christmases

Wakeup! Christmas Morning! Woohoo!

Oh… it’s 7:30. Oh… my entire family is asleep. Oh… we’re going to church before we do anything and that’s at 10.

Do some yoga! (I think I did yoga on Thanksgiving too? My practice is basically confined to major holidays when I wake up before anyone else)

Make some gluten free shortbread for our Celiac-disease afflicted friend who wasn’t actually at church but I was happy to give the recipe a trial run before its debut at our party next week!

Went to church!

Went home!

Presents with nuclear family!

Hop in car!

Arrive at Kathy and Tom’s. Park self next to unbelievably amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing fireplace.

  

Was delighted to see my wonderful family members, and think of those who weren’t there (that Keep Austin Weird mug, which I immediately nabbed, was a gift from my cousin Rachel, who with her hubby Richard and her parents and sister are still in Austin, with Richard and Rachel’s BABY! Who I want to meet, STAT!)

And it was nice to catch up with everyone in a delightfully low-key and relaxed and fun brunch, the spirit of which I think is nicely evoked in my cousin Steven’s bacon frosting.

Obviously, food was present in mammoth quantities, laid out in a beautiful spread.

 

I probably would’ve eaten a bagel…

Except instead there were biscuits! Done in the Cook’s Illustrated manner.

Kathy is a GREAT cook! I spent the first part of the morning interrogating her about where she got all her recipes cause they were so good :D

She’s also my most devoted blog fan. She said “So I was reading your blog the other day and went ‘Colcannon? What’s that?!’” And I interrupted and went “Ooh it’s so good you should make it!” and she said “I did! And the other recipe you posted that day!” SO FLATTERING.

Onto what else Kathy made- breakfast casseroles! One with jack cheese and queso fresco sprinkled atop, and one with sausage (and it was bliss to be reunited with meat) and DANG that sausage one was exceptional.

It had eggs and bread in it, and the interior was soooooooo perfect; tender, custardy, ethereally light and not at all dry or overcooked. A testament to eggs! (And sausage!)

How many awesome streusel-topped applesauce muffins did I eat? I am sort of not prepared to talk about it. And really don’t actually know… since I was mostly just slamming back streusel. (Slamming back streusel might be the title of my hair metal band’s first album…)

Our contribution: my mom’s Linzer hearts and my/my boyfriend’s gingerbread (after an adorably disastrous gingerbread house, he still had a tonnnnn of gingerbread dough yet, so I made adorable little men. Thanks, adorable man, for enabling me to do so!)

 

Thoroughly overwhelmed (in a good way) by the riches laid before me, I began with a leisurely mimosa and a cup of tea. And coffee. And tea. And water. And tea (I try to consume a lot of fluids at these things to minimize stuffing my face too much. In the case of the muffins, I happily conceded defeat).

I love mimosas so much. (And now giggle and think about the My Drunk Kitchen version)

My first of several plates. Half a muffin (ha!); taste of both casseroles as well as some cheese grits made by my aunt Nan; grapes (many more were consumed), a delicious layer of smoked salmon, tomato, and capers; biscuit; a smoked oyster. I. Love. Christmas.

 

(Nice legs, sis!)

Highlights of conversation at Christmas was learning how to say something unprintable in Farsi from one cousin, having another cousin urge me to visit her in Amsterdam and travel throughout Europe because “It’s still fondue season!”, and having yet another cousin urge me to practice forklift driving in a parking lot.

My family is awesome.

Gag gifts of note (nerf guns are basically mandatory at our family events and you generally have projectiles whizzing by at some point in the proceedings!)

 

BUT WAIT!

Though I’d definitely eaten enough for an entire day (or three…), it was in fact only 4:30 or so when we left the cornucopia of deliciousness and fun that was the Mom’s Family Brunch.

Now (children of divorce, who else is familiar with this syndrome?) the Dad’s Family Dinner!

Let’s start by admiring how frickin’ adorable me and my little sister were back in the day:

The evening began, like many on both sides of my family, with artichoke dip.

I snort every time my dad refers to it as “his” famous artichoke dip… since he definitely got the recipe from his ex mother in law.

Think I’ve written about it before, but it’s just jarred artichoke hearts, cheddar cheese, garlic and mayo. So simple, so delicious!

Bodie (looking like a little sissy in his bow; but he was totally proud) begged incessantly throughout the Christmas activities and seemed particularly interested in this dip.

And Jasmine was all ‘Oh please, I’m not waking up for that.”

    

We did a formaler (ish) sit down dinner.

My contributions:

1. Totally boss kale salad

Combine:

Shredded kale (I got mine at the farmer’s market the previous day. It was purpley!)
Craisins
Pecans (1 cup pecans, 1 tsp. oil, 1 tsp. dried thyme, dash of hot sauce, salt; roast til golden)
Dressing- a haphazard mixture of lemon juice, honey, mustard, olive oil, and cinnamon

SO SO SO DELICIOUS! The honey was key.

