Culinary Adventures – Page 3

Published June 2, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: With Friends, Family and Great Food

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!

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Published May 20, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: With Nuts!

… 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.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors FriendsFamily Hubby Cooks

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.

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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 23, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Elsewhere with Goodies

Having entertained quite a few weeks in a row, we’ve decided to be entertained ourselves and gladly accepted my parents’ generous offer to host us. They always ask us to visit with them offering up amazing food — there and to-go –, free babysitting and general fun as incentives.

As is customary, I couldn’t just show up without anything delicious and so, I brought Chewy Apricot Bars for Friday. The recipe is my own and posted here, based on one I saw a while back on Yammie’s Noshery. They couldn’t be easier to make or more delicious — packing even a bit of healthfulness via the use of oatmeal.

There was all manner of everything home-made, fresh and delicious at mom and dad’s house and we were glad to give our own kitchen and tired hands a break. As much as we wanted to sit around and lounge noshing on blintzes, we also had a few house-calls to make namely visiting with Evan’s family including his grandmothers. It is a bit difficult for Grandmom and Bubbie to travel to Maryland and see us, so we gladly made plans to see them.

And of course, of course, you didn’t think a visit to the Philadelphia area would be complete without a visit to the city of brotherly love itself, right?

We slipped out on Saturday right after the start of Sophia’s nap and ventured into the city to take in some of our favorite neighborhoods and haunts as well as try some new things. The city, like most others, is alive and ever-changing always ready to surprise us with its new secrets. I am quite certain that we haven’t seen temperatures in the high sixties and low seventies since last October!

We visited Northern Liberties to see how much that neighborhood has gentrified and were surprised to find so many new townhouses and condominiums being built. Then, we drove past our old residence in Olde City and into Washington Square West. Society Hill and Washington Square West were bathed in the late afternoon sunlight showcasing their stately homes with great pride. As you stroll, you feel yourself walking in the footprints of history. Perhaps it was the fact that we had time all to ourselves, or maybe the good weather helped uplift our spirits. You couldn’t ask for anything better. I know many of my readers prefer the calm and quiet of suburbia and the countryside but having lived that and having lived in the city, I crave the vibrancy, liveliness and all that Philadelphia has to offer. It is true — you never forget your first [city] love.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Life Mom's Cooking

Published March 20, 2014 by Nadya

The Days of Our Baking Lives

It seems that our poor oven is getting quite a workout lately. I’ve been cranking out confections almost every other day in recent weeks and I am not sure quite where they go. Secretly, I pray that they don’t go on me in the form of unneeded pounds.

Baking is incredibly easy, you see. All you need for most sweets/baked goods are flour, sugar, butter, eggs & flavorings. In our case, we are partial to chocolate and since spring is not quite here yet, I don’t feel the compulsion to break out strawberries and rhubarb just yet. Just yesterday, overripe bananas were staring me down, taunting me really. I decided that I’d had quite enough and made chocolate banana bread.

This is it, hot out of the oven with the chocolate chunks still oozing their molten cacao liquor goodness. Loaves and muffins are among the easiest things to bake since most don’t even require pre-meditation. That is, you need not make the decision to bake ahead of time and bring butter to room temperature, just melt and voila, you’re ready to go. Skeptical about a chocolate banana bread, I was quickly converted by the divine smell emanating from the oven while it baked.

That first slice, while the loaf is still hot out of the oven. Can you imagine how good it was? Irresistible. Obviously the bread won’t stick around long at our house, and so I’ll have to find a new diversion. Until then, here are a few other things that have made cameo appearances in our little kitchen.

Culinary Adventures Dessert

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 3, 2014 by Nadya

A Snow Day

What date is today? March 3rd? Are you sure?

This is what our back yard looked like today. The snow was heavy enough that we both worked from home and tag-teamed childcare. Thankfully, Sophia is pretty good at occupying herself now-a-days. We started the morning with some dancing…

and transitioned to calmer activities like painting.

The end of our workday called for something comforting, something with chocolate — naturally. And so, I whipped up a batch of chocolate muffins. Seems luxurious, right? Well it was. At first, I was worried whether or not the batter would fit into my muffin tins, and then I was worried whether or not the muffins would come out of the tins. First world problems, no?

Turns out, I didn’t have to worry about the muffins coming out of the tins, or their taste for that matter. See for yourself.

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