Unfortunately, that kitchen is more than a thousand miles away from my own.  When we are not together, I often take inspiration from her blog, FamilyStyle Food.  And that’s where the inspiration for this post came from.

Last spring when Karen and the rest of my family were visiting Portland (during the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual meeting) she brought home a recipe from Portland chef Greg Higgins for walnut taralli.  She said they reminded her of something she had eaten growing up in Providence.  I was tempted.

Then we all got the flu and the thought of those biscuits flew far from my mind.  Until a few weeks ago, when Karen posted about them on her blog.  The thought of making them was back with a vengance, and this afternoon, while S was out doing errands and I was listening to the local NPR fund drive (yes, really), I decided to give them a try.

One of the great things about these biscuits is that they are really easy to make.  You mix the dough, let it rise, roll out and shape the taralli,

and bake.

Voila, crunchy little nuggets that taste great with cheese, or a drizzle of olive oil and some salt,

or just plain.

Chef Higgins’ recipe can be found here.  I made Karen’s version, with fennel seeds and 1/2 whole wheat flour; here’s her recipe,

Toasted Walnut Taralli

• 4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups stoneground whole wheat flour
• 1 cup finely ground toasted walnuts* (grind in food processor)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing on taralli

Using the dough hook on your standing mixer, stir together the yeast, flours, walnuts, salt and fennel seeds.

Add 1 cup of the water and mix at medium-high speed until the dough starts to come together. Slowly add more water as necessary (turning down the mixer speed as you do so) until you have a smooth, moist dough. It shouldn’t be too wet or sticky, so keep your eyes peeled. Depending on the humidity and your flour, you might need a bit less water. (in Portland, today I needed only about 1 ½ cups of water)

Put the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover and let stand until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 3 or 4 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Punch the dough to deflate and turn it out onto a sparingly floured surface. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.

Working with one piece at a time, cut each into balls about the size of a walnut. Roll and stretch each ball using your palms into ropes about 6 ” long. Bring the ends of the rope together to make a ring, tucking one end inside the other and pinching together.

Arrange the rings on the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between.

Brush the rings with oil and bake until golden and firm, about 30 minutes.

Remove to a rack and cool. The taralli will crisp up more as they cool.

*toast the walnuts for 5-7 minutes at 350 degrees.

Store at room temperature in covered container.

Makes about 5 dozen taralli.

I highly recommend that you give them a try.

Today I added 1/2 cup of sugar and gently boiled the cherry – vinegar mixture for about an hour (I chose to do it outside on my trusty Weber grill because boiling vinegar has a somewhat pungent odor),

strained the mixture and began a series of taste tests.  With some advice from my visiting sister-in-law K, I added about 1/4 cup more sugar and the drinking vinegar was ready to use.  My first shrub was delicious — a perfect refresher for a summer afternoon.

The recipe made just shy of three cups of liquid and I am already imagining all kinds of other uses for this vinegar — in salad dressing, mixed with vodka … I think the possibilities are almost endless.  The recipe says it keeps indefinitely; I am guessing it won’t be around that long!

I especially looked forward to the times when my mother made her homemade sauce — a sweet, tomatoey, fragrant barbeque sauce based on a recipe that she got from “a fellow-worker in the University [of Iowa] Hospitals when [she] was writing poems in the [Iowa Writers'] Workshop and moonlighting to keep body and soul together.”*

I’ve been meaning to make some of that sauce for a long time, and today, the first sunny day in what seems like months, seemed like the perfect day to try.

As with most of the things I make, I adjusted the recipe a little bit.  After reviewing the original ingredients, I decided to cut the sugar in half, use sherry vinegar and extra virgin olive oil (the original recipe doesn’t specify what kind of oil or vinegar to use), add a little lime juice and Aleppo pepper and increase the amounts of garlic, pepper and salt.  I hope that my mother would approve of this updated version of Blake’s no-cook barbeque sauce.