Also, pumpkin risotto. Made in my usual barley risotto style (see my recipage!) but with mushrooms added with onion at the beginning, roasted cubed pumpkin stirred in at the end, and a bit of thyme.

My dad, like any holiday he hosts (literally; he has done this for Thanksgiving) made lamb.

I. Love. Lamb.

(Note: the fact that the meat is browned, rather than still “baa”-ing, means that my dad horrifically overcooked the meat by his standards)

In a tribute to my (recently) late grandmother, my aunt Jeanie made scalloped potatoes. And, as my dad and I rather candidly pointed out later, while making us miss her and think of her, they were definitely BETTER than my grandmother’s. Still awesomely rich, but Jeanie did a great job of evenly slicing the potatoes so they were all perfectly cooked (rather than an occasional alarmingly al dente bite).

The plate. Went back for more salad and potatoes!

  

Also a tribute to my grandmother: English trifle!

Do people without roots in the British Empire eat traditional English trifle anymore? I’m talking sponge cake sprinkled in sherry, raspberry jam, peaches (canned; you know it!), custard made from Bird’s custard powder, whipped cream, slivered almonds.

    

So good! Multiply this by about five, *rolls eyes*

Then pressies and a minor miracle: the women on my dad’s side of the family, all with open eyes and a reasonably attractive expression!

My aunt Michele, me, my sis Malindi, my aunt Jeanie, and my stepmother Sally.

Merry Christmas friends! Hope you all enjoyed your holiday as much as I did!

produce stars

I was reading the latest issue of Cooking Light, which did a feature on San Francisco and its surrounding environs. They talked about how it’s sort of the epicenter of the local/organic food movement. And one chef who was interviewed and said “I find that now I look at what my fresh produce is and plan my meal around that, and only think of the protein on the plate as a last step.”

And I thought, well, duh. Plants are the star of the plate!

Tonight involved my FAVORITE plant, the ONE PLANT TO RULE THEM ALL, the artichoke:

Definitely did not know you could grow artichokes in Virginia. Based on the shrieks of joy around me at the farmer’s market, neither did a lot of other people. These are babies (hard to tell in this picture) and the farmer women assured us that there would be fully grown ‘uns later in the summer. So stoked! 

I am more familiar with grown-up artichokes, which are pretty idiot-proof (steam ‘em, peel off the leaves, dip them in something delicious, and eat the heart). I decided to research some potential recipes for the baby ones, and I saw risotto, and that was it. So I made this recipe for artichoke and parmesan risotto, except I subbed barley for arborio rice. This was the first time I made that direct substitution (all the barley risotto I make is based on the proportions in this one epicurious recipe, although I’ve tweaked seasonings etc. over the years) and it worked beautifully.

What’s not to like? Barley is a whole grain, and it’s cheaper and easier to obtain than arborio.

My artichokes were larger, I think, than those specified in the recipe (they were more like teenager artichokes than baby artichokes!), so I used six instead of eight and quartered them instead of halved them, and then let them soak in some water with lemon juice to get them 100% clean and prevent discoloration.

With artichokes (particularly the small ones where you eat the leaves, too), the first thing is to get them into a state where eating one will NOT cause internal bleeding. Trimming is a must!

Before, coming out of the lemon-water bath:

And after, about to go into the risotto pot:

   

I love risotto. I love having an excuse to use my mama’s Le Creuset pot. I love stirring. I love watching the grains magically thicken as they absorb the broth (and, as ever when making risotto, I used homemade chicken stock, which makes it scads more delicious).

  

The final product looked hearty and rustic and beautiful, and smelled like heaven.

Ahhhhh and the taste. They aptly describe in the header to the recipe that this is extra delicious because you cook the vegetable in the risotto, rather than making it on the side and adding it in at the end. That means that every single morsel of grain is positively imbued with the heavenly flavor of artichoke, something difficult to describe but that I sincerely hope all my readers have gotten to experience.

Are other people as obsessed with artichokes as I am?

As for the eating, quite honestly it got a bit messy because since, like I said, these were larger than your typical baby artichokes, the inner leaves were nice and soft and could be eaten whole but the outer ones were a bit coarse. Ultimately we figured out you could eat the outer ones like a grown up artichoke (peel them off and scrape the ends with your teeth) and the inner ones and the hearts whole. It worked. I can’t complain.

I know it sounds insane but I seriously feel like I have not been getting enough vegetables lately. So to round out the meal, I grabbed these two cuties:

 

I get such enjoyment out of seeing the bizarre varieties of heirloom tomatoes that are available! No clue what these were called but they were cute and tasty.

