On being an ant

I’ve spent the past week being an ant. Which is to say that I’ve been storing up the food and flavors of summer in the hopes that they will help get me through the dark, rainy winter months.

You remember that fable, don’t you? It is one of Aesop’s. In it a resourceful ant spends the waning days of summer storing up food for the winter while an irresponsible grasshopper fritters the days away having fun and playing his…legs (pfft! the nerve) When winter comes, the ant’s home is warm, cozy, and full of food and friends, while the grasshopper is hungry and cold and has nowhere to go.

You can probably tell from this rich description that I have a very specific vision of the fable in my head. The Grasshopper and the Ants, Walt Disney’s version of the fable, was a beloved cartoon that I watched more times than I can count.

I learned from Wikipedia (where most things are learned nowadays) that the fable has been politicized throughout history and that Disney’s adaptation of it has a – unmistakable, now that I think about it – Roosevelt/New Deal angle to it. I always identified more with the responsible ant than the carefree grasshopper anyway, making me the perfect audience for Walt Disney’s political agenda!

Image from Wikipedia

Annnywho, now that we’ve had that little digression, let me tell you what I’ve been up to lately – besides spending too much time on Wikipedia.

Two weekends ago I took a class at The Pantry from Willi Galloway. It was about growing your own herbs and using them in the kitchen. The class was so inspiring! I immediately went out and bought her book and started planning my garden for next year.

During class we made her recipe for Rosemary Lemon Salt. I’ve been sprinkling it on nearly everything I’ve cooked since. It is so delicious that I took my scissors to my own overgrown rosemary bush (which I learned I should have been pruning several times a year!) and dedicated a large bunch to the same salty-lemony-delicious fate.

And then this past weekend I bought a big bag of humble Roma tomatoes at the farmers market and roasted them in a low oven for several hours ala this recipe from Orangette. The slow roasting concentrates the flavors of these fleshy, oft-overlooked tomatoes into something that can only be described as magic. Summer magic.

Half of those went into the fridge for immediate consumption, and the other half I wrapped individually in plastic and put in the freezer. It’s enough to make me almost wish for the dark, cold, drizzly night in January when I will pull a few of these babies out to toss into a soup or warm pasta dish. Almost.

Last but not least, inspired by this fascinating blog post on using peach pits, I made a peach and basil infused simple syrup. What says summer more than peaches and basil?!

I plan on drizzling this fragrant, light syrup into plain seltzer water or adding it to iced tea any time I need to feel like I’m sitting on the patio with the sun in my face. Here’s to summer…and being an ant!

Basil Peach Vanilla Simple Syrup

Inspired by BraveTart and Willi Galloway
Makes ~3 cups

True to its name, this syrup really couldn’t be easier. The only thing it requires is time. I let mine steep for about 24 hours, but you could have a perfectly yummy syrup in as little as 4-6 hours. It all depends on how strong you want it to be. This same formula could also be used for any number of delicious combinations!

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup basil leaves
• 4-6 peach pits
• 1/2 vanilla bean

In a saucepan, stir together the water and sugar and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Crush and tear the basil leaves with your fingers to release their oils, and then stir them into the hot liquid. Add the peach pits and vanilla bean.

Cover and set aside to cool. If you are going to let it steep overnight, put it in the fridge. Once done steeping, strain with a fine mesh sieve.

Store the syrup in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

Rosemary Lemon Salt

From Willi Galloway
Makes 1 cup

This salt is addictive. Willi said it is delicious over popcorn, which I can’t wait to try. I’ve been using it to season almost every dish I’ve made in the past 10 days. It adds a bright kick to pasta, rice, roasted veggies, fish, you name it! As with the syrup above, this formula could be used for any number of herb combinations.

• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 1/2 cups rosemary
• 1/2 cup thyme (preferably lemon)
• 1 tsp lemon zest

Place the garlic and 2 tablespoons of the salt into a food processor. Pulse until the garlic is roughly chopped. Add in the rosemary and thyme and continue pulsing until the herbs are finely chopped and the mixture looks like sand.

In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the herb mixture with the remaining salt. Then spread it out onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and set aside, loosely covered with a clean cotton towel or paper towel, to dry for a few days to a week (until the herbs are completely dry).

Store in a cool, dry place (like your spice cabinet).

The best kind of tourist: Seattle Staycation (part 2)

Well, the glorious spring break I told you about last time has come to an end, and the impending wave of homework can be seen once again, cresting on the horizon, threatening to drown me. (just kidding…sort of)

The last week of my Seattle Staycation was so much fun though, I am grateful I get to re-live it by telling you about it here.

