Category: <span>Cookery</span>

Published August 25, 2013 by

Weekending

Where did our weekend go? “Poof… all gone” as Sophia would say.

We had quite a busy weekend and are facing quite a busy September and October. First things first… inevitably (as this was really a matter of time), Sophia’s social calendar has eclipsed ours. Saturday afternoon marked a first birthday for her friend Anya whose parents hosted a soiree with one of the most delicious spreads I’ve seen in quite a long time. The Georgetown cupcakes didn’t detract from the delicious-ness, either.

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Sophia’s daily outfitting consists of pants and a t-shirt, so this dress was quite fancy, fancy and I must say, my to much secret delight, she loved her girly outfit.

We continued our general business with an outing to Bethesda Row … where I was inspired to cook a gourmet dinner. Busy1

Let’s not kid ourselves, it looks a little monotone. However, it is anything but monotone in the mouth. Hubby’s famous pan-seared shrimp and my Israeli couscous with Dates, Pistachios, Cardamom and Ginger. A whole weekend, lots of fun, lots of yummy food and new experience with new friends — what else can you ask for?

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Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published August 19, 2013 by

Weekending

Why is it that weekends and summer in general, seem to be running by faster than I can ever remember? My parents visited this past weekend and (thankfully) offered some much needed help with Sophia. We seem to have settled into a routine with them — my mom cooks and brings over a cooler-full of some of our favorite dishes and we cook some of our own for my parents to enjoy with us. Grateful to have our hands untied, Evan and I got busy with preparing a healthy/fresh/delicious Saturday dinner. That started off with

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a fresh summer fig and Gorgonzola dolce crostini

Because the crostini was clearly a luscious indulgence, we decided to go light and switch to Asian flavors with Evan’s famous (at least in our family) steamed rockfish with perfumed scallions, serrano and ginger.

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Finishing off the meal with something that’s decidedly summer…

IScreamIceScreamA homemade ice-cream trio. The chocolate on the left, vanilla on the right and fresh, local peach front and center.

I am pretty sure my dad is ready to move in with us just for the ice-creams.

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Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks Mom's Cooking

Published August 14, 2013 by

Baking with Chocolate and Baby

Cookery

Published July 30, 2013 by

Weekending: Tutti Fruity

Weekending is back or rather having a weekend at home and to ourselves is back. First things first… we just had to get to the farm to feed farm animals and, of course, pick fresh blackberries and peaches. Everybody helped!

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Okay, I admit: I didn’t help feeding the barnyard animals. I was on a mission to pick blackberries while everyone else was feeding grass to the llama and its friend, the goat.

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After a much-needed rest from the morning’s exertions, we renewed ourselves with guacamole and went on to cooking dinner. Big on resting and not cooking every weekday, we are into one-pot wonders these days.

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We make a new dish every evening of the weekend and have leftovers for the first few days of the week. Saturday night’s feast was Lemon-Braised Chicken and Beans with Mint Pesto — except that I substituted pine nuts for almonds with Sophia in mind. She has had some tree nuts before and I wouldn’t mind giving her more, but didn’t want to just go ahead and put so much into the refreshing and cooling pesto.

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Yum!

Speaking of barnyard-y … the heavy cream we source is local from cows who graze on open fields and is distinctly richer and more … well … barnyard-y. It made a mean custard-based vanilla ice-cream from my recently acquired ice cream book.

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Cookery Flavors Life

Published June 19, 2013 by

Manly Man Cooking

Hubby Cooks

Published June 15, 2013 by

The State of Our [Garden] Affairs

It has been hot, humid and raining cats and dogs here. The risk of yet another derecho has kept my mind busy with worries. The weather has been quite good for our little garden which has had to fare on its own and is rather overrun by weeds. Who can possibly weed in 90*F weather when the humidity is also 100%? I thought you might like to see what’s going on there after all that rain.

TomatoesFlowering tomato plants. Let us start chanting the “don’t eat my tomatoes” mantra.

PeppersThe peppers are about to flower. I forgot what kind we bought — I like plant surprises.

