Archives for April 2013

Who would have thought.

April 30, 2013 / By Courtney / 7 Comments

It was late on a Saturday afternoon, the sun was out, and it was warm! What a concept. B had just woken up from a lazy nap. After a lot of wet kisses and hugs, a diaper change, and a bottle I took him outside to stroll around and check on what his big brother was up to. His chubby ham hock sized legs were kicking in excitement just like they do anytime we step outdoors.

After a quick scan of the neighboring yards with kids I didn’t see (or hear) L. Hmmm…where was he off to? Oh that’s right – he decided to join the lovely empty nester couple next door on their patio while they enjoyed a cocktail. He tends to make himself at home pretty easily.

I watched from afar with B making sure L was not too intrusive. There was playing around with rocks, sticks, an ipad, and chatting away with ‘the man’ as he has nicknamed him since we moved in (when he was 2). After a little while, I strolled in to say hello.

After B made sure he got as many smiles and compliments as can be the conversation shifted a bit and ‘the man’s’ wife asked if I was staying home with the boys now. As I’ve been trying to be better about doing, I mentioned that aside from the stay at home mom gig I also write a food blog. Her reaction was incredible – she also writes her own food blog!

There wasn’t a moment of silence from that point on. What? When? Why? How? I needed to know the name, the style, is she on social media, how long…etc. Too fun! Who would have thought that I was living next door to a food blogger and a good one at that. In my world, this is better than finding out you live next door to some really cool celebrity like Jennifer Garner, who I would obviously be BFF’s with.

Anyway, her blog is shredded sprout and it is beautiful. Her strength aside from being an amazing cook is food styling and photography which I feel to be my biggest weakness. I am so excited to be able to watch her work and to hopefully learn a thing or two.

Wasting no time, knowing I had a beautiful platter to prepare for company, I asked if she wanted to come by Sunday to style it and snap a photograph or two.

The answer? Well…I mean, look:

How amazing is setting that out in front of your guests? Too fun. I have to say, there are some things I would have styled the same and some things that I definitely learned from. Thank you, Tina, so much!

Now…that recipe, right? This is such a fun spread to put together and aside from the salmon there isn’t really a recipe. So, I will leave you with the salmon and champagne vinaigrette instructions and what I added to the plater. Your creativity can take it from there!

Salmon Nicoise Platter

2013-11-22 19:01:30

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Ingredients for Salmon

Salmon, as much as you'd like to serve
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup dijon and/or grainy mustard
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper

Ingredients

1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions for Salmon

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and set the salmon on a baking sheet lined with foil.
Whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over the salmon. Let it sit for 15 minutes or so. Roast for 12-15 minutes. When cool break into large pieces for your platter.

Directions for Vinaigrette

Whisk the above together and pour over your platter!

Adapted from Ina Garten

A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

We served the salmon with sliced tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, sliced radishes, freshly blanched green beans, baby arugula, yukon gold potatoes, and roasted garlic stuffed olives. Oh and ribeye steaks ‘on the side’, for the men.

Eat up!
C

C’s picks.

April 28, 2013 / By Courtney / 3 Comments

It’s Sunday – you know what that means! Time for this weeks line up. I have a fantastic new cookbook to cook my way through. My little sous chef and I are really excited about it. It’s Curtis Stone’s ‘What’s for Dinner?’ Do you remember this guy from Take Home Chef? He’s kind of hard to forget. Anyway, many of this weeks recipes will be courtesy of him. I mean it’s says on the cover: ‘delicious recipes for a busy life!’ Hello family perfect recipes.

Tonight we will enjoy a beautiful roasted salmon nicoise platter with dear friends. Not to completely disappoint the men, steaks will be on that platter along side the salmon. We don’t want anyone getting cranky.

Monday is supposed to be in the 70’s and only one thing is on my mind. Grilled. Fish. Tacos. With hot purple crunchy slaw, warm grilled fish, homemade pico de gallo. I mean, it just doesn’t get any better. I have Curtis Stone to thank for this recipe.

Tuesday night I find myself dining alone which means I can be totally selfish. Grilled vegetable and arugula salad with goat cheese crostini sounds right up my alley. Glass of wine on the side, to state the obvious.

M flies back home Wednesday so a manly meal will welcome him back. Well, as manly as eating meat in a lettuce cup gets. We’ll be dining on asian beef and crunchy vegetable lettuce cups. Think a fancied up version of lettuce wraps.

Thursday looks to be rainy and cooler and with a 6PM baseball practice I’ll want to fill my red pot with a hearty split pea soup with cheesy croutons earlier in the day. Will be ready to go when we are.

Friday I believe we are celebrating an early Mother’s Day out with my grandma – she is 97. I will leave you with this conversation she shared with my dad.

Dad: So mom, you want to go out for a steak again for Mother’s day? (she has just been out for her birthday).

Grandma: Yes, I do, but not that Stoney River place. I want to go to that place…you know, it has the word ‘fire’ in it….

Dad: Wildfire mom?

Grandma: Yes! Wildfire! It’s much more happening.

97 years old…!

Lot’s of new recipes this week…as always, I will check back in with the make agains.
C

These cookies will change your life.

April 26, 2013 / By Courtney / 17 Comments

Strong statement, right? I’m that confident.

I have to say everyone from the New York Times to Bon Appetit to bloggers across the nation have their opinions on the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.

And I’ve baked my way through almost all of them.

My chocolate chip cookie recipe took three years to perfect and includes hints and tips from a multitude of recipes and experience. I’d never make another version – it just doesn’t get better than this one. Trust me here.

