butter & cream, cooking, cooking, done!

Cutting the caramels up wasn’t too difficult, except for the fact that I can’t make multiple straight lines to save my life. Let’s just say there were a variety of sizes available for sampling. Cutting up the wax paper squares didn’t go that much smoother, but the end result was some pretty little candies.

Early last week I decided to make the no-knead bread (recipe in the NY Times) that it seems practically the whole internet has made. There’s good reason for that- the bread couldn’t have been that much easier to make and it was absolutely delicious. You do need some specialized equipment, like a cast-iron pot in the 3-6 qt range, and a good non-terry kitchen towel, but that’s about it.
Monday night I combined yeast, salt, King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour, and water together in a large glass mixing bowl. I let the dough rest and rise for about 22 hours. The recipe only calls for a 12-or-so hour rise, but I can’t leave my job in the middle of the day and the long rise worked out just fine. When I got home from work on Tuesday, I turned the dough out on to the counter, shaped it a bit and let it rise in the kitchen towel for about 2 hours. Then I baked it and voila!

I want to make it again this week. The first one was delicious but I think it needs a little more salt and I’d like to try making a loaf with some caraway too.

Week 23 was the week of November 15th. Yes, that was a long time ago.

Potatoes-2 pounds
Carrots-1 bunch
Collards-1 bunch
Red Russian Kale-1 bunch
Parsley-1 bunch
Garlic-4
Celeriac-2 bulbs
Onions-5
Green Cabbage-1 head
Butternut Winter Squash-2
Rutabaga-2

This was the last share that we picked up from this season. Week 24’s pickup was on the day before Thanksgiving and we were relaxing in Minneapolis well before pick-up time. A friend of ours picked up the share that week and on Monday she gave us everything she didn’t want, but I didn’t take pictures of the leftovers. Till spring!

Potatoes-2 pounds or 1 quart
Carrots-1 bunch
Collards-1 bunch
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Brussels Sprouts-1 stalk
Acorn Winter Squash-2
Sage-1 bunch
Purple Top Turnips-1 bunch
Jacob’s Cattle Dry Beans-1 pound
Garlic-2

I didn’t take a picture of the fruit because my camera battery died but we got a mix of Fuji Apples, Golden Delicious Apples, Anjou Pears and Bosc Pears.

Yesterday I made a soup out of 1 bunch of collards, several bunches of stems from kale and collards, cauliflower leaves, and onions. I cooked the onions and the stems together for awhile, then i added the leafy greens and a few cups of water and let that come to a simmer. After I felt the greens had cooked enough, I pureed the soup with a stick blender. It turned out very sweet and delicious. It almost has the consistency of a cream soup but without any cream or potatoes. Very tasty.

We bought more vegetables and fruit at the farmer’s market. 3 delicata squash (SO fabulous), 3 different kinds of apples and a gigantic head of cauliflower. This is on top of week 21’s bounty:

Carnival Winter Squash-2
Onions-4
Red Russian Kale-1 bunch
Collards-1 bunch
Cabbage-1
Parsley-1 bunch
Beets-1 bunch
Celeriac-1
Potatoes-2 pounds

and more apples and pears.

This weekend I made:

• sesame garlic collards – very light on the sesame flavor, sadly. They were tasty, nonetheless.
• roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary from my garden. Delicious.
• roasted beets, carrots, and parsnips. Delicious.
• quinoa salad with balsamic, dried cherries, raw sunflower seeds, parsley, and peas. For lunch today. Seems delicious.

I was planning on making Tarte Tatin but I was tired yesterday afternoon. I could make it tonight but I really need to get some exercise a lot more than I need to bake. It’ll get made sometime this week.

Last night we booked tickets on Air France to go to Brussels. I love flying Air France so much. Their coach service (Tempo) is delightful and my head might explode just imagining what their business class (l’espace affaires) or first class (l’espace premiere) must be like.
I hope I can sit still and concentrate until January.

It’s unseasonably warm today and it’s so tempting to pop out of the office and go get some gelato. Alas, I won’t do it since I want to leave on time so I can hand out candy tonight.
Saturday night I made pumpkin soup from the CSA pumpkins we got a couple of weeks ago. Peeling a pumpkin is no easy task, but the end result was worth the effort. We ate some soup Saturday evening and my feeling was “it’s an ok soup”. A little time in the fridge did the the soup a world of good and it’s really very delicious now. Besides that, we’ve been eating our greens in a tasty, uncreative fashion. Fine by me!

