Since today is Sunday of a three day weekend, we are being a little lazy. Waiting for it to warm up to pursue outdoor activities, and trying to activate an old iPhone for our student. Ethan got picked up at 8:00 to drive back to Minnesota and college with his mom. I folded laundry, and made cherry-stuffed French toast for breakfast. I’m going to have to do actual work work later today, setting up my online courses that will start on January 23rd while I am at the ALA conference. And of course, all Wisconsin is in anticipation for the Packers/Giants game this afternoon.

Beet & beef borscht - becoming less soup and more solid

Pumpkin-cranberry muffins

Streusel-topped apple pie - a little too much streusel

Breakfast leftovers: Cherry-stuffed French toast, 1 piece bacon, plain French toast

I am allowed to think Johnny’s cute, because he looks like my older son.

Johnny & Johnny

I am looking forward to the movie version of Dark Shadows. The original was on afternoon TV when I was in grade school. I liked it but I’m not sure why – no fang, no color, no action. So surely the Depp & Tim Burton version will be even more fun. I somehow missed Rum Diary, it was in and out of the theaters here in Madison pretty quick. But I’ll get it on Netflix or cable, eventually.

The food was mostly hits – I made the standard Heinz chile sauce meatballs, with the sauce that is supposed to be a 50/50 mix of Heinz chile sauce, and either grape jelly or canned cranberry sauce – neither of which I have ever used (you’re supposed to buy the meatballs, too – never done that either). I usually use red currant jelly, but I forgot to buy any – so decided to use the frozen since Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, and it was delish. Four pounds of meat – all that will fit in my big Dutch oven – and still they went so fast I never got one.

I tried a crab rangoon dip – deconstructed crab rangoon; the cream cheese and the crab baked as dip, with wonton skins made into chips, instead of wrappings. That also went in seconds.

I usually make Mollie Katzen’s pesto-peppercorn torta – neufchatel and ricotta cheese wrapped around pesto – but I wanted something more dramatic – and I had a lot of cream cheese (Costco) – so I made this sun-dried tomato & pesto torta – it’s huge and all but about 1 tablespoon got eaten.

Edamame hummus – not so much – coulda had more of the regular hummus, and probably shoulda stuck with my vision of a trio of dips – edamame, green; hummus, white; and muhamarra, red.

Mark Bittman’s idea of potted shrimp – again, good – but people didn’t snarf it like the other stuff – I think I’ll use it for pasta sauce (maybe with that 1 TBLS of the torta that’s left).

Chive sour cream cocktail buns with ham & cheese – I made about 3 dozen buns and could have made twice as many – I had enough ham for more sandwiches, and plenty of cheese. Heike’s brother tried out a bun with a meatball.

Some of the other stuff sort of goes with out saying – spicey peanut dip with blanched broccoli from the co-op and cauliflower, beauty heart radish, and yellow and orange carrots from my CSA box. Leek tart – I ended up making 2 rectangular quiches and then sliced them into squares instead of doing the individual shells. Bacon dates. Baked Brie – with American Spoon tomato preserves inside. Devilled eggs. Cheese & crackers. Layered dip – refried beans with corn & poblano salsa, sour cream & cheese. Roasted squash quesadillas, with cubes of squash, Cafe Flora pumpkin seed parsley pesto, and pepper jack. Wienies in poppin’ dough with the good 4505 meats dogs. Caponata that I made last summer from the freezer. Boursin and red pepper tarts with red pepper relish, also from the freezer. Because I bought the Boursin at Costco, I now have a lifetime supply of Boursin – too bad it doesn’t actually keep that long.

Heike washed a lot of dishes and Ann also did a lt of washing up at the end. My schedule was kind of brutal – cookie party Friday, then off to Minneapolis for Al’s graduation party Saturday. I got up and threw together the hot spinach dip that I hadn’t done done for the party and made a pan of peppermint patty brownies – a hybrid of Maida Heatter and Milwaukee Journal, with melted unsweetened chocolate instead of cocoa – because I didn’t want the Dutch process cocoa disaster to happen again. They came out really good – I promise to write up the recipe real soon now™. [And ha, I already did; I kind of thought so. So all I have to do is add the melted chocolate option].

