Weekend Food 11/19-11/21

lots of cookin here this weekend. Chorizo and potato tacos made way for nachos, topped with a sweet and spicy corn salsa. On Sunday I started my holiday baking, ate some cheese, and stuffed a pumpkin full of chorizo and kale. It was delicious. What did you do this weekend? More...

Weekend Food 11/12-11/14

Back in the kitchen and it feels so good.  

This weekend we were home, which is always when the best kitchen activity happens. Breakfast in many forms, crackers and cheese made into a meal, with jalapeno laced Vermont cheese and an ice cold Gewurztraminer. A homemade pizza with arugula pesto and caramelized onions, and a mess of sweet potatoes - transformed into sweet potato based goodies - made their way in a long parade through the oven and over the stove top. Looking ahead this week I'll be sharing some hearty sweet potato pecan muffins, and a sweet potato gnocchi. The gnocchi, for all the hype about its supposed difficulty, was incredibly easy. Made up of part skim ricotta, roasted sweet potato puree and whole wheat flour, then kissed with nutmeg and sage, they were delicious served in just a little local butter and some thyme from our window herb garden. The past few weeks have been crazy as I prepare to leave my long time and well loved job for a new position, and a new start. Its been stressful and to say it was emotionally taxing is an understatement, but after a weekend in our kitchen, stirring and baking and rolling gnocchi with the man, I feel more grounded, and ready to meet new challenges and stresses head on. More...

Weekend Food: Halloween Edition...

Our best trick or treater, by far, was the little boy dressed as Santa. Hilarious. This weekend I 'roasted' a chicken in my crockpot, atop some carrots and small potatoes. It fed us pretty much all weekend, reinventing itself into a chicken and pasta tossed with walnut parsley pesto, and then a chicken stew topped with parsley studded biscuits. The stew didn't turn out as beautiful as I had hopped but it was delicious, and while the man and I took turns handing out candy to Boba Fett(s) and princesses we sat around the kitchen eating (multiple) bowls of the stuff and watching what could be called the most ridiculously bland vampire movie ever... Tonight I'll be turning our pumpkin seeds into a roasted snack, (I was told they need a day to dry out) and eating another solo dinner, (hopefully not just candy!) since the man is out of the house...any suggestions? More...

Weekend Food 10/22 - 10/24

Just some snaps.

 

Running low on time so here's just a quick peek into the weekend in Kitchen75. Lemony drinks, a cranberry tart (look out for a post!) and pumpkin black bean enchiladas. Not pictured here was some delicious Indian take away, (tandoori chicken!) and some cranberry almond five spice scones, I'll post those ones up for you this week. More...

Weekend Food

This weekend was 'use it up weekend'. The man and I went out and did something I consider a major step toward adulthood: we bought our first appliance: a fridge. The sales guy at Sears even teased us about it. "Is this your first appliance?" Yeah, it was that big a deal for me. Our old fridge was literally twnety - plus years old, it wasn't energy efficient, and it wasn't going to make it to next summer. So out we went, three times, to price and hem and haw over eighteen cubic feet of cold storage. In the end, we ended up at the Sears counter, totally overwhelmed and just ready to Buy. A. Damn. Fridge. In the end we actually did a good job picking one out, I think.  It came on Sunday morning, and its shiny, its white (not, ahem, 'bone' colored like the former one) and maybe most importantly, I experienced what it is like to really see what it is we eat.

Seriously, all laid out on our table. I wasn't that shocked, organic meats, wedges of cheese, four different kinds of hot sauce...all that I know about. The four jars of pickles, suprised me. All the greek yogurt did too. I'd apparently been hoarding it in the back of our refrigerator, in order to stage a yogurt culture based bid for world domination. I'll come back to cleaning the fridge later this week, as I've signed up for Apartment Therapy's Kitchen Cure (its only been six months since I got my own kitchen and it needs a cure. Thats only a little sad)  On the menu this weekend was a whole lotta leftovers, salmon burgers rescued from the deep freeze, eggs, and fruit. I also made my first loaf of toasting bread. You'll get to hear about that tomorrow. More...

