last party in Virginia

Immediately prior to my move down to NC, my mom decided that we should throw a party. I can only assume that this is because she was so excited I was leaving town. I jest, I jest. It was nice to see old family friends before I started off on the new step. And, of course, having a party at the height of summer is always fabulous because there are so many magnificent fresh produce options to put on the menu.

I made some old favorites, as you’ll see below, but I also tried some new ones. I excitedly read the Smitten Kitchen recipe for Peach and Pecan Sandy crumble.

The farmer’s market peaches were gorgeous.

And the topping, raw, was so good that I had to make more of it because I ate too much… oops!

 

The finished stuff was good but mostly tasted like peach crumble… the pecan lusciousness got lost a bit.

This recipe was an unequivocal hit. The absence of my cilantro-averse sister meant we could make these Green beans with eggs, chiles and cilantro.

WOW. These were really good! Someone said the best green beans they’d ever tasted.

Tons of flavor, and very very fresh tasting. And a very inventive combination that I’d never have thought of on my own.

 

This may look like a simple herb and tomato and onion salad. Because it is.

But, it is the topping for this fabulous falafel stuffed eggplant.

It, and the luuuuuuuuuuuuscious tahini sauce also included in the recipe, rounded out the flavor of the eggplant beautifully and (necessarily) gave it some color and made it considerably less homely. 

I didn’t get any action shots but the meal also included this FABULOUS sweet and spicy watermelon from Edible Perspective, a blog upon which I have been hardcore crushin’.

Basically any time I have people over in the summer, I’m going to make these corn and basil cakes because they are SO EASY and SO DELICIOUS and just taste of summer like nothing else.

 

Plus my mom made another classic, her signature Greek-style potato salad, which gets most of its fabulous flavor from fresh oregano and lots of olive oil.

Plus, my sweet boyfriend (who at the time of this party had already moved down to North Carolina but came back to have fun with us and also help move some of my stuff down like a CHAMP!) also brought something. Witness the most beautiful bread in the history of bread, purchased at the epic Carrboro farmer’s market down here.

It was also SOOOOOOO delicious- wonderfully wheaty and chewy and crisp-crusted.

We had QUITE the feast. Colorful, well-rounded and, somewhat incidentally, completely vegetarian.

  

And let’s not forget the appetizer department, which included yummy eggplant dip (which I threw together from the eggplant “meat” scooped out of the stuffed eggplant, as well as some of the chipotle peppers I put in the watermelon salad); lots of cheese (cause we’re us); unpictured grapes; and some of my leftover homemade tomato focaccia.

   

And the big ol’ feast of a dinner. I was SO pleased with this. There’s something about stuffed vegetables (well, stuffed anything) that instantly makes a meal seem fancier. In truth, these were not difficult. (Well. I say that. I roasted the eggplant and made the sauce and salad toppers, but my mom did the filling and the actual stuffing of the eggplant. So I guess you’d have to consult with her. It seemed not difficult!)

And garnishes impart beauty!

 

My perfect plate. What a scrumptious meal for entertaining. I recommend all of these things!

Easter, etc.

Cookies!

 

Inquiring minds who want to know: oatmeal date nut cookies, which are already vegan, can also be made gluten free. They’re just a little crunchier and snappier, and who minds that?!

I baked those tasty things for a church choir potluck. For Easter! It being June as I write this and Easter, of course, not being a June holiday, let me clarify. I celebrate Orthodox Easter (the Easter of the Orthodox Christian church- if you have Greek, Russian, Lebanese, Romanian, etc. friends it may be theirs, too) and it’s on a different calendar than Catholic and Protestant churches. So it was a LOT later than American Easter. (Though, er, still awhile ago).

So anyway this Easter potluck was so we could practice the complicated and difficult music. Except only five people showed up (and two of us were related). So it was not all that successful, except the food part!

Making the food was actually a fun challenge since for food to be Lent-appropriate, it should be vegan (I don’t eat totally vegan during Lent because of calcium fears, but many in my church do, and the food served at the church itself should be supportive of the church’s official policy, obvi).

It also had to be gluten free (or should be, out of kindness) because both our church’s choir director John and his wife Betty have Celiac disease.

Also, Betty for charming reasons best understood by her had come up to me in the middle of church one Sunday and handed me this pad thai sauce container:

I appreciated her gift, and figured I might as well use it on something I could share with her.

So I cooked up some rice noodles, made some tofu:

threw in some veggies:

And voila, pad thai. Ish. No final picture- it was ugly. But good!

And we also brought, of course, dessert.