As usual with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper, and herbs from the deck (today was a basil-oregano blend).

 

And more produce inspiration.

 

Alas, this is not local. I would love to live somewhere mangos grow; I flippin’ hate the cold (true story: when my parents lived in Miami, their neighbor with a mango tree would give them bushels and bushels of mangos because she thought they tasted like “peaches soaked in kerosene”. Can you imagine?!)

So we had a mango. And then I thought of a recipe I lusted over in Eating Well a few months back- Indian Mango Dal. It paired mango and… lentils?!

I mean, you guys know me and lentils. We’re tight. It’s intense. So I thought, hey, they published it, they must know what they’re talking about.

You put on your lentils to stew and then you make yourself a nice spicy bunch of goodness on the side! (Based on my scads of Indian cookbooks, this seems to be the authentic methodology for a dal).

Cumin seeds, my faaaaaaves!

Garlic, onions, ginger, coriander, mmm.

All plated up: as they said, it was “soupy”. I halfed it and that meant two cups of water to 1/2 cup of lentils. Also, the original recipe was supposed to serve six and thus this was supposed to serve three and… puhlease. 1/2 a cup of lentils is not food enough for three!

Anyway, it was absolutely wonderful. The sweetness and freshness of the mango was lovely with the wholesome proteinness of the lentils. And mama loves her some ginger and cumin.

Rounded out with rice for soppage. Lovely.

If y’all get a chance, you can vote (up to once a day!) for my Why Cook Well essay! Vote for me!

boo internet yay produce

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate computers. In my dream Food Blogger world, not only would I have an amazing SLR camera that doesn’t actually require any knowledge of photography but simply reads my mind and a house that has beautiful cloud-free natural light 24/7/365, MOST CRUCIALLY I would have a computer that works perfectly and reliably and a master team of computer-fixing elves to fix it immediately and permanently should anything go awry.

In the meantime, I’m on my laptop stealing the neighbor’s internet which, unlike ours, is working.

The farmer’s market is my favorite place in the world, I’ve decided. A playground for grownups.

We got summa these:

Which you can see are pesticide-free and, as I can verify, are the best blueberries I’ve ever tasted.

I have mixed feelings about this picture though, not based on its quality but based on the fact that whilst I was taking it the rest of the family was buying tomatoes from what, given what was a tragically brief glimpse of him as I reunited with them and we moved on from the tomato stand, seemed to be a cute guy. Oh well, next week. I would love to marry a farmer.

Also:

There’s always scads of people with various baked goods and prepared foods (some day I have to force myself to not eat breakfast before I go so I can get in on the BLINTZES!) but we picked up from this adorable lady three of her vegetarian phyllo-wrapped goodies: potato (too mayo-y for my taste), eggplant (BLISS!), and this guy, cabbage:

What’s the thingie sticking out? Peanuts! So inventive! This was sort of Indian-spiced. I’d never have thought to combine those things, and yet it all workd.

Also:

         

Basically homemade kefir from LOCAL GRASS FED COWS. And holy deliciousness. Yes, it’s whole milk, but I nonetheless regard our probiotic yogurt drink made with real fresh strawberries (!) as nothing less than health food. Oh em gee.

I wanted to use some of our bounty to make some of my beloved barley risotto. I used the same methodology as in the recipes in Favorite Recipes but, lacking white wine and wanting to mix up the flavors to go with the snow peas, I subbed:

Green onion for my veg, green onion for my onion, fresh ginger instead of garlic, and 1 T mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine- the flavor is quite strong) for the 1/4 cup white wine.

It wasn’t that amaaaaaaaaaazing on the first day- the ginger was a bit strong- but got better as leftovers!

On day #1, my accompanying dish was served in the cow bowl.

More cowbell cow bowl!

Contained therein was what the vendor at the farmer’s market called “summer seafood refresher” and what I am dubbing CEVICHE JUICE!

An acidic tomatoey broth filled with crunchy red onion, creamy avocado, and cilantroey cilantro, with a coupla shrimp at the bottom. It was SO refreshing and lovely.

Aaaaaaand for risotto round two I made the simplest, perfect-est, summer side dish: tomato (farmer’s market) thinly sliced with basil (from our deck), salt and pepper, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All I friggin need.

 

It’s such a wonderful beautiful thing that tomatoes and basil come into season at the same time. Their flavor, their colors… they are so beautifully and perfectly complementary. Do you ever wonder if we are limited by the seasons- like there are pairings that’d be awesome that we’re missing out on cause they are at their best different times of year? Say… artichoke and cranberry?

Finally, I’ve been lovin’ on this melon (from the farm stand by my church- like cantaloupe but not cantaloupe, and now I’m totally drawing a blank on the name. Anyway, it’s blissful):

       

Just how big it makes me smile.