Give Caesar His Due (Caesar Salad)

As a lifelong iconoclast, I'm usually looking for unusual recipes (or looking for ways to make recipes unusual), so picking something as ubiquitous as Caesar salad may seem a tad incongruous. Sometimes making your own riff on an old standard can be a fun learning experience, and this certainly was. While a relatively new entry into the culinary milieux, Caesar salad has exploded in popularity with copious variations. This one is inspired by favorite fast-food salad place, substituting crunchy bits of crisp-baked parmesan cheese for the standard croutons (which means it can be advertised as both low-carb and gluten free).

Hail, Caesar!

Asparagus in Ambush (Asparagus-prosciutto twists, lemon béchamel)

Spring is always deserving of celebration. Especially after that cruel trick where winter swept in to freeze the first buds off the trees, it's nice to see everything sprouting up, again. In honor of those sprouts, I wanted to do something with asparagus, one of my favorite spring vegetables. I settled on an adaptation of "asparagus in ambush," an old favorite from the Flying Rhino restaurant in Worcester, Massachusetts. There, asparagus and prosciutto are wrapped in a flour tortilla and drizzled with lobster sherry cream. I made some adjustments, trading crisp twists of puff pastry for the tortilla to make a prettier presentation and swapping out the lobster cream sauce for a lighter, lemony béchamel with a little kick.

Roll for initiative

By the Slice (White pizza with pancetta and arugula)

While I, in a robotic devotion to efficiency, could be quite content to eat the same meal most days, Aaron demands variety. Except with pizza. Aaron, and perhaps most of the free world, will always be happy to have pizza. We once made mostly pizza for dinner for a few months as a "diet," because it was easy to standardize, control portions, and could be spun into infinite variations. One key element was to always pair with a salad, though who doesn't remembering arguing that pizza was a balanced meal in grade school? This particular pizza, white pizza with pancetta and arugula, has both. 

One-stop shop

Holiday Cheer (Cranberry orange spice cheesecake bars)

For me, the holidays mark open season for baking. Cooler weather makes it more comfortable to blast the oven all day and subtly increases the caloric load, or at least I like to tell myself so. "I'm storing up for the long winter" is a frequent excuse I make, while eating a dozen cookies at a time. At first, I wanted to make one of my mother's requisite holiday recipes: Pecan Tassies. Like miniature pecan pies, nestled in a bite-sized tart shell of cream cheese crust, they've always been a favorite in my family. Owing to Aaron's unfortunate upbringing beside several pecan trees, however, he still suffers from perennial pecan fatigue and refuses to eat them. Seeking a different source of holiday cheer, I settled on cranberry orange spice cheesecake bars: rich, sweet-tart and 100% holiday-approved in color and flavor profile, these are an ideal nut-free treat for the bleak midwinter.

Sweet!

Apple-y Dapple-y (Baked apples with walnuts, honey, and spiced mascarpone)

Mono no aware is the Japanese concept of "Awareness of Things." It refers to the poignancy of ephemeral beauty: the single night of the moon at its zenith, spring blossoms that scatter to the winds, autumn leaves changing colors, only to fade, and fall. I fancy I've always had a certain affinity for the melancholy of evanescence. This reached its peak in high school, when I'd craft intricate designs below the tideline, using stones, shells, and beach roses. I knew that, in a few hours, they'd be devoured by the waves, but the action of creating the art, and its destruction, and the pathos of those fleeting moments in between was part of the beauty. As I walk in the park every day, with that welcome new tang of autumn chill to the air, I feel just a little blue as I notice the season turn and sunlight slip away. This is why, in my opinion, the Autumnal Equinox was a festival for ancient Europeans. It doesn't just coincide with the harvest, it also helps to kick away that sense of autumnal doldrums. Like with  honey-baked apples, roasted walnuts, and spiced mascarpone cheese.

Quick pick-me-up

Bread, cheese, butter (Grilled cheese with prosciutto, pear, and fontina)

Though Aaron and I work the same hours and share the same nightmarish 2-hour commute, I am (unfairly) quite partial to reserving the kitchen as my exclusive domain. As such, I usually end up preparing dinner, so it's a bit of an extra special treat when Aaron volunteers to cook (or when I blithely volunteer him, anyway). He has no shortage of his own specialties and culinary history, but there's a dark side: Aaron spent several years of his formative existence declining to eat anything but Kraft macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. Now fully reformed and rehabilitated, he still carries a torch for the tried and true pairing of cheese and carbs, it's just that he's a little more enterprising when it comes to casting the supporting players. This grilled cheese sandwich starts with the holy trinity of bread, cheese, and butter, but also includes crisp, subtly sweet pear slices, salty prosciutto, and peppery arugula.

Extra crispy 

Eggs in a Row (Portuguese Baked Eggs)

Among my friends and I, weekend brunch is one of our most sacred traditions. So it was quite a downer when, after a few visits, it became apparent that the fanciest place for brunch in town didn't approve of our entourage. Maybe it's because we currently max out at two gray hairs per head, maybe it's because we wore t-shirts on our first visit, but the aura of antipathy fast became a palpable presence. Mimosas shouldn't come with a side of sneering. With the only remaining venue for elaborate breakfasts being my own home, it was time to devise something that could combine delicious flavor, elegant presentation, and the ability to be assembled before I open my eyes in the morning. That's how I settled on the idea of baked eggs, and, as a proud Luso-American, when I found a recipe for Portuguese Baked Eggs, I knew we were in business.

