I’m home from my last trip of the year and very ready for a few days off for Christmas. Originally I had all kinds of last minute errands planned for today, but it’s treacherously icy outside. After a brief trip to the grocery store, the freezing rain had us turning tail to get back inside. Now we’re all sorts of cozy – wrapping presents, baking cookies, assembling this year’s gingerbread house, and listening to Christmas swing music. Although I still have a bunch of miscellaneous little things to do tomorrow, I’m so much happier for being forced to take a rest day. December always feels like a bit of a sprint, and now I want to slow way, way down.

If you’ve left your Christmas baking to the last minute, like I inevitably do, I have a simple little cookie recipe for you. They may not be the world’s prettiest cookie, but these Pecan Crescent Cookies are wonderfully tasty. I just took a batch out of the oven and can verify that they are just as good as I remember. You can also make them from start-to-finish in less than 45 minutes with only pantry ingredients. Perfect for a day when you really don’t want to leave the house (see: freezing rain).

These cookies are incredibly easy to make. All you need to do is pulse the ingredients in a food processor, then shape and bake the cookies. I found the recipe in the giant Bon Appetit Cookbook last year, hidden amongst dozens of other cookie recipes. After the first batch received rave reviews, I made a second and third tray. Now in their second year on our Christmas cookie tray, I think we can declare these a Christmas staple. They’re crumbly and tender but not dry, and just barely sweet. They almost toe the line between sweet and savory. In fact, if you opt to skip the powdered sugar, they are delicious with a little blue cheese.

I hope all of you find a day or two to slow down over the next week. Have a wonderful Christmas if you’re celebrating!

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Pecan Crescent Cookies

A simple, nutty, pecan crescent cookie perfect for the Christmas cookie tray. 

Recipe from The Bon Appetit Cookbook.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 20 cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup pecans
• 1 cup AP flour
• 1 stick chilled butter
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch sea salt
• powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Place the pecans on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven for 4-5 minutes, until just fragrant. Take care not to let them burn.
2. Add the toasted pecans and all other ingredients to a food processor. Pulse several times until the dough looks crumbly, then process on high until the dough begins to come together. Press a bit of dough together between your fingers – if it holds together, the dough is ready. If not, blend a bit longer.
3. Use your hands to gather the dough together. Pinch off a little more than a tablespoon of dough and form a short rope of dough by squeezing the dough in the palm of your hand. Place the rope on a cookie sheet and shape into a crescent, smoothing any lumpy parts. Repeat until you have used all the dough. Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes, until just barely firm to the touch. Let cool completely, then sift powdered sugar over the top of the cookies.

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Every time I move I make some sort of clean out the pantry dish. Trevor reminded me of the first one the other day when I was starting to clean out the fridge. I’m almost embarrassed to show you –  not only does it look awful, if I’m remembering correctly, it also tasted awful. But hey it’s on the Internet so it’s fair game. I was just a little baby blogger then, wasn’t I?

The second time was not so bad: Cranberry Cornmeal Cake (warning, that post comes with a lot of emotions about graduating from Duke) and a less-thrilling but still decent Corn Broth Quinotto. Coincidentally, I have a lot of cranberries, cornmeal, and quinoa in my pantry now, too – aparently I always hoard cranberries in the freezer in October and it turns out I almost never use them after November. The third time I moved was when we moved to this apartment – only two years ago – during a summer that was almost as hectic as this one, with me away in Russia at least once a month. I made this Baked Blackberry Oatmeal to help me stay sane and somewhat energized during the move (still a favorite recipe) and also these Corn, Goat Cheese, and Jalapeno Tartines (which I can’t imagine particularly helped me clean out the fridge, but maybe I was just planning on leaving all my extra food for my roommates).

I’d like to think that both my cooking and photography skills have improved since then but I’ll let you be the judge. This time around, some of the fridge languishers were rhubarb, cream cheese, half a package of frozen puff pastry, and a few splashes of rosé. A tart seemed the obvious way to use up the puff pastry, and from there I worked backwards to end up with a cheesecake filling topped with rosé-poached rhubarb stalks. I left the rhubarb stalks whole and poached them just to the point of tenderness for presentation’s sake, but the flavors will be just as good if you let the rhubarb soften a little bit more. The tart was delicious, but between the puff pastry and the cheesecake filling it’s very rich – a small slice is perfect after a long day of packing and moving but it’s definitely a little indulgent!

I hope this is the last time we move for a long while. It’s funny, reading my post from the last time I moved; there’s a lot more sadness about what I was leaving behind. This time, I’m mostly just looking forward to turning our new house into our home. Perhaps I’m not sad because I’m not leaving any people, but I have to admit that I’ve never really loved the apartment that we’re in now. At least not the way I loved my house in Somerville – although I only lived there for 2 years, it felt like home from the first night on, maybe even more so than my childhood house. Our new house needs a lot of work and love before it will be even close to as nice as my Somerville house, but I hope that it starts to feel like home soon.

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Rosé-Poached Rhubarb Cheesecake Tart

• 1 c. rosé wine
• 1 c. water
• 1 c. sugar, divided
• 1 lb rhubarb, trimmed to the length of your baking dish
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1 whole egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 7 oz. / 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, defrosted according to package directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter a small rectangular baking dish with 4-6 cups of capacity and set aside
2. Add the wine, water, and 1/2 cup of sugar to a wide-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, then add the rhubarb to the pan. Simmer the rhubarb until just tender, about 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the rhubarb. Check the tenderness of the rhubarb frequently by squeezing gently with tongs, removing each stalk of rhubarb as soon as it begins to give way to pressure from the tongs. Place the rhubarb on a plate and set aside. Continue simmering the syrup until it has reduced to 3/4 of a cup and is very thick, then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature
3. To prepare the filling, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, the egg, egg yolks, and vanilla until a smooth batter is formed.
4. Unfold the pastry sheet and line the prepared baking dish with it, stretching the pastry out as necessary to cover the bottom of the dish. Poke the pastry all over the bottom with the tines of a fork. Pour the cheesecake filling into the pastry and bake until the filling is almost set and the puff pastry has begun to brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully press the rhubarb stalks on top of the cheesecake filling, then continue to bake until the filling is fully set, another 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
5. Serve the tart chilled with the reduced rosé-rhubarb syrup.

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I’m back in Latin America this week, and headed out now to enjoy a day of wine tasting in Chile (work travel isn’t so bad…). But before I go, I wanted to share some other wine-related news: this summer, I’ll be developing four recipes for La Crema Wines featuring pairings of pork and Pinot Noir. Since I’ve been traveling so much and am always discovering new flavors and cooking styles, the series is going to have a global theme. The first stop on our Pork and Pinot tour – Italy.

This stuffed and rolled pork tenderloin may not be strictly traditional, but it takes all of its inspiration from Italian cuisine. The tenderloin is butterflied and filled with layers of sage and rosemary pesto, fresh mozzarella cheese and prosciutto, then rolled up and roasted to juicy perfection. Slicing into the finished tenderloin reveals a beautiful pink, white, and green spiral, and the herbal, salty flavors of the filling permeate each bite of pork. It’s an entrée that looks and tastes “fancy,” but really requires very little effort – the perfect dish for impressing dinner guests. Serve it alongside a bottle of La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, and perhaps a platter of simply roasted vegetables, and your next dinner party menu is taken care of.

Stay tuned for more Pork and Pinot! Next up, Vietnam …

Find the recipe for the Prosciutto, Mozzarella, and Sage Pesto Stuffed Pork Tenderloin over on the La Crema blog!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by La Crema. All opinions are honest and my own.

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The Book: Iceland is at the very top of my travel wishlist. The dramatic landscapes and vast, untouched wilderness have me aching to throw my hiking boots in a bag and hop on a plane across the Atlantic. In reality, I’ll be getting on planes to a lot of different places in the next few months – Colombia, Chile, and Charleston for starters – but none of them will be going to Iceland. I certainly can’t complain about the wonderful places I will be going, but that doesn’t mean I can’t daydream about Iceland at the same time. The book North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland, is one way to amp up my daydreaming. It’s a cookbook, sure, but I have to say that it feels like more than a cookbook to me. The interviews with food producers and stories of life on the island are as important to the book as the recipes themselves. The book is organized not by meal or by region, but by producer – a chapter for the arctic char smoker, one for the salt maker, and for the birch and mushroom forager. It was truly fascinating to learn about rugbraud, the hearty rye bread that is baked in underground geyser ovens, and about Siggi Henningson, a fisherman who spends his afternoons rapelling over cliffs to collect seabird eggs, not for himself, but for the entire town. The structure of the book and the stories paint a clear picture of where Iceland’s food comes from, on both land and sea.

