Ben and I got married two years ago today, on a cool, overcast day on the North Shore of Long Island. It was perfect. Please indulge me as I share a few favorite pictures from the day:
Next month it will be nine years since we got together (we just passed nine years since we met; we worked fast!), and I hope we get 90 more.*
(Photos by Brett Chang)
*I know, I know, that would make us really grossly old. I’ll settle for 75.
Whee! August!
-1 huge bunch cavolo nero
-3 onions
-1 head amazing juicy fresh garlic
-2 green peppers
-5 carrots, white, yellow and orange
-1 ear corn
-1 bunch fresh oregano
-3 tomatoes
-3 small hot peppers
The very day I got this bag of treats, Germi commented about a long-cooked cavolo nero at Suzanne Goin’s AOC restaurant. I did some googling and am still not 100% sure I found the recipe, but the closest I could get was a recipe from Chowhound:
“Italian Greens
2 bunches cavolo nero, stemmed and cleaned
1/2 rosemary sprig
1 dried red chilli d’arbol
1 yellow onion; peeled, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves; peeled, thinly sliced
Salt; to taste
Blanch the cavolo nero in salted boiling water for 2 minutes, drain, allow to cool, then squeeze out the excess water with your hands.
Heat a medium saucepot over medium heat and pour in 1/3 cup Dandaragan Estate Olive Oil. Add the rosemary sprig and one chilli and let them sizzle in the oil for about one minute. Add the thinly sliced onion and garlic. Season with salt to taste and cook gently over medium to low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is soft and starting to colour slightly. Then add the cavolo nero to the pot and stir to mix well. Season with more salt and cook the greens slowly over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring often until they turn a dark, almost black colour and become slightly crispy on the edges. Adjust seasoning and set aside.”
I sort of followed those direction. I didn’t have rosemary so I threw in some fresh thyme (didn’t end up tasting it).
Strips of cavolo nero:
The difference between normal old grocery store garlic and the fresh stuff from the farm was amazing. Instead of being sticky it was juicy and sliced into lovely translucent pieces:
Am I weird that I find vegetables so beautiful? On a similar note, check out the water pooling up on the kale while I washed it:
I am always amazed by the wilting power of greens. You saw the cleaned ribbons of chard, above. Now here’s the same amount after being boiled for a couple minutes…
…and after I squeezed a crazy amount of bright-green water out of it (along with all the nutrients, I’m sure):
In addition to the garlic (love!) I cut up one of the lovely new onions from the farm, to flavor the greens along with a chili de arbol and the thyme leaves:
The amount of oil called for in the recipe seemed high, and I didn’t use quite so much. Still, the end result was too oily for my taste (and I love oily things–just give me some bread to mop it up with and I’m a happy girl). Very tasty, but not quite the “Now my life is complete” greens I hoped for. We’ll see if I end up with more as fall approaches; I’ll keep experimenting.
We ate the greens with grilled sausages and yet another tomato/cucumber/feta salad.
So with that lovely japanese eggplant lurking in the fridge, I picked up a pint of cherry tomatoes and put together a quick pasta sauce one night.
Ingredients:
1 japanese eggplant, cut into chunks (quartered lengthwise and chopped)
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 anchovy
Copious garlic, minced
Chopped basil
Salt/Pepper
Olive oil
Penne
Wheee, summer!
I cut the anchovy up into very small pieces and cooked that first, dissolving it into the olive oil. Then I softened the garlic and added in the eggplant, then salted it. Eggplant, I will say once again, needs to be WELL-COOKED, and I don’t just mean “cooked with skill,” I mean “cooked thoroughly,” so that it is silky and delicious instead of bitter and spongy. I covered the pan a couple times to help it soften.
Once all the eggplant pieces were getting so they felt squishy under my spoon, I added in the halved cherry tomatoes and cooked the whole kit and kaboodle for a brief while.
When everything was nicely melded I tossed in a handful of basil ribbons and turned off the heat until the pasta was cooked. Then, after draining the pasta, I brilliantly poured the sauce over the pasta (in the pot) to toss it, instead of spooning pasta into sauce (my pan was too small). As a result, I had a bit too much pasta for the amount of sauce I had, SIGH. I crumbled feta on top and put on a few tiny basil leaves.
