Easter dinner for the rest of us

We maxed out our table settings on Sunday and devoured the pork roast, arugula salad, potatoes, and stuffed peppers. Then we washed it all down with carrot cake. There was even a toddler running around which finally gave me an excuse to bring out the singamajigs.

Nanny's Molasses Cookies

Mark and Rick are often swept up with inspiration for a particular dinner, or food item. But I couldn't help but melt over their excitement to make their grandma's molasses cookies. Of which, they told me over and over, she always had in a jar ready for them. They fussed over the cookies, making sure they made them just like she does.

Mark and I are big believers that the best food will always be what you grew up with. For me, my favorite dessert is vanilla ice cream covered in my uncles maple syrup. And for Mark and Rick it's their grandma's molasses cookies.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas was wonderful. We were spoiled with delicious food, thoughtful gifts, and most importantly - time with our loved ones.

Mark has taken every chance to make the incredibly simple and ridiculously rich recipes from Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast. For Christmas Eve it was suppose to be Rabbit and Garlic. But apparently Rabbit fly's off the shelves faster than Tickle Me Elmo's on December 23rd. So we "settled" for beef shanks.

The recipe calls for 60 to 80 cloves of garlic. Nope, not a typo. My favorite part of the recipe is the last part: "Serve hot straight from the pot, encouraging your fellow diners to suck the flesh from the unpeeled garlic cloves, which will now be sweet and delicious. For the juices you will need both bread and napkins."

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• introducing our new friend, Miss Fish
• twenty dollars well spent at the farmers market
• kitten print! on a cute dress! yes!
• kitten kisses
• lay on the couch and what do I see? a tree!

Peach hand pies and google

I whipped up these AMAZING peach hand pies for Evie's shower. They are to. die. for. I can't stop dreaming about the pie dough, so buttery and flaky and shockingly resilient.

Where did the recipe come from?

Well it's very simple, I googled "peach hand pies" and not surprisingly the fabulous smitten kitchen blog topped the list. So go steal her recipe (www.smittenkitchen.com) and while you are there scroll around because you are sure to find a bagillion other recipes. Just don't blame me when your social life goes to phooey (kids read this blog) because you haven't left the kitchen in a week.

Stair Garden

There is a lot happening on our stairs right now. Tomatoes are turning red. Flower are blooming. Green beans are sprouting. The herbs have been going strong for months now. And the sun tea is a crowd pleaser.

Didn't agriculture come about from the need of humans to settle in one place? My portable stair garden would seam so insane to those garden pioneers, but so would house cats.

!!!

Oh my. It's been almost a month. Well I have some updating to do:



My wisdom teeth were surgically removed after the move and before anything was put away. The pain meds and my stomach did not get along and in the end the stomach won. Luckily the paint wasn't that bad. Mark made me gourmet mashed potatoes. I loafed on the couch staring at all the stuff that needed put away and that I wasn't allowed to lift.


Then my Aunt, Uncle, and Grandma came in from upstate New York to celebrate my Cousin's Graduation. Almost every summer of my life has been spent at their homes and it was nice to have the tables turn. And if forced Mark and I to finally unpack. My mom came to visit as well and we went to the Whetstone Park of Roses peak season showing. We took a million pictures of damp, slightly browning roses. Apparently peak season came early this year. But it didn't stop my mom from falling in love with the place and continuing to ask me if I want to get married there.



Mark made a crazy good Brussels sprout, bacon, mushroom medley. And we added Brussels sprout medley to our tentative wedding menu.



Our friend Brigit got a puppy. Everyone is jealous.



I went to visit my 10 month old nephew. He is the cutest 10 month old that ever existed. He is starting to walk and his favorite toy continues to be my mom's camera bag. To encourage his interest in photography I "taught" him how to use my camera. He took this picture of me (it has crazy aunt written all over it).




Friends were invited over for 2011 Pride Cake and a whole rack of ribs.



This summer's first pitcher of fresh mint mojitos was schlepped to dinner club only to realize that their was no dinner club and so we had mojito club instead. After several mojitos Ana and I decided it would be a good idea to fix my hair cut. It turned out great and I think it will be my new formula for hair cutting.





Our friend Sjanneke got a dog and all I have are these lazy cats.

Easter Dinner

Impromptu holiday celebrations are my favorite kind. Mark and I whipped up an Easter dinner on a whim and invited some friends over. The menu:

• BBQ Pork Ribs (with sweet baby ray's bbq sauce)
• Mashed red potato's with olive oil and basil
• Green beans with bacon bits (Mark's homemade bacon)
• Garlic bread
• Apple pie

First BBQ of 2011

My favorite meal as a little girl was my mom's grilled chicken and corn on the cob with big wedges of watermelon. Oh and sun-made ice tea.

There is something completely fantastic about cooking food outside. The charcoal undertones, BBQ sauce dripping from everything, the possibility of smores, and the smoky smell that lingers in your hair. It's my favorite.

