mmm bread

so i've been wanting to make bread lately, but i'm too lazy to go get yeast and then worry about whether or not the yeast is bad if my bread doesn't come out as expected. enter: irish brown bread. apparently the authentic version of irish soda bread, this bread doesn't involve yeast, only requires fifteen minutes to throw together (including pulling ingredients off shelves), and is full of whole wheat goodness. the recipe i used comes from the lovely blog kiss my spatula, and can be found here. it was a good recipe for my first attempt at bread. it came out a little on the crumbly side, but still had great flavor and was very easy (and not time consuming) to make.

my version:

preheat oven to 350.

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1 1/3 cups whole milk

1/3 cup apple-cider vinegar

put the milk and apple cider vinegar together in a bowl and let sit for 10-15 min, until the milk is thickened [you can also use storebought buttermilk. i used low-fat milk and it came out just fine]. mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a large bowl. cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two forks until the mixture resembles coarse meal. stir in oats [the recipe called for finely ground oats, but i only had regular quaker oats. if i had to do it again i'd buy the finely ground oats because i think the size of the oats might have made the bread more crumbly when baked]. pour in the thickened milk and mix until the dough just sticks together. knead the dough 4-5 times on a lightly floured surface. shape the dough gently into a round loaf, roughly 6in in diameter. place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper, and cut an x into the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. bake, rotating halfway through, until the top is golden brown and a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, approximately 45-60 min.

a few more tips:

• don't use salted butter. i cut out a half tsp of salt from the recipe, and even using unsalted butter i found the bread a bit salty. (and i like salt.)
• the bread cooked much faster in my oven than the 1 hour stated in the recipe, make sure to monitor your bread starting at 40 min into baking.

it's a very hearty bread, very delicious, and extremely easy to throw together. i'll be making this again soon, and hopefully will be able to correct the crumblyness of the bread.

epic chocolate peanut butter cake

This cake was quite a production, not least of which was because we had meetings until 4:00 or 4:30, I had to finish some grading because it is just driving me crazy to have so many assignments on my desk, I got home just after 5:00, and we were hosting the Bulgarian Ladies' Book Club (BLBC!) at 7:30. Lindsay was already hard at work on her half of the hosting duties - chopping veggies and fruit, making hummus, guacamole, salsa, and setting out chips, crackers, cheese, bonitsa, and the like. I started cooking right away (well, mixing) and the cake was served at around 9:45. There is a lot of waiting time with this cake, but it definitely spans a good 5 hours to make it depending on your oven space and other issues.

Of course, I got the recipe from SK and this time, I followed it exactly as I have no experience baking cakes and as the process went on (read: when I reached the icing stage), I realized what an endeavor it is to bake a cake.

The first set of ingredients are for the chocolate cake only, which is three 8-inch layers (or not, if you are me and things are never quite that perfect). Following will be the recipes for the peanut butter frosting and chocolate ganache. Oh, this baby is rich!

Chocolate Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanut brittle (I skipped this)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cakepans. SK recommends that you line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper. I didn't do this for my first two and regretted it when they still sort of stuck to the bottom of the pans. On the third one, I put in the paper and it worked like a charm.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans. For me, I only had one pan, so I baked one and let it sit, used a different size cake pan for the second, then took the first out and used the same pan for the third. The cake still tastes the same, so even though it doesn't look perfect, I haven't heard any complaints.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. (SK note: These cakes are very, very soft. I found them a lot easier to work with after firming them up in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll defrost quickly once assembled. You’ll be glad you did this, trust me). I don't have wire racks, so I just let them cool for 20 minutes, turned them onto a plate (after scraping the first two off the pans), and then put them in the fridge for another 20 minutes before moving them to the freezer.

4. To frost the cake, place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup cup of the Peanut Butter Frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. (SK note 1: Making a crumb coat of frosting–a thin layer that binds the dark crumbs to the cake so they don’t show up in the final outer frosting layer–is a great idea for this cake, or any with a dark cake and lighter-colored frosting. Once you “mask” your cake, let it chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm, then use the remainder of the frosting to create a smooth final coating. SK note 2: Once the cake is fully frosting, it helps to chill it again and let it firm up. The cooler and more set the peanut butter frosting is, the better drip effect you’ll get from the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze). I found the frosting process very frustrating as the frosting was really thick and often grabbed up pieces of the cake. I even did her little thin layer first trick, but couldn't get it thin enough and hard enough that it was too much easier after that. I was able to spread a little bit more frosting a little easier on the bottom, which I am sure is due to her technique.

