Orange-Avocado Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Orange-Avocado Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

1 head of lettuce (boston, bibb, or Romaine depending on how much crunch you like – this would also be great with baby spinach)
1 small can of mandarin or clementine oranges OR 3 clementines peeled and seeded
tamari or sugared almonds
1 avocado

Toss with poppy-seed dressing (I used a creamy one) and serve.

Note: We served this with grilled filet mignon, couscous salad, tomato-mozzerella salad, and a baguette.

My Grandmother’s Teacups

     

I couldn’t resist posting these images of Anna drinking tea from my grandmother’s beautiful bone china tea cups. They’re vintage from 1950s England, and I simply adore them! As a little girl I always admired them so much, and when she passed on, she left them to me. When I showed them to Anna, she squealed with delight, and it made me think I should try to use them more regularly. They’re just too beautiful to sit in a cabinet for safe-keeping.

Homemade Parmesan Pepper Crackers

Oh Lord. Homemade crackers with goat cheese and hot pepper jam.

The Magpie and I invited Russell and Anna over last night. Russell is joining our department at MIT as a post-doc from Oxford University, and Anna is currently our deparment’s Creative Manager. Russell has studied children’s interactions with technology for a number of years now, and it’s exciting to have him with us. Anna has an amazing history as an experimental video artist and youth video producer; I simply adore her – her creative spirit and energy is contagious.

Anna brought beer, an incredible couscous salad, and her boyfriend Mike, who is a visualization scholar/artist/philospher. He is another of the bright minds who works in our group, and it was great to have him as well. I’ll try to get the couscous salad recipe to post on here – it is Anna’s signature dish.

I decided simple yet complex hors d’oeuvres were in order for this crowd. We put out bowls of pistachios and dates, and I made homemade parmesan crackers. We topped this with a pepper coated goat cheese from the Davis Square Farmer’s Market, and Stonewall Kitchen’s Hot Pepper Jelly. I used Ina Garten’s recipe for the crackers – not as easy as I thought because they are very crumbly before freezing.

     

Parmesan Pepper Crackers (adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten - The Barefoot Contessa)

1 stick butter (Ina calls for unsalted)
3 ounces grated Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese 
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme) 
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

I put the butter on the counter to soften at about 9am; I started making the crackers at about 10:30am. Beat the butter a little bit with your mixer (if you don’t have time to leave out the butter, then you will have to beat it longer until creamy). Add all the remaining ingredients and beat until dough is coming together in a clump.

Ina calls for us to dump the dough on a lightly floured board and roll into a 13-inch long log. This was easier said than done. The dough is fragile, and kept trying to split in half on me. I ultimately ended up with some crackers that weren’t quite as pretty as the ones Ina made. 

When you have got a 13″ log (or two 6-7″ logs), wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden. When you put them in the freezer, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

When the thirty minutes have passed, cut the log crosswise into slices that are somewhere between 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick. I tried to do them closer the 1/4″ so that I could have more. Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake for 22 minutes at 350.

When they have cooled, you could try a range of toppings. I thought pepper jam and fresh goat cheese sounded good, so that’s what we did. Delicious!

Basic Tomato Mozzerella Salad

 

 

Tomato Mozzarella, Bonita (fish), Roasted Asparagus, Jersey Corn

When I cook for guests, I usually like to make a few really simple things while only dealing with one complicated dish (even less if it’s people I need to spend time with). This is one delicious simple dish!

The Magpie and I went down to the Jersey Shore this weekend to visit with Barb and Rob. Barb is a phenomenal cook and shared some of her recipes with me (though I haven’t yet asked her if they can appear on my blog!) One of her standard summer dishes is Tomato-Mozzerella Salad. We made it on two consecutive nights: for my Aunt Jane & Cousin Meg, as well as our friends from New York, Jenn & Andrew, Michelle, and Courtenay. 

     

   

Tomato Mozzerella Salad

Serves 6.

[Note: This recipe can serve as many people as you like. I would estimate about half a tomato per person of the big Jersey beefsteaks.]

 

The only real secret to this recipe, like so many simple recipes, is good quality ingredients.