I knew in advance that many of the recipes in North would be too esoteric to ever make at home, but was thoroughly intrigued anyway. The flavors throughout the book are consistent and coherent: smoke, salt, rich dairy, bright pickles, oily fish, and grassy herbs, the foods of a cold and isolated island. The fact that some ingredients may be hard (or impossible) to find outside of Iceland (seabird eggs, anyone?) is readily acknowledged, and many substitutions are offered – the authors have even provided an email you can reach out to with questions. The recipes also skew towards fine dining more than rustic eating – one of the authors is, after all, the chef at Dill. But although I know that I will never go to the trouble of making Lumpfish Roe with Smoked Mayonnaise, Beer Vinegar Jelly, and Horseradish Cream (smoke your own oil to make your own smoked mayonnaise, make your own beer vinegar and then turn it into jelly, you get the picture), other recipes can certainly be tweaked to fit into my repertoire – like Fennel Salad with Cottage Cheese and Spiced Nuts, or Poached Cod Cheeks in Roasted Cod Soup. Whether or not I find myself cooking from this book regularly, it’s so full of general inspiration that it deserves a place on my bookshelf, esoteric recipes or not.

The Food: One of the recipes that felt approachable enough to try was for Bacalo Potatoes with Fennel Ribbons and Sorrel Ash. I had to be a bit generous with my interpretation of this recipe, taking inspiration as much from the headnote and author Jody Eddy’s description of the ways they ate this throughout their trip, as from the recipe itself. The base of this recipe is creamy mashed potatoes mixed with bacalo, or salt cod, a combination sometimes called brandade. As written, the potatoes and cod are served topped with sorrel ash, roasted carrots, fennel ribbons, soft boiled eggs, and freshly grated horseradish. Since both sorrel and horseradish are hard to come by without planning ahead, I nixed them and decided to take a more rustic approach to the meal – serving the mash on hearty whole grain bread spread with mustard (a decent replacement for the pungent horseradish). I also skipped the eggs, as once you smear potatoes on toast you don’t feel like you need that many more things on top. Although I usually try to stick to the letter when testing recipes for cookbook reviews, here, I don’t feel bad about it. Eddy writes ” One night, Gunnar served it on toast; another, he substituted smoked haddock, an ideal replacement for the cod. The profusion of herbs he added was dictated by whatever we foraged that day.”  It’s a recipe that is more idea than science. I’ve written it here the way I made it, inspired by the instructions in North.

Recipe Shortlist: Salted Cod Tartar, Dill Mayo, Dulse Powder; Parsnips Three Ways with Arctic Char Roe; Cauliflower, Seabird Eggs, Burned Butter; Roasted Lamb Shoulder, Braised Cabbage, and Pickled Onions; Smoked Lamb with Skyr and Nutmeg; Stone Bramble and Cottage Cheese with Whey Caramel and Whey Granita; Red Beet and Rosemary Sorbet, Almond Cake, and Sugared Almonds

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland from Ten Speed Press, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Bacalo Potatoes with Carrots and Fennel

Recipe adapted from North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland. Serves 4.

• 1 lb. salt cod
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb. waxy potatoes
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 4 slices whole grain bread
• 2 TBS mustard
• 2 fennel stalks, peeled into ribbons using a vegetable peeler

1. Place the salt cod in a bowl and fill to cover with cold water. Soak in the water in the refrigerator for 24 hours, changing the water 2 to 3 times. When you are ready to prepare the meal, drain and rinse the soaked fish. If it has them, remove and discard the skin and bones. Set the fish aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the carrot pieces with 1 TBS of the olive oil and sea salt and pepper, and spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until tender all the way through, about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your pieces. Transfer the roasted carrots to a bowl and set aside.
3. Add the salt cod to the roasting pan and roast until warmed through, about 8-10 minutes. Break into flakes and keep warm.
4. Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Add to a large pot and cover with cold water. Salt water generously. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil until potatoes are tender, about 5-8 minutes. Drain the potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Add the heavy cream and mash until incorporated, then stir in the warm salt cod pieces. Season to taste with pepper.
5. Rinse and dry the roasting pan, then brush the bread slices with the remaining 1 TBS of olive oil. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and toast the bread until golden brown, about 5-7 minutes per side. Remove the bread from the oven and spread with the mustard. Top with a generous heap of the potatoes and cod, and several pieces of roasted carrot. Just before serving, shave the fennel stalks into thin ribbons using a vegetable peeler and place on top of the potatoes. Serve immediately.

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The Book: In some ways, blogger Mimi Thorisson’s life is incredibly frustrating to observe from afar – a country house in France, seven beautiful children, days spent foraging for mushrooms in the woods or shopping at open air markets and then cooking veritable feasts in a giant old kitchen. Add to that a chateau to be renovated as an inn and restaurant, a TV show, a lovely new cookbook, and you would think that more people would envy her to the point of hatred – but I think it must be impossible to hate Mimi, whose writing and stories clearly show that she is a smart, loving woman who has worked quite hard to be where she is. All this is a long-winded way of saying that when I opened her new book, A Kitchen in France, it was not with jealousy but with joy at her success and excitement at discovering more lovely little glimpses into her countryside life.

The book is very much an extension of the blog, with the same look and feel and type of food (although I do wish that more of Mimi’s thoughtful long-form prose would have made it into the book). All her recipes and stories have a bit of a fairytale aura about them: long treks through the woods, basket on her arm, searching for cepes and late nights around old wooden tables with winemakers discussing the day’s harvest. You will find some recipe repeats from her blog, but the newly included dishes are more than enough reason to pick up a copy. I would love to have Mimi cook for me one day – she cooks big, unapologetic meals that celebrate flavor and richness and decadence. They are not meals for a single person or a quick workday lunch eaten at your desk, they are meals that are meant to be shared with family, friends, and strangers, meals that are meant to be cooked slowly and lingered over at the table. Even her “summer” dishes have a wonderfully cozy, homey feel to them – dishes like duck breasts grilled over grape vines and the mustard-roasted poussins featured here. It makes me think that Médoc must be a little bit like Maine, where a warm and hearty dinner at the end of a long day spent outdoors feels appropriate no matter what the season. It’s a particularly good book to have on hand as we head into the holiday season, when the focus on eating and sharing good food is strongest. And I very much agree with Mimi’s representation of “good” food. Her recipes are refreshingly free of modern food and health classifications – no gluten-free, vegan, or low-fat designations to be found. And yet, every recipe feels wholesome and nourishing, simply because it is made from ingredients found just down the road, or in the woods, and cooked lovingly at home. Mimi’s food – and this book – is all about flavor, nourishment, and gathering around the table, as it should be.

The Food: Something about the luxurious presentation of Mimi’s food had me imagining that it would be fairly complicated to prepare. But as I flipped through the recipes trying to choose one for this post, I realized that most of the recipes are actually quite simple – I could cook many of them without even making a trip to the grocery store. This recipe for mustard-roasted poussins is no exception, as the only additions I made to my list were creme fraiche and the chicken itself.

I have a confession to make at this point: this was the first time I’ve ever roasted a chicken. I know. Five years as a food blogger, making things like rabbit pie and homemade parathas and venison ragu, but I’ve never done a simple roast chicken. We did roast a duck last year as part of the Captain Morgan challenge, but I think Trevor did most of the duck handling while I focused on the stuffing. To be honest, I still get a little squeamish working with big pieces of meat. I don’t know if it comes from my long past vegetarian childhood or just being out of my comfort zone. With a bit of guidance from Mimi, however, I turned out a succulent chicken, flavored with a generous amount of mustard and creme fraiche, a handful of baby potatoes tucked neatly underneath to catch the goodness of the drippings. Although it only took 15 minutes of effort to prepare, lifting the lid to reveal the chicken to Trevor was quite satisfying, in a very domestic way. The reward to effort ratio on this recipe is high, making it an easy decision to add it to our dinner rotation.