The day after I left off my last post, I headed downtown to be a tourist and that theme continued throughout the week. Now, I love going to new places and seeing new cities, but when I’m a tourist I always find myself overwhelmed with how much there is to do and how little time I have to do it all. This is often compounded by the fact that I tend to get lost – a lot – thus leaving me with even less time to experience everything the place has to offer. And at the end of a long day of walking and tourist-ing around, no matter how nice the hotel is that I’m staying in, I always just wish I could sleep in my own bed.

Well, this time I got to be the best kind of tourist: one that wasn’t pressured to see every single thing in one day (since the sights and I will both still be here next time.) One that didn’t get lost (well, I did still get lost a couple times…but I was able to get back on track faster!) And one that, at the end of a long, fun day was able to go back to my own home and sleep in my own bed.

So, getting back to my adventures…that up there is a Top Pot doughnut. Yum. Unsurprisingly, much of my activity during this week of hometown touristing was focused on food. In addition to doughnuts, I ate some lovely homemade pasta at a tucked away place called Il Corvo while I was downtown. But! I also did other things. Fun, intellectually stimulating, culture-y things.

I went to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which is right on the waterfront in downtown Seattle (read: beautiful). Even better, the day that I went happened to be gorgeously sunny – one of a few sunny days that we had here that week. I like to think the gods knew I was on spring break.

I also went on an entertaining and education tour called Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour, during which I learned lots of fascinating things about the history of Seattle and what it was like to live here in olden times.

One of these factoids that stuck with me was about how in the late 19th and early 20th century, most of the roads in downtown Seattle were built about 20 feet above the sidewalks because the city ran out of money to raise the sidewalks above sea level after they had already raised the roads. This meant that people literally had to climb huge ladders in order to cross the street, and that most businesses had both a lower door (level with the sidewalk) and an upper door (level with the road). When the city finally did build up the sidewalks, they made them hollow so that people could still use the lower level sidewalks and entryways. In order to let light into this underground area, they built skylights that are still there today, though the old glass has turned purple.

Having sated my appetite for history with that tour, I then headed up to the observation deck of the tallest building in Seattle, called Columbia Center, to get the ol’ adrenaline going (man did it, this sucker is TALL) and saw some breathtaking views.

On another equally lovely, sunny day David and I rode a ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. The ferry ride alone, and stunning views it afforded us, was almost enough to warrant the trip. While there we ate an amazing lunch at Cafe Nola and spent a couple of hours wandering around The Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful nature reserve and garden open to the public.

Those were the highlights, and though there is more I am going to have to end my gushing here. Suffice it to say that my Spring Break Seattle Staycation was a total success. By the end of it I felt relaxed and refreshed and, best of all, I had increased my knowledge of, and love for, my new city by leaps and bounds.

On the last day of my respite we visited the Ballard Farmers Market where I bought a bunch of the first broccoli rabe of the season. As much as I have embraced and enjoyed the winter offerings of the farmers market, I was giddy at the sight of some spring veggies.

I used the broccoli rabe right away in a simple pasta dish in which it is blanched and then lightly sautéed along with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and red pepper flakes. It is a perfect quick dinner to welcome spring.

Since I pretty much followed the recipe for this dish from Simply Recipes to the letter, I will just point you there: Broccoli Rabe with Pasta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. Happy spring!

When pumpkin bread is a health food: Seattle Staycation (part 1)

Hello world. I am coming to you today from Spring Break. It’s not the stereotypical Spring Break of course, no beach, no drunk college kids, and definitely no bikinis, but it’s my time to have a little less on my mind, more time to cook, and even a couple of days off.

It is glorious.

We actually did think about going somewhere tropical over my break. All the conventional Seattle wisdom told us that this was the thing to do – to get a break from the gray and the clouds and the rain. For various reasons, however, we decided not to go anywhere. Instead, I am in the middle of what I’ve been calling my Seattle Staycation.

It may not feel like spring here (in fact, it still feels decidedly winter-like, snow and all!), but I am determined to enjoy my time off and make the most of it in my city. I’ve been dragging David around for much of it, and we’ve had a great time so far.

Last Thursday, I finally got to visit Book Larder - a cookbook store that opened a few months ago. Yes you read that right, it’s a book store that stocks only cookbooks! Or, in other words, heaven. As if I needed more reason to go, the store also hosts cookbook authors on a regular basis to do cookbook signings and cooking demonstrations, and on that night was hosting an event for Joy the Baker (aka Joy Wilson)!