3 big beautiful Jersey tomatoes (or whatever tomatoes you like)

fresh mozzerella (usually from a deli) – we used one about the size of a fist

fresh basil leaves (8-12)

olive oil

salt and pepper

 

Slice the tomatoes into 1/4″ slices discarding the very top and bottom, and cutting out any tough cores that you find. Slice the mozzerella to 1/4″ or a little thinner. Arrange on a pretty platter alternating the slices.

 

Take all the basil leaves together and stack them into a pile, roll into a little tube (to make them long, not short). Slice them into thin slices [this is called chiffonade I believe]. Hold the sliced basil about a foot or two over the plate and let fall into a pretty presentation.

Drizzle olive oil in a gentle spiral and salt and pepper the beauties. I think this is better served at room temperature, but refrigerate it if you aren’t eating right away.

Final note: This is a great recipe to assign to a guest who wants to help in the kitchen!

Breaded Zucchini a la Aunt Ellen

One of my favorite people on the planet is my Aunt Ellen. She has been one of my heroes since I was just a little girl, and has maintained that status my whole life. For starters, she has done a million jobs ranging from restaurant owner to innkeeper to her current work as newspaper editor/writer/blogger.  Ellen is an amazing photographer and a phenomenal cook, but she shines brightest as an aunt to five kiddos by blood, seven kiddos by marriage, and an uncountable number of friends’ children. 

Ellen is now writing a food blog for CNY Link, which is focused on Central New York; her blog can be found at this link.

She just sent me a piece she’s writing about breaded eggplant. It’s fabulous. However, The Magpie doesn’t love eggplant, so I thought I might try to modify her recipe for zucchini.

Breaded Zucchini a la Ellen
serves two as a side dish

2 zucchini
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan
olive oil
salt and pepper
canola oil for frying

Cut the zucchini into 1/4″ to 1/2″ slices, then salt and pepper them.

On a sheet of wax paper, combine the breadcrumbs and parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste.

Put a good coating of canola oil on the bottom of a frying pan (I used a stainless steel pan, not a non-stick). and heat up over medium heat.

Meanwhile, toss the zucchini in olive oil just to coat, then toss in the breadcrumbs to lightly coat them.

Place zucchini in hot oil – it should sizzle but not pop and burn you when you put the zucchini in. For my zucchini, it took about four minutes on the first side to brown, and then about three on the other. I flipped the zucchini one at a time with tongs, tedius but less mess. I removed the slices from the pan and drained them on paper towels; I didn’t want to put the sizzling side down, so inverted them again as  I took them out of the pan one at a time.

We served this with grilled flounder from the Jersey Shore, as well as rice pilaf with peas and lemon.

Sunday Mornings at Crema Cafe and the Farmer’s Market

 

Crema Cafe in Cambridge

Lately The Magpie and I have been spending Sunday mornings at Cafe Crema, a lovely little cafe here in Cambridge owned by a couple of gals in their early twenties. They make their baked goods on premises, and we both like their range of French goods the best as well as their homemade English muffins and quiche. Magpie is addicted to their mochas (see below). Since we’re dogsitting we brought Rusty with us and ate outside. Rusty likes quiche, ham & cheese croissants, and Irish breakfast tea with milk!

          

Next we headed to the Farmer’s Market at the Charles Hotel, but we didn’t buy much because we’re headed to the beach for a long weekend on Wednesday!

 

Laurie’s Incredible Salads

We are dog-sitting for our friends Laurie and Paul. Little Rusty is with us this week.

      

 

I’ve now had two different salads that my friend Laurie makes, and I am smitten. She uses two types of Boston lettuce (red and green), fruit, nuts, cheese and protein. She admitted to me she only likes salad with lots of things in it, and that she secretly believes that you can throw in anything to a salad and it will still be healthy.

Salad one that she made was a side salad, and had sliced almonds, raspberries and goat cheese.
Salad two was a main course for a lunch she made me, and had sliced almonds, craisins, dried apricots, sliced turkey, and Stilton cheese with apricots. Both were amazing and served with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.

I’m planning to experiment with her fruit-nut-cheese combo and try some new salads myself!