PeasMy peas gave up on me helping them grow vertically and literally now hold one another up as they climb a loose trellis.

Garden5The herb garden looks delectable and like I need to use that parsley a little bit more. Maybe a chimichurry sauce for this weekend.

SaladeThat’s all arugula and mesclun greens. Help! They’re overgrowing and something is also eating them with vigor.

HomegrownSaladThat’s why the arugula had to become this salad. The Chinese chives are also running wild and rampant in our garden right along the mint. I am pretty sure there is a plant war going on there and the mint maybe winning. Time to help the chives and make a few mojitos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cookery Flavors Gardening

Published June 13, 2013 by

Mother’s Little Helper

Cookery

Published June 11, 2013 by

The Wagon

… falling off the wagon. Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine’s boyfriend accidentally fell off the wagon? I have no weaknesses when it comes to liquor, but chocolates and nuts are a different story. A little over a week ago, my mother-in-law introduced little Sophia to Graham crackers or Grammie crackers as she called them. Who doesn’t like graham crackers? Rich with vanilla and cinnamon notes (can you believe I just said notes?), they are delicious. They are simply sublime with a little bit of peanut butter and if you really want to splurge, top with a thin slice of a banana.

I remembered what I had been missing all these years after sitting down little Sophia for an afternoon snack and a spot of mint tea. Really, who do you know, who loves sweets as much as I do, would be able to sit and watch such deliciousness devoured and not try a little bit? Besides, her latest schtick  is to share her delicious morsels with those around her. She eats and then decides to offer for a taste loudly declaring “Maaamaaa, maaamaaa, eat”. Sophia then promptly deposits a little piece of whatever edible item (sometimes once she licks it… making sure it is good for you to eat) on the edge of her tray and says “‘Dere [there] you go!”

You can’t say no to that… and you can’t say no to peanut butter, graham crackers and bananas — on their own or together in a perfect little tapa. Now… if only I couldn’t say no to a 5 am wakeup and a trip to the gym. Alas… I don’t have a weakness for exercise equipment.

Here’s what happens after we share Grammie crackers with peanut butter, banana and a cup of tea…

Togetherness

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Flavors Funny

Published June 4, 2013 by

A City Girl in A Country Setting

Even though I relished my summers with my grandparents and their garden, I am a city girl at heart. I was definitely reminded of this when I decided to go strawberry picking. That said, I firmly believe that harvesting your own food that makes it that more special. Alas, faced with some free time and good weather, I left Sophia with her Grammie…SunGrammieand ran out to the local farm. Who wouldn’t want to start out their weekend with these views? …

SatStrawbpicking2and head home with these…

SatStrawbpickingonly to turn some of them into this:

StrawbIcecreamAnd that is Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream from my newly purchased ice cream cookbook.

 

 

 

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Flavors

Published June 3, 2013 by

A Family That Cooks Together…

… eats together. It just so happened that both hubby and I bought new cookbooks this past week. We hadn’t planned it and didn’t even talk about it with one another. Good timing though because my in-laws were coming in from out of town. We like to feed them with good food to ensure they’ll be back. Cooking, you see, is something that we both really enjoy especially when we can do so together. Two extra pairs of hands were of immense help with Sophia and allowed us to try something from each of our cookbooks. The results were quite delicious — and not very difficult either.

I tried my hand at dumplings from this book.

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SunDumplings

and can report that they were very successful.

Then… while I relaxed for a few minutes, hubby made cumin beef from the same book. That, with plain white rice was a huge success even with the youngest diners. 🙂

SunCuminBeefMy mother-in-law baked a delicious vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream for us for the occasion of our 5th wedding anniversary. She’s a pro at decorating and we’re pros at … well … cake consumption :-).

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… this has become a tradition and follows the cake she baked when we secretly eloped Quaker style.

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It was quite a bit of cake and so we froze the top heart-shaped layer with the big “5” on it. We’ve been sternly warned that she better not see THAT cake at Sophia’s 5th birthday celebration :-).

 

 

 

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Cookery Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks