It’s party season again, and look at these super fun honey cupcakes. Just slather the cupcake with a layer of frosting, wrap it with bubble wrap and stick it in the refrigerator. When frosting is set gently peel off the wrap. Instant Honeycomb!
Pate Choux. Pets de Nonnes. SUUUPER FANCY! Cabbage dough + Nun’s farts. Totally doable. So this week which is a bit crazy I’m going to give everything it’s French name just to keep my head above water.
It’s been a busy week. A trip to Denver to eat mile high doughnuts, and lots of kid logistics. Tonight I’m headed to a pot luck which is always tricky. Because I’m a cook I need to bring something delicious, but I look like an ass if I bring something over the top. And, I have to hand make it because there is nothing worse than “This is delicious. Can I have the recipe? Is it easy?” Why yes, yes it is. Head down to aisle 6 and pick up some crackers...
So, I decided to riff on the cheese board to make a wonderful after dinner dessert board.
AND I made pate choux. It takes 1 bowl, 1 saucepan, 1 sheetpan, and a simple ratio: 2:2:2:1.
1 cup water
1 cup eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
Bring your butter & water to a boil. Turn down the heat, stir in the flour until you have a nice paste. transfer into to bowl of a standing mixer, and make a little lunch. When lunch is done your flour will be cool enough to incorporate the eggs, one at a time. If you are serving as appetizers add 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan, for dessert add 2 tablespoons sugar. Or, divide the dough in 1/2 and do both!
Use a piping bag, or just a spoon and place them on a parchment lined tray. Big, small; do what you want. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then turn down to 350 and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes.
Just the basics.
Inevitably, when I cater an event, no matter how much effort I put into passed appetizers and elaborate salads I get a number of people who say “Where did you get those nuts, did you make them, can I buy them?” They are so absurdly easy that I usually write a “recipe” on back of my business card. But at an event last week, I forgot my cards ( FOR A NETWORKING EVENT NO LESS) So, for everyone at the event I promised to finally write down the recipe for my not so secret cocktail party weapon. Make it, use it, amend it, pass it on. The best part, if you use the Costco nut mix, you can put it right back in the container, and then you have to eat all the bits that don’t fit!
Rosemary Spiced Cocktail Nuts
2.5 lbs EXTRA FANCY Salted Mixed Nuts (Fancy Schmancy way to start I KNOW!)
1 cup brown sugar + extra for tossing
1 cup fresh rosemary, finely chopped (I know, seems like a lot, but trust me.)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt
Set aside a sheet pan with parchment paper. In a nonstick pan Over medium high heat sauté rosemary until fragrant. Add brown sugar, salt toss to mix. Add 1/4 cup water and mix to a paste. Toss nuts to coat. Cook until nuts are covered, careful not to burn. If paste is not sticking, add water, tablespoon at a time. Nuts should be coated, sticky, but not wet. Add pepper flake, toss to incorporate. Taste and adjust spices. Transfer nuts to sheet pan. Toss with additional brown sugar until nuts are no longer sticky. Allow to cool. Serve as bar snacks or as accompaniment to cheese board. Store in airtight container, toss with additional brown sugar before serving if necessary.
AKA Running + Doughnut Training
I haven’t joined Matt in Hawaii since LAST January.
He leaves every 3 weeks, and says things like “I wish I didn’t have to go to Maui this week.” Oh, me too, hotel design seems really rough.
I needed a game plan to get off the cold rainy island and get to the warm rainy island. When we moved to Vashon I started running again. SPRING BREAK coincides with The Hapaulua Half Marathon.
COINCIDENCE OR DIVINE INTERVENTION? It seemed SOOO FAAAR AWAAAAAY and SOOO plausible. Just train 3 days a week through the winter, and I could do it. On a dreary night in October I drank a cocktail and payed my fees: I officially have a place in the Hapaulua Half.
But now, umm. That’s about 10 weeks away. Although I hoped by now I would look like Forrest Gump, cruising down the back roads, waving at my friends as they passed on their way to the dump, I really look like Tim Conway. I shuffle along, winded after 5 miles, not sure how I’m going to get to that 13 mile marker.
And, AND, I have a new R+D project. It’s wonderful, and it means that I get my hands back in dough again, but it’s not just any dough. It’s fried dough. On the surface it seems like a horrible combination. But can I say, I don’t think it’s coincidence, fried dough is a great motivator.