Despite the excess pasta, it was quite tasty and Ben really loved it. He seems to like nearly every vegetable now, which is a pleasant development.
Ok, now I am literally walking out the door to London, THIS VERY MINUTE. See you on the flip-side!
(Missed week 7 since I got a double box for the lake…)
-4 ears of sweet corn
-1 bunch basil
-1/2 pound assorted cherry tomatoes
-1 pound beets
-1 japanese eggplant
-1 very small round watermelon, lots of seeds
I don’t believe in messing around with freshly picked sweet corn and cherry tomatoes. There’s a reason cooking gets easy in the late summer, and it’s because you’re better off not doing anything to those ingredients beyond a light dressing or quick boil (for the corn).
I haven’t run into too much, um, organic life in all this organic produce this summer, but it turns out the corn has been fairly riddled with caterpillars. I shucked the first couple ears with no problem but when I started on the third a really, really large caterpillar reared up at me, I shrieked and dropped the ear in the bag of husks, and he fell off before I could take a photo.
I have very strong memories of eating fresh “butter and sugar” sweet corn at my grandmother’s house in Western Massachusetts when I was little. The Williams’ Farm was across the street, and once the water was on the stove getting ready to boil we would go across and pick as much as we needed, leave money in a can, then shuck it and get it straight in the water. It’s important to eat corn on the cob as soon as possible after it’s picked, because the sugar in it starts converting to starch as soon as it is off the plant. When the corn is super-fresh you barely need to cook it; I think I boiled ours for about four minutes, tops. Remember: Don’t salt the water you cook corn in, it will toughen the kernels. Lots of butter, salt and pepper are crucial, too.
Beautiful:
Not quite as beautiful:
A much smaller Little Friend, found in an ear from the next week:
The fourth ear was similarly afflicted, so I broke off the ends of those two and we each had a little more than an ear and a half to go along with our tomato salad and a little fish fillet leftover from Ben’s Trader Joe’s fish and chips over the weekend.
BTW, here’s the lovely inside of that darling little watermelon:
Let’s wrap up this vacation before I leave on my next trip, shall we?
Thursday was Ben’s Birthday!! And it was a big one, though he’s not happy about that. Happy birthday, honey–I love you times 30. (Not that Ben reads this blog. I can write anything I want about him and he’ll never know. His coworkers might, though.)
Our friend Kiki and her kids (they have a house one lake over) joined us for dinner. We grilled sausages and I made sauteed peppers and onions, greek pasta salad, braised baby fennel (…meh) and Ben’s favorite lemon-chocolate tart.
Pasta salad ingredients:
(we were blessed with a decent grocery store a few minutes away–next time we needn’t bring NEARLY as much stuff with us!)
(No finished shot, oops!)
Gorgeous spring onions from the farm:
Colorful:
Fennel–I was improvising and I didn’t get it quite right. Cut up the the bulbs:
Browned them in the pan I’d cooked the peppers/onions in, with a bit of broth to deglaze:
Then roasted in the oven (covered, mostly) for a while. I dunno, they were boring and not quite right. Not like the time I did the ones from the Molly Stevens Braising book.
I spent a while Thursday morning hiding in the kitchen and secretly making Ben’s favorite dessert, the Lemon Chocolate Tart from Sunday Suppers at Lucques
I got fancy birthday candles before we left, but when it came time to put them into the tart I ran into trouble: They were so tall and the tart is so shallow that while Greta and I (laughing hysterically) got them to stand up while we lit them, the minute I started to move the thing they all started tipping over and dripping wax on my hands, etc.
We blew them out in a hurry and I fished out the little old-school candle holders I’d bought at the grocery store that day. Those were able to stick through into the crust and stayed up a bit better. And the burn on my hand is all healed now.
