The other day Josh and I had a do-absolutely-nothing-except-lie-around-in-pajamas-and-watch-movies-all-day kind of day. You just have to do that once in a while. I think it’s good for your mental health.

Even our meals were simple that day. Oftentimes when we’re too tired to cook, stove-popped popcorn, fruit and cheese are dinner. It’s one of our default favorites that make me think of my grandparents. :)

I think our third movie that day was Ratatouille. I’m a sucker for a good Pixar movie, and I’m sorry, but that little rat thrusting armfulls of spices and herbs into a stockpot just gets me every time. I can’t stand it. He’s too cute!

After the movie, Josh looked at me and said, “Let’s cook something!”

Cute Boy. I’m not ashamed to admit we were motivated to cook by a cartoon.

So our ten o’clock dinner consisted of pulling out some chicken, purple cabbage, onion & garlic and romaine. Josh got to work cooking the chopped up chicken in a sauce I made of fish sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, finely chopped dried papaya & freshly grated ginger root. (Microplane in my stocking for Christmas! This thing is indispensable!) We threw in some finely shredded purple cabbage, thin-sliced onion & pressed garlic. Once the mixture was well-cooked, we spooned it into leaves of romaine and dotted it with a garnish of sriracha.

Love it.

Josh’s sister Rachel & her husband Seth gave us a year’s subscription to a foodie magazine for Christmas. Yea! Our first edition had a beautiful set of recipes in it that were not only inspiring, but I had everything on hand to make it (or suitable substitutions).

I love that when that happens.

The recipes can be found here (Steak with Paprika Butter) and here (Sunchoke-Kale Hash with Farro).

I made a few changes to make it suit us. For one, we weren’t cooking for a dinner party of 10, but just the two of us.

I also didn’t have skirt steak, but a couple of nice little fillet mignons in the freezer, so those got used. We seared them on medium-high heat (after rubbing them with olive oil and s&p) so they were dark on the outside, nice and pink inside. The garlic, butter, paprika & lemon sauce stayed the same, and was delectable.

For the hash, I didn’t have any farro (and I will admit I didn’t know what it was) but after googling it, realized some on-hand quinoa would be a suitable substitution. I was really motivated by this recipe by the fact that I had sunchokes on hand, which was a first for us (thank you CSA) and wanted to do something fun with them. I had no kale, but chard was a perfect substitution, as well as regular button mushrooms for oyster mushrooms. Use what you have folks! ;)

Can I just say, where have sunchokes been all my life?? This was my first taste of them, and I cannot believe I’ve lived for 31 years without them. If you love artichokes, especially the base, heart & stem, you’ll love these little suckers. Ours were organic so we didn’t bother peeling them and they were fantastic. Boiled till just tender, sliced and seared in butter…. O Glory!

This recipe was definitely a hit, one we’ll have to make for friends sometime when we’re feeling like showing off a bit. ;) It was a perfect winter dish, full of umami, rich, complex, beautifully contrasted with the butter sauce, and just all around delightful.

First of all, earlier in the afternoon, Josh’s sister Rachel and her husband Seth stopped by on their way to the family’s house. They brought over their new little one, Raelynn. This was our first opportunity to meet her (they live down in Olympia and we hadn’t seen her yet).

What a little love bug. She even took a poopie on me. I’m loved by her, I can tell.

For Rachel’s shower, Josh and I bought a darling little “symphony” dress; Seth works in music and conducts the community orchestra, so we figured she had to have something fancy to wear for all those nights out. A girl can’t be seen in just anything when she’s listening to the cello, you know. Momma thought Christmas would be a good time to try the dress out on her, but from Raelynn’s face, I think she would have rather hung out in sweats and a hoodie all day. Not digging the fancy dress yet, Auntie Rosemary.

Someday you will, little one. Just wait till you can see yourself in the mirror and see how smashing you look.

After Seth, Rachel and Raelynn left, we got to work in the kitchen. I had to share a picture of a little snack, Kettle chips and that wonderful sour cream dip (sour cream, crushed garlic, cayenne). Too addicting.

We prepped the duck, scoring the fatty skin nice and deep, all the way to the meat. This is to let all the fat drain out and allow the skin to crisp up. We rubbed it down with salt and pepper, and put a bunch of rosemary in the cavity as well. Josh was eager to try the little mystery bits that are all hidden in the cavity. We had fun trying to guess what they all were (remember, we’re new to this whole roasting-the-whole-guy business) and cut some of the bigger ones up for cooking, leaving the little ones whole.