Today, this was my work/training regiment:
Make Dough, run 4.5 miles (1st rise), form malasadas (2nd rise) , run 4.5 miles, fry malasads.
Eat malasadas while stretching.
Calories burned: 1,137. Calories consumed: unimportant.
Possible the best Sunday in months. And the kids think I’m AMAZING!
Hey, I’m supposed to post one of those pictures with my food, and my shoes. So, here you go I guess. you can tell I’m meeting a client because I’m not wearing my Muck boots. Not pictured: makeup. For real, this client is important enough for SHOES + MAKEUP!
I’m working on a new project from the NEW home kitchen. It’s been a while since I’ve busted out the R+D, and my skills seemed a little rusty. But a scale, images and dry erase pen is all I need. Also, black and white because then you can’t tell what’s messy on my counter.
Had a fun cutting this week, so many sample sizes. The mini tortas are just about the right size to gorge ourselves on.
How glorious! We’ve got kitchen cabinets. And shelves. And a working sink. Sure, we haven’t finished the tile, and maybe there’s a wall that has a hole. BUT who cares? This project has been fantastic, and I’m really proud of all the things we learned to do. I can now plumb a sink, put in a pendant light, and I’m addicted to my spray gun.
Do you know that gasoline fight in Zoolander. That’s how I feel. Ready to start your remodel? Please consider me as you next contractor. Except it will take 8 weeks, and I won’t finish the toe kicks, which conveniently aren’t pictured here.
But KITCHEN PEOPLE. A REAL KITCHEN!
The goal when we moved to the island was to immerse the kids and ourselves in the community as quickly as possible. If I could accomplish that then I could comfortably start working again. Behold, Nutcracker costumes that prove:
1. If not fully immersed I’m somewhere between dipping my toe in and drowning in tulle.
2. It is just about time to get back to the business of cooking.
3. I love this island more than I could ever have dreamed.
4. I’m a shitty seamstress and I shouldn’t quit my day job.
However, I am planning some amazing dessert for intermission.
We’re remodeling the new kitchen, so there has been very little cooking. And by very little I mean food I can make out of a broken stove, and as few dishes as possible since I’m washing up in the laundry room. Not exactly the best environment for meals, clients or family.
Oh, but I’m building all our cabinets in the garage and it’s going to be the most glorious kitchen. All the drawers I need. All my equipment stored IN THE SAME ROOM, and a fireplace to boot.
I’m building the kitchen of my dreams.
Well now, maybe I should edit that statement a bit. My dad is a retired woodshop teacher, and I should probably give some respect to carpenters. It’s an IKEA kitchen. I didn’t measure or cut a single board. There aren’t even holes to drill. No wood glue and clamps, no beveled edges, no cursing over the angle on the miter saw. I did swear like a prep cook when I hung the drawer upside down. Does that count? And used a hammer twice, and those weird screw/plugs need a power tool to put them in.
But still, this isn’t building, this is assembling. I’m assembling a kitchen built in a factory.
And that got me thinking, what do we really mean when we say we “cooked” dinner?
It seems like such a simple word. “I cooked this.” But without countertops and a sink, my cooking is limited. Still I say “Alrighty then, let me cook dinner and after we eat we’ll figure out what box your cleats are in.” But right now when I say “cook”, what I mean is I unboxed, I reheated, I mixed things together.
- Rotisserie chicken from the grocery and bagged salad.
- Spaghetti with meatballs from the freezer section and jarred sauce.
- Salad kits, pizza kits, casserole kits.
I’m not cooking dinner anymore than I’m building cabinets. I’m not a cook or a carpenter.
I am an assembler. I assemble.
So while I’ve been alone in my garage with my IKEA directions, I’ve been asking myself, “what do I mean when I say cooking? And when should I change my definition to making" My grandma Alice would never consider carving a rotisserie chicken and tossing it in a premade salad "cooking", I think she would have considered that "getting take out".
When I first started catering I believed i needed to make everything from scratch, or it wasn't a catered event. Full blown crazy lady Slow Food nonsense.
I hand rolled crackers, I made my own cheese. I whisked aioli before I put it into coleslaw. RIDICULOUS. Seriously, like the most self indulgent pompous waste of time. Chipotle slaw tastes just the same with mayonnaise instead of my aioli, and the drunk guy cramming my pork slider in his mouth just wants to swallow so he can tell his great story about getting pulled over. He didn’t notice the aioli anymore than he noticed the bun which, of course I woke up at 4AM to bake before the party.
