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Category Archives: Recipes
We are slowly puttering about our days: trips to the library, getting the garden prepped for planting, setting out plans for a big road trip, cooking simple meals, welcoming company into town over the weekends, reading books, fighting colds, and sipping wine with friends.
All of our little activities have somehow added up to make life feel busy and full, not to mention that Lulu has a high fever again and is teething up a storm. Basically, what I’m saying is, please forgive me if my writing is a bit muddled and sleepy-sounding. It is a direct reflection of my thought process these days.
We spend hours each day at parks and have lunch picnics in the backyard, and at night we fall asleep listening to the spring rain on our windows. The garden weeds are going wild and I am itching to grab the trowel and my gloves and work in the dirt. Kyle has been busy building two new raised beds, one of which will host a cold frame that he built. I’ll post a tutorial for the raised beds soon! The girls are fully appreciating extra time in the garden. They’re favorite task is watering things: weeds, the patio, rocks, each other. We are fully embracing the transition from winter to spring; it is one of my favorite times of the year.
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As spring settles in, and I prepare to welcome asparagus, garlic scapes, and rhubarb back into the kitchen, I am also preparing to kiss my favorite winter citrus fruits goodbye. There’s still a bit of time to find them at the grocery store and as long as they are there I will be picking them up and putting them into our cart… or rather handing them to Lulu so she can bite through the peels before spitting it out and throwing them into the back of the cart.
A little while back I shared a recipe for Candied Meyer Lemons and Blood Oranges and I thought I’d share a quick cocktail recipe I worked up using the lemons! I opted to use vodka from a local distillery for this spin on a French 75, but you could use gin if you prefer. I love the slight tangerine flavor that Meyer lemons give this drink, but if you can’t find them you could use regular lemons in their place. This cocktail is really simple and was a big hit with our friends.
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CANDIED MEYER LEMON FRENCH 75
Ingredients.
1 slice candied Meyer lemon
1 tsp Meyer lemon juice
6 oz chilled champagne
1/2 oz chilled vodka
1 tsp Meyer lemon juice
Directions.
Drop lemon slice into a champagne flute, add lemon juice, vodka, and top with champagne! Stir gently and enjoy immediately.
PRINTABLE RECIPE
CANDIED MEYER LEMON FRENCH 75
I am an amazing one-handed cook. Seriously, you should see me in the kitchen. Lulu’s favorite place to be is perched on my left hip; especially between the hours of 4-6pm. So, I’ve adapted to one handed cooking. The kids have been fighting the flu/terrible virus/croup/bubonic plague so I’ve had lots of time to work on my set of one-handed skills; I’m getting pretty good at one-handed typing.
I’ve learned a couple of things this past week: Popsicles in the bath can be a great distraction for grumpy, feverish kids; you won’t turn into a vampire if you don’t leave the house for 10 days (and counting); you will let sick kids get away with atrocious table manners if it means they are consuming calories; it’s possible to watch three Disney movies a day for 10 days straight and not lose your mind (completely); when your baby loses their voice from coughing it’s both sad and cute.
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With all of the mental and physical demands of caring for sick kids over the past week, I found myself gravitating towards, and thinking a lot about, comfort food. The moment the kids’ temperatures spiked I called Kyle to pick up the ingredients for chicken noodle soup, crackers, and popsicles. I also made a quick run to the library to pick up a copy of my favorite comfort book. I’ve read Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver a dozen times and for some reason I had to have it this past week. I gave my well-loved copy away a couple of years ago but thankfully the library had it’s own well-loved copy for me to borrow.
The comfort food I turn to most is toast. I’ve been making a lot of toast. Cinnamon sugar toast for snacks, which is what my mom used to make for my siblings and myself and something I crave almost immediately when I’m feeling under the weather. I ate cinnamon sugar toast almost every single day when I was pregnant with Gigi. That, and warm milk with honey. So that’s what I make for the girls when they aren’t feeling good.
I also love to make avocado toast. I use Kyle’s freshly baked sourdough bread, smear it with a bit of mayonnaise or Vegenaise, smash some avocado on top, and hit it with sprinkles of Togarashi, also sometimes called Shichimi Togarashi (a mix of Japanese chili peppers), flaky salt, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. I could eat that every day… and often do.
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I think (hope) that we are on the upswing from this illness. We are planning to spend the next few days getting more rest, sipping water spiked with Elderberry Syrup, reading favorite books, little walks around the neighborhood for fresh air, and nibbling lots more toast.
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AVOCADO TOASTS WITH TOGARASHI
Ingredients.
1 ripe avocado, cut in half, pit discarded
4 slices of rustic French bread
flake salt
1-2 slices of lemon
Togarashi – Japanese chili pepper blend
mayonnaise or Vegenaise
extra virgin olive oil
Directions.
Place the slices of bread on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Pop them under the broiler until golden and crisp.
