Linguine with Roasted Chicken, Greens, Currants and Pine Nuts

Well hello again! It seems like a lifetime since I’ve been here, though in reality it’s only been about 2 months. Little Miss A is a real joy, changing so much each week, just starting to break into smiles, drinking in the world around her — she’s so much fun to get to know. We’re still in the throes of newborn care (my love affair with coffee has been rekindled after all these night wakings) but it’s amazing how much you learn about your little one in such a short time. I have also become quite adept at typing with one hand…my computer is my lifeline to the outside world for the moment. And my camera has of late switched subjects — from food to this little cutie (I can’t resist sharing!):

Even though I haven’t yet been able to do much extended cooking in the kitchen, I’m figuring out how to get back into the swing of things. And luckily, there are some dishes I had made before she arrived that will be fun to tell you about in the meantime. The first is a dish I’ve made countless times throughout the past year, ever since I read about it in the NYTimes Dining section: do you remember the article where Kim Severson and Julia Moskin were challenged to throw a dinner party on a $50 budget? One of the dishes that Julia Moskin made was a simple pasta dish of roasted chicken, currants and pine nuts, flavored with rosemary. The ingenious part of the recipe is its use of the chicken drippings and golden fat (yum!) to create the “sauce” for the pasta — and let me tell you, it is delicious. After the chicken has roasted and is resting, you tear it up into bite-sized pieces (frankly, this is my preferred way of getting the meat off a roasted chicken anyway, at least when I’m  not concerned about presentation. There’s something so visceral and satisfying about tearing the meat off the bones, and you can get a lot more of the meat off than you can through carving.) You then toss the pasta, currants, pine nuts and chicken (along with some of the chicken skin, if that’s how you roll — and it is definitely is in our house) together in the roasting pan with a bit of rosemary, deglazing with a bit of the pasta cooking water. The result is luscious, savory, and unique enough to be a memorable dish for guests or just for your weekly dinner rotation — it’s a favorite of ours on a Sunday evening.

We’re lucky to be getting a few winter CSA shares this year — our vegetable share from Full Plate Farm Collective, our fruit share from Finger Lakes Fruit Bowl, and our meat share from High Point Farms. We get some kind of green in the vegetable share every week (I cherish these bright green bundles in the winter especially, when most of what we see is root vegetables) as well as a whole chicken in our meat share that comes monthly. I’ve been adding chopped greens to this pasta dish, and I think it’s a great tweak – nutritious and pretty with the pops of green strewn throughout the noodles. You can vary the nuts as well, though I do like the taste of pine nuts with the chicken and rosemary…but I’ve also used toasted pumpkin seeds to great effect.

Whatever variations you use, it’s a fabulous one-pot meal that feeds a crowd and hits the spot during these cold, frigid days…especially after we come in from our afternoon walk and remove all the bundling!

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Adapted from the New York Times

You can use whatever greens you have on hand in this pasta, though I find I like swiss chard, collards, or dinosaur kale best (curly kale might be a bit tough and bitter in the dish.) Feel free to try different nuts or seeds for texture; I like the toasted pine nuts as well as pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (you can also use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs)

1 bunch of dark leafy greens, such as swiss chard, collards or dinosaur kale

1 pound linguine (or other noodle such as spaghetti, fettuccine or bucatini)

1 small onion or 2 leeks, sliced

1/2 cup currants or raisins

2/3 cup toasted pine nuts

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Roast a chicken according to your favorite method – I’m currently using Thomas Keller’s simple recipe.

When the chicken comes out of the oven, remove the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest for 20 minutes.  When the chicken has rested, pull the meat off the bones (I just use my clean hands!) and break it into bite-sized pieces. Chop some of the crispy chicken skin if desired; set the meat and skin aside.

Cook the linguine, drain it and set it aside, reserving about a cup of the pasta cooking water.