The next day was MY birthday (and no, I was not turning a special age). Greta made Sausage Balls for breakfast. MMMmmm:
I had awkwardly insisted on cooking dinner that night, because I was holding a secret: Our friends Ann and Chris (the ones we and Chris/Greta went to the lake with last Memorial Day) were going to drive over from Ann’s parents’ place on Friday afternoon to join us for the day. We’d been planning it for ages, and I wanted it to be a surprise for everybody. And despite being tempted to admit the plan, I kept the secret and Chris and Ann wandered down the path from the house while we were all out in the lake after a slow start to the day. It was a wonderful moment, and everyone was so happy. Yay!
They stayed for dinner and I made what I SHOULD have made for Ben’s birthday dinner–the famous Triple Pork burgers, also from Sunday Suppers. Another thing he asks for all the time and that I don’t make often!
But that’s boring, since I’ve shown photos of making them several times already. Here are Ann, Jack and Greta, chilling out:
And the boys, acting ridiculous (yes, they tipped over within a minute of this photo being taken):
Oh, food? Well, it’s certainly easier making the pork burgers with fresh mexican chorizo (as the recipe calls for) instead of the hard spanish stuff I’d had to use previously.
Greta and I had a fairly hilarious time making fresh mayo (eventually aioli to spread on the burger rolls). She’d only made larger quantities, in a cuisinart, and I’d never made it. We did eventually figure it out, though it was tricky with the equipment on hand. Worth it, though, and I’ll be trying again soon.
Poor Ben had some struggles cooking the burgers over a charcoal fire, since he’s used to propane, but once we peeled off the scorched bit (they had the cheese on too early, per the directions, so he couldn’t flip them to keep the cooking even) they were extremely tasty:
We also had another take on the german potato salad I served with the tuna the week before (I added sugar to the dressing this time for some reason: not necessary) and local corn on the cob:
And then after dinner greta slipped away and when she came back it was with freshly baked cornmeal shortcakes covered in strawberries and whipped cream (blended with leftover lemon curd from the tart–SO good)! I was delighted:
And that was that. We packed up and left the next morning–another lake trip over. I can’t wait for next year.
I can’t be too sad, though: In a stroke of Best Husband Ever, Ben got me a ticket to go visit Bridget in London as my birthday gift. And I leave THURSDAY NIGHT!!!! OMG.
Ok, vacation. Greta and I spent some time before the trip working on a google doc (brilliant) spreadsheet to plan the meals we’d each cook and what groceries we were each bringing. I hadn’t thought of using google docs and it was perfect–I highly recommend them if you’re working on anything like an address list or planning document that a couple people might edit.
Anyway.
We each had a few dinners to plan, plus lunches. For breakfasts we all just had english muffins or cereal, though Greta made her famous sausage balls on my birthday!
Happy times, the lake…
Night one: Kate
I brought vegetables from the CSA–small cavolo nero leaves I had blanched ahead of time, as well as a couple summer squash. I also brought cheese, etc. Greta brought dough, since she makes pizza every friday night. The dough rested at her feet during the 9 hour (lots of stops!) trip up to the lake (Ben and I were glad to have traded the 6 hour drive from NY for the 2 hour drive from Boston), and it was a little odd to work with but tasted fine.
(This one also has basil from my happy plant on the porch!)
We had a big salad, as well.
Night two: Greta
Greta made sirloin tips (marinated in Soy Joy), cous cous and roasted asparagus. I was in charge of getting the charcoal grill going–Dad would be proud of my chimney-use skills, though we never quite mastered cooking on charcoal instead of gas!
It’s important to keep your strength up at the lake, since the days are packed with strenuous activity:
Best Lunch Ever
Ok, fine, we didn’t have the baby for lunch, but doesn’t he look edible with his cabbage leaf hat? That day we actually had grilled hotdogs and cabbage slaw, and it was awesome. (The first full day we were all swimming when we got hungry, and Chris had brought beers down to the lake so we maybe had a beer or two before lunch (yikes) (it was late!) and I tipsily made sandwiches, then put them in a ziplock bag and paddled them out to everyone, floating in floaty-chairs and the canoe out on the lake! Whee!)
Dinner three: Greta
Pork tenderloin in a dried cranberry/red wine reduction, with roasted potatoes.
