Cobbler

This peach cobbler was a delicious way to use up our ~3lbs of CSA peaches! The ginger made it particularly yummy!

a day in the sun

We ate cheese, walked by the river, had a little pick-er-nick and did some knitting (me) MIT OpenCourseWare (him), bought some more cheese, and walked home. What a glorious day!

Adventures in CSA-ing: Episode 1

Today we collected our first batch of fruit and veg from our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I even volunteered at the stand! And contrary to expectations, it wasn't all swiss chard! We got: a small bag of snow peas (mangetout), a bunch of kale, a bunch of the most amazing rocket/arugula I've ever tasted, a bunch of swiss chard (of course), a head of lettuce, a bunch of spring onions, a little pot of planted coriander/cilantro and chives, 3 garlic scapes and a large punnet of incredibly tasty strawberries. Of all of that, the garlic scapes were the one thing I had never come across before. A quick google led me to a pesto recipe and another to one that combined both the scapes and the arugula. Super easy. And super tasty. I just cooked up some fusilli and stirred the pesto in. We ate it with the mangetout, blanched and tossed in butter, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Yum. A quick search of smitten kitchen also led me to this very quick and easy strawberry cake. Did I mention yum? All in all, a pretty successful first CSA share I think. Well, as long as I come up with something to do with that swiss chard!

Pancake Tuesday!

Buckwheat pancakes (this recipe) filled with prawns and a sauce based on the Jamie Oliver's fish pie. Yum!

I filled the leftover pancakes with Cadbury's milk chocolate (for Simon) and Nutella (for me)! Double yum!

Flan de Coco

This was not bad at all, for a first attempt. Next time I'd like it a little more coconut-y. Yum.

sixteen | hot cross buns

Hot cross buns, hot cross buns...

...one-a-penny, two-a-penny...

...hot cross buns.

From this Nigella Lawson recipe. They were not a complete success, but not a failure either. I've been having a lot of trouble with yeast-based breads. The dough just doesn't rise like it's supposed to. I've been advised to try mixing the dry yeast with a little warm water and sugar and letting it sit for 10 minutes before mixing it with the flour. I'm definitely going to give that a try next time!

Happy Easter! We had a yummy and relaxing lunch with friends... but I am very jealous of everyone at home and their day off tomorrow!

fifteen

Quick Saturday salad:
3 tomatoes, seeds removed and diced
A bunch of asparagus, blanched and chopped into 1 inch segments
3 cloves of garlic, chopped (we like a lot of garlic, reduce as desired!)
A handful of basil, torn
A small handful coarsely grated parmesan
Salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil

Delicious with a slice or three of bread!

fourteen | Bircher Muesli

Our new favorite thing to eat for breakfast at the weekend is bircher muesli. Now, there seem to be many recipes for bircher muesli out there on the internets, but what I've been making is based on what we had in the house of a Swiss friend... and seeing as it is a Swiss thing, I'm going to go with stick with her version (or at least, my bastardised version of it)! I think the main difference is that all the versions I have read include soaked oats, but I just include some toasted dry ones.

I never really measure things properly, and this is certainly something that can be pulled together without much regard for measurement. Basically, to make enough for two people, coarsely grate one large apple (I've been using Fuji apples), and squeeze half a lemon over the gratings.

Toast about a handful of slivered (thinly sliced) almonds and a handful of porridge oats. Mix a teaspoonful of honey and about four heaping tablespoons of yogurt (I've been using Fage 2% Greek yogurt) together with the apple and lemon and add the toasted nuts and almonds.

You can also mix in any other fresh fruit that takes your fancy like strawberries, banana, blueberries and so on... I've been adding segments of clementine.

Yum!

seven | not quite

Not bad, but not great. My first attempt at something like these works of art... My big mistake was using a sticky icing/frosting - of course, when I tried to remove the template, it was stuck to the icing, so the sugar ended up all messy and smudged.