Thankfully, I’ve gotten past my pretentious nature that I need to make it all. Because, like we’ve learned from good graphic designers artisanal can turn into ART IS ANAL real quick.
If I roast my chicken and say “I cooked chicken for dinner.” it doesn't mean I raised, slaughtered, butchered and then roasted my chicken, any more than I have waded in the rice field, cultivated garlic, hand churned the butter (from my cow). That heavens we have modern industry and trade so I can go to the market and buy it. Still, where is the difference between cooking and getting take out.
There are two definitions for cook:
1: "prepare (food a dish, a meal) by combining and heating the ingredients in various ways" They cooked a wonderful meal. 2: “Alter dishonestly, fabricate.” The accountant cooked the books.
Technically, grocery rotisserie chicken fits the bill for the first definition, but to say “I cooked” when referring to rotisserie feels a little more like the second. A small deceit.
I think it’s about intent. Assembling dinner is so we can get through it quickly, to nourish us, and keep us going to do all the important things we have ahead of us. The process of cooking is unimportant because there are just so many other tasks to accomplish.
But the intent of cooking is acknowledging the process is important. It is a task, but a task I value.
So for now, I’ve decided on a new verb. Because I like words, and I want to use the right ones. Prepare or assemble feel technically right, but um, I don’t hear myself saying, “Children, I shall prepare a light dinner of frozen pizza before we retire to the den for an evening of Great British Baking Show.”
I’ve settled on “put together”. I think that would pass the sniff test with Grandma Alice, and my dad. So now, I’m going back to the garage to put together the Lat Sven (that’s “Lazy Susan” in IKEA). And for dinner I’m thinking of putting together some potstickers and peas.
We all survived, even the chickens. Well, not everything, the only casualty was a catering pitcher, but it was going to die eventually. Tonight we cooked dinner for the 1st time. Next week this old kitchen gets ripped out, and we start building the new world. Client and cooking hiatus until we're back up and running.
Ah folks. We're starting a new adventure. I've collected my last crop of pears. We are packing up our plates, and our pillows, and moving out. So excited for the next adventure, and the new kitchens. So, I'll see you again when I've unpacked the knives.
Summer, is practice for holiday baking, but I get the sunshine to exercise it all off. I've been cranking out wedding/baby/graduation events for the last few weeks. I want to eat all the batter. And then cram my face with frosting. I'm tempted to eat the flowers too, if I just dip them in a little sugar.
When someone requests a brunch, it is always a challenge to balance the sweet and the savory, so I make sure I have plenty of both. For example, the humble cinnamon roll. I always divide the dough in half. One batch becomes traditional cinnamon rolls. The other batch gets sprinkled with grated cheese, diced ham (or ripped prosciutto) and some fresh rosemary. They bake in the same oven, and I've got something to please everyone.
Spring my friends. Spring. When it stays light until 7, and the daffodils pop up and I can't find enough ways to eat asparagus. I've been using this fantastic Mark Bittman recipe for a long time, and I think every cook needs it in their arsenal.
1. It is fool proof. For real, you will not screw this up. Because the fish tells you when it's done. Heat the oven to 400*. Put a pat of butter and some fresh herbs on a sheet pan. When the herbs start to sizzle place your fish on the sheet pan SKIN SIDE UP.
Bake 5-6 minutes. Check the fish by peeling up the skin. Is it stuck on like a bandaid? Put it back in the oven for a minute or 2.
Does it come off easily? Fantastic. Peel the skin & flip the fish over. Cook on the other side 3-4 minutes. Boom Boom. Done.
2. It is versatile. Follow Bittman's recipe and then change things up.
a. Substitute coconut butter as your fat. Replace the herbs with cumin seeds and tumeric or 1 tablespoon garam masala.
b. Substitute seasame oil for your butter. Mix 3 tablespoons soys sauce, 1 tablespoon fish sauce in a small container and drizzle over fillet when you flip them. Garnish with seasame seeds and fresh chopped cilantro.
c. Quarter citrus (lemons, limes, oranges), and place them in the oven with the butter and herbs. They come out of the oven warm, and are a great addition. Either squeeze them on the fish immediately (or as soon as you can touch them without burning yourself). Or serve them on the plate next to the fish for guests.
