Birthday Party!

All week I thought about the menu for my birthday party. I knew I just wanted to have a BBQ, but I felt like I had to make it special. I worried about the vegetarians; I considered fish tacos; I toyed with making extra dessert (i.e. in addition to birthday cake). Then I realized that as much joy as I get over preparing food and sharing it with friends, I really needed to focus my energy on enjoying my birthday and not stressing out. So I (eventually) relaxed.

There were no culinary masterpieces...at least not made by me. The baked brie was made by a dear friend upon my special request, and it was greatly admired and appreciated!

Here's the brie before the oven:
And after being attacked by revelers:

Here are some photos from the spread, regrettably absent: my spectacular (half carrot-half chocolate torte) birthday cake and the bison burgers. Take my word for it, Yum! In their place, a photo documenting my boyfriend's sense of humor. You'll know it when you see it...it's also the last photo. Oh, ethnic grocery stores.

Cookbook Birthday Presents

Do my friends know me well, or what?!

I am so excited to get in the kitchen with my two new cookbooks, The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham (today's Fannie Farmer) and Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert.

My mom has a shiny gold copy of The Fannie Farmer cookbook. It always seemed slightly magical in its shimmeriness. I imagine my mom's copy used to have a dust cover on it, but it was long gone by the time I ever saw it. (Its chocolate chip cookie recipe is our family go-to.) Marion Cunningham is responsible for editing the Fannie Farmer cookbook in 1979...so maybe my mom's copy predates Cunningham's contributions. Several Christmases ago my mom gave me my own copy of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (the Cunningham edition) along with Joy of Cooking.

I'm particularly looking forward to having friends over for brunch so that I can try Cunningham's Shirred Eggs with Mixed Herbs (eggs cooked in the oven in little ramekins or a muffin tin), Bridge Creek Fresh Ginger Muffins, Rhubarb with English Custard, and Chocolate Walnut Butter Bread French Toast, and everything else!

Simply in Season is organized by season with straightforward, one-page recipes that highlight produce that is...ahem...in season. So basically, its title is incredibly descriptive. I can't wait to make its Rhubarb Muffins (I'm really pining for rhubarb these days.), Velvety Vegetable Soup, Shiitake Mushroom Pasta, and Sesame Chicken Couscous Salad (peas!). I haven't even peeked at the Summer section. Patience is a virtue.

Food Friday: "Going Green" - for Dinner?

Here's a thought-provoking blog post from a good friend of mine working on nutrition and food safety issues...
Food Friday: "Going Green" - for Dinner?

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Buttery Risotto with Portobello and Parmesan

In an effort to make some comfort food on Sunday night and also clean out the cabinets a bit, I found this recipe on Epicurious. I adapted it to use Arborio rice because I discovered that the barley I have in the cabinet is not pearl barley, and would likely have taken to my 30th birthday to cook.

While trying to discern if I had pearl barley or not, I learned more about barley than I suspect many health food store employees know. (That's not to disparage very knowledgeable and helpful health food store employees!) Now I am 75% sure that the Goya barley in my cabinet is hulled barley (aka barley groats), but of course the package only says "barley," hence my uncertainty. Hulled barley is more nutritious than pearl barley because it is less processed/refined (not sure of the correct term here); only its outermost hull has been polished off. However, pretty much the only use for hulled barley is in stews and soups. And I like stew...but Sunday I wanted to throw some grains, butter and cheese in a pot and call it dinner.

This was the first time I've ever scraped the gills out of a mushroom. My initial reaction was that this sounded really fussy, but I figured out pretty quickly that the gills would have discolored the risotto, probably making it an unappetizing gray color. Point taken.

I would use more portobello next time (this was about 6 oz). Since I cut the amount of grain ingredient in half, I sort of made a half recipe, but I kept the portobello at full force. There are just never enough mushrooms. I'm frequently disappointed by the shrinkage of mushrooms.

Baaaaa! It's lamb season.

First grilling of the season!

These lamb loin chops came from the incredible little emporium of local grub, Maple Avenue Market in Vienna, VA. Its owners, Chris and Sara are also among the forces behind On the Gourmet, which, by the way, outfitted my first date with my boyfriend. He's got good taste (paté, goat cheese and flatbread crackers) and entrepreneurial foodie friends.

He was also responsible for preparing these chops with a combination of bbq sauce, balsamic vinegar and pepper and grilling them to perfection.

I've been left wanting more lamb! BAAAAA!