Recipe Shortlist: Fava Bean Soup with Pancetta and Croutons; Langoustines with Armagnac; Pistachio Sabayon with Strawberries and Meringues; Squab Pie with Foie Gras and Armagnac; Pork Cheek Ravioli with Cepes; Calvados and Creme Fraiche Apple Tart; Roquefort and Walnut Gougeres; Roasted Sausages with Red Wine and Fennel; Butternut Squash Gratin; Oxtail-Macaroni Gratin

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of A Kitchen in France from Clarkson Potter, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Mustard Roasted Poussins

Recipe from A Kitchen in France. Serves 4.

Note: Poussins as small as 1 1/2 pounds can be tricky to find in the US. We used a young, Kosher chicken that was 3 pounds with great results. A 3-pound chicken provided a generous meal for 2 of us.

• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 c. creme fraiche
• 4 TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Four 1 1/2 pound poussins or guinea hens
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil for drizzling
• 2 lbs. small new potatoes, scrubbed and halved

1. In a medium bowl, combine the mustard, creme fraiche, butter, lemon, garlic, and nutmeg and mix until thoroughly combined. Wash the poussins (chickens) inside and out and pat dry. Rub the mustard mixture on the chickens inside and out, then season generously with salt and pepper. Place in a dish or bowl and let marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. When you are ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the halved new potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water, season generously with salt, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until potatoes are partially tender but still hold their shape firmly. Drain the potatoes.
3. Put the poussins in individual baking dishes or one large roasting pan. Scatter the potatoes around the poussins, then drizzle everything with olive oil. Roast until the poussins are golden and cooked through (the juices should run clear, not pink, when pricked with a knife, and the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh and breast should be greater than 165°F). If the birds are getting too dark, cover with foil.
4. Serve 1 poussin per chicken with a side of potatoes.

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The Book: I want to open this review with a statement that’s much stronger than those I usually make in these posts: if you like Thai food (and who doesn’t), and you like to cook, you should buy a copy of Thailand: The Cookbook. With 500 traditional recipes, absolutely stunning photography, and the gorgeous design typical of Phaidon books, I already know it will be one of my favorite books this year, even if I mostly use it for daydreaming about the jungles and coasts of Thailand and colorful plates of Pad Thai and Papaya Salad. I wish I could let all of you flip through my copy, because I’m having a difficult time communicating how gorgeous the pictures are. They are certainly given pride of place, taking up full pages and even multi-page sections, and are drenched in rich colors that show up beautifully on the luxe matte paper. It’s mostly food photography, and an impressive portion of the 500 dishes are represented, but the landscapes and portraits are jaw-dropping. There’s not very much in the way of narrative here, but the recipe section is encyclopedic and decidedly authentic, meaning you will find, in all likelihood, hundreds of new-to-you recipes – I certainly don’t have any other cookbooks with recipes for Fried Crickets with Herbs or Spicy Dried Buffalo Skin Salad. Recipes within sections are often variations on a theme and are organized in a very logical progression, for example, moving from Spicy Vegetable and Fish Soup to Spicy-and-Sour Tilapia Soup to Spicy Eel Soup to Spicy Shrimp Soup. Given this, I’d imagine that if you cook enough different recipes from this book, you would develop a sort of intuition for Thai cooking and flavors.

One of the beauties of Thai cooking is how fast it is. Sourcing the ingredients will easily be the most time consuming part of preparing most of these recipes, with many prep and cooking times under 15 minutes total. Many of the recipes are also scaled to serve 2 or 3, which is convenient for a couple like us. There will definitely be recipes that are impossible to make outside of Thailand – I doubt I’ll be coming across banana blossoms or giant water bug eggs in my local market – but don’t let that scare you away from this book, as there’s more that’s accessible than inaccessible, especially if you have a good Asian grocery nearby, or even a well-stocked Asian Foods aisle in your Wholefoods/Kroger/Shaw’s. In short, for anyone with a love affair with Thailand and its sweet and spicy food, this book is a must buy – personally, I’m so excited to finally have an authentic Thai cooking resource in my collection.

The Food: The first recipe I tried out from Thailand: The Cookbook was Drunken Noodles with Pork, because, well, who doesn’t love drunken noodles? I was looking for a recipe for lunch that would be filling but not too heavy, quick to prepare, and for which I could find the ingredients at the small specialty butcher around the corner, as I only had about an hour before we needed to leave the house. Whipping up these noodles was dangerously easy – a handful of chilies and garlic pounded into a paste, a few thin strips of pork tenderloin, a bowl full of Chinese broccoli and mushrooms, and a quick sauce of soy sauce and sugar, stir-fried one at a time over high heat, and in 10 minutes I had a steaming bowl of sweet and spicy noodles, just as good as the ones from the takeout spot down the street. These noodles are definitely going into my “quick and craveable” dinner rotation. I’ve barely cracked the surface of this book, but after my first foray into authentic Thai cooking, I’m even more excited to delve further into these recipes.

Recipe Shortlist: Thai Pork Fried Rice with Fried Eggs; Chicken Curry Puffs; Thai-Style Hot Pot; Dragon Fruit Frappe; Spicy Strawberry Salad; Chicken and Coconut Soup; Beef Massaman Curry; Green Chicken Curry; Grilled Duck with Tamarind Sauce; Coconut Custard with Fried Shallots; Sesame and Sugar-Coated Peanuts; Jasmine Flower Flan

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Thailand: The Cookbook from Phaidon, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Drunken Noodles with Pork

Recipe from Thailand: The Cookbook. Serves 2.

Note: There were a few items I had to substitute based on what I could find at the store – 2 serranos for the bird’s eye chilies, broccoli rabe for the Chinese broccoli, chopped red pepper for the baby corn, and baby shiitakes for the straw mushrooms. I tried to keep the substitutions very close in flavor profile to the original ingredients. I’ve included both the original ingredients and my substitutions below.

• 7 oz. flat rice noodles
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste
• 5-7 red and green bird’s eye chilies, pounded to a paste (OR substitute 2 serranos)
• 3 1/2 oz. pork tenderloin, sliced into thin strips
• 5 oz. Chinese broccoli, stems removed, leaves chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces (OR substitute broccoli rabe)
• 7 baby corn, halved lengthwise (OR substitute 1/2 c. of chopped red bell pepper)
• 5 straw mushrooms (OR substitute 1/2 c. baby shiitakes)
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 handful of Thai basil leaves

1. If the noodles have been kept in the fridge, wrap them in cheesecloth and steam in a steamer for 2-3 minutes until warmed through. Alternatively, heat in a microwave for 1 minute. If noodles are dry, prepare according to package directions. Set aside.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the pounded garlic and chilies and quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds, until sizzling and fragrant. Add the pork slices and stir fry for 1 minute, or until cooked through. Add the broccoli and baby corn and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add the prepared noodles, soy sauce and sugar, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until the noodles are soft and fully flavored. Remove from heat, stir in the basil, and serve immediately.

The post Book Club: Thailand, The Cookbook // Drunken Noodles with Pork appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I just have a quick little side dish recipe for you today, but I promise, it’s a good one. I made these crispy salt and vinegar potatoes the same day that I saw them in Bon Appetit, and I’ve since tweaked the recipe to get them just how I like them. I used to find salt and vinegar chips to be too strong, but now I find the combination addictive, and this recipe embodies the combo well. In order to get creamy-on-the-inside, crispy-on-the-outside potatoes, you boil them until just tender and then pan-fry them until golden brown. Served hot and dotted with fresh goat cheese and chives, they’re a very satisfying and craveable side dish. Or, if you’re the kind of person who considers a bowl of potatoes to be a perfectly acceptable dinner, like I am, they make a very satisfying dinner.