We then got to work prepping the veggies; we had a beautiful collection of root vegetables from the last couple of weeks, thanks to our CSA. We cleaned and prepped carrots, potatoes, shallots, garlic, turnips and parsnips. I had spotted a recipe for duck and turnips, so I thought I’d put the turnips in with the duck (and on a whim, threw the parsnips in there too), but the other veggies we roasted separately in my new dutch oven (thank you Josh!) They just looked stunning. Slender, elegant carrots, and shallots… I’m so in love with these little guys. The kinder, gentler cousin of the onion, they have a crisp rust-colored husk, and the inside is a pale, creamy purple in spots. They are just wonderful. All of the vegetables got rubbed down with olive oil, salt and pepper, and got thrown in the pot.

We also did a spaghetti squash – cut that guy in half and roasted him face down in a shallow pool of water until tender. Then, we forked all the squash out in thin, spaghetti strands, and tossed it with butter, parmesan and oregano. O Heaven!

The duck we roasted at 325F until the temperature reached 170F. We then turned up the heat to 450F, poured most of the drippings out of the pan, threw in the turnips and parsnips, and put that bad boy back in until the temperature was 180F and his skin was nice and crispy. The veggies got soft and browned on the edges, some of them crisping in the drippings a bit. Mmmmm….

Everything turned out perfectly. I was a bit nervous taking on such a new piece of meat to me, but it was just delightful. We couldn’t have been more pleased. We really didn’t know what we were doing with the heart and liver and such, because we just threw them in at the bottom of the pan, and by the time they came out they were unrecognizable little clumps of burnt… something. Not even edible. Josh wasn’t too crushed, and now we know to do it differently next time.

The next day with leftovers, we pulled off pieces of the duck, and sauteed it in a skillet with the leftover parsnips and turnips and just made a big pan of hash. We took the leftover duck skin and broiled it on a cookie sheet until it was the texture of super crisp bacon. Oh. My. Goodness. To die for!

These little guys are pretty easy to make and an excellent way to use up any extra potatoes you have lying around. The ingredients are so simple, you can make them most any day. For ours, we shredded up four potatoes (one medium sized potato will equal about two latkes), added in about half a diced onion, two eggs and a few spoonfuls of flour, as well as salt, pepper, and our personal favorite ingredient, birds eye chilies. Those little guys added to just about anything makes it wonderful. (Before adding all the other ingredients in, I strain the shredded potato and get as much liquid out as possible. This helps them stick together more and get thick and soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.)

Fry them on medium heat in about half an inch of good oil that has a higher heat tolerance – we use sunflower oil. Once they’re browned on the outside and cooked all the way through, drain them on a cloth or several layers of paper towel and keep them in the oven on warm until all batches are done. Serve with sour cream and fall in love.

For our sour cream dip, we added some crushed garlic and cayenne pepper. It’s an addicting little dip we have in the house from time to time that is perfect for chips too.

Panettone is one of our favorite breads to make during the winter. We fill ours with almost double the fruit the recipe calls for, this year it was plump dried cherries and cranberries. So delicious. I made a batch of cinnamon butter to go with it, and it was incredible. This bread is even better toasted.

For something sweet to share, we made a few giant batches of Muddy Buddies. Or Puppy Chow. Or Reindeer Food. Or as Josh’s brother, Brian, took to calling it, Reindeer Poop. Whatever you choose to name it, it’s ridiculously easy and addicting. I swiped my recipe from Sweet Savory Life, but found the recipe also on the back of the Rice Chex box. We bagged up lots of little portions to share with all the kids. Of course, we saved a package for ourselves!

One of our favorite appetizers lately has been seared prosciutto-wrapped figs. They’re just heavenly and so easy to make. They’re best made right before you eat them, so for our little gathering we just prepped the figs, wrapped them in this strips of prosciutto, and seared them till crispy once we got to Brad & Katy’s house. We had to do a little batch before hand to get a good shot in the daylight, so we had to eat these guys up…. darn. We made a huge platter full of them, and they were all polished off by the end of the night – the mild sweetness & earthy flavors of the figs paired with the salty crisp prosciutto is just perfect. I make them any chance I get.

So let’s reflect, shall we?

Besides, I still have a party to blog about that happened in November, so be impressed that Christmas is here.

