weekend so that we could enjoy a lovely dinner and even dessert almost prep-free.

First up was a polenta topped with a rich eggplant-tomato sauce – a very satisfying recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi that I had been looking forward to trying. This satisfying main accompanied a last-minute, spur-of-the-moment panzanella salad that Evan and I whipped up together. Coincidentally, or perhaps because I’ve been mentioning this for quite a few months, Evan got me Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook as a present. After putting Sophia to bed, I spent a few minutes perusing the recipes and scanning the stories that he writes about Jerusalem, Israel and the cultures that are reflected in Israeli cooking. I was happy to see some Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, Iranian and even Indian dishes represented.

I fell in love with Israel when Evan and I visited on a Birthright trip in 2009. The food, its variability and vibrancy played such a huge part in the seduction. Of course the people, the culture or the melding of the cultures, the antiquity of it all played a significant role as well. Never have I seen people, especially the youth, live life so fully, embracing every moment as if it were their last. Because a trip to Israel is not in our plans for the next few years, I’ll settle for being momentarily transported to this wonderful corner of the earth through food.

But I digress — this was a birthday meal and as such, a dessert or more specifically, a cake was absolutely required. I didn’t want to bake my own cake and didn’t think that I wanted something with layers and a rich, sugary frosting. I ended up making a pavlova dressed with lemon curd, whipped cream and berries. It was … it was just spectacular. Light, airy, sweet and yet tangy, not rich but decadent. It was spring personified and so beautiful.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published April 7, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Lighter, Brighter and Greener

I am pretty sure I won’t jinx it when I say that Spring is finally here. Our daffodils are in full bloom and the weather was spectacularly glorious this weekend. We took full advantage of the outdoors knowing that it will be too hot and humid in just one short month. As such, a trip to a flower nursery and a new playground were a must on Saturday. Sophia loved all the flowers and helped us with seed selections for planting in our little vegetable garden. We will be gardening again, albeit on a smaller scale and with produce that requires little maintenance (think peas and lettuces).

As usual we cooked a bit, but made lighter, easier dishes than those that have been de rigueur over the last few, cold months. Something about the glorious sunshine, warmer temperatures and overall better moods stipulated fresh, brighter and spicier flavors. So… there were coconut-lime tacos and this dry-seared shrimp with an orange, cucumber salad dressed with a touch of mint and cilantro. So fresh and so flavorful.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors Gardening Hubby Cooks Life

Published March 30, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Like a Thespian

Rain, rain go away, come again another ~~day~~ weekend. We prayed for the end of winter and the start of spring. Spring, however, has decided to come holding winter’s hand; It has been pouring non-stop for three days. Winter is blowing us one last snow-filled kiss as a grand, final goodbye. We were looking forward to entertaining our cousins from out-of-town, but decided to reschedule for a time when the weather is better. Poor Sophia had gotten a mean case of cabin fever and we decided nothing less but a big event would cure such an affliction. So, we decided to take her to her very first theater performance. Not just any theater, but a puppet theater at the famed Glen Echo Park. The Puppet Company had an Old McDonald’s Farm performance on the Tiny Tots Stage and we were delighted to get some tickets. The 30 minute performance was spot on and Sophia was enthralled during the entire show. Having enjoyed the performance ourselves, we are looking forward to returning to the park, to the Puppet Company and checking out the several artists in residence when the weather is better and the carousel is running. The park is only a 20 minute ride from home.

There was of course plenty of cooking at the house filling the dreary days with warm aromas. We made a meat, spinach and potato au gratin which was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It boasted unparalleled flavors and textures due to the very crispy browned beefy bits flavored with Worcestershire sauce and the cream steeped with thyme and garlic. I must admit that we didn’t have Gruyere cheese or sage. We used Mozzarella as a substitute but will probably try the Gruyere next time. This is also a one-pot wonder which will last several days — my favorite kind of a dish!