When will it end? When will all this miserable downpour end? I have peas to plant, and strawberries to prep, but I need a few days without drizzle so I can pull all the weeds.
But, I'll buck up. And make all the clients cassoulet. I'll confit the chicken, and dream about spring.
All the good elements for confit. Lots of garlic + shallots, plenty of thyme, and a little bay.
And that's ok. We can always clean it up later. Happy Valentines.
I love cheese. I started in food when I walked into a cheese monger in the early '00s, and said "I don't know anything about cheese, except I love it. I'll do all the heavy lifting and take out the garbage if you'll teach me what you know." And that's how my cheese education began.
Often I am asked how to make a good cheese board. So here you go, step by step.
1. Select the platter. This gnarly looking platter is actually an old side table I found at a garage sale. I ripped off the legs, bent the old nails, and painted it with a food grade sealant. Fancy! Find the center and lay down an anchor of grapes. Everything rotates from there.
2. Select the cheese. I believe you should always have an odd number. It arranges prettier that way. Sometimes I'll do a single cheese on a board, so I can highlight it. Or I'll do up to seven cheeses. If that feels right. Get a variety of milk (goat, sheep, cow) and texture (fresh + creamy, semi hard + sliceable, hard + crumbly). For a basic platter I recommend: 1 creamy (fresh goat or a Brie), 1 sliceable (Ossay Irati or Beecher's Cheddar), 1 Bleu (as stinky as your guests can handle).
I leave on the labels while I adjust them around, and then remove the plastic just before my guests arrive and I'm placing the serving pieces. This is helpful if you don't know your cheeses and might forget which sign goes with which cheese.
3. Charcuterie. Arrange your charcuterie opposite your cheeses. Slice it, fan it, overlap it.
4. Accompaniment. I love a straight hunk of English style cheddar or a cracker. But what I love more is it slathered with a generous dollop of apple or pear butter. If I want guests to pair certain spreads together, I'll arrange them on the platter, and make a note of it ("Try me with the bleu, we were made for each other") Other great options: a wedge of honeycomb or jalapeño jam.
5. Nuts and Olives. Super classy. You've got to make sure you have plenty of crunchy bits to eat with the cheese. Especially if guests are drinking cocktails. I always make rosemary spiced pecans and masala cashews. I'll share the recipe sometime. Always have extra on the side so you can put a bowl out by the cocktail bar.
6. Crackers + Bread. All this cheese is great, but you need a vehicle to eat it on. I like a combination of soft bread and crispy crackers. I'm not a fan of crostini on a cheese platter, because I want a big hunk of chewy bread instead.
7. Fruit. Ok, now you've got this beautiful spread, but you've got a lot of holes. It's time to fill it with fruit. I start with some nice dried fruits, like apricots or some of the plums I dried from the tree this summer. Slice up apples and pears (I wait until the end for this, so they look fresh). Next dump a container of blueberries and raspberries over the top.
8. Serving Utensils + Signs. Everytime I drop something off at Goodwill I run in and collect new butter knives. That way I've always got the right spreader for my cheeses. Give each cheese and spread its own utensil. Sure, when your guests get drunk they'll mix them all up, but at least for the beginning you'll know the stinky bleu knife won't touch the piave. Don't forget separate utensils for any honey, and olives. If you'd like tongs for the meats you can place those out as well, but I often find guests don't use them and they get in the way. Finally, place your signs so guests know what cheeses you have, either individual signs, or a list.
9. Now that it is perfect, mess it up. I used to spend a lot of effort on my courses, and no one would eat them until late in the evening. I always thought it was because they didn't like it. Then someone said to me "oh, it's too pretty to eat, I don't want to ruin it." This isn't a Dutch still life, meant to be observed but not devoured. So, I chop a hunk off the Gouda, eat a generous slice of the cheddar, and scoop into the jam. Then the guests know it's time for them to enjoy it too.
And then, always, find someone with super groovy flamingo wallpaper so you can take a picture.
So happy when people aren't afraid of fried food! Fresh corn, fried chicken and fried zucchini straight from the garden. Flour blend is 1/2 all purpose, 1/2 chickpea. Makes it nutty and golden, and delicious.