Set the roasting pan (with the drippings and fat that accumulated when you roasted the chicken) back on the stove, over two burners. In the roasting pan over medium-high heat, add the onion or leek and saute until softened. Add the chopped greens and currants (or raisins) and saute until the greens are wilted but still bright green. Add the pieces of roasted chicken and skin (if using) as well as the chopped rosemary. Add the pasta, tossing it around to coat it with the chicken juices and fat (add a little of the reserved pasta cooking water if it looks like it needs to be moistened). Finally, toss in the toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley.

Serves about 6.

A holiday arrival

My days of late have been filled with tiny toes, a button nose, snuggles against impossibly soft skin, and falling in love (not to mention crazy sleep schedules and diapers galore!) Our baby girl made her entrance into the world just little over a week ago, in the wee hours of the morning. She’s a tiny little peanut with a full head of hair! B and I are doing well, getting to know little A, and very thankful for our little bundle of holiday joy.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season. I’ll be back in the New Year!

Peanut Brittle with Fleur de Sel

Over the weekend, my friend Emily came over and we baked up a storm. It was the perfect start to the holiday season for me — and because she loves to bake as well, we made a great team in the kitchen. Things hummed along smoothly, each of us measuring and checking things and stirring and gabbing away…it reminded me that even though I do spend most of my cooking time solo, I love to do it with someone else too (and it’s even better when that other cook knows their way around a kitchen!) We cranked out espresso chocolate shortbread (with toffee pieces added, upping the factor of deliciousness exponentially, in my opinion), chocolate gingerbread bars, and this peanut brittle with fleur de sel. It’s hard to say what our favorite sweet of the day turned out to be (because of course we had to sample them all!) but one thing we could agree on was that we were flying high on sugar by the end of the afternoon.

In Food and Wine magazine, this is called “Best Ever Nut Brittle,” and with good reason. It’s the perfect balance of sweet (yet, amazingly, not overly sugary), slightly salty and buttery, and the baking soda lightens it just enough so that you won’t break a tooth biting into a chunk (take a look at this article for an interesting read on why baking soda is added to some candies like nut brittles). And though you have to work quickly once the candy reaches temperature, overall it was an easy recipe to make — just make sure you have your nuts, baking soda, and a parchment-lined baking sheet ready to go before you start simmering the candy mixture (because 300 degree molten sugar is not the kind of thing you want to be sloshing around as you frantically try to measure your peanuts and baking soda – yow!)

For all those nut brittle lovers in your life, this would make a great edible gift for the holidays, packaged in a cellophane bag and tied with a bow.

Other Edible Gift Ideas:
Chocolate Peanut Toffee
Vanilla Bean Hot Chocolate
Espresso Truffles
Gingerbread Truffles
Hazelnut Truffles
Chocolate Biscotti
Almond Biscotti
World Peace Cookies
Pumpkin Butter

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From Food and Wine

view printable recipe

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 ounces roasted salted peanuts (you could also use another kind of nut, like cashews, pistachios, pecans, etc.)
Fleur de sel or crushed Maldon sea salt

Directions
Measure out your nuts and baking soda and set near the stove. On a heat-proof surface, set a rimmed sheet pan lined with parchment paper (or if you have a non-stick sheet pan, you can use that without the parchment — but we found the parchment allows for easy lifting off the pan when cooled.)

Combine the sugar, water, butter and corn syrup in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramel is light brown and registers 300 degrees F on a candy thermometer (approximately 10 minutes.)

Turn off the heat and carefully stir in the baking soda (the mixture will bubble.)

Stir in the nuts, then immediately scrape the brittle onto your parchment-lined baking sheet. Use the back of a large spoon (oil it lightly if it sticks) to spread the brittle into a thin, even layer. Sprinkle with fleur de sel and let cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Break the brittle into large shards.

Makes 2 pounds of brittle.

Cranberry Apple Cobblers

Have you ever noticed that after Thanksgiving, the availability of cranberries and pumpkin seems to decrease drastically? I don’t know why this is — I like cooking with these ingredients all throughout the winter. Cranberries, especially, pair really nicely with other fruits we can still get locally this time of year (mainly apples and pears.) We had delicious cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving dinner, and I’ve already made this cobbler multiple times in the month of November!

