A sliver of summer

Last weekend, the weather was crazy-warm.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to get out with the Bachsters and I'm so glad we did because a few days later, it was back in the 30s.  But at least for one day, it was like a little bit of summer.

We explored Blacklick, one of our favorite Metro Parks in Columbus.

We went to the pond first, and saw a turtle and some goldfish.  No dragonflies yet, but I am so ready (and so is my camera)!

After the pond, DH and the Bachsters had a snowball fight in the parking lot.  Did I mention it was almost 70 degrees?

We also hiked in the woods a bit, visited the park's nature center, played on the playground and then went to Graeter's for ice cream.

Just like summer.........only it was winter!

-Cheryl

Book Nook - The Smitten Kitchen

The Smitten Kitchen by Deb Perelman:




The first thing I did when I picked up The Smitten Kitchen at the library was to read it from cover to cover, something I rarely do with cookbooks.  Usually I flip through them, stopping at interesting recipes or photos or stories, but not this one.  I read it first as a book, and then as a cookbook.

Who knew a cookbook could be such pleasurable reading?  Before giving us each recipe, Perelman writes a little story about it.  These little stories are what makes this book so special.  The author is not just giving us a collection of recipes, but recipes with a personal history.  Perelman's writing is full of witty observations, sweet stories about her toddler, and musings about food.  The stories read like blog postings, which makes sense, considering Perelman is the force behind the popular blog smitten kitchen.

In addition to her amusing stories and anecdotes, there are some really great recipes in the book (probably another reason why her blog is so popular).  The peach and sour cream pancakes are really yummy, and an interesting take on pancakes.  They are almost like a pancake-upside down cake hybrid.  I had to use canned peaches since I made them in the middle of winter, but I can't wait to try them again when peaches are in season.  Also from the breakfast chapter, I made greens, eggs & hollandaise, which was good, but a little lemony.  I love the idea of a creamy sauce with eggs, so I'm going to give it another try with less lemon juice.  Also on my list: the cheddar swirl breakfast buns.  They look like cinnamon rolls, but are savory, with cheddar and dill.  I must try these!

Taking something that is traditionally savory & making it sweet (or vice versa) is a theme that comes up a lot in the book.  There's the aforementioned cheddar buns, as well as a butternut squash galette (I think of galettes as typically sweet); buttered popcorn cookies, red wine velvet cake and the shortcakes that use tomatoes and whipped goat cheese instead of strawberries and whipped cream (featured on the cover).  I love this topsy-turvy way of looking at food!

In addition to the pancakes and greens, eggs & hollandaise, I also made the leek fritters with garlic and lemon.  They were a little bland the first try, so on my second attempt, I added gruyere cheese to the mix and they were perfect.  The wild rice gratin with kale, caramelized onions & baby swiss was also excellent, but I was the only one in our house eating it, not sure why.  The recipe calls for 5 cups of cooked wild rice, but I assumed that meant 5 cups of wild rice mixed with regular rice, so that's what I did.  I also used baby swiss and gruyere instead of the Emmantaler cheese, which was pretty pricy at our local store.  I figured you can't go wrong with any kind of cheese and rice!

All of the desserts look great, but I've only tried one: the apple cider caramels.  I made a batch to take to Thanksgiving, but ended up not taking them because DH and I both thought the apple flavor was a little weird with caramel.  However, the strange apple-ness of them did not stop us (ok, mostly me) from eating all of them.  I really should have taken them with me to Thanksgiving and put up a tiny sign that said apple caramels - very tart.  It would have spared me a great many carbs.

Normally I'm a dessert kind of girl, but my favorite chapter by far is the salads chapter (I've failed to mention that all the chapters are organized by course - breakfast, salads, main dish - vegetarian, main dish - seafood, poultry & meat, etc.  You've probably already gathered that, though!).  Two salads in the book have become my old standbys, favorites that I'll probably be making for years.  First, we have kale salad with cherries and pecans.  Oh, this salad is so delicious!  I've started making it with my food processor to speed things along: the toasted pecans go in, followed by the dried cherries, then the kale.  It makes the salad prep go a lot faster and DH and I don't care how our salad looks, because we inhale it anyway.  It's so good.  To quote the author: "we not only ate this salad, we had seconds.  Seconds!  Of raw kale!  Who are we?"  Yep, that's how it is!