After the first layer of icing, before going into the fridge. 

The second layer of icing before the glaze was a little smoother and well covered. 

This was frustrating me a bit and I had to take a few chill-out-and-relax breaks

5. To decorate with the Chocolate–Peanut Butter Glaze, put the cake plate on a large baking sheet to catch any drips. Simply pour the glaze over the top of the cake, and using an offset spatula, spread it evenly over the top just to the edges so that it runs down the sides of the cake in long drips. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes to allow the glaze and frosting to set completely. Remove about 1 hour before serving. I found that my glaze was pretty liquidy and ran way beyond the cake, but it was still pretty thick and delicious and had the drip effect. I put it in the fridge for about an hour and then served it right away and that was fine.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter, preferably a commercial brand (because oil doesn’t separate out)

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

8 ounces seimsweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half

1. In the top of a double boiler or in a bowl set over simmering water, combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

2. Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Use while still warm.

A few more pictures because I was really trying to capture what a production this thing was and how deliciously rich it tasted. Also, it makes me feel justified in the amount of time and effort I put into it:

The Ladies of the BLBC liked it, I liked it, and I have leftovers, so at the end of the day, I am a happy lady.

half a bushel of apples is a lot

so. what's the easiest thing you can do with half a bushel of apples? applesauce.

apples cook down quite a lot. for this recipe, i used about 25 apples--a mix of macoun and macintosh--and ended up with somewhere between 6 and 8 cups. tart and slightly sweet.

the beauty of applesauce is you can pretty much do whatever you feel like. i will, however, recommend that if you are going to make applesauce regularly and you don't like chunky applesauce that you should invest in a food mill. homemade applesauce tastes about 82735834 times better if you leave the skins on when you are cooking them down. the skins really have a ton of apple flavor in them.

as you can see, i found this out the hard way. i peeled, cored, and diced the apples and put them in a big stockpot.

then i added about a half a cup of brown sugar, two tablespoons of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of nutmeg, and a dash of ginger. the apples should contain enough water to allow the apples to cook down without burning, but if you're at all worried add in a dash of apple cider to accelerate the process.

then all you do is put the pot on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are mushy. that can take anywhere between .5 to 1.5 hours. i like my applesauce chunky, but if you want it to be smooth, stick it in a blender a few cups at a time or in a food mill.

blueberry muffins, cornbread, and vegetarian chili

I have been studying for the GREs lately (which has been a series of ups and down, frustrations, and sobbing calls home to my stepdad and mom), so not cooking too much lately, but I did make blueberry muffins on Friday as a therapeutic release from my workweek. I have been grading like crazy for the past week and a half and I can't seem to recover. I know I am the one assigning the work, but they need to do it, and then, however cursory my grading is, it still takes me an hour or two to grade one assignment so I am constantly handing back work in a timely fashion but accumulating things nonetheless. Anyway, I have had a few things to cook either by necessity or for a few moments of pleasurable focus and attention.

Friday, I made blueberry muffins and Monday, for my dinner, I made vegetarian chili and corn muffins. So here are the recipes and some pictures. Tonight was the first actual book club meeting for our first book, and Lindsay and I hosted, so I will make a new entry for my epic Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake which is definitely cavity causing and so rich it hurts.

***

Like all my recipes, all the ones I used were from SK and I'll go in chronological order. First, her "perfect blueberry muffins" were a nice treat and definitely had a slightly different texture and flavor than most blueberry muffins (thicker, hint of citrus). I really appreciated the various measurements for each thing because I cook largely measuring in grams, living abroad, and am constantly consulting our yellowed conversions page from a cookbook taped inside a cupboard door.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces or 71 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon (7 grams or 1/4 ounce) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces or 105 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

