Saturday started out as just a morning to slow roast a chicken (my original plan was just to roast it and turn it into two or three meals that needed diced or shredded chicken in them.) Then the snow started to fall..and when I took the chicken out of the oven the wonderful smells filled the house and all I could think of was soup! So I routed through the pantry and freezer and fridge to see what my options were.

• Black beans, Avocados, Cilantro, Green Chili, diced chicken? Jackpot! That plus the the drippings from the roasted chicken (meant for gravy but oh so much better when used to make an enriched broth) equals Mexican Chicken Avocado Soup
• Crushed Tomatoes, Garlic, Shallots, Dried Pasta, Basil (a stash I froze at the end of the harvest season) and shredded chicken – equals Italian Garlic Pasta Soup
• Potatoes (I ordered too many for our Thanksgiving meal), Roasted Garlic, Enriched Broth, Heavy Cream (yeah, we still keep a steady supply in the house to help the wee kahunas keep gaining weight), Nutmeg, Onions, and the handy dandy stick blender equals Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup

Add in a stash of restaurant containers that I keep in the back of my pantry because they are perfect for freezing liquids in and it’s Saturday becomes Saturday Soup Day!

Freezer is now full of meal options for the next week – with enough left over to share with Jordan and Mark’s father. with the bonus of a nice toasty warm house.

I’ll be posting the recipes and methods I used in the next day or so.

We are beyond fortunate when it comes to the Wee Kahunas and cooking/serving veggies. Both girls would happily trade a plate of sweet foods for one filled with broccoli. When we first returned home from Siberia with them we actually found ourselves bribing them to eat the calorie dense and high fat foods by saying “If you’ll take one more bite of cheesecake I’ll give you some more peas.” It was like opposite world for a while there, and altough the recent exposure to the world of Halloween candy has gone a long way to developing a real appreication for all things sticky, chewy and sweet, veggies are still the first thing eaten at most dinners.

I’ve started doing most of my cooking on Sunday’s.  It gives me a chance to get a bit ahead of our hectic week and to prep items that take longer to cook than I might have on any given day. It also seems to be giving me a chance to really slow down and just enjoy the process, and the experience of cooking.  There aren’t many slow down moments in our lives so I’m more than grateful for the time.

With all the veggies spread out on the kitchen counter it was pretty easy to pick some favorite recipes to start with, and even to give a try to updating an old family favorite that used to be veggie free. So for this week I made/prepped (click on the images to see the full recipes for each):

1. Vegetable Kugel – an upgrade/update to a family recipe that although scrumptious, contained so many eggs and so much oil and noodles that it needs to be saved for those special holiday meals.

2. Curry Spiced Stuffed Veggies – a savory dish that can be used as a main course or an excellent side to most any main course. Much easier to make than you think, and the veggies don’t get cooked so long that they become mush and loose flavor.

3. Split Pea Fritters (falafel wannabes) (recipe and photos coming later today)

4. Hearty Vegetable Stew (recipe and photos coming on Thursday)

5. Sourdough Rye Bread (because stew without it is just sad) (recipe and photos to be posted on Wednesday – the starter needs two days to ferment)

6. Pumpernickel Bread (because making one kind of bread seems silly) (recipe and photos to be posted on Thursday)

The Wee Kahunas are doing great, and after a year of foods that contain more fat and calories than you would think possible they are close to being the size they should be…unfortunately Mommy did a lot of taste testing and finishing foods, and you know, I was already on the growth charts just fine….

As we settle in to parent hood and just regular nutrition for the girls, it’s getting better.  Actually, these days,  I’m really proud of most of it; lots of homemade items, and specialty ingredients selected for their extra nutrition or because they came from local markets and sustainable resources.

But, you know….there is still THAT shelf.  A shelf of things that ironically are best kept “in the closet” Super processed and full of sugar and chemical lovelies like that container of red vines that I sneak every once in a while.  A collection of “snack” bags that I bought for quick trips with the girls that probably have less actual food in them than the do rainbow gummy colors.  An assortment of store made cookies, because there are just days when a Mint Milano beats home-made. It used to be a bigger section of the pantry, but over time I’ve been relegating the less than superior options  into a smaller and smaller zone of shame.

