Vegging Out

Our "Vegging Out" class started with a trip to the Davidson Farmer's market early yesterday morning. With a cup of coffee in hand and no menu in mind, Tracey, Emily and I did a brief walk through to get the lay of the land and survey our options.

Our first purchase was squash blossoms ... something none of us ever had but read much about. Then we picked up some fresh leeks and young garlic from the same farmer. We went over to the other end of the market and bought elongated beets, a couple pounds of patriotic potatoes (red, white and blue) and some mild onions. Our last stop was for hierloom tomatoes. Our menu was sketched out and we headed to the Fresh Market in Cornelius for the rest of our ingredients.

There we selected a loaf of rosemary focaccia bread, mushrooms, a vanilla poundcake, strawberries and chicken cutlets.

Now our menu was set ... bruschetta and roasted garlic with focaccia, frittata, chicken picatta, roasted potatoes, stuffed squash blossoms .... and for the grand finale ... chocolate bowls filled with poundcake, vanilla bean ice cream and flambed strawberries.

Our second course was an artichoke and leek frittata. I modified a recipe I found on-line at Williams Sonoma. It was yummy ... unlike other frittatas I've made, this one was cooked mostly on the stove top and then broiled at the end to add color to the top.

For the entree, we stuffed the squash blossoms with a sauteed mushrooms, panko bread crumbs, Parmesan and herbs. Tracey roasted the patriotic potatoes with the elongated beets, onions and herbs from her garden. I made chicken picatta but left out the lemon juice and capers since I thought it would clash with the Malbec we were drinking.

For dessert, we made chocolate bowls and filled them with the pound cake and ice cream. Then I sauteed the strawberries with Grand Marnier, lit it on fire and ladled the warm mixture into the bowls ... the heat from the strawberries melted the chocolate making it one, big, oozing chocolaty bite of goodness!

Here's a link to more photos: http://www.gourmetontherun.com/images/Vegging_OUt.pdf

World Cup Fever!

For months now the guys at work have been talking about World Cup ... I take that back ... it's been at least a couple of years that they've been scheming on how to get tickets and have been arguing if the stadiums and the country would be ready for the games.

As the official start gets closer, the conversations are longer and more frequent. Today at lunch, they were discussing which team is the favorite to win, and more importantly about the players that made the Brazilain squad.

Since I had nothing to contribute about the players and the game, I pulled the only piece of World Cup information I had readily available ... what Food and Wine Magazine suggests you drink to support your favorite team.

Here's a link to the article: http://foodandwine.com/articles/world-cup-wine-party

I have to say ... based on their suggestions, it's hard to support a favorite team.

Mother's Day Brunch

Mother's Day along with Easter and Valentines Day make up the holy trinity of eating out holidays. Rather than brave the crowds, we did brunch at home.

First course: warm cranberry scones (Mom likes them with butter, Debbie likes them plain and I like a little strawberry jam).


Second course: stuffed French toast (with ham and cheddar) and sauteed apples.

Only coffee and tea this morning. Saving the champagne for later!

Happy Mother's Day!

Todd's Visit to France

Our April wine tasting was all about Todd's first visit to France in late March. This tasting was like the others in that we had a lot of fun and drank some great wine (1 sparkling, 4 whites and 1 lonley red). However, it a first for us in two ways ... we had 24 attendees (plus Mom, Todd and I) ... a record for us and we had an audio-visual presentation ... Todd shared some of this photos with us.

As usual, Todd has several one-liners (we call these "Toddisms") and lots of great stories to tell. Since I was drinking too (and had very little to eat), I will do my best to recap some of the highlights of the evening and his trip.

Todd and his GF Margaret in Sancerre

Toddism: "It takes a lot of beer to make good wine"

Todd estimated he gained 5 lbs on this trip. I think this has something to do with it ... a restaurant that served over 100 savory crepes plus another 40 or so dessert crepes. Yep, he ate the whole thing!

Toddism: "Rolling up in our European Mini-Van"

Seems the guy second from the right is a real wine stud ... 28 years old and owns his own vineyard. Too bad he's married with a couple of kids.

So while the other guy is a wine-stud, this is the Man's Man of wine. He has his own vineyard and chateau with a courtyard and a big dog laying in the courtyard.

Le Cav

Members of the Natter family ... who were awesome hosts and shared some of their oldest wines with Todd and his group.

Nice hat!