There’s Joy, talking to us about her new cookbook and answering all sorts of crazy questions about coconut flour and her life goals. I have read and loved the Joy the Baker blog for years, and am totally in love with her new cookbook. Each of the recipes I’ve made from it so far has been delicious, and all the recipes are approachable and completely drool-inducing.

Joy herself is also a delight, as I got to experience on Thursday. Here she is signing my book while we talk about how much we love our cats.

That was a highlight, but the fun times kept on coming. We spent one afternoon doing some fun exploring of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. This included a massage for me (finally using a birthday present from two months ago!) at the lovely Massage Sanctuary. I highly recommend it, if you are ever so inclined and feeling indulgent. We also walked around Volunteer Park and visited the Conservatory where we got to a) be warm in the 80+ degree greenhouse (it was in the 30s outside) and b) see and read about an astounding number of beautiful and history-laden flowers. I know so much more about orchids now!

We also had lunch at the Volunteer Park Cafe, which has delicious vegetarian salads (I had a kale-squash-farro-lentil combo that I am obsessed with trying to recreate at home) and really good chocolate chip cookies.

One evening we headed downtown and went to see the new and much ballyhooed Paul Gauguin exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. It is a wonderful exhibit and the audio tour they give you to guide you through is informative and enjoyable. Yay culture! Afterwards, we quickly got back to eating (which, if this blog post is any indication, is what we do 80% of the time) and had dinner at the Seatown Seabar and Rotisserie, right downtown by Pike Place Market.

We had king crab legs (oh la la!) and a little (cute!) chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert that was out of this world. I wish I could share a picture of it with you, but we devoured it before I thought of snapping a shot!

Other highlights include a concert at Columbia City Theater - a great show in a cozy space with awesome sound – yoga classes at a new (to me) studio called OmTown Yoga, a really cool bookstore called Third Place Books, as well as lots more eating…including:

• Molly Moon’s for what I still think is the best ice cream I’ve ever had – such a treat!
• Paseo for Cuban sandwiches and beans and rice. We had seafood sandwiches – shrimp and scallops – (since we don’t eat other meat) and they were excellent.
• El Asadero, otherwise fondly known to us as the “burrito bus” because it is, yes, on an old school bus. It is also our favorite Mexican place in the city (so far).
• Macrina Bakery for a delicious brunch and cupcakes that we somehow managed to save for dessert.

Whew! Just reading that makes me feel like I need to go for a run. It was all scrumptious though, and I don’t regret a bite. This is why, however, when I made the Vegan Pumpkin Bread from Joy the Baker’s new cookbook, it felt downright virtuous and healthy. More importantly though, it is delicious and is a perfect homage to a fabulous week.

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

Adapted from the Joy the Baker Cookbook
Makes one 8×4-inch loaf

I halved this recipe, the one in the book makes two loaves, so that’s why the measurements are all a little funny. Even though I was only baking one loaf though, it still took almost an hour to cook so keep that in mind before starting the recipe!

• 1 3/4 cup + 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (if you don’t have fresh, you can substitute ground nutmeg)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp water
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 6 whole pecan halves, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 8×4-inch loaf pan (I only had a 9×5-incher and it worked just fine).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, oil, maple syrup, and water.

Add the oil mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Use a spatula to fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl well and work in any dry bits of flour/sugar. Then fold in the chopped pecans.

Put the batter into the prepared pan and arrange the 6 whole pecans on top.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Once out of the oven, let rest for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack.

Serve warm – plain or with a pat of butter.

I still have another few days of Spring Break left, so stay tuned for part 2 of my Seattle Staycation report! Also, if you want the updates on what I’m doing and where I’m gorging myself in real-time, follow me on Twitter or like me on Facebook where I post much more frequent updates.

The summer farmers market bounty

Another wonderful thing about Seattle: the summer farmers market. It’s not that there weren’t farmers markets in DC, there were, and good ones. I was especially loyal to the one in downtown Falls Church, close to the last place I lived in the DC area. But the farmers markets I’ve been to in Seattle just seem so much more robust (ew, I hate that word)…buzzing…alive…bountiful. Not just in that there are seemingly more of them, but also each one is brimming with so many different types of produce, so many different farmers to choose from, each booth with something tastier than the last.

I’ve also noticed that many, most really, of the booths are selling organic fruits and veggies. People ’round these parts are committed to their organic, local, seasonal produce – even many of the grocery stores are great for that. It’s quite impressive. I know it’s a trend that’s sweeping the nation, but I can tell it’s not a recent thing in the Pacific Northwest and I am reaping the benefits.