I pretty much followed her recipe without making too many adjustments and changes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or whatever celsius it was that I crank my oven to). Beat butter and sugar with electric mixture until fluffy - for me, this did not seem possible at first, but I kept throwing chunks of butter and sugar around until they did, surprisingly, come together. I added in the egg, beat everything together, and then my yogurt and lemon zest (I didn't measure, just grated it in, eyeing the pile). I use Greek yogurt whenever I cook and since some things aren't available - substitute it for sour cream, creme fraiche, anything of similar dairy texture. The yogurt in this recipe is what facilitates the thickness of the mixture and weight in the muffins, which SK mentions holds the blueberries better in the muffins instead of having them sink to the bottom. After the yogurt is mixed, sift the dry ingredients in slowly (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt), mixing intermittently, until batter absorbs all the flour. Gently add in the blueberries and the batter is somewhat like cookie dough and feels sticky and thick. In a greased muffin tin (I save my butter wrappers, which I quickly accumulate, for rubbing on baking sheets and such and find it a useful replacement for a cooking spray and satisfies my Irish need to use everything to the last drop, so to speak), pour/glob in the batter. I filled a standard 12 muffin tin with the recipe and I think just over half full tins led to full, standard size muffins, so don't worry if it looks a little scant - they rise well. They bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. I really enjoyed mine warm with some nice lightly salted butter. They were also good reheated later in the microwave with, of course, some more butter. They lasted less than 24 hours, but I did take them to a dinner party and pawn off 7 or 8 there.

***

My Monday night dinner, as mentioned, was cornbread and vegetarian chili. Lindsay had made meat chili on Sunday night and I figured we would have leftovers of meat chili and I would make a vegetarian version for the vegetarian housemate (clever, aren't I?). For the cornbread, I followed the recipe pretty closely. I actually didn't love it as much as the classic and simple Jiffy cornbread, but they were good and were eaten within a day, so still met my standards for cooking.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons corn oil (sunflower oil was what I had in my kitchen)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn kernels (I used canned, rinsed)

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Separately, mix the buttermilk (I just used full fat milk), melted butter, oil (I used sunflower oil because that is a Bulgarian product and readily available), egg and extra yolk. Pour liquid over dry ingredients and mix together quickly but gently. Stir in the rinsed corn kernels (SK says you can use fresh, but I didn't, so I don't know how that would affect the recipe), and your lumpy batter is ready to go. I greased up my muffin tin again and poured them in. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes until golden brown. I served them with chili, but also had out butter and honey because that is how my mom usually tops them, though we also regularly had cornbread with applesauce. Apparently, this isn't common practice, but I have always found it really delicious and comforting.

***

For the vegetarian chili, I used SK's recipe as a guideline, but definitely improvised with what was available and didn't really measure my spices and just sprinkled them on throughout the process. I went ahead and adjusted the ingredients to what I used, but go to her site if you are interested in her recipe, which has a few more ingredients and specific measurements.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 15-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup corn (canned, rinsed)
1 15-ounce can whole tomatoes
1 cup water with bouillon cube
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa

I sauteed the onions in the vegetable oil first, not until completely transparent and soft, but so that they developed some flavor and caramelization on their own first. Then I added in the garlic briefly, so as not to burn (done that a few times), and then poured in the water and bouillon cube to get it to dissolve first. Then I added the drained beans and tomatoes with their sauce, and jabbed the tomatoes a bit to break them up. Our bean selection here is limited, so I only had kidney and white beans, in her recipe she calls for black, pinto, and kidney, which I would have used given availability. My chili turned out well, though, and didn't feel lacking with just the two varieties. I measured out the cocoa and then just added chili powder, cumin, and coriander as I felt appropriate (mostly just continued shaking them in intermittently throughout cooking because I wanted to make sure it wasn't boring and had a kick because my roommate likes spicy food). I also added some of the corn left over from my cornbread muffins as well as some salt and ground pepper. I let it cook for about 30-45 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally. I thought it turned out really well and the great thing about chili is that it just gets better with time, so it is one of the few foods I enjoy having leftovers with because the flavors just continue to develop and intensify in the fridge or freezer.

I generally make my dad's non-vegetarian chili and I will have to cook that sometime and post it. He usually serves his chili with rice and I like that, but I sort of ditzed out and forgot to make it with this recipe, so we just had it topped with cheese (necessary) and served with cornbread muffins. I think everyone felt pretty satisfied with that.

