Winter made its presence known this weekend with a cold and wet snow storm. We are not getting as much snow as our families up north, but it is still beautiful to wake up on a weekend to the sight of white flakes blanketing our trees in the back yard. Expecting snow, we hunkered down and cooked, crafted and spent lots of time together. Here is how the weekend started.
After a lazy start on Saturday, we hunkered down and cooked, cooked and … well, cooked. Chicken parmesan, southwestern pulled brisket, lentil and kale soup/stew, mushroom and potato soup, slaw and picked onions. All that Saturday cooking left Sunday wide open for more leisurely pursuits.
This is my lunch for Monday 😉 leftover lentil and kale soup and some red pepper hummus… healthy and satisfying.
Sunday mornings must start with coffee, unless it snows, then they must start with hot chocolate.
Not store bought, powdered and grey stuff. Homemade on the stove top with milk, dutch processed cocoa and … wait for it, bittersweet C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E. Thick, rich and bitter … grown up.
This was also the first time Sophia tried it and she liked it… as much as any child can enjoy bittersweet chocolate.
A quick excursion despite the inclement yet gorgeous weather, a lunch from leftovers and the Pièce de résistance…
Southwest pulled brisket served with homemade cabbage and scallion slaw and pickled onions served on tortillas. Satisfying.
First hot chocolate for Sophia, first time making pulled brisket, first snow of the season … a weekend of firsts.
I alluded to the secret crafts my sister and I were working on for our little cousins for Hanukkah and I can now finally share what we’ve been up to for the last few weekends. We have six little cousins (four on my side and two on Evan’s). We thought that instead of getting books or toys, we’d do something a little more personal; Something from the heart. Fall is finally here and there is a chill in the air. What can be better than a cup of hot chocolate and home-made cookies made with your brother or sister? So… we made hot chocolate and cookie mixes for everyone to make and sewed aprons to ensure no outfits were dirtied in the process. The hot chocolate mix requires very little work — just add hot milk. While enjoying their hot chocolate, the young chefs need to mix oil, eggs and vanilla adding those to the dry ingredients we provided in the mason jar. Finally, I want to highlight the special food stylist at the photoshoot to capture the Hanukkah gifts. 🙂
Hanukkah is one of my all-time favorite holidays. For one, it features latkes and jelly filled donuts. Secondly, it is celebrated for E-I-G-H-T days and nights. Last year, my sister gifted Sophia EIGHT presents. They were such a hit and Sophia loved the attention her Aunt showered her with. The winner was a hand-made color book where each of the primary colors was quilted into a page and its name was cross-stitched on the opposing side. She still reads it and loves it. This year, I caught the crafting bug and tried my best to spread the crafts around.
This year, my sister who’s a genuine balabusta — a perfect homemaker and gracious host — hosted a Hannukah dinner for my parents and us. She made latkes, khatchapuri, sufganiyot and a few other dishes, too. After all, whoever said that Hanukkah couldn’t feature a few Georgian dishes? To compliment all the fried dishes, there was my mom’s to-die-for beef stew and a few others, too. Let’s just say this was a practice run for tomorrow’s Turkey Day dinner hosted by Evan’s parents.
As we were celebrating the festival of lights and gifts were on the kids’ minds, we delved in. Evan and I held off on giving Sophia any gifts just yet as she was yet again a lucky recipient of my sister’s generous gifts. I will reveal some of my own crafty creations in due time as Sophia opens them. Until then, I am especially grateful to Evan for watching Sophia while I crafted not only for Sophia but for our cousins (all six of them!!!).
That kind of a weekend where we once again crafted, caught up on chores and stayed in because it was frigid — well, by November standards anyway. I did manage to sneak out to the stores for just a short while and brought back a princess-themed stamp set for Sophia. Here she is stamping to her heart’s content.
Good thing that she was occupied because we managed to make linguine with bolognese sauce.