The breakfast business

To Drive the Cold Winter Away (French Onion Soup)

Jon, my father-in-law, has a French onion soup recipe that is famous throughout our family, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on it. Jon's recipes reflect the instinctive, free-form simplicity of a great home cook-a list of ingredients and a general idea rather than a rigid set of measurements. This is a large part of the mystique of historical recipes, which in addition to amazingly creative spelling, almost never do the math. "Take ye a vasty amount onions, and likewyse a potte full of stronge broth, and seethe it well over greate fyre" is all well and good, but to really guarantee an outcome, you need a formula. I always measure things out when first trying a new recipe or jotting down something for the blog. 

Meticulously measured

Health for the Holidays (Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad)

I've gotten a little carried away with the baking, lately. I love sweet treats as much as anyone else but, "everything in moderation." I like to maintain the balance. For every cookie, there should be a salad. With winter fast coming on, it's not surprising that cold and raw dishes get short shrift. Once you've walked home with frost-rimed leaves crunching underfoot and your breath steaming in the air, it can be hard to get excited for a chilled supper, but contrasts offer their own delight, so as we prepare to bake, roast, and pan fry all the hot and heavy foods that make Thanksgiving great, I'm actually most looking forward to a light yet hearty salad of raw kale and Brussels sprouts.

Unassuming

Fresh Arrivals (Apricot Almond Ginger Tart)

I've waited weeks on tenterhooks for the first fresh cherries to arrive to market, but in the meantime chose to console myself with a clutch of glowingly golden apricots. I had ulterior motives. We'd also been eagerly awaiting the birth of our third nephew, Oliver, who at the time of writing this article was slightly overdue, and I figured a little light folk medicine couldn't hurt. Elizabethan England held the belief that apricots induced labor, which is why they feature in the play The Duchess of Malfi, where her nefarious brothers expose her pregnancy with a slyly offered bowl of apricots. It has no basis in science whatsoever, but might as well be worth a try. To gussy up the presentation, I decided to toss the apricots with fresh ginger, then layer them into a tart mantled in slivered almonds.

For your viewing pleasure

Winter Whiteout (White Chicken Cheddar Chili)

Also published in Williamsport Sun-Gazette.

I don't know about you, but after the holidays, I usually feel a little wiped out. If you've spent your cooking mojo with friends and family, or just have a busy week, a slow cooker is invaluable. Pinterest and the internet at large abound with slow cooker recipes with good reason, because this kitchen device is extremely versatile. It also lends itself to brewing up vast cauldrons of food, which should suit those with families, visitors, or bottomless appetites like mine. In this case, to ward off the winter chill, I decided to make chili.

Chili blanco

A Lifelong Love Affair (Pimiento Cheese)

First things first, it's important to establish that I love cheese. Cheese and I go way back, as far back as I can recall. This means I've known cheese for about as long as anyone else in my entire life, save for a few family members. So cheese is not going anywhere anytime soon, the key for me is moderation, which can sometimes be difficult (refer to first sentence).

A delicate treat

Tarted Up (Feta Fig Tart)

I recently found a great tart pan neglected on a store shelf and was immediately tempted to find some way to put it to good use. I dimly recall a savory almond tart I was served at a Medieval banquet (like you do) and wished to continue the unexpectedly umami theme. Since summer is the season for deliciously juicy fresh figs, they seemed a great starting place. The resulting tart is quick, versatile, rustically elegant, and most importantly: easy, easy, easy.

Easier done than said

Some Assembly Required (Red, White, and Blue Tiramisu)

This post is also available as an article in the 6/27/2012 Williamsport Sun Gazette.

Once, back in high school, we were having a party and I was responsible for dessert. It was already the roaring heat of summer, much like now, so I decided to do something other than baking; something like tiramisu. I went a little overboard, doubling the amount of egg yolks to enrich the custard and finally adding a whole stick of butter because I wanted a conspicuously golden hue to contrast with the white whipped cream. Perhaps the only thing that saved me in the end was drowning everything in shaved chocolate, fresh raspberries, and mint sprigs.

Raspberries fix everything

Our Daily Bread (Gruyere and Green Apple Grilled Cheese)

Hello, ladies and gents!

We woke up this morning and I suspect our heat may not be working. Maybe it's that it was icy cold and I had to keep nursing a fire all day, maybe its the silent, unmoving HVAC, but something is rotten in Denmark. Or at least our furnace/heater-type thingy. Technical term.

Either way, it was a day that seemed to call out, in particular, to hot food. After Aaron surprised me with pumpkin waffles for breakfast and, after we completed a run to gather additional firewood, I was ready to make something good.

Bazinga

Friendship is Magic (Apple, Stilton, Walnut Puffs)

Hello, ladies & gents!

I'm excited to kick off another weekend, not that last's was unenjoyable, by any means, but it was something of a whirlwind. We chose to celebrate my birthday by going to visit our friends Laura and Geoff up in Rochester, MA. Laura and I went to high school together and I'm to be her "Man of Honor," as it were, when she and Geoff are married next spring. I can tell you that Laura is an excellent designer, slowly updating their house room-by-room, that she can slap harder than any woman I know, and that when we made hollandaise on Sunday morning, she taught me I could really trust in recipes again, even when Alton Brown makes them sound scary.

Don't let cooking personalities intimidate you