cheese, leek & herb soufflé casserole

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about eggs lately — we seem to eat more and more as the temperatures slowly warm up. They lend themselves so well so light spring meals with herbs and fresh, delicate greens, and my sometimes-picky-eater toddler actually loves them, too.

she also loves shopping at the farmer’s market with me!

We’ve been visiting the market together every weekend morning and piling our baskets with all things green – baby lettuces, kale, herbs, scallions, spinach, and leeks. The herbs, leeks, and eggs have all met their destiny several times over the past month or two in this delicious soufflé, which was  on the Easter menu in the April issue of Martha Stewart magazine. The minute I clamped eyes on the recipe, I knew I’d be making it STAT. Sauteed leeks, fresh spring herbs, gruyere, and fresh eggs? Yes, please!

homemade whole grain pancake mix

Living with an early-rising toddler, breakfast in our house is a pretty routine affair. There’s only so much variation and prep I can manage before I get some caffeine into my system (why hasn’t someone invented a combination alarm clock and coffee maker? Coffee ready to go at my bedside — I’d be all over that.)

So, our options for a while have rotated between oatmeal, cereal with fruit, granola/yogurt, and sometimes scrambled eggs. Boring, I know. I longed to add pancakes to the rotation — they are one of my very favorite breakfasts — and so I made it my mission to find a pancake recipe that would be easy enough to make on weekday mornings before work. (Preferably something multigrain; white flour pancakes just don’t do it for me like they used to…)

beet and carrot slaw

I don’t know about you, but when mid-winter hits, I’m in dire need of some intense color therapy and crunchy textures in my food. I recently wrote about one of our favorite ways to get color and crunch this time of year on the Edible Voices blog: beet and carrot slaw. It’s quick to prepare and makes great use of all those piles of roots lurking in your fridge.  Head on over to check out the post and get the full recipe.

orange-scented chocolate truffles

I have never been one to shy away from the festivities of Valentine’s Day. Oh, I know, it’s nice to show those you love affection year-round…of course. But I’m always up for a celebration, and if it involves chocolate and pops of red and pink against the bleak midwinter grays, you can count me in.

This year I was looking for something simple but elegant that I could make for a few special people, as well as for B and I to enjoy with our bottle of Hellbender port (a favorite dessert wine we discovered on a wine tasting at Red Newt Cellars last summer) that we’ve been saving for V-day. Truffles immediately came to mind — they’re quick to make (basically just ganache that you chill and roll into balls), look pretty in a box or on a plate, and can be flavored any way you please.

chipotle & rosemary roasted nuts

For the past three years, my friend Emily and I have gathered at each other’s houses in December for a blitz of holiday baking: about six hours of sugar stirring, dough-wrangling, chocolate spreading and general confectionary bliss. It’s fabulous.

We usually aim for a mix of tried-and-true hits along with a few new recipes: this year, the hitlist included gingerbread caramels, mocha toffee bars, peanut brittle with fleur de sel, hot cocoa blocks.…and this unbelievably delicious mix of subtly sweet, spicy and smoky nuts (they’re from Ina – so I  knew before I even made them that they’d be a hit!) These – THESE – were the hit of the day.

chocolate mint crackles

We are in full-on baking blitz mode here in the Eggs on Sunday household. December usually finds me whirring around the kitchen surrounded by puffs of flour and drips of chocolate, but this year, I have a little 2-year-old elf to help me, which makes it even more fun! (Though the clean-up factor is dramatically increased.)

I’ve been trying to involve her when I bake this holiday season, which usually means that the recipes I choose are fairly easy and have some type of hands-on step in which she can participate. These chocolate mint crackles, from the December issue of Martha Stewart magazine, fit the bill: mix them up in a single bowl (no need for even an electric mixer), roll them into balls, and roll the balls in powdered sugar.

honey-mustard chicken with thyme

Well hello! Long time no blog. In late September, my beloved Macbook died a painful death — hard drive permanently ka-put. But while I was terribly sad to see it go, I am warming up quite nicely to its successor (hellooooo, Macbook Pro. You are so sleek, so fast, so lovely!) But, it meant a longer hiatus from blogging than intended, as I scrambled to recover — unsuccessfully — a batch of recent food photos.

So now I’m making a fresh start with my new, sleek laptop, and I’ve finally gotten my act together to tell you about one of our new favorite weeknight meals: honey-mustard chicken with thyme. It’s a classic combination that I’ve made endless times, tweaking and streamlining the recipe method along the way. One of the realities I’ve  had to come to terms with since having a child is that honestly, I just don’t have hours and hours to tinker around in the kitchen anymore with finicky recipes. At least for the time being, the name of the game around here is delicious food with a minimum of fuss.

One of Miss A’s favorite things to do with me is help prepare meals. Now, granted, she’s only just about 2 – so this mainly entails stirring, mixing, pouring, and washing vegetables under my hawk-eyed supervision. But when I hear her little voice chime “I want to help mommy cookin’!,” I pull out the step stool and find her favorite spatula, and we get to work.