Flowers in the House

According to the neighborhood gossips historians, the people who owned my house for many many years were great gardeners (and everything else too) and the next door neighbor was a master gardener. At some point they decided to plant matching flower beds in the area where the two yards meet, which is towards the back down one side of my driveway next to their backyard. They anchored the flower beds with three azaleas towards the back and forsythia at the front. When we moved in almost ten years ago we were once removed from the great gardeners by a couple who had no interest in it at all and had lived here for two years. The master gardener next door had been replaced nine years before. Most of the landscaping was pretty self sufficient but the flower bed required maintenance and all it got was ignored. So during our first month of June we decided to watch it grow and see what was there. What we got was two scraggly rose bushes, loads of phlox (not my favorite), some goosenecks, an occasional sunflower in late Summer and an amazing amount of weeds threatening to strangle everything. The flower bed had to go, so the next Spring we pulled it all out except for the azaleas and the forsythia since they are planted in the middle therefore shared. The flower bed has gone through two transformations and will be going on it's third this year but that's not what this story is about, this story is about forsythia.

The first time I saw it when I moved to New Jersey from Florida I was stunned. It signified Spring in such a vibrant and glorious way, it defined the color yellow, and it made me giddy with joy. I was thrilled to have one of my own. Unfortunately this forsythia was very very old and very very neglected. My neighbor who had taken over the master gardener's place and unmastered it would every couple of years come out to trim it---in the Fall. I always noticed too late to tell her that it bloomed on this year's growth and she was killing the flowers. Eventually it stopped blooming in the Spring and all we got were long unruly sticks which eventually grew the leaves in the Summer. It was a mess. We were overjoyed two years ago when having a conversation with our neighbor we all decided the forsythia was an eyesore and had to go. In the blink of an eye we Frank started to pull it out, all of it. You would think. There are a million shoots that just keep coming up which means we'll hire someone to take the whole thing out. In the meantime all the shoots that popped up this year bloomed a glorious bright yellow and for their last hurrah they're going to a party at Jane's.

We also picked up some friends along the way

...and since our host said "it's tulip time" I obliged by buying some cause mine haven't bloomed yet.

Can't wait to see what everyone else brings!

Spring Fever

It's heeeeeeere!

Yay!!!!

Meatless Tuesday Recipe

Chickpea, Lentil and vegetable stew adapted from Dana Treat
serves 4

Olive Oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp. tomato paste
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. caraway seeds
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 cup dried lentils
1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced ¼-inch thick
1 cup frozen lima beans or edamame (I used green beans)
½ cup chopped parsley
10 oz. fresh baby spinach (I used frozen chopped spinach)
lemon wedges
Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom and then add the onions.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the garlic.  Cook another 3 minutes.  Add the tomato paste and all the spices; stir 1 minute.  Stir in broth, water, and lentils.  Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until lentils are almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
Add chickpeas, carrots, lima beans, and half the parsley.  Cover; simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.  (Can be made one day ahead.  Cover and chill.  Bring to a simmer before continuing.  Refrigerate remaining parsley for garnish.)
Stir spinach into stew in batches until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper.  Ladle into bowls with rice.  Garnish each bowl with remaining parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

We're so happy we're speechless :)

Happy Spring!

Cabbage Patch

In my first real job as an admin for a loan company we had regional supervisors that would visit each office about once a month for a couple of days--to do what I don't know--spy I guess. Our regional supervisor went by the interesting name of Mr. Lovely. He looked a little bit like Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor with a severe military haircut and without the funny walk, he was from somewhere in the South complete with the accent and Bible belt conservatism. He was a strict disciplinarian, straighter than straight arrow who smoked three packs of Salems a day (in those days you could smoke in the office) and drank Cuban coffee by the glassful--several times a day. I guess you could say he was wound a tad tight. One St. Patrick's day he was scheduled in our office and walked in wearing a plaid green polyester suit, a light green shirt, a striped green and white tie with shamrocks, and green socks. All in non-complimentary shades. His shoes were brown, thank goodness. I took one look at this vision as he marched in and said, "Mr. Lovely, you look like a cabbage." My boss, who was terrified of him, almost died. He laughed. What my boss didn't understand was that unlike 350 pound 46 year old men, cute 19 year old girls can get away with everything; and at least I didn't call him a leprechaun. That was probably the only time I had mentioned cabbage and would for a long time to come. Until last year when for some inexplicable reason I became obsessed with cabbage. So all Summer long I made coleslaw.