I read recently someone saying that they would no longer eat anything that wouldn’t decompose if you left it on your counter for a few days…there is something about that thought that makes sense.  Even if it does rule out twinkies forever!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up all the foods I love, we are just finding better versions.   That container that used to store brand name chocolate bars that only gave a short burst of mmmm before leaving a bad taste,  now holds really luscious chocolate from a specialty shop.  Am I giving up chocolate? Not on your life.  But when I do indulge it is going to be for just a little something chocolate made from the best chocolate I can get my hands on, and in this case chocolate made by a company that focuses on sustainability and quality ingredients.

So, it is perfect that I just got a message from Dana Joy Altman of  Real Food Rehab, letting me know she is launching a new product - The Pantry Essentials Guide. A  downloadable PDF with 9 pages of ingredients (with a nice focus on sustainability), products, easy recipes, kitchen tips, web resources and selected brands to help you stock your pantry, eat better, save money and time.

The Guide is divided into four sections: Foundation Ingredients, Baking Basics, Perishable Staples and Ethnic Staples and is perfect for beginners and accomplished cooks alike.

I love the idea of this guide, having a resource that you can use from your smartphone, or computer or for that matter print and stick to your fridge seems like a great way to start early on those New Years Resolutions.  Maybe this year my goal will be to have made the transition into a healthier pantry in time for New Years instead of starting on New Years Eve.

Dana has generously  provided a copy of The Pantry Essentials Guide for us to give away to one of you,  to help us thank you for supporting  The Cluttered Pantry, and to let us spread the word about this great product.

So, after you finish reading this post, use the comment buttons below and tell us what one thing in your pantry that belongs on THAT shelf next to my red vines and super processed cookies.  We’ll do a random selection from the people who post a comment and send the free copy to the winner.
THE GUIDE INCLUDES:

• 9 pages of detailed descriptions and uses for over 100 products and ingredients.
• 10 quick and easy recipes, kitchen tips, web resources and specific brand suggestions.
• Ethnic staples for cooking Italian, Asian, Mexican and Middle Eastern foods.
• A special section on storing cheese.
• Printable checklists, perfect for visits to the grocery store.
• A PDF format viewable from your Smartphone.
• Real Food Rehab’s complete commitment to quality and sustainability.

ALL FOR $9.95!

Click Here to Purchase your copy now

I’ve owned a hand crank pasta maker for more than 20 years. Unfortunately, the last time I used it was when I still ran the dessert shop in New Mexico. So instead of pasta making it was used to roll out a white chocolate dough for a wedding cake order. My son Jordan was three years old then. He spent more nights asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor of the bakery while I worked than I really care to remember, but we were together, and frosting and pecan pie for breakfast clearly didn’t stunt his growth.

Now 20 years old, and a recent graduate of culinary school here in Chicago, he has, by far, outpaced my kitchen skills. This is a kid who has been making sauces since he was in fifth grade, so that really isn’t a surprise, but it is wonderful to get to stand next to him and make something as simple and as wonderful as fresh pasta doughs together. Thanks Foodbuzz.com and Visa Card for sponsoring our pasta making palooza!

Jordan brings to my kitchen the ability to make any number of complimentary sauces and in this case to make 6 different sauces to pair with the 6 doughs we made. He managed to keep all ten burners of our 1940’s Garland stove firing at the same time while jumping back and forth, from the grill on the back deck to tend the Italian sausages and grilled chicken breasts, to the double boiler on the stove where he was whisking a sabayon sauce for the vanilla pasta dough ravioli stuffed with mascarpone, ricotta and vanilla bean sauce. If nothing else, working with him reminds me that being 20 was a good age for having the energy to do such things.

We started the tasting with an appetizer of balsamic reduction over crusty french bread, with brie layered with Genoa salami rolled around a yellow teardrop tomato.

Although real life stepped in and reduced the number of our neighbors and friends who could join us, we had a wonderful night of great food, wine and conversations. We went with tasting size portions so that everyone could try a variety of different doughs and sauces:

1. Fresh Herbs pressed between thin sheets of egg pasta dough served with sun-dried tomatoes poached in rosemary infused olive oil and portobello mushrooms

2. Tomato Pasta Farfalle served on top of a pancetta tweel with peas and an heirloom tomato sauce

3. Porcini Mushroom and Parsley Pasta cut into tortelli circles served with a sauce made from grilled Italian sausages, roasted red and yellow peppers

4. Hot Red Pepper Linguine served with a marjoram and basil pesto with pecorino cheese

5. Spinach Fettucini served with a pecorino alfredo sauce and grilled chicken marinated with pine nuts, basil and pecorino

6. Vanilla bean dough filled with marscopone, ricotta and vanilla bean paste shaped into ravioli served with a sabayon sauce, fresh berries and fresh mint.