The second salad recipe that we've come to know and love is the broccoli slaw.  It's healthy, it got wonderful flavors, and it would be perfect to take to a family get-together.  I often just add florets to it and ignore the part about chopping up the stalk, although the food processor might come in handy here as well.  I've never been a big fan of raw broccoli, but I've changed my tune with this salad.

 
There are so many great recipes from the book that I've tried, and many more on the to-try list, that I have a feeling I'll be referring to this cookbook (for not only the recipes, but also the charming stories) for a long time to come.

-Cheryl

Ice Cream Sundays - {vietnamese coffee}

When I'm in the check out line at the grocery store, I can resist buying the candy bars and I can resist buying the magazines, but I always have to talk myself out of getting one of my favorite treats from those little check-out-line fridges, Starbucks Mocha Frappaccino.  Sadly, my attempts at resistance are not always successful.

And, to my surprise, I've discovered an ice cream that tastes remarkably like my beloved Frappaccinos: Vietnamese coffee ice cream from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.  I would have thought that the regular ol' coffee ice cream recipe from the book would be the one to conjure up Frappaccino yumminess, but something about the Vietnamese coffee recipe is what did the trick.  I think it's the super-sweet taste from the sweetened condensed milk that does it.  I used coffee (as opposed to brewed espresso) in the recipe, so maybe that flavor is what reminded me of the Starbucks version.  I guess it really doesn't even matter - sweet + coffee, that's all you really need to know.

It's a divine treat, and hard to resist.....just like its inspiration.

-Cheryl

At-home dentistry

A few weeks ago, Little Dude came up to me and said "Mommy, my tooth is loose."  Was it ever....it was on the verge of falling out, along with the one right beside it.  Well, his older sister heard this and got right down to the business of getting that tooth out for him.  All afternoon they worked on it:  Little Dude holding his mouth open while his sister (I mean, dentist) wiggled and twisted the tooth.

And that hard work paid off: later that day, tooth #1 came out (followed by tooth #2 a couple of days later).  Our resident dentist stayed with her patient the whole time, even ensuring his recovery was comfortable.  She didn't even ask for payment (the loot from the tooth fairy), only asking for a hug.

If only every dental procedure were so enjoyable!

-Cheryl

Book Nook - The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall:




The Bachsters and I finished The Penderwicks on Gardam Street just last night, so I figured this would be the best time to write about it, while it's still fresh in my mind.  This is the second in the Pendewick series by Jeanne Birdsall (here's the link to the Book Nook post on the first book).  So far, we've really enjoyed this series and have reserved the third book at the library.

In the second book, the four Penderwick sisters (Rosalind, Skye, Jane and Batty) concoct a Save-Daddy-Plan in response to their Aunt Claire's insistence that their widowed father start dating (which was the wish of their mother before she died).  The girls plot to set him up on dates with really horrible (but not too horrible) women so that he will see how awful the dating scene is and they'll never have to face the prospect of a stepmother.  Amidst all this plotting, the girls find themselves in situations like fainting due to stage fright, hiding out in Daddy's car while he's on his way to a lunch date (with none other than Marianne Dashwood), extracting a car battery, foiling a computer thief, realizing your new life's ambition and kissing a boy (on the cheek!).

Just as with the first book, the characters are a delight.  Here, we come to see them on their home turf, which provides more insights into the characters.  Skye and Jane share a room, Skye's side pristine and Jane's an utter mess; Rosalind is in charge often, and even picks up Batty from daycare; Batty insists Rosalind read her a bedtime story each night because she's the best at it - usually it's a story about their mother.

