Tag Archives: Cook

Giant Squashagne

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Once, at the market, there was a stand that sold giant squash.

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They were the most giant squash in all the land. Or maybe not, but they were ridiculously huge. And there was one girl who couldn’t resist buying one of the giant squashes just to dream up something fun to do with them.

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So she went home. She pondered over it for a few days. She displayed the squash in a fruit bowl that was about 5 gallons too small for the it to actually fit in. And then, after having it catch her eye and make her laugh on the third day, she decided to do something magnificent with that squash.

But first, she wanted to make sure everyone realized how big this squash really was. And that it totally matched her new favorite nail polish. Super cool.

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The girl broke out her very dangerous mandolin and carefully sliced that giant squash into something that resembled lasagna noodles. She had recently been making zucchini into noodles (we call those “zoodles” around here, and – yes – they are delicious), and figured lasagne with squash may be just as delicious.

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She sliced and sliced until she had piles of beautiful zucchini noodles (zoodles!!).

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She piled on ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan. She browned her favorite local sausage and threw it into the tomato sauce she had made with early girls from her favorite tomato stand (the recipe is here!). She layered and layered, and then she baked that lasagne just like it was a regular, delicious pasta lasagne.

(this is where she forgot to take any pictures…)

She peaked in at her masterpiece as the timer went off. It was perfect!

But… then her phone rang!  Friends were gathering with wine by a fire! They would probably be hungry, too!

She quickly wrapped up the masterpiece and headed out with giant squash, local pork sausage, homemade tomato sauce lasagne in tow. (because this is a totally normal thing to do when invited to a campfire. just bring lasagne.)

The girl and her friends laughed and drank wine and ate grapes off of vines and listened to music by the fire late into the night. And everyone was happy that she made squash lasagne (squashagne?) and just happened to bring it to the party.

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No one even missed the noodles.

Moral of the story? If you are ever invited to a last minute campfire with wine, bring a squashagne. No one will be mad at you, I promise.

xoxo

Strawberry Chocolate Banana Bread

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My fridge is stuffed right now.

Not because we have a crazy amount of food.  I mean, we always have sort of a crazy amount of food in our house, but this time it’s just because it’s summer.

Summer stuffs our fridge for two reasons.  The first is that everything delicious is in season.  Cherries and apricots are on their way out, peaches are at their peak, and tomatoes are just about ready.  We’ve had to start bringing the cart to the market with us because It’s kind of impossible to carry around three Weiser Farm’s melons, a bag of peaches and a flat of tomatoes.  For three hours.

Talk about a food blogger workout.

The second reason our fridge is stuffed is because we don’t have air conditioning.  So if we left those tomatoes I’m in love with out on the counter for more than twelve hours, we would not only have tomato mush, but we would also have a swarm of fruit flies.

No bueno.

Somehow recently, a few bananas got left out in the fruit bowl in the summer heat.  And I kept telling myself they’d be ok or that I’d finish them in the morning. But then I was having breakfast and I realized I could smell the bananas on the shelf next to me.  It wasn’t a bad smell, just a “use me now or I’ll turn into a big blob of gross” smell.

One of the bananas even looked like this, so I was almost sure I’d just be throwing the whole bunch away.

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Except when I peeled it, just to make sure, the banana inside looked just right…

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Which, of course, meant banana bread!

I started looking up recipes.  I also discovered I had a pint of strawberries that were on their last days.  (Strawberries and bananas take a back seat to stone fruit in this house, I guess.)  I figured I’d throw them in the mix.  I started making a grocery list.  I almost headed out the door.

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But before I did, I just happened to stumble across a recipe for chocolate banana bread.  Chocolate. Banana. Bread.  I had an epiphany where I realized that the combination of chocolate and banana in bread was even better than banana and walnuts.  And sounded so much more like dessert than breakfast…

Plus, I was still going to add in strawberries.

Yep. I was making Strawberry Chocolate Banana Bread.

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Banana bread is one of those comfort foods that just makes me happy.  It’s fluffy and light and crunchy and is kind of like a cake, but can definitely be categorized as breakfast.