[slideshow id=3]

The pasta dough recipes we used are slightly altered versions of those from a great cookbook titled: The Pasta Bible (you can still find used copies for sale) The Sauces were all Jordan. Watching him cook , I realize that he not only has learned more than I know about cooking, he has some sort of innate instinct for flavor profiles and combinations. We had a brown butter and sage sauce that went awry and burned durning the final stages of prep for serving the first tasting and instead of having a culinary melt down, he tossed the pan aside and on the fly produced a sauce from the various ingredients we already had prepped.

If you haven’t tried making your own pasta, I just can’t encourage you enough. Making the dough will take you less than ten minutes, (it’s easier than making cookies) then you toss it in the fridge to rest while you put together what ever sauce sounds good to you and when you are ready you roll out the dough or use a pasta machine to make it thin enough to be cut into the shape you like. My personal preference, and it seemed also to be that of our guests, is for a slightly thicker more bitey pasta so making it yourself gives you the chance to do that. The best part is that fresh pasta cooks in just a few minutes so you can roll out some dough, cook a small batch and taste it then choose to make more or roll it thinner if need be.

Yes, your counters will be covered with flour, and yes it would be faster to grab a bag of something dried from your pantry. But it won’t be as rich and fulfilling as home made, and at least for me, you’d miss out on the opportunity to stand next to your son and chat about the world. Even while we were banging out 6 different dishes to serve, the world seemed to slow down a bit and my senses got a chance to really take it all in. The smells of the fresh herbs we picked to press between sheets of dough, the soft silkiness of the dough from running my fingers down it while cutting small rectangles to squinch into farfalle, the amazing range of colors that you can develop by adding anything from spinach that you have blanched and wrung through a cheescloth, to tomato, roasted garlic, porcini mushrooms and most amazing of all, the deep deep dark shiny black of squid ink pasta. I loved going to produce shop and picking out the freshest herbs and veggiess knowing that really anything that was in season could become one of our dishes.

For those of you who’d like a view into the hilarity of our kitchen on a day when 6 pasta doughs and sauces were made in a house with the Wee kahunas (Jordan’s little sisters who requested mac -n- cheese of all things for dinner!) Here is a little fun video that Mark made throughout the day.

I won’t take you through the step by step of making the dough, there is a really great tutorial on Rouxbe.com that has video steps that you can follow easily.

I will say that every cook book and lesson shows a pile of flour on a cutting board with a well in the center for the eggs and other liquids, and yes that works fine, but if you have a large bowl you can do the same thing inside it, and keep the whole process a bit more self contained.

The recipes for each dough can be found below in the comments section, we also made a saffron dough that produced a beautiful yellow color with a sweet and slightly spicy scent, but chose to save it for the next day’s meal. We’ll be posting recipes for sauces Jordan put together, later this week. And, as soon as I can find a source for more squid ink, I’ll post photos and a recipe of the saffron pasta and the squid ink pasta dishes as well.

We started down the path of bringing the fall smells and flavors,  and the warmth of the stove, into our home with the Vegetarian Pumpkin Chili, next up was the all day simmering of the largest pot I own filled with the Borscht I just posted about. We’ve had roasted acorn squash (just some butter and brown sugar on them as they cooked) as a side dish to a simple breaded pork chop, and today I made Spaghetti Squash.  To add some real warmth, to what can be a pretty bland dish, I went back to an old recipe that I used to make when we lived in New Mexico.  Then the heat came from Hatch Green Chiles, the Big Jim variety.  If you haven’t had the good fortune to experience this particular pepper (oh that is like a bad version of Peter Piper!) and you like that bead of sweat that starts at your temples when you eat spicy food – seek it out.

I’ve tried growing my own Big Jims here in Chicago, but there just aren’t enough sunny days, and I think the soil is missing something magic that the hard sun baked earth of New Mexico lends to the real thing.  So, for a while we ordering roasted and peeled chiles from a Hatch, NM farm that sells online but when you add in the shipping costs a pound of the green stuff costs more than the finest cuts of beef, so I just can’t justify it anymore.  For our meal tonight I went with poblano peppers, our local produce shop carries them, and they have a good enough heat-to-flavor ratio that I’m willing to make the substitution.