Picked up Al’s grilfriend and off to the Twins. Nice party thrown by the parents of one of Al’s roomates – it’s a house of 5 guys, and lots of their parents, AND girlfriends’ parents came for the party. The kids went off on a party bus -I asked the next morning where they went and at the same time, Al said, “Hudson” and Emma said, “divey townie bar” and Al explained that the point of the bus is to be on the bus – the driving is supposed to be better than the destination. I went over to Tincher’s, via East Riverside Drive. Took him his cookies, and nodded off while he was skyping with his sweetie. In the morning I knew I could walk back the way I drove over, and walk by the river, so I did. Had coffee with Tincher, took the kids to brunch, and home by 5:00. Whew. Of all my trips to the Twins, this had to be the best for NOT getting lost.

I thought yesterday – Sunday – with the driving and all, might be my first cookie-less day since Thanksgiving, but I ended up decorating the gingerbread, and making the marzipan dates. Today I shipped off 13 more boxes, bringing this year’s total to 20. Whew again. And still various platters and Tupperwares to deal out to people around town. And I hope to take a cookie tray to the homeless at Savory Sunday on Christmas Day.

I made a big pot of soup with lots of greens and home made veggie broth, and little stelline – with parmesan to sprinkle on top. And a pan of corn bread with corn kernels – also frozen from last summer – and cheese – Farmer John’s white cheddar – what I used in my pie palooza pie – and scallions. And the sweet potato pie with a giant can of Costco whipped cream – good fodder for Costco jokes.

‘Course, I didn’t take pictures, but here’s what I’m having for lunch – yoplait (not what I usually buy in the yogurt department, but we had house guests) with home made granola, ww english muffin to toast here at work and top with sliced Widmer brick and a boiled egg, and an apple, that I think is one of the Ela honey crisps.

And WTF on the weather today?!

Lunch to go, 11/9/2011

• Crostini with goat cheese, slow-roasted tomato, & pickled onion – homemade baguettes, and I used Heidi’s technique of pouring the oil (or butter) into a bowl and tossing the bread slices in and mixing it all up – more effective than brushing or spraying or drizzling the oil onto the bread – but I used a touch too much oil. Homemade slow-roasted tomatoes, too, and the pickled onions were a dark magenta hue I’d not seen before, tho it’s a recipe I’ve made many times. And I mixed the goat cheese with a dash of honey. I didn’t make the white bean crostini – so now I have a yogurt bucket of cooked white beans to use or freeze.
• Chicken salad with apples and walnuts – white meat chicken, toasted nuts and one giant, local Delicious apple. I didn’t make the crispy wonton cups to put the chicken in – it ended up being a chunky salad so it woulda been a pain to stuff into the cups. Instead, I made chicken salad canapes – the salad, mounded on buttered bread – and also put out a bowl of the chicken salad for people to eat however they wanted.
• I bought Carr Valley Mobay and Marieka Gouda with Fenugreek and Farmer John’s Asaiago and smoked Gouda – which was the crowd pleaser – more of that eaten than any of the others. I put the cheese out with crackers and fresh figs and pears and olive tapende (made by whirring up all old olives from the fridge with a small jar of purchased). There was also Jacque Pepin’s cheese spread – all the cheese ends, also whirred up in the processor, with butter. This one had some bleu, some cranberry cheddar, some orange cheddar, and some Parmesan.
• Vegetables and chips and dips. Dill dip, because I got a lovely bunch of fresh dill at the Wednesday market. Edamame hummus from the newest Martha, quite tasty – but a little pasty and thick because I cut back on the large amount of water called for, since, naturally, I thought it was one of those Martha tricks to insure that no one can make her food as good as her – but in fact somewheres in between the 1/3 cup I used and the 3/4 cup she said to use would be right. With blanched broccoli, beauty heart radishes, and carrot sticks. And a big bowl of these pickled veggies from Saveur – I left out the zucchini, and only used 1 jalapeno, but it was still a gigantic batch. I’ll be eating them for lunch all week.
• Cocktail meatballs & tofu balls – the standard Heinz chili sauce meatball recipe, using red currant jam and the last of a bottle of siracha along with the chili sauce, instead of the canned cranberry sauce or grape jelly (and packaged meatballs) specified in the original. The tofu balls are Mollie Katzen, from the Enchanted Broccoli Forest – I put them out with a bottled BBQ sauce, but, me, I preferred the fu balls dipped in the sauce from the meatballs.
• Sweets – mini pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, Heidi’s chocolate truffle cake made into cups which had to licked (or spooned out) and Dori’s jammers, a la me.

