Upcycle Project: Washboard Earring Holder

I found this adorable vintage washboard at an estate sale this summer for $10. I couldn't pass it up, especially with the "Carolina Washboard Co." written across the top...

Using some picture hanging wire and superglue, I managed to stretch three rows of wire across the washboard. It was a little tricky to get the wire to stay, but I twisted the ends into little flat loops and tucked them in the space between the metal part and the wood with some superglue to make sure it held.

Summer Cucumber Salad

This cucumber salad is so perfect--cool, refreshing, satisfying, and really easy. It's especially good when made with the pickling cucumbers from summer farmer's markets!

Cucumber Salad

• 4 cucumbers, peeled and sliced as thinly as you can
• 1 small yellow onion, minced
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 tbs dried dill

Boil the sugar, water, white vinegar in dill. Mix together the cucumber slices and onion; once the vinegar/sugar/water mix is boiling, pour it over the cucumber slices and onion mixture. Let it sit in the fridge for a day before eating (if you can resist). It is good after the first day but continues to get better--I often end up doubling the recipe to let it last a week!

Ball Jar Soap Dispenser

Study breaks are always more fun when they're creative. After taking a practice test and reading a review book all morning, I was ready to get out my toolkit and make something. I found an antique Ball jar in the basement with the zinc top (my favorite). Used wire cutters to make a hole in the top and stole the dispenser from some cheap hand soap!

Curried Quinoa Pilaf with Cucumber Mint Raita

I was tired of winter food. Tired of winter skies and stubborn patches of snow still clinging to the ground in mid-April. One day last week, I opened the door to the house and was engulfed by the incredible scent of curry emanating from the kitchen. It filled the living room, drifting into every corner. I asked my roommate for the recipe and made it the very next night.

It was amazing, and even more so, took almost no time at all (around 30 min total including prep work). The combination of the Greek yogurt and the quinoa leaves you satisfied for the rest of the evening. It was suggested that it be served with spinach, but I substituted spicy arugula which complimented the sweet curried quinoa and the cold, minty raita. (It's a tossup as to which part is my favorite).

Curried Quinoa Pilaf with Cucumber Mint Raita

(adapted from Cooking Light)

• 2 tsp olive oil 
• 6 tsp curry powder
• 3-4 garlic clove, minced
• 3 cup uncooked quinoa
• 6 cups water
• 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• chopped fresh cilantro
• raisins and chopped dried apricots
• 3/4 cup finely diced peeled cucumber 
• 6-8 teaspoons chopped fresh mint (2-3 bunches)
• 2 1/2-3 c plain Greek yogurt
• Arugula

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the curry and the garlic to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add quinoa and water; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 16 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat; stir in salt. Let cool completely (if you can wait---I couldn't). Add the raisins, apricots, green onion and cilantro to cooled quinoa; toss gently.

Combine the cucumber, mint, and yogurt in a small bowl, and stir well.

Serve the quinoa on top of a bed of arugula with a (very, very) generous dollop of the raita.

And yes, I took photos of the leftovers. I tripled the original recipe (factored in above) but not the raita (again, I have fixed it above); served with plain Greek yogurt it was still almost as delicious.

Not Your Grandmother's Oatmeal Cookies (aka the "OhMyGod Cookies")

There are two reasons why I call these the "OhMyGod cookies":

1. When you bite into one, the toffee-chocolate-oatmeal deliciousness melts in your mouth and you spurt out "OhMyGod". This has happened spontaneously to several people who have tried them.
2. When you are putting them in a container to take to the event you baked them for, you look down and "OhMyGod" you've accidentally eaten 2 or 4 or 10 or the entire tray. 

True story.

These photos are from the first time I made them. Since then, I have perfected the technique (baking time, how far apart on the tray, how big each drop of dough is--things that are particular to your equipment and oven). My most recent batch was much prettier (they can be very fancy looking cookies), but they were all demolished before I got around to taking photos.

If you didn't already have a reason to make them, here's a few more:

1. They are EASY. 
2. Even though they look like a fancy-pants florentine, they take almost no time at all (15 minutes to mix up the batter and put them on the pan and then 12 minutes to bake).
3. They are made of ingredients that any baker has on hand (butter, flour, oats, sugar, vanilla, eggs).

As usual, they are from my ever-favorite baker Lauren Chattman's book Mom's Big Book of Baking.

Oatmeal Lace Cookies
This recipe is easily doubled....and when doubled easily eaten.

• 1 1/2 c rolled oats (not instant)
• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 egg, beaten lightly

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the eggs, butter and vanilla. Drop 1/2 tbs or slightly more (I promise they will spread and get big) onto a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Make sure the cookies are 3-4" apart or they will melt together!

Bake at 325º for 12 minutes (or in my always-too-hot oven less than that) until they are golden and crispy looking. As Lauren Chattman says, "Carefully slide the entire parchment paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and let them cool completely."

When they are cool, drizzle melted semisweet chocolate chips on them in a fancy pattern if you like. 

Kale and Avocado Salad

With three feet of snow outside and bitterly cold walks home from the hospital every day, most days I find myself craving warm soups, roasted vegetables, hot bread fresh from the oven. You know, winter foods.

And yet, every once in a while, I can't bear the thought of one more day of some iteration of winter vegetable soup.  I begin to crave fresh fruit and summer salads, things that aren't baked or roasted or boiled before being eaten.

That's where this salad comes in. It's wonderfully fresh, but still feels like winter. It's a "same old" winter vegetable (kale, which I love in almost all forms) infused with a new kind of flavor. It's January's version of a summer picnic's guacamole, disguised as a dressing for kale. It's absolutely delicious (in fact, my carnivorous boyfriend, absolutely insisted that I make this again).

Oh, and it's super easy and takes 5 minutes and looks impressive.

This recipe, like many, is adapted from one of my mother's. As with all of her recipes, when I asked her how to make it, she said "Oh, I don't know, I just throw together the ingredients. I don't really have a recipe". As with all of her recipes, it always turns out perfectly. So feel free to change it around amount-wise.

Kale and Avocado Salad

• 1 bunch kale, washed and torn into bite-size pieces (use the thinnest kale you can find, like dinosaur kale)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 lemon
• olive oil, to taste/texture
• salt, to taste

Use your hands to mash the avocado up with the kale, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Stir in the garlic. Serve.

Pecan Raisin Granola

Last night, while I was transitioning back and forth between studying anatomy, histology and physiology, I began to crave a snack.  I couldn't justify making something complicated--too much of a distraction from the thousands of terms I had yet to memorize before bed. And it was already 10 pm....

At the beginning of this year, I had asked my mom for her homemade granola recipe. It's a lighter granola, made with less oil than the kind you get in the store. It can be adapted in any way you want--if you want it more like the kind in the store, add more liquids; if you want it a different flavor, add those things (coconut, dried cranberries, macadamia nuts, etc.) ; and if you want to substitute one thing for another (brown sugar for agave, walnuts for pecans, etc.), go ahead.

Warm granola makes a perfect study snack...and you can either grab handfuls of the warm, toasted oats right as they come out of the oven or put them in a bowl with milk or over yogurt.

Pecan Raisin Granola

• 6 c oats
• 1 c pecans
• 1 1/2 or 2 tbs canola oil
• 2-3 tbs maple syrup
• 1 tbs agave 
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 c raisins

Toss the oats with all of the other ingredients (except the raisins). The ratio of oats to liquid is low, so it won't seem too coated.  Cover the bottoms of two baking sheets (with raised edges) with parchment paper and split the oat mixture between these two pans. Either bake one at a time at 325º, side by side (if the pans fit!!), or bake one on a higher shelf and one on a lower shelf. If you bake on two separate shelves, put your oven on convection at 300º.

Bake for 10 minutes, then take out and stir. Put back in for another 9 or 10 minutes until the granola is toasted and golden. Mix in the raisins when it's done baking.

Enjoy warm just out of the oven, AND tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Pesto!