I am also dazzled by the number and variety of other wares I find at the farmers market – things like local, handmade cheese, homegrown grains (I used wheat berries from Bluebird Grain Farms in the recipe below), fresh-caught seafood, and I’m only just beginning to explore everything it has to offer.

With all this enthusiasm, I’m sure it’s not a surprise to hear that I’ve gone a bit overboard the last couple times we’ve visited our local farmers market.  The closest one to where we live is the one in the U District, which is huge – much to my delight, but adding to my overindulgence.

Oh my. When I go there I find myself in a state that is somewhere between heaven and the old game show Supermarket Sweep. If I actually got everything for free, like the players on Supermarket Sweep did, then it would be pure heaven!  But alas…

It’s all just so hard to resist. I want to buy everything and I rationalize it by reminding myself that summer in Seattle doesn’t last long (at least that’s what long-time residents keep telling me) and that I need to take advantage. As a result, last week I was looking for recipes that would use as much of my farmers market haul as possible.

I had bookmarked a recipe from The Kitchn almost a year ago for a barley salad with golden beets, chard and feta, and it fit the bill perfectly. I know, it sounds a little wintry. But beets and chard are in season now, so why give them the cold shoulder until November? Nearly everything I used to make my adapted version of this recipe came from the U District Farmers Market.

The flavors and textures in this dish burst when you eat it. The sweet, earthiness of the beets and chard, the chewiness of the grains, the salty tang of the feta cheese. The combination of these ingredients is magical to a veggie-lover like me. Try it out and I’m sure you will agree.  I will be back to corn and stone fruit tomorrow, don’t you worry. For now, it’s all about this warm, satisfying salad.

Golden Beet and Wheat Berry Salad with Rainbow Chard

Adapted from The Kitchn
Makes about 5 cups

You can really play fast and loose with this recipe, as I did in adapting it to my tastes. For the greens, you can use kale, beet greens, or spinach (though I would cook them for less time if I were to use spinach) if you don’t have chard. For the grains, you can use barley as The Kitchn recipe suggests, but I used wheat berries and I also think that farro would be lovely. For the onion element, I cooked white onion instead of adding raw (though soaked) red onion because I just don’t like raw onion. I also omitted the scallions in the original recipe because I didn’t have any, and – I must admit – used lime juice instead of lemon juice because I didn’t have any lemons. All of this is just to say that this recipe is a prime candidate for experimenting and using what you happen to have in your kitchen – it will taste fabulous no matter what!

• 1 cup dry hard white wheat berries
• 3 large golden beets, tops removed
• 1 bunch rainbow chard, washed
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (or lime juice, if you must), divided
• 1 small white or yellow onion, diced
• 4 ounces feta, crumbled
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 450-degrees.

Bring 3 cups of salted water to a boil. Add the wheat berries. Reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for approximately 45 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain when done and set aside.

Loosely wrap the beets in foil and roast in the oven until they are just fork tender – about 45 minutes. Peel the beets while they are still warm – I find the edge of a fork works brilliantly to just scrape the skin off. Once peeled, dice the beets into 1-inch cubes.

Meanwhile, prepare the chard. Strip off the leaves and tear them into bite-sized pieces. Cut the stems into bite-sized pieces.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the chard stems and diced onion until they start to brown a bit around the edges. Add the torn chard leaves, half of the lemon juice (1 1/2 tablespoons), and a big pinch of salt. Cover and cook the chard until it is bright green and has wilted down, stirring occasionally (about 8 minutes).

Once everything is cooked, combine wheat berries, beets, chard and onion mixture, and feta in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the remaining lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and drizzle this vinaigrette over the salad. Stir to evenly coat all the ingredients.

Taste and season with salt as needed, and pepper to taste. You can serve immediately, but if you can wait it’s good to let it sit for 15-20 minutes so that the wheat berries can absorb the liquid. Serve at room temperature.

Blackberries…oh, and hello!

I recently moved to Seattle from the Washington D.C. area.  There are many things I love about my new home that my old home did not have.

Long-time Seattleites may kill me for saying this, but a relatively temperate summer is one of those things!  Seriously though, DC was 107 degrees with 100% humidity the week after we left so you can hardly blame me for preferring this cool Pacific Northwest summer.  I’m sure in 9 months I will be singing a different tune.

I am not here to talk to you about the weather though.  I am here to talk to you about blackberries.  Blackberries – growing wild!  in my yard!  along the road in our neighborhood!  everywhere! – are high on the list of things I love about Seattle so far.  For people who have lived here for years the novelty of such an abundance of sweet, juicy wild blackberries has perhaps worn off, but I’m not there yet and hope to never be.

