Cookery – Page 13 – Growing Up Savvy

Published October 16, 2013 by Nadya

Party Times

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.

Last year’s tea party

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors

Published October 14, 2013 by Nadya

Weekending: Celebrating Birthdays with Friends and Family

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?!

Until next year!

Cookery Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks Life Moments

Published October 7, 2013 by Nadya

Weekending: Foray into Delicious Cultures

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

…

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.

Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published October 2, 2013 by Nadya

Weeknding: The Light Edition

This is the delayed Weekending post that I promised. In fact, this Leek and Butternut Squash soup, a healthy quinoa chili and my mother’s birthday cake were the only things I cooked this weekend. In part, because my parents came into town and brought delicious treats and in part because we went out (something that we don’t do often) to celebrate.

Cookery Dessert Hubby Cooks Life

Published September 30, 2013 by Nadya

A Birthday Cake for the Birthday Baba [Babushka]

Even though Sophia calls my mother Baba, we’re moving toward Babushka which is a very lovely and endearing term for a grandmother. She can alternatively go with Bubbie.

Anyway, Friday was our Babushka’s birthday and even though we didn’t get to spend her birthday day with her, we did get the weekend. We all know that birthdays are monumental excuses for cake and indulgence. I took this as an opportunity to indulge and bake a cake. This cake, a new one for me, was a caramel banana cake layered with caramel buttercream.

Dessert Flavors

Published September 25, 2013 by Nadya

Eat Like Growing Up Savvy

I’ve updated our Recipes page by organizing the recipes by type of dish and adding new ones including those we cooked last weekend. Feel free to make any of the above and leave comments letting me know which dishes you liked, didn’t like and what other dishes you would like me share recipes for.

Wilderness

Cookery Flavors General

Published September 22, 2013 by Nadya

Weekending — The Delicious Edition

Shhh… read this very quietly, will you?! I am stealing a minute or two for myself this evening to capture the things that went on here this weekend. We’ve been away for the last two weekends, so having this weekend to ourselves was quite a treat. Fall is officially here, it is cooler outside and so we spent time crafting, cooking and cuddling.

I no longer have any time to cook a just-in-time dinner in the evenings, so I am forced to have mega-cooking sessions on the weekends just to stay afloat. The pre-planned, pre-cooked gig isn’t bad, it is lovely, actually. I sit down, plan a menu, think about what is seasonal, nutritious and most of all — delicious.

…Here’s a snapshot of what we cooked this weekend…

Rustic Italian bread with fresh mozzarella, iberico-style jamon and our own, garden-grown basil…

… Saturday night, date-night dinner. Quick chicken fricassee with avgolemono (egg and lemon/yogurt) [Greek] sauce.

My new year’s resolution (since it is Jewish New Year… ) is to try and cook more Russian dishes. I have started on that here. As Sophia would say: “Tada”… I present you with stuffed cabbage. Don’t be mistaken — this is not your grandmother’s stuffed, soggy, one-note stuffed cabbage. This stuffed cabbage starts with chicken sausage, a panade (mixture of bread and milk), rosemary and sage. The filling is wrapped pretty and stewed in tomatoes and garlic. It is simple, but elegant and definitely not one note.

All these savory dishes made me miss something sweet, tangy, aromatic and crunchy — home-made granola. I made ours with pecans, oats, orange zest, cinnamon and vanilla. Evan, who ~~was~~ is an avid camper (he’s an eagle scout), definitely approved. The best part? home-made, organic, without extra fat, sugar or preservatives. Yum!

I did mention seasonal, right? So… pears are in season now and there is no better way to celebrate pears than in a savory salad with Roquefort and pan-sauteed pears. Let me know if you know of a better way to ring in the fall.

Oh, well, and of course, we had to have banana bread!

Cookery Hubby Cooks

Published September 11, 2013 by Nadya

Embracing My [Russian] Duties

I have openly admitted that I do not cook a lot of Russian food. There are a variety of reasons and excuses for this choice. For whatever reason, likely insanity, I decided to embrace my Russian self and cook something Russian. The fall is all but here and we all know Russian food is rich in variety — meat and potatoes one day, and potatoes and meat the next day… kidding.

Anyway, most cultures have some sort of a dumpling as part of their cuisine — the latin countries have the likes of empanadas, while the Asian continent is rich with dumplings and the Italians have their raviolis and other stuffed pastas. Russia (or more specifically all of the former republics of the former Soviet Union) have the pirozhki and varenniki. The latter is exactly what I decided to make … on a weeknight no less. Crazy, right? I did split the labor into two evenings. I made the mashed potato and sautéed onion filling on Monday evening and the dough yesterday. Here they are in all their glory. I had quite a happy customer (Evan) in the kitchen yesterday.

Sitting pretty while waiting for a dip in the hot water

Fresh out of the pot bathed in more sautéed onions and salt … steaming and delicious.

Reluctantly, I acknowledge that although I made these after a long workday and was tired, I enjoyed the process. There is something soothing and calming in a repetitive hands-on activity. There is also immense pleasure in seeing Evan enjoy them … Sophia hates and I do mean hates mashed potatoes, so these were not a win for her.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors

Published September 3, 2013 by Nadya

Summer’s Last Hurrah

I don’t want to it to be September. I am not ready for the fall and if I pretend that it isn’t coming, I am sure it won’t get here. So… how did I pretend fall isn’t coming? Evan and I cooked all the things that are just right in the summer. Also, we didn’t have to work too hard to pretend because the weather was sweltering.

Heirloom tomato and mango salad dressed with lime, olive oil and red onion. Fresh and summery.

Fried eggplant dressed with a cool sour cream-dill-garlic topping. I haven’t made this dish all summer long but I wouldn’t finish out the season without it.

Old-school Russian tomato and cucumber salad dressed with dill, red onion and sour cream served with a side of roasted red pepper hummus and naan. The ideal hot summer’s day lunch!

This upside down plum cake was a new venture since I’ve not worked with caramels before. The plums were a petite Italian variety that were just like the ones my Baba had in her garden.

Despite my conviction that Labor day weekend was too short, I did get to knit (this, I will show off when I put the finishing touches on it) and we were able to join some friends for an BBQ. All in all a big success.

Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published August 26, 2013 by Nadya

An Egalitarian Household

You didn’t think that we’d hold off on dessert after yesterday’s tantalizingly flavorful dinner, did you?

Presenting… biskvit. Otherwise known as a Russian sponge-cake. I grew up eating this plain and with filling (as you see here). I am not sure you will find a single Russian person who doesn’t know about this simple cake. Even though I had it when I was little, I never made it myself and finally decided to give it a go yesterday. In truth, I made it because I was faced with four eggs that had to be used – since I cracked them by accident.

We tend to share household responsibilities 50/50 and since Evan cooked his famous shrimp, I thought I’d bake him and Sophia with a simple but delicious dessert. Besides, you can even eat this for breakfast — plain, definitely and like this if you feel like indulging.

Speaking of being an egalitarian family — our nanny has the ~~plague~~ flu and so Evan and I are splitting care-taking duties 50/50. On the positive, this means extra time with Sophia — can’t beat that.

Cookery Flavors Life

Category: <span>Cookery</span>

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