½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper
¾ cup sherry vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
juice of one fresh lime
1 can tomato sauce (I used a small box of strained Pomi tomatoes)
1 medium red onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced very finely or pushed through a garlic press
a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Add the vinegar, olive oil and lime juice and mix well.
Add the tomato sauce, and mix well again.
Add the grated onion, minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce, and mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

Pour into jars and refrigerate.

*quote (and original recipe) taken from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Cookbook, edited by Connie Brothers and published in 1986.

After a little searching I found the notebook and the banana bread recipe I remembered.

I hadn’t used this recipe in a few years and I decided it was time to make a few changes — I wanted to make it healthier overall as well as lactose free for my brother who would be in town to try it.

A few quick substitutions (olive oil for the melted butter, all whole wheat flour instead of a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat, ginger instead of cinnamon, and brown sugar instead of white) and I was ready to go.

The batter mixed up nicely and fit perfectly into the lovely ceramic loaf pan my sister made for me.  After an hour in the oven the bread was ready to eat!

And it was delicious (if you believe my almost-13-year-old niece, who told me it was the best she had ever had).

Here’s the new, healthier recipe.  Give it a try and tell me what you think.

Banana Bread
(makes 1 medium sized loaf)

3-4 very ripe bananas
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon powdered ginger
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ cup toasted sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mash bananas.  Add all other ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon.  Pour batter into an oiled and lightly floured loaf pan.  Bake 1 hour.

And all of that delicious halibut came in handy last weekend when S was trying to decide what to make for dinner (I think he was trying to get in as much cooking as he could before going out of town for the week).  After the usual review of our cookbook collection,  he settled on a recipe from a lovely book called Stir:  Mixing it up in the Italian Tradition, by Barbara Lynch.  The original recipe called for cod, but when we hit the grocery store the freshest fish there was halibut.  No problem — halibut is a great substitute, and the wild caught halibut we have been getting here lately is a delicious, tender fish.

Unleashing the magic of both the new stove-top and the new broiler, S produced a fantastic dish of halibut with clam and chorizo ragout.  The recipe looks a little complicated, but (according to S) if you take it one step at a time it’s not hard at all.  And it is surely worth the effort.

Pan-Fried Halibut with Chorizo and Clam Ragout
(Adapted from Stir:  Mixing it up in the Italian Tradition, by Barbara Lynch)
Serves 4

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
½ cup dry white wine
2 fresh thyme sprigs
¼ cup fresh Italian parsley leaves
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 pounds Manila (or other small) clams (well scrubbed)
¼ pound chicken chorizo
2 large roasted red peppers, seeded and cut into thin strips
2/3 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 skinless halibut fillets, each abut 6 ounces
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a deep heavy skillet heat about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant but not colored, about 1 minute.  Add the wine, thyme, half of the parsley, the red pepper flakes, and the clams.  Stir to combine.  Increase the heat to medium high, cover the pan and let the clams steam open, 5 to 7 minutes.  With a large slotted spoon transfer the open clams to a bowl.  Discard any unopened clams.  Pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl.

Wipe the pan and return it to medium heat.  Add another tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the chorizo until it browns and begins to render its fat.  Add roasted red peppers and continue to sauté for about five minutes.  Pour reserved clam juice over the sausage and peppers leaving any sediment behind.  Cook until most of the juice has evaporated.  Keep the ragout warm as you prepare the fish.

Spread the flour on a flat plate.  Heat the skillet over medium-high heat and add the butter and remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Season the halibut fillets with salt and pepper, lightly dredge them in flour and gently shake off any excess.  Add the fillets to the heated pan and cook, without moving them, until they are deeply golden on one side, about 4 minutes.  Flip the fish over and cook the other side until golden brown, another 4 minutes.

Pour ragout into the pan with the fish.  Add remaining parsley.  Heat gently to warm.  Serve on deep plates, placing one fillet and a generous serving of ragout on each plate.

Enjoy!