Speaking of Thanksgiving — we had a really lovely holiday this year. It was wonderful having my parents, my brother and his wife visiting, and great to have help in the kitchen (gave me lots of chances to plop down on a chair to take a rest!) I was really happy with how our whole dinner turned out, and it was so nice to spend the rest of the day relaxing together…we played games at night while we munched on dessert, and shared lots of laughs together. Mom and I put the final touches on the nursery during their visit — I really enjoyed seeing them in the homestretch before baby arrives (7 days left!!)

I’ve been doing my best to cook extra portions of dinners and soups to freeze in our chest freezer in preparation for the sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed first weeks with our newborn. And let me tell you: that freezer is packed. Which means that lately, I’ve been turning my efforts in the kitchen  towards desserts. Not necessarily to freeze, because in our house, desserts never last quite that long (though I do have a big batch of these tasty Apple Pie Bars frozen, yum! But that’s only because the recipe made 4 dozen, and even me with my seemingly insatiable appetite should not be eating that many apple pie bars at once.)

These cranberry apple cobblers have been in the rotation more than any other dessert in the past month — I’m addicted to the tart-sweet fruit mixture, cooked until slumped and softened with spices (cloves give the cranberries a really nice touch) and brown sugar, and contrasting deliciously with the crusty-edged but tender flaky biscuits on top.

The jewel-like cranberries and their intense ruby juices are a nice visual reminder of the holiday season starting up, too — such a festive color! — and best of all, the cobblers take all of about 15 minutes to throw together. Which is just about my speed at this point.

Put them together beforehand, slide them into the oven while you’re eating dinner, and you’ll have a very, very happy ending to the night. And if you’re pregnant like me, baby might just give you a good few kicks of approval while you’re savoring the cobblers (with vanilla ice cream, of course!)

[One last note: this recipe comes from Gourmet, of which I am sadly still lamenting the demise. If you were a fan of the magazine as I was, you might like to read this post from a young woman who interned at Gourmet this past summer...it's a lovely inside look at the magazine and an ode to what a special place it was. I met Jessie through Edible Finger Lakes magazine; she's graduating from Ithaca College in a few weeks (congrats, Jessie!) and I have a feeling will go on to do great things in the food writing world.]

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adapted from Gourmet

view printable recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cranberries, picked over
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and sliced thin
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest (optional – I only use it if I have an orange around)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
vanilla ice cream, to accompany

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix together the cranberries, the apple, the zest (if using), the brown sugar, the cinnamon, the cloves, and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Divide among two individual gratin dishes or two 1 1/2 cup ramekins and dot the tops with the butter.

In a bowl stir together the remaining 1/2 cup flour, the baking powder, and the salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, then stir in the yogurt (the dough will be sticky.)

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the cranberry mixture, sprinkle it with the granulated sugar, and bake the cobblers for 30 minutes, or until the tops are golden. Serve the cobblers with vanilla ice cream.

More Turkey Day Ideas

I thought I’d share the dishes that will be on our menu this Thanksgiving, along with some other ideas if you’re in need of some last-minute inspiration! As I mentioned yesterday, this year B and I are hosting my parents, my brother and his wife for Thanksgiving dinner. The menu I came up with has some of our traditional favorites along with a few newcomers; I tried to plan dishes that would lend themselves well to advance preparation and not too much on-my-feet time on the actual holiday. And fortunately, if my third trimester feet get too tired, I know I’ll have lots of able and willing sous chefs to lean on!

My focus this year, since I was hosting, was to take advantage of the amazing local food producers we have in the Finger Lakes area. Sometimes I have to pinch myself, we’re so spoiled!