Every year growing up, I got to choose what I wanted for my birthday dinner. And every year? Pesto pasta.

Since birthday is in March, large quantities of basil were often less readily available.

But my mother, being the savvy cook she is, had the perfect solution: make big batches of pesto all summer, and stick them in little Rubbermaid containers to be stored in the freezer. Come December, January, and even March, she could pop out one of these containers and defrost it. Fresh market pesto with snow on the ground (well, I grew up in Durham, so snowy ground is more wishful thinking).

I decided to do the same thing this year, looking towards the long northern winter where I will not see the sun for days at a time. (Why? Because class is from 8-5. The sun will rise and set and I will be in the hospital and in class the whole time!)

This pesto is not the pesto with cream you get in many restaurants in the US (I hate pesto with cream in it); it is true Genovese pesto, albeit made with less olive oil.

Genovese pesto at a market in Florence

The recipe is an adaptation of Marcella Hazan's recipe. (If you don't know of her, you should! She's often called "the Italian Julia Child"). My mother often says that Marcella taught her to cook. The old cookbook opens up right to the pesto page, and my mother's adaptation is penciled in next to the original recipe.

Blender Pesto

• 2 c fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
• 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbs chopped pine nuts or walnuts
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/3 c grated parmesan
• salt

Place the olive oil, nuts, garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse for 10-15 seconds. Add the basil and process until combined. Add the cheese, then pulse until it is mixed in.

Pesto Pasta (orzo)

Summer Pesto Pasta with Zucchini

Pesto Risotto

Pesto on Fresh Mozzarella

Raw Carrot and Beet Salad

A good friend of mine used to make this salad in the co-op I lived in during my last two years of college.  It was such a wonderful shift from roasted beets (which I love, but sometimes got tired of) that I begged her for the recipe before graduation. I made it for my new roommates the other night, and they loved it!

It is fresh, gingery and sweet (but not too much so). It is good the night of, and the next day. With the grating attachment of a food processor, it takes five minutes!

• Equal amounts carrots and beets (maybe 4 beets, 5 small-med carrots), grated (I usually don't peel them, just wash them well)
• 1 or 2 apples, grated 
• 1/2 tbs powdered ginger (or more if you like)
• 1-2 tbs lemon juice
• 3 tbs agave or honey

Mix together the grated apple, carrots and beets. Add the lemon juice, honey and ginger and toss together. If you like, add coconut or raisins.

Wonderfully Addictive French Potato Salad

I have never been a huge fan of classic American potato salad, where the potatoes are swimming in gobs of mayo with little clumps of egg hanging on to the smushy potatoes (ok, maybe it's not always this bad....).

But this potato salad is a horse of a different color. The white wine, olive oil and lemon juice dressing soaks into the warm potatoes, and the green onions add texture as well as flavor. This salad is at once fancy enough to serve at a dinner party and easily casual enough to pack along on a picnic. It is delicious whether it is served hot or cold, and can be made in large amounts or small ones.

Whenever my mom makes this, I literally can't stop eating it---it's so good. I asked her to teach me to make it. We bought some gorgeous little potatoes at the farmers market and picked some fresh basil from the garden.

As always with my mother, it was nearly impossible to figure out amounts of things as she doesn't measure. Here are some estimates.

7-8 potatoes, cut into chunks (but really, as many as you want to make--leftovers are always good!)

1/2 c olive oil**
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c white wine
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper
chopped basil (optional)

**these amounts are really to taste---vary as you like!

Cut up potatoes into potato-salad sized chunks (not too big, not to small) and steam. While the potatoes are still warm, pour the dressing over them and allow it to sit and soak in. Potatoes should be nicely coated but not drowning in dressing. Garnish with the green onions and basil and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Can I stop a moment and wax poetic about chocolate chip cookies? Gooey, salty-sweet, chocolatey melt-in your mouth cookies?  There are a million good recipes, but for me, the original Toll House recipe (the one found on the back of the bag) will always triumph. Maybe it's because they remind me of afternoons baking with family and friends, the scent of them baking emanating throughout the whole house.