Rocks that are native to the Loire Valley

Bad Habits!

P.S. None of the wines we tasted were date wines! ;-)

My Week in Food

With all of the year end tasks behind me including taxes, my schedule is finally getting normal again. And by normal, I mean I can cook more and hit the Y a few times a week. Here's how I spent my week, foodwise.



For dinner on Sunday, I decided to make the Grilled Balsamic and Garlic Flank Steak recipe from the April issue of Food and Wine magazine. I did this recipe for the last wine tasting and liked it ... it was really easy. This time, after marinating it overnight, I cooked it on the stovetop (instead of grilling) in my non-stick saute pan. I liked the results better ... I got a better sear on both sides of the meat and the sugar in the balsamic caramelized a little.


If you're wondering what the difference is between skirt steak and flank steak it's basically what part of the cow it comes from ... skirt steak comes from the plate cut and flank is from the area in red (see diagram). Both cuts are flavorful, requires marinating and should be cooked quickly (like grilling).

My cooking was interrupted by a trip to St. Louis for work but I was back at it on Thursday night. I made the New York Style Crumb Cake from the April 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. When I initially saw the picture of the cake in the magazine I was worried that the cake would be too moist (meaning greasy) but the end product was dry ... and that was after I reduced the baking time by 10 minutes.

I know what you're thinking ... I deviated from the recipe. Well I did, but only for the crumb topping. I cut their recipe in half and added walnuts and loved the result. The cake itself was dense and a little dry. It tasted good ... I just had some with my coffee and the combination was yummy. I'm definitely going to try this recipe again ... maybe it needs to eggs and/or more sour cream to lighten the batter.

And I only made it to the Y once this week ... cycle class at 5:30am on Friday ... shouldn't that count for at least 2?

More Baking ... Raisin, Pecan and Walnut Bread

I love raisin bread ... not the cinnamon swirl stuff ... but the chewy kind filled with plump raisins and nuts. My favorite so far is the raisin pumperknickel bread from Capital Grille but they only serve it with dinner (which I don't indulge in very often). A close second is the Russian pumpernickel bagel from NY Bagels (Armando's places in Mooresville) ... I eat it plain ... no need for cream cheese.

Flipping through the April 2010 issue of Bon Appetit, I saw a recipe for raisin, pecan and walnut bread. It seemed simple enough ... basic ingredients ... water, yeast, bread flour, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, raisins, pecans, walnuts and brown sugar. The instructions were simple too ... dissolve the yeast in warm water, add the sugar, salt, vegetable oil and mix until combined. Then add the flour and knead until smooth and add the raisins, nuts and brown sugar. The recipe called for kneading by hand but I used my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook.

Once mixed, the dough needed to rise in the fridge overnight and then this morning, I divided the dough into two balls, let rise for about 2 hours until it was doubled in size and baked at 375F for about 35 minutes. I let it cool on a wire rack, sliced one loaf and then Mom and I devoured a few of the warm slices with butter and coffee!

Like the other recipe I tried last week, it's way too much for just the three of us. So, I'm going to freeze one loaf, leave a few slices of the other one at home and take the rest to work for the guys. Hey, I can't eat all of this stuff ... I'd have to live at the Y. And, besides there's a sour cream coffee cake I want to make later in the week!

What I Did During My Easter Vacation

So, I didn't really get an Easter vacation .. I just had one day off (real work) and I spent it baking.

Here's what I made:

Old Fashioned White Bread (recipe from the cookbook that came with my KitchenAid mixer). This is my go-to recipe when I want homemade bread. We have it every year at Christmas. It was quite yummy with the spiral ham Mom baked!

I've always wanted to make hot cross buns since they remind me of Easter when I was little. The current issue of Martha Stewart Living featured some of their favorite recipes from the past 10 years. When this recipe popped up and I figured it was my time to make it. It was fairly easy ... I cheated a little ... I did not brush the tops with egg white and I was very liberal with the application of the icing, and, I might have put in a few more currants than the recipe listed.

I liked the final product ... the texture was fluffy but not too airy and it was dense but not solid if that makes sense ... when you bit into it your teeth sank into the dough but was not mushy. I liked the amount of sweetness but my sister thought it could be sweeter. I think next time I'll add some flaked coconut ... that might make it taste more like the Trinidadian version. And, the recipe makes 24 buns ... way too much for my small family. I think the recipe could easily be split in half!