• Appetizers — assorted Finger Lakes wine (sparkling cider for me), local cider, assorted cheeses (some local, some not) and crackers, summer sausage from Kingbird Farm, NY Bartlett pears, assorted nuts (mmm…I could eat just a big plate of these things for my whole meal)
• Turkey — we’re getting a heritage turkey from McDonald Farm. I’m planning to roast it simply slathered with lots of butter and herbs from Kingbird Farm (thyme, sage, rosemary and a little savory), both under and over the skin. I’ll put a halved onion and more herbs in the cavity, and make a gravy using the pan drippings and homemade chicken stock.
• Stuffing — I’m making a simple bread stuffing w/a mix of Ithaca Bakery sourdough and homemade buttermilk cornbread, herbs from Kingbird Farm, celery, homemade stock, onions, and apples from West Haven Farm
• Marbelized Root Vegetable Puree – using all veg from our CSA share
• Squash and Apple Bake - something we’ve been having for as long as I can remember, and one of my favorite side dishes!
• Braised Greens with Cranberries, Pine Nuts & Feta – using chard from West Haven Farm and Lively Run goat feta
• Green Beans, Roasted Fennel & Shallots – using shallots from Kingbird Farm
• Cranberry Sauce — my mom’s making this (Mom, looking forward to it!)
• Dessert – one of our guests is bringing this, and I’m excited — she’s bringing carrot cake! Now I love a pie any time of year, but quite honestly, pumpkin pie is not one of my favorites. I do, however, love carrot cake and I think it’s going to be a really nice addition to the meal!

Still looking for some ideas? Here’s a roundup of other dishes I’ve made on the blog that would lend themselves beautifully to the Thanksgiving table.

Cocktails and Appetizers:
Beet Bubbly Cocktail is a unique, seasonal, festive drink created by Felicia’s Atomic Lounge; I made it last year and it was delicious.

Goat Cheese & Herb Gougeres are a great appetizer and can easily be made ahead and heated just before serving.

Side Dishes:
Celery Root & Apple Puree is one of my favorite fall/winter side dishes. It pairs wonderfully with poultry, pork, and even beef — I made it the other week alongside braised beef short ribs. It would be delicious alongside your Thanksgiving turkey!

Roasted Carrots & Thyme are a simple and easy side dish, and gorgeous if you can find various colors of carrots (purple are my favorite!)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Pancetta is one of my favorite ways to eat brussels sprouts.

Breakfast on Thanksgiving morning or the morning after:
How about a strata? You can make it the night before, chill it in the fridge (if you still have room!) and bake it off in the morning. Or, there’s always a quiche, or (our favorite) scones!

Breakfast Strata with Greens, Gruyere and Sausage

Sausage, Cheddar and Apple Strata

Swiss Chard, Bacon and Cheddar Crustless Quiche

Our favorite Pumpkin Spice Scones!

Dessert Ideas

Apple Cup Pies, cute and a nice twist on the traditional apple pie

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, homey and a real crowd-pleaser

Pumpkin and Brown Sugar Creme Brulees, decadent and rich

Maple Pots de Creme, smooth and silky.

Maple Souffles, light and elegant.

Whatever your menu includes this Thanksgiving, may it be a happy and healthy one for you and your loved ones!

A Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dish

This year, since Thanksgiving falls so close to my due date (just 3 weeks to go!), my family is coming to us for the holiday! Which thrills me to no end because I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I love menu planning, figuring out the timing (what can be made ahead?  what goes into the oven when?), eating all the food (of course), but most of all, having everyone gathered around the table for a festive fall meal.

My tendency when I make Thanksgiving dinner is to keep a few tried-and-true standard dishes that I’ve grown up with and loved, but also to audition a few new dishes each year. Ours is not a house where the same dishes will show up ad infinitum for the rest of our lives…there’s just too many tasty things to try! However, the two dishes that we always have on the menu are butternut squash and apple bake, and this marbleized root vegetable puree. (Yes, we love carbs in my family.)