But our Italian weekend that just sort of happened didn’t end with bolognese sauce. It was followed by an orange infused, apricot jam crostata which I formed while Sophia watched her very first movie/cartoon. She picked “The Adventures of Pooh”.
The crostata looked much prettier in my cookbook, but looks don’t always foreshadow taste.
The crostata followed pizza margherita — another of Evan’s signature dishes. There are leftovers and I feel quite accomplished in the culinary and crafts department. As I write this, Evan is listening to Beethoven with Sophia though I hear that Stravinsky is up next. There is something magical about staying at home, staying in and filling the house with amazing aromas.
Lastly, a very brief attempt at a “recommended reading/watching” list; I managed to get started on this documentary of the plight of Russian Jewry in Russia in the 1970-ies and would like to recommend it to anyone who is curious about what life was like for Jews and in fact for most others, too.
This weekend was focused on everything that is in season: crafts and cranberries. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we are looking forward to my mother-in-law’s fabulous dinner spread and some serious family time. I kid you not, folks — my mother in-law makes an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G thanksgiving dinner and it trumps most others I have been to. Until then, I am cooking a few fall favorites with cranberries in anticipation of the grand finale that is the turkey holiday itself.
I made these cranberry rolls on Saturday morning just in time for my parents’ visit. I am always happy to cook in exchange for help with Sophia!
The issue was that these only required a cup of cranberries and I had plenty of tangy berries left over still. After much deliberation and consultation of my recipe books, I decided on cranberry orange muffins for Sunday afternoon.
They turned out oh so well! There is something about cranberries and orange zest perfuming your kitchen in the fall that makes you happier…
We didn’t just feast on baked desserts all weekend, of course. Evan roasted a lamb shoulder and together we made an Azeri pilaf.
It was a relatively low-key cooking weekend because I was absolutely consumed with crafting. My sister and I are working on a secret project that may or may not have something to do with Hanukkah and we were both sewing as if our life and livelihood depended on it. I can’t tell you what it is because the recipients (or at least their parents) may or may not read this blog and then it would ruin their surprise.
Without giving much away, this is a shot of my secret project … very home-made.
This is a snippet of my sister’s project. Obviously, and don’t think my mother didn’t point this out, my sister’s is much more polished. I am okay with that.
We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous weekend. Our neighborhood is very wooded and is lit up in a glorious colorscape this time of year. Green, yellow, orange, pink, red and maroon… simply breathtaking. We made the most of the weekend by spending some time outside in the afternoons. The mornings were all about having a lazy weekend with pancakes, coffee (for Evan and me, of course) and cartoons for the little Miss. When not cooking, enjoying the weather or puttering about the house, we did a lot of … this:
We took Sophia to the supermarket on Friday evening which is a big deal for us. You see, with her motion sickness worse than ever and our store being 20 minutes away, she’s only been there three times including Friday. She was a champ and really enjoyed the store and people watching there. After stocking up on so many yummy things, we had no other option but to cook with all the delicious produce we stocked up on. Warning: Food Pictures Below.
Sea Trout in Bercy Sauce . It sounds fancier and more difficult than it really was. This, together with the veggies below, was a 20 minute dinner.
Evan’s famous sesame zucchini
Nikujaga — mmm so good and we have leftovers, too.
Sometimes, a simple rice dish is just what is in order. Fried rice made the cut for a Sunday night dinner. Evan used five-spice, garlic, ginger, mirin (japanese rice wine), sesame oil and peas to make this salty, sweet, and aromatic dish.
Before Sunday, but after Saturday’s pancakes, we needed something for breakfast that didn’t require cooking on the morning of. After looking at our two super-ripe bananas, we all agreed on banana muffins.
Oh, and I have brownies in the oven as I write this, but I’ll spare you the picture and maybe you won’t run out for a morning snack after reading this.