But the really exciting dessert was a week later, on Easter itself. Something I have allllllllllways wanted to make? Olive oil cake!

I discovered this scrumptious-sounding if ever so slightly vague recipe for olive oil cake and mostly followed it (subbing a mix of white flour, whole wheat, and semolina for the plain flour) then consulted this overly complicated but methodologically clear olive oil cake for timing (which caused me to let the cake rise for two hours before baking it) and anyway it was great!

Heat some olive oil

Infuse with lemon

 

Plus anise seeds (mm)

 

The recipe wasn’t clear whether or not you were supposed to strain out the seeds, and I thought a few might be nice to help retain the flavor, so I casually poured the oil mixture in the batter, leaving behind the lemon and approximately half the seeds in the pot.

Batter was SUCCULENT! Could’ve eaten the whole thing with a spoon. So dense and creamy.

Baked that off- it didn’t rise much but it was real tasty! For the finished cake, I improvised a glaze which involved orange marmalade thinned with water- not a lot more complicated than that.

This ended up REALLY good.

 

Meanwhile, right before Easter, we received a VERY generous Easter basket from a very sweet family friend. It contained this GI-NORMOUS sweet, almond-paste-studded Easter bread.

   

And the Easter celebration itself was at my sister’s godparents’ home. They had gotten a lot of it catered. The spread was quite beautiful.

 

They had requested that all the lamb be cooked well done (…) I snuck into the kitchen with the caterers and begged them to save a medium rare bit for me. They obliged, and were very very nice :)

My dinner plate:

Blessedly medium-rare lamb with scads of tzaziki (definitely eyes>stomach on that one, but Steve was nearby so all was good), grilled vegetables (done by caterers- EXCELLENT! Perfectly cooked!), spinach and cheese pies, roasted potatoes that were wonderful, and salad. And wine! Gave up booze for Lent. Such a worthwhile thing to do. I’m no lush, but I only want to drink when I feel like drinking, not when everyone around me is. It was a useful exercise in mindfulness.

Spent much of the meal lounging by their pool, looking at their e-normous house!

 

Believe me when I say this barely scratched the surface on dessert. Phase 1 was enjoyed poolside.

Gazillions of berries, koulourakia (traditional Greek cookies), some of my olive oil cake, one of Steve’s oatmeal-toffee cookies.

random day trips

Steve and I drove to Annapolis one day. For funsies. We knew that with traffic we’d have to leave either before 2:00 or after 7:00 because guys, this is the DC area, and rush hour is rush five hours.

We opted for a shorter stay and began our time in town by hydrating ourselves at this cute place:

Named:

They had an unexpectedly awesome selection of fresh juices. Not the type of place you would’ve necessarily pegged for it!

I am not really a juice person, except once a year or so I enjoy some carrot juice. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, literally once every year and three months- I vividly remember finishing the GRE in October of 2011, booking it to the nearest establishment with food which turned out to be a cute little natural foods store and deli, downing a carrot juice, and loving the flow of glucose to my brain.

This was delicious, cold, frothy, and served in an adorable stein.

  

The highlight of the trip, as is the highlight of all our trips to Annapolis, was Quiet Waters State Park. On one of our past trips we visited in sunnier weather and rented bikes (Steve also ventured into competitive eating later in the day, which I'll let you see for yourself) No bike rentals in the off season, but it was still wonderful to take in on foot.

You start on meandering paths through serene forest…

        

But the real money shot comes when you reach the water. The river opens out to the Chesapeake Bay and it is always a stunning view. Particularly on this not-particularly-lovely day, actually. Lovely clouds!

And now for something completely different.

Another random day (let the record state these jaunts occurred before Steve and I started class. The luxury of a student schedule, I know. We are now back to being responsible citizens and studying diligently. Minus the time it takes to write blog posts, of course).

Got up, Steve called, wanting to hang out. Though it was a gloomy day… it was decided we’d go to Charlottesville! Yknow, only 2 1/2 hours away. Hah.

I feel like I’ve been to Charlottesville since so many of my favorite bloggers live there.

We were SO ready to eat, and I was delighted to stumble upon the fabulous menu at Eppie’s- I realized Kath had been there!

Love them for their decor.

Like Kath, I ordered the plate of side dishes. Didn’t realize a salad counted as two sides- explains the unexpectedly high price tag and the massiveness of this meal! The thing is, every one of these dishes was UH-MAZING. And I was sharing the meal with Steve, the man who ate everything. So it worked out, in an exceedingly full belly kind of way.

Cream-licious butternut squash bisque; wondrous flavors that made me feel warm on a raw day.