Plum Cake

Plum cake

The Magpie and I were invited for an incredible homemade Thai dinner at Susan and Fred’s home tonight. I had offered to bring something and she suggested dessert. Because I knew we’d be having rich coconut milk Thai curries, I thought something like a tart dessert, such as a lemon pie might be good. In our house, we had lemons, limes, plums, peaches, blueberries, raspberries and dates as options. After looking through a bunch of recipes, I decided to cook something new from the Simply Recipes site run by Elise, as her recipes are so consistently good and do-able.

I adopted this recipe from Elise’s “Plum Upside Down Cake“. We used delicious tart Damson plums rather than Santa Rosa plums, and made a single large cake rather than the individual cakes Elise called for. The cake took about 35 minutes to cook and had a nice brown color.

I think Elise must have done nice thin fruit slices like on a tarte tatin, as her recipe only called for four plums in the ramekins. We just halved them and it took about 10 plums to do a full 9″ cake pan.

What I loved about this cake was the thin layer of cake, the fruit layer on top, and the carmelized butter and brown sugar topping. The plums just tasted so good.

I made one stupid mistake with this cake, which was that I used a springform pan instead of a regular pan and ended up having some of the butter burn and carmelize on the pan.

Simply Recipes Plum Upside Down Cake (modified)

Ingredients

Cake base (which becomes the topping):

• 3/4 stick butter (6 Tbsp)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp brown sugar, firmly packed
• 10 plums, pitted and sliced

Cake layer:

• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Zest of 1/2 an orange
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 Tbsp milk plus 2 teaspoons milk and 1 teaspoon lemon juice, combined
• 3/4 cup All-Purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• Pinch salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the side walls of a 9″ cake pan.

Cake Base.
Melt 3/4 stick of butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and whisk until smooth. Pour into the prepared cake pan.
Cut plums in half and place them in concentric circles on top of the brown sugar butter – it’s piping hot, so please be very careful.

Cake Base will become the pretty cake top.

Cake Layer.
Combine milk and lemon juice in a small bowl (this will make the milk curdle), and set aside while you do the other stuff. Note: you could substitute 5 Tbsps of buttermilk if you have it on hand (which I never do).
Use an electric mixer to beat together the 4 Tbsp butter with the granulated sugar and orange zest. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix to combine. Alternately add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt) and the lemon soured milk mixture to the batter.

Right before baking.

Baking.
Pour the batter onto the plums taking care to spread gently. The pictures show that I used a springform pan, but do not use it as the butter mixture bubbled out of it. A normal 9″ cake pan will work best. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until cakes are firm to the touch, and a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center does not come out with raw batter on it. (Might be wet from plum juice.) Turn the cake pan around half-way through the baking to ensure an even baking for all the cakes.
Remove from oven and let cool on a rack until no longer hot to the touch. (We had to run to the party so I cheated and let mine cool in the freezer for about 15 minutes.) Invert onto a plate and gently lift off of the plate.

Quick Pesto

The Magpie and I are thinking about buying a new car, and today we went to a dealer to try our hand at negotiation. We learned something about our style, but it wasn’t exactly relaxing. When we got home, we just wanted to put our feet up and take it easy, especially since we were still car-free.

But of course we needed dinner, too, so I went to the kitchen to make a quick pesto over store-made cheese tortellini.

Quick Pesto

1 large bunch of basil (I had about 6 tall stalks)
3-4 ounces Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
1/3 cup mixed nuts (I used a few Marcona almonds and pine nuts)
olive oil
salt and pepper
special ingredient: about 1/4 cup pasta water

I use a food processor to make pesto because anything else is maddening. First I grind up the parmesan cheese.

Basil before being ground.

Then I add the nuts, blend it to taste, season with salt and pepper. Pesto is really customizable, and you could add some spice, other greens like arugula, other nuts, etc.

Big spoonful of Quick Pesto on the hot tortellini

I add a big spoonful to the hot pasta, toss it around gently (so as not to tear the tortellini) then serve it up to The Magpie!

Quick Pesto and Cheese Tortellini

And so it begins…

By now it’s been years of me clipping articles, marking up cookbooks, collecting friends’ recipes, creating recipes based on television shows. Lately I’ve just been jealous of food bloggers and wanting to start my own collection. Time to start documenting since I rarely write it down or replicate.