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This banana bread was even better.  Even more decedent.  Even more tempting to just cut yourself off a piece every time you happened to be near the kitchen.

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I truly had to give away half of this loaf because it was so rich and delicious and amazing.  But mostly because I’m supposed to be on a post-vacation detox, and I just couldn’t stop eating it.

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No one I gave it to seemed to mind too much.  It was almost like a giant strawberry brownie.  And topped with vanilla ice-cream on a hot summer day?  Oh. My. Gosh.

Give it a try.  I promise you’ll be tempted to always leave your bananas out a little too long when the temperature goes up…

xoxo

Strawberry Chocolate Banana Bread

ever so slightly adapted from smitten kitchen’s Double Chocolate Banana Bread

3 medium very ripe bananas
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup Strawberries, chopped
3-4 Strawberries, sliced length-wise for topping

Heat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan.

Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. Whisk in melted butter, then brown sugar, egg, & vanilla. Use as sifter to sift baking soda, salt, cinnamon (if using), flour and cocoa powder over wet ingredients. Stir dry and wet ingredients with a spoon until just combined. Stir in chopped strawberries.

Pour into prepared pan, top in whichever design you’d like with the remaining strawberry slices, and bake 55 to 65 minutes, until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

Music To Cook (Jam) To: Rock and Roll

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Music to cook to rock and roll

Well, hello June!

I was talking to a new friend at the market recently about how we never make new years resolutions.  Or if we do, we never keep them.  What a terrible time of year to start over!  It’s the middle of the winter, we are exhausted from holiday madness, and you kind of just want to hibernate and enjoy the cold weather. Doesn’t it seem like a funny tradition, resolving to become better, fitter, healthier people in the middle of sweatpants and hot cocoa weather?

Well apparently for me, springtime feels more natural.  The season of rebirth.  The season of growth.  The season of flowers and plants coming back to life…

The season before bikini season?

music to cook to: Rock and roll

Last year on May 6, I wrote down some serious goals for my music career.  I was going to give being a full time musician one last giant push.  And I’m happy to say that I accomplished so many of those goals.  I was really proud of myself and the way I threw myself into my passion just to see if it still fit.

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Turned out, I learned an incredible amount about myself in those months.  And after all was said and done, I ended up right where I belonged.  Which leads me to this spring, when I happened to also set some lofty goals for myself.  I have already accomplished some of them (redesign my blog! i think it looks better than ever!), and I have some big projects in the works that I can’t wait to get really moving so I can tell you all about them!

music to cook to: Rock and roll

Another “goal” I wanted to set for myself this year was to keep music as an important part of my life even if it was no longer my full-time focus.  I still write songs when they come to me.  I still pick up the guitar every now and then.  And I’m always looking out for new artists and new albums to soundtrack my life.

music to cook to: Rock and roll

Which brings me to today, when I wanted to share another list of music to cook to with you.  Because this little “Music to Cook To” series that I’ve started makes me so happy.  It combines two of my favorite things (no, mom, not schnitzels and noodles…), and it gives me an excuse to keep searching for new, fun music to share with you.

music to cook to: Rock and roll music to cook to: Rock and roll

Except today’s list started with some old favorites instead of new acts.  Mostly when Brad and I are cooking, we turn to songs we know all of the words to.  We turn to music that makes us feel good.  We turn to the bands and artists that we grew up listening to, who taught us about guitar solos and soul and the way a song was supposed to make you feel.  I turn to music that makes me move.

We turn to Rock and Roll.

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 (these are pictures of a delicious peach jam i made this week! i thought jam sounded like a musical term so… it works, right?)

Let’s get rocking…

Music To Cook To: Rock and Roll

The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar
Gotta start with the Rolling Stones.  Not that I knew anything about Mick Jagger or Keith Richards before I met Brad.  I just knew the hits.  But a lot has changed since 2007, and now I get up and dance to their tunes just as much as a teenage girl in 1970.  Just a lot less screaming..

The Velvet Underground – Rock & Roll
Another band that Brad got me into.  I didn’t used to appreciate singers unless they had trained, musical voices.  There’s just something about this song’s happy beat and Lou Reed’s talk/singing, that just makes me smile.  You just can’t help but start shaking to this fine, fine Velvet Underground music.

