using the bits and bobs … Pear Frangipane Tarts

After my last Sunday lunch, which was really neither of those things because it was actually dinner and on a Saturday, it took me a while to fully clean up.  Over the course of the week, I washed the dirty pots and dishes, sorted all the silverware, tucked away the tiny delicate digestif glasses and the endless parade of now clean wineglasses.  I put countless empty bottles in the recycling bin and stared at the Calvados, wondering if I’d ever really enjoy it’s fiery burn.  Sometimes I like the idea of something more than the reality.  But two bottles, each with a little wine in the bottom, continued to sit in the middle of the dining room table for nearly two weeks. I kept meaning to do something with them but as time went on, drinking wasn’t really an option.  So instead, I shuffled them around a few times until one day, I had an idea.  Poached pears.

bake sales and garden plots … Banana Fudge Cake

I’m doing the whole community garden thing again this year, even though I know I’ll be gone for most of the summer and my past plot no longer exists.  We were just care-takers of that land for the last two years and the owners have decided to build a community health center on the space.  So we moved and the great thing is this community garden idea has really taken off.  Everyone wants in, including various aldermen.  Over the winter, the Peterson Garden Project organizers were asked to turn five different abandoned lots into community gardens and people have responded.  We’re going to be gardening all over the place!  There’s still space available in two of the gardens – join the party here.

this one’s for you Mom … Southern Coconut Layer Cake

This cake is for my Mom. Though polarizing to some, we share a love of coconut especially a good cake, cream pie and those old-fashioned macaroons that our old neighborhood grocery store used to have.  I’ll figure those out one day. We live 2000 miles apart and sometimes have a rather complicated relationship but that doesn’t diminish my love for her.  She’s a great woman and raised two really fantastic, independent, successful and funny daughters.  She’s influenced a lot of who I am today, so this little coconut number is for you lady.  It’s a lot fancier than the coconut cake I shipped across the country for her birthday many years ago and I think she’d really enjoy it. In fact, I know she’d enjoy it.  I fully expect to hear from her about this matter – while she’ll appreciate the thought I’ve presented here, I don’t think she’s going to care much for a “virtual cake.”  Ha!  Fact is, I’ve had an itch to make a layer cake or three ever since I saw this, and the timing was perfect.  Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

smell you coming … Ramp Green Kimchi

A few weeks ago I was given a big shopping bag full of ramps, also known as wild leeks.  I decided to pickled the lot, as I wrote about in this post but first I had to solicit some advice on what to do with the greens.  A quick text message went out to a chef friend.  While I waited for a response on whether I was supposed to pickle the greens as well, I turned to google.  Numerous possibilities came up in the search on what to do with these overly fragrant greens:  sauteed, compound butter, with scrambled eggs, on a crostini, kimchi.  Wait … what?!  Ramp green kimchi?  I stared at the computer screen, a little lightheaded from the ramps’ pungent garlic scent permeating my kitchen.  It seemed like such a natural fit – one stinky thing transformed to another.  The decision was instantaneous.  It all happened faster than it took my friend to reply, which is to say less than 3 minutes.  He said pickle the greens but it was too late.  I love kimchi.  Done.

more than just a butter delivery vehicle … Buttermilk Biscuits

In the last post, I told you all about my obsession with butter which resulted in actually making my own butter.  It really is very easy and you may have already done it by accident without realizing it.  Whip cream until it separates and there you go.  The byproduct of the process is of course the liquid that separates out from the solids:  buttermilk.  While my freshly made golden butter was chilling, I decided to take that beautiful buttermilk and make some biscuits.  Oh hell yes.  When I’m in, I’m ALL in.

butter up baby … Homemade Cultured Salted Butter

I’ve made butter exactly twice in my life and only once intentionally.  The first time, my 3^rd grade teacher poured some cream into baby food jars and told us to shake them.  After what seems like hours and much whining about tired arms, we took off the lids and found solid yellow clumps floating in a milky liquid.  How’d that happen?  We combined all our clumps and spread them onto saltines.  We quietly crunched away, our eyes wide in disbelief.  We made butter.  It was mind-blowing and I was absolutely delighted.  The second time I made butter, I was in culinary school doing what I continue to do even to this day – too much at once.  In the time it took me to walk to the cooler and back, the cream meant for a cake was beyond overwhipped.  I was not delighted in the least.

ladies who lunch … Popovers with Lemon Verbena Strawberry Butter

My Grandma Claire had a tradition.  Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, she’d round up her various girlfriends and head into the city to hit the big sales.  I’m pretty sure this was before the retail world had deemed the day “Black Friday.”  For her, it was the best day of the year.  She’d wander about Neiman Marcus and visit Tony, her favorite salesman, at the cosmetic counter.  He’d fuss and fawn, stuffing her purse with perfume samples, making her over with the latest shades.  She loved the attention and for Christmas we would all receive the latest Obsession perfume gift box or Estee Lauder eye shadow kit.  For lunch, it was always the store restaurant, The Zodiac.  And it was always about the popovers with strawberry butter.