Cinnamon, Ginger and Honey Spiced Popcorn

Posted on February 8, 2010 by admin_admin

This cinnamon, ginger and honey popcorn is so nice because it’s a little bit sweet from the honey and cinnamon, but it’s also a little bit savory from the ginger and salt. I made it intending it to be an appetizer for pasta with brown butter, but I think it would also be really yummy as a post-meal sweet snack.

Adapted from Cooks.com

one bag plain microwave popcorn, no butter added
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Melt the butter, add the honey into the butter and mix. Pour over the popcorn and toss until evenly coated. Mix spices together in a bowl and sprinkle over the butter-coated popcorn evenly, tossing until coated.

Spread popcorn on a cookie sheet in one layer and bake at 275 degrees for ten minutes.

Munch away and enjoy!

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Arbor Inspiration

Posted on December 28, 2009 by admin_admin

This fall I went to the Central Park Conservatory Garden for the first time, and I was so struck by the beauty of the half-circle arbor covered in greenery.

I know it’s a slightly strange obsession, but I absolutely love arbors covered in greenery. Flower arbors somehow don’t do it for me – too Laura Ashley, I think. I confess that I had to even look up what arbors are called; for a while I was just calling them “those green covered things that I love,” but you know what, it’s not the name that matters as long as people get what you’re talking about. Or so I tell myself. Anyway, now I know thy name is arbor.

I love this arbor too, which is also in Central Park.

Arbors like these make me desperately want to host a small garden dinner party under the archway, with long wood tables covered only in white hydrangeas and potted plants, white dinnerware, rustic family-style food, and zillions of white pillar candles. Dinner would begin at dusk, just when you start needing the candles, and there would undoubtedly be acoustic music of some kind imbuing the atmosphere without much trouble on anybody’s part. The wine would be one of those gorgeous bottles you vow to remember the name of and always forget, and the conversation would flow beautifully amongst friends.

Large image my own of the Central Park Conservatory; images on right from Martha Stewart Weddings

Under the Arbor Menu (to be passed family style; no delineated courses)

Arugula Salad with Roasted Yam, Apple and Gouda
Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs
Green Beans with Mushrooms and Shallots
Olive Bread with my Herb Butter

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Arugula Salad Recipe

Posted on December 27, 2009 by admin_admin

I made this the other day just for a tasty lunch for myself, and I had to share:

Arugula Salad with Roasted Yam, Apple and Gouda

Serves four as a first course, or two as a main course

For the salad:

1 yam
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
2 cups baby arugula
1 Gala apple (or other apple of your choice)
4 oz aged Gouda

For the Agave Vinaigrette Dressing:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons light agave nectar (I’m really into agave right now – it’s low on the glycemic index and much thinner than honey, so it mixes easily into anything)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon Vege Sal
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Start by roasting the yam. Heat your over to 375 degrees F. Peel the yam, cutting off any brown spots, and chop into bite-sized pieces. Spread on a baking sheet and cover with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg so there is a small amount on each piece of yam. Toss it all together with your hands so every piece is covered in oil. Roast 20-25 minutes – yams should be soft but not falling apart. You can put them in the salad warm, or keep in the refrigerator until ready to use (up to 24 hours).

Toast the walnuts over medium-low heat in a dry saucepan for 3-4 minutes, until you can smell the walnut oils.

Place the arugula in a large bowl and add the walnuts and yam. Chop the apple into bite-sized pieces and add to the arugula. Slice the gouda into strips as thinly as possible (it is a crumbly cheese, so it will be hard to slice it very thin) and then cut the strips in half. Add to the arugula.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together, adding the olive oil in a slow stream while whisking. Pour the dressing over the arugula, toss, and serve.

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Biscuits

Posted on December 10, 2009 by admin_admin

It’s finals time for me, which means that I’m officially not allowed in the kitchen because I will procrastinate my way through many recipes and not learn what I need to learn. Cooking is my worst procrastination tool because I can justify it – I need to eat, so I obviously have to cook something anyway, and if I’m cooking anyway I might as well try something new and fun and tasty that will take four hours and require many dishes to be washed….and then half a day later I’m full and happy and utterly ill-prepared for my exams. So I am not allowed in the kitchen. I eat a lot of Subway during finals.

That said, I totally broke my own rule and made some fluffy, gorgeous biscuits.

I couldn’t help it: Smitten Kitchen put them up and they only have five ingredients! All of which were all in my kitchen! It’s my kryptonite. So easy to just throw together. Plus, a good friend was arriving from out of town tonight. PLUS, another friend was coming over for to kill some time before a date. The confluence of those events just can’t go by me without my offering some sort of homemade food!

So, I threw together the biscuits at lunchtime (using a wine glass to cut them, since I don’t have a biscuit cutter) and stuck them in the fridge so I could bake them ten minutes before everyone was supposed to arrive. I followed her recipe, so I won’t be redundant and repost it here – just click here to go to the recipe.

biscuit dough board

My dough made eight normal-sized biscuits and one baby biscuit.

I served them with an assortment of creamy butter, clotted cream, jams, honey and raspberries and oh my gosh, all of the toppings together was the best combination.

These biscuits are really tasty right out of the oven, but don’t keep very well. We made fried egg/cheddar cheese/turkey bacon breakfast sandwiches with them the next morning and they were too dry (but no matter: I just threw some extra ketchup on that bad boy and called it good!). However, they’re so easy to make ahead that they’re great for dinner parties. I would make them for an unusual dinner party appetizer with either honey butter or herb butter, or for a dinner party dessert with a fruit sauce and spiced whipped cream. So tasty.