The au gratin was balancing a very healthy meal we cooked up on friday night. Seared trout, salmon’s less flashy cousin, with oven-roasted sweet potato fries and garlic-y asparagus. The season for asparagus is now and so why not use something that is seasonal and local?!

The yogurt and maple syrup loaf that I made on Friday evening delivered as much lusciousness as a pound cake without all the sugar and fat. In fact, the loaf is made with a cup of yogurt and only a quarter cup of refined sugar!

Indulge we must, especially when the weather outside is so dreadful and so there are chocolate-walnut cookies upstairs in the kitchen. They are best with a sprinkling of Maldon sea salt.

Quite the productive weekend around these parts. Besides our jaunt to the theater, I also finished Little Failure — a story recapping a Soviet immigrant’s tale of coming to and growing up in America. It was a spectacular read. My reaction and review of the book deserves and will rightly get its own post in the near future. Lastly, I believe I have, on my 5th try, perfected a recipe for farmer’s cheese blintzes and will share my version in the next week or so. We are ready for the work week knowing our fridge is full of delicious foods and our minds are sated with literary delights.

Cookery Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published March 26, 2014 by Nadya

Playing Catch-Up

Our weekend shenanigans caught up with us sooner rather than later. My parents’ care package wasn’t elastic but did sustain us long enough to make a mid-week trip to the grocery store for some necessities. Because I’ve been on a baking binge as of late, I decided to give this French apple cake a try and must admit that it turned out wonderfully. I always get melancholy when we leave our wonderful families and there is nothing better to lift my spirits then the aroma of something baking in the house. And so, I made the cake on Sunday, shortly after we returned to our abode and unpacked. As a side-note: if you do try the recipe, use three large apples or four medium ones. I used three large ones instead and thought they were plenty.

Then, and because cake is by no means a meal, we had to come up with dinner. This is where Evan stepped in and treated Sophia and me to a home-made, wok-stir-fried chicken with broccoli and red peppers. I think the recipe is his own, though he uses a marinade from this book. Paired with some sticky japanese rice, this meal was divine and not just because it was cooked for me, but because it was green and light.

After this type of a meal, a slice of apple cake is definitely a must!

Cookery Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published March 18, 2014 by Nadya

Updating Our Culinary Repertoire

It is difficult to imagine that Spring is just around the corner especially when big, fluffy snowflakes are still falling down from the sky all around you. That said, we’re transitioning into Spring dreaming of freshly grown fruits and veggies and the lighter dishes they yield. Lighter dishes will hopefully avoid having to see Dr. Sophia or a real doctor for that matter.

Local asparagus is still a week or two away, but we couldn’t help but introduce just a bit of green into our big weekend meal with mostly meat-free lasagna. Mostly meat-free you ask? Noodles, home-made marinara, bechamel, ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, an egg, 3 oz of prosciutto and lastly 10-TEN oz of spinach.

The lasagna was light and there is no denying that it is the easiest way to get children to eat their greens!

Flavors Life

Published March 17, 2014 by Nadya

A Case of the Mondays

We are snowed in… again. Dare I mention that its March 17th and we’re a mere few days away from the official start of spring. We have our snow-day routine and responsibilities down! Papa shovels the snow from our driveway while we play and watch cartoons. We horse around a bit especially when I try to get something done in the kitchen. Here’s Sophia in her child’s stand helping out or horsing around or … well, being Sophia.

Then, it being a snow-day and having just celebrated Purim, we indulge with none other than those hamantashen I mentioned that I baked.

