It has been significantly warmer and muggy around these parts. When the winter chills hit, I forget that the District of Columbia and its surroundings are pretty much one big swamp that gets hot, humid and full of mosquitos come summer time. Usually, the beginning of June serves as an unwelcome reminder and we realize that summer around these parts means early morning/evening walks and hiding out in the comfort of an air conditioner at all other times.
No matter, the weather and the sudden bout of humidity did not deter my sister and her family from visiting.
The kids, despite their age differences played wonderfully together and we all enjoyed great food and great company. Evan and I whipped together a very easy lunch of a summer-vegetable pasta salad and a chicken sausage with sautéed peppers and onions. Sophia was my sous chef.
We deglazed the sausage and peppers with red wine vinegar to cut through the sweetness of the peppers and the richness of the onions. Since the meal was rich and satisfying and the temperatures far too warm, I whipped up a rhubarb compote with home-whipped cream, meringues and fresh berries for dessert… say a non-messy Eton Mess.
Is the weekend really over? Time flies when you’re having fun and we really had a great weekend. The only issue was that it was far too short, or it sure felt that way.
Strawberry picking season is finally here and so we headed to the farm bright eyed and bushy tailed this Saturday morning to pick strawberries. Sophia and I fed the farm animals while Evan picked. Strawberry harvesting is not that easy and it almost feels a shame to cook with any of them once you’ve worked so hard to pick them. We opted against making strawberry pies or cobblers or even ice cream and are just eating them out of hand.
We also had a special treat this weekend in seeing our good friends from Philadelphia. They were enjoying a long weekend in Baltimore and were generous enough to drive a bit further southwest to have dinner with us. Sophia enjoyed spending time with their son who is also two years old.
We also couldn’t pass up a visit from my parents this weekend who re-supplied us with Baba’s famous meat blintzes and other delicious treats. However, my parents weren’t here on just a culinary delight delivery mission. It just so happened that Sunday was our anniversary and we got a chance to get out for a lunch-date while Sophia enjoyed some time with her grandparents.
Alas, since the weekend was rather busy with being out and enjoying company, there wasn’t as much cooking as is typical around these parts. I did choose a Chicken with Cardamom Rice recipe from my Jerusalem cookbook that Evan cooked and it was a-h-m-a-z-i-n-g. Here, see for yourself.
You’re probably thinking to yourselves … “where’s the dessert?” Fear not, there were home-made, extra fudgy brownies and home-made vanilla ice cream, too. It was our anniversary, after all!
I have dreamed of this weather, this spring, this upcoming summer since early December when it became obvious that the coming winter was going to pay us back for the past three mild ones. The appearance of rhubarb signals the beginning of spring. There are few things that are better than this red, juicy and tangy plant especially when packed into buttery doughs and topped with sugary confections.
Bright minds think alike and of course my sister and I had ended up baking rhubarb concoctions this weekend. This was most fortuitous because my parents came to visit us for a few days and ended up being the couriers of our baked goodies. We received a very generous portion of a crispy, tangy and sweet cake topped with caramelized meringue on Saturday
and sent back
this rhubarb snacking cake on Sunday. Since we don’t live too close, we don’t get to exchange our baked goodies too often.
Lets pretend that it is the middle of July and we are in the Amalfi coast enjoying a Caprese salad in the not-so-quiet-any-longer seaside town of Sorrento.
You can almost believe that we were there this weekend from this picture… but alas, the basil is from our garden, the tomatoes are sadly hothouse, but the mozzarella, authentic. This salad dressed in balsamic and a great olive oil from Napa was just enough to transport Evan and me to June 2009 when we visited the Amalfi coast on our way from Rome to Sicily.
A long weekend is just what was needed at our house. A long, leisurely weekend where we could stay-cation knowing that there would be nowhere to rush to and no traffic jams to be stuck in. We prepared well by stocking up on groceries and to-do lists, inviting my parents down for a few days to help with Sophia while we got a handle on spring cleaning. My eyes dance with pleasure every time I walk into my closet now — the shoes all organized, the purses neatly stacked away in their cloth cases.
The weather, too, did not disappoint holding the temperature steady in the mid 70ies most of the time. That in itself is surprising for this area given the time of year. We re-introduced Sophia to gardening this year and she planted her own flowers and a few pea plants. She’s been diligently watering them and everything in the yard every chance she gets.