I didn't take too many pictures of the chili (read: one) because it just doesn't photograph that well. Much more delicious than visually appearing, and one of my favorite fall/winter comfort foods.

apple and sage chicken, tomato almond pesto

I cooked two meals this week since one of my roommates is stateside for work, so Sunday night I made Apple and Sage Chicken for my fellow meat eating roommate and two other teachers, I always enjoy a good casual dinner party, and Monday night I made Tomato Almond Pesto for the three remaining housemates. Katie sent me the recipe for the Apple and Sage chicken and when I found out the vegetarian roommate was eating out, I decided to give this a try. I admit that I was hesitant at a couple points along the preparation, partly because I don't cook with meat very often and I would hate to have someone eat improperly cooked meat, and partly because I couldn't tell if my meal was turning out as it should. Once it was served and sampled, though, there were four votes of approval, so now I can advise you to give it a try if you are a meat eater.

My adaptation of the recipe:

650 g chicken tenders (I think - deboned, deskinned slivers of chicken, packaged at the store)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar (as mentioned before, I have dark brown sugar only)
2 apples (preferably Gala; 3/4 lb total), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 chopped shallot (or small onion, which I what I had available and used)
2/3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used a bouillon cube boiled in water)
1 teaspoon cider vinegar (I didn't have cider vinegar so I used white wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

I cut the obvious connective tissue and such off the chicken so it was as pretty as raw chicken can get in my hands and patted them dry in a paper towel before laying them out across my cutting boards. I sprinkled them with salt and pepper and then cooked them to about 80% done in olive oil in a frying pan. I had to cook them in two batches so they didn't crowd the pan and when they were finished, I set them on a plate to wait. In the same pan, I put in the butter, onion/shallot, and brown sugar for a minute before adding the apples. I cooked this until the apples were tender and a little brown. Then I added my chicken broth, a splash of vinegar, and the chopped sage. I think I used too much water for my bouillon, expecting more to boil off, but I think the 2/3 cup would be accurate if you measured it. Still, even though mine didn't reduce as much, it still tasted great, so don't worry too much about perfection. After a couple minutes, I put the chicken back on top of the apples and alternated covering the pan with a lid to steam the chicken a bit and taking the lid off to let the sauce reduce. I repeated this process for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I served it plain in bowls and we ate the entire batch in one sitting - the flavor was really nice, a mixture of sweet apple and slightly of brown sugar with chicken and sage. Everything was soft, tender, and well cooked. I was impressed and it well exceeded my expectations.

When I make this again, I will use less bouillon, as mentioned, in an effort to make it reduce more. There was a lot of sauce, so I served mine with my slotted spoon so that I left the liquid in the pan, but I think the idea is that it is all soaked up and thicker so that it is served together. The original recipe called for chicken legs and thighs with skin, but I don't like cooking with bones and skin, and I am sure there were some differences because of the meat changes.

***

Monday night I made Tomato Almond Pesto from SK and again felt some trepidation as the recipe progressed that it wouldn't taste great, but it turned out all right. Probably not my favorite recipe, but we were all satisfied with the dinner and I always like experimenting a bit.


3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
salt
5 tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 olive oil
1 pound pasta - my package said Vermicelli but it was essentially spaghetti, her recipe used linguine

The first step was to toast the almonds in a skillet - I am not sure I was totally successful, especially as her recipe instructed me to use olive oil and my limited exposure to toasting nuts has been in a dry pan or sheet in the oven, and it seemed like my almonds did not evenly toast. At any rate, it wasn't a disaster but I definitely need to have more finesse. If I had a food processor, I would dump the almonds in, chop them but keep them chunky, remove them, and then chop the basil, garlic, and salt in the processor before adding in the tomatoes, almonds, olive oil, and parmesan to mix them all together.

I do not, however, have a food processor, so I chopped up my almonds by hand and then, as finely as I am comfortable and patient enough to do, chopped my basil, a bit of sage (I still have a lot of fresh sage in the fridge), and the garlic. I mixed the garlic, sage, and basil together in a bowl and then cut up my tomatoes and mixed them in. I grated the parmesan directly into the bowl, eyeing about 1/4 cup, and then used the immersion blender to mix all of that together. I added salt and pepper once it was almost smooth and then mixed by hand. I cooked the pasta between al dente and done, and quickly mixed it in with the pesto, as suggested. I stirred it around a bit before serving it into bowls and grating some more parmesan on top.

And as it is now bedtime for this tired teacher, buona sera!

and kat, don't you cook somewhere, too?