In regards to their mother, there are flashbacks to scenes with her, and I've got to admit, my eyes started tearing up with just about every reference to her or scene with her in it.  As a Mom, it's just unthinkable to not be with your family - ever.  Yet, here the Penderwick sisters and father must carry on without her.  It tugged at my heartstrings every time, and I had to rush to find a box of tissues at the end.

So, while I was asking myself, could I be so selfless as Elizabeth Penderwick was?, I think my oldest DD was asking herself, could I pull out a car battery?  Our other DD was probably asking herself - could I star in a play?  As for Little Dude, he was probably asking - when is everyone going to leave my room so that I can go to sleep? (in his defense, it is a lengthy book).  It's a book we all enjoyed, and are all looking forward to book #3!

-Cheryl

Ice Cream Sundays - {crème brûlée}

I've been so excited to share this recipe with you....crème brûlée ice cream!  It was inspired by an annual tradition at our house - crème brûlée on New Year's Day!

It's so easy to make - start off with the recipe for vanilla ice cream (custard style, not Philadelphia style) from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.  After you churn it, separate the ice cream out into several ramekins and smooth out the tops as flat as you can get them.  Cover each ramekin, then freeze for at least a day.

Then, when you're ready to serve them, take the ramekins out of freezer and cover each with a thin, even layer of granulated sugar.  You can swirl the sugar around and then dump the excess out to ensure it's nice and even.  If you have a kitchen torch, torch them as you would for regular crème brûlée.  Our kitchen torch is out of fuel, so I put mine under the broiler in the oven.  You'll have to put the ramekins in when the oven is cold, then turn on the broiler - this will prevent your ramekins from cracking under a sudden temperature change.  Using the broiler works just as well as a kitchen torch, just make sure to keep a close eye on the ramekins so they don't get too burnt!

If you used the broiler, you'll find the top layer of ice cream has melted, so stick the ramekins in the fridge after you've browned the sugar to your liking.  After about 5 minutes, put them in the freezer, for about 5-10 minutes.  Then, you're ready to enjoy crème brûlée like no other!

 
-Cheryl

Comfort food

I love comfort food in the winter, especially the kinds of food that aren't so healthy: sweets and breads.  But a few weeks ago, I just got into a big comfort food kick, probably due to all the cold, gloomy days.  And even though some (ok, all) of the things I made aren't super-healthy, there is a lot to be said for giving your body just what it craves.

I had not made my homemade soft pretzels yet this season, so I simply had to make them before Spring.  These pretzels would be great any time of year, but are just about perfection in the winter.  They are best right out of the oven, so don't let them sit around too long (don't worry, that won't be a problem).  I like mine with lots of mustard, but I am outnumbered around here on that particular preference. 

(Here's where you can find the pretzel recipe):

I love crisps of all kinds, but since I had lots of blueberries at the time, that's what I made.  And, I used store-bought ice cream (gasp!) but I really wanted to save some time and extra dishes.  It just wasn't the same, but still went beautifully with the blueberry crisp.

(Here's where you can find the blueberry crisp recipe):

I love this recipe for Macaroni and Cheese.  It's so easy to make, and really delicious.  The toasted bread crumbs add a lot to it, so if you make it, don't skip them!  Beware though - I always get carb coma after eating this, because it's so easy to eat way more than I should.  I can't help it - it's so yummy!

(Macaroni & Cheese recipe is from The Best Recipe):

What would a post about comfort food be without breakfast?  This is where I love comfort food most of all - pancakes, waffles, potato casserole........the list goes on and on!  But pancakes are probably tops around here, because I love to make them and the Bachsters love to eat them (seriously, they count how many they've eaten and compare their results with each other).  When I was a kid, my mom would always make us homemade pancakes, and even though she made them fairly often, it was always such a special thing when she did.  I have such fond memories of those breakfasts, that I can't help but carry on the tradition with our family. 

(There are several pancake recipes that we love, but I think this recipe is our absolute favorite):

What are some of your favorite comfort foods?

-Cheryl