Technical difficulties...

The molecules in my computer have misaligned themselves again, so I am unable to, at this time, to provide photos for this post. (I've temporarily taken over my hubbies work computer) There were too many good things this weekend though to not do a post, so you'll just have to imagine what everything looked like until I can add the photos later.
The theme of the weekend seemed to be "French-ish"...
On Fri, we received a bag of goodies from the garden of T.'s work buddy. Some vibrant yellow squash and a lot of heavenly smelling herbs. So for our dinner, I grilled some of the squash with some other veggies and served them tossed in a vinaigrette featuring the herbs, a simple white bean puree and grilled French bread. I also made an herbed butter and while discussing with T. all the possible uses for this butter he responded "It's herbed butter! What wouldn't it be good on? Just spread it on my face."

Herbed Butter
1 full handful of chopped, fresh herbs of your liking--i.e from farmers market or some one's garden. NOT the grocery store.
1 stick unsalted butter softened at room temperature
salt and pepper to taste
This is so fast it hardly seems worth dragging out the mixer, but then again, not using the mixer makes it not so fast. Using the paddle on your mixer, mix on low speed until combined. Probably a minute at most. This keeps in the fridge for a week or so, or you can freeze it to use when fresh herbs are harder to come by. Use this mixture for/in: steamed veggies, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, on chicken, fish, steak, cook omelette's in, mixed into rice, couscous, pasta, on toast,biscuits---anything that a little butter would make better!

Next, on Sat. morning I felt like using some of the leftover grilled veggies to make savory crepes. A little planing a head was required as the batter has to rest for an hour in the fridge, but luckily I thought of it just as T was taking the dog to the dog park. I had at least an hour and a half which was time for the batter to rest and to make the crepes. It then only took a few minutes to heat the veggies and a few eggs to fill the crepes with. Yum!
Saturday's dinner had a little head start too. While in Oregon last week, two things happened. First, I had a dessert of local cherries soaked in rose wine. Second, my friends dad, on the morning we left, picked us a huge box of cherries from the trees in their yard. I got to thinking that one of the ways I'd like to use them was to soak them in rose too. But my twist came from a recipe that my dad used while on a visit here in Seattle. He put some sage and lemon zest in a bottle of rose to sit overnight and flavor the wine. I combined the two and soaked the cherries in rose with sage and lemon. I used these to make a sauce to go over pancetta wrapped, grilled pork chops served with red potatoes and green beans tossed in the herbed butter I made the night before.
Rose and sage cherry sauce
Two days before you'd like to make the sauce, combine pitted cherries (The dark red kind. Rainier's will not look pretty) in a jar or bowl with 2-3 sage leaves and a swath or two of lemon zest and enough rose wine to cover the cherries. Cover and refrigerate.

To make the sauce:
In a sauce pan, melt a bit of butter and saute 1/2 an onion with a little salt and pepper for about 5 minutes. Add the cherries, some of the wine they've been soaking in and about a cup of chicken stock/broth. Simmer until the sauce has reduced by half. Just before serving, whisk in about a tablespoon of butter that's been cut into smaller pieces, adding them one at a time.

Grilled pancetta wrapped pork chops or: what's better than pork wrapped in pork?
Two pork chops about an inch thick, each cut in half to make four smaller chops
4 slices pancetta

Wrap each chop in a piece of pancetta, securing with a toothpick if desired. Grill over med high heat for about 7-8 minutes on each side. Remove from grill and let rest at least 5 minutes before serving. Each grill varies, so cooking time will too. The pancetta should be mostly crispy all around. Make sure to keep a lid on it for most of the time. This should help crisp things up by retaining heat. We like our pork still a teenie bit pink in the middle. If you don't, cook a minute or two more. Wrapped in pancetta, you shouldn't have to worry too much about the chops drying out. I specifically used pancetta here because I didn't want the smokiness that bacon would have given. But, that could be a good thing in another recipe, so you can do the same steps with bacon. Oh, and if you're not using a gas grill, the smokiness from your grill won't be too much if you use pancetta. But, if you like smoke the just go hog wild! Ha-ha. Pun only a little intended.

Simple veggie side dish
Boil quartered new red potatoes in salted water until a fork easily pierces them. A minute before draining them, add cleaned green beans. Drain both veggies and add to a bowl with a large pat of the herbed butter and toss. Serve. Note, if the potatoes give off a lot of starch that seems to attach to the green beans, quickly rinse in warm water to remove.

