How Does Your Garden Grow?

So glad we put in the vegetable garden this year! I love watching it grow.

The lettuce is going crazy! I think the two big ones are ready to become part of a salad.

And the spinach now has little spinach leaves....this I planted from seed.

Also from seed, I planted French Green Beans....two have popped up!

We also have squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, and Brussels Sprouts.

It really is the little things that make us happy.

Not Just Cooking, Knitting Too

I have been knitting for many years. Knitting gives me hours of happiness, and besides cooking, it's my second form of therapy. It's so relaxing and I do some of my finest menu planning while knitting. And I love yarn...well, we won't really talk about my stash.

I finally broke down and treated myself to a yarn swift and ball winder. Why would I be happy about this? Because it turns hanks of yarn like this


into nice little bundles of yarn, all wound and ready to start knitting!


Yes, it's quite the contraption -- I got it yesterday and set it up on my kitchen island so I could start playing with it.


Although I haven't minded all these years winding yarn into balls myself, this will save me so much time...and give me more time for knitting. Although, is there ever really enough time for knitting?

Ready For A Garden!

We decided last year (well, I did a lot of hinting and begging) to plant a garden this year. Last weekend, it finally was a great weekend, schedule and weather-wise, to lay it out and get the box built. We worked most of the afternoon Saturday digging the trenches where the boards would go, then finished up on Sunday replacing dirt and leveling out the space.










We had really good help...Haven is a great digger and she really got to it!





Then she had to settle back and just be the supervisor.

And we're done with that part. The next step will be to add lots of nutrient-rich soil, then wait for the proper time to plant.

We're thinking tomatoes for sure, maybe squash and cucumbers and some kind of bean. I can't wait! I just hope I do a good job with the weeding and watering...not really my strong suit.

Fresh Eggs

My neighbor across the street is an elderly man and since I'm always cooking and always have lots of food around, I often send my husband across the street with a plate of whatever I've recently cooked. His son has chickens and almost every week brings me a dozen fresh eggs. Oh my.

Lately, I've had to catch up on using the eggs so I've made Old Fashioned Egg Custard and pie, deviled eggs, egg salad, scrambled eggs on toast....you name it, I'm cooking eggs.

I think I have about three dozen left but I'll keep up, there's no way I'm turning down fresh eggs. And he's getting more chickens this year!

Tonight's dinner: Spinach Fritatta with herbed focaccia. Yum!

Banana Creme Brulee

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A couple of weeks ago, I was hired by a lovely man to chef a surprise birthday dinner for his wife's birthday. We worked together to plan the menu and all the details, and when I arrived, his wife was indeed surprised.

I prepared a four-course meal, including soup, salad, entree, and dessert which was Banana Creme Brulee. I want to share the recipe because it was really unique and very good! When you see the recipe, you'll see why: cream, egg yolks, oh yea, the real thing. But it was good and you certainly don't eat this every day, so if it's your birthday or a special occasion, make it and enjoy the splurge.

It's a typical creme brulee recipe where you cook and mash the bananas, make the cream, and cook it all in a waterbath.

When you're done, let it cool, then sprinkle with sugar and torch the top till browned and you'll have that nice, mandatory crunch when you break into it. This was creamy and delicious. Let me know if any of you make it, I'd love to hear the results! Enjoy!
Here's the recipe:

Banana Creme Brulee
1 tbsp unsalted butter
3 bananas mashed
1 banana to slice on top
6 tbsp white sugar
juice of 1/4 lemon
3 tbsp brandy
3 cups heavy cream
3 tsp pure vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
12 tsp sugar for torching

Preheat oven to 300. Over medium heat in saute pan, melt butter and add 3 mashed banans. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp white sugar. Blend and cook for 5 minutes until bananas are lightly caramelized. Add lemon juice and stir. Raise heat and add brandy and boil for 1 minute, stirring. Remove, and divide among 6 shallow creme brulee dishes.

Place heavy cream in saucepan. Add vanilla and bring just to a boil, then remove from heat. Place egg yolks and 5 tbsp sugar in top of a double boiler. Whisk together, then stir over simmering water until it becomes fairly thick (about 15 minutes). Strain the reserved cream mixture into the eggs, simmering another 10 minutes.

Place creme brulee dishes in shallow baking pan. (You'll probably need to use more than one). Add creme mixture to dishes. Pour hot water up to the halfway mark on the dishes to form waterbath. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove and chill.

When ready to serve, slice banana on top. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar on each. Torch! Enjoy!

Rice Wrapper Spring Rolls

This week, I'm trying to use up food I have in the refrigerator and pantry. As much as I can, I try to use food we have on hand and not go to the grocery or farmer's market and buy more. And I always have a lot of food around since I cook so much for clients and because I always look for new things to cook. Truth be told, we could probably eat for weeks without having to buy more food if we had to. If there was a disaster, we would not go hungry.

Last night, I made rice paper spring rolls using ingredients I had: shrimp, fresh spinach and carrots, green onion and cilantro. And I had two packs of rice wrappers.

These spring rolls are a much healthier version than the fried, doughy kind. The wrappers are made of rice, water and salt and are about 40 calories each. I ate 2 1/2 rolls and was full.




Here's how I did it: First, boil some water and dip each wrapper for only about 15 seconds. Don't let it sit too long in the water or it will be too mushy and will fall apart when you try to work with it. Only do about two at a time.

Then, layer your ingredients and roll it up, folding the sides in then the remainder, like an egg roll or a burrito.

And you're done! The ingredients are up to you. This version was very low calorie. Use fresh vegetables for that nice crunch. I made a dipping sauce, again using what I had on hand by mixing soy sauce, teriyaki, fresh ginger and chili garlic sauce. Delicious!

Happy New Year!

This year we rang in the new year with friends and family. My son has been here for a nice long visit and it's been great to catch up and spend quality time.

Of course, there has been lots of food around! New Year's Eve I did manage to stay up past midnight, but just barely. New Year's Day we had friends and family over and I cooked the traditional food.....black-eyed peas, collards, pork and sourkraut, ribs, mac and cheese. Dessert was banana pudding and chocolate cream pie.




I did walk my 3 miles this morning, so hopefully 2012 is off to a good start.

I hope everyone has a great year this year...I'm ready to hit the ground running with cooking for existing clients and continuing with new clients. I have several new cookbooks to spend time with this week and am eager to try new recipes and look for great new food finds.

Happy New Year!