I have become obsessive and a little insecure about making sure my English spelling, punctuation, and grammar are always correct. I am sure that they are not, but since I am now a teacher and taking colored pens with flourish to everything my kids write, I feel obliged to hold up my end of the deal and be damn good at English. At any rate, I am particularly aware of commas and am trying to use them appropriately and when grammatically correct, but I suspect that I often over- or under-do it (not that that's a word). Also, my brain is a little fried as I have graded 54 papers, 36 tests, 36 test corrections in the past 5 days and still have 18 papers to go to finish out this batch of assignments and get new ones in on Friday. I now understand why teachers desks are always full - I have three full trays of papers, stacks for each section and assignment, plus a range of textbooks that I use for lesson planning and fiction books that I have for my students to check out from me for outside reading. But this isn't my personal blog, so let's get back to the kitchen.

In the previous entry, Katie posted pictures of her kitchen so I thought I would do the same. I also think I might follow this up with another entry reflecting back on SK recipes that I have made and linking up. My sister commented on a post asking for more of my actual recipes, so I edited some posts and added a couple at the bottom of them (Courtney's scone recipe and Pia's tomato sauce), and will be sure to include recipes or links to future posts.

Here are some images of the Pink House family kitchen. I love the house that the school provided for the 4 of us on campus, even though my room has the quasi-faulty heater. It is a very homey space and I am instantly at ease and comfortable as soon as I cross our threshold. I really love our kitchen and while I miss my granite countertops from Morocco, both for utility and aesthetics, I like this kitchen much more for its wealth of appliances and the space and presence of our dining table in the kitchen. Without further ado:

Our kitchen... 

pretty straightforward - electric oven/stove, sink, microwave (to my left on my roommate's shelves), the dryer is the appliance opposite

the housekeeper came today and I cleaned up especially well after dinner for the picture, but it generally looks fairly nice but maybe with a little more evidence of our cooking exploits (each of us has a dinner that we cook one night a week plus Abby and I often bake)

Pantry that I share with Kristina - 

top two shelves are mine and in the fridge, I have the second shelf and left bottom drawer

My pantry shelves house things like:

• flour
• oats
• dark brown sugar (light brown isn't available here)
• dried papaya (for snacking)
• rice cakes
• honey
• homemade jam from Koprivshtitsa
• chai tea
• sugar
• yeast
• rice
• pasta
• granola

My fridge has:

• butter, several unsalted for cooking and 1 salted for my toast (oh, what an indulgence!)
• jelly/jam
• greek yogurt
• eggs
• mustard
• pesto
• cyrene cheese (Bulgarian cheese similar to feta)
• fresh basil, sage
• parmesean
• bread

I don't really keep that much in the house - I shop once a week and buy only what I need to make my weekly dinner, anything I plan on baking, and my daily breakfast and lunch. I keep flour, sugar, oats, and honey stocked so I can bake, but most things I buy on an as needed basis.

Another view of the kitchen, from my pantry (my GRE study book on the table, *sigh*)

Like I mentioned above, we have an electronic stove and oven (I think I am a bigger fan of gas, but I am adjusting), microwave (though I rarely use it and don't plan on starting, I found it easy to live without), and a lot of appliances after years of single girls moving in and out of the house - immersion blender, a variety of knives (though I generally stick with the ones Courtney sent me in Morocco), a rolling pin (I bought it because I cook enough with dough that using wine bottles was driving me crazy), slotted spoons and whisks and spatulas, four cutting boards, an electric tea kettle (I never would have suspected that I would use it so often), and many other little doodads that I find thrilling after the dearth of appliances in Morocco but no one else would be as excited to see. 

so katie, what does your kitchen look like?

This is my kitchen.

Notice the old lady linoleum and the lack of counterspace (and the chili cooking away on the stove during the Michigan v. Michigan State game). We have no dishwasher, but fortunately our oven is relatively new and works pretty well. The birch-colored ikea table is home to our microwave and toaster for now, and has yet to be adorned with bar stools (so there is no seating in the kitchen). We are on the first floor, and lighting isn't super great, so we'll see how pictures go moving forward.

This is the corner of the kitchen where Eric has promised me more counterspace will go.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

This is the pantry. And the view to our paved "backyard".