Lately, he’s been even more enthusiastic than usual, excited to put our new stove top and oven through their paces.

This morning he settled on a recipe from one of his favorite breakfast books, The Big Book of Breakfast: Serious Comfort Food for Any Time of the Day, for a Dutch Baby pancake.

That’s one of those airy, puffy baked pancakes that you make in the oven and serve topped with fruit (or whatever else sounds good at the time).

Dutch Baby (German Pancake)
(from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt)
Serves 2

3 large eggs
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  In a medium bowl, whisk eggs.  Add flour slowly and whisk until blended.  Whisk in milk and salt.

In a large oven proof skillet (a black cast iron skillet works well; today S used a big, deep Dutch oven) over medium heat, melt butter.  Pour batter into skillet and place the skillet in the oven.

Bake until the pancake is lightly browned and puffed, about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven.  Loosen edges with a knife and turn out onto a plate.

Serve immediately, sprinkled with powdered sugar, topped with fruit and drizzled with maple syrup.  Or whatever other toppings you like!

Even if you’re not a practiced breakfast maker, I recommend this recipe.  It’s easy, tasty and looks lovely on the plate, too!

The first part of the week passed swimmingly, but inevitably, there came an afternoon when vacation had obviously gone on long enough and I found myself in the living room trying to pry the children from the doldrums.  After my first ideas were rejected, my niece A suggested we “make something.”

My sister-in-law is a wonderful cook with a huge cookbook collection, so a short while later we were searching through baking books and websites seeking cupcake recipes.  In the end, I turned to my old standby, Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, and her Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes.

The flavor of these cupcakes is a very grown up deep and rich bittersweet chocolate.  Luckily my niece and nephew are young chocolate connoisseurs.  To make them a bit more kid-friendly I sprinkled theirs with pink-coated mini-chocolate chips.  The few I reserved for adults I topped with my favorite chocolate flavor-enhancer: fleur de sel.

The recipe isn’t complicated, and like all of those in this collection, if you follow it carefully you’ll get perfect results.  I love a well-tested recipe!

Chocolate-chocolate cupcakes
(from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours)

For the cupcakes
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

For the glaze
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

Center the rack in the over and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  fill each cup in a 12-cup, regular-size muffin tin with paper muffin cups.

Make the cupcakes
Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until it is soft and creamy.

Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until it is blended into the butter.

Add the egg, then the yolk, beating for about 1 minute after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Beat in the vanilla, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear.

Scrape down the bowl and add the buttermilk, mixing until incorporated, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.

Scrape down the bowl, add the melted chocolate and mix it in with the rubber spatula.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 26 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes are dry and springy to the touch and a knife inserted into their centers comes out clean. Transfer the muffin pan to a rack and let the cakes cool for 5 minutes before unmolding them.  Cool to room temperature on the rack before glazing.

Make the Glaze
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Transfer the bowl to the counter and let stand for 5 minutes.

Using a small whisk or rubber spatula, stir the confectioners sugar into the chocolate, followed by the pieces of butter.  If the glaze is too thin, stir it over ice water for a few seconds – less than a minute.

Dip the cooled cupcakes into the glaze, giving them a little twirl as you pull them out for nice squiggle of glaze in the center.

Top with sprinkles, or, if you are feeling very grown up, fleur de sel.

To celebrate that impulse (and because our old one has recently been retired to the garage) I got S a new waffle maker for Valentine’s Day.

So, of course, we had waffles. S used the recipe for Buttermilk Waffles that came with the waffle maker (his extensive collection of breakfast cookbooks is currently buried in a pile of other cookbooks as a part of our preparation for some home repairs) and they turned out perfectly.

Buttermilk Waffles
(the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen / All-Clad recipe)

Makes 8 waffles

3 eggs, separated
1 ¾ cups buttermilk
8 tbs unsalted butter, melted
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat a waffle maker on medium high heat.
We just eat them as they are ready; but if you plan to make all the waffles before serving any, preheat the oven to 200 F.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the buttermilk, butter and vanilla until blended.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.  Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold 1 cup of the egg whites into the batter, then carefully fold in the remaining whites.