The smell of the poblanos roasting (I just toss them directly on the flame from the stove top) is so intoxicatingly good that Mark came downstairs from the third floor studio to see what magic was happening in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• Spaghetti Squash (split in half, scoop our the seeds place in a pan with about two inches of boiling water -cut side up- and cook with the lid on for about 8 minutes)
• 3 or 4 Green Chiles (roast, peel dice)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups black beans
• 2 crushed cloves of garlic
• 1 cup shredded Chihuahua cheese
• pepper and salt

Method

In either butter or olive oil, saute the peeled green chiles with the garlic and black beans (pre-cooked) toss in the spaghetti squash (you use a fork to scrape the squash after cooking and it comes out in long spaghetti like threads.) add in the cheese and put the pan under a broiler or in your oven until the cheese is bubbly.  We eat this is a main dish, but it works great as a side, and if you add shredded chicken to it it becomes one of those casseroles that belongs at most pot luck events.

I think when we did have it is was served cold, but maybe that is just because it used to reside on the top shelf of the fridge.  Either way, it wasn’t exactly a staple in my diet then nor as an adult with my own kitchen.

Then came the  two rounds of trips to Moscow and Siberia. In Chita (the small town in Siberia where we adopted the girls) we alternated eating at one of the two actual restaurants – our favorite was a cafeteria style place that, believe it or not, made savory crepes to order,  they also had a daily assortment of fresh salads and things pickled and breaded and whatnot, and best of all a large vat (and I hope you will picture a big witches cauldron – because it was) of bubbling borscht.  In fact one of the few phrases in the Russian language that I got really good at (beyond things like asking the girls if they were hungry and how to tell them that we loved them) is how to ask for borscht with sour cream.

I can’t do the conversation we had with our translator, who I asked for her best Borscht recipe, justice….but suffice it to say I got minimal input in a very Russian “you, just cook it and  then you serve it” response. (The bemused look on her face told me that I had just publicly admitted that I wasn’t a real woman.)

And you know what? She was right..  You just cook it.

It’s simple and real food.  It warms your kitchen and your body and our two girls must have some sort of sense memory for it, because when I make it they eat in double-time from their bowls.

Ingredients:

• 4 – 6 medium sized fresh beets (they are yucky and dirty if you by them right, scrub then peel, then julienne or rough dice your call)
• 1 medium red onion (i suppose you can use white, but that seems silly)
• 2 cups carrots
• 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage and/or thinly sliced potato
• 1 pound beef (you know, if you do that sort of thing..  if not I strongly recommend using some butter to make sure your stock is more than just broth) dice it small, coat in flour – pepper/salt/crushed garlic
• enough garlic stock (you can use chicken or beef broth if you prefer) to cover the ingredients

Method:

• Heat pan really hot with a tablespoon or so of oil then seer the meat and brown really well (the more you do the better the caramelized brown bits will be for the broth)
• Toss in the onion and saute’, add the carrots and beets and give a good toss into the drippings then add the garlic stock (just a small amount at first to let you use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan with, then pour in the rest.)
• Bring to a full boil then reduce the heat and simmer for as long as you can stand (you can eat it within an hour if you like bity veggies, but the longer it simmers the better the flavors are.)
• Right before you turn off heat add in a tablespoon of butter, and serve with at least a dollop of sour cream (man it is so good)

My newest venture is into using the beet greens.  I haven’t gotten it just right yet, but this last batch was worth at least munching on while the Borscht bubbled…..the cook’s gotta eat right?

This time of year, my synapses kick in a bit due to the clear cool air and I always come back to this favorite use of pumpkin (well, to be fair, my non-sweet favorite use of pumpkin.)