In other news, I’m on the second-to-last day of a 10 day business trip, and I have to run out and enjoy the generous free afternoon I’ve been given to explore Rome (!). If you want to follow along, come join me on Instagram, but be warned, I’m doing my best to make everyone I know jealous. I swear I’m going to make up for it by doing lots of real work on the plane tomorrow, though. I’ll be back with another recipe at the end of the week once I’m home – I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

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Crispy Sea Salt and Vinegar Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Chives

Adapted from Bon Appetit. Serves 3-4 as a side.

• 2 lb. small Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 TBS sea salt
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 TBS malt vinegar
• 2 oz. goat cheese crumbles
• 1 TBS chopped fresh chives
• flaky sea salt, for finishing

1. Place the potatoes, vinegar, and sea salt in a large saucepan, and cover by one inch with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Keep at a gentle boil until potatoes are just tender when poked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Drain.
2. In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add potatoes and saute, stirring occasionally, until they are golden brown and crispy on all sides, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in malt vinegar.
3. Serve the potatoes sprinkled with goat cheese, chives, and flaky sea salt. Serve hot.

The post Crispy Sea Salt and Vinegar Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Chives appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

On the road from Baños to the final destination of our trip, Cotopaxi, we made a quick but memorable stop in the market town of Salasaca. Otavalo is the most famous market town in Ecuador, known for it’s enormous Saturday market, but it’s a good two hour drive north of Quito, and since our route kept us South of Quito, we jumped at the opportunity to make a quick stop in Salasaca when our guide suggested it. The small town square has perhaps a dozen or so vendors, but the goods (and the prices) were amazing, and we promptly spent all of our remaining cash on thick alpaca blankets ($20 a piece), colorful woven hammocks ($26 for the biggest size), hats, and alpaca sweaters. The quality of everything we purchased is high, the colors beautiful, and the women selling us the blankets were lovely and appreciative of our purchases. After reading more about the Otavalo market after our trip, I’m glad we passed through Salasaca instead – whereas Otavalo seems to have become a tourist destination with all the accompanying tourist junk for sale, Salasaca provides a more authentic and more intimate market experience. Hacienda Santa Ana

An extra suitcase worth of blankets in tow, we finished our drive from Baños, through the town of Machachi, and up a very long and very bumpy road to Hacienda Santa Ana, a beautifully restored hacienda-turned-inn right on the edge of Cotopaxi National Park. Santa Ana was our highest-end accommodation for the whole trip, and we luxuriated in the thick down comforters, the large couches by the stone fireplace, and the general atmosphere of elegant coziness. It’s a small inn on a huge property that once belonged to the Jesuits, and the decor still reflects its rich religious history. Shortly after we arrived (well, actually, shortly after our horseback riding adventure which happened immediately after we arrived), we were greeted with a canelazo, a warm clementine, cinnamon, and aguardiente cocktail that will almost certainly be making an appearance on this blog the next time it’s cold and gray. This and other little touches – hot water bottles to take to bed with us, gorgeous period furniture, a plentiful supply of hot tea, and walking through the grounds to say hi to the llamas – made our stay at Hacienda Santa Ana very pleasant. My only caution about staying at Santa Ana: it’s a long drive back to town, so be prepared to eat all your meals at the inn. Dinners were satisfying and tasty but not particularly inspiring, sort of overpriced but not exorbitantly so considering the fact that it’s the only option. It wasn’t a problem and wasn’t a highlight for us. All things considered, I’d highly recommend staying at Hacienda Santa Ana. Horseback Riding at Santa Ana

When my mom was planning this trip (thanks mom!), the one activity I was adamant that she include was horseback riding. I rode for a long time as a kid, but these days my opportunities to ride are very infrequent. We booked our ride for the afternoon we arrived at Santa Ana, but delays in the mornings and threatening weather had our guide worried about our choice. But I insisted. So as soon as we got out of the car at Santa Ana, Patricio, one of the chagras working at Santa Ana, handed us our chaps and ponchos, and we mounted up. It was raining lightly as we headed down the road, but I was still on cloud nine, chatting with Patricio using only my practically non-existent Spanish skills, and clopping down the cobblestone road. Trevor and my family were really just being good sports by coming along, but I was glad we were all there. At the end of the road, Patricio let us through a gate into the fields, and we rode through one of the coolest landscapes I’ve ever seen, giant tufts of dry grass clumped around our horses’ feet and the ragged edges of Ruminahui volcano in the background. I loved it. Things got a little hairy on our way back down – Trevor’s horse slipped down a muddy hill and rolled on top of his leg. Amazingly, he was fine, but it thoroughly freaked out my brother who decided that he would be walking the rest of the way home. Quite the adventure. But I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Cotopaxi Glacier

The main event of our time in Cotopaxi was, unsurprisingly, climbing Cotopaxi, the 19,000 foot tall active volcano that would dominate the landscape were it not usually shrouded in clouds. I’m exaggerating a little – we didn’t summit the mountain –  but we did climb past the base camp and up to the edge of the glacier at 16,400 feet. Even after a week at elevations of 9,000+ feet, being at an altitude that high is really hard, and I’ve never felt my body turn so sluggish with such tiny movements. It’s overwhelming. It was also bitterly cold as we climbed through the clouds that were spitting hail and rain at us, but we moved slowly, drank lots of water, rested frequently, and pushed through. As we neared the glacier, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds once or twice, illuminating the fascinating landscape and the colors of the plains below, and even though my mind was foggy, the experience was amazing. After touching the glacier (or building a snowman on it if you were Trevor), we hurried back down, and after a quick lunch at Tambopaxi refuge, we all collapsed back at the hotel, much more drained than we had expected to be. I’ve always dreamed about serious mountaineering – climbing Kilimanjaro, McKinley, etc. – but this brief encounter with true altitude made me question if I’d really enjoy it. Quechua Farmers

On our last “tour” day we left Hacienda Santa Ana and made the long drive west to Quilotoa lagoon. On our way, we stopped at the house of two local Quechua farmers, to see their traditional lifestyle. The houses are really dugouts, covered with long sloped roofs of dried grass, and the Quechua raise guinea pigs and vegetables for local markets to make their living. Their farm, spread out over the sloping mountainside, gave Trevor and me serious farm envy, especially their huge onion bulbs and dark loamy soil. The family was very welcoming during our short visit, and the experience didn’t feel pretentious or awkward like others geared towards indigenous culture can. It was a brief stop, but very memorable. Quilotoa Lagoon

Quilotoa lagoon is a water-filled caldera about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Machachi. If you see it in a brief moment of sun, the water is a brilliant emerald green, but our encounters with sun in Ecuador were few and far between. The lagoon is stunning, and when you arrive, you can hike down the dirt road to the edge of the lagoon, where you can rent a kayak if you still have the energy. My family is pretty active, so we refused the offer to reserve mules for the trip back up (at $8 per mule, and you have to decide before you hike down), but oh man, climbing back up out of that crater might have been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Walking up the sliding sandy path, I was huffing and crying and counting my steps in sets of 50 just to get myself to keep moving. I don’t know if it was the altitude, or soreness from the previous day’s hike, or the fits of rain, or all three, but I felt pathetic, and the mules literally cantering past me every 20 minutes or so where like salt in the wound. It was a beautiful landscape, but my memories of the day are not overwhelmingly positive. On the other hand, Trevor and my brother and my mom were all totally fine climbing back up, so if you want to attempt it, go for it. Just trust your guide when he says that it’s not as easy as it looks from the top. After a quick lunch at one of the small hostels in town, we were back in the car for the long drive to Quito. If you’re planning a trip to Quilotoa, I’d recommend trying to fit it in on your way somewhere – we basically did an out and back, and it was a lot of time in the car. It looks like it’s about an hour off the main highway from Baños to Machachi/Quito, so if you’re headed along that path anyways, that would be the time to do it.

More from our Ecuador adventures…
Ecuador Travelogue: Quito
Ecuador Travelogue: The Amazon & Itamandi Lodge
Ecuador Travelogue: Baños

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April’s goal was my least successful so far. It turns out that cumulative goals are much easier for me than daily goals, where you have no room to recover from a bad day and make up for it later. 8,000 steps a day seemed like an easy target, but weekends in particular – my sore spot to begin with – proved much more challenging than I expected. Some of the 11 days that I came in under 8,000 I’m excusing myself for: there were a few days where we spent all day outside in the garden, and although walking up and down a hill with watering cans and shoveling compost for hours may only count as 5,000 steps, it’s certainly more active (and exhausting), then taking a walk through the park. Other days I think my tracker app was a little glitchy – like when it thought I slept at the liquor store and drove for the entire 15 minute walk to the train. But really, I don’t want to make too many excuses. I just didn’t quite succeed, and I need to recognize that.

