I’ve been a little lax in posting recently and I’d like to blame it on being super busy at work, but I just can’t. I have regular hours (they rotate throughout the week, but they are regular) and I’m not doing a ton outside those hours. Oh, I do some work Sunday mornings before Bob gets up, but I don’t feel crazy busy or stressed like I use to. I’ve been pretty good about cooking, and Bob has even starting prepping the ingredients Thursday evenings so all I gave to do is cook. It’s nice.

But this weekend I did cook and I experimented. I saw a corn soup recipe that I thought looked interesting and would make great lunches this week. I started out following the recipe – remove the kernels from the cob, dice the pepper and roast everything.
After that I started having a few issues. I cut the cobs and covered them with water to simmer, but how much water? How do I know when enough flavor has been extracted? I kept checking the cob water, but it just never seemed really … corny? Anyway, I melted butter, added the garlic and onion and sweated those down while keeping an eye on the cobs. I added the corn and peppers, tossed everything with salt, pepper and paprika then added the water and milk.

It was missing something. I tried more paprika and a little more salt, but it wasn’t enough. I then added some curry powder and more salt. Almost. More paprika, more salt (probably a teaspoon or less total) and more curry powder. Just about perfect. The soup has a great flavor, but was a little thin. I think next time I’m going to simmer the cobs in milk instead of water and skip adding it at the end.

I think I’m trying a version of eggplant lasagna this next week. If all goes well (and probably even if it doesn’t) I’ll try to get that up too.

Hope everyone is well.

It has been one heck of a week – in a good way. While I started the new job last week with orientation, this week has been prep week. Lots of meetings, lots of new faces and lots of planning. I’ve discovered one or two things along the way: 1) When I’m not the one in charge I can actually let go, not worry and just do my thing. 2) I can plan and plan but in the back of my mind I know half my plans will be thrown out the window as soon as the kids arrive. I’m ok with that. 3) I missed working as part of a team and letting other people help me. It’s weird to be the new kid and accepting help rather than constantly giving help, but it’s really nice too.

Needless to say all of this has decreased my stress level significantly – and that is a very good thing.

I didn’t have the mental capacity to do a ton of experimental cooking this week, but I did make one dish that I was particularly proud of – Sweet Potato cakes with a Cucumber salad. These two recipes were again found in my Plenty cookbook which so far has a perfect record. Every dish I’ve made from it has been fantastic.

This was pretty simple – cut up cooked sweet potatoes into small cubed. Add soy sauce, chopped green onions, flour, chopped red chili a tiny bit of sugar and some salt. The dressing is Greek yogurt, lemon, oil, cilantro and sour cream.

The salad was cucumbers and red onion with ginger, garlic and a rice vinegar dressing. Simple, clean and a nice pairing with the cakes. Best part about this dinner was the leftovers for lunch the next day.

I was going to make dinner last night but after standing for three and a half hours at work (plus everything else I did) my feet were killing me. So Bob and I decided to head to our favorite cheese shop for a cheese plate dinner. Louise makes up a great cheese plate (she gave Bob a little blue cheese, but put a little something extra on there for me since I don’t do blue cheese) that was simply amazing. We had an ash ripened goat cheese that was one of the best I’ve ever had, an amazing sheep’s cheesed a Camembert like cheese that blew everything else on the plate – as good as it was – totally away. There were also two hard cheeses, one cheddar like cheese and a Toma we’ve had before, that were great, but after the soft cheeses …. well, they were not the stars. The soft cheeses were so good we picked up a bit of each for this week and I’m making beer bread today to go with them.

Is that not just a beautiful cheese plate?

The kids start school Monday so I’m hoping to get one or two new dishes in before my brain shuts down. If not I always have cute cat pictures to post, I suppose.

It was a busy week. I finished up with one job and started the new job with no down time. There were days I was going into the new job while answering texts and emails from the old job. Needless to say my cooking creativity took a back seat to relatively easy.

That isn’t to say I didn’t cook. I experimented with two recipes from the Plenty cookbook and both were pretty good. The Brussels Sprouts and tofu was a little bitter for me, but it had some nice flavors and texture.

But the star dish of the week was the Lemon Eggplant Risotto. I really wanted to do a risotto since we had the Parmesan from our cheese box. The original recipe called for two eggplants, but I only had one on hand so I went with that.

1 eggplant (recipe calls for two and I think that would work better)
Olive oil
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
7 oz risotto rice
1/2 cup white wine (warmed)
3.5 cup vegetable stock
1 lemon (zest all and squeeze the juice from 1/2)
1 tablespoon butter
1 oz or so grated Parmesan
Basil leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes. Heat oil in a pan and cook the eggplant about ten minutes, stirring frequently. Add more oil as needed (I start out with a little and add more as I go rather than start out with a lot and have to drain it). Set aside, sprinkle with a little salt.

Chop the onion. Add a little oil to a pan and cook the onion until soft and translucent – about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute or two. Turn up the heat, add the rice and cook a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the warm wine and cook until nearly evaporated/absorbed. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the broth/stock a 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently until it is all absorbed. Wait to add each 1/2 cup until the previous cup is incorporated.

Remove from heat and add most of the the lemon zest, lemon juice, eggplant, butter, cheese and a touch of salt. Let sit, covered, for five minutes. To serve, add a little lemon zest and shredded or chopped basil leaves.

This one was a pretty perfect risotto. The lemon and eggplant gave it a fresh, hearty quality and we could really taste the cheese. This is definitely going in the make again pile. It wasn’t as pretty as the Brussels sprouts and tofu, but it was fantastic.

In my morning routine I like to sit with a cup of coffee and read the news and a few blogs. There are a variety of them, but one I really like is The Wandering Gourmand and one recent feature gets me thinking each month – the Wine vs. Beer Challenge.

I am definitely a wine girl and Bob leans towards being a beer guy so we are each a little biased with these. I can appreciate what a good beer would bring to a dish, just like I can appreciate dessert wines even though I don’t like them. When I saw this month’s challenge I really wanted to try it even though we were not going to be home over the weekend for me to cook. But rarely one to give up (won’t say never, there are a few endeavors I now pass on) I decided to make it work. So Monday, the last day of the challenge I went ahead a made an arugula pesto and started thinking wines. I don’t know enough about beer to contemplate it here, but that was Bob’s job before dinner.

Pesto is incredibly simple to make. In this case one package baby arugula, half a cup chopped walnuts, salt and pepper. I put all that into the food processor, turned it on and drizzled olive oil in until it had the consistency I wanted. I pulled it out and added Parmesan cheese (quarter cup), chopped garlic (2 cloves) and grated fontanelle cheese. As a last touch I zest end a bit of lemon and squeezed the juice of half the lemon into the mix. It came out a vibrant green that needed just a touch of salt.

The pasta part of this. I didn’t want to go traditional penne or spaghetti. I wanted something that could work as a main or a side so I went with orzo. Ok, it is also what I had on hand except for shells but I loved the idea anyway. I sweated a bit of onion, added some chopped garlic and carrot to the mix then added the orzo and water. I let it all cook for seven minutes then took it off the heat, folded in the pesto and added another squeeze of lemon.

It came out really well for a no recipe dish. Yes, it’s simple but those are sometimes the best.

For the pairing. I discounted reds almost immediately. The pesto, while peppery from the arugula would only stand to a light red, maybe a chianti or really light Pinot. I have a light Pinot on hand but decided against it. I didn’t want a Zinfandel – too intense for the pasta; same for merlot. I almost went with a dry rose – something a touch sweet to offset the pepper – but it just didn’t feel right. I narrowed it down to two whites – a Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot Gris. At this point I’m just guessing. I leaned towards the Sauvignon because it tends to be a little less on the grapefruit flavor than a Pinot. (This may be totally wrong, but it sounded right in my head.) I waited for Bob for the final decision. I gave him the full range to choose from – beer, reds, pinks or whites. He tossed the reds and beer almost immediately and then decided on whites. I showed him the two I was thinking about and he picked the Sauvignon also. Great minds and all.

So how did it work? Really well. This particular Sauvignon was light and dry with a touch of citrus. It was pretty good on its own but when paired with the pasta, both were better. The peppery arugula in the pesto contrasted with the citrus but it didn’t overpower it. The wine added another layer to the pasta and brought out the lemon in the dish. The orzo was more a vehicle for the pesto than a star of the dish and that let the wine shine even more. I’m not a huge white wine drinker. I tend to go for Zinfandels or Pinot Noirs, but I’m really glad I went with the Sauvignon on this one. I’m even thinking this will be a great cold pasta salad (again a good pair for white wine) and I don’t like cold pasta salads.

The best part about this challenge is that it isn’t about beer or wine or even food. It got me to think about beer and wine and food in more than one dimension. Yes, I like red wine and Bob likes beer, but we thought about the dish as a whole and came up with something that surprised us both – a wine we might not have enjoyed nearly as much with a dish that would not have been as good without it. (It was good – don’t get me wrong – but it was better with the wine.) So thank you to the Wandering Gourmand for taking me out of my wine comfort zone and to Wander and Wine for a great idea!

It is summer. No two ways about it. It is humid, hot and pretty sticky outside. Florida is seeing our daily afternoon (and sometimes morning or evening) showers which just adds to the sticky feeling. Make no mistake, summer in Florida is hot, but realistically not any hotter or stickier than DC or Jersey. I loved living in those places, but when Mom would call in July or August and it was hotter there than in Florida you have to wonder why Florida gets the bad “but it is so hot there” rap. Maybe it makes people feel better to think Florida is worse in the summer, but it just isn’t. And we don’t have snow. I’ll trade hot and sticky for no snow.

The other nice thing about July is that I don’t go into work every day. Say what you want, give me grief for it, but yes, I get a month off. I do not feel guilty for it – I cram enough hours into the other eleven months that it more than makes up for it at my salary level. It is the way the system is (stupidly in my opinion, but then the powers that be never asked me) and I deal with it. But I get to experiment in the kitchen this month. And I have a list of things I want to try (including the Korma sauce that I have failed on several times thus far). This week I started out with inspiration from Robert Irvine for a vegetarian dish that just looked amazing. I say I took inspiration because I (of course) didn’t follow the recipe. After reading the reviews I decided to go with the polenta recipe I really like – substituting white onion for red, vegetable broth for chicken and eliminating the butter. I also made a basic sweet pepper sauce that I know Bob will eat instead of the coulis from the original recipe. I wanted something lighter, so I tried it.

The sauce is pretty easy – one red bell pepper, a pat of butter – simmer until the pepper begins to soften then add a half cup of water and a sprig of thyme. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Pull out the thyme, blend in a food processor then strain through a fine strainer. Thus eliminates the harsh taste of the skin while keeping the subtle flavor of the pepper. Add a dash of cream, a little salt and pepper and let thicken over a medium low heat for about ten minutes. It’s a pretty perfect sauce I think.

I did the vegetables pretty much like the original recipe said. It was pretty good, but it still wanted more sauce. The polenta really stole the show here – rich, creamy with a ton of flavor. It was so good I’m thinking about making more today.

I did try home made tahini sauce this week too. The flavor was fine, but I hate the consistency. It is not saucy enough for what I want and it doesn’t work too well in the magical cilantro sauce. But I tried, and I can use it for something, I’m sure. But for tahini – I will stick to the industrial stuff – I just like the consistency much better.

Obligatory cat picture. She is just too cute even if she hates having her photo taken.

There are distinct advantages to knowing your local cheesemonger. The very fact that I have a local cheesemonger still makes me giggle two years after finding the shop. I know I extol Louise’s virtues every time I make a cheese post, but she, and the other ‘cheese gals’ are wonderful. I will also (as usual) say if you have any interest in cheese and will be near Sarasota you need to check out Artisan Cheese Company and chat with Louise or any of her staff. The shop has a very friendly feel and they really do take their time to get to know their customers and each person’s likes and dislikes.