Over time I’ve tried variations of the recipe with more or less of the curry flavors, with and without the cinnamon.  The ingredients listed below make up my favorite combination so far.  If you like spice then you can add more of the curry and even cumin and turn this into a sudo-Indian dish, If you like meat, well then go for it…but the Bulgar and pumpkin do some sort of magic thing in the pot that is worth trying once as is. Oh! and your house will smell amazing…

Ingredients:

• 1 Medium to Large Sugar pumpkin (you’ll find these in produce section not the kind for carving)
• 1 Large white or yellow onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 4 Roma or tomatoes
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups beans (i like black beans for this but kidney would work nicely)
• 2 cups cooked bulgar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

Split the pumpkin in half and drizzle with a bit of the olive oil, roast with seeds still inside on baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Spoon the pumpkin out – it looks a lot like a spaghetti squash. Set aside the seeds (I use a strainer in the sink to get rid of the bits of pumpkin left on them, toss onto the baking sheet and toast a little longer with some sea salt to use as a garnish)

In a large pot, saute the onions and garlic in the oil. Add in the spices – Chile powder, curry powder, cinnamon and salt and brown for a few minutes (this step really makes a difference – be sure the spices get good and toasted), then add chopped tomatoes. Add the water and pumpkin and raise heat to bring to a boil. Add in the beans and already cooked Bulgar. Lower heat and simmer for about twenty minutes (sometimes I end up adding a bit more water to make the consistency match chili more.)

Top the cooked Chili with the toasted pumpkin seeds just before serving so they stay crunchy.

Of course when we got to the store they weren’t open yet. Now what? Wait, didn’t I just read a review by Natalie Slater from Bake and Destroy for Angel Food Bakery listing it as in this neighborhood?

Oh yes!

Thank you iPhone and your google map wonderousness for saving me once again from my lack of any sense of direction, and ability to plan ahead.

Thank you cupcake gods for placing the school supply store, that I forgot to check opening times for, within walking distance of the cutest shop I’ve seen in a long time.

Thank you Angel Food Bakery for making yummy yummy treats like Airstreams (their home made version of Twinkies, made with a buttercream and marshmallow, I think? filling that is wrapped in aluminum.)

And, thank you for Marshmallow Igloos – devil’s food cake with a buttercream center and a spiral of marshmallow on top (the treat that Elena ran to when she saw the bakery case even though she tried to swipe my airstream the second I picked up my iPhone to take a quick photo of our table of yum!)

The shop is beyond cute. Nice and bright, with plenty of seating, and a display of every Easy Bake oven you have ever seen (including one exactly like my Avocado Green version! You can see it in the far right corner in my fuzzy iPhone pic)

Elena loved the toy box, especially a chance to play with Mr. Potato Head sans big sister trying to help, and she tried to take home the smaller kid forks they gave her to use.  The Fab counter girl, who was both friendly and helpful, gave us a small-hand sized water cup that was much appreciated.

We stuck to the sweet stuff, but it looks like they serve some pretty great breakfast options as well as lunch, and I grabbed a business card because they do specialty cakes and catering.

All in all a great way to save a morning that had started off badly, after we finished our treats and walked back to the shop they were ready to sell us tubs of play doh and special markers for writing on the windows and stickers and whatnot galore.

The pink box of more Airstreams, and Malted Milk cream topped Chocolate Cupcakes that I brought home was gobbled up in minutes by the rest of the family.

If you are in Chicago, you MUST check this place out. (I used my iPhone to grab some quick pics between bites, hope they aren’t too low rez to convey the awesomeness that is Angel Food Bakery!)

One of the things that I have managed a semi-consistent level of success with is what we call our “salsa and sauce garden” Cilantro, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, radishes, baby lettuces and such.  This year, with the help of the tiny hands of the Wee Kahunas we managed to spread a bit more basil seed than I usually plan for, and darn it if it didn’t all sprout. So now on a semi-weekly basis this whole summer season has been about harvesting and then trying to find something to do with basil.

Right, the first thing you thought of was Pesto…me too. I have five different recipe versions in the basement freezer right now, including a new set that I froze in silicon ice cube trays so I can just pop out a few “cubes” into a dish of pasta or chicken when ever I need them.

I’ve also set up some mason jars with garlic and basil infused olive oil (you just slowly heat the ingredients together and then pour into the jars for storage.)

Basil on top of really good Feta with a splash of olive oil, is an amazingly good snack that our fab neighbors from Greece have taught us, and of course basil – tomatoes- mozzarella – olives and crostini  is the salad I crave all summer.

But now it’s time to start using some of that pesto and I needed a recipe that would change things up a bit and help me feed a large group for way way less money than we used to spend on such events.

I have a tried and true chicken pasta salad recipe that I mix up pretty often (especially during the season when we have 9 birthday parties in less than 2 months)  but, you know…it’s pasta salad.  It’s tasty and all that, but meh..