Salads and Vinaigrette

Spring has sprung and the lettuces are growing. I signed up for a month of Arganica and ordered the $25 fresh picks box last week. I got a lot of green stuff: lettuce, spinach, chiles, sprouts, celery, cilantro, two tomatoes and two apples. I wasn't expecting to get non-local produce, the apples and celery were organic but were packaged/labeled. Oh well...I think I'll wait until the summer to try being a better locavore. For what it's worth, I searched for some more local asparagus at the grocery store the other day. I bought the asparagus from Californian among the Mexican bundles. CA is more local than Mexico, right? Hmm....that's a stretch.

Vinaigrette has always been my favorite salad dressing. Growing up my mom used to make her own "oil and vinegar" and keep it in a corked bottle in the fridge. We usually had a few other salad dressings on hand but the oil and vinegar was everyone's favorite. This week I made vinaigrette with apple cider vinegar, olive oil and some grainy dijon mustard. Putting dijon in my salad dressing makes me feel French.

Here's a salad (adapted) from the Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells, a book I received from my college roommate while she was living in Paris. So simple: Spinach, avocado, bacon and vinaigrette. I made this two nights in a row! And ended up eating (with help from my bf) an 8 oz package of bacon in 4 days. Have I ever mentioned how much I love bacon?

Hello, Kitty!

Look at what my supremely creative friend made for a karaoke party!
Hello, Kitty!


Piston would like to know if you make custom cakes.

Honey-Orange Glazed Carrots

Searching for something to compliment hummus and fill a pita without going to the grocery store, I found it in this dog-eared recipe from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I only roughly followed the recipe, using about 2 instead of the 5 cups of carrots and trying to cut down the other ingredients appropriately. I've decided this recipe is pretty foolproof, and any recipe that calls for ginger just ends up tasting great in my book.

The hummus I made a week ago--it's hiding in the recesses of these pita pockets--is also a Barefoot Contessa recipe, too sesame-y for my tastes (I'll try reducing the tahini next time). After photographing and tasting this sandwich, I poured a little Indian chutney inside, which, though complicating the flavors, felt like an enhancement. This sandwich is something that would never be on a menu (too many different flavors mingling in incompatible ways: sesame, orange, ginger, chile...), but it hit the "good enough" mark for a fridge-clean-out meal. On second thought maybe the chutney was just masking the ridiculous combination of flavors...at least it looks nice, right?

Mia's Pizza

I have been trying a lot of new restaurants in the last few months, and since they influence my attitudes towards cooking and eating (obviously), I hope to start reporting on these experiences more regularly. They won't be reviews, or at least not anything comprehensive or well-written enough to qualify as such!

After hearing about Mia's Pizza in Bethesda for awhile now, I had the perfect opportunity to try it out before a show at the nearby Music Center at Strathmore. There was some focaccia and meatball appetizers gobbled up before I arrived (not even an empty plate or crumb when I got there). Then we ordered the alsace pizza: pancetta, gruyere cheese, parmesan, caramelized onion & thyme. I think I could eat caramelized onions at every meal (so I should probably learn how to make them), and Mia's onions were my favorite part of the pizza.

This pizza, along with a handful of others at Mia's, comes without sauce. At first I didn't miss it much (I was pretty hungry!), but my boyfriend took the time to ask our waiter/the bartender if all the pizzas came sans sauce. Many do have sauce, the menu lists it if they do. D'oh! Guess we should have picked up on that. The pizza was good, but I will definitely order one with sauce next time. Three of us split the pie, but the guys had had appetizers (and I finished off the meal with dessert), and most people in there seemed to be ordering a pie a piece.

The pièce d'résistance of my meal was the challah chocolate chip bread pudding served with crème anglaise. Moist, but not soggy, chocolatey, but not overwhelming, this was some of the best bread pudding that I've ever had (after my mom's cranberry chocolate croissant pudding). It was served in a deep oval ramekin, which I am now coveting to recreate this recipe. I took the first bite without the sauce, but was told by a friendly server not to forgo it. I poured a little on at time, akin to my pancake syrup method, not wanting to over-sweeten what was already perfect. The sauce also cooled down the piping hot pudding. The chocolate chips were suspended throughout the whole serving, and the whole thing had the perfect amount of moisture without being soggy. There were a few wet spots and a few dry spots, but not too many to feel that the texture was inconsistent. It is bread pudding after all. I feel that I'm not describing it adequately, so if you live in DC, you should just go eat it. It will convert even those weary of bread pudding.