But failing doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good goal – on the contrary, it means it was a hard goal and therefore a great goal. There’s no point in setting your sights too low. So although I have a new official goal for May, I’m not taking the 8,000 steps off my list, either. I know I won’t get it every day, but having it in the back of my mind makes me so much more conscious of how active I’m being, and even on the days that I fell short, I made an effort to get out at lunchtime, or walk through the park on my way home. So I want to keep doing that, and I’m considering ordering a real tracker to help with the technological frustration piece. Although, the idea should be the movement, not the number. We’ll see.

Moving forward… it’s May! How on earth did that happen so fast? I think my problem is that I spent so much of January, February, and March yearning for the next season, and then you get here and realize that the year is almost half gone. I’ve been doing a good job keeping up with my running, getting faster and feeling better, and I’ve been toying with the idea of making this summer another racing season (it’s been over a year since my last race). What I haven’t been doing so well with is my cross-training: I’ve only been to ballet twice in the last six weeks and I’ve completely abandoned my Nike Training Club strength workouts. And once you stop doing those, it’s really hard to start from scratch again. So that’s my goal for May, to work that stuff back into my routine, without letting the running slip either. Specifically, I want to do 180 minutes of NTC workouts this month: ideally, I’ll be building in 15 minute sessions to the end of my runs, but in case that isn’t working out for me, I can also do more intense 45 minute sessions once a week. I know the first few sessions are going to be killer, but it will be so satisfying to feel toned again.

As for this month’s healthy recipe, Trevor and I are arguing about what to call it because I wanted to call it a “bounty bowl,” which he insists is vomit-inducing (his suggestion: “It’s A Fucking Salad, Get Over It.” So crass, that boy.) As you can see, we’ve compromised with Warm Arugula Salad (boring). But it doesn’t matter what you call it – what matters is that the maple-mustard dressing is so addictive, I would eat anything that you put underneath it. That said, I highly recommend this particular combination of ingredients: spicy arugula, warm crumbled Italian sausage, wheat berries, goat cheese, and roasted asparagus. It’s got spring freshness and zip from the arugula and asparagus, but with the warm sausage and wheat berries it’s hearty enough for chilly nights.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous

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Maple-Mustard Bounty Bowl

Serves 2.

• 2/3 c. wheat berries
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1/2 bunch thin asparagus
• 2 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 1/3 lb. hot Italian sausage
• 4 c. fresh baby arugula leaves
• 2 oz. soft goat cheese
• 2 TBS mustard
• 1 TBS white wine vinegar
• 1 TBS maple syrup

1. Add the wheat berries and the chicken broth to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and cover pan, and simmer for 40-50 minutes, until wheat berries are tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the stem ends from the asparagus and discard. Chop the asparagus into 2-inch lengths, then toss with 1 TBS olive oil and sea salt. Place on a baking sheet and roast until bright green and tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
3. Heat a small frying pan over medium heat and squeeze the sausage into the pan in small pieces. Break up further with the back of a spoon, and cook, stirring frequently, until cooked through and browned all over, about 5-7  minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Assemble the salad. Toss the arugula with the wheat berries, roasted asparagus, and warm cooked sausage. Divide between two bowls, and dot each bowl with 1 oz. of goat cheese. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, white wine vinegar, maple syrup, and remaining 1 TBS of olive oil until smooth. Drizzle the dressing over the salads and serve.

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Town of Baños

We spent the third leg of our trip to Ecuador in Baños, a small town nestled between mountains that’s a hotspot for adventure tourism and hippie expats. It has a laid-back party-town vibe, and it was definitely the most touristy stop on our trip, but not in an obnoxious way – it’s a town where tourism just feels like a lifestyle. There’s a lot to do in and around Baños: hiking, biking, rock climbing, rafting, ziplining, etc., and we only got a small taste of the town and the adventures it has to offer in our two days there, but I would definitely go back for more. Right after arriving we headed to the town hot springs, which were super-crowded and a little grungy, but with very hot pools and a gorgeous view of the waterfall running right next to it. I found the springs a little stressful because they were so busy, but for an entry fee of $2, it’s worth giving them a try. After a quick soak and a shower we headed to dinner at Casa Hood, where I was surprisingly excited to eat “gringoized” food – I had a plate of fried eggs with potatoes, black beans, salsa and avocado, basically my ideal meal at any time of day or night. They also had real espresso drinks and a smoothie bar – I was tempted to go back in the morning for a green smoothie, but figured the fresh fruit juice at our breakfast buffet was probably enough sugar for one morning. Trevor was still really sick at this point and sleeping in the hotel, so we didn’t linger for too long, but it was a fun little restaurant.

Hotel La Floresta

During our short time in Baños we stayed in Hotel La Floresta, a modest but comfortable hotel on the edge of town (it’s a small town). The rooms were simple but comfortable enough, and I liked our little balcony with its woven hammock. The hotel had an open courtyard design with a beautiful interior garden, and it was really pleasant to sit in one of the alcoves and chat – in fact, we did just that with a bottle of wine and a few surprisingly good local cheeses instead of going out to dinner our second night. Like everywhere we stayed, breakfast was plentiful and delicious, the fresh fruit juices and strong coffee (always served with cocoa!) being a highlight. I’d recommend it for anyone looking for reasonably priced but still comfortable accommodations in town.

Route of Waterfalls / Ruta de Las Cascadas

The highlight of our time in Baños, and perhaps even of the entire trip for me, was the bike trip we took along the Route of Waterfalls. It was a gorgeous morning, the only truly sunny day we had for the whole trip, and the views the whole way were absolutely breathtaking. The biking is a little precarious, since you’re biking along the shoulder of a busy two-lane highway for about 70% of the time, so it’s not for the faint of heart. I’m not a very confident biker, though, and I never felt unsafe – so I think as long as you’re expecting to be on a busy road, you’ll be fine. And when you’re off the road, on an old cobbled path that winds along the edge of the mountain, it’s amazing. It took us about 3 hours to do the whole thing, stopping frequently to take in the views of the numerous waterfalls you pass, and for a longer break to take a cable car across one of the larger gorges.

El Pailon del Diablo

At the end of the Ruta de las Cascadas you reach the big attraction – El Pailon del Diablo, a huge, beautiful waterfall that’s been built up with staircases and wooden bridges so that you can get right up close to the pounding falls. We spent about an hour hanging out at the waterfall, which is reached by an easy walk down a well-maintained path (and left by a not-so-easy walk back up). It was really an awe-inspiring sight, and worth the short trip from Baños even if you aren’t up for the biking portion. A little town has sprung up around the waterfall, and we had a late lunch at a little hotel/restaurant in town called Miramelindo – I had potato and avocado soup with chocho salsa, a fresh blackberry milkshake, and a giant burrito, and it pretty much hit the spot. After lunch, we threw our bikes and ourselves in the back of a canvas covered flatbed truck for a ride back to town, which was far more harrowing in my opinion then being a biker on the road.

El Virgen

We didn’t get to do much hiking while we were in Baños, but I did convince my parents and Trevor to get up early our last morning and hike the 600+ steps up to the statue at El Virgen. Two friendly stray dogs decided to join us on our walk and impressively made it all the way up and back down again without leaving our side. I’m not really a dog person, but these had to be the friendliest and least needy stray dogs ever. It made for a memorable walk. It’s not the prettiest hike, but it’s certainly a good way to get your heart pumping and there is a great view of the town and surrounding mountains at the top. If you want, you can continue your hike from the statue and loop around to some other viewpoints around the town, but we had to get back for breakfast and our next adventure.