On a cold winter afternoon, there is nothing better than a warm chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk. But, with temperatures reaching into the 100s warm cookies are less exciting. But ice cream sandwiches? Yes please!

Make the toll house cookies. Sandwich vanilla ice cream between two cookies, and roll in mini chocolate chips (or nuts). Freeze until ice cream is solid again.

Extra points if you make the ice cream yourself.....

Travelogue: Eats (....and a recipe, too: Sun Dried Tomato and Mushroom Pasta)

I just returned from a two-week long adventure to Berlin and Breda (which is in the south of the Netherlands) visiting family and friends. It was a wonderful trip which left me wishing I had booked it for longer...but time marches on. I start medical school one month from today.

I discovered that Berlin happens to be an amazing place for cheap eats (bowls of soup or burritos for 3 euros---and enough to be a whole meal!)

Cheese danish from the train station

Baguette with brie, tomatoes and arugula (train station food!!)

Blueberry kuchen and a cappuccino

Loaves of bread in a Berlin bakery

Arugula and fresh tomato pizza in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin

Marzipan pouch filled with layer cake and raspberry jam at Fassbender Rausch ---foodie splurge but very, very worth it.

Blissful eats.

Dark chocolate drinking chocolate at Fassbender Rausch 

------

As much as I love eating out, I enjoy cooking dinner and shopping at local grocery stores in other countries. (One of my favorites is  Albert Heijn, a Dutch grocery store chain).

My Dutch friend always comments: "It's so hard to find a good cappuccino in the US". This is her version, made in her kitchen....

Berry cobbler I made to celebrate July 4th in the Netherlands (just like the peach mulberry one, but with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries)

And the last thing, Sun Dried Tomato and Mushroom Pasta---easy, delicious, and savory. My cousins had just moved into a new apartment in Berlin, and were still filling the pantry. One night for dinner I made this pasta, almost surprised at how well it turned out for how simple it is. Chop as many mushrooms as you like, and sauté them in butter or olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste, and either chopped sun dried tomatoes or sun dried tomato paste. Add a few dashes of white wine. Allow the mushrooms to release their juices, and add some rosemary to taste. Serve over pasta with olive oil.

Mulberry Peach Cobbler

So, I graduated from college one week ago today.  It's still completely surreal, but the feeling of summer is starting to seep in, one strawberry at a time.

***

In this age of ever-present technological devices equipped with the ability to just "Google it", there seems to be little exploring to do.  Once upon a time, finding "the nearest coffee shop" or a "café with local food for lunch" had the potential to be a whole adventure...it always seems as though you can find anything you would ever need by just looking it up on the internet.

That is, except mulberry trees.  While driving the other day, I saw the familiar sight of a black and purple splotched sidewalk below a leafy tree laden with mulberries. I would have stopped the car to pick a few, but I was on my way home and the tree was in someone's yard. Where, I thought to myself, are other good mulberry trees in Durham? I laughed when I realized that this, if anything, was certainly not Google-able.

When I went to the farmer's market with my mother this morning, there was a big mulberry tree, ripe with fruit, hanging over the path from the parking lot down to the market.

After our shopping (and a delicious strawberry crostada from Scratch bakery), we stopped by to pick mulberries.

***

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to make cobblers. They are so, so unbelievably easy that they can be an almost instant desert. They highlight whatever fruit is in season at the market (or can be made in the middle of winter with a bag of frozen fruit for a nostalgic trip back to June).

At the market this morning, we bought fresh NC peaches in addition to many other gorgeous veggies that I can't wait to cook this week.

A cobbler is really only 4 steps.

1. Preheat oven to 375º.
2. Cut up fruit (in this case, 4-5 smallish peaches and then just throw in a cup or so of mulberries) and toss with juice of 1 lemon and a handful of brown sugar (maybe 1/3 c?).
3. Sprinkle oats and brown sugar on top.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Serve warm, maybe even with vanilla ice cream on top.