The thing about blackberries (if you’re picking them wild instead of simply buying a pint of them at the grocery store) is that they really make you work for it.  Blackberries are nature’s illustration of the phrase “no pain, no gain.”  The small bush in my yard didn’t give me very much trouble, but it was quite a different story when my boyfriend and I took the dog to the neighborhood blackberry mecca to do some serious picking.

The long bush that stretches almost an entire block of our neighborhood was heavy with the glistening purple orbs and we plunged right in – me with both hands, him with one – his other hand holding on to the dog who was disinterestedly sniffing the ground nearby.  This was a mistake, as it turns out.  We both got stabbed by the bush’s thorns almost immediately – and those thorns are not insubstantial I can tell you.  There was much groaning, squealing, cursing and jumping around.

At one point we were both almost completely ensnared by the bush, like two flies tangled in a spider’s web, and the more we tried to wiggle our way out the worse it got.  This got the dog momentarily interested, but he was really no help in getting us free.  Nevertheless, we were so enthusiastic about all the potential blackberries (dangling there…just out of our reach!) that we continued picking through it all.  But man did those suckers hurt.  And by the time we returned home – shirts torn, pinpricks all over our hands and arms, fingers stained purple – we really felt like we had earned those berries.  We felt victorious.

So after all this effort I’ve been trying to make the best of our blackberry harvest.  I’ve put blackberries on my morning granola, I’ve had them alongside a weekend brunch of eggs and biscuits and I’ve course eaten them straight and unadorned by the handful.  What I made with them this week seemed worth writing home about though – I hope you will agree.

These are mini blackberry tarts (I REALLY love miniature things, I should warn you now) with pastry cream and lemon curd.  The recipe is based very loosely on this one from Better Homes and Gardens of all places.  But, I made my own crust using a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and my own lemon curd and pastry cream using recipes from Ina Garten instead of store-bought lemon curd and cream cheese.

The results were delectable!  I hope that if you live somewhere where you can pick fresh blackberries you give these tarts a try.  Of course, you can make them even if you buy your blackberries at a store or farmer’s market and I’m sure they will be delicious, but the taste of victory may not be quite as sweet…

Lemon-Blackberry Mini Tarts

Makes 4 mini tarts – or 2 mini tarts and 8 muffin-sized tarts if you don’t have 4 mini tart pans (like me)

Most of the recipes I looked at recommend refrigerating the tarts once you put the filling in.  I was too impatient to do this.  I didn’t put the elements in hot though, they need to be at least room temperature or the tarts would be too runny.

• 1 recipe Smitten Kitchen’s Sweet Tart Shell crust
• 1 recipe Ina Garten’s Pastry Cream
• Notes: I omitted the Cognac and upped the vanilla to a full teaspoon.  I also used yolks from large eggs instead of extra-large and it still worked out just fine!
• 1/2 recipe Ina Garten’s Lemon Curd
• Notes: Mine separated badly while I was mixing all the ingredients together (before I even got it onto the stove).  Ina mentioned nothing about this and I thought I had ruined it, but I hadn’t!  So don’t worry if yours does the same – just whisk it vigorously as it heats up on the stove and it will come back together.
• 1 cup fresh blackberries
• 2 tbsp seedless blackberry or apricot jelly (optional)
• 2 tsp lemon juice (optional)

To assemble tarts: Once crust and fillings are cooled to room temperature (or chilled in the refrigerator), spoon pastry cream into tart shells and spread with the back of a spoon until even (I used 2-3 tbsp in my mini tarts, less in the muffin-sized tarts).

Then spoon a smaller amount (~1 tbsp) of lemon curd on top of the pastry cream and spread out with the back of a spoon until even – use a light touch here to create a separate layer of lemon curd, instead of mixing the pastry cream and lemon curd together.

Top the tarts with blackberries.  I arranged mine in two concentric circles, berries top down, but they would still taste the same if you just wanted to throw the blackberries on the top and call it a day!

Optionally, you can heat the jelly and lemon juice (just until the jelly melts and combines with the juice) and brush on the top of the tarts.  This gives the tarts a nice shiny look – like in a professional bakery.  I didn’t do this, because my kitchen is not a professional bakery and my mouth was watering by this point, but if you serve these to guests it would be a nice touch.

By the way, if you have made it this far down in this post, you will notice that there isn’t an older one following it.  This is my very first post on BookLoverCook!  So hello there, thanks for stopping by.  I hope this is the first of many posts that you will come back to read, and please consider spreading the word about my blog by clicking on those cute little social media sharing buttons below.