kbecker57

Olympics potluck

I didn’t think I was that excited about the Olympics, but once they started I was hooked and I decided to host an Olympics-themed potluck. The challenge to my fellow potluckers was to make a dish that represented a country participating in the Olympics…easy, right?

We had a pretty good representation of countries, though apparently we strongly favor European flavors:

Italy: pizza, Creamy chicken Italiano
Belgium: stoverij, Belgian fruit tart
China: Chinese chicken salad
Portugal: Presunto, olives, Gouda
Greece: Orzo feta salad
United States: peach crisp

A perfect potluck plate

I made the orzo feta salad, which allowed me to use some of my CSA goods. I found a recipe on epicurious and heavily adapted it, as below. I also made part of it without olives for my olive-hating friends. Unfortunately I forgot to add the pine nuts!

Orzo salad
Source: Bon Appetit, October 1997
Serves: 8-10

Ingredients
16 ounces orzo, cooked
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2 ears corn
3 pickling cucumbers, sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 Tbsp fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon dried)
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (juice from 1 lemon)
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the corn for 3 minutes until the starchiness is just gone. Drain and immerse it in ice water to stop the cooking and to set the color. When the corn is cool, cut the kernels off the cob, cutting close to the cob.

2. Cook orzo in large pot of boiling water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain well and transfer to a large bowl. Toss with 2 Tbsp olive oil and allow to cool.

3. Once orzo is cool, add veggies, olives, feta, garlic, oregano, and dill.

4. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, white wine vinegar, and mustard. Gradually whisk in remaining 1 Tbsp of olive oil.

5. Add dressing to orzo mixture and stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

6. Just before serving, garnish salad with pine nuts.

CSA Week 15

I thought I did pretty well this week, but it doesn’t look so good on paper (insert “good on paper” joke here). I think I must have been dealing with leftovers from previous weeks, like the one-pound onion from a few weeks ago and all of the peppers.

Salad mix: 100%
Edamame: 100%
Tomatoes: 100%
Lettuce: 50%
Grapes: 50%
Spaghetti squash: 0%
Beets: 0%
Onions: 0%
Hot pepper: 0%
Parsley: 0%

Here’s what I’ll be eating this week (no sign this week, apparently the truck was delayed and things were a little discombobulated):

Lettuce times two
Collards
Carrots
Leek
Eggplant
Bell peppers
Hot peppers
Okra
Tomato
Apples
Cilantro

My half

Stuffed peppers

With the fall weather and an abundance of peppers in my refrigerator, I figured it was a perfect time to pull out the slow cooker and make stuffed peppers. There are so many different ways to make them, but I was in the mood for a more traditional stuffed pepper with ground beef and tomato sauce.

If you’re paranoid (like me) about leaving your slow cooker on all day while out of the house, I sometimes let the recipes cook overnight. In the morning, I just turn it off and put the whole ceramic dish in the refrigerator. The only drawback to this is the smell of food cooking can make you crave strange things for breakfast in the morning!

I had some peppers that weren’t conducive to stuffing (the long skinny kind), so I chopped them up and threw them in with the onions and garlic. I was also lazy and bought some already-cooked brown rice from the salad bar at Whole Foods. After filling the peppers, I usually have some of the meat mixture leftover, which I either add to the sauce or freeze for another time.

Stuffed peppers
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients
~1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
Italian seasoning, oregano, red pepper flakes to taste
1 cup cooked rice or barley
4 bell peppers, halved
1 jar (25 ounces) tomato sauce

Directions
1. Heat olive oil over medium heat, then add onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Add ground beef, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks. When beef is almost done cooking, add seasonings and rice.
2. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in slow cooker.
3. Fill bell pepper halves with meat mixture and place in slow cooker. Top with rest of tomato sauce (try to cover all of the peppers).
4. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Enjoy!

Step 1: Browning ground beef

Step 3: Stuffed peppers before the sauce

Out and about – Maine Lobster Festival

A few of my friends went up to the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland last year. I was bummed that I couldn’t go, so this year I was not going to miss it! My parents happened to be planning a visit to Boston the same weekend, so we all went on a little field trip to Maine.

I had also never been to Portland so we stayed there for a night on the way up to Rockland. In Portland we went to Blue Spoon for dinner, a tiny restaurant in Munjoy Hill, which was a remarkably non-touristy area of the city. We tried some Maine beer (Geary’s, Maine Beer Company) and I had the Casco Bay mussels. After dinner we toured around a bit and we got to see the stages being set up for the Mumford and Sons concert that was happening on the East Promenade the next day. Now we understood why it was so hard to get a hotel reservation in Portland for that weekend!

We missed Wine Time…

Saturday morning we drove up to Rockland to experience the Lobster Festival. This is listed in the book “1,000 Things to Do Before You Die”…great, only 999 things left to do! Well I haven’t actually read the book, so hopefully I’ve unknowingly knocked some other things off the list already.

We arrived in town just in time for the parade, but we decided to skip it and head into the festival, which was great timing because the lobster tent opened shortly after we got there. We had our first lobster probably around 11 AM. I went for the twin lobster dinner, which was a better deal at $17 than the single lobster dinner that cost $12. These were soft shell lobsters so no crackers required. Delicious.

Twin lobster dinner

After our lobster dinner, we walked around a bit and got to observe the lobster cooking process. They have a lobster cooker that can cook 1,300 pounds of lobster at a time. Each “container” holds about 80 pounds and takes 13 minutes. That’s a whole lot of lobster!

Lobster assembly line

We also walked around the town of Rockland for a little while, then finished up with a lobster roll before hitting the road back to Boston.

No work required to eat

The rundown:
Blue Spoon
89 Congress Street, Portland

Maine Lobster Festival
Rockland

Gazpacho attempt #1

When I first started this blog, I had a request for a gazpacho recipe. I decided to wait until the summer when I could use fresh-from-the-farm ingredients. The first thing I learned when looking for a recipe is that there are SO many recipes and variations out there. The other thing I learned is that making gazpacho is a messy process…be prepared to get your hands and kitchen dirty!

Mise en place

I decided to go with a recipe from epicurious because it seemed fairly straightforward and I had many of the ingredients on hand, as long as I ignored the colors of the vegetables in the original recipe…I used a yellow bell pepper instead of a red bell pepper and a white onion instead of a red onion. I also used a combination of red, orange, and yellow tomatoes, which made the soup come out an orange-y color.

Resting (step 2)

The original recipe had an extra straining step after it was pureed, but I skipped that part.

Fresh tomato gazpacho
Source: Bon Appetit, August 2001 via epicurious
Serves: 6

Ingredients
2 pounds large tomatoes, halved (on the equator)
1/2 pound country-style bread, crust removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup chopped English hothouse cucumber
1 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup Sherry wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 cup water

Directions
1. Working over bowl, gently squeeze tomato halves to release seeds and juices. Strain juices, pressing on solids to extract as much juice as possible (about 1/2 cup). Discard seeds. Chop tomatoes.
2. Transfer chopped tomatoes and tomato juices to large glass bowl. Add all remaining ingredients except the water. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour.
3. Working in batches, puree gazpacho with 1 cup water in blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Chill at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Serve cold and enjoy!

Orange-y gazpacho

CSA Week 14

Happy end of summer! I don’t know about you, but I am ready for some crisp fall weather. I was in Florida over the holiday weekend, so I have quite a few veggie leftovers this week. But I did finally attempt gazpacho and I promise to post the recipe later this week. I also have an idea in mind for the eggplant as well.

Corn: 100%
Lettuce: 100%
Melon: 100%
Tomatoes: 80%
Sweet peppers: 50%
Peaches : 50%
Carrots: 20%
Garlic: 10%
Hot peppers: 0%
Eggplant: 0%

With cooler weather in our midst, I am excited that we are starting to get lettuce again. This week I got the spaghetti squash and my CSA partner-in-crime took the cabbage.

Week 14

My half

Out and about – Switzerland

After my Belgian adventure, I also spent a week in Switzerland, specifically Basel, Luzern, and Geneva. Eating in Switzerland was a bit more difficult than it was in Belgium for several reasons:

I didn’t have an interpretor with me (and many menus were not in English).
Eating out was expensive, much more expensive than in Belgium. Entrees alone were usually > 20 CHF (Swiss francs).
When I first arrived in Switzerland I was suffering from a little post-Gentse Feesten GI distress (my last day in Belgium included a trip to the apothecary)
Eating dinner solo is not as fun as dining with friends.

My hotels in Basel and Luzern included breakfast, which was a huge buffet that catered to both American and European tastes and included eggs (omelets, scrambled and hard-boiled), meats, cheeses, breads, muesli, yogurt, and fruit. In these cities I usually ate a huge breakfast and was set until dinner.

Filet de perches
This was recommended to me as a “summer” food by someone I met on a plane earlier this year who had lived in Geneva for many years. I had it once in Basel with mushrooms and butter and once in Geneva with tomatoes and sauteed vegetables.

Filet de perche at Cafe Spitz

Pretzel
I stopped in at the Rathaus Brauerei and really enjoyed the spot. It was in the old part of Luzern, and right on the Reuss river with a great view of the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge). I also really enjoyed the wheat beer and the pretzel with cheese (which apparently is the same as a pretzel with butter and cheese). I wonder if they have pretzel slicers like we have bagel slicers.

Pretzel mit kas at Rathaus Brauerei

Sirloin with frites
I happened upon Café de Paris in Geneva and was intrigued because it was usually pretty crowded and there was only one thing on the menu: sirloin steak with salad and fries…all you had to order was the temperature at which you wanted the meat cooked. I figured, if a restaurant is bold enough to only serve one thing, they probably do it pretty darn well. The steak arrived sizzling, and swimming in butter. Delicious. Unfortunately the meat kept cooking on the table-side sterno and became a little more well done than I would have liked.

Sirloin steak at Café de Paris

Chocolat chaud
Another highlight was the chocolate chaud (hot chocolate) I had at Phillipe Pascoët for a chocolate chaud (hot chocolate). It was so decadent, a perfect afternoon pick-me-up!

Chocolate chaud at Phillipe Pascoët

Unfortunately I did not get to try fondue or raclette. They seem to be more “winter” foods, and the few places I did find that were serving fondue either seemed very touristy or only served “fondue for two”.

The rundown (or at least some highlights):
Rathaus Brauerei
Unter der Egg 2, 6004 Luzern

Brasserie Bagatelle
20 Boulevard James Fazy, 1201 Genève

Café de Paris
Rue du Mont-Blanc 26, 1201 Genève

Phillipe Pascoët
34 rue du Marché, 1204 Genève

August RC – Nordic Lodge

RC went on a field trip to Rhode Island this month, for an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet at the Nordic Lodge. Now I’m not usually a fan of buffets, but I was all in for a lobster buffet.

Driving down to Charlestown, we were having second thoughts about the idea of driving two hours each way for dinner. And when we got off the highway, we were all wondering “Where are we?” But we made it, and you could tell this was quite a destination place as there was a big tour bus in the parking lot when we got there at 5:30 and it was already pretty crowded. The grounds were beautiful, complete with a pond and some sort of petting zoo area (though we didn’t see what types of animals were available for petting). There were also hammocks that would have been nice to stretch out in for a food-coma-induced nap.

It is $85 per person for an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a two hour eating limit. This includes tip and non-alcoholic beverages. We splurged on some wine as well.

The placemats had a map to help you navigate the buffet, which was super helpful. Though I spent most of my time at the seafood bar (lobster, crab legs, peel-and-eat shrimp), there was so much more than that! I didn’t even make it to the grill room which had prime rib, filet mignon, and other fried seafood goodies.

The map

Some of us had grand ambitions to attempt to eat three lobsters, but I maxed out at two, plus a visit to the dessert buffet as well!

Round 1

The bear did not join us for dinner, but we had a pretty good crew who made the trip. Great pick Julie!

The Rundown:
Nordic Lodge
178 E Pasquisett Trail, Charlestown, RI

CSA Week 13

I knew I had another busy week, so I did some major veggie maintenance on Monday night. I baked kale chips, roasted okra and potatoes, sautéed Swiss chard, and boiled the edamame.

That resulted in a pretty strange dinner that night: kale chips, edamame, and tomato and onion salad. It wasn’t the most composed meal, but it was all pretty tasty, and I was pretty full.

So after all of that, here’s how I did this week:

Swiss chard: 100%
Okra: 100%
Edamame: 100%
Tomatoes: 100%
Peaches: 100%
Green pepper: 100%
Potatoes: 80%
Eggplant: 0%
Onion: 0%

Here’s what I’ll be cooking and eating this week…I have finally found a gazpacho recipe that I am going to try so stay tuned!

Week 13

My half!

Out and about – Belgium (Savory)

We’ve reached the part of my Belgium story where I try to tell you about everything else I ate without boring you to tears.

Mosselens

I was really hoping I could write about eating mussels in Brussels (just so I could write that), but I had them in Gent. Twice. The first time was almost a fail because we were attempting to find a place for dinner pretty late and a lot of restaurants were closing or already closed. But our perseverance paid off, and that steaming pot of mussels with white wine was delicious. I had mussels again on our last night in Gent at Brasserie Borluut.

Mosselens at De Witte Leeuw

Stoverij

I loved this dish. This was my first dinner in Belgium, and it was a wonderful way to start our trip. The hardest thing about it is trying to figure out how to pronounce it! It is like a beef stew that is made with beer, hearty and delicious. And of course it is served with fries and mayo.

Stoverij at Aba-jour

In Brugge we also tried the street meat version of it. I’m so glad that Kendrin has mastered a recipe for this since we’ve been back…it will hopefully be easier to bribe her to make it for me than to try to go to Belgium every time I want it!

Street stoverij in Brugge

Frietjes (“Life’s too short to eat bad fries”)

Belgians certainly know how to make great fries, perhaps it’s because they are fried twice or perhaps it is because everyone grows up with a deep fryer in their kitchen (lots of time to practice). Either way, they are delicious, and usually unlimited if they come with your meal. And there weren’t too many meals that didn’t come with fries!

Delicious frietjes

Paling

We were lucky to have the opportunity to have lunch at the Siphon in Damme. The Sonnevilles have been going there for 50 years. We ordered three different eel dishes to try, red, green, and cream. I liked the green and the cream sauce the best, but it was so fun to be able to try all three.

Green and cream sauce

Other highlights

Croque Monsieur at A la Mort Subite in Bruxelles
Tomaat garnaal (tomato filled with shrimp) at ‘T Braboke in Antwerpen
Garnaalkroketten, kaaskroketten (fried potato croquettes with shrimp/cheese) at ‘T Braboke in Antwerpen
Stoemp with sausage (basically sausage over mashed potatoes) at Fin de Siecle in Bruxelles
Vol-au-vent (chicken in a puff pastry) at K. Zeppos in Antwerpen
Spit burger at the Gentse Feesten (a fancy ham sandwich)

A bientot, Belgium, until we meet again!