Goat cheese, tomato & pickled onion crostini

Last three of the chocolates

UN-color corrected radishes

Beaty Heart radishes

'Fu balls, trying to escape

"Fu balls contained

Jammers with American Spoon cherry jam

Pumpkin cupcakes

So, probably the funnest thing was Terese brought Janie, and these two women are my Ovens of Brittany cronies – friends from my years of restaurant work, 20+ years ago. Friday morning, I went for a walk with Rach, and she peeled off early, so I was doing the long last leg of the walk on my own. I ran into one of John’s friends from high school, Sam, unlocking his bike in front of his parents house – he has his own apartment, shared with a girlfriend downtown, but said he comes to his folks’s when he wants to study. Sam ate lunch at my house almost every day for four years in high school. So, anyways, Sam said he works at the Greenbush Bar, owned by another of my Ovens of Brittany pals, Anna. I said I used to work with his boss, Anna, and Sam replied, “oh yeah, the desserts at Greenbush are kinda like the stuff I used to eat at your house.”

On Saturday, I had scrambled eggs with tomatoes, onions & goat cheese from the crostini and broccoli, leftover from being a dip veggie.

Anyways, last night I made steak fajitas – I had a two-pound piece of flank steak that I marinated in cumin & garlic & lemon juice, and loads of peppers from my CSA – little orange ones, one reddish-orange bell, 1 long green frying pepper. Our student didn’t want to eat, so I cut the piece of steak in half, and froze one of the halfs. Then I broiled the rest under the broiler, and Mark and I ate it rolled up in flour tortillas with the peppers sauteed with some purple onion. With rice cooked in homemade veggie broth from Friday on the side. I was extra decadent and put a little butter on my rice.

Tonight I was going to make tomato tart, but again it seemed like I’d not have too many eaters, so instead I made some tabouli, using up the last few good leaves off a bunch of fresh mint that was lurking in the vegetable drawer, and a bunch of parsley I bought on Sunday when I had a vague notion of turning the flank steak into braciole. And one of the tomatoes that would’ve gone into the tart. And half a box of tofu, also found lurking the fridge, cut into little cubes and crisped up in a skillet in oil, and soy sauce and a sprinkle of brown sugar – Mark said the Italian girl wanted tofu, but I think he might’ve misunderstood. I ate the tabouli on a bed of greens, mostly a really peppery arugula, with a small roast beef sandwich on the side – even though it seems an odd side for tabouli – made from that too dry challah, and leftover flank steak.

Now I have a free form plum tart in the oven, made according to my own recipe for a peach version – pictures forthcoming.

Tabouli on a bed of argula

Roast beef sandwich on Rosh Hashanah challah

Plum tart

John’s been posting iPhone pictures to Instagram of his trip – some of them look quite beautiful to me (see below) – but they’re not browseable – unless you go to his facebook or twitter.

Turned out Al has simply stayed at camp for the dedication of a new building – they paid staff $10 / hour to stick around and work the ceremony. This morning he stumbled into the kitchen and asked for coffee in a to-go cup, and I wondered if he was awake enough to drive. He left Emma holding the cup and went down the basement to get something; coming back up the steps on the tail end of my explanation to her that I had bought this particular cup because the organizers of the Seattle InfoCamp that I went to in 2009 suggested we bring our own coffee cups & water bottles, Al said “Cheap Bastards” – so I knew he’d be OK.

