Fall has come to Sarasota with the snowbirds, traffic and perfect weather. It really is lovely here this time of year, and it reminds me of why I don’t live in the northeast anymore. One of the best parts of living in Sarasota is small, local shops. One of our favorites, the Artisan Cheese Company put together a cheese of the month club that Bob and I decided to take advantage of. Three cheeses each month – about a pound and a half of cheese – that we get to try and determine if any will be our new favorites.

This month we had one goat cheese, one sheep cheese and one cow cheese. I love variety and I’m not sure I would have picked two of them, but I’m sure glad Louise thought of these.

Goat cheese is a favorite of mine, but this one Bob liked more than I did. It reminded me a lot of Humbolt Fog, which is a pretty earthy cheese. This one is no different. Very good, lots of different flavors throughout the cheese, but very strong. By itself, I have a hard time eating it, but combined with a cracker and some honey, and it’s fantastic. Don’t try it with apple; the acid and tartness of the apple clash with the cheese.

Sheep cheese is also a favorite of mine. Delicate favors that usually pair well with almost anything, but especially wine. In this case, the cheese was mild, almost deceptively so. If eaten by itself, it had a lot of flavor, but paired with honey, apples or crackers and it just compliments. It doesn’t compete for center stage, but is a fantastic supporting character.

Normally cow cheese is ok. Not my favorite, but a standard cheese. I almost never think of cow cheese as anything special, but this one changed my mind. Out of the three we had this month, this was by far my favorite. The cheese has a ton of flavor, deep flavor. It pairs well with wine, apple or honey, but also stands up on its own. This was Bob’s second favorite this month, but my favorite.

The nice thing about a basket like this is we have dinner for tonight and I have lunch all week. Cheese, crackers and fruit – I’ll be in heaven. Should make work just a little better and we should have some interesting salads or main dishes incorporating the cheese over the next week. /happy dance. This may be one of my better ideas.

And simply because I love to support small, local businesses, if you are even remotely interested in artisan cheeses, really good artisan cheeses, check out the 3 month cheese club – you don’t have to be a local to get fantastic cheese. And if you are in Sarasota, stop, by – Louise and Parker, and the staff, love talking cheese with people. We even got great recommendations for when we traveled to England.

This week I knew work would be busy, but I still anticipated getting out near on time most days so over the weekend I made a pork butt with the intention of making several dishes with it. Work being work …. I ended up getting out late every day except for the day I had my hair appointment. So while I intended to have multiple pretty pictures, I only have a few.

But I started off with gnocchi. I love gnocchi, but I never make it light and fluffy. I probably make it totally wrong, use the wrong potatoes or use too much flour. But … I found a recipe that uses ricotta instead of potatoes. Interesting. Couldn’t find goat cheese ricotta so I improvised and went with a large, 32oz container of regular ricotta. I wrapped it in cheese cloth and sat it on an upside-down ash tray (the one I kept because it is from grandmom’s house and Vanessa calls the world’s smallest ash tray) in an old Corning ware pot overnight so it could drain. It actually worked really, really well. The cheese stayed above the liquid and everything was easy to clean. I followed the rest of the recipe (only for the gnocchi) pretty much as written, but made a few Sunday night because I couldn’t resist. Browned butter, sage and gnocchi. These were amazing. Light. Fluffy. Lots of flavor. Both Bob and I like them better than the regular ones and the butternut squash ones I’ve made before. (and that is saying something because I love the butternut ones.

I also used them a second day with a pork sauce.

Onion, garlic, carrot, whole tomatoes crushed up with the juice, thyme, oregano, and a little zinfandel. I let that cook together then added the gnocchi and let those cook just for a minute or two. The result ….

I also made a sort of pork taco this week. The same pulled pork, onions, cilantro and goat cheese. Very simple, but really flavorful, I did add a little vegetable broth when cooking the pork, just to add some juice and flavor. It worked.

Today I wanted something hearty and comforting. Both Bob and I are getting over colds, so soup sounded good, but not exactly what I wanted. So, I found an easy polenta recipe and change it just a bit. I cut it in half, substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth and eliminated the pepper. I loved how easy this was, and really, it was really, really good.

I’m pretty sure Bob would have eaten this by itself, and all of it. He really, really liked it. But I topped it with a kind of soup, kind of loose stew. Pork, onion, carrot, tomatoes, vegetable broth and apple cider. > I added some herbs from the garden and put it around the polenta for a pretty perfect lunch.

. I really loved the creamy texture of the polenta, but the carrots and onions gave it a nice texture.

Yes, there was a very definite theme this week. Of course, when you use what is on hand, that tends to happen. Hopefully I’ll be a little more creative next week, but it will depend on work. Fingers crossed it will be a lifter week.

… Oh … Dessert. Still on the shortbread kick …

Brown sugar shortbread with bittersweet chocolate. Kind of can’t go wrong there.

It’s been a long few weeks. After recovering from the second England trip, catching up at work, readjusting to U.S. time and three Back-to-School Nights in one week, I haven’t cooked as much as I would like. But I am making up for it this weekend with a few new dishes.

But first, Bob and I tried a new restaurant Friday. Canta Rana is a Peruvian/Purto Rican restaurant that is relatively new to Sarasota. We decided to try it and are really glad we did. There is a very limited alcohol menu, but with food this good, we were just fine with wine and beer. The star dish of the night was the appetizer – a plantain with spiced ground beef and mozerella. Oh. My. God. Good.

Talk about flavor. Tons. The sweetness of the plantain and the spice of the beef, it was a little bit of heaven.

You know I haven’t cooked much when Bob’s request for the week’s menu is “something lighter, maybe a salad or two.” (Have I mentioned it’s been a long few weeks?) So to start out this weekend I made a version of an Asian salad that I found. Of course, I changed the recipe quite a bit based on my no fish requirement and what I had on hand. So, I used mirin in place of the rice vinegar, soy sauce in place of fish sauce, juice of one lime and sesame oil in place of vegetable oil. In the salad, I reduced the cilantro by more than half and used the green onions I have in the garden in place of the scallions. I also toasted some pine nuts instead of using peanuts. So yes, there was a recipe, but I totally changed it. The results …. Fantastic. Bob was happy as anything with the heat in this salad. Not hot from cooking, but heat from the chili garlic paste. He was totally happy eating food that his food eats with this salad. There were no leftovers for me to take to work this week it was so good.

Now I can’t go totally healthy and with Dad’s birthday this weekend I used the excuse to bake. I loved the peanut shortbread from last week, but decided to go with butterscotch bars and lemon bars

I wasn’t sure about the butterscotch. It’s a flavor I can go with, but I never really want it and I never miss it if I don’t have it. I thought about substituting caramel, but I think Dad likes butterscotch, so I’ll try it. The cookie base is really simple to make and melting butterscotch chips is just not that hard. I did have to roast my own cashews as I only had raw on hand, but they worked.

They are a little messy into chilled, but Bob loved the flavor and thought they beat the peanut shortbread.

And then I tried lemon bars. I love lemon meringue pie, lemon cookies, lemon custard, etc. so lemon bars seemed like a great thing to try. The crust was different, but it still came out really well. I do think I like cold butter crusts rather than melted butter ones, but that really is splitting hairs. I also used way more lemon zest than the recipe calls for – zest of four lemons to be exact – but the results were perfect. Lots of lemon flavor, but not too tart (because there is enough sugar in the while thing to really cut it which is why I added extra zest).

These are not lasting long.

I have a pork in the slow cooker for several meals this week and ricotta draining for a gnocchi recipe I want to try. Hopefully I can get out of work early enough to actually cook this week.

Florida may be over 90 degrees, and my air conditioner may be on, but it is fall. The new fall TV line up (such that it is) is premiering, regular season football is on and the kids are back in school. While the weather outside still screams summer, all I want these days is good fall food.

I got back into cooking this weekend, starting with falafel yesterday and going for a nice chicken with tomatillo sauce sandwich.

It is a pretty basic idea – chicken taco essentially, but we used the pita bread I had in the freezer and the star of the show was the tomatillo sauce. Roasted tomatillos, onion, cumin, pepper, chili powder, parsley and jalapeño.

But I still wanted real fall flavor. I’m still getting over my cold, so soup sounded great. I found a recipe for butternut squash soup and since I dint have some ingredients on hand, I improvised.

1 butternut squash, chopped
1/4 onion (all I had on hand)
1 large shallot
2 apples, peeled and chopped.

I mixed all that with some oil and roasted it in a 425 oven for about 30 minutes, stirring about half way through. Once it came out I scooped it into the food processor with some vegetable stock. This is pretty much eye balled, but I think I used about 1 1/2 cup total. Process well then strain in batches through a fine mesh sieve.

Over medium low heat I added curry powder, salt and pepper. The finished product was fantastic. Creamy, deep flavor and filling. Unfortunately there was just enough for Bob and I to have for dinner so no leftovers. But what a way to get back into cooking. And a perfect football day food. Oh … And vegan to boot!

Erin, the soup recipe – just for you. If you have an immersion blender it would be easier and you may end up with more actual soup. But try it – and don’t tell Ed it’s vegan.

I’m back at work after almost two weeks in England and trying to get caught up. That has meant long days and I’ve just been too tired to do much cooking. Thankfully Bob is good with take out for weeks like this. But that still leaves the snack food and dessert that I crave. Yes, I could be healthier and forgo sweets, but it’s just not in my nature; and, if I have a little when I want it I don’t overdue it like I do if I totally deprive myself (example of the great cake eating incident of 1998).

First up for snacks was caramel corn. This one came about because it turned out I didn’t have much of anything in the house (including flour) so baking was difficult. I used my favorite caramel corn recipe as the basic idea here. I don’t have a candy thermometer but I do pretty well eyeballing the caramel portion of this. Bill and Bob call is crack corn because, in all honesty, it is addictive and no matter how much I make – half a recipe here, double recipe other time – it all goes in one sitting. While excellent at room temperature, it is amazing warm.

Also on the plate this week was chocolate peanut shortbread. This is almost as good as the caramel corn. I think the trick to making this better is using a basic shortbread instead of a peanut shortbread. Might just be a little too much peanut taste for me. But the shortbread is pretty easy to make – it starts out like this …

then goes in the pan like this

and comes out of the oven like this

.

All well and good, but then you make it fantastic with some nice chopped bittersweet chocolate

Then comes the tricky part – the caramel.

It was looking pretty good until I stirred it. Then it went to this.

So I started over and actually followed the instructions about not stirring and we made it to this:

which turned into real caramel sauce after adding the vanilla and cream.

The dessert – still have to come up with a shorter name for it – is really pretty in the pan.

And sliced into small pieces you can see the layers better.

This may not have been the most interesting week for cooking, but it is one of the tastiest. Next week is not looking so good for cooking either – three back to school nights – so next weekend may be more desserts and snacks.

One night in England Brad made all of us a Pimms. A traditional summer drink (alcoholic) in England I wasn’t sure what to expect as the US doesn’t really have equivalent. But of my, I may have found my new favorite drink – at least in warmer weather.

Pimms is a gin based drink. It is about 40% alcohol so it needs to be mixed with lemon aide or soda to drink. I tried to replicate Brad’s fabulous creation and I think I came close. So … Cherries, strawberries, raspberry and cucumber into a glass with a little ice. Add Pimms and some lemon-lime soda and drink. Apparently if I wanted to get very traditional, I would change out the soda for lemonade and add mint. But for tonight, I’m going with my creation as it is very tasty. Reminiscent of a Sloe Gin Fizz but I can make it myself.

I also got back to cooking today. After a week of getting ready for teachers and kids to come back to school, I didn’t do much last week. But … yesterday I picked up a chuck roast, seared it in a frying pan with some onion and garlic then popped it in the crock pot for eight hours. For a braising liquid I used a little beef broth with a bottle of beer Bob bought, but didn’t like.

Well, he bought I six pack so now I have cooking beer. I was a little concerned with using this, but I figured I could always add lots of other spices to cover it if it wasn’t good. But, I have never had better shredded beef.

Very, very tender and not spicy, but flavorful. Today I made shredded beef tacos with it and boy did it hit the mark.

For the tacos I heated the beef with some onion and a little of the braising liquid. To that I added fresh farmers’ market tomatoes and hard goat cheese. The result …

Not a bad little lunch. Tonight I’m working on shredded beef rolls with butternut squash. If I can get through the papers I’m working on!

Bob gave me go ahead to add more vegetarian dishes into the rotation after the falafel success and the butternut squash spring rolls. Poor man, doesn’t know exactly what he is in for. Such as … today’s experiment – a variation on a vegan dish from my vegan cookbook.

The original recipe calls for multiple red peppers and eggplant. I don’t happen to like eggplant and Bob does not like bell peppers of most varieties, so this proved challenge number one. Well, I had some leftover orange and yellow pepper and a little red pepper, so I just used those. (This is still clean out and use of what is in the fridge week since we leave next week meals.) I also used zucchini as I like zucchini in place of the eggplant. So I roasted those with some olive oil and roasted a few cloves of garlic. I admit to getting confused on the recipe – it told me to roast the whole bulb, but then only calls for three cloves. While that was roasting, I sautéed some onion in a little olive oil then added spices. I think I used thyme, oregano (from the garden) coriander and pepper. To that went some white wine to deglaze the pan and a can of peeled tomatoes (juice included) that I crushed up as I added them. Add two bay leaves, the chickpeas and the peppers, garlic and zucchini; let simmer for a while. Sorry, I didn’t time this, I really just added, stirred, tasted and added again over the course of an hour or so. I thought it needed more liquid at one point, so I added a half cup of veggie broth.

That did seem to work well and the result as pretty good. I still have an issue with the texture of chickpeas (and beans in general) but I swear I must be doing something wrong since they don’t have that texture in the dishes I eat out (mainly the Indian place that opened up here). But I’ll keep at it until I get it right.

I did make this a non-vegan (but totally vegetarian meal) as I added a goat cheese polenta to the dish. It worked pretty well and is a make again with a few tweaks.

… Oh – the library is done and it came out great!

I figure Bob will get a meat dish tomorrow. I’m cooking for our anniversary as we will celebrate while in Europe next week. (So excited!)

Gratuitous kitty picture ….

He is just too darn cute.

As we get ready to head across the pond again, I’m trying to use up everything in my fridge and freezer – at least as much as possible. I made another chicken, ham and leek pie (very, very good), pork chops with roasted green beans (excellent), and tonight’s goat cheese salad with butternut squash spring rolls. Ok, I could have gone with just the salad, but I’ve been dying to try these and the poor squash was still sitting in my fridge so it had to be used. … Or at least that is my story and I’m sticking to it.

The salad was your basic veggie basket stuff – arugula, tomatoes and cucumbers with pecan crusted herbed goat cheese. Super easy (mix herbs from the garden with goat cheese, make into patties, coat in egg and cover with pecans. Freeze then cook at 400 for about ten minutes. The dressing was garlic, shallot, ground mustard, salt, pepper, white balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixed together. Bob said he was impressed with how I “went all out” with the salad. Should I tell him it took longer to find the stuff in the fridge than to make the thing? Nah.

But as I was making him a salad for dinner, I decided to go with the spring rolls too. Once again, I really wanted them and I was trying to find a way to use up everything in the fridge. So … I roasted some raw pumpkin seeds I found on Amazon. (Seriously, you can find anything there.) Olive oil, salt and a 300 degree oven did the trick. I then raised the temp of the oven to 400 (took out the seeds first) and roasted the squash for about 20-25 minutes – again just olive oil and salt. Meanwhile I made some rice noodles and broke out the rice paper (Amazon again … You really do have to almost love the site). I didn’t have the cilantro the recipe called for but I substituted basil from the garden for this. So – layer the rice noodles on the soaked rice paper, add the squash, seeds and basil and roll.

They came out kind of pretty. And they taste really, really good. I did make a dipping sauce to go with them – soy sauce, mirin, white balsamic vinegar, sesame oil and a little sugar. The sauce was fantastic although a slight departure from the recipe in my vegan cookbook where this came from. (I didn’t have Asian chili oil or rice vinegar so I improvised – it worked).

I have another vegetarian experiment tomorrow to use up the chick peas in the fridge then the Greek chicken salad and one more round of chicken, ham and leek pie (frozen, but from the same batch as this last one). Here’s to hoping it all comes out ok with limited disasters.