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Michael’s Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Posted on November 24, 2009 by admin_admin

I kinda like my Thanksgiving dinner to have the same basics every time. It feels reassuring to have the traditional dishes we always have, made with all the weird accommodations we deal with for my family’s different eating requirements: my mom’s vegetarian cornbread stuffing cooked far away from the turkey, the turkey for everyone else cooked somewhere where she can’t smell it cooking (I know, I don’t get it either), homemade cranberry sauce for my mom and my sister and the jellied cranberry sauce from the can for my dad and I (what, the canned sauce is SO superior and if you don’t understand that then I have nothing to say to you), and lots and lots of classic creamy mashed potatoes for everyone.

The best - with the ridges still intact!

This year we aren’t having a sit-down dinner, but if we were, I’d make sure we have these dishes. Inventive side dishes are fine and even enjoyable, as long as we have these basics on our Thanksgiving table to ensure that no matter what craziness is served beside them, we will have a tasty Thanksgiving. Except that last year, it got all topsy-turvy. I couldn’t fully comprehend it until later, and couldn’t accept it until much later. That’s right: we tried a different recipe for mashed potatoes. Don’t all gasp at once.

perfectmashedpotatoes3

It was all my fault, really. My very good friend Michael came to Thanksgiving, and asked if he could make his traditional mashed potatoes, which are loaded with bacon, cheese, chives and tons of sour cream. I said of course, as long as you don’t mind also having our mashed potatoes on the table because everyone in my family likes them an awful lot. He felt fine about that. So we agreed to have two mashed potato dishes and everyone could just choose the one they liked (an agreement I made while rolling my eyes and feeling a bit sorry for him and his complicated mashed potatoes that no one would eat and that – worst of all – would make bad sandwich leftovers).

Well. Needless to say, since I’m writing this story, everyone liked his mashed potatoes so much that ours seemed terribly boring in comparison – like someone just forgot to make them tasty and filled with flavor. Including me. Honestly, they are so good that I’m hoping to make them this year – the only homemade thing at our Thanksgiving, which is the highest honor I can confer upon a dish. So just trust me and make them for your Thanksgiving. Your taste buds will thank you. And yes, they are excellent as leftovers too. I was wrong about it ALL, all right?! Geez!

I’ll post photos of the dish soon, but for now, please continue for the recipe and enjoy the beefcake photo of the chef that I coerced him into letting me put up! Love it!

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Sweet Home Dinner

Posted on November 22, 2009 by admin_admin

It was gorgeous and a wonderful evening. Alexis was down from Connecticut for the day and stopped by to stay hi while I was stringing the flowers for the ceiling. Of course I invited her to stay for dinner, and she was such a wonderful addition to our party – and got to hear lots of stories about Fairfield (where we all grew up) that either scared or intrigued her! Ha!

It’s an artistic group, so it was really fun to create a colorful table with bouquets of color pencils over brown craft paper that begged to be drawn on. I used it as the easiest place cards ever – just wrote everyone’s names above their plates.

The flowers were simple, but added a punch of color. I bought four bunches of carnations in yellow and three shades of pink, and kept each color in its own vase rather than mixing them. It made the flowers look cohesive and at the same time, with the colored pencils, made the table as a whole very colorful.

I then strung blossoms on three long strands of thread and hung them from the ceiling for something more festive and with a little bit of South Asian flair.

We made gorgeous doodles.

mosaicc029a8a12365810ee7ba98c79040ae60c68648d2 And the food…Anna brought her gorgeous macaroons made with organic sweetened condensed milk, but I was so consumed with eating them that I completely forgot to take a photograph. Just imagine perfectly browned, chewy golden macaroons, and you’ll have a good sense of how lovely they were. Please continue for the post-mortem on my dishes.

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Sweet Home Dinner: Menu

Posted on November 19, 2009 by admin_admin

Remember when I decided I needed to try gluten-free pasta to see if I could substitute it in for my tagliatelle with gorgonzola? I ran down to the store the other day for the ingredients to make classic mac and cheese with rice pasta, and couldn’t find rice pasta. However, they did have quinoa pasta and corn pasta, so I chose the corn because it came in classic elbow macaroni and cooked it up. It tastes good! Honestly, I couldn’t even tell the difference. Plus, according to the wise comments, rice pasta falls apart anyway – so I will take that to mean my choice of corn pasta was a genius move on my part and even if the store had had rice pasta, I undoubtedly would still have chosen the corn because I just know things like that….yeah….

So this is excellent, and will let me go with my original menu idea of soup followed by pasta and simple veggies, and maybe a nice brown bread for the gluten eaters. One of my guests offered to bring macaroons for dessert, which are obviously gluten-free and sound soooo good! I’ll just save the balsamic truffles for another time; it’s always kind of a nice feeling to know you’ve got a dessert in your back pocket that will go with almost any meal and no one has seen it before. We’ll start with a nice simple zucchini and goat cheese appetizer, which I can not only make the day before, but will be extra vegetables (always good!) and a little protein in the cheese.

Zucchini_Rolls_lg As for libations, a non-drinking friend is bringing something tasty and non-alcoholic. For the drinkers, I think the wine will have to marry well with the gorgonzola but otherwise could probably be whatever you like. I’ll probably just ask at the wine shop what they would recommend, as I’m no wine expert. I even went to a lovely wine tasting the other night that was meant to be focused on how to order wine from a mysterious wine list – we all know how foreign those look, right?! This was information I needed! – and I kid you not, the advice they gave over and over was “Ask the sommelier.” So basically there is no way to figure it out yourself. Oh well, I still had a great time at the tasting and got to see friends from college, so it was overall a win.