For the last I-don’t-know-how-many-years I’ve requested my mom’s homemade Chicken Pot Pie for my birthday gift. When Josh and I got married, we had a pot-luck style reception (it was small enough and informal enough it worked beautifully) and my mom brought a huge cast iron skillet full of the goodness. So this year for Christmas when we were trying to make plans, this just seemed like the natural thing to make. Besides, it was high time I learned how to make it as well.

I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten my cooking techniques from my family; I rarely see either my mom or my dad look at a recipe. Everything is made by taste, by feel. So for any of you that are wondering where all the neatly written recipes are on this little blog, um… I don’t have them. I love cookbooks, I love food blogs, I love recipes, but I almost always use them as just a loose inspiration.

So I had to laugh as my mom was teaching me to make Chicken Pot Pie and I’d ask her how much of something to add, and she’d say something to the effect of, “Well… I don’t know, just taste it.”

It’s a pretty basic peasant kind of food. Chicken cooked in onions, garlic, a bit of oil, S&P, and some herbs; oregano, sage, thyme, whatever tastes good to you. Add a bit of flour to coat the chicken and cook a bit more… steam your veggies first so they’ve got a head start because they won’t cook all the way as the pie bakes. This evening we used potatoes, broccoli, carrots & green beans. Add the veggies into the pot with the chicken, some broth, and a bit of a roux if you need to thicken it up. Let the filling simmer and bubble for a bit while you work on the pie crust.

Now here’s where we deviated… My whole life my mom’s made the classic pie crust of white flour, salt, shortening and water. In the last couple of years I’ve started my own traditional pie crust of whole wheat flour, salt, butter and water. I don’t love the idea of cooking with shortening and try to sub out whole wheat flour whenever I can. So after much teasing and rivalry, we decided to make two different pies (we had enough filling for five pies; I’m not joking. I have a jar of filling in my freezer for next time). She spent a good 20 minutes bragging about how she makes the best pie crusts, and then the texture didn’t turn out and spent another 20 minutes griping about how the recipe has failed her and it won’t stick together well. Well, of course I took full advantage of that and made my crust as beautiful as I could. I brushed it with an egg white and sprinkled salt on top. Lovely.

In the end they both turned out terrific. Bake the pies long enough to get the crust crisp, and you’re all set. Perfect comfort food.

I had to put this picture in; my baby sister, Emily, is in a full-blown Tim Burton/Johnny Depp phase. She’s sitting here in her top hat watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory while we’re cooking. Cute girl.

We celebrate a lot around here. A birthday or anniversary gets celebrated at least two or three times, and we consider most weekends to be honeymoons. That’s just the way we roll.

My birthday this year was no exception. We went away for the weekend before (also to celebrate our anniversary), and we had some friends over for an appetizer potluck a few weeks later. The actual day of my birthday landed on a Monday and Josh instructed me to come home from work, take a nap, and wait for him to prepare dinner. This man knows how to love me.

I was intrigued when he said he was going to fix something he’d never made before. I was supposed to wait upstairs, snuggled in bed with a good book, but after some time of listening to him putter around in the kitchen, curiosity got the better of me and I had to sneak down for a peek…

I walked in to my Cute Boy simmering a skillet full of ground beef, onion, tomato paste, garlic, carrots, stock and a few herbs & spices. He was mashing potatoes and was quite proud of himself; with good reason! Homemade Shepherd’s Pie, perfect comfort food for a cozy fall evening. (Recipe is here, but of course he doctored it up to make it his own, so it’s a bit different.) I settled in at the table and watched my best friend cook. I’m so blessed.

He handed me a small plate of grilled buttered bread with slices of tomato from our garden (I know! Still! The never-ending crop of tomatoes!) and aged gouda. Rustic and full of flavor, this is a favorite snack in our house.

I snapped a few pictures of the end process and fell in love with my husband all over again. That tends to happen a lot. The meal turned out perfect, and we decided it would become a regular comfort food here. We toasted with sparkling organic apple cider and were quite content with the evening.

You think I’m kidding.

What I Made for Thanksgiving, Part 2…

Homemade Cranberry Sauce. ‘Cause I can’t let my husband eat anything out of a can. ;)

He jokes about loving those slices and the way the can shapes and molds the red jelly, but I know him better than that. As I was making this, he was eating it out of the pot by the spoonful.

This sauce is sooooo simple. For this batch I used two 8oz bags of berries (organic, thank you CSA!). In a medium pot I put in one cup of water and one and a half cups of raw sugar. I also added the juice and pulp of half a lemon as well as thin strips of the peel.