Pour about 2/3 cup batter into the center of your hot waffle maker and close the lid.  Cook until golden brown and crisp, 4-5 minutes (or until the waffle maker cheeps at you!).

Serve immediately with warm maple syrup, or place on a wire rack in the oven and keep warm until ready to serve.  Repeat with remaining batter.

All that butter probably helps them develop that perfectly crisp exterior.  S also thinks that beating the egg whites makes a big difference.

Whatever the reason, they were good to the last bite!

These days, though, S sometimes makes crab cakes on his own; especially at this time of year, when Dungeness crabs are in season in the Northwest.  The dish has also become one of my stepson’s favorites, so we usually have them at least once when he is staying with us.

The recipe S and T like (after trying several) comes from the Joy of Cooking.  It’s not complicated; like most great food it depends on great ingredients rather than fancy footwork.

Crab cakes
(adapted from the Joy of Cooking)
Serves 3-4 (the recipe can easily be doubled if you need to feed more people)

1 pound fresh lump crab meat (we use Dungeness crab here in the Northwest; in Maine we used the local “peekytoe” crab)
2 Tbs butter or olive oil
¼ cup finely diced red bell pepper
½ cup finely diced scallions
1 Tbs minced garlic (or more to taste)
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup mayonnaise (use homemade if you feel inspired, otherwise the kind from a jar works well)
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup minced parsley
2 Tbs + 2 cups Panko style bread crumbs (divided)
4 Tbs butter or olive oil (for sautéing crab cakes)

Carefully pick over the crab meat to make sure you have removed any stray bits of shell.

Heat the butter or oil in a medium saucepan until it foams.  Add the bell pepper, scallions and garlic and sauté until soft (8 – 10 minutes).  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the crab meat with the egg, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, salt and black pepper, cayenne, parsley and two Tbs of Panko breadcrumbs.  Add the sautéed vegetables and mix well.

Spread the remaining 2 cups of breadcrumbs on a rimmed baking pan.  Shape the crab mixture into 8 small cakes and gently coat each with the breadcrumbs.

Refrigerate the cakes, covered, for at least 30 minutes before cooking them (1-2 hours is even better, if you can manage it).

When you are ready to cook the crab cakes, heat the butter or oil in a sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the cakes to the pan 1 at a time.  Don’t crowd the pan (it’s best to cook these in small batches and keep the finished cakes warm in a low (250 F) oven while you cook the remaining cakes).

Brown the cakes on both sides, turning after about 5 minutes (these small cakes will need about 8 total minutes of cooking to be fully browned and warm throughout).

Serve hot with lemon wedges and Aioli or chipotle mayonnaise (or both, if you feel motivated).

I got one of those this year.

Before I go on I have to let you know that all of my friends and relatives regularly give me wonderful gifts.  I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by such thoughtful, loving and giving people.   I am a very lucky person.

This year, though, one of the gifts I got literally rocked me back on my heels.  It was from my niece, A, a twelve year old wonder.  She was clearly excited about it in the days leading up to Christmas, but didn’t play games with me (ask me to guess, giggle quietly to herself, or get that “I know something you don’t” look in her eyes).  Instead, she seemed calmly confident that she had made a good choice.

And she was right.

So, with all that build-up, before I let you in on the secret, I’ll remind you of an earlier post I did on one of my collections.  Even though that post was back in August, it must have made an impression.

Here’s the gift:

According to A and K (her mother) this was A’s idea completely.  She ignored suggestions given to her by others, AND she picked every button individually, with me in mind.

And every button, every single one, is perfect.

She won’t tell me where she got them (probably a good thing).  Right now I am playing with these buttons; imagining adding them to hats, scarves, mittens, socks.

And feeling good every time I look at them.

Thank you.