eggs on sunday

A few years ago, if you had told me that I’d be writing this post today — about homemade mayonnaise and radishes — I would have said you were nuts. No, not “nuts”….

NUTS. (more…)

I realized after I posted my little lemony ricotta cheesecakes that I got a little ahead of myself. I’m not sure why I didn’t post this first, but no matter –I hope you’ll be as excited about this as I am!

See, for the past month or so I’ve been making little batches of homemade ricotta cheese. And I will tell you this: it is DEAD easy. All you need is some milk, heavy cream, a lemon, and some salt; plus, a colander to drain the cheese. It takes all of about 15 minutes, and the result is so much better than anything you buy in the store. It’s creamy, has a wonderful mild flavor, and lacks the watery runoff that so many of the supermarket brands of ricotta have. I’ve been using it on pizzas, in the ricotta cheesecakes, mixed with some yogurt, and in a few other dishes that I’ll post over the next few days. (more…)

Happy first day of spring! (for those of us in the northern hemisphere.)

…even if you live in a place like upstate New York, where it’s been flurrying all day.

Enjoy this picture of our cute little savoy cabbage seedlings, some of the ones that we’re nurturing along inside for the garden this year. They just started growing their first true leaves a few days ago. Here’s to the promise of all the lovely spring vegetables and fruits to come!

Fondue is, in my opinion, a tasty and fun dinner to have any cold winter’s night — with a special someone, or just with friends. Though I love to cook, I’ve learned my lesson from a past Valentine’s (where I was so exhausted from cooking such an elaborate meal that I promptly fell asleep as soon as I finished dinner) and try to plan something relaxing, easy to prepare, and tasty.

Enter the fondue tradition B and I have begun for Valentine’s — it combines two of my favorite things; good cheese and good crusty bread — and I couldn’t be happier. Preparation is easy, giving you more time to enjoy with your fellow fondue-eaters. And, if you really like your company, you can play by the rules:
fondue tradition states that if your food drops off of the fork and into the pot, you have to kiss the person next to you. (!)

Classic Cheese Fondue

Ingredients
1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
1/2 lb Emmentaler cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups white wine
1 garlic clove, halved
2 tsp kirsch
1 tbsp cornstarch

1 loaf of crusty bread, cut into cubes

Directions
Mix together the kirsch and cornstarch and set aside.

Rub the cut halves of the garlic clove all over the inside of a medium saucepan. Add the white wine and bring to a simmer, then add the cheese gradually — stirring all the while using a “figure eight” motion, to prevent the cheese from clumping. When all the cheese has been added and melted, add the kirsch/cornstarch mixture and stir until it thickens slightly.

Transfer to a fondue pot and place the pot over a tealight candle or sterno fuel. Serve with any accompaniments you like — cubes of crusty bread, lightly steamed broccoli, other vegetables, etc.

The new issue of Bon Appetit magazine arrived earlier in the week, and boy was it a good one. This was their “green” issue, so it was chock full of articles on buying organic and locally-produced ingredients, how to best cook grass-fed meat, cooking with winter vegetables, and baking with whole grains — all topics I’m really, really interested in right now. Not to mention an article about a working, organic farm near Siena, Italy where you can stay, eat, and learn about how they process and cure their own pork products, make their own olive oil, garden, etc. I had read about Castello di Spannocchia in The Boston Globe travel section about a year ago, and have filed it away for a future trip idea for B and I (though I think once I was there, I’d have a hard time leaving!)

I’ve had pistachios on the brain lately, and there was a recipe for brussel sprouts with pistachios and lemon that caught my eye. The way the sprouts were prepared was what initially interested me; the leaves are peeled off the sprout until you have mounds of the curved, petal-like greens. Then it’s just a quick saute in the pan with some toasted pistachios, shallots, and a squeeze of lemon to finish it off.

I thought these sprouts would pair really nicely with a pistachio-crusted cod recipe I had been working on lately…and with the cod, I’ve been making a creamy yogurt dipping sauce with herbs, garlic, scallions, and lemon zest. Just the sauce alone is worthy of eating by the spoonful.

The picture on the right at the top of this post is the other “seeing green” recipe I made this week: whole wheat linguine with cabbage, green beans and sicilian pesto. Besides the bright green savoy cabbage and green beans, there’s a parsley pesto with tangy capers, lemon and some other nice ingredients that really brightens up this dish and makes it really flavorful.

And finally, though not in the green color category, was a butternut squash and sage soup recipe from the issue that, with a few tweaks, I found to be delicious. I find a lot of squash soups are usually pretty thick, but I liked the consistency of this one — it’s a bit thinner, still rich with the pureed squash (and the addition of a teeny bit of cream at the end), and the sage flavor is present, but not too overpowering. A steamy bowl of the soup was great with a slice of crusty bread alongside (but then again, I think I say that about every soup, right?)