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home somedays. I can spend more time with Sophia those days since I don’t spend an hour each way (sometimes less, sometimes more) in traffic. Those are the days I treat everyone (Sophia, our nanny and Evan) to a nicer breakfast. This past Friday was that kind of a day. I happened to have purchased brioche which is a luxury in itself, but decided that all two year old’s should have tasted Pan Perdu (french toast). I had had it plenty of times while growing up, but rarely ever since. So… I found this recipe and it seemed reasonable. I also made a berry compote from scratch because … well, I didn’t need a reason. I just wanted to.
The grand 2nd birthday celebration was, by all accounts, a smashing success. Our house is still standing. The furniture and walls are without any additional adornments such as glitter and the guests all had plenty to eat. I assume the latter because we are almost finished the last of our leftovers and its Wednesday, people! I felt quite a bit of pressure to provide a nice spread because many of the guests were coming from out of town. Regardless, it is usually a good idea to have a plentiful spread to ensure that everyone can enjoy themselves. Not that I am Suzy Homemaker, but I have a cardinal set of rules — which I call the Party Food Commandments — by which I like to entertain.
Entertain because you want to and not because you feel you have to
Serve the food you would be happy to eat at other’s parties
Always, Always, A-L-W-A-Y-S accommodate allergies (not to be confused with preferences) especially for children and definitely when it impacts cake
This one is especially close to my heart. My nephew has tree-nut allergies. I am always disappointed when I am at a party with him and the host (if in the know about said allergy) has not provided a sweet alternative to a tree-nut contaminated cake. How would they feel if their child couldn’t eat cake and was going to a kid’s party?
Change things up. If I can guess your menu before arriving because it is always the same, then please change it up
My family is often guilty of this! Mom, if I see one more olivie (Russian potato salad) at your party, I am going to incite a mutiny!
For her first birthday, we hosted a bonafide tea party complete with tea sandwiches, scones and the likes. This time, it was hoagies and the likes. What’s next?
Thou shalt never buy store-made guacamole. Besides the fact that it is expensive, it is downright nasty-tasting
Drinks are just as important as food. Evan is in charge of ours and we usually settle on one or two types of beer, a red and a white wine. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just good.
It isn’t a birthday without a small celebration — right? Sophia turned two on Friday and our family and friends came together to celebrate on Saturday. Nothing fancy, just adults catching up, kids playing with one another, decorating pumpkins and a little bit of mac-n-cheese and chocolate cake… That’s the summary of the weekend because quite frankly, there was nothing done yesterday except some major putting up of feet to rest from all the festivities… and the recent plague Sophia and I were besieged with.
Of course I know you’d like the details about the birthday party, so here goes: the theme was butterflies and bugs and the invitation was blue, yellow and most importantly orange(Sophia’s absolute favorite color)! We invited our friends and family and a few of Sophia’s neighborhood friends. After all, this is her party and she should ring it in with her friends. All in all, ten children between ages 1 and 9. The menu had to be simple since there was quite a crowd (~40 people) and included Philadelphia style hoagies, mac-n-cheese, Tuscan stewed chickpeas, herbed quinoa, fritata, veggies and dip, hummus, roasted pepper hummus, asian green salad with napa cabbage, sweet and sour meatballs and to really make sure everyone was fortified — a cheese plate with a petit salumi platter. You don’t believe? Here… look!
We opted to purchase the hoagies so that we can focus on making everything else. They came from Taylor Gourmet Deli — and since the President thinks they are good, I figured so would our guests. We did have help with the food: my mother-in-law made her signature sweet and sour meatballs and my mother made her signature asian salad. We’ll talk about desserts and who contributed there in a bit.
Food is great and so are the german beers Evan picked up in honor of Oktoberfest, but you have to have entertainment at a kids’ party. So… thankfully, my mother-in-law who is an early education specialist, suggested pumpkin decorating. I admit, I was rather skeptical — picturing glitter everywhere and glue all over my furniture, but it went over swimmingly. The kids were thrilled to do it and enjoyed taking home the fruits of their labor.
