How do you work this stove thingy again?

People say it takes 14 days to develop a habit. Well, I’ve taken 59 days and I was (was!) firmly in the habit of surrendering to the meals coming out of other people’s kitchens. And now I’m on day 2 of kicking the habit. No, I did not suffer but I did yearn for the return back to my own kitchen where I could once again indulge in my gastronomical musings. And look at what a sparkly new kitchen I have!

Zucchini…pie? Tarte? Yummy goodness?

The answer is (D), all of the above. I think. It doesn’t really matter what you call this dish, it’s fantastic. When it’s the end of the summer and your garden or grocery store is overflowing with zucchini, do try this recipe. I think my friend and I first came across a luscious picture of this several years ago on the cover of Saveur and I confess that I only make it about once a year because it’s kind of a pain in the butt to prepare. Yet I keep coming back to it because the flavor is excellent and it’s pretty and unique and a good way to use a significant ration of zucchini. So before the weather turns and you have the final warm weather get-together, give this pie/tarte thing a try and watch your guests enjoy themselves.

East coast feast: Steamers

So it turns out that I am rather quickly taking leave of Boston and headed back out west to San Francisco. Yay, fun stuff…you know all that business about leaving your heart there and whatnot…but now I’m left scrambling to fit in all of my “last _____” or “one more trip to  _______” or “must try _____ before I go”. Thus I spent this past glorious Labor Day weekend chowing down on delicious local seafood and enjoying the New England offerings. As far as true regional meals go, I’ve got lobster and now the steamers in the bag. Still working on a final farewell to Dunkin’ Donuts.

My big fat Greek dinner

Yup, still alive. I’ve sat for the boards, taken care of some business, recovered appropriately, and returned to eating vegetables. It was touch and go and lots of Taco Bell there for a while. This meal was borne out a certain amount of laziness with equal parts craving and experimentation. It’s no secret that I adore all things artichoke and as summer is drawing to a quick close (I guess that happens when you spend a month straight indoors cuddling up to your textbooks) I needed to make quick use of the trappings of the season by combining seasonal produce with the almighty grill markings.

Guest blog by Jess: “Log of Splendor”

My good friend Jess who is a loyal reader of this blog showed up to my house last week with a spectacular appetizer offering. This recipe was so good and so gone by the time dinner was ready that I happily ended up with a huge portion of leftover ceviche at the end of the night so I am doubly grateful to her for this. Here she is to tell you how you too can achieve dairy nirvana in just a few short minutes of prep time. Enjoy!

Christa has been kind enough to indulge me as a guest blogger, and I regret that I cannot regale you with stories of food-shopping extravaganzas.  I simply went to Market Basket to obtain the ingredients used to make this appetizer, as I have come to discover that shopping there saves one 20-25% on the monthly grocery bill.  (The only problem is that the entire state of Massachusetts knows this, so the lines are as long as the lines at my local DMV, except at 7:00 am, which is when the store opens in my neck of the woods.  Therefore I cannot truthfully state, as Christa so often does, that Market Basket is The Best Place on Earth, as it is actually a little slice of hell).

Tilapia Ceviche

I’ve found the perfect summer meal. You may recall me raving several months ago about the benefit dinner I attended at a local Peruvian restaurant where my very first encounter with ceviche took place. It looked easy, it tasted delicious, and best of all it was not going to make my kitchen a sauna. Now that summer is finally here in Boston (drat, I was hoping to avoid that whole hot weather thing this year), ceviche was at the top of my list for a prime potluck offering last weekend.

Sweet Potato Orzo, two ways!

 

As promised, I’ve been experimenting this week with sweet potato orzo and am here to present the results. The first recipe was created by scanning some basic recipes I have found for roasted sweet potatoes and a need to use red onions. People who roast sweet potatoes apparently like to do so with a lot of rosemary and thyme, so I figured why not flavor my dish that way?

The Main Ingredient: Sweet Potato Orzo

Okay I know I keep crying wolf with “THIS is the best place ever”, “No, actually it’s THIS”, or “I think THIS is tops”, but I do seriously think I’ve found heaven. On Route 6 in Truro. The Atlantic Spice Company is a wood-framed  warehouse nestled on the side of the road on one of the thinnest and most remote parts of Cape Cod. Thus, you have to make an effort to get there, and believe me it’s well worth it. It is all because of Atlantic Spice that I have a relationship with smoked paprika, Saigon cinnamon, and Gumbo File. I’m telling you, a girl could spend many happy hours wandering this place and it’s probably only 1000 square feet. In my next life I’m going to own a spice shop…maybe even in this one.

Anyway, my most recent trip to Mecca unveiled a previously unexplored region of this store’s inventory, the grains. Uh oh, my wallet was not pleased. I’m just warning you now, I’ve stocked up on about six months worth of every kind of quinoa, cous cous and barley you can imagine so get ready for some heavy blogging. This week’s feature is actually a pasta (gasp!), right? Isn’t orzo a pasta? In any case, the sweet potato flavor caught my eye and after an extensive discussion with the store owner I learned that when he sampled this flavor he was surprised by the bold taste that can often be lacking from flavored pastas. Sold! Sweet potatoes aren’t typically a summer ingredient, so I used the pasta instead to get the flavor without the oven roasting. I’m going to tell you about the two versions I made this week and I think at some point my roommate is helping me to plan how to incorporate the orzo into a true sweet dish/dessert type thing.Versatility is the name of the game.

Frozen Redemption, Coffee Toffee Ice Cream

My ice cream maker and I made up. The last time out might not have worked out so well, but this sure did.

I’m sugary and caffeinated, try to resist me.

On this hallowed day, in the year 1984, our fearless leader Ronald Reagan did solemnly decree today National Ice Cream Day. In honor of this day, I am posting nothing but ice cream: the good, the bad, and the lightly creamed. Today I had to reconcile with my new ice cream maker (see post below) and I chose another delicious concoction straight from Bi-Rite Creamery, coffee toffee. When one spends 48 hours straight in her house relentlessly memorizing and integrating the genotypic consequence of hemoglobin disorders it becomes very important to reward oneself with things that make her happy. Like ice cream.

This did not work.

In the interest of full disclosure, here was a very good idea gone very wrong in practice. My lovely friends, Whitney and Bruno (of Brasilian food fame), have once again enhanced my food-eating life and got me an ice cream maker for my birthday. This is incredibly dangerous given the complete and utter lack of will power I have for this particular dessert, but sadly our inaugural efforts with the machine were painfully bad. And yes, it is painful when ice cream is bad. That just shouldn’t happen.

When we went to the corner store to pick up some last minute items, it was clear that someone else in the neighborhood was trying to start an ice cream parlor and had gone and cleaned the place out of heavy cream. Please everyone, don’t make the mistake we did: LIGHT CREAM DOES NOT WORK. If the recipe says heavy cream, listen to it. Your dessert will thank you.

I will try this again because I love ginger and blueberries and they shouldn’t be given up on so quickly. But next time the instructions will be adhered to with more care.