Ziplining at the Canopy

On our way out of Baños towards Cotopaxi, we stopped for one last jungle adventure: ziplining at a place called The Canopy, which was about 20 minutes out of town and well up the mountainside, but doesn’t seem to have a web presence I can direct you to. Heights are not my strong point, but I convinced myself that I would at least try it – since there were 6 different segments of the route, crossing back and forth across the river with short hikes in between, I knew I could stop after the first two short segments, if I wanted. I actually felt really safe – the equipment and cables were seriously heavy duty and the guys helping us were really cautious and obviously knew what they were doing. Still, I didn’t love the short segments, so was pretty sure I wasn’t going to love the 500m segments, so I designated myself the official photographer while my family and Trevor finished the course. If you’re into ziplining, this is definitely the place to go – much more pleasant than the terrifying-looking one that we rode by on our bikes!

Papallacta Hotsprings

We actually stopped at Papallacta on our way from Quito to the Amazon, before we made our way to Baños, but the climate there was much more similar to Baños than the Amazon, so I’m including it here. Papallacta is a small village with natural hot springs, and there’s a very clean, very nice resort at the top of the town. We spent a few pleasant hours lounging in the pools, enjoying the tropical landscaping, and admiring the views of the surrounding mountains. It’s a really cool spot, and well worth the $7 admission fee. We also enjoyed people-watching: there was a really fun group of tiny old Ecuadorian ladies plus one little old Ecuadorian man who were just having the time of their life. If you’re driving along the road from Quito to Tena, or even looking for a day-trip from Quito, I’d definitely recommend Papallacta. The drive there is beautiful, too.

More from our Ecuador adventures…
Ecuador Travelogue: Quito
Ecuador Travelogue: The Amazon & Itamandi Lodge
Ecuador Travelogue: Cotopaxi

The post Ecuador Travelogue: Baños appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

A little while ago, Graeter’s reached out to me I’d asked if I was interested in trying out their new ice cream flavors – three new “A Little Less Indulgent” varieties, and four new gelatos. To be perfectly honest, I’d never heard of Graeter’s – they’re more of a midwestern brand and we have plenty of great creameries in New England – but I said yes anyways, because, well, I really love ice cream. Like, more than most people, I think. I didn’t make any commitment to writing about the new flavors, but after my first few bites, I knew I would have to share, because it would have been a crime not to. It’s really good stuff. I’m a particular fan of the Salted Caramel Truffle Gelato, which I savored two spoonfuls at a time, straight out of the pint, every night for a good two weeks. It’s fabulously soft and creamy and richly flavored, and although I’m not sure I could swallow the $10/pint cost of ordering it online, if I ever see some in a store near me, I’m stocking up immediately.

I decided to share this delicious new discovery with you in the form of a sundae. I mean, if the ice cream is “A Little Less Indulgent,” that just means you have an excuse to douse it in caramel sauce, right? This sauce is inspired by a dinner we had recently at Oleana, a Middle Eastern mezze restaurant in Cambridge that’s nearly impossible to get a reservation at (at least by Boston standards). We had a lot of delicious dishes that night, but the most memorable one for me was the dessert: Turkish-style Profiteroles with Sesame Cashew Caramel and Sesame Halva. It was amazing, and I couldn’t get over how addictive the sesame caramel sauce was, so I wanted to try making it at home. It ended up coming out just how I wanted to, so now I might have to make caramel this way all the time. Adding tahini to the caramel makes it that much more unctuous and satisfying, and it cuts the sweetness with its deep savory flavor. But as much as I love the sauce, I think the real star of the show might have been the Salted Sesame Butter Brittle, which I decided to make at the last minute to add crunch, and more sesame flavor. It’s a Ming Tsai recipe, and Ming Tsai is pretty much infallible in my eyes – this recipe was no exception. I was a little concerned by how opaque and soft the caramel mixture looked at first, and how long it took to color, but as soon as I bit into the hardened candy I knew I never should have doubted. It’s more like sesame toffee, really, and I made myself a little bit sick I ate so much of it. Lesson learned. Maybe. All together – the ice cream, the tahini caramel, the sesame butter brittle – it was a solidly delicious dessert.

In other news, my blog is going through some growing pains this week – I’m finally biting the bullet and switching over to WordPress.org – so bear with me as I make some changes. Hopefully I’ll be able to unveil a flashy new custom design in a few weeks, but until then be warned that it might be a bit messy. And, as I think through how my content might evolve, I would love to hear if there are recipes or post types that you’ve enjoyed more than others! Shoot me an email or leave a note in the comments and I’ll be super grateful.

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Disclaimer: I received a sample of Graeter’s ice cream free of charge, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Tahini Caramel and Sesame Brittle Sundae

• 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
• 2 TBS crumbled Salted Sesame Butter Brittle (recipe below)
• 2 TBS Tahini Caramel Sauce (recipe below)

1. Assemble. Serve.

Salted Sesame Butter Brittle

Recipe from Ming Tsai. Makes 3 cups of brittle pieces.

• 3/4 c. white sesame seeds
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• sea salt

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Add the butter and the sugar to a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Melt over medium heat. Stir just to combine once melted, then stop stirring, and cook until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in toasted sesame seeds until well mixed, then pour caramel out onto lined baking sheet. Spread the caramel to 1/8 – 1/4 inch thickness using the back of a wooden spoon. Sprinkle a little bit of sea salt over the top of the hot brittle. Let cool completely, then break into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Tahini Caramel Sauce

Inspired by Oleana. Makes 1 cup.

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. heavy cream
• 2 TBS tahini

1. Pour the sugar into an even layer in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the sugar begins to melt and turn amber. At this point, gently stir the melted parts into the un-melted sugar a little bit at a time. If the sugar clumps, stop stirring for a minute to let it melt.
2. As soon as all the sugar is melted and amber brown, carefully add a little bit of the heavy cream, stirring as you do so – the cream will make the caramel bubble up violently. One bubbling subsides, add the rest of the cream in a slow stream, stirring as you do, and stopping if it bubbles up too high. Stir until caramel and cream are fully mixed, then remove from heat. Add tahini and stir until it is melted. Let cool slightly, then serve.

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Last year, I decided that I wanted to be into wine. I knew that I liked drinking wine in general, and I liked drinking wine with food, but beyond that, my knowledge was pretty limited. If I had to choose a glass of wine at a restaurant, the only thing I knew I liked was Merlot, and I started feeling boring pretty quickly always ordering the same thing. So I started learning. The wine world can be pretty daunting at first, especially because it has something of a reputation for snobbery. But the best way to get past that is just to dive in and start tasting, so that’s what I did. I began trying new wines, writing down whether or not I liked them, and trying to determine why I liked them, using whatever words came to me and not worrying about whether they were real “wine” words or if they were accurate (I use Vivino to keep track of what I’ve tried and how I felt about it). I started going to the tastings at Bacco’s after work and asking whoever was running the tasting a lot of basic questions about each bottle. At IFBC I signed up for all the wine events possible – tasting sessions and winery tours – and paid close attention to the details of each presentation (well, I paid attention at least through the third glass). I discovered that tasting 4 or 5 wines in a row really helped me pinpoint the differences between them, and that if you’re paying attention to it, food can make a huge difference in the way a wine tastes.

And after all this learning? I know that I like Merlot and Chardonnay. But also a really yummy, smoky Pinot Noir from Chile, and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that’s loaded with grapefruit flavor. And that there are some wines I really don’t like. I feel like I’m just beginning to scratch the surface, but it’s less daunting now, and mostly just fun. And I want to share that fun with you, so I’m starting a “Wine Dinner” series here, where every once in a while I work with a winery or regional wine board to put together a little dinner party focused on the wine they promote, and recipes to pair with them. I kicked things off last weekend with Alamos Wines, an Argentinean winery that I connected with at IFBC. They sent me two bottles of wine and I invited my roommates from last year, Allison and Jane, over for a little dinner – they seemed like safe first guests since they already know that I’m weird and take a lot of pictures of my food. It was so fun to see them, and to come up with the recipes, and to evaluate the wine – but it turns out I need to practice my dinner party photography! Don’t judge me too harshly, I’m still learning.