So, here is what I came up for our last family and friends gathering (Elena and Jordan’s birthday party.):

Balsamic Pesto Pasta Salad

The salad itself is a twisted elbow pasta noodle (I like these because they hold onto the herbs and oil a bit without being so big that the pasta gets mushy or pasty.) I toss in whatever veggies are freshest, often bits of carrot, peas, green beans, broccoli. (sun dried tomatoes add a whole different character as would olives.)  I like to add diced avocado to balance out the textures, and dried cranberries are a nice change up as well. (Do you get the idea that I make this same base and switch out a few ingredients on a pretty regular basis yet?)

The chicken is just breaded breast tender cutlets that I bake until crispy (if you are watching calories I suppose you could go with grilled, but man the breading makes the texture and flavor of the overall pasta so so much better.)

The key to this dish is taking a standard pesto, i used 1/4 cup , (I’ll include the recipe I use in the comments section) and then adding 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar to 1/4 cup olive oil and mixing it really well (I just pour it into a jar and shake) with some really finely diced shallots.

I’m still looking for other ways to use the basil, I just found a recipe for Basil lemonade, I had some recently at an Indian Food Restaurant in Michigan and really liked it..  So I guess now I have finally come full circle..  something to do with all those Limoncello lemons and the basil as well.  Summer is basically over here in Chicago, well, it never really happened…it just stayed cool, so the next set of recipes will have to be about fall…good thing that crazy hand full of pumpkin seeds that Elena tossed into my flower beds has turned into it’s own ecosystem..  I have lots and lots of ideas for pumpkins.

So, it turns out that every time a friend or family member joined FoodBuzz to help me promote The Cluttered Pantry my name was entered into the “Foodbuzz Tell a Friend Weekly Raffle”, and I won the random drawing! Which is why, when I got the email from the fine folks at FoodBuzz saying I’d won a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker, I got pretty excited.

Years ago we owned an old-fashioned ice cream maker (big bags of rock salt and tired arms at the end of the day all for a tiny vat of ice cream.) I think we sold it in a garage sale before moving to Chicago from Austin, TX . So it’s a double bonus to actually win something that we don’t already have three of in the back of a cupboard somewhere.

The girls are still pretty funny about ice cream…really cold food and drinks still makes them make that face that babies do the first time you give them ice. I think it truly startles their senses. But now, after a moment of face making their eyes get big and happy when creamy goodness is offered up.

We tossed the freezing container into our freezer right away and as soon as it was solid cold (the first time took close to ten hours) I set to testing our new toy. Of course, it worked like a charm. Dumped in the ingredients of our first batch of citrus sorbet and in 20 minutes it was ready to eat in a bowl, and after a few more hours back in the freezer it was full on scoop worthy. Yay!

This citrus sorbet recipe was just mostly a guess on my part, and I added some vanilla because I remember having a dish of sorbet that tasted a bit like the creamsicles that we used to eat as children and I know that it was the vanilla that made it seemed creamy and not actual cream.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons orange zest
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2-1/4 cups orange juice
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method:

Make a simple syrup with the sugar and water and let cool. Stir in zests and juices. Turn on Cuisinart then stand over it and marvel at how fast and quiet it is. We tossed the sorbet back into the freezer for a couple of hours before serving because we like it more firm. It went great with some of the candied lemon peel on top.

I think our next step is to get into really rich and creamy strawberry ice cream so we can break out the circa 1920’s Hamilton-Beach frappe makers and completely blow the girls’ minds, and pack on some more of those much needed calories.

The oldest one is a white enamel Hamilton model #10 from the early 1920’s soda fountain. You might think it’s just from my prop shelf for photo shoots but this is the real deal. It works great, and nothing stirs memories better than that smell of ionizing air and the whir of the metal mixer blades. The second frappé maker (don’t make the mistake of calling it a milk shake in our home, these babies were bought in New England and would take great offense at the regional slap) is a model 33, it is enameled in that fab jadeite green that I’d cover all my appliances in if I didn’t think they’d cart me away.

Now that I think of it, what in the world were we waiting for? A kitchen with two of the world’s best frappe makers and no way to make our own ice cream?! I’m glad it wasn’t a baseball this time, but it does sort of warp my brain to realize that the first prize was from an ice cream store and the second in my life is to make ice cream.