Allow the toast to cool for a moment. In a small bowl smash up the avocado flesh with a fork.
Smear the toast with a bit of mayonnaise or Vegenaise. Scoop the avocado onto the toast and spread it with a fork until it covers the surface of the toast.
Sprinkle a bit of flake salt and Togarashi onto top, finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and a little drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy immediately.
Serves 2.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
AVOCADO TOASTS WITH TOGARASHI
It’s early in the morning right now. I woke up around 5am and couldn’t fall back asleep. I’m a person who needs lots of processing time in order to keep track of everything, and with busy days and busy kids I don’t get that time as often as I would like. Every once in a while, I wake up early and can’t get back to sleep, so I get up and make the best of the quiet, dark hours. Kyle gets up early almost every single morning, and on these rare days when I wake up before everyone else I can see why he does. It’s still and silent and it’s nice to sip a cup of coffee from beginning to end without interruption. Not that I’ll be making a routine out of this. You know what I love more than silence and coffee? Sleeping until the last possible moment before I have to get up.
Last week was productive and busy. I got to celebrate my birthday quite a few times with my girlfriends, and my friend Marion ditched her family in order to spend some time with mine. It meant so much to me to have her here, and the girls adore her. Kyle and I also got to go celebrate both on my birthday and Valentine’s Day! I was completely spoiled the last week.
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In between celebrating we’ve been taking advantage of the amazing weather to get outside for little hikes, playing in the backyard and dreaming about what we will plant in the garden. We’ve also been working on turning the garage into a usable space for Kyle, and I’ve been turning our house upside down in an effort to organize the kids’ toys, costumes, and books. How in the world do children accumulate so many things? Even though I’m diligent about keeping the flow of stuff to the donation center steady, the toy bins seem to slowly fill with random trinkets and dolls! As the weather is decidedly spring-like, I guess you could say we’ve been spring cleaning. A program we plan to continue on with this weekend.
With all the meals out and madness of taking on huge projects, I’ve been cooking very simple, inexpensive, one dish meals. This salad of Orzo Pasta with Sausage, Spinach, Feta, and Dried Cranberries has become a staple around here. It’s my go to lunch on weekends.
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ORZO PASTA WITH SAUSAGE, SPINACH, FETA, AND DRIED CRANBERRIES
Ingredients.
16 oz box orzo pasta
4 cups baby spinach
4 fully cooked chicken sausages, sliced 1/4” thick on the bias
1/3 cup crumbled feta
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/8 cup champagne vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons finely minced shallot
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
small handful fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
Directions.
In a very large bowl whisk together the champagne vinegar, mustard, and shallot. Continuing to whisk, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Season the dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook the sliced sausages until golden on both sides. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool a bit.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, cook the orzo until al dente. Drain, and rinse with cold water until cool. Transfer to the large bowl with the dressing and toss to coat.
Add the sausage, spinach, feta, parsley, and dried cranberries into the bowl with the pasta. Toss gently to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Serves 4 adults.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
ORZO PASTA WITH SAUSAGE, SPINACH, FETA, AND DRIED CRANBERRIES
I met Ashley and her family about a year and a half ago, when they were visiting our town. We’ve become fast friends and I’m so glad to know her. If you read Ashley’s blog, Not Without Salt, you understand why. Ashley is genuine in her writing, creative in her approach to food, and inspiring in her photography.
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She’s the kind of food blogger who you dream might invite you over for dinner; which is exactly what she did on our following trip up to Seattle. The forecast called for chilly temperatures and rain so Ashley had cooked up a fabulous, rich vegetarian stew. Her three kids and our two quickly slipped off to play and the four of us, Ashley, Gabe, Kyle, and I sat outside in t-shirts sipping cold beer and eating our delicious wintery stew and laughing about the unpredictable nature of Seattle weather.
For Christmas my friend Ashley handed me a copy of her first cookbook, Date Night In, along with some other goodies. I sat down and read it cover to cover as quickly as I could. Date Night In is full of the kind of recipes you’d expect from Ashley: inventive, appealing, accessible, delicious… and full of beautifully written essays on the journey of love, marriage, and relationships. Ashley writes openly about her marriage to Gabe; their struggles, triumphs, and the “every days” in-between. If you’re looking for a special Valentine’s Day gift for someone you love who loves to cook, Date Night In would be at the top of my list.
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Having date nights in is not a new concept around our house. When Gigi was about the age Lulu is now, we declared that Wednesdays would be date nights. For us that meant that I made something special for dinner and we would cozy up to play a board game or watch a movie together after the kid(s) were in bed. Until I read Ashley’s book it never occurred to me to stuff the kids full of pasta and share a special meal with just Kyle; like an actual date!