Wine #1: Torrontés – For the first course, Alamos sent me a bottle of their 2012 Torrontés. I’d never tried Torrontés before, but I read that it’s a fairly sweet white wine, sometimes compared to Gewürtztraminer and Riesling. Pairing suggestions included sweet fruits, rich meats such as salmon and foie gras, and spicy food. I went the sweet/rich route and prepared an arugula salad, lightly dressed with a Meyer lemon and maple dressing, then tossed with poached quince, manchego, and prosciutto. Most of the quinces available in the U.S. come from Argentina, so it seemed like an appropriate ingredient. I was really into this salad – sweet, salty, bitter, and rich, it hit all my flavor high points. The Torrontés was indeed a bit sweet, but with a crisp, dry finish. The Alamos wines are on the lower end of the price scale, with the Torrontés coming in at under $10 a bottle, so I wasn’t expecting very much complexity, and didn’t find it, but for a $10 bottle of wine it was full-flavored and very drinkable. No complaints here.

Wine #2: Malbec – Malbec was the varietal of choice for the second course. Another wine that I don’t have a ton of experience with, Malbec is frequently characterized as an intensely fruity wine with berry and plum flavors, and a good budget alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. I liked this particular bottle – my first thought was “mmm, tastes like Merlot” (I was relieved to see other writers compare it to Merlot, as well). Another good value, this medium-bodied wine would make a good everyday red. Since Malbec pairs well with rich flavors, red meat, and aromatic herbs, we served this with a beef short rib braise and potato gnocchi. Argentina’s cuisine has a lot of Italian influence, so the gnocchi aren’t at all out of place in this dish, and the pillowy dumplings soak up the beefy red wine sauce really well.

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Disclaimer: Alamos provided me with two bottles of wine to use in this post, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Arugula Salad with Poached Quince, Prosciutto, and Manchego

Adapted from Food52. Serves 4.

• 3 quince
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 4 c. water
• 1 Meyer lemon
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 oz. baby arugula
• 4 oz. manchego cheese, cut into small cubes
• 2 oz. prosciutto, sliced into thin strips

1. At least 3 hours before you’d like to serve the salad, poach the quince. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the quince, then very carefully slice the fruit away from the core and seeds  in wedges – careful, quince can be kind of slippery. Place the sugar and the water in a large pot and bring to a simmer. Place the quince wedges in the simmering syrup, and place a plate over the top of the fruit to keep them submerged. Keep at a gentle simmer until quince have turned rosy and are very tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Add a little more water if the syrup gets too low. Pour the quince and their syrup into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until chilled.
2.  Cut the lemon in half and remove as many seeds as possible. Squeeze the lemon juice into a jar or small bowl. Add the maple syrup, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover jar with lid and shake to mix dressing, or whisk vigorously if using a bowl. Set aside.
3. About 15 minutes before serving, add the arugula to a large salad bowl and gently toss with the dressing. Let sit for a few minutes, then divide dressed greens between four plates. Top each plate with a few slices of quince, cubes of manchego, and strips of prosciutto. Serve immediately.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Inspired by Bon Appetit and Emeril Lagasse. Serves 6-8.

• 2 TBS paprika
• 2 TBS sea salt
• 1 TBS garlic powder
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
• 4 lbs. bone-in beef short ribs
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, peeled and diced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 TBS flour
• 2 TBS tomato paste
• 2 c. red wine
• 8 sprigs thyme
• 2 c. crushed tomatoes
• 2 c. beef stock
• Potato Gnocchi, to serve (store bought is fine, too)

1. In a small bowl, stir together the paprika, sea salt, garlic powder, black pepper, oregano, and cayenne until evenly combined. Rub this spice mixture all over the short ribs, covering all sides. Heat the vegetable oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add as many short ribs as will comfortably fit, and brown on all sides, about 8 minutes total per rib. Once browned, transfer the ribs to a plate and set aside. Repeat until all the ribs are browned.
2. Discard all but 2 TBS of the fat from the pan, and return to the heat. Add the diced onions and carrots and cook for 5-7 minutes, until onions are translucent, stirring frequently. Add the flour and stir to coat the veggies, and allow to cook for 1 minute. Then stir in the tomato paste, and slowly add the red wine, stirring and allowing the mixture to thicken slightly between each addition. Once you’ve added all the wine to the pot, return the ribs to the pot. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and let simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F.
3. After the ribs have simmered for 25 minutes, add the tomatoes and beef stock to the pan, stir to combine, and cover with a lid. Place in the oven and cook, turning every hour or so, until ribs are very tender, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Remove from oven, and skim as much fat from the surface as possible. If you want a more elegant preparation, remove the ribs, strain the sauce and discard the vegetables – this is optional, and we served this rustic-style. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper, and serve the ribs and their sauce over freshly cooked potato gnocchi.

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We’ve been back from Italy for about two weeks, and I’ve finally made it through the first half of my pictures and thoughts about the trip to share with you here. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I have a few notes about where we stayed and ate and adventured, in case you’re interested (or lucky enough to be going to Rome or Florence in the near future).

We spent the first two nights of our trip in Rome, then after a quick (and slightly nauseating) train ride, we spent two nights in Florence. In both cities, what we did the most was walk. We’d wake up, open up the map, circle the places we wanted to see, then set out for the day until it was time for our 4PM siesta. After siesta, we’d go back out in search of dinner. A pretty good daily routine; I’d happily live every day that way.

Rome was a bit of a jet-lagged whirlwind, but I liked the city much more than I remembered. The last time I was there, I was 14, and Rome seemed far too loud, overwhelming, and dirty. This time, for the most part we stayed away from some of the main sights, and even after two days I was starting to get the sense of the thriving city underneath the throngs of tourists. We stayed at the perfect inn/apartment, La Finestra Sul Colosseo, which checked off everything on my list – it was spotlessly clean, spacious, quiet, comfortable, and modern. We slept like rocks. A highlight of our trip was spending Sunday morning on a food tour with Irene from Vino Roma. It was a bit of a splurge for us, but great to wander more pointedly and have Irene there to teach us about local food culture, both past and present. She took us to a truly local farmer’s market, where I was thrilled that no one spoke English, meaning we had to stock up on fresh fava beans, bread, truffled sausage, cheese, and the tiniest, sweetest strawberries of all time using our terrible Italian and a lot of pointing. We ate porchetta sandwiches and drank local beer, then meandered through the Jewish Quarter where we tried a truly remarkable “burnt” sweet bread from a tiny store with no name and an incredibly long line. We wrapped up with a cheese and wine tasting for a memorably tasty morning. Two other highlights from Rome: one, dinner at Cuoco & Camicia, where everything was delicious, but the carbonara-stuffed tortelli and the fillet of beef with foie gras and pumpkin cream were astounding. Two, our Sunday evening stroll/marathon – we walked from our hotel near the Colosseum, to Piazza Venezia, to St. Peter’s, and finally to the hill above the Piazza del Popolo where we soaked in the view and picnicked on our market finds. It was a solid 5 mile walk, and it felt good to see so much of the city before moving on to Florence.

I was less enamored with Florence, perhaps as predicted by Steve and Michelle. Given the small size of the city, and the large number of visitors, every corner we visited felt overrun with tourists. With this came an abundance of overpriced food, tacky “authentic” stores, and a lack of real charm. So, I didn’t love it, but we still had some great moments. Walking up the hill behind the Giardini di Bardini and finding ourselves in the midst of an olive grove felt kind of magical, as did being in the city for the Bianca Notte festival, during which all of the major museums were open for free all night, and bands and performers roamed the streets into the wee hours – it was a huge party, and the only time it felt like a living city. While walking through the Palazzo Vecchio that night, we happened to walk through an upper corridor as a horn concert began below us, and we watched/listened to the entire performance while standing in the center of that majestic building – that was a once in a lifetime experience, and it was incredible. We also ate at one good restaurant, Il Santo Bevitore, where dinner was delicious, if slightly dampened by the incredibly loud and rude Texans sitting next to us. (No offense meant to Texans in general, just these two in particular). And we found venison prosciutto and wild boar speck in the Central Market! So, so tasty. We might try and make some ourselves, just a warning.