Remind me to post what I did with pork chops tonight. Something not to miss, but doesn't fit the "theme".

This is the unofficial start to the "Pantry posts: protiens"

Sharing

Just a quick post today, sharing a photo from a little trip I took last week. I went to Amity, Oregon with my friend to her parents house. It's a little town with not even a stop light in the region of Oregon that is known for it's wine. We made raspberry jam in the old farmhouse kitchen. We had a great time stirring and stirring and stirring. There's a lot of stirring when you make jam! Thanks A. family for having us and sharing your kitchen.

Twenty-three jars of raspberry jam...photo by Kristin

Some ideas...

I almost forgot that my aunt asked me for suggestions on what to do with chorizo, until I spotted this at the store the other day.

Spanish chorizo named Texas, made in California, and purchased and consumed in Washington...photo by Kristin
This is chorizo that's not in a casing, so it's nice to cook up and use a sprinkling of it to flavor things. I used a little this past weekend for our "eggs and toast". That's what we call "should i make something here" as opposed to going out for brunch. I started with really just an ounce or so of the chorizo and saved the rest in the freezer. I may have been a little more heavy handed with it, but we had plans for a 4th of July BBQ that I knew would be a lot of food, so I used the sausage as more of a flavoring. Anyway, I cooked the sausage through and removed it from the pan to some paper towels. With what was left in the pan, I sauteed some chopped onion and, to up the veggie quotient a little, two hand fulls of coleslaw mix(cabbage x2 and carrots). You could use bell peppers or leftover potatoes(roasted, mashed...) or really any veggie, or none at all. I then added 6 eggs whisked with a little half and half, salt and pepper and the cooked chorizo. At this point you can make a scramble by stirring everything around until the eggs are cooked through, or you can make more of a fritatta and let it set up and finish off the top under the broiler for a few minutes until cooked through. I garnished it with cheddar cheese rather than put it in the scramble/fritatta. That way, using just a little looks like more to have it all melty on top.(Again, trying to keep it a little lighter here). Cilantro, sour cream, and salsa all would be good garnishes too.

Chorizo egg scramble with corn tortillas...photo by Kristin
With a side of warm corn tortillas, this would be great for brunch or dinner.

I looked in a few of my cookbooks for other recipes for my aunt and the common thread was potatoes. Mix chorizo in mashed potatoes, top a baked potato with it, make a hash with chorizo and hash browns and top it with an egg. Use an apple corer to hollow out new potatoes, stuff the tunnel with chorizo and roast them in the oven. All of these would work with chorizo in the casing as well. Just dice it up!

we interrupt this program...

...because i can't seem to find the energy/inspiration/set of second hands/extra hours in the day to take photos and write a post. what can i say. it's summer and the social calendar is full + jet lag that won't go away and yadda-yadda-blah-blah-blah--sometimes a girl just wants to eat food and not think about photographing it and making into interesting blog fodder. i'll be back soon!!
xoxo!

ebb and flow

Last week I posted about having Friday dinner according to the ebb and flow of the farmer's market. Well, this week I arrived almost too late. It was a half hour before it was to close, and there were on and off downpours all day. Any of the vendors that were left had sold out of most of their goods (yay!!!). On the way into the market, I saw someone carrying a take-n-bake- pizza and made the decision to not have to make anymore decisions other than that pretty pizza was what we were going to have for dinner. Oh boy, it did not disappoint. 'ZAW has a store front not to far from our house, but we had yet to try it. It's the small farm-locally produced-fresh ingredients-never frozen version of the "take'n-bake" and they have a booth at the farmers market. We are picky about our pizza, but I thought we could at least try it. (Read: I was already starving and I was wooed by the thought of just taking something home and having a delicious dinner appear in about 15 minutes.)
We had a spicy sausage, sage, 3 cheese and maple caramelized onion pizza with a whole wheat crust that was so thin it cooked up crisp as can be.(We very much prefer thin crust pizza's) It was amazing! Everything we love in a pizza. As I was describing the attributes to T. over dinner(organic, local, fresh) we kind of exchanged looks. We have yet to find a local pizza that we love that doesn't cost as much as just going out to a full dinner.(30+ bucks for a pie with two toppings?puh-lease!) Well, we do have a place that does a New York style, but we really both do somersaults for the thin crusted, sparsely topped, true Italian style pizza. And now we have found the Northwest equivalent for less than $20 a pie.
Buon Appetito!
P.S.
No photos 'cause we ate it all up too quickly!

