Chateau Haut Nadeau Bordeaux 2005

Very fragrant right out of the bottle. Rich, deep flavor with notes of cherry and more tannins than I've entertained in a while.

Francois Pinon Vouvray 206 Cuvee Tradition

I'm not sure how many more wines like this I'll be able to consume without abducting myself for the Loire Valley to lick some yummy, mineral-y, wet rocks and down many many bottles of reds and whites. But oh, the whites.

Had this by itself and with a light stirfry meal. Would like to try again with something spicy since it really hangs on the palate. I can't recall but we had a Gerz recently with an Indian curry that had fabulous cleansing powers as well.

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 c flour

1/4 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c sugar

1/2 c oil

2 eggs

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c sweetened coconut (shredded or flaked)

1 c coarsely chopped nuts (I used almonds)

1/2 10 oz. package white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, beat sugars, oil and eggs until smooth. Beat in vanilla and coconut. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix together until thoroughly blended. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Spray baking sheets with cooking oil spray. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the greased sheets. Bake for 10 minutes.

Applesauce Spice Cake

From Nov. 2006 issue of Real Simple. This cake came together in a snap. Dumping all of the ingredients into a saucepan of melted butter makes it a fast one. Original recipe calls for 1 c of raisins, but I left them out this time.

2 c flour

2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 stick unsalted butter

1 c sugar

1 2/3 c applesauce

2 t ground cinnamon

1 t ground ginger

pinch ground nutmeg

1 t vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Heat oven to 350. Butter and flour (or spray with canola spray) a 9-inch springform or round cake pan. (I used the bundt attachment in my springform.) In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, applesauce, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, and eggs. Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Pour into prepared pan. Bake cake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes*. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Using a knife, loosen the cake from the pan. Invert it onto a serving plate. Sprinkle cake with confectioner's sugar, slice into wedges, and serve with ice cream.

*Actual cook time for me was 55 minutes.

Roasted Beets with Sour Cream and Dill

I tried to replicate the yummy beet side dish we had at the bistro last week, and while this didn't taste like it (maybe I erred on the side of simplicity.. is there an obvious spice missing?), this turned out yummy in its own right. 

10 small beets, ends trimmed

olive oil

2/3 c sour cream

4-5 T chopped fresh dill

Mix together sour cream and dill. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375. Put beets in covered casserole dish with a drizzling of olive oil. Roast in oven for about 1 hour. Let cool. I'm sure there's a better way, but what I do is rub the skins off once beets are cool enough to handle. Cut skinned beets into slices. Top with sour cream mixture. Can be served warm or cool. Makes about 6 servings.

Pineapple-Jicama Salsa

I made this once before and served it over grilled turbot. I'm not sure what recipe it was derived from, but there was so much leftover after the fish was gone I was content to eat it straight and call it a salad. This one ended up with more heat from only 1/2 a serrano than I expected, but I still found it to be nosh-able by itself. J whipped up some chicken & black bean tacos with it this afternoon. 

1 whole pineapple, peeled and diced

1 whole jicama (small), peeled and diced

1/2 serrano pepper (or less)

juice of 1 1/2 limes

1/4 chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 red onion, diced

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Sardines

Have I said enough good things about sardines? This has been another pregnancy mainstay. They're more flavorful than canned tuna, do not poison fetus and I with mercury, and are high in Omega 3's for brain-developing goodness. Not too shabby in the protein and iron departments either. My preferred kind is the wild caught skinless & boneless sardines packed in water. 

I had been throwing a can together with a little mayo and some capers and calling it a day.. maybe spreading it on some whole grain bread with some fresh slices of tomato if I was feeling particularly fancy. But today I added a few elements from the salmon sandwiches of last week's shower: chopped green onion and horseradish... upping the zazz quotient considerably. 

The Last Supper?

Two weeks from D-Day and good friend V suggested we make a date at the restaurant where she works. As the lack of action on this blog for the past few months might indicate, I've been cooking little and eating like a toddler: i.e. plain chicken and slices of avocado will go down as favorite pregnancy dinner of all time. The "flavors together" concept most dear to the fundamental nature of cooking has been on the outs with me this entire trimester, with a few notable exceptions. This meal, for one.

J and I ordered a full dinner from the menu only to be surprised by additional plates of things V felt we should try. This made for quite a feast- and plenty of leftovers.