My coleslaw

Thinly slice some red and green cabbage, the amount depends on how much you want to make.
Mix a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise with some vinegar, add a big pinch of sugar, salt & pepper. Mix well, add to cabbage and stir until the cabbage is coated with the dressing.

Then I started making it with pasta.

Spaghetti with Cabbage, Bacon & Onions

4 slices of bacon, cut into thin slices, one inch in length
2 cups of thinly sliced cabbage
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
salt & pepper
8 oz. spaghetti
Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and saute until it starts to color but is still soft. Add the cabbage and onions and continue sauteing, stirring on and off, until the onions and cabbage are soft and translucent making sure not to overcook the bacon. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain in a colander and add the spaghetti to the skillet with the cabbage mix. Lower the heat and stir until the spaghetti is incorporate into the sauce. Serve topping with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

I made this so much that at one point Frank asked me to stop.

So this year when St. Patrick's Day was coming around I thought I would like to make something traditional (which I never have) and of course corned beef and cabbage was the first thing that popped into my head. But with apologies to my Gaelic friends, the penchant of Irish cooking to boil the heck out of everything doesn't really grab me and the thought of my house smelling for days of the aroma of cabbage boiling for hours didn't do much for me either. So I opted for

Stuffed Cabbage-adapted from Le Cordon Bleu at Home
serves 6

1 head of green cabbage, preferably Savoy
White Vinegar

Stuffing
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
14 ounces pork sausage meat
1 1/2 cups fresh white breadcrumbs
Salt & freshly ground pepper
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 egg

3 slices of bacon
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium carrots, diced fine
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 stalk celery, diced fine
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup veal stock, or chicken stock
Bouquet Garni

unsalted butter for parchment paper

Separate the cabbage leaves.

Cut out the hard central vein from each leaf. Add a little vinegar to a container of cold water and rinse the leaves well.

Bring a large saucepan of cold salted water to a boil. Add 6 to 7 cabbage leaves and blanch until tender, 3 to 8 minutes. Refresh the leaves under cold running water; drain. Repeat to blanch all leaves. Reserve 6 or 7 of the largest and greener leaves and spread them out on a towel to dry.

Squeeze out the remaining leaves by hand and set aside.

Prepare the stuffing: Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender but not colored. Add the garlic and sausage meat and cook stirring frequently, for 5 minutes without browning. Transfer to a bowl, add the breadcrumbs and mix well. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Add the nutmeg, parsley and egg and mix thoroughly.

Stuff the cabbage: On a flat work surface, arrange 4 or 5 of the reserved leaves in a circle, overlapping them slightly. Place 4 or 5 of the smaller leaves over the center of the circle. Spread 1/4 of the stuffing over the smaller leaves. Add another layer of cabbage and then a second quarter of the stuffing, and continue alternating layers until all of the smaller cabbage leaves and stuffing have been used.

Cover the final layer of stuffing with the remaining large leaves. Fold the outer leaves in toward the center to reshape the head of cabbage. Wrap with the bacon and overlap the ends. Tie with kitchen twine to secure the bacon, and then cross the twine over and under the cabbage two or three times to hold the shape of the head. Do not tie too tightly or the cabbage will deform while cooking.

Preheat oven to 425F.
Heat the butter in a casserole over medium heat. Ad the vegetables and cook until soft but not colored, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil, cook 2 minutes. Add the stock and bouquet garni. Place the stuffed cabbage in the center of the bed of vegetables. Cover with a round of buttered parchment paper and lid. Transfer to the oven and cook, basting from time to time, until a knife inserted in the center comes out hot. 50 to 60 minutes.

To serve, transfer the cabbage to a platter. Remove the twine and bacon. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan and arrange the chopped vegetables around the cabbage. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid and reduce by half over medium heat. Pour a little sauce over the cabbage, slice and serve.
full disclosure: I used ground beef because I didn't have sausage and didn't feel like going out to get any. I also didn't do anything with the cooking liquid other than pour it over the cabbage.

OK, maybe this is not very Irish but I think it'll become our tradition.

And how did Max wear the green?