This month’s box included a Smoked Blue cheese from Kentucky.

It is the prettiest blue cheese I’ve seen, but I really, really don’t like blue cheese. (More on that and the advantages of knowing your cheesemonger in a second.) Bob, however, loves blue cheese and so Louise did include this one in our box. Bob loved this one. As the name indicates, it is smokey but not overpowering with a mild blue flavor. This is according to Bob as I did not have any. It has a creamy texture and beautiful veining. Bob gushed about this one so much he wants to pick up more before we visit his parents next month. (By the way, Nan and Bud …. We are thinking about visiting next month.)

Now because Louise knows I don’t like blue cheese (and she has had me try several to see if there is a type I do like) she gave us less of the blue, but added a Kentucky sheep cheese for me. Good Shepard is the very cute name and this cheese was about as perfect a cheese for me as you can get.

The flavor isn’t strong, but it is deep. It almost melts in your mouth and is perfect by itself or with nuts, crackers or a little blackberry jam. I will have an excellent lunch the next few days at work with this gem.

Also in our box this month was an ash goat cheese from Goat Lady Dairy. We had a goat cheese log from them last month (which I totally forgot to post) which was good, but not spectacular. This one was amazing. Creamy and mild but it had a great flavor. I’m still coming to terms in my own head that mild and bland are not the same thing. Bland is the absence of flavor, I suppose, and mild is subtle flavors. This definitely falls on the subtle flavors side of the coin and I liked it best by itself on bread.

Our last cheese this month was from France – Montboisse du Haut Livradois. This one is pretty incredible too. It has a stronger smell than taste, and a slight texture (possibly from the ash layer) to it, but it is creamy and silky and all the wonderful things you want cheese to be. I liked this one with the cranberry hazelnut crackers and a touch of the black tea jam. It has a slight nutty taste to it which lets it stand up to other flavors.

This month (like almost every other month when we get our box) I get super excited and simply amazed what milk, enzymes and time can create. The sheer variety of cheeses are incredible and I feel very lucky to have a local cheesemonger that knows our tastes and really emphasizes quality – both in products and service. We love our cheese club so much, Bob and I already signed up for a second year of it – and we are leaving the choices of cheese to Louise each month. It’s a mini Christmas and a great ‘date night’ for us.

It started with the palm tree out front. The branches were overhanging the walkway to the front door. I figured if I was hitting my head on the fronds everyone else was too. What should have been five minutes outside today turned into almost two hours for both Bob and I.

While Bob worked on the camera by the front door I cleared the walkway of the overhanging palm fronds. Then I thought to trim the bush by the garage that scrapes Bob’s car every time he goes in and out. Then I decided to chop it really small – it was a little unwieldy and things grow insanely fast here. Of course, if I cut the bush by the drive, I need to cut back the hibiscus that was way taller than me. Of course Bob mentioned the bush on the property line so we went to cut that one back. This left the two bushes that were overgrown around the air conditioner. None of this sounds like much but once we actually got to it … It was way more work than we anticipated when we originally started today.

This is a lot of vegetation. A lot. Hopefully the county will take it all away this week.

We also started working our way through the Savor Sarasota restaurant week this week. Tuesday we decided to try The Melting Pot. I’ve never done fondu before and it was a nice change. I loved the cheese fondu and the chocolate but the main course was okay. Not my favorite, but still pretty good.

We also could not wait for our cheese box next week so we headed down to the cheese shop and created our own little cheese plate. Since I usually pick out the cheese I let Bob pick this wee’s cheese. We went with a French goat cheese, a French cow’s cheese, a Kentucky cow’s cheese and a Swiss cheese from Switzerland. We really loved everything and opened a nice wine to go with it. I also broke out the Inna blackberry jam that is pretty perfect with cheese.

This was the nice way to cap the busy week that started with graduation and ended with FCAT scores coming in. Very busy week. Now I just need to sleep off the yard work from this morning.