We have the apricot-filled one on the right sitting atop the cream cheese and chocolate chip one on my much-loved Limoges plate. I can’t tell you which one I prefer except that the cream cheese and chocolate ones were a pleasant surprise. I still have quite a bit of apricot filling left so I may have to bake another batch. Can that be a bad thing? I used this recipe for the dough, this recipe for the apricot filling with the caveat that I use Turkish apricots and then used 4 oz of cream cheese, a half a cup of chocolate chips, a quarter cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla for the chocolate chip filling. Mmmmmm. These little pillows of filled goodness are keeping us warm and comfortable while the outside looks like this:

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors

Published March 16, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Purim with Family

Believe it or not, this post is going to have something to do with celebrating Purim over the weekend. Who doesn’t like a holiday where we bake special cookies and celebrate with food and drink and family. My in-laws visited with us bringing my mother’s delicious, prune and raisin hamantashen and lots of entertainment for Sophia.

Here’s Dr. Sophia taking care of Clowdie, the doggie. You could say that Sophia is quite smitten with her canine family member. My mother-in-law generously shared her kiddie doctor set with us so that Sophia can measure everyone’s blood pressure, listen to our heartbeats, and of course administer shots. While she practiced medicine, we practiced the art of baked custards in the form of vanilla challah bread pudding. Drizzled with maple syrup, it is perfect for a leisurely weekend breakfast or a snack.

I am reading Little Failure and the descriptions of my former USSR life have made me a bit nostalgic. That and treating our visitors to unique culinary delights had Evan and I turn to Georgia (the country) for a Khatchapuri Adjaruli recipe. It turned out better than I expected though was a quite a treat as far as healthfulness is concerned.

We served it with a very tangy arugula and cucumber salad to help cut through the richness of this bread.

I also made a batch of blintzes, one of my father-in-law’s favorite dishes, with farmer’s cheese using a new crepe batter. The dough was nicer than the previous one I’ve used, but I had a few blintzes bust at the seams during pan searing. Can’t have these previous pillows of heaven bust, can we? I’ll be investigating causes which may include a too-thin crepe or too much filling (sigh). Lastly, this is Purim, yes? I made hamantashen with apricot and cream cheese/chocolate fillings. I’d never had the chocolate filled ones and was surprised at how good they turned out. We are ready to tackle yet another and dare I hope last snow storm with so many delicious treats socked away in the fridge.

Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published March 10, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Honoring Albuquerque

Years ago, I had quite a few business trips to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I fell in love with the area, the regional cuisine and their chile peppers. People travel from far and wide during the chile harvesting season to pick, buy and preserve these incredible edibles that turn any food into something extra ordinary. New Mexican chiles aren’t always spicy either and some are verdant, floral and amazing.

Coffee, wine, chocolate and chiles are among foods the taste and flavor of which is greatly affected by the terroir. My trips to Albuquerque or perhaps those who I was with and what I was working, are the reason I have grown to appreciate these green and red rockstars. I have been reminiscing about those days and trips recently and decided that I should cook something with some chiles. Enter enchiladas verdes. The recipe I used called for poblano peppers which are so very floral, so mild and mouthwateringly good. Mixed with tomatillos and spiced with cumin, they bring me right back to many a happy dinner in New Mexico.

The enchiladas bathed in the verde sauce and topped (at least partially) with some jack cheese before going in the oven.

Bubbling hot and out of the oven the enchiladas fill the house with such an aroma. They’re not as sinful as you may expect and serve a huge crowd — perfect for mid-week dinner and lunch leftovers. This and the salmon cakes were my two culinary accomplishments this weekend. We dressed the salmon cakes which had no bread in the recipe with some sweet potato oven fries, roasted broccoli, home-made tartar sauce and a crispy salmon skin hubby insisted on making. Speaking of hubby, he cooked my mom’s famous sous and I can smell that all the way in the office as I write this. We traded off playing with Sophia while cooking and as you can see, painting and those glorious tulips were all the rage this weekend.

We tried going to the children’s theater to see an age-appropriate play but it had been sold out, so we went to on a long walk stopping by a toy-store and treating Sophia to a mini etch a sketch — an oldie but goodie. Lastly, I admit, I lied, I also made brownies this weekend but since I’ve made them and regaled you with pictures before, I decided not to tease. They’re still just as good. Mmm…

Cookery Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Category: <span>Flavors</span>

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