Bulger's Hollow

Carman Welcome Center at Phantom Lake

posted from my iPhone, at least for starters

Greens & ricotta pasta, gratineed

Greens & ricotta pasta, with salad

Vanilla ice cream with mashed-strawberry sauce

We haven’t grilled yet for the holiday weekend, because we’ve had so few people around – all of our kids are off doing other stuff. John’s girlfriend works for Summerfest, so this is a busy time for them, although this is an historic year – no Summerfest on July 4th, because it’s a Monday. So John & Megan get a real holiday like everyone else, and I think they’re going to the Brewer game. Al and 2 of his camp buddies passed through Saturday – just long enough to get a new tattoo, hit the bars, and crash on the basement couch before heading back to camp Sunday morning. They ate out Saturday night, so didn’t feed ‘em then – Mark and I had sandwiches. And Mark’s son Ethan’s in his last summer before college, so spending a lot of time with his high school friends, working at the Jewish day camp, and hanging out with his girlfriend. He went to the girlfriend’s parents’ cabin on Saturday, and had a sleepover at a guy friends last night, so haven’t seen much of him, either, although I think we’re finally grilling with them tonight.

At the Saturday farmers market, I bought brats and and hamburger meat and a pork shoulder roast. Last night I re-froze the pork for another time, and we had leftover pasta for supper. I had made ricotta and greens pasta (kinda like this Wednesday Chef recipe, recommended by my CSA, but see below) last Wednesday after I conducted an online advising meeting for new library school students, to use up the greens – a mix of chard from Rach, and mustard greens from my CSA box – that I blanched before leaving for New Orleans, and last night I gratinéed it with buttery crumbs. I made a salad – diced part of a shallot – about a tablespoon’s worth, and soaked it in a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar and one of coarse salt, and freshly ground black and pepper, in the bowl, then added a mix of lettuce, parsley, and few basil leaves, 3 TBLS olive oil and more salt and pepper, and tossed it all up.  The strawberries that I also got at the market were already softening up, so I mashed them into a sauce and we ate them on ice cream, with vampires.

Pasta with Ricotta and Greens
1 pound penne pasta
3 TBLS olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bunches greens (I used chard & mustard) large stems removed, blanched, and squeezed dry
1 generous cup of whole milk ricotta ( you can use reduced fat, but the whole milk is more luscious)
reserved pasta water, as necessary
about a cup of grated hot pepper cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and salt it. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and reserve about a cup of the cooking water. Meanwhile, pour the olive oil into a wide deep skillet, heat, and add the garlic. Cook a few minutes – don’t let it brown, or it might be bitter, and add the greens that you have sliced into narrow ribbons. Cook and stir a few minutes to coat with oil, and evaporate any un-squeezed-out moisture, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. When the pasta is ready, add it to the greens (you might want to transfer everything into the emptied out pasta cooking pot or a bowl to make mixing easier; the advantage to the pasta cooking pot is that it will be warm, and help your pasta keep its heat). Add the ricotta, and mix well, adding reserved pasta water if the mixture seems dry. Add the pepper cheese and toss again. Serve with grated parmesan, pepper and more olive oil for drizzling.

John’s clean room – click the picture to watch it on vid

• Broccoli & cheddar quiche – remember I did over buy on broccoli, and the nice 2-lb blocks of Tillamook cheddar that you can get at Costco are really the best reason to go there. I bought two although I probably only needed most of one.
• Fried potatoes, with some of our last indoor Rosemary, before it goes back out for the summer, and some garlic cloves I had peeled for pasta salad but did not use.
• Salad of course, with balsamic vinaigrette – remember I over bought even more on lettuce than on broccoli.
• Bacon.

Since John and Megan came to help with the wedding, they were here, and Ethan was here because it was Sunday. Megan said it was the third in a row mother’s day she’d been in Madison – her mom’s in Iowa. I thanked her a bunch. And Al finally called at a little after 5 p.m. He’ll be home next weekend and we’ll go out for belated mother’s day dinner then. We did that last year and if we do it again this year, I guess it’ll be a tradition.

Mother's day 2011