Long Weekend Edition

I had Monday off, in honor of Columbus Day. Nenner-neener.

The long weekend found us in New Hampshire, visiting my parents. We were pumpkin picking, apple cider donut eating, and generally enjoying fall sunshine in scenic New England (the foliage is so much better up there). It was too cold for an outdoor fire, which is a sign that fall is really settling in. When its thirty eight degrees at 8pm, you know winter is around the corner....and you can justify eating three (three!??) meatballs. They were small, sort of...The man went into his office on Monday, and that left me to my own devices, making chicken stock in a crockpot, and then turning it into a delicious soup, (one you'll hear more about later this week!) Not photographed (in typical bad blogger-style) was Friday night's taco party. We had guests coming for dinner, and I had no idea what to make. The man put a vote in for chicken tacos, and since I couldn't think of anything else, (and because on a Friday night when you get home from work at 6 and dinner is at 7, you need something fun and quick) tacos won out. I was actually glad that they did, I hadn't time to marinate the chicken we were planning to use, I devised a sort of 'dry - rub' before we put it on the grill. It was a (suprising) hit, and I'm thinking of toying with it on a smaller scale...chicken wings perhaps...? Leftover jalepenos and cheese made an appearance on Saturday's 'huevos rancheros' in the first picture. I bought the man some poaching cups, and now there will be poached eggs...on everything. Forever.

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Weekend Food

A busy weekend in and out of the house. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off all weekend. I couldn't make the farmers market. I didn't get my pate brisee ready for Tuesday's mustard tart. I honestly can't remember what we did Friday night. Seriously. It may have involved pizza and the Home Depot. Its fuzzy. Thankfully by Sunday afternoon things had quieted down somewhat and I managed to visit the chain grocery store. Chilled to the bone, and inspired by some Italian prune plums on sale, I decided we needed spicy food to warm us up and a spicy-sweet cake to finish the night. Enter leftover asian spiced chicen and rice noodles from the previous nights dinner, plus some veggie stock, and aromatics, it became a spicy warming soup.We followed it up with a ginger laced plum upside down cake. I ate it for breakfast again this morning. Sturdy and spicy and only mildly sweet, it tastes like fall. Lookout for a post on this lovely dessert (or, ahem, breakfast) later this week. More...

Weekend Food

A little peek into the kitchen over the weekend. A pizza made with tomatoes from my uncles garden and banana peppers, some lemon chicken with kalamata olives over israeli couscous, and a Sunday morning omellete featuring more of those garden tomatoes. I’m trying to get as much of them in as possible, before they go back to being those tasteless red lumps in the grocery store.

On Sunday our neighbors invited us to join them for a party, and we stuffed ourselves (I’m still full!) with Samak bi Tahini, Kafa, and Kabobs. They have a condiment made only of garlic cloves, lemon juice and salt, its the consistency of mayonnaise, and its not at all as strong as you would imagine. I think it would make a delicious sandwich spread. In any case it was all delicious, and there was so much of it, they must have prepared for days. These neighbors are more than we could have ever dreamed of when we were moving in to the cottage. They are so full of life. More...

Weekend Food: 9/17-9/19

This weekend was crazy, busy, and cold. We ate on the run almost all weekend. It was breakfast in the car, lunch standing at the kitchen counter, dinners at 9pm. As a result, alot of pasta was consumed. Its easy, it can be tossed with whatever is languishing in the back of the fridge, and if you pair it with salad, you don't feel so bad for eating a big pile of wheat. I have to be honest, I hate the being that busy. I want weekends to be relaxing. Especially when the crisp air of fall sets in, when walking home from the train at night becomes walking home at dusk. I want to read, leisurely mosey around making tea, and to make soup. This past weekend was not that idyllic fall weekend. We were in 2 states, went to bed at 4am, and were a total physical waste by Sunday night. Thank god someone else made dinner. (What? I made salad!) We got to have a delicious dinner with my family to celebrate a very special birthday for my now teenaged cousin. (The cake, I think gives it away)

 This week I'm hoping to be a bit more creative with my meals. I did a little spice shopping, and some reading. I feel ready.

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