For the lemon peel, once the pulp has been cut out, I cut the tip off the lemon so it’ll lay in a strip. I tear out most of the pith (the thick white stuff), and with a paring knife carefully slice away layers of the white until all that’s left is the yellow (or mostly all is good enough). I learned this technique from my dad. Then I cut it into thin strips and put it in the sugar water to simmer and get candied. It’s delicious this way, and I used this technique both with the baklava syrup and with the cranberry sauce.

Over medium heat, stir the sugar into the water and let is dissolve, toss in your lemon juice and peel, then add the berries. Let them simmer until the berries are soft and sweet, I did it for about 45 minutes while I worked on the pies. I’m sure it could be done before then, but I just let it simmer away. Refrigerate and enjoy chilled!

Last but not least, I’m bringing jars of pickled green tomatoes to share. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, and tons of green ones that we finally just had to haul in. Perfect timing, our copy of Organic Gardening had a recipe for pickled green tomatoes in it at the same time! The recipe was Renee Erickson’s from Boat Street Pickles. It was so easy and it turned out wonderfully.

1 1/2 quarts white wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
2 pounds of tomatoes sliced into wedges (or left whole if cherry tomatoes)

In a stainless-steel saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic. Bring to a boil. When the sugar has dissolved, add the tomatoes. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes or until tomatoes are tender but not mushy.

Strain the tomatoes, reserving the liquid in one container and tomatoes in another. Add the tarragon to the liquid. Refrigerate both until cool, then combine. Spoon into lidded glass containers and refrigerate for up to 3 months.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, now Savory Pumpkin Pie is a tradition. I made it again this year because a) it rocks, and b) Uncle Tom demanded it. Well, demanded it politely. I believe his exact words were, “You’re making this every year, right?”

Except this year Uncle Tom, Aunt Raquel and the kiddos aren’t joining us, so more pie for me! Although you will be very much missed little Taylor family.

The only thing we changed about the pie this year was the kind of cheese; we switched the Gruyère and Jarlsburg for good cheddar from the co-op and grated parmesan. It’s more economical, and it tastes wonderful.

How do you know, you ask?

I know because I’m eating a piece right now that I’ve snuck out of the pie.

That’s right, it’s almost midnight before Thanksgiving, CB and I have been working hard all evening in the kitchen and none of it on dinner, and my family is laid back enough that they will just laugh when we bring the pie with two pieces missing.

Heh-heh-heh… This pie is good.

I’m also bringing The Most Amazing Baklava in the World (I’m pretty sure that’s it’s official name now) simply because…. well, it’s Amazing. ‘Nuff said.

To Be Continued….

The other night, our dear friends Emily & Christian Berkey invited us over for dinner. Fall has set in, and Emily shared what was on the menu; meatloaf. Mmmmm… I put on my polite-but-hopeful face and thought, well, almost 20 years has gone by since my last meatloaf attempt and a lot has changed since then. Let’s go for it.

When I peeked at the dish cooling on the stove, it perked up my appetite. It smelled so good! It looked good. Hope was coming back to me. Emily laughed at me as I followed her around the kitchen, taking pictures of the potatoes, the green beans, the gorgeous butter dish I always covet when I’m over there. This girl did a great job at dinner, and I am so thankful to her and Christian for feeding us. And I loved the meatloaf so much, I begged for the recipe and am going to make it myself.

That is, as soon as we have guests over for dinner. That’s a lotta meat.

But ooooh, it’s so good! Moist, tender, full of flavor, so much more than just a loaf of pressed hamburger and egg.

Sorry Mom. It’s my turn to teach you to make meatloaf.

Emily’s Dad’s Recipe for Meatloaf

(She assured me I wouldn’t get her kicked out of the will by disclosing any family secrets and sharing this recipe. She even said that she thinks he may have gotten it out of a cookbook somewhere, but isn’t sure? So if any of you come across an identical recipe, let me know where you found it, I’d be happy to give credit where credit is due! Disclaimer over.)

Ingredients:

2 cups minced onions
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup lightly pressed down bread crumbs
2 lbs ground beef
1 lb ground pork or fresh sausage meat or ground raw turkey
1 cup cooked rice
2 large eggs
1/2 cup beef boulion
2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 to 2 cloves of garlic, pureed optional
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp oregano
3 bay leaves

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and put into buttered loaf pan and form. Place 3 bay leaves on top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. (When done , the juices will run clear with a pink tinge. Meat will be slightly springy and 155 degrees with a meat thermometer.) Cool for 30 minutes, pour off fat juices.