Delicious. Tender and tangy and luscious. She’s something, that Greta.
Wait, maybe THIS was the Best Lunch Ever
The next day we had a whole extra tenderloin all cooked, and Greta had the brilliant idea to make BBQ pork sandwiches. We got onion rolls and barbecue sauce and OMG SO GOOD.
The boys had gone out sailing and ran into some problems, so we ate around 1:30 and they ate around…4:30? At which point I had another little snack, too.
Night four: Joint effort
We were supposed to eat halibut and other lovely things for dinner, but shockingly no one was really in the mood after the heavy, late lunches. Greta (a veritable font of brilliance) suggested breakfast for dinner, and broke out one of the FOUR 1-pound packages of bacon she’d brought. Ben made blueberry pancakes. I made mimosas. We ate around the coffee table around 9:30.
Um, the four of us ate the entire pound of bacon.
Wednesday we rented an old-school pontoon boat for the day, and rolled like old people in total floating living room comfort. The guys really enjoyed being outside:
Jack was impressed when we went back to the house for panini and salad dockside at lunchtime:
And we all swam a lot:
We ate dinner that night early, at a restaurant in town. Everyone was tired, but Jack and Greta were able to play cards for a while:
While Chris kicked back:
To be continued, with back-to-back birthday dinners…
Some nights I really don’t feel like cooking but I crave a real dinner. Before we left for vacation I was also overrun with cucumbers from the farm share, and while I was talking to my mom one evening she suggested using them in a sort of salsa to put with fish. I am nothing if not obedient (HA), so I put a package of frozen tuna (Trader Joe’s) in the fridge to thaw overnight, and the next night I made just what my mom told me to make.
The salad for the fish used up a couple cucumbers as well as a spring onion from the farm box. I supplemented it with a local hothouse tomato and some feta cheese.
I cut the onion into very fine pieces–spring onions are sweet and mild but I still don’t like a big crunchy chunk of raw onion!
I mixed the vegetables with a bit of oil and salt (I can’t remember now, but I think I also added a splash of cider vinegar) and let them sit while I prepped the rest of dinner.
I made a cheater’s knockoff of german potato salad as another side: Boiled red potatoes in salted until they were tender, and while the boiled I added in a couple peeled cloves of garlic. When the potatoes were done I drained them and returned them to the pot, covered, to “pull themselves together,” as my mom says. I mashed up the garlic cloves and mixed them with oil and cider vinegar and salt and pepper to make a tangy dressing. (Mom says 1 to 1; I’m not sure quite what this was because I didn’t make enough, so I kept adding splashes of one or the other as I added the potatoes). Instead of being organized and cutting up the potatoes, then pouring over the dressing, I cut up one smoking hot potato at a time and added it into the bowl with the dressing, trying to get some dressing on each piece. My fingers were unamused. Like I said, I also kept having to add more oil and vinegar towards the end because I’d made too little dressing. It looked like a total mess at the end but it was delicious.
Meanwhile the vegetables had gotten nice and juicy (I cut feta into tiny pieces and added it in before serving):
When Ben got home he grilled the fish according to the instructions on the package, and we were ready to eat 10 minutes later:
This was seriously tasty. And actually, the leftovers were so good that I did an embarrassing happy dance in my seat in the work cafe the next day and everyone looked at me like I had three heads. Whatever, they were just jealous.
No Week 5 CSA box–since I was going to Oregon I had a friend from work pick it up.
Before vacation I picked up two half shares (which is not equal to a whole share, since there are different veggies for each), because we were about to head off to the lake for the week and I wanted to prep as much as possible to take with us.
The goods (Double quantities):
-2 bunches spring onions
-2 bunches cavolo nero (black kale)
-3 eggplants (two long purple; one white–these died a tragic lakeside fridge death, ie. they got abandoned all week in the back of the overstuffed fridge. Eek!)
-4 baby fennel bulbs
-1 pound string beans
-800 more cucumbers (1.5 pounds? 2 pounds?)