So maybe I lied about the pictures doing most of the talking – I guess I had more to say than I thought! It’s fun reliving our adventures. It may be another week or so before I get my act together on the second half of our trip, but the last four days, which we spent in the Maremman countryside, were easily my favorite, so hopefully it’s worth the wait! In the meantime, I cooked up some Cacio e Pepe with English Peas for you. Cacio e Pepe is a classic and delicious spaghetti dish coated with a rich cheese sauce and a healthy sprinkling of black pepper – it tastes like what I always want mac’n’cheese to taste like. I had a version in Florence served on a black bean puree, which I re-imagined here using a spring pea puree instead. Buon appetito!

Cacio e Pepe with English Peas

Serves 3-4.

• 1 1/2 c. fresh English peas
• salt to taste
• 1/2 pound spaghetti or bucatini
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more for garnish
• reserved pasta water
• 3/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
• 3/4 c. freshly grated Pecorino Romano
• 2 TBS sour cream

1. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water, and set aside. When the water is boiling, add the peas to the water and boil for 1-2 minutes, until bright green and floating at the top. Use a skimmer to remove the peas and immediately plunge into the ice water to stop the peas from cooking. Set aside.
2. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package directions. When the pasta is done, remove to a bowl with tongs and set the pasta water aside.
3. In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the black pepper and stir until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add 3/4 c. of the reserved pasta water to the pan and bring to a boil, then add the cooked pasta and all of the cheese. Stir to melt the cheese until the pasta is evenly coated with a creamy sauce, adding more pasta water if necessary.
4. Take 1 c. of the cooked peas and place in a blender with the sour cream and 1/4 c. of the pasta water. Blend until smooth, then season to taste with salt. Mix the remaining 1/2 c. of peas into the pasta.
5. Place a circle of the pea puree on each plate. Top with a pile of spaghetti. Finish with freshly ground pepper and freshly grated cheese.

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I’m in Italy! But don’t worry, I have two wonderful guest posts lined up for while I’m away. Hint, hint. And, before we get to that, I wanted to do a quick Instagrammy recap of the past two months (since it will be May when we get back)!

March felt like a never-ending month. The continual snow and cold was not at all welcome. But despite the snow, we did manage to get outside to prune the fruit trees… and build a snowman.

1 and 2) March snowstorm; 3 and 4) Pruning the Andover fruit trees; 5) Post-pruning snow-woman building; 6) Boston is still pretty in the snow

I did get a chance to escape Boston for one weekend for a girl’s reunion in Philly. It was so great to spend time with my favorite girls, trying to cram 6 months worth of conversation into two short days, and of course, eating very well.

1) Philly! 2) Megan and Phoebe at Garces Trading Co.; 3) Becky and I at Garces Trading Co.; 4) All four of us at brunch in Phoebe’s parents’ amazing apartment

Then, all of a sudden it was April and things went crazy. I’ve barely had time to catch my breath. A major stressor was finding a new apartment – which thankfully is done, and I’m excited about the new place. Work was also very busy at times, there was a lot to get done in the garden, AND I had to make sure I celebrated my 24th birthday with adequate enthusiasm (I think it was a success). Add to that the chaos in Boston last week, and I feel like I’m not going to be done processing April for a while. However, one thing I can always appreciate about April? The flowers:

And that covers the major stuff, I think. I’m going to do a more detailed update on the garden soon (although our plants keep dying, so it might be kind of a sad update…) and of course I’ll have lots to share from Italy. But until then, enjoy the guest posts!

(P.S. For the January and February recap, click here).

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So, fellow New Englanders, how did the blizzard treat you all? I’m refusing to call it Nemo, because I can’t imagine sitting on my porch in 50 years and telling my grandchildren  “I remember back when Nemo hit…” Nope. I’m gonna be sitting there grumping about the Blizzard of ’13. Because stoicism is a valuable quality in a New Englander.

Anyway, the storm was fairly uneventful for me. I woke up Friday morning with a nasty cold, so leaving work early on Friday and getting to spend most of the weekend sleeping was actually fairly well-timed. I did spend about 3 hours shoveling on Saturday afternoon. It was kind of weird – I don’t think I’ve ever seen more people outside in my neighborhood at one time. People were chatting, playing music, commiserating. Even on Sunday, the streets were filled with people walking around carrying shovels, only a handful of cars crawling by. It felt old-fashioned, somehow. I was a little bit disappointed to find out that city/adult-life blizzards mean mostly shoveling, while country/kid-life blizzards have a lot more playing in the snow and sitting by the fire playing board games. Of course, being sick may have had something to do with that trade-off.

I’m still not feeling stellar, but, thanks to Trevor, I’ve eaten plenty of the world’s best homemade chicken noodle soup to speed me on my way back to health. With that taken care of, I wanted to make something a little sweeter. Specifically, I wanted to find a way to celebrate some of the super juicy grapefruits Trevor picked up for me during his trip to Texas last week. Grapefruit is a hard flavor to capture outside of eating it fresh – so much of what makes it wonderful lives in the refreshing burst of sweet-tart juice that it offers, and it doesn’t always translate well to desserts. Of the 6 grapefruit recipes I have bookmarked in my massive online recipe organizer, 5 of them are for frozen desserts, and the 6th is for a cocktail – neither of which I was in the mood for. I’ve had success in the past with concentrating the juice to be used in a buttercream, but I wasn’t feeling like cake, either. I wanted something juicy. So I made grapefruit-ginger bars, hoping for a smooth, tangy, filling that would be bursting with flavor and make me pucker up in delight. But, as you can see, there are no grapefruit-ginger bars pictured here – they just didn’t quite come out right. Option number 2? Jam. And cookies.

These cute little thumbprint cookies more than made up for the failure of the grapefruit bars. The buttery shortbread crust has just enough ginger to alert you to its presence without overwhelming the flavor, and the grapefruit jam is lip-puckeringly tart, without any trace of bitterness. Since Valentine’s Day is only two days away, and grapefruits are conveniently pink already, I made these cookies in a heart shape – check out Once Upon A Cutting Board for pictures that show you how to shape them. If you’re pressed for time though, or just don’t like schmaltzy heart-shaped things, they’ll be just as tasty in the standard circular form. I have plenty of jam leftover, and I’m most excited to try it out on scones. There’s just nothing like a scone with tart jam and thick cream. But until I get around to making scones, I’ll be trying to restrain myself from eating the rest of these cookies in a sitting. They’re really that good.

Grapefruit-Ginger Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe adapted from Not Your Momma’s Cookie and Once Upon A Cutting Board. Makes 24 cookies.

• 1 1/2 stick salted butter, well-softened
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 c. grapefruit jam (recipe below)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and ginger until combined. Add to the butter mixture and beat until the dough comes together into a smooth ball.
3. Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls about 3/4 inch in diameter – you should get about 48 balls in total. Place the balls together in pairs on a baking sheet so that they’re touching (if it helps you envision this, they will look kind of like butt cheeks). Press your thumb into each ball at an angle so that your thumbprints make a rough heart shape. Pinch the bottoms of the two balls together to complete the bottom of the heart, then press the thumbprint a little deeper. The whole process is kind of like making a clay pinch pot. Fill each heart indentation with jam (don’t overfill or it may spill out during baking). Stick the baking sheet and cookies in the freezer for 5 minutes, then place directly in the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes, until lightly golden brown around the edges. Remove with a spatula to a cooling rack.

Grapefruit Jam

Recipe adapted slightly from Food in Jars. Makes one 1/2-pint jar.

• 3 large red grapefruits
• 3/4 c. sugar

1. Cut the peel off the grapefruits, completely removing all of the white pith. Squeeze the peels out over a large saucepan to catch the juice. Supreme (remove the segments from the membranes) the peeled grapefruits – my favorite way to do this is simply to peel the fruit away from the membrane using my fingers, but some people prefer to use a knife to cut between sections. Remove all seeds and set aside. Place the grapefruit segments and any juice in the saucepan. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Place the reserved seeds in a small cloth bag designed for cooking and tie-off – the seeds will add additional pectin to the jam.
2. Bring the grapefruit to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring regularly, until the jam reaches 220°F and  passes the plate test/sheet test. Remove from heat and ladle into your storage container (if plastic, let jam cool slightly first). I didn’t can this batch since I was only making one jar, but if making a larger batch follow canning instructions on Food in Jars.

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