A hearty thanks to those of you that went to FoodBuzz to help me promote our blog, and helping us win the contest we didn’t even know we were in- frappes are on me! If you haven’t been to their site yet, and are interested in recipes/food/restaurant reviews take a look. It’s an amazing community of food blogger and foodies sharing the best they have made/found. (and I’m not just saying that because I won the Cuisinart!) Besides hoping that you’ll visit my profile page and “buzz” me, I’d love to recommend a few of my favorite featured publishers you’ll find on the site (i’ll add more soon, but I wanted to add these before publishing this post):

EatTravelWrite – is written by an Australian now living in Toronto, travel and food are a great combo and her photos and writing keep me coming back for more.

Southern Grace Gourmet – has found a way to make real southern cooking healthy.  Her photos are wonderful and so far every recipe I have tried has been a big hit here in Kahunaville.

Citronetvanille – Runs a personal chef service in the Bay Area and posts some of the most delicious looking photos and tasting recipes.

As a recent culinary school graduate he can put my cooking to shame, but he still leaves the baking mostly to me.

So I worked some kitchen magic (read that as – got lucky with a last minute creation that I never tested.) Mini Cheesecakes with a crust made from the pecan shortbread cookies I made the day before and a lemon vanilla whipped cream topping with candied lemon peel on top – My original plan was to use the awesome “Sex and Violence” cupcake toppers that Natalie from Bake and Destroy was nice enough to send, but I couldn’t get my act together to use them beyond cutting them out and placing them on the serving tray. (Jordan seemed to still appreciate the inclusion of the art, he has a collection of tattoos covering a fair amount of his body.)

The cheesecake recipe is a hodgepodge from one that I used to use in the commercial kitchen, it originally made enough batter for 6 full size cheesecakes at one time – required a really big 20 quart mixing bowl that I could barely life when full – and used 40 eggs, 20 lbs of cream cheese and so much lemon and orange zest that i kept bags of it in the freezer – (so in order to divide it down into a 2 quart bowl version I end up doing math in my head while baking – a dangerous practice even on a calm day for me.) The use of the shortbread cookies as the crust worked great (all that butter really pays off in the end, I may have to make that my go to option from now on.)

Pecan Shortbread Crust Cheesecakes- Ingredients:

• 3lbs cream cheese
• 5 eggs plus 2 yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1.2 tablespoon orange zest
• 1/3 cup vanilla soy milk (you can use milk or cream)
• 3 tablespoons flour

I smoshed up the left over pecan shortbread cookies into the bottom of a regular cupcake pan (butter and flour first) But you can use any of the standard cheesecake crusts.

Method:

Mix the room temp cream cheese until really light and fluffy. Add in the sugar and cream together. Mix in the flour. Add in the eggs, extracts and milk a small amount at a time to make sure you get it blended really well (lumps in cheesecake make people gaack.) Stir in the zest just to mix through.

As cupcakes these cook great in a 450 degree oven for ten minutes then reduce heat to 350 and cook for about five more minutes or until the tops are set. I add a small pan of water to the bottom of my oven (but it’s a ten burner Garland that SUPER heats things, so you may not need to add this step to keep the tops from cracking.)

This is Elena’s first birthday party, we were here in the states waiting for our court date this time last year. She really enjoyed Zhanna’s party in July and has been asking about when her party would come since then.

Since she also talks about butterflies and caterpillars almost every day and wants to collect stickers of them and since she is still super tiny I went with the idea of making mini cupcakes and setting them up like caterpillars and one with wings to be her special cake.

The caterpillars were just an organic red velvet cake recipe, no one at the party got the inside joke (yes pun intended) that I made the inside of the caterpillars red.) She and I both love everything tiny and bite size, so I made them in mini mini pans, it took me three stores to find the right size cupcake papers for them. There are some great resources online, I just didn’t plan far enough ahead to use them so, in the end I had to spend the extra money to get them at Sur La’ Table.

My recipe uses organic eggs, butter, cane sugar and wheat flour. You don’t have to do that, I’m just trying to get the Wee Kahunas systems up to snuff so even baked goods get some extra TLC.

Since I was using so much of the the color pastes (for the red velvet cake batter and the technicolor frosting on the caterpillars) I made sure to use India Tree decorating colors , they are made from things like beet extract for red, and cabbage for the blue, instead of ummm coal tar and a science kit for the other dyes you can buy. Since the decorating colors have a bit of a veggie taste to them my recipe for the frosting is a bit different (see the comments section for the recipe.)