The pantry contains mostly baking stuff and dry goods, such as:

• Brown, white, and confectioners sugar
• White and whole wheat flour (King Arthur brand always)
• Spices: salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, chili powder, allspice, poultry seasoning, thyme, curry, etc etc (way too many for me to list from memory)
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghiardelli)
• Nutella
• Maple syrup from Holiday Farm (Dalton, MA)
• Hot chocolate
• Rice vinegar
• Soy sauce
• Vegetable oil (olive oil is above the stove)
• Cans of tuna
• Whole canned tomatoes
• Fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 3 jars of Molte Bene tomato and basil pasta sauce (from Whole Foods, best pasta sauce I have ever had)
• Granola
• Couscous
• Rice
• Oatmeal
• Pasta (shells, fettuchine, spaghetti, angel hair)
• Annies Mac and Cheese
• Rice Chex, Honey Bunches of Oats, Special K
• Wheat crackers
• Candy apple kit
• Reusable shopping bags

This is the refrigerator.

It’s pretty empty now, but contains:

• ½ bushel of apples from apple picking in Boxford, MA last weekend at Smolak Farms
• Apple Cider
• Milk
• Lemonade
• Beer (Ipswitch Harvest, Wolaver’s Pumpkin, Ithaca Brewing Company, Harvest Moon, and assorted leftovers)
• Eggs
• Salad dressing (Hidden Valley ranch and basalmic vinagrette)
• Jam (four fruit, apricot, and strawberry)
• Coarse grain and regular Dijon mustard
• Organic Chicken Stock
• Butter (salted and unsalted)
• Shortening
• Cheese (port salut, jarlsburg, gruyere, tallegio, parmesan)
• Heavy cream
• Yogurt
• Heritage tomatoes, picked at Smolak Farms
• Frozen leftovers: Ina Garten’s Mac and Cheese, Chili
• Frozen Ground beef
• Frozen peas and frozen corn
• Frozen lemonade
• Ben and Jerry’s Mint Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream
• Soco Lavender and Honey Ice Cream
• Pumpkin Frozen Custard

The fridge is a little empty—usually it has far more vegetables and usually some more fruit or leftovers—grocery store trip is in the works. My tea collection and cinnamon streusel muffins that Eric's girlfriend made last Sunday are on top.

This is where we eat! The “Kandinsky Dining Room.” (There’s another Kandinsky on the opposite wall.

…and this is where all our non-beer wine and liquor lives.

As for tools, I have all the knives, cutting boards, pots and pans I could need. However, I do not nearly have as much as I want. If I had my druthers, I’d have a:

• Candy thermometer
• Full Cutco knife set
• Food processor
• 3 more baking sheets
• Tons of cookie cutters
• Food mill
• Cheese cloth
• Bundt pan

And most importantly, more counterspace.

Next up, homemade applesauce!

formative food feelings and recent recipes

Katie told me she's going to do a sort of kitchen survey post soon, which I am excited to see and read, and am planning on piggybacking afterwards, but until then, I just downloaded some recent pictures off my camera and thought I should post them. I know I posted several already from my time cooking here in Bulgaria - vanilla roasted pears, braided lemon bread, tomato and corn pie (what a hit!), homemade pop tarts... I think that's it. Anyway, here at Pink House, the four ladies each have assigned dinner nights so that Sunday through Wednesday, we only cook dinner one night a week and get to have a nice sit down family dinner. It's fun to cook for four people and I quite enjoy the family ambiance - we all sit and discuss our days, funny stories, enjoy eating together, etc. I also am a big fan of tradition in general.

Another thing I wanted to mention after reading Katie's backstory is that my family also was always really insistent upon family dinners. I don't remember them as distinctly before the separation/divorce (I was in 5th grade), but I know they happened every night. After the divorce, they became a really important part of the time spent with whatever parent - Monday nights were always with dad and on a school night, dinner is the main activity, so that became a really big deal with him. Then, when we had weekends with dad - Fri, Sat, Sun - we were pretty much only allowed out one night a weekend (I say we, but I am pretty sure things loosened up a lot for my sister once I moved away to college, but this is all from my perspective, of course) and family dinners were a major thing to be planned in advance. With my mom, while we still alternated weekends, I think more about the regular Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday dinners and having our habitual places at the dinner table, mom next to me, pinching my arm fat or forking my elbows when I talked with my mouth full or put my elbows on the table; Ebe across from mom, facing the kitchen so I could sneak faces at her when I went in for more milk or water. I can't really remember what we ate or too many details other than a few specific nights (once I tried to cook and made a sundried tomato pasta that tasted good but I was miscalculated the portions, so we had a ton of food, and it looked weird and brown and I was eternally teased in my household until I started cooking impressive food recently) and that I definitely argued with my mom a fair amount and thought she was just such an idiot. Now, though, I look back and even though it is all very fuzzy, I appreciate having had spent so much regular time with my family. Even if they aren't spectacular memories, they clearly have made an impression on me because communal dining and having regular dinners with my team in college and friends since has been one of my daily joys.