When I saw cavolo nero tucked in with the stuff in the Chard box I grabbed it immediately, remembering a variety of delicious things made with the stuff when I was last in Italy with my family. Sure enough, I got home and went to the journal entry for a big dinner we had at Le Lance, a restaurant in Fiezole outside of Florence, and found that Ben’s primi course was a “Risotto allo spazzacamino” with cavolo nero, gorgonzola and cannellini beans.
Some google work turned up a variety of cavolo nero/cannellini combos in Tuscan cooking, and I decided to take advantage of the oddly cool weather to reproduce the risotto in question.
It turns out “spazzacamino” means chimney sweep–I seem to remember Ben’s risotto at the restaurant being colored dark green/black by the kale, though that didn’t happen in mine, and I wonder if that is where the name comes from? (On a side note, there is a gelato flavor called Spazzacamino, which contains finely ground espresso beans and scotch. Wow.) Many of the recipes I found with that in the name contain truffles, though I did find a risotto with the cavolo nero and black beans (no mention of gorgonzola).
ANYWAY, I went with what I’d written down. I cleaned the kale and found that the first bunch was still all attached to the stems:
Which meant there was a variety of leaf sizes–I was, of course, charmed by the tiny ones:
I set aside all the smallish ones to blanch for pizza at the lake, and chopped up the rest of that bunch for the risotto. I also rinsed the beans and, um, opened a container of crumbled gorgonzola from Whole Foods. Sigh. I was at the small one! Options were limited! I still have a lot of this left, even after pizza-making too.
I cooked the risotto about halfway before adding in the cavolo nero. Next time I will put it in right at the beginning, as soon as I’ve put in the first round of broth. I think in the one Ben had the kale had dissolved into it more, blackening the rice. I added the beans almost at the very end, so they just heated up, and stirred in gorgonzola once it was finished. I sprinkled a little on top, too, but next time I’ll leave that off.
Verdict: Tasty but needs tweaking. Kale first, next time!
As a special bonus, when I was flipping through the trip notes I found one of my food sketches, detailing the filling in a series of ridiculously good sandwiches at a foccaceria where we ate lunch a couple times. These are spring fillings but don’t they make you want a foccacia sandwich?
Hurray! We’re off to the lake for a week with our friends Chris and Greta (and, of course, baby Jack)!!
Greta and I have become crazy people with multiple shared spreadsheets planning meals, groceries and packing lists. The car is about to be fuller than it has ever been. The lake house has internet!! Ahem. So I will try to post over the course of the week.
xo
I was back in Oregon to be in my friend Kathrin’s lovely, lovely wedding last weekend, and amidst all the festivities we did eat at home two nights.
First, though, I always take the same photos when I fly into Eugene but I just love the moment when the Coburg Hills drop off into the Valley and you see the flat farm land like an ocean up ahead:
Mom asked Tom what he thought I’d want for my first meal home, and he apparently said “simple food after flying, Mom!” so we had a perfect and simple meal. I’d brought a bunch of stuff from Christina’s spice shop as a hostess gift, including another bag of that mysterious huge couscous (which turned out to be labeled “lebanese couscous” in the store). We flavored that with preserved lemon and mint and served it along with green beans (with preserved lemon) and grilled chicken. And by “We” I mean “My mom” (Dad does the grilling)–I focused on drinking a Pimm’s Cup and chatting with everyone while eating Kettle Chips, the ruffled kind with black pepper.
The next morning I ate bread with fresh raspberry jam (made days before my Mom and Tom) for breakfast:
By the way, the whole time I was home it was around 75-80 degrees during the day, perfectly dry, and 55 or so at night. I think in Boston is was 90+ with solid walls of humidity. I’m just putting that out there.
Thursday night we had another lovely meal al fresco.
Baby chioggia beets with arugula, feta and walnuts:
German-style potato salad:
Also chard from a friend’s garden, and pork sausages from a local farm:
I think only the potatoes and feta came were non-local–Mom, am I right?
For dessert we had my favorite: Flan with summer fruit, in this case blueberries from the backyard bushes, cherries and nectarine:
Last light over the golf course:
Candlelight:
More pics are here.