 

Southwest Caesar salad, ordered dutifully for vegetables but savored for the tangy dressing and perfect cherry tomatoes. Nixed the (ridiculously abundant) croutons; not my jam.

Mac and cheese. Forget that quinoa b.s. This is what mac and cheese is supposed to taste like. Smallish portion (use that fork for reference) and didn’t make it halfway through that. Not that that still wasn’t 10,000 or so calories, I’m sure. SO AMAZING. It came recommended by the guy at the counter, and it was ALL HE SAID IT’D BE AND MORE.

And of course the famous cornbread, which is everything Kath said it would be. Oh carbs. Sweet carbs. So many carbs. I love you carbs.

Steve snarfed down the chicken and dumplings special at a speed that would indicate it would also quite tasty. (And then, of course, he had to start working on my food, as I required his assistance).

I mean really. So much. So good! So cheap!

 

We popped into a hippie tea room to warm up even more, then were finally adequately heated to walk around. We strolled around UVA’s beautiful campus, which was nice, even on a gloomy day. Neither Steve nor I had been to C’Ville since we did our respective college admissions visits (though I never bothered to apply, since my cousin’s stories about people wearing pearls to football games and nonstop frat parties made it sound like a great place for her but not so much me).

Best of all, by campus is an outpost of Arch’s, the froyo place so often extolled in the fabulous Smart Kitchen for their famous gooey brownie.

Sarah. Whoa. Gooey brownie is everything you claimed it was and more.

Oh yeah and that’s peanut butter froyo. And uh-mazing.

(Thumbs down for them having styrofoam containers. Thumbs up for the guy working there letting me reappropriate the milkshake cup. Plastic’s better than styrofoam, right?! Agh, consumerism).

Then I went to another blogger favorite, Feast! It has the exclamation point in its name, but I would have added one anyway because Wow! Feast! Is! So! Fun!

I am such a freegan. I would love an all-sample diet.

suffering cookies

Every year we hold a post-Christmas party for family, church friends, work friends, significant others, neighbors, random strangers… lots of people. This year that party proved Murphy’s Law.

Let’s start with these cookies, which have been dubbed “Heartache cookies”, “$60 Cookies”, and “Suffering cookies” at different intervals.

They are a great big pain in the ass!

It started with the Washington Post cookie special in the Food section. They do it every year. This year ALL the recipes looked like a pain in the ass. Weird ingredients, complicated methodologies, general sense of fussiness. However, my mom thought the Oaxacan Chocolate Cookies, from Jaleo, Jose Andres’ original restaurant in D.C., sounded sufficiently interesting that they were worth the fuss.

Well, let’s recount what happened:

- The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of mezcal. Mezcal, for those of you who do not know (as I did not until relatively recently), mezcal might be considered the Scotch of tequila. It’s agave liquor, aged. Wonderfully smoky and delicious. But we only needed 2 teaspoons. And the smallest amount the liquor store carried was a fifth. For $28.

- Then we needed 10 1/2 ounces of very high cacao percentage dark chocolate. My sister was kind enough to donate two chocolate bars she got for Christmas to the cause. We needed one more and opted to get Mexican chocolate, as the recipe called for. A bar of Taza chocolate (which is delicious, and direct trade, admittedly) was $9, without tax. Absurdly expensive ingredient #2. And let’s not forget the massive amount of butter going into this, too.

- The methodology was bizarre, and instructed the cookie maker (my mom, at this phase in the process) to quit using a mixer and fold, by hand, an enormous amount of flour into wet ingredients that were not all that wet and did not particularly care for that process. It took forever, and resulted in dough with the consistency of gravel.

- Then that gravel was supposed to be formed into logs. Yeah. Right. When my mom finally succeeded (seemingly) in forming one log, she wrapped it in wax paper and went to, per the recipe’s instructions, chill it in the fridge. When the log promptly collapsed, causing a very very large amount of dough to scatter all over the kitchen floor. Awe. some.

- Lest you think the suffering was complete, after the lengthy chilling time we then had to follow absurd instructions that involved baking for seven minutes, rotating sheets, baking another seven minutes, brushing the cookies with egg and salt (which I made the executive decision to change to sugar, spiked with salt to make flavors pop, because the cookies were barely sweet at all)

The cookies were good, but NOT WORTH THE SUFFERING.

   

Along with suffering cookies, however, I completed a fun and emotionally satisfying baking project: vasilopita. Also known as Saint Basil’s bread, it’s a Greek tradition: every New Years Day (which is the Saint’s Day of Saint Basil a major saint in the Greek Orthodox church) this bread is made. Inside is hidden a coin. Whoever gets the slice with that coin supposedly has good luck for a year.