I also have been thinking quite frequently lately, though I don't think I will go too deeply into it now, that there are a few somewhat negative side effects to this strong family connection to meals and dining. I don't remember really thinking about food or focusing on food much before the divorce - of course, I can't say how much of that is because elementary school kids probably don't think about food much in general as far as nutrition - other than liking Mexican food and queso and ice cream a lot. But after the divorce with mealtime becoming such a major familial act, I feel like I started fixating more on when and what I would eat. On vacations, it is one of the most important aspects -  meal plans, special treats, local cuisine, etc. Sometimes I wish that food wasn't something I loved as much as I do because I think I fixate and depend too much on it for pleasure and fellowship. In college, I thought much less about food than I did in high school or postgraduate life because I was so engaged with crew, classes, and boyfriends that I didn't need food in the same way - I found camaraderie with my team in boats and on the bus, I was intellectually stimulated by professors and in class, I was generally loved and cared for by my boyfriend. But in high school, struggling with dramatic relationships and friendships, not naturally fitting into the social world, denying the difficulties of a divorced household, assuming the roles of head of household well beyond my age and maturity, food was a comfort and a consistent joy. After college, I moved to another country, had a difficult and frustrating job, lived in a narrow and limited social circle, and discovered food as both entertainment and sustenance, as well as one of the few things I could exert any control over in my life. On a more promising note, though, I have found that cooking and interfacing with the sight, smell, and texture of the food throughout the process has heightened the pleasure that I attain from the dining experience and I don't feel the need to keep eating beyond satiation. Also, as I am overall quite happy with my job, living situation, and daily life here in Bulgaria, I am hoping to depend less on food. I do think, though, that I still struggle not having the relationship bonds that I had in college, so I think that is why cooking is something I still really enjoy - even though it's a manual task, it somehow fulfills that absence in my life.

I guess I digressed a lot. My apologies, it's very much a part of my personality to sidetrack, but I am able to assert that I generally am able to get myself back on subject and wrap things up. To prove myself a reliable source, I now give you some pictures:

making granola bars in Pink House kitchen, wearing my roommate's adorable apron

 braided lemon bread

 homemade pop tarts

 zucchini ricotta galette

 chopped garlic, parsley, and romaine and grated parmesan for romaine pesto

 romaine pesto in gutted raw tomato

 tomatoes with romaine pesto

 romaine pesto and egg stuffed tomatoes, ready for baking

 romaine pesto, tomato, and parmesan bruschetta

 romaine pesto and egg stuff tomatoes, bruschetta, and broccoli on a bed of lettuce 

(my monday dinner: sept 27)

 homemade granola muffins - no available baking dishes, so why not?

 homemade pizza dough with improvised romaine and basil pesto

 my Italian host mom's tomato sauce recipe

 pesto and mozzarella pizza, pasta with tomato sauce, and granola muffins

(my monday night dinner: oct 4)

My Italian host mom's tomato sauce recipe, told to me in so many vague words and gestures at our kitchen table in Siena, translated by me from Italian to English:

cover bottom of pan with olive oil 

add 2 chunks of garlic, smushed, and ¼ onion, chopped

add canned tomatoes, with liquid (400 grams), smush into pan (use fork or other utensil to smash tomatoes up in pan)

boil/cook for 15 minutes

add oregano and basil, salt and pepper to taste

Sometimes I add fresh basil with the tomatoes, caramelize the onions first, or add mushrooms with the onions. I have also made this when I didn't have canned tomatoes by boiling fresh tomatoes in a little water and adding some regular tomato paste if available. This takes a little longer, but it still makes a decent tomato sauce. I have read other recipes for making tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes that you blanch and then peel and deseed, so that is another option. I find that the longer and slower you cook the sauce, especially with fresh basil and well cooked onions, the better it tastes. Regardless, it is generally a crowd pleaser.