We got to Bistro C at 6 and were seated in a romantic window seat in the front of the restaurant where we could watch the rain coming down in their outdoor gardens and the people rushing by on Lincoln Ave. Within the hour the restaurant filled up around us, but our location still felt very private and intimate (and I'm quite sensitive to feeling crowded in lately!). Our initial server came over and explained the specials, but then V saw us and took over. We didn't expect such treatment, but soon she had a glass of champagne in each of our hands as a proper start to what would be an epic 3-hour meal that consisted of:

A carmelized onion strudel appetizer

A salad consisting of a soft-boiled egg atop a creamy mash of celery root beside some poached asparagus

A shaved fennel salad with pea shoots

(J, reserving his red meat trists for such nights out:) Boeuf Bourguignon

(Me, the constant chicken-eater:) Roasted chicken with wild mushroom ragout and onions frites

Brussels sprouts with brown butter

Roasted beets with dill cream

Buttery mashed potatoes

With this I enjoyed a nice glass of Clos Chanteduc Cotes-du-Rhone, 2006 and J had the Malbec (Chateau Lagrezette, Zette, Cahors 2003).

J found a little room to help me with dessert, the lemon tart with Chantilly cream, and V brought out a scoop of Bistro C's homemade mango sorbet for good measure.

This meal will go down in infamy. What a celebration of our soon-to-be next adventure. 

April Showers

Today was my baby shower and while friends generously offered their hosting services, I felt adamant about making the food myself. (Acupuncturist K laughed at hearing this, saying that last year family members had to twist her arm not to cater her own wedding.) 

With mimosas and tea sandwiches as the rubric, I commenced with making several varieties of teeny sandwiches, improvising a bit, keeping the mayo to a minimum.. so these recipes are approximations.

Also served: a fresh fruit salad of kiwi, blackberries, blueberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, and pineapple; a cheese board of smoked gouda, herbed chevre, and brie with water crackers; vegetable crudites; white bean hummus; nuts; a yummy spicy tuna salad on crackers brought by V; ginger biscotti made by my mom; an artful and delicious yellow buttercream cake with a branch of acorns sketched on it in dark chocolate brought by Jenny; and the incredibly large, heavy, dense, rich Chocolate Genache Cake I ordered from Bleeding Heart Bakery. (Any disparaging remarks I've made in the past about BH's homemade seitan are expunged from the record with the excellent service I received when ordering this cake, and the cake itself left no dark chocolate diehard unwowed.)

As for those teeny sandwiches...

Curried Chicken Salad

8 cooked chicken breasts (Trader Joe's sells a bag of frozen chicken breasts that are hormone free and cook up quick and easy... this has been my cooking mainstay for the last few months. I cooked up about 8 of these in a little olive oil, let them cool and then chopped them up for the chicken salad)

3/4 c finely chopped walnuts

4 celery stalks, finely chopped

salt, to taste (approx. 2 t)

mayonnaise, enough to moisten (approx. 1/2 c)

curry powder, to taste (approx. 1 T)

loaf of fresh country white bread

With a rolling pin I flattened the pieces of bread. I'm not sure why I did this. Maybe to make them denser like the little cocktail bread slices I had seen in the store (which, by the way, are full of corn syrup and weirdness). Mixed up all ingredients and spread on these flattened pieces of bread, making half a dozen or so proper-sized sandwiches. Then I cut these into two-bite pieces, so I got about 2 dozen little sandwiches out of them. 

Smoked Salmon Sandwiches

4 T minced green onion

4 T minced fresh dill

4 T capers

3 t prepared horseradish

approx. 1/2 c mayonnaise

pepper to taste

8 oz. smoked salmon

6 oz. cream cheese

1/2 loaf pumpernickel bread

Mix together green onion, dill, capers, horseradish, mayo and pepper. Roll out slices of bread (again, for same reasons stated above.. not necessary). Spread mixture onto one slice of bread. On other slice of bread spread cream cheese and cover with salmon slices. Put them together, cut into quarters or more, and repeat. Again, I think I got about 2 dozen sandwiches out of this. The horseradish gives the spread a great kick.

Other sandwiches I made, which don't really warrant detailed recipes here: Egg salad with fresh dill, and cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese and green onion.