I first had this dish about 10 years ago at a potluck hosted by the faculty member whose lab I worked in during college…and since then, it’s been a regular feature on our Thanksgiving table. It’s a real looker of a dish, stunning in its autumnal colors and swirls, but beyond aesthetics, it’s a great way to showcase the many root vegetables in season this time of  year. I was lucky enough this year to get all of the ingredients (well, except for the butter, cream and nutmeg) from our Full Plate Farms and Finger Lakes Fruit Bowl CSA shares: Yukon Gold potatoes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, and a pear.

The carrots are cooked and pureed with a little butter and nutmeg; separately, potatoes, turnips, parsnips and a pear are cooked and mashed together.

The orange and creamy-white purees are swirled together in a pan, drizzled with a little more butter and showered with a faint dusting of more nutmeg.

The resulting dish is savory with a tinge of sweetness and a hint of nutmeg, beautiful to look at, and (in my opinion) a really interesting alternative to traditional mashed potatoes.

And finally, I had to post this last picture, because it’s the state of my life right now: every time I go to take a picture and look down, this big belly gets in the way!! Baby Eggs on Sunday will be here before we know it, and we’re so excited — much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

More to come tomorrow on our Thanksgiving menu this year, as well as a round-up of other menu ideas if you’re still looking for a little inspiration!

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Marbleized Root Vegetable Puree

recipe from Bon Appetit

view printable recipe

This is a delicious and beautiful way to showcase all of the root vegetables in season around Thanksgiving. It can be made and assembled a day or two ahead, stored in the refrigerator, and baked just before serving.

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes (I like Yukon Gold or Russet), peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 ounces turnips, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 ounces parsnips, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium pear, peeled, cored, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup whipping cream
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Additional ground nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F and butter a 2-quart baking dish (I use a 9×9 square ceramic baking pan.)

Place the potato, turnip, parsnip and pear chunks in a large pot of cold salted water. Bring it to a boil, and cook until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the veg and return them to the pan; continue to cook over low heat for another minute until any excess moisture evaporates. Add the cream and 5 tablespoons of butter, and then mash until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Meanwhile, cook the carrots in another pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain them, let cool just slightly, and transfer them to a food processor. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, and puree until smooth (this usually takes me a few minutes, and I pause periodically to scrape down any chunks on the sides of the processor bowl.) Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Spoon the potato and carrot purees, alternating by 1/2 cupfuls, into the buttered baking dish. Draw a knife through the purees to marbleize, then drizzle 1 tablespoon of melted butter over the whole dish. Sprinkle with a little additional nutmeg. Cover with foil (at this point you can refrigerate it for a day or two.) Bake the foil-covered puree until it’s heated through, about 35 minutes (or 45 minutes if chilled.)

Serve 8-10.

My interview on Eating Ithaca (“Behind the Blog: Eggs on Sunday”)

Several weeks ago, Dave from Eating Ithaca came by to interview me for his latest podcast series, “Behind the Blog.” I met Dave through writing for Edible Finger Lakes magazine; he produces a terrific podcast where he interviews local food producers, winemakers and brewers, highlights local food-related events, and (along with his wife) systematically reviews every single restaurant in Ithaca. It’s a must-listen for anyone residing in the greater Ithaca area. We had a great chat, munched on Spiced Pumpkin Scones and World Peace cookies, and now you can hear the interview! Head on over to Eating Ithaca to listen to me talk about how I started Eggs on Sunday, my cooking hits and misses, what I enjoy about blogging, how joining a CSA helped me become a better cook, and lots more (including how this blog got its name!) Thanks again, Dave, for taking the time to chat with me!

Roasted Sunchoke and Mushroom Bisque

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for gnarly, knobby vegetables. As much as I love a gorgeously tapered rainbow carrot, or a voluptuously round tomato, my heart is full of enough vegetable love to look past appearances and see the hidden beauty in hairy, lumpy celeriac and bulbous tubers like these sunchokes.