Here’s what we got for Week 20:

Acorn Winter Squash-2
Garlic-2
Gold Turnips-1 bunch
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Collards-1 bunch
Carrots-1 bunch
Austrian Crescent Fingerling Potatoes
Mint-1 bunch
Kohlrabi-1bunch (I’ve given up on liking kohlrabi so I traded it for an extra kale. Smart)
Golden Delicious Apples, JonaGold Apples, Anjou Pears, Bosc Pears.

Delicious foods and a wee glimpse of our new counter tops.

So guess where I had dinner Sunday night? Babbo! Guess who else was there? Gwyneth Paltrow. La di da. I was really looking forward to dinner and it did not disappoint; the food was fabulous. Ordering with 5 people was a challenge but it was good trying things I wouldn’t have normally ordered. On our waiter’s recommendation I went with the duck for my main course and it was the most incredible duck I’ve ever had. Perfumed with rosemary, it was tender where it should be tender and crisp where it should be crisp. The pastas, main course and dessert were all very good. The weakest spot, in my opinion, was the antipasti but even that was good. I’d definitely go back.

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t posted any CSA pictures in a couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, the reason was: we got new countertops, a new sink, a new faucet, and a garbage disposal! The kitchen was still kind of a mess so I quietly put away the vegetables and didn’t take any photos. Last week the reason was: I was in Ann Arbor! Yay, Ann Arbor. Jeremie picked up the vegetables and he didn’t take any pictures. Tomorrow we’ll be back on the plan and I’ll take some photos. We’ve been getting a lot of hearty greens the past couple of weeks.

Fall is in full swing and the trees are just beautiful. I need to buy some big pumpkins. Don’t get me wrong, carving is fun and all, but for me it’s all about the seeds. Oh, roasted seeds, I love you so!

We’re dog-sitting this weekend and I’m delighting in the company of one Mr. Panko. He’s a handsome little poodle and we’ve had a lot of fun so far. Yesterday we went to the farmer’s market in New Canaan and took a walk around town. We played and he napped a little in the afternoon and then we took a long walk in the evening. This morning I got up early, early, early and we took another long walk.


Last night, Panko afoot, I realized that there’s no way we could eat all the luscious plums in the fridge so I decided to make Jeremie’s Mom’s plum cake. It freezes beautifully and that’s what I intend to do.

getting ready for the oven:


apres oven:


Jeremie’s Mom makes this cake pareve and often serves it for Shabbat dessert but I made it dairy, so it’s sticking to coffee time or dairy meals. I love dairy meals. Later this morning we’re heading off to Forest Hills, Queens to meet up with some family and have brunch. Hopefully we’ll hit up some Kosher markets afterwords so we can stock up on el Kosher chicken. I can’t find kosher chicken wings around here. Can you believe it? Oh – ps – it’s yontev so no markets. Silly me.

The new countertops & sink come on Tuesday. I’m very excited. I’m a little worried that I won’t be able to take good pictures on the counter anymore, but such is thus.

I haven’t been writing (or taking many pictures) because I’ve been cooking. I took pictures of last week’s CSA share with Jeremie’s camera but I’m not quite sure where it’s hiding in the house. I took pictures of this week’s haul with my camera but I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of veggies and I’m afraid it’s not very artfully arranged. After eating a little something, I got so caught up in cooking and putting the vegetables away that I forgot to take pictures of the fruit. Maybe later. Anyway, here’s the haul:


Loads of collards, broccoli, turnips with greens, garlic, chili peppers, habanero peppers, summer squash, beets, potatoes, and two pumpkins. Holy cow. Last night I made garlicy kale with kale from last week, roasted a bunch of beets for the fridge & freezer, roasted the turnips and also roasted some kohlrabi from a couple of weeks ago. We also tried to dry some peppers in our convection toaster oven but it was taking a really long time and I needed to go to bed, so I turned it off overnight. I should’ve just stayed up with it since I didn’t fall asleep until 3:30a anyway.