We also broke out our new sandbox — well, new to us. I can’t say that I am a huge fan of sand boxes, but I know Sophia enjoys playing in one and so we finally got some sand and she had a great time.
The spring cleaning and all that time outdoors surely whetted our appetites for something delicious and Evan didn’t disappoint with his stir fried beef with black bean sauce and fried rice.
The days off flew by too quickly but the end of Memorial Day signifies the semi-official beginning of summer, of great weather, great produce and more time outdoors.
… and not just any nuts, but pistachios and not your average pistachios but ones that come from Sicily. What were we doing with nuts? Making pistachio ice cream of course. The season and everything else going on around here hasn’t slowed down the pace at which we are churning out (literally) delicious goodies.
I used this recipe for the ice cream and ended up shelling the big bucks for the pistachio crema. It makes sense to go to Sicily just to stock up on the pistachio products alone.
We have also embraced seasonality and so Evan whipped up an amazing fish en papillote from a local catch. What could be better than ginger, lemon, scallion and herbs from our very own garden?
All of them steamed with fish in a pocket and topped with asparagus of course.
Delicious as that is… nothing beats time with Grammie and water-play!
There was of course more cooking that this … but most of the other culinary delectables were repeats from our past favorites and I won’t tantalize bore you with pictures.
Whew… and what a busy and delicious weekend it was. I guess we missed being home over the weekend having been gonefor 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.
Effective communication skills are critical to achieving success in our every day lives. The ability to express yourself clearly can make the difference between a successful outcome and one that is less so. The same principles apply not just in our professional relationships, but in our personal ones including parenting.
Sophia has recently ushered herself into the age of terrible two’s or trying threes or whatever you’d like to call it. As such, we’ve had to adjust our discipline strategies to address and cope with this age. We have introduced the words “upset” and “disappointed” to convey our displeasure. Though, as my mother-in-law pointed out, we cannot or rather should not say that we’re upset with her or disappointed in her. Instead, we are disappointed in her behavior and upset with her behavior. It seemed obvious that this is our sentiment, but we have to make sure that we communicate ourselves clearly and that we do not lead her to believe that we are disappointed in her.
Children’s emotional well-being is and should be of the utmost importance and accurate communication is the key to achieving that. I am very glad that my mother-in-law is perceptive enough to pick up on that and help us navigate the sometimes confusing world of disciplining your child. We are not keen on placing children into time outs. In fact, I don’t think we have placed Sophia into a single time out and view the practice as more of a time-out for the parent rather than the child. Instead, we prefer to get down to the child’s eye level and try to talk to them. Sometimes, that works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
And speaking of never being disappointed, though on a completely different topic — here’s the long-missed picture of Evan’s chicken schnitzel he made last weekend after we came back from our weekend away.
The mad dash is what happens when we aren’t home over a weekend. The weekends, you see, are usually designated for me spend a good amount of time cooking and prepping to ensure that I can come home on a weekday, reheat and relax play with Sophia. While we were thrilled to be hosted, unwind and enjoy some great quality time with our friends, we were running around like mad when we got home to bootstrap ourselves for the week, at least a little bit.
Having gotten home at close-to-4-PM, we needed to have dinner on the table within an hour and a half, breakfast and lunch for Sophia (at least) for Monday and tidy up our fairly un-messy home. I won’t keep you in suspense and share that we managed everything we’d planned though I recall collapsing into bed pretty exhausted. One of the ways we are able to manage is that we are each interchangeable with the other for almost any task around the house. For example, on Sunday, Sophia wanted to play with me, so Evan made the most amazing chicken schnitzel, roasted potatoes and asparagus while I unpacked us and started a few loads of laundry for good measure, too.
I couldn’t avoid time at the stove and some pancakes and a chocolate banana bread followed the schnitzel. The wisest decision we made was to pick up a few grocery necessities while visiting our family so that we wouldn’t have to run out to the store as soon as we got in. I am constantly surprised how much variety of food we have to keep at home having Sophia who needs three meals and two snacks a day.
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?
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.
Evan and I whipped together a very easy lunch of a summer-vegetable pasta salad and a chicken sausage with sautéed peppers and onions. Sophia was my sous chef.
We deglazed the sausage and peppers with red wine vinegar to cut through the sweetness of the peppers and the richness of the onions. Since the meal was rich and satisfying and the temperatures far too warm, I whipped up a rhubarb compote with home-whipped cream, meringues and fresh berries for dessert… say a non-messy Eton Mess.