This was a recipe from Flavors of Greece, truly the only Greek cookbook you will ever need. It has the perfect, Platonic (get it? get it?!) recipes for all of the Greek standards, as well as some creative unexpected recipes. This vasilopita was quiiiiiite decadent, with lotsa butter, honey, sugar, etc. But what gives it its signature va-va-va-voom is a flavorful combination of anise and orange. SO good.

Furthermore, we very sadly lost my dear great aunt Rose, very unexpectedly, a few weeks before I made this. She made delicious traditional Greek specialties, and her vasilopita was always gorgeous and tasty.

So this was also a bit of a tribute to her.

Also, it was ENORMOUS.

 

Also on the list of things made by me was gluten-free shortbread. Our choir director’s wife Betty, who sings soprano with me, has Celiac disease.. and her husband just got diagnosed too! Guys, is it contagious?! If so, I NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

But at least I know how to make good gluten-free shortbread. This recipe, using all-purpose gf flour and rice flour, pleased everyone, including those of us who can (thank God) process gluten.

 

I wasn’t around these parts for Thanksgiving this year, but according to multiple sources, the White House recipe for thyme-roasted turkey, which my aunt Jeanie made for that holiday, was “the best turkey ever”.

So my sister nominated it for our party.

Hint: butter.

 

(Go Redskins! Or Seahawks?! Both Washingtons are in a certain sense my home! Eek!)

My sister also made bacon-wrapped dates. SO good.

 

And deviled eggs with caviar on top, which people ate in like thirty seconds.

ANOTHER Murphy’s law story: we had a container of caviar in the kitchen, which my mom said she had bought for deviled eggs in the past. But the not-too-distant past. But there was no expiration date.

So, we called the company, gave them the serial number on the jar, and they said the caviar didn’t expire until March 2013. Awesome. Oh, but… “We see there are some black spots in the caviar. Is that anything to worry about?” “… We’ll call you back.”

Well, fortunately they did, because it turns out that the kind of caviar we’d bought had been discontinued in 2011. Furthermore, the serial numbers apparently repeat (?!) in canned goods and as a result the jar could’ve been from 2003 or 2006. SO IT’S GOOD WE CHECKED HUH?

Let the record state, my family doesn’t buy caviar regularly. (Clearly!)

Also present at the party were dips: lotsa dips.

Our “secret family recipe” for artichoke dip (artichoke hearts from a can, mayo, garlic, and cheese), made by my mom. A white bean dip I made.

 

From the Greek store, labneh (white) and taramosalata (pink).

My favorite project, a new recipe. The Washington Post food section (attempting to redeem themselves in my eyes for those cookies? I’m sure) did a special section on vegetable pates. The carrot ginger pate caught my eye, as I anticipated great flavor and beautiful color. It delivered on both fronts. Make it! It’s a keeper!

The bacon wrapped dates and, in the other category of stuff-wrapped-in-meat, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto.

More Murphy’s Law: my mom brought fruit salad to Christmas Eve. We went to H-Mart a few days prior, which can usually be counted on to have beautiful produce that’s exceedingly ripe. We got mangos, pineapple, and cantaloupe. And… Christmas Eve, none of it was ripe. The other stuff got used, but I figured out-of-season melon would be best served with something else.

It was good with the prosciutto. My grandma made that, back in the day.

Took ANOTHER trip to the delightful Red, White, and Bleu, my new favorite cheese shop, because my mother had bought the Groupon too!

This was a delicious selection that disappeared almost immediately.

Unpictured are the finished meats, but in addition to the turkey (which was good but not earth-shattering, in my opinion) we also had a ham. People went NUTS for the ham, which is funny since I spent a total of 20 seconds making the glaze for it (you’ll see why below)- dumped mustard, brown sugar, and cider vinegar in a bowl, tasted it, went “yeah okay”.

For making little sandwiches, we bought an assortment of rolls. They all looked similar, so you were playing “roll-ette” (HAHAHA!)

Anyway, here’s a photo conveying the general scene.

 

The reason there are fewer pictures, and perhaps they’re a bit blurred, was the state of UTTER CHAOS in our house prior to the party.

I have two words for you: plumbing emergency.

I’m not shedding details, but suffice it to say that while it wasn’t fun running out for a last minute emergency errand to buy scented candles, praying the plumber would be there by the time I returned, it was really nice getting out of a very stressful house.

Anyway. It all worked out. The cookies were good.