Easter (Spring!) Feast

I have these photos backwards, but this past Sunday, I invited my neighbors and two friends from school (one brought her very sweet 14-year-old son) to Easter "dinner," served at 4pm. As you can see, the greens are in, though it's almost too warm now for lettuces. Carrots and beets are big players, radishes and turnips, too. Peas are in, and tomatoes have started. Cucumbers, too. Is it possible that summer is nearly here?

I need a little makeover for my red potato salad: right now I blanch string beans and cut scallions (maybe shallots are better)... and dress the lot with Australian pink salt flakes and a mustard vinaigrette. I sometimes add hard-boiled eggs. Suggestions?

Coming Out

I have, for the last several months, been eating the "lesser" intelligent animals. Every other week or every three weeks, I purchase organic ground turkey and make a meatloaf.
Here is a chicken from the market - pasture raised - that I bought yesterday. I'm including the "pasture raised" bit, but I'm sure it doesn't make a lick of difference. My lesser consumption is the half lemon, which I saved even though it was squeezed. I had to look online for the cooking temperatures and times. I couldn't (gasp!) call my mother.

Sourdough bagels

I used the sourdough bagel recipe from Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. They worked out very well -- notable things about this recipe include the fact that the bagels are boiled really briefly (20 seconds) in nothing but water (other recipes I've tried include malt syrup and/or baking soda).

They didn't taste sour -- I guess this is because they spent most of their proofing time in the fridge. And they really got a lot of oven spring. Overall, I like this recipe, but I must say I have a bit of a weakness for the Montreal-ish bagels I make using the Artisan Bread recipe.

Popcorn cookies

These have been on my to-make list for a while. They got on the list because -- how could you not want to try cookies made out of popcorn? They stayed on the list, unmade, because I was sort of dubious that they could be anything but healthy-tasting.

And how were they? Surprisingly good. They go into the oven as very unpromising looking piles of grains held together with a little oil and sugar, and come out as beautifully crisp wafers. I must admit that I increased the sugar slightly, to 2 tablespoons (yes, this is a mini-recipe: it makes only 6 cookies). (Mine took much less time to cook than the recipe suggested -- I think only 7 minutes.)

Hamantaschen

These worked out really well. I veganized this recipe using Tofutti cream cheese, and coconut oil for the butter.

Appetizers!

I never know what to bring when someone asks me to make an appetizer. I don't do fried things well... and I don't do pastry well. So if it's 70-something degrees out, I skip the rustic tart and bring vegetables. From left to right: radishes, fennel, hard-boiled quail eggs, heirloom carrots, broccoli.
Three dips/spreads: clockwise, from left, shredded radishes with lowfat creamed cheese and salt, caramelized onions with equal parts greek yogurt and sour cream, beetroot pesto with toasted walnuts, orange zest, honey, and olive oil.

I made a beet cake for dessert. It was delicious. No picture!!! I'll have to make it again.

Remember when

On this stinking hot day, I'm remembering way back to last week when we had one day that was cool enough to turn the oven on.

 Luckily I had the foresight to start the dough the day before. (Here begin the bread geek details, for future reference.) I used the whole grain pizza dough recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. I think it was 70% whole wheat, and 30% plain white flour. (I used half the suggested sugar, and -- due to misreading the recipe -- omitted the oil. I added a small amount of oil during the shaping prior to refrigeration.) It had about 22 hours in the fridge. The dough was quite sticky before refrigeration, but ended up being surprisingly easy to shape. I used Reinhart's instructions for shaping the pizza, rather than my usual rolling pin technique.

This crust was very tasty. The crumb was good, but not as good as my usual recipe. It reminded me a bit of focaccia in that it was kind of springy -- not in a bad or unpizzalike way, mind you.

(The pizza toppings were: Reinhart's crushed tomato sauce, kalamatas, green capsicum, and Cheezly mozzarella.)