I used the chocolate cake recipe from this book. It called for 8 inch cake tins. I only had 9 inch tins, and of course, the cake ended up too dry. Ah well, live and learn.

Happy Halloween!

August

August was a big one, with trips and visitors. Make a cup of tea and settle in for a long post!

It started with some crafting...

July

July was a killer, there's just no getting around it. I know I've moaned about it a lot already but the incessant, unbearable heat is the reason I have very little to show for July! In fairness, it genuinely was the hottest summer on record. We had to renege on our green/frugal principles and buy an air-conditioner (and use it, almost every night!). It really made me question whether I want to live in New York long-term.

Of course, that state of mind didn't last long... how could it, this is New York!? So what did we get up to (when not moaning about the heat)?

We picnicked by the Hudson on the fourth of July, and had a great view of the fireworks...

/

We went to visit Manny in Baltimore, for beer, oysters, guitars, and Lars' awesome jalapeño cairirinhas. Indeed.

/

/

...And there were birthday celebrations, brews, and old-school bowling. Happy days.

Pedal-powered smoothies

Free smoothies, made in a blender that was driven by the back wheel of a bike... on National Bike to Work Day. Awesome!

Success!

Both the race and brunch were a success! Both Simon and I knocked a couple of seconds off our best paces (his a whole minute faster than mine!), and there were happy bellies after delicious boozy french toast, eggs with spinach and mushrooms, winter fruit salad (which I was initially nervous about, due to the presence of anise, but it was amazing and I will be making it again very soon), and of course, Bloody Marys. 

Overall though, the favorites were the Morning Glory Muffins. The recipe (below) is from Joan Nathan's The New American Cooking, a book I picked up a couple of years ago and just love. There's a fantastic mix of recipes from a range of "ethnic American" cuisines (mexican, asian, jewish), as well as a lot of American favorites that I wasn't familiar with before moving here. The recipes were gathered from chefs and bakers all over the US, and each recipe is accompanied by a tale of its origins. Morning Glory Muffins originated in Pam McKinstrey's Morning Glory Cafe on Nantucket. Given that many of Pam's customers were holiday-makers heading out on their boats, the deliciously moist muffin was designed to still be good the day after baking. Enjoy!

Morning Glory Muffins
from "The New American Cooking" by Joan Nathan
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup unsweetened shredded (desiccated) coconut
½ cup raisins
2 cups grated carrots (I put in 3-4 big ones, it's usually more like 3 cups..)
1 apple shredded/grated
1 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
3 large (organic, cage-free) eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Makes 12

Heat the oven to 350 degrees (F), and grease/line a muffin tin. I only have a 6-cup muffin tin so I bake in two batches.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in sugar, then the coconut, raisins, nuts, carrots, apple and pineapple. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Add to the other ingredients and stir well. Fill muffin cups with the mixture.
Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack for cooling.
Eat! I'm sure I don't have to tell you that, as well as being a delicious breakfast, the muffins are really scruptious served hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

You have to start somewhere..

And where better than with this..

Look how fantastically shiny the chocolate filling is before it's cooked! The recipe is from one of my favorite cooking blogs, smitten kitchen. So far, every recipe I've tried from that blog has been absolutely scrumptious - Deb (the author) has a real gift, and her incredible food photography (food porn!) makes my mouth water.

In order to make the tart taste extra good, I did two things: I used these fantastically delicious ginger snap cookies, called Anna's Swedish Ginger Thins (about a packet and a half), and Lindt Bittersweet chocolate (not cheap, considering you need 12oz. But worth it!!).

Before I could snap a picture of the cooked tart, it was all gobbled up with some whipped cream, and washed down with beer, and friends.

So... who am I and why am I here? I'm not 100% sure yet, but I've been in the contemplation phase of blogging for so long now, it's time to be brave and just get stuck in! I really hope to come here as often as I can to write about life and the stuff it's packed with, to help keep track of all the good stuff as it goes whizzing by.