Sprouts

I began some of my seeds this week. I sort of forgot to label what I planted where. Oops. So here are some sprouts, not sure what they are. Hopefully I'll figure it out before I have to transplant them (fingers crossed).

Speaking of transplanting, Mark and I are transplanting as well this summer. More about that later.

Also there will be no weekly arrangement this week. Don't worry though cause next weeks will be extra amazing.

Vegan chocolate whisky cake

Vegan baking scares me. I'm so use to adding extra butter to make something more moist, or fluffing the eggs longer to create more body. So I was shocked that I made a vegan cake and it actually worked and tasted good.

I got the recipe here and followed it exactly with the exception of putting raspberry jam in the middle.

Friday night celebration

of Erin completing The Bar. Something that is necessary to celebrate, not just because it's a huge accomplishment, but also because no one has seen her for the last three months.

a completely vegan menu:
• vegan balls (consisting of bread, tofu, nuts, and garlic) dipped in tomato sauce
• mushroom salsa (mushrooms, roasted nuts, garlic) paired with wheat crackers
• cherry tomato's stuffed with pesto (these are amazing!!)
• vegan whisky chocolate cake (recipe coming soon)
• a handsome bottle of whisky

Thursday night crafting...

.../stuffing our faces with cheese, wine and the above tart while talking about life and other completely inappropriate topics.

Hopefully the beginning of a tradition.

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11:04 am - some mornings call for a healthy start. This was not one of them.

The Wurst

Mark has taken a sudden interest to cured meats. There was bacon which was amazing and has ruined all store bought bacon for me. Then there are the sausages. They are his first which means the ones to follow will be even better. Hard for me to imagine. Maybe these were beginners luck.

Of course Rick always has the cleverest things to say:

"The best wurst burst first"

V-day dinner

Have I told you yet that Mark is an amazing cook? And not even in a "makes a mean steak" kind of way. More in a "I live with a gourmet chef" kind of way. Lucky for me he decided a cooking career would probably ruin his love for cooking and so he continues to express his art on my dinner plate.

Valentines dinner came in two courses (we were too stuffed for the third).

Course 1: Apple and bacon (that he made, like actually made the bacon from a piece of pork belly) on top of a brie smeared baguette drizzled with maple syrup. This blew my mind.

Course 2: Homemade pasta sauteed in wine, garlic, and mussel juice and sprinkled with ricotta cheese and basil. Then topped with scallops for him and mussels for me.

Course 3: To be continued...

My garden in envelopes

I really love all the seasons (including the coldest darkest winters). I really do. No really, I do. I even wrote about it here, remember?

Ok, you caught me.

I'm secretly dreaming of spring every time I look out the window. Maybe it's the lack of fluffy snow this year, or maybe it's my lack of snow boots. Whichever, it's racking me with guilt for not enjoying each day and instead drifting off to a land of breezy windows and sprouting gardens.

So instead of sloshing through the snow, or cozying up to the fire I am planning my garden. Tasha and I went in together on seeds (great idea, Tasha), because who needs 1,000 seeds of anything? And in only a week it will be time to begin some of the plants so that I can feel I am forcing spring to come.

Rustic pear pie

I'm a baker. And I have baked some pretty amazing things. But this tops them all. The flavor explosions of lemon, pear, and almond will make you... well explode. Oh and the crust, that amazing sweet flaky crust, with sugar crystals, to. die. for. Good thing pears are plentiful at the grocer right now cause you are going to want to make this right away. I promise. And you should probably invite some friends over because otherwise you will eat this whole thing yourself.

Rustic Pear Pie (10 servings)

Ingredients
• 1&1/3 Cups flour
• 3 Tbls sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 7 Tbls cold butter, cubed
• 3 to 4 Tbls cold water (or cold milk, or in my case cold butter milk)

Filling
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1&1/2 tsp grated lemon peal
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 medium ripe pears, pealed and sliced
• 1 Tbsp butter

Topping
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp water
• 1 Tbls coarse sugar

Glaze (optional)
• 1/4 cup powder sugar
• 1&1/2 tsp milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted.

Directions
• In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt: cut in butter until crumbly. Gradually add water tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Roll out to a 14 in circle. Transfer pastry to a 14in or 12in pizza pan.
• Set oven at 375 degrees
• In a large bowl, combine the sugar, almonds, flour, lemon peal and cinnamon. Add pears; toss to coat. Spoon over the pastry to within 2 in. of edges; dot with butter. Fold edges of pastry in.
• For topping, beat egg white and water. Brush over pastry and sprinkle course sugar over top.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown
• For glaze, combine the powder sugar, milk and vanilla. Pour over warm pie. Sprinkle with almonds. Cool on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator (if you don't eat it all first).

(this recipe is from Taste of Home and I slightly modified it)