I was tickled, then, to be writing about sunchokes for my fall Seasonal Cooking column in Edible Finger Lakes Magazine. I think sunchokes are misunderstood and underappreciated — most people think they’re either (a) a type of artichoke (that misconception stems from their other moniker “Jersusalem Artichoke”), (b) oddly-shaped fresh ginger root, or (c) some weird variety of potato that frankly, can’t hold a candle to beautiful Yukon Golds and Adirondack Blues in the looks department.

But potato and artichoke they’re not, though they do resemble potatoes in their crunchy raw state:

They’re actually tubers, in the sunflower family — we started growing some this year on the land that we’re building a house on, and they bloomed at the end of the summer into beautiful yellow blossoms. The variety of sunflower is native to North America, but settlers brought the tubers back to Europe for cultivation. The story goes that they got their “Jerusalem Artichoke” alter-ego from the Italian word girasole, which means “sunflower” but along the way was somehow misinterpreted as “Jerusalem.”

I love their nutty, earthy taste, which I think is somewhat of a cross between potato and mushroom with a slight hint of artichoke. They’re great pan-fried in a little butter and tossed with herbs, thin-sliced into a gratin, as a hearty component to a winter salad, or simply roasted. If you go the roasted route, this soup is a wonderful treat to prepare with the browned, caramelized tubers.

I found the inspiration for this soup in one of my favorite cookbooks, Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. The roasted sunchoke soup is featured in the “Roasted Vegetable Soups for Fall” chapter, and they’re combined with roasted potatoes to form the base of this simple bisque.

I thought that some meaty brown mushrooms would be a lovely complement to the earthy, nutty flavor of the sunchokes in this soup. So, after cooking a good handful of chopped mushrooms over high heat so that they were nicely browned (take a look through Ruhlman’s recent entry on hitting that “sweet spot” when cooking mushrooms), I folded them into the pureed soup….

…and finished it with a little cream and fresh chopped sage. Fresh thyme would be equally delicious.

This might be my new favorite fall soup. It’s warm and earthy and nutty without being really heavy, and perfect to wrap your hands around on a chilly November day.

And, it’s a lovely way to show a little love to the homely sunchoke…because not all vegetables need to be beauty queens.

[If you live in the Finger Lakes area, be sure to check out the Fall issue of Edible Finger Lakes magazine for more sunchoke information and recipes in my Seasonal Cooking column, as well as many more great articles about our local farms and food producers. Kudos to my editors for putting such a terrific issue together!]

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Adapted from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen, a wonderful book if you like cooking soups with the seasons!

No need to peel the sunchokes before roasting them for this soup; just a good scrubbing will do. Fresh thyme would be an equally good herb to use in place of the sage, if you’re so inclined.

view printable recipe

Ingredients
2 pounds sunchokes, scrubbed and cut into 1/3-inch slices
1 large potato, preferably Yukon Gold, scrubbed and cut into wedges
6 large garlic cloves
olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion or 2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, plus more for the mushrooms
8 ounces mushrooms, thickly sliced
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh chopped sage or thyme leaves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the sunchoke slices, potato wedges, and whole garlic cloves with olive oil and a few pinches of sea salt. Transfer them to a sheet pan (use two if they’re too crowded on one pan) and roast until the tubers are browned in some places, about 45 minutes.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in a large, heavy soup pot. Add the onion and cook over medium heat for several minutes, stirring occasionally. Add all of the roasted vegetables along with 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 cup of water. Cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add another 9 cups of water and any brown juices that remain on the sheet pan(s). Simmer soup, covered, for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

In the meantime, heat a saute pan over high heat with a little olive oil or canola oil, until it’s very hot. Add the sliced mushrooms along with a good pinch of salt, and cook until they’re nicely seared and brown. Season with a little freshly ground black pepper and set aside (you can reserve a small portion to use for garnishing the bowls.)