HOW TO READ AND FOLLOW A RECIPE
I think the hardest thing about cooking at home is no one teaches us how to read a recipe. How to really understand it. So, here are some rambling thoughts.
Before you start to cook, read the recipe. Seems like obvious advice, but I really mean it. I know it seems like you are wasting time, that you should dive into cooking, and just get the process going. But I can pretty much guarantee you that by taking 10 minutes and reading the recipe in advance, you are saving so much time in the long run.
Treat a recipe like Shakespeare. Recipes, like Shakespeare can be daunting if you don't know what your are doing. So, I suggest you read it through three times.
Read it the 1st time for general context, does it look good? Would my kids eat it? Is this for a special occasion or just Tuesday dinner? Like Shakespeare, you are just trying to get the general flow, don't get bogged down with the vocabulary.
Read it the 2nd time looking for content. How many times have you gotten excited about a recipe for dinner guests, done all your shopping, gotten 1/2 way through the process at read “Rest for at least 4 hours, or overnight.” Whoops, dinner is ruined. So, read it over and make sure you understand how to do it. Do you have all the equipment you need? Is there vocabulary you don’t understand, or a technique you need to learn. This is the part on Romeo and Juliet where you start to really understand the characters.
Finally, read it one more time before you start cooking. Think Shakespeare, this time BE the character. Invision yourself cooking it. How long is this really going to take me? While the onions sauté I can season the meat, or fold the laundry.
Now, I’m going to talk about devices. I LOVE that I can look up recipes online, everything I want at my fingers. However, once I have a recipe I have started copying it on my dry erase board, or printing it off. And that’s because of distraction, and parent modeling. I found it took me 3 times as long to cook a recipe off my computer than if I transfer it to the wall.
Inevitably I have to wake up my computer when my fingers are covered in dough so I can look up how long I knead it.
And then LOOK my best friend sent me a picture of her new haircut! oh, better text her back a picture of the dog at my feet. Oh, an email reminder about Girls Scouts on Friday, I should take a second and put Grace’s uniform in her bag. By the time I get back to making dinner I’ve flipped the laundry, let the dog in and out 20 times, and somehow got distracted by a recipe for ___ I want everyone to cook for the charity dinner I’m doing in October. So, find the recipe and put down the damn phone.
Line up the soldiers. I spent my culinary internship in an R&D kitchen. The best thing I took away from there was the simple, almost grandma way of cooking. Gather your ingredients, put them on your left, and as you measure them out move them to your right. I love to teach this to kids, it makes it so simple, and even if you get distracted you don’t get lost. So, say you are making biscuits, you are combining all your dry ingredients, it’s so easy to let your mind wander and then think “Soda, did I put the soda in?” Well, if its on your left side, it’s not in yet, if it’s on the right you are done. boom.
Remember to look away. When you go to the symphony the musicians all have the music infront of them. You know they know this music backwards, and yet you’ll see them in the more challenging sections eyeing down each measure. Then, you see them break away, the parts that they know so well, and so freely, they are able to step away and get caught up in the piece. Feel that way about a recipe, work to getting away from the paper, and simply cooking. You’ll find you work faster and more effectively if you aren’t always staring at the page. I know if I’m working on a layering of flavors, or something I haven’t worked with before that I need to read the page, following each direction like the measures of music, but when if there are passages I am familiar with, I can simply let that flow.
Next, bring a few recipes to memory. My daughter's music teacher last week told her, piano is my best friend, and I always have music with me. I want you to keep practicing, because I want you to have that best friend too. Cooking is my best friend, and I have recipes that I carry inside of me like music. And I want you to have that too. Like a poem or a sonata, have a few that you carry in your heart, good friends who will never leave you. Like the woman who can walk by a hotel piano and play a sweet & simple etude, or the guy at the campfire who knows the chords to all the taylor swift songs. Martha Stewart’s Pate Brisee is in my heart. I learned 100 pastries in culinary school, but this one just struck with me, and now I can make pie whenever I need. Pick a few recipes you’d like to commit to memory, that would be useful and joyful to carry around with you. If you go away for weekends with big groups of families - memorize an incredible but simple sough dough waffle recipe, or perfect a few sauces to accompany the meats you KNOW the men put on the grill (a chimichurri or pesto, or if you are more advanced a bar blanc or bernaisse). If you travel abroad pick something that feels quintisenntially PNW, that you can use local ingredients but put that PNW spin on them.