I’ve cooked so much from her book already. It’s speckled here and there with splatters of olive oil, flour, and frosting; a mark of a favorite. For Gigi’s birthday she chose an impressive, made-from-scratch Rainbow Chip Cake from Ashley’s book. Gigi chipped in (no pun intended), making the rainbow chips, and the cakes, combining the frosting, and assembling the cake. She, and I, were so proud of the final result, and since her birthday falls of New Year’s Eve we enjoyed a slice at home before taking the rest of the cake across the street to share with neighbors. You might want to make a note that the cake goes very well with champagne.
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Next up was Ashley’s Fried Chicken Sandwiches on Black Pepper Biscuits which you’ll find on page 173. I was drawn to this recipe for obvious reasons: perfect fried chicken, fluffy black pepper biscuits, grainy mustard, bright dill pickles, sweet honey! They turned out so well that I made them two days in a row and our neighbors came over two days in a row to eat with us. They declared that these sandwiches resulted in the “best meal they’d had in a long time!”
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Finally, my most often made thing from Date Night In: Hot Dates with Olive Oil and Sea Salt. These dates are so addictive. I find myself buying Medjool dates in bulk and making a few almost every afternoon while the girls nap. You simply sauté the dense, sweet dates in fruity olive oil for a few minutes, transfer them to a plate and sprinkle with flake salt. That’s it! They’re so simple, yet somehow complex and delicious and just the thing I need mid-day. I love to make these and a cup of black tea and zone out for a few minutes while eating them with my fingers. Trust me, you need to try these.
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HOT DATES WITH OLIVE OIL AND SEA SALT
Ingredients.
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4-6 Medjool dates
flake salt (such as Maldon)
Directions.
Add the olive oil to a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the dates and stir to coat. Keep the dates moving so that they don’t scorch but rather get warm and soft and blister slightly. After 3 to 4 minutes in the pan, place the hot dates on a plate and drizzle with the olive oil from the pan. Add a bit more olive oil if you’d like. Sprinkle with a pinch of flake salt. Serve immediately.
Serves 2.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
HOT DATES WITH OLIVE OIL AND SEA SALT
Is anyone else up at 5am watching Snow White with a sick kid? Just me? Well, since I’m up and already sipping coffee, I thought I might as well pull open my laptop and say hello. Gigi started off the week with a bad fever as a reaction to some immunizations, and now has a yucky cold. Rather than let her cough and sniffle away the wee hours in bed I brought her out to the couch to get cozy and watch one of the movies she picked out at the library. Poor kid sounds like Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, and Grumpy right now.
It looks like we will be spending our Friday cozied up, watching movies, making cookies, doing puzzles, and reading books. The ladies of our neighborhood have started a little wine, I mean book, club and we’re all settling in to read The Goldfinch. What are you all reading right now? After a couple of years of not reading as much as I’d like to I’m finding that I want to devour every book in sight and I’d love some suggestions!
I do have a recipe for you this morning but this “recipe” isn’t really a recipe at all, although all of the ingredients are edible. For the past year I’ve been making my own deodorant at home. I used to use, and have tried dozens of, natural store-bought brands but they didn’t seem to work for me at all. Some better than others, but I never felt totally fresh. Occasionally I would get frustrated and buy a conventional antiperspirant, but I hated using that toxic stuff on my body. With a little research, and some tests, I came up with a formula for natural, homemade deodorant that works wonderfully for me.
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This kind of deodorant can take a little getting used to as the baking soda can feel a little grainy, and it can take your skin a bit to adjust to the ph of it, but it works great for me. The first recipe I made, and other recipes I researched didn’t call for almond oil, but I added it to soften the deodorant and make it feel smoother and more lotion. It worked and didn’t change the effectiveness at all. There are some other notes added in with the recipe directions. You should be able to find all of these ingredients at the grocery store, some in the bulk section or natural foods section.
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HOMEMADE LAVENDER DEODORANT
Ingredients.
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup arrowroot powder (use cornstarch if you can’t find arrowroot powder)
1/4 cup baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons almond oil
1/4 teaspoon (about 8 drops) lavender oil
Directions.
Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over very low heat. Thoroughly whisk in the arrowroot powder and baking soda until they are completely dissolved in the coconut oil. Turn off the heat and stir in the almond oil and lavender oil. Allow the liquid to cool and harden, stirring occasionally until it’s completely cooled.
Once it’s cooled completely it will be a thick paste. Stir it well before transferring it to a glass container with a tight fitting lid.
To use it, simply scoop a small amount (about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon) out with your fingertips and rub into your underarms as you would lotion.
Over time, especially in hot summer days, the deodorant may “fall apart”. You can reform it by warming it up slightly and repeating the cooling/stirring part of the recipe.
*If you’ve been using tradition antiperspirant you will notice that you will sweat when you wear deodorant. Antiperspirant doesn’t allow you to perspire, deodorant does. Also, it may take your skin a week or so to adjust to the ph of this deodorant and your underarms might itch a little (I didn’t experience this but apparently some people do).
Yield: about 1/2 cup of deodorant
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
HOMEMADE LAVENDER DEODORANT
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