David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Listen, I still don’t really “get” David Bowie, but I think the man is crazy awesome.  This is one that’s on all the time while dinner’s getting ready.

T. Rex – Mambo Sun
Oh, T. Rex.  Yes, he’s known for Bang A Gong (Get it On), but no, we never have that one on rotation.  T.Rex provides all kinds of fun rock to cook to.

The Black Keys – Gold On The Ceiling
And now, of course on to something more modern.  We love The Black Keys.  I think this song was used for NBA finals commercials a few years ago.  If it doesn’t get you pumped up and dancing, there’s just no gold for you.  (i also like that there is a doubling on the chorus in my vocal range. i can actually sing along! nerdy musician moment…)

Dan Auerbach – My Last Mistake
Dan (half of the Black Keys) and his solo album are maybe even more soulful and blues-rock than his TBK stuff.  This is one of my favorite, fun, simple rock n roll songs.  Might be the “and you can be my queen, mama” part.

Hanni El Khatib – You Rascal You
I’m not going to lie.  This one was produced by Dan Auerbach.  Apparently I have a crush on anything the man touches.  But this is just such a dirty, gritty song full of crunchy guitar.  Any Hanni El Khatib song could fit in here, I just like this one the best.

Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine?
I liked the Arctic Monkey from their first few albums, but their release last year – AM – hooked me for sure.  I guess this is more indie-rock than rock and roll, but the guys have a song called Why You Only Call Me When You’re High?  Talk about a booty call.

Jack White – Sixteen Saltines
Can’t leave out Mr. Jack White.  This song is rock all the way.  When we saw him live, people were jumping all over the place during this song.  It’s perfect to get you moving in front of the stove, right?

So have fun rocking and jamming and cooking and doing whatever else you want to do to these tunes.  Mondays will now officially be dedicated to combining my love of music with my love of cooking, so look out for another Music To Cook To next Monday!

(you can check out the whole Music To Cook To playlist here on Spotify!)

xoxo

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What A Week

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Is it really Friday already?

I’m facing my weekly “opposite schedule of the world” sadness this afternoon.  Especially today.  Everyone is gearing up for a fun, long weekend, and my “work week” is just beginning.  My long weekend is drawing to a close.

But wait!  What a wonderful weekend it was!  There was the market, there were hundreds of cookies and other goodies made with Sydney from Curating My Cooking, there were peonies, there was chocolate strawberry banana bread…

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And there was Brad’s 30th birthday!!  So there were nutella bacon pop tarts (yes, they were amazing…), car washes, prescription sunglasses and a meaty dinner at Animal with some really amazing friends…
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I hope all of your fun, long weekends at the beach are nearly as fun and delicious as mine was.  Plus, I am so lucky that my mom and sister are flying out from Maryland tomorrow, and I have a good amount of time away from work to spend with them!

Hooray for visitors!  And hooray for weekends – no matter which days they fall on!

xoxo

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Who Needs Flowers? Artichokes!

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Our Farmer’s Market is always introducing me to amazing new things.

This week, one of our favorite famers gave me these awesome artichokes.  Except they were arranged with all of his flowers, not his other produce the way you’d think artichokes should be.

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He said it was something new he was trying.  They weren’t quite good enough to sell as produce, but he loved arranging them at home as decoration.

DSC_0667 DSC_0660So I got home and threw those babies in a vase.  And almost a week later, they’re still choking it up. Continue reading →

Dipped In Chocolate

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Are you sick of Easter candy yet? Sorry, this isn’t going to help.

When Brad ate one of those decedent salted caramel shortbread cookies I made last week, I expected him to just melt with their amazingness.  Instead, he had another idea.

“Tastes like a Twix bar without the chocolate.”

Palm to forehead.

Duh!

So what did I do?  I grabbed myself a bag of milk chocolate chips and melted them down.  And then I covered the rest of those little bites of goodness in chocolate.

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Although I loved the candy-cookies just as they were, now they were even more delicious.  Because chocolate, once again, proves it is the most awesome thing to eat ever in the history in the world. Continue reading →