The best part aside from be crazy good? It’s one of the easiest recipes I’ve baked. Nothing fussy here! It’s one bowl (kitchen aid) and I pretty much just roughly measure items. Into the oven they go. That’s it. I have from scratch kickass cookie dough in roughly 5 minutes and I only messed up one bowl! Seriously, it’s too easy. Step away from the pre made dough…

So, I do have to say – I feel like I’m sharing a deep, dark, secret with you by writing this out but hey, I kind of like you guys. (wink wink). I suppose it’s time. Just promise you’ll check back in and let me know if you liked them, ok?

This might be kind of a weird sentence but this recipe means a lot to me.

The best chocolate chip cookies.
Recipe from A Life From Scratch

These cookies start with a bit premeditation. You need 1 stick of unsalted butter and 1 stick of salted butter sitting on the counter for at least three hours. Also, 1 extra large egg. I normally leave them out overnight.

Get out your trusty kitchen aid mixer and drop in your softened butters, 1/2 cup granulated white sugar, 1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla. Beat together on high for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg on mediumish until combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl with a knife if necessary.

Keeping it mixing, add in 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Now comes your flour. You will need 2 and 3/4 cup lightly packed white flour. I use King Arthur. If you want to get technical about it, spoon in the flour to measure so it’s not too compact. If you aren’t a technical person (me!) just go a bit shy of 2 and 3/4 cup. Slowly add it to the mixture until combined, scraping down the side if necessary.

Time for the chocolate chips! People go on and on and on about the quality. Ghirardelli is awesome, but if you’re at a store that sells them for $6 grab the $3 Nestle Tollhouse. It will be just fine. I use 3/4 of the bag. The rest are saved for L’s pancakes. Pour them in and mix on low to combine.

Drop by the TBS (I use this tool) onto an ungreased cookie sheet – I use a Williams Sonoma one that is killer. Top each cookie with a pinch of sea salt. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes and 30 seconds. This time has been perfected over the years according to my oven. You may need a bit more or if you have a freakishly hot oven a bit less.

Remove the tray and let them hang out for a few minutes – make a call, chase the baby, unload the dishwasher, etc. Remove from the tray and let cool on your counter. I don’t use a wire rack.

If you want to keep baking all the dough go ahead. If you don’t have the time it will stay good in the fridge for a few days and you can bake off when you want. I typically go this route, as it’s always nice to have fresh ones on hand. Some people say the dough gets better and better as the egg has the time to do what it needs to do. In my 100’s of taste tests there is no difference, to me.

Well there you have it. That is all my wisdom on the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Let me know if you try it out and hey, what color is your mixer? I’d love to hear! Mine is black.

Eat up,

Help them help you.

April 23, 2013 / By Courtney / 5 Comments

Question: What do all of the above pictured have in common?

Answer: They are all homemade meals that have an optional short cut starting point.

Take the homemade chicken tostadas for example (pictured top left). For awhile, somehow I got a kick on making these on a Tuesday. I would take L to ninja class, walk right past the awesomely authentic Mexican spot, and drive home and fry up some tortillas.

Um…HELLO!

I felt like shaking myself all Jerry Maguire style. HELP THEM HELP YOU. Why was I wasting time frying up tortillas? It added 10 minutes that sometimes we as moms/dads/college students/ceos/teachers, etc, just don’t have. Not to mention it messes up the kitchen!

I mentioned to my good friend that finally I figured it out and picked up the shells and she almost baffled asked ‘they’ll sell those?’

Well, they aren’t exactly on the menu – but believe me, they’ll (and most places) sell anything. I walked out with 5 shells, a bag of plain chips, and went home to finish up the tostadas served with homemade guacamole. Saved prep time and cleaning time. Completely worth the $2.07 I paid.

I’m almost embarrassed it took me weeks to put that together but now that I did – help me help you:

Chicken tostadas: (again, pictured top left). Obviously you know about shells. Another great short cut (mentioned in the recipe post) is using rotisserie chicken. I have a routine of roasting mine earlier in the day (precisely during my walking and bus pick up time with B – 3:20-4:10) but I know not everyone has this option. Rotisserie works great.

Date night in pizza: (pictured top right). Pick up the pizza dough from your favorite pizzeria. Or better yet, pick up an already baked pizza dough. No rolling!

Spring minestrone: (pictured bottom left). Prep the soup and add Trader Joe’s mini chicken meatballs. (Thanks Molly for this great idea!)

Pesto Gnoochi: (pictured bottom right) Store bought gnocchi – couldn’t be easier. Is anyone making this homemade? Oh wait, I have a friend that totally does. And she also just ran the Boston Marathon. I know – impressive!

The best part about all of these? With the helping hand, none take more than 10 minutes to prep. Promise.

Eat up!
C

C’s picks.

April 21, 2013 / By Courtney / 3 Comments

Another week, here we go! B and I are excited to share what we have on our menu:

Today is supposed to be high 50’s so I’m banking on that to grill. I’m going to have some chicken breasts hanging out in a key west marinade. Those will go on the grill along with veggies.

Monday will be another shot at the grill – 64 and sunny, woohoo! Let’s get some healthy turkey burgers going. Hand cut sweet potatoes on the side.

Somehow Tuesday is becoming routine for a Mexican flair so this recipe will be simmering away in my crock pot all day. Have you made it yet? It’s beautiful. Homemade pico de gallo on the side.

Wednesday will be a fresh spring pasta.WF Kildeer’s black forest bacon crumbled on top for sure. Have you tried that stuff? OMG.

Thursday I will get creative with the leftover barbaco beef. A sandwich or round two of tacos for sure. It’s just too good to waste.

That brings us to Friday, and to our pizza.

I know – I still owe you the chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’m trying to figure out exactly how to share it perfectly. I promise to get back to you on it.

So, what’s cooking in your kitchen this week?

Eat up!
C