Red Velvet Cupcakes – Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups raw cane sugar (you can use regular sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk (you can use whole milk)
• 1 tablespoon India Food Coloring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, natural red coloring, and salt; stir into the batter.

This batter does rise, so only fill the cupcake cups halfway.

Tiny ones take 12 minutes to bake – larger regular cupcakes should be closer to 18-22 minutes.

• 1 and 1/2 pounds of butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 7 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups of chopped pecans

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together (I do it by hand since the butter is at room temp), add extracts and cream some more, add dry ingredients, pecans last.  Smoosh on cutting board into 2 big flat discs to make it easier to roll out after being chilled (just toss in a large ziplock) I used to skip this step, but find some patience, the dough being chilled means those crispy edges you want.)

• After the dough is chilled, do the standard flour board, and roll out about an inch thick
• cut out as rounds or whatever shape you like
• makes about 75 to 100 depending on how big you make them
• 350 for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown

Today I covered them  with a lemon glaze, because as usual I’m trying to find ways to use up all that lemon juice left over after making a batch of Limoncello, which just uses the rinds.

Cooking works on so many levels.  It feeds (sorry for the pun) my need to keep my family healthy and their tummies full.  Cooking let’s me take, much needed ,deep breaths and clear my mind of all of those to-do lists, plans, and worries, as well as  a bad habit of trying to plan for the future. And literally forces me to stay in the here and now of stirring a pot or chopping a vegetable.

Even shooting photos of some of that food for this blog gives me time to focus (sorry again for the pun) on a style of photography that is so different from the lifestyle, event, and nature images that I generally shoot for corporate clients.

You don’t have to read many of the non cooking posts on our site to figure out that our lives are a bit hectic.  We run our own digital media agency, we have a 115 year old house that is a never ending topsy turvy project, the two dogs and three cats think they are human (or at least prefer to be treated as such), and of course, there are the three children…

A favorite dish when I most need some time in my head is Risotto.  Nothing is more calming than standing over my big Garland stove and stirring a large casserole bubbling with risotto and garlic broth with one hand and sipping a glass of wine with the other.  It’s slow, it’s simple, and at some point it reaches this zen moment where after all that stirring the broth just absorbs into the arborio rice and you feel the thickness resist against your wooden spoon and you just know….dinner is ready.

The “method” I use is, I think, pretty basic.  I vary the broth (Vegetable, Chicken, Garlic Stock) and I generally switch out fresh vegetables based on what looked the best to me at the produce shop, but portabello mushrooms and asparagus are always a good option.

Garlic Stock is my favorite way to go (If you haven’t tried it, seriously it takes almost no time to make and is useful in so many dishes that you’ll wonder why you didn’t always have it in your fridge or freezer. I’ll post the “recipe” in the comments section).

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion – chop it as finely as you can
• 3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 40 – 45 oz og broth or stock (have it warming on the stove)
• 1lb Arborio Rice (I use a brand called Bellino – which seems to be more of a quick cooking grain)
• 3 to 6 oz of grated parmesan cheese
• spices to taste (i use pepper and salt of course but other spices depending on the vegetables)

Method:

I use the large Le Creuset Casserole (it’s the perfect depth- if you use too deep a pot it just doesn’t come out the same). Just heat the oil and sauté the onions until they are brown.  Add the dry rice and stir to coat it with the oil and then add about 1/2 the stock, and start stirring.  Just stir slowly and move the liquid around.  Keep the heat so that it stays at a slow boil and add a bit of the remaining stock a cup or so at a time. Just keep stirring and you’ll see that the broth will fully absorb into the grains.  Once that happens stir in the Parmesan and spices you want to add and then continue to stir until the rice is tender (same sort of Al Dente bite as pasta seems about right to me.)

I usually transfer the rice to a large serving bowl, add a bit more oil to my pan and then sauté the vegetables, or if I am using Asparagas I sauté and then add a bit more stock and then cover the pan so that they steam a bit.  Then I just toss it all back together.

One pan, one serving bowl, one or two glasses of wine while cooking…always leaves me calm and ready to take on a dinner table that right now includes trying to get calories and good food into; one child who refuses a sippy lid on her cup but also can’t keep from knocking her drink over at least twice each meal; another child who is way too busy telling you everything she learned today to actually put any food in her mouth.