Follow up

A quick response to some of the ?'s from the "grains" pantry post:

I haven't ever used millet. My limited experience with it cooked by others was not good. I hesitate to say that they were vegan dishes while I lived in Eugene. I don't want to contribute to an already rampant stereotype. So, J, do you have any saving suggestions?
As for quinoa, ha-ha! spell check says it's spelled wrong. Even though it's the grain with the highest protein, I don't care much for it's taste. I find it to have a bitter aftertaste. Sorry! But, you could use it in place of couscous for most recipes, just check the cooking time.
And, farro is kinda like Italian barley and in my opinion, better. Read here about farro and spelt, sometimes considered one and the same. For J, try maybe the Kiva? Or is there still that place on Willamette that's a health food-ish place? If not, try online, or I can get some for you. Or, for my parents (and hopefully other readers), Whole Foods for sure. Carmine's maybe, but it will probably cost more. Oh, and it's actually a little expensive for a grain. Don't be surprised to pay more than $5 bucks for a package. It's very hearty so I usually think of it as more of a fall-time thing. But it does pair well with seafood as an almost risotto like dish. There are many camps of soaking vs. not soaking. Soaking overnight like beans. I've found it to be yummy to cook it with the mindset of brown rice--so not soaking. It's not instant, but if you start it first and prep everything else, it doesn't seem to take as long. I also put this in my rice cooker. (The best $8 bucks I spent at Walgreens ever. Rice cookers don't hafta be uber -fancy-talk-to-you-while-managing-your-life. I have seen such at the local Asian market for hundreds of dollars.) Or, pretend you are in Italy and cook it on the stove. (Lidia would. I think me and G. need a shrine to her:) Sorry for the "inside", not joke, but commentary.)
Ok, if the weather co-operates(ie photo ops) I will try to get another pantry post out before I go out of town this week...
And, I hope I've answered your questions.

Pantry post...

...or carbs, or starch. Whatever you'd like to call them. Here's what I usually have in my kitchen:

Grains I have at home...photo by Kristin
Pasta: Probably what I use the most. During the winter, we will have some kind of pasta dish several times a week. I use both white whole wheat, depending on what I'm using as a sauce. A favorite combo is whole wheat pasta with roasted onions, brussel sprouts, garlic, bacon and white beans with lots of grated cheese. I use mostly dried pasta, but like to have a bag or two of frozen ravioli around for super quick dinners. I have yet to use my pasta maker here in Seattle, but have been toying with using it to make some to have on hand in the freezer. Our farmers market has a few purveyors of fresh pasta and it's one thing that I don't mind letting someone else doing the work. Couscous is a type of pasta. It's usually sold in the quick-cooking form and takes no time at all to cook. Cover it with boiling liquid and in five minutes, it's done. Buckwheat noodles only take four minutes to cook. I like them for breakfast with a poached egg, or make a quick miso based soup for lunch. I always try to make extra pasta for my husband to take to work for lunch.

Rice: Both brown and white. I use them both equally, depending on what I'm making. Brown for healthy or when I want a nutty flavor and white when I'm impatient. But always with a rice cooker! It's so easy to throw the rice and water in and just let it do it's thing. It tastes the same as rice cooked on the stove, and it's never ever burnt.

Oats, farrow, barley: All things I have but use much less frequently. I did just learn a new trick for steel cut oats. In a container with a lid, place the oats and liquid of your choice(water, milk, soy milk) in the fridge overnight. By the morning, the oats have absorbed the liquid and you have the starting point for a really hearty breakfast. If you prefer it hot, just pop it in your microwave for a minute. During the summer, I just add fixins and have it cold. It's completely different than the porridge consistency of rolled oats. Maybe more similar to couscous, but with a hearty chewy quality. And that reminds me, I have been known to make couscous in a pinch in the mornings and add the same fixins I would for oatmeal.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned bread yet. The truth is, we don't really eat much of it. I order a baguette to be delivered with our produce and might make sammies for dinner one night, or for the hubby's lunch one day. I feel I'm usually trying to figure out what to do with the last half before it turns into a rock. I sometimes freeze it, sometimes make croutons or bread crumbs, but mostly sigh heavily when I realize it has already turned into a rock.

Since I've covered a lot of different items, I'm having trouble thinking of a recipe to post. So I open the floor to you. If you'd like ideas for any of the things I mentioned above, let me know!


Since I started writing this last week Blogger posted it as if I finished and posted it last week. I re-posted it to move it to the top of the list.