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the Sun shine bright upon your face,
The rain falls soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

Max goes exploring

I don't have an i-phone, neither does Frank. We are probably the only two people in the world who have no interest in the gadget. The only regret I have not having an i-phone is that you can take pictures with that Hipstamatic thingy of theirs that makes the pictures look so cool, something my smartphone Droid can't have. Which makes me wonder how smart it is. I did some research though and found out that I could download an app for my Droid which does the same effect, and it's free (I won't pay for apps, the service costs plenty). It's called Little Photo. So once I downloaded it and did some experimenting Max and I went for a nice long walk looking for signs of Spring.

and we found lots of crocuses (croci?)

snowdrops

vinca

daffodils ready to burst

we even went to the train station

to see what stage the world's most beautiful magnolia is at

then we came home and took a nap

taken with my Little Photo app.

Pasta Imperfecta

In my quest to try and make everything from scratch (well maybe not everything, I haven't yet had the urge to milk cows or churn butter...but never say never), years ago I decided I wanted to make my own pasta. All my Italian cookbooks where they make their own pasta everyone always wrote how different it was from the dried store bought variety; how light and delicate and then there were all these interesting types of pasta, not just plain egg, the possibilities were endless and very intriguing. So Frank went and bought me a pasta maker, the hand crank kind not the one where you put the ingredients in one end and; voila pasta comes out the other in about five minutes. The hand crank one was the one all the purists said one must use if you're going to be authentic. But allow me to digress for a moment because it just occurred to me that I have written "Frank went out and bought me" quite a number of times when I refer to kitchen equipment. Umpf! Where are we going with this? Is he channeling Rick Santorum? Will all my shoes start to disappear? Should I get his slippers and learn how to make a highball? Should I be concerned and investigate this further? I'll think about it tomorrow, right now I want to talk about pasta. So my first foray into making my own pasta was a spinach lasagna from Lynne Rosetto Kasper's Splendid Table (which incidentally Frank bought me). I chose the spinach pasta, a lovely veal ragu and followed her detailed instructions. It was sublime, light and delicate, just as described. I continued to make pasta here and there and most times I had to make it twice. It seems everyone's recipe is quite different and I would wind up with dough that was too dry, too wet, too something and in making it the wrong way I then made it the right way...every single time so after a while I just went with the store bought dry kind; mainly to avoid the aggravation. Every once in awhile though we say, let's make some pasta, and then we don't so this weekend I was determined. And I remembered a dish from a Molto Mario episode at the beginning of the Food Network. It was black pepper pasta stuffed with a sausage mix.

Black Pepper Pasta- adapted from Mario Batali

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus 1/2 cup for dusting work surface
4 jumbo eggs
1 tbsp virgin olive oil
2 tbsp ground fresh black pepper (in coffee grinder for a coarser grind)

Make a mound of the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs, oil and pepper. Using a fork, beat the eggs, oil and pepper and begin to incorporate into the flour. The dough will come together when half of the flour is incorporated.
Start kneading the dough using the palms of your hands. Once you have a cohesive mass remove any crusty bits , lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a llitle sticky. Continue to knead for 3 more minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic and rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Filling

2 lbs fresh Italian sausage, crumbled, cooked and drained

1 cup fresh ricotta
1 bunch fresh Swiss Chard, boiled, drained and chopped
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 recipe Bechamel Sauce

Bechamel Sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup all purpose flour
4 cups hot milk
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in flour with a whisk, cook over low heat for a few minutes stirring constantly. Add 1/2 of the hot milk and whisk until smooth, add remaining milk and whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil, add nutmeg, lower heat an simmer 10 minutes.

Make the pasta and roll out to the third thinnest mark on the pasta roller.

Cut the sheets into 10 inch long pieces, cover and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the cooked sausage, ricotta, chard, nutmeg and parmigiano until well blended.

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil, and add 2 tbspn of salt. Blanch the pasta sheets and drain well-lay on a clean counter.

Divide filling among pasta pieces covering each sheet with 1/2 to 1 inch of filling. Roll each pasta piece like a jelly roll and place in a buttered baking dish. Cover with bechamel sauce and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 45 minutes until light brown and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes.

And what did I do wrong? I rolled the pasta too thin, you could see right through it which is supposed to be a good thing but not this time. In my excitement I built the dish without blanching the pasta (which probably would have worked beautifully since the pasta was so thin) which meant I had to take it apart to cook the pasta---then I boiled it and it became little tiny shreds. So in the end I boiled some dry store bought lasagna noodles and uses the filling and the bechamel, it was yummy but I was too upset to take a picture. Frank tried to blame Max

or create him, not sure what this is all about.

But did you notice who was rolling out the pasta?