All the decorating and chaperoning of the decorators led to quite an appetite for some cake! If there was one thing that I insisted on doing, it would be to make my daughter a home-made [multi-layer] birthday cake. I wouldn’t mind having the affair catered, but the cake, the cake was going to be mine. This, ladies and gentlemen was no ordinary cake — it was a three-layer, moist chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream on the inside and vanilla buttercream on the outside. When fully assembled it measured 8 inches. That’s EIGHT inches! I like BIG! I decorated it with edible butterflies, too!
There was another cake, the picture missing because it was too good and went flying off the platter before I could snap a picture. It was a poppy-seed cake so moist it would blow your socks off made by non-other than my sister.
Here are Evan and I with the birthday girl right before and during the blowing out of the candles. My sister-in-law and soon-to-be-brother-in-law took the pictures and I guess things got too busy and there are none of us together … but you can just imagine that. Beggars can’t be choosers! The party was great, the birthday girl happy about her cake and presents and balloons, of course. Evan and I feel very loved and are profoundly grateful to all our family and friends who made a 2+ hour journey from Pennsylvania and Delaware with young children in tow.
Oh, oh, oh! Before I forget … besides the pumpkins as party favors for the children, each kiddo got a home-made dirt cake Evan and I put together in mason jars with bugs and creatures (all edible) hidden inside. Besides… what parent wouldn’t want a kid on yet another sugar high after the one from the chocolate cake wears of?!
On some level, I knew that this 80* weather was not going to be the beautiful, Indian summer we had been hoping for. In fact, it was 85+*F in our neck of the woods with 95% humidity. That is not park or playground weather. It isn’t anywhere but home weather. Besides, there is nowhere to go because we live just a few miles from the D.C. border and the government is still shutdown. As such, we stayed close to home base trying our best to avoid cabin fever.
Of course there was plenty of cooking going on both for the weekend and for the week ahead. My new resolution, if you remember, is to cook at least one Russian dish per week. Without much further adieu…
Starting the weekend with a very healthy Friday night meal. Seared coho salmon with a fennel and grapefruit salad. Cooking time – 15 minutes total.
Good thing Friday night dinner was healthy because Saturday morning breakfast (cooked by Evan) was anything but. A challah bread pudding with blueberries and raspberries (recipe here)
I refuse to let go of summer and what better way to hold on to the last rays of warm sunshine than a home-made roasted tomato soup?
Served with (luxurious) whole wheat bread with melted mozarella and topped with our garden-grown basil. This is a tomato soup I can get behind — not your store bought, runny, unbalanced concoction. It (without the toast) is healthy, too as it doesn’t contain any cream.
Evan’s version of a slow-and-low roasted lamb shoulder and roasted potatoes…
Our cooking styles are so different. Evan likes to prep his mise en place ahead of time while the only thing I do ahead of time is clean up the kitchen. There is nothing better, in my opinion, than working in a clean kitchen. These are his mise en place for the sauce for the lamb.
This apple cake is the russian dish of the week. Rich in apples which are of course seasonal now, it is the perfect light way to end a meal. The recipe here.
… and now … the pièce de résistance
…
..
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Shirin Plov or Sweet Rice Pilaf with Chicken
While pilaf is common in many countries and varies in the additions to the basic rice, this is the one I enjoyed so much while growing up in Baku. I made ours with dried apricots, raisins, berberis and chicken breast. The rice is cooked with steam low and slow and perfumed with saffron. My mom used to make a similar one all the time. Now-a-days, it is a special dish in her house. We changed her version by adding berberis which was very special as we used a batch gifted from a very special friend. While rinsing the rice (which takes a while as the water has to run clear), I couldn’t help but think about all the cultures who depend and enjoy rice as a daily staple and how the additions that each makes to their rice dish define who they are. This is a very special dish indeed and I’ll have to make it for our friend who shared the berberis with us.
After a lazy start on Saturday, we hunkered down and cooked, cooked and … well, cooked. Chicken parmesan, southwestern pulled brisket, lentil and kale soup/stew, mushroom and potato soup, slaw and picked onions. All that Saturday cooking left Sunday wide open for more leisurely pursuits.