When soup is done cooking, use an immersion blender (or a regular blender, or food processor — if you use these methods, you’ll need to work in batches) to puree the mixture. I like to leave a little bit of texture in my soup, and flecks of brown from the sunchoke skins. Stir in the cream, mushrooms, and chopped sage (or thyme.) Taste for salt and adjust to your liking; add freshly ground black pepper.

Serve, optionally garnished with a little mound of browned mushrooms and more chopped herbs.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Pumpkin and Brown Sugar Crème Brûlées

I think I’ve mentioned here before that B and I are in the process of building a house. And we’re doing a good chunk of it ourselves, which means that the past, oh, 8 months or so have been very, very packed. My dear husband amazes me — the things he just knows how to do (though, of course, there’s been a lot of things to learn along the way, too!) And since he’s been building things and helping his Dad with projects since he was very young, he had a vocabulary around tools and construction techniques that, frankly, was Greek to me. Let’s just say it’s been, and continues to be, a huge learning experience for both of us! All very positive — we’re thrilled with how the house is coming along, it’s been an incredibly rewarding process so far, and we just can’t wait to move in (probably later in the spring.)

One of the steep learning curves I’ve had is what all these construction tools are and what they’re used for. For instance, one of the tools we’ve acquired in the process of building a house is a miter saw, which B tells me is really useful for quickly making angled cuts. Apparently it is much more efficient than using a table saw for the same purpose. I do love finding out about well-designed tools of any kind, those that perform their function really well, so I was kind of tickled about this miter saw acquisition.

And cooking, of course, has these types of situations too, right? For instance, take crème brûlée. Making these pumpkin and brown sugar crème brûlées — which are utterly fantastic; like smooth, creamy, custardy pumpkin pie but better (in my opinion) because of the dairy and silky smooth texture — made me realize that there’s one tool that would really, really make my life easier, at least when it comes to crème brûlées: a kitchen torch. I usually use the broiler, but you know what? It just doesn’t do the trick — it burns the sugar in spots, doesn’t melt the sugar in other spots, and just generally falls short of creating that perfect thin, shattering sugar crust.

So if you have a kitchen blow torch, I’m envious! I hope to add it to my “toolbox” sometime soon. These crème brûlées are going to be making many more appearances in our kitchen this winter, maybe even this Saturday night for Halloween! Their lovely orange hue and pumpkin flavoring make a sophisticated, festive dessert. Blowtorch or not.

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Pumpkin Spice Crème Brûlées

adapted from Bon Appetit

view printable recipe

Ingredients

half of one 15-ounce can pure pumpkin (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons raw sugar or golden brown sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugars, egg yolks, spices and salt.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream just to a boil, then slowly whisk it into the pumpkin/egg yolk mixture to temper the egg yolks. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a separate bowl (I used a large liquid measuring cup with a pouring spout.)

Divide the mixture among four 5×1 inch ramekins.* Place the ramekins in a large roasting pan or sheet pan, and fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the custards are just set in the center, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove from the hot water bath, and let the ramekins cool slightly. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator until cold, about 6 hours.

To serve, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over the top of each ramekin. Place the ramekins under the broiler to melt the sugar, or use a kitchen torch to melt the sugar. Chill for 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

*you can also use 3-inch diameter ramekins with 1 1/4 inch sides; increase baking time to about 50 minutes.

Homemade Vanilla Extract Update

Hi there. Remember waaaaaay back in May, when I posted about the DIY vanilla extract project I was embarking on? And then never mentioned it again? Oops.

Well, better late than never, I’m here to tell you that it is unequivocally fabulous. I’ve been using it for months. That photo above was taken back in July, and I still have the beans in the extract — it’s even darker now, with a heady vanilla aroma that envelopes me as soon as I open the jar.

I had meant to post this update earlier, but you know what? It’s never too late. If you’re thinking of making this for Christmas gifts (I know I’ll be giving some away!) you could start it in the next few weeks and still give it for Christmas — I found the extract was excellent for baking after about 3 months, and only gets better with a little more time. Just tell your gift recipients to let it “age” a little while.