Roasted Acorn Squash stuffed with Curried Quinoa and Chickpeas

This was not a very methodical preparation since I roasted the squash, and while it was roasted I decided to do the rest. So in the future I'm sure some of these steps can be combined.

Split an acorn squash in half, scoop out seeds and strings, put face down in 1/4 inch of water in a roasting pan. Cover pan and bake for 1 hour in a 400 degree oven.

In a saucepan, boil 2 1/2 c of water. Add 1 1/2 c quinoa. Lower heat and stir occasionally until most of water is absorbed and quinoa looks like little commas. In another pan, I heated a tablespoon or two of olive oil and sauteed two pressed garlic cloves. I would have done some onion too, but we were out. Add to that a 19 ox. can of chickpeas and 2 t curry power. Stir. Add a tablespoon or two of water to give mixture a little "sauce" and to prevent spices from scorching. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes or so. Chickpeas should taste thoroughly curried. To this I added 1/2 c of sliced almonds and the quinoa. The quinoa still had some water in it, so at first the mixture looked a little loose, but soon the water cooked out and it all came together quite nicely. I would have added some chopped parsley for color and flavor if we had it. Next time!

Had this with lacinato kale sauteed in olive oil and garlic.

Blueberry Muffins

How To Cook Everything single-handedly gave us our crash course in fish cookery a few years ago when we first started to decommission our vegetarian status. And we love the weekly Minimalist feature the author does in the NY Times. But this muffin recipe requires some tweaking.

While attractive as all get-out, and look, they're smooching, I goofed and used baking soda instead of baking powder. I wondered why one would want the b soda flavor so present, muscling out the yummy fresh blueberries I felt lucky to bag this time of year. My mistake! And though I low-balled the 1/2 c of sugar, I was wanting for more sweetness, and moisture, in the final analysis. (But maybe those two things too were the result of my soda/powder mixup.)

3 T canola oil
2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar, or to taste
1/2 t salt
3 t baking powder
1 egg
1 c milk
1 c fresh blueberries
1/2 t fresh lemon zest

Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin pan.
Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together the egg, milk, and oil. Mae a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Using a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula, combine the ingredients swiftly, stirring and folding rather than beating, and stopping as soon as all the dry ingredients are moistened.
Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. I got 7 huge muffins out this. Bake 20-30 minutes.

Essenza di Malvasia ICT 2006

Since my wine habit has been limited to sips and drams these last few months, pregnancy supernose was delighted to encounter this one, the sips of which were worth the 6th toe.

A nice dry white, full, with crisp acidity, good structure, and very fruity.

More information, en Deutch!

Producers: Vinosia, Campania
Jahrgang/Vintage: 2006
Rebsorte(n): 100% Malvasia Grape (s)
Alkoholgehalt/Alcohol content: 13%

Genuss/Enjoyment:
Empfohlene Lagerzeit/Recommended storage time: 2007 - 2009
Höhepunkt/Peak: 2008
Empfohlene Trinktemperatur/Recommended temperature: 8-10 ° C.

A few more months and I'll be revisiting this bottle with gusto.

The Chicken Sandwich, deconstructed, plus brussels sprouts

Thankfully vegetables are making a comeback as far as my preg palate is concerned, but I crack myself up to think that this meal is a prime example of my new eating style. I've had a hard time eating out lately because of a problematic situation with "flavors together." Even if they're flavors I like. I have to taste everything separately. Or so says month 6 of pregnancy. So here: rotisserie chicken breast, sliced avocado, sliced cheddar cheese and b sprouts. Period.

Apparently from now on, I'm eating like a child. Also good: melted chocolate smeared on a banana topped with chopped walnuts. Mmm.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Quick, easy, standard chocolate chip cookies loaded with nuts. Replaced butter with Earth Balance to make them non-dairy and there's really no difference in taste or texture.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter spread
  
• less than 1/2 cup brown sugar
• less than 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 375°.
Cream Earth Balance; add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, and soda; add to creamed mixture.

Stir until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop the batter from a teaspoon, well apart, on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Recipe makes about 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

I adapted this from a recipe I found online. I omitted a lot of the sugar the recipe originally called for in the fruit mixture. The fruit itself should be the main sweet element in my book. Butter was changed to Earth Balance spread to make it vegan.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups cranberries
• 3 cups sliced peeled apples
• 1/8 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons Earth Balance spread, room temperature

PREPARATION:

Combine cranberries, apples, granulated sugar, lemon juice, and salt; turn into a shallow, 1 1/2 quart baking dish sprayed with canola oil. Combine brown sugar, oats, and flour. Cut in Earth Balance spread. Spoon over cranberry-apple mixture.

Bake at 325° for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until topping is crispy and fruit is tender.

**Still too sweet. Next time omit granulated sugar entirely and reduce brown sugar by half. Served warm with vanilla frozen yogurt.

Roasted Parsnips and Carrots with Ginger

I had an extra peeled parsnip from the fritter recipe that I needed to use elsewhere, so I cut it into 1/2 inch thick rounds along with 3 carrots and put them in a roasting pan with 2 T grated fresh ginger and 2 T olive oil. Cover pan with foil and roast at 375 for an hour, or until carrots are soft when pierced through with a fork. It looks like it will make 2-3 servings, so I'll double it next time if I'm feeding company.

Parsnip Fritters with Red Pepper Mayonnaise

This is really just a variation on this experiment from last week. Back then I was calling them "cakes," but I think even though it may connote more oiliness, "fritter" has a nicer ring. I need to ask someone from the part of the country who would know what the difference between a cake and a fritter is, just to get my nomenclature straight. Meanwhile, I'll make it up.

Like this recipe. This variation was so smashing, that, at the risk of redundancy, I'm posting it all here in its comprehensive glory. The parsnips are kind of a pain to grate, but the sweetness they impart make it worth the skinned knuckles. And I bumped up the parsley since last time. Tonight's fritter redo was motivated in part due to a serious mayo craving I've had the last few days. Yep, though never an eater of mayo-laden salads and the like, the pregnant bit is demanding it on cheese sandwiches, on chicken (which I just started eating again this week after 17 years) and hard boiled eggs. The Whole Foods 365 brand of mayo is a lot better than that old Hellman's I polished off over the weekend, so I recommend it here.

for the fritters:

2 medium parsnips, peeled and grated
2 eggs, beaten
2 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 c breadcrumbs
1/4 c minced onion
1/8 t white pepper
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t garlic powder
1 t dried parsley flakes
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 c oil for frying

1. In a large bowl, combine parsnips, egg, and 2 T olive oil. Stir in breadcrumbs, minced onion, garlic and spices. Mix well.
2. Shape mixture into patties.
3. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium high heat until hot. Fry patties in oil until golden brown on both sides.

for red pepper mayo:
3 t sambal olek
4 T mayonnaise

Mix together and serve with fritters.


Makes 8 cakes.

Squash Bisque

Quick and easy, tweaked from the Cascadian Farm squash box...

2 t olive oil
1/2 c onion, finely chopped
1/4 c celery, chopped
1 T ginger root, minced
2 c veg stock, I used No-Chicken Broth
1 10 oz. package of winter squash, defrosted
<1/4 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t nutmeg, freshly ground
1/2 c soy milk, Silk Unsweetened

Heat oil in a medium sauce pot. Saute vegetables and ginger over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Stir squash in thoroughly. Simmer for 20 minutes until soup has thickened and vegetables are tender. Add pepper, nutmeg and soy milk.

Serves 4

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

J's favorite. I tried a recipe from Cooks.com this time and they turned out pretty good. Adjusted to be dairy-free.

1 c. pumpkin
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
1 egg
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. soy milk
1 c. chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla
Nuts (optional)

Dissolve baking soda in soy milk; set aside. In large bowl add pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg; stir. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda mixture. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees 15 minutes or until done.

Yielded 27 cookies.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

This is a tried and true invention of mine. It's pretty quick to make too.

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3 T olive oil
8 fresh corn tortillas, El Milagro is best
8 T Frontera tomatillo salsa

Preheat oven to 375 F. Toss cubed sweet potato in casserole dish with 2 T olive oil. Cover and roast for 25 minutes, or until soft and brown. In a saucepan over medium heat, saute garlic in remaining oil. Add black beans, stir, and turn down heat. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are warmed through, usually 10-15 minutes. I suggest mashing them minimally with a fork to give the potatoes something to hold on to. On a dry skillet or griddle, warm tortillas on each side for 1 minute.

For each taco, layer 2 tortillas (the second layer reinforces the first one which is likely to split), 2-3 T of black beans, 2 T